The manifestation trap: how self-help turned into consumer culture

Open social media, and manifestation is impossible to escape. There are more than 15.5 million posts under #manifestation, nearly one million under #manifestationcoach, and hundreds of thousands more promising manifestation magic or teaching you how to become a "manifestation babe". Every swipe delivers another affirmation, another reel explaining how to "receive anything you want from the universe", or another creator urging you to comment "HOW" for the secret formula.

What began as a niche self-help concept has evolved into a full-fledged digital economy, complete with influencers, paid coaches, online courses, journals, and workshops, all promising to help followers manifest everything from dream careers and relationships to luxury cars and financial freedom.

We asked two experts, Hyderabad-based behaviourist Pranjal Mani Tripathi and Saikishore, a clinical psychologist at Aster Whitefield Hospital, to unpack why we're so drawn to manifestation, when it can genuinely help, and when it becomes little more than self-sabotage with better lighting and softer background music.

Why your brain may be wired to want to manifest

It turns out that wanting to visualise your best possible future is, to some extent, human nature. Humans have what Tripathi calls a "natural predilection for mental time-travel", meaning we instinctively imagine events that could happen in the future.

"This can take the form of emotional and behavioural rehearsal of events prior to their actual occurrence, which has been found to reduce anxiety, boost confidence, and enable individuals to feel as though they have control over distant outcomes," he explains.

He compares this to the Pygmalion effect. "In the Pygmalion hypothesis, expectations from an individual can influence their behaviour, which in turn can lead to those expectations being fulfilled. In a similar vein, manifestation can enable individuals to increase their self-expectations, leading to behavioural changes that may eventually help those manifestations come true."

For 29-year-old Delhi resident Sarita Dwivedi, that's exactly what happened. Like thousands of others scrolling through Instagram, she enrolled in an online manifestation coaching programme after becoming determined to land a role at her dream company. "My coach gave us worksheets that were essentially structured journaling," she recalls. "I'd write down why I wanted that job and was told to behave as though I already worked there." The exercise changed how she approached her preparation. "I suddenly felt this burst of energy," she says. "I worked much harder on my weak areas. Two months later, I interviewed with the company and got selected. It felt surreal."

Saikishore believes the appeal runs even deeper than motivation. "Manifestation seems to offer a sense of control over an unpredictable future," he says. "It is a coping mechanism in the face of uncertainty, especially in the current socio-economic climate, where many people have limited control over their careers, finances, and other aspects of their lives."

Both experts agree that manifestation often feels effective because it creates the perception of control over outcomes that may ultimately be outside one's control. "Manifestation has become a means and an end in itself in today's world," says Saikishore. "There is no real timeline associated with it. Developing skills, for instance, requires a certain amount of time and effort before one can achieve a particular outcome. However, manifestation promises the eventual attainment of one's desires without ever defining a specific timeframe."

Tripathi has an unusual term for what can happen next: "mental masturbation". He says individuals who engage heavily in manifestation often experience pleasure simply from imagining a preferred reality. That feeling, he explains, can easily be mistaken for progress when, in reality, nothing has changed. In other words, your brain can sometimes reward you for vividly imagining success before you've actually taken meaningful steps towards it.

Saikishore says people can become trapped in what he calls "emotional satisfaction with the imagined positive outcome", reducing the urgency to act in the present. He also points to another psychological trap: the sunk cost fallacy. After investing significant time, money, and emotional energy into manifestation practices, many people struggle to admit they aren't working."They may feel emotionally cheated if they acknowledge that their efforts didn't bear fruit," he says. "As such, they may double down on their efforts and engage in further manifestation practices, believing that they should have seen results sooner."

Twenty-year-old Mumbai resident Ranvijay Rathore knows that feeling well. "I manifested moving to the US and worked with a manifestation coach," he says. "The coach kept pushing me to look for opportunities there. Even after a year, nothing happened. I spent all day imagining my life in New York City. I'd even walk through my daily route in Mumbai pretending I was crossing the New York City subway. Eventually, I realised I was becoming obsessive rather than sensible."

Social media, the experts argue, only amplifies the success stories, and that's where the trap lies. "It's about survivorship bias," says Saikishore. Social media constantly showcases the "winners", making certain outcomes seem more common or attainable than they really are. What it rarely shows are the countless people whose manifestation journeys never worked out.

"People are more likely to showcase the wins and the successes while keeping the losses and failures hidden," he says. "The truth is that success is multifaceted. It depends on sustained effort, social support, privilege, resources, and occasionally, even luck."

Selling "belief" with no end date

Tripathi also points to the business model behind manifestation. "When one signs up for a culinary course or a musical instrument, there is an implicit understanding that, within the duration of the course, certain skills will have been mastered," he says. "Manifestation, on the other hand, makes no such promises. It is entirely up to the manifestor to decide when the desired outcome will arrive."

Because there's no deadline, there's also no obvious point at which someone can conclude that the process isn't working. "They can always believe that it will happen one fine day," he says.

Saikishore adds that manifestation can become deeply demoralising when reality fails to match expectations. If people begin attributing every success and failure solely to their mindset, they risk developing feelings of guilt, shame, or low self-esteem, particularly if they're navigating difficult socio-economic circumstances or health challenges. Instead, he recommends practising self-compassion and replacing the question, "What did I do wrong?" with "What can I realistically change or adjust while acknowledging what is outside my control?"

Lead image credit: Pexels 

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