The universe, as can be seen on Instagram, works just like Google Maps. Even in cosmic matters, nothing more is necessary than entering a goal, says a young woman who tells her followers the story of quick success. The universe then shows you the way to this goal, she continues, so concretely, right, left, straight ahead. The destination is entered by the traveler wishing for something very firmly and believing very firmly that this wish will come true. Fame, wealth, beauty, everything can be reached in no time at all is the promise that is currently haunting the universe of social networks in countless variants.
Nothing more is necessary than to feel the vision as if it has already been fulfilled, says another success preacher. These lectures are often garnished with well-known esoteric phrases: they talk about vibrations, frequencies or energies, as well as intuition, emotion and feeling. The trend is summarized under the term “manifest”. The core idea: make a firm wish, think positively and act as if the desired success has already happened, then it will also work in the real world. Basically, this cosmic wish list number is the 1000th rehash of a stale idea, with which Rhonda Byrne, for example, filled the book “The Secret” in 2006, of which she has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
Setting a goal for yourself is definitely a good idea
At least for the Australian author, the dream of success came true. But what about the cosmic wishing rank and file, do they also successfully put bundles of money on the kitchen table? Of course not. Australian psychologists around Lucas Dixon have just published a study, which shows that those who believe in the power of manifestation are more likely to have had to deal with setbacks in their lives. These individuals are more likely to have experienced bankruptcy before and tend to embark on high-risk investments. These believers excelled in positive thinking: On average, they considered themselves more successful than they were. Can this also be called delusion?
Of course it helps in life to formulate goals and pursue them with optimism. But there is a difference between positive and magical thinking, stress the psychologists around Dixon. And if you just sit and hope and wish and pretend, you’re missing out on really working on your vision – that’s as banal as it is obvious. Nevertheless, people are always seduced by stories about the cosmic wish-fulfilling machine. About a third of the psychologists’ more than 1,000 subjects believed in manifesting to varying degrees.
If it doesn’t work out, it’s the same as always: the success gurus tip the blame onto their disciples and explain that they didn’t believe hard enough or made mistakes. The wish to the universe that nonsense like this finally disappears will probably not be fulfilled either.