How Manifestation is Turning Billions into Believers
One night, she wrote down specific qualities she wanted in a “perfect” partner: tall, dark hair, green eyes, into conspiracy theories, extroverted, not cocky. At the bottom of the page, she wrote, “with harm to none, I summon my ‘perfect’ person into my life.” A month later, they met someone who fit the exact qualities she’d written down.
Ultimately, Irving decided not to date this person because she wanted to focus on school, but she couldn’t believe the manifestation worked. “I felt like I needed to work on my manifestations for something bigger,” they said. “There are much more important things, like career and all that.”
Irving is one of the hundreds of thousands of people using TikTok to learn about manifesting. Whether it’s manifesting love, cash, or career opportunities, the platform is full of people who want things and even more ways to get them. The hashtag #manifestation currently has more than 15 billion views. In a time when dating feels like a hellscape, we’re witnessing the live collapse of nearly every system, and we’re still on the hook for student loans, you might as well try lighting some incense and asking for what it is that you really want. There’s a range of ways to manifest that include everything from the spiritual — being in touch with yourself, journaling, meditation — to the straight-up witchy, like writing seven times in a row that you want your crush to text you while lighting sage over your iPhone.
“Manifestation is a catchall phrase for spell work, for setting intentions, for creating a more honest experience for yourself for what you are looking for in this lifetime,” says Aliza Kelly, astrologer and author of This Is Your Destiny: Using Astrology to Manifest Your Best Life. “For me, manifesting is not just about getting things — it’s also about living an honest life and living a life that is aligned with who you are, what you desire and the ways you want to show up in the world.”
Kelly says there are two parts to manifestation — one exists in the physical realm, which are action items like applying to jobs you want or touring apartments you’re interested in, and the other exists in the spiritual realm, where we do things like set intentions, create vision boards, do rituals, or light candles and incense. For manifestation to work, you must do both in tandem.
“You can’t just do one magical ritual candle work and not follow it up with actionable items in the physical world,” she says.
Irving is one of the hundreds of thousands of people using TikTok to learn about manifesting. Whether it’s manifesting love, cash, or career opportunities, the platform is full of people who want things and even more ways to get them. The hashtag #manifestation currently has more than 15 billion views. In a time when dating feels like a hellscape, we’re witnessing the live collapse of nearly every system, and we’re still on the hook for student loans, you might as well try lighting some incense and asking for what it is that you really want. There’s a range of ways to manifest that include everything from the spiritual — being in touch with yourself, journaling, meditation — to the straight-up witchy, like writing seven times in a row that you want your crush to text you while lighting sage over your iPhone.
“Manifestation is a catchall phrase for spell work, for setting intentions, for creating a more honest experience for yourself for what you are looking for in this lifetime,” says Aliza Kelly, astrologer and author of This Is Your Destiny: Using Astrology to Manifest Your Best Life. “For me, manifesting is not just about getting things — it’s also about living an honest life and living a life that is aligned with who you are, what you desire and the ways you want to show up in the world.”
Kelly says there are two parts to manifestation — one exists in the physical realm, which are action items like applying to jobs you want or touring apartments you’re interested in, and the other exists in the spiritual realm, where we do things like set intentions, create vision boards, do rituals, or light candles and incense. For manifestation to work, you must do both in tandem.
“You can’t just do one magical ritual candle work and not follow it up with actionable items in the physical world,” she says.
by Sophia June, Nylon | Read more:
Image: Screenshots/TikTok/Shutterstock/Getty
[ed. See also: Be Open to Spiritual Experience. Also, Be Really Careful (NYT).]
