I Manifest, therefore I am..

'Manifestation' - there's a lot of buzz around this word at the moment.

I, myself, use the word 'Manifest' on my website - as it's a fun idea around the 'Magus' - or The Magician - the first card in the Tarot which is supposedly good for manifesting a creative vision...a nice link to what I do...

It's not a word (like many these days) that I grew up hearing...

Manifesting your destiny (or even a mock Tudor mansion in Moor Park) is a nice concept...

But at the same time it kind of reeks of privilege. The idea that you can bring about wealth and success, or even a shiny new object through asking the universe (whatever that is) and pursuing a practice of gratitude, and raising your cosmic 'vibrations'.

Tell that to a slum kid living on the edge of a land-fill site... What can they manifest? Or a grief stricken refugee fleeing a war torn country. Maybe they could manifest their country back?

Pseudo-science has hit the mainstream. People no longer snigger at this kind of talk.

But in a way there is something real behind the idea of manifestation.

But it's probably more in the idea of focusing on your goals and selling an idea to your subconscious mind than it is in the cosmos cooking you up some karmic payback.

It's the same with luck - which is more about where preparation meets opportunity. These are subtle but powerful forces and I very much encourage their pursuit.

And gratitude practice can hardly be harmful...

I am a cynic and an atheist, but I am also a truth-seeker. I don't completely disregard pseudo-science offhand.

I read my horoscope daily, but more as a mindfulness ritual than anything else. I look at it as an opportunity to reflect upon my day ahead. I find the stars in the night sky to be utterly beguiling, but that is about as far as it goes...

But the whole industry behind 'The Secret', The Laws of Attraction' etc. conjures to me the idea of snake-oil salesmen - people who will pick your pocket for a dime, trading on gullibility and a person's desire to believe in something arcane and otherworldly.

If these people gave their services for free, or wrote books without asking for profit I might begin to take them seriously.

I often feel it's just confirmation bias in practice. Somewhere someone will ask the universe for something and it will happen, just as if you give enough monkeys a typewriter, sooner or later a discernible word will be typed - maybe even two in a row.

And yet the lucky person in question will rush out and tell anyone who will listen how they manifested something just by asking for it.

But what of all the people who asked for something hopeful but got a cancer diagnosis instead?

Confirmation bias is behind so much of life's disinformation. It's rife. You've got to check yourself for it constantly.

So manifest away - it's probably a very healthy routine to take up. What have you got to lose? Just don't try and explain it, or exploit it.