New Year, new ambitions? Experts discuss The Secret’s manifestation and ‘magical thinking’

One problem with online success stories involving manifestation is that they tend to highlight wins but not losses, says Dr Lucas Dixon, one of the study’s researchers.

“Stories from successful people about why they succeeded can be unintentionally biased,” says Dixon, now a sessional lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast. “For example, if someone says they manifested a million dollars by writing a pretend cheque to themselves – like Jim Carrey said he did – they forget about the thousands of people who also wrote the same cheque and didn’t get their million dollars. What explains their lack of success? Is it that all those other unsuccessful manifesters didn’t manifest ‘correctly’?

“People tend to share their own little manifestation rituals and celebrate their successes on social media. Posting their goals becomes part of the manifestation process. But online environments like this allow people to curate the best parts of their lives, and perhaps share their ‘wins’ with manifestation more often than their losses.”

One principle of manifestation is the idea that like attracts like, also called the law of attraction. It implies that if we focus hard enough on something, it will come to us. It’s meant to explain why, when you’ve decided your goal is to learn to, say, play the cello, you spot an ad for a secondhand cello, and then learn that there’s a course starting soon.

“But this doesn’t mean you’ve attracted these things – you haven’t made them turn up or manifested them. Instead, it’s a cognitive bias called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, or frequency illusion, which means our brain has become primed to notice something we’re interested in,” says neuroscientist Dr Sarah McKay, author of The Women’s Brain Book.

Manifestation itself might be pseudoscience, but there’s good evidence for one of the tools it recommends – visualisation, McKay says.

“It’s used in sports psychology to prepare athletes to perform. For example, when you imagine yourself performing a movement, you activate the same brain networks that you would to do the movement. But it’s only one part of the process,” she stresses.

It’s the same with positive thinking, says psychologist Dr Suzy Green, author of The Positivity Prescription. Although positive thinking alone won’t get you to a goal, it can put you in a frame of mind that makes the journey easier.

“Our brain is powerful – we can learn to move out of learnt helplessness and become more optimistic thinkers with a solution-focused mindset, but that doesn’t take away the fact that there may be obstacles. Or that we can be on fire in a job interview yet still not get the job. But positive thinking also says: ‘I don’t have 100 per cent control, so what do I have control over? What is plan B or plan C? What are other pathways I can use if one gets blocked?’” she says.

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“When we intentionally practise optimism, we’re training the brain to become more hopeful, just like training muscles at the gym to become stronger. Each time we choose a more constructive, hopeful perspective, we’re building new or stronger neural pathways involved in attention, emotional regulation and motivation. Over time, with repetition, these pathways become the brain’s default, while older, threat-focused patterns lose their grip.

“This makes it easier to stay calm under pressure, notice possibilities rather than problems, and direct our energy toward what matters. ”

A dose of compassion can help too, Green adds.

“Being compassionate in our thoughts and actions helps nurture a more positive emotional state of mind – and that can help us be more focused on solutions. So rather than manifesting success alone, maybe our New Year’s resolutions should include: ‘I’ll practise kinder self-talk and respond to others with greater curiosity and care so that my goals benefit both myself and those around me’. ”

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