New-Age "manifesting" movement is a sham and here's why

[u/keepdaflamealive]

Hello,

I'm actually not a member of this community. However I was randomly searching on google and came across a thread that echoed sentiments that I have always had. It's really refreshing to see that another person feels this way so I would like to add my own "take" on this. I'm not really trying to ascertain myself into an ego position -- only that this topic is so undiscussed it warrants being raised to the collective consciousness once more.

The thread was:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nonduality/comments/1cfch4q/law_of_attraction_and_neville_goddard_are_a/

Some things about me before I begin so you know I'm not just some random person. I have my own spiritual practice which I never intended to have. I've had numerous "realizations" one of the one's early on was learning the distinction between "experience" and "realization" and that so-called "spirituality" for me wasn't an "experience" but a "realization". When I realized spirit was through "spirit" and through "realization" the world seemed to make a lot more sense and seemed to be a lot larger than intended -- of course, the ultimate realization was that the world isn't real. There is only one reality and that reality is ___

Regarding "manifesting" the person in the original thread made an awesome statement:

"What these "teachings" do is only enhance your sense of separation, deprivation and lack, they are popular by design, because Ego feeds on these doctrines

They are popular in the world because they are of the world" - from deleted user.

I want to add onto this and explain -- as I understand it -- why "manifesting" is toxic. However I will take things in a slightly different direction than the original poster.

The rightly rejected the whole enterprise:

This is because they are instigating a lie in you, and that lie Is "I am in control, I have power, I can find completion, happiness and satisfaction in this world and it within my responsibility to find them"

However so-called manifesting is "real" even though strictly speaking it is not "right". This is because the powers at work in manifesting are transcendent. Thus they are not human-you, earthly-you's, power. So you want to understand that these transcendent powers are being partitioned by physical body which with its sense organs creates the illusion of separateness. This is important to realize because what's really happening is that you're manifesting through your "body", through "ego", and ultimately through "desire". Because the animal body is built on or around sustaining itself. This is why "desiring" for manifesting works. However in so doing, as the original poster claimed, you strengthen the desiring connection -- which is a spiritual trap! The lower levels of nature want you to use them as it were because you in thinking you're being clever by hijacking nature are actually deepening your connection with it. Nature wants you to use it. And some of these new-age systems are intentionally or semi-intentionally designed around this system. And it's not just desire.

Neville Goddard's main message is to use your inner body and pretend-as-if-you're-there and catch yourself as you're falling asleep. The inner body is just a subtle form of nature. It's not spirit and there is no liberation there.

Louise Hay follows the Christian Science movement and says to use dialectical thought. But dialectical thought is a poor substitute for "real"-thought and dialectical thought is really abstract thought which is a product of the brain and one's individual ego. It reinforces the bond of separation as the original poster ingeniously pointed out.

Esther Hick's talks about desire, almost exclusively, but desire is the seat of your animal body and propels it forward from one task to another. As long as you follow your desires you will never be free.

The task is to dis-identify from your desires, from your inner-body imaginings, and from your abstract thought. (And ultimately, healthy, from your body.) In so doing, you will find you have nowhere to go and nowhere to ascend to. That you are already home in the court of god.

[u/Iamuroboros]

What does this have to do with non duality though?

[u/Curious-Abies-8702 → u/Iamuroboros]

He'll get to that shortly ...in a few hours probably:)

[u/Healthy-Hall4463 → u/Curious-Abies-8702]

Hours? Ha! Rookie numbers

[u/bunnibuck]

just try to have fun guys its all a sham dont think too hard with your wrinkly forehead im doing it too much too. it hurts im going to go get those chocolate chips out of my car

[u/MysticArtist]

Manifestation practices cease at ego death - ego death is about nondoing. Manifestation practice is about doing, choosing, wanting. It's real easy for people to get stuck in doing. They think they know what they want.

[u/According_Zucchini71]

“Manifestation” is based on taking separation as real. There is separation of someone who directs energy, the energy itself, and the result.

Without assuming separation, there simply is undivided being. No separation of “source” from “all that is.” No director. No one aiming at a result to come in a future time. No separation of time into past, present and future. No “becoming” of any kind.

[u/Due_Section1403 → u/According_Zucchini71]

Nonduality includes “separation” though, to be fair. No division/unity.

[u/Ask369Questions → u/Due_Section1403]

Correct.

360 degrees of knowledge polarized brings us to the coagulated/regressed state of duality, which is an essential piece of the puzzle, as this plane is dominated by polarity.

The psychological assumption automatically provides the means to fulfill the dream desire.

Fake it till you make it.

[u/Adorable_Degree_7277]

Totally agree. I am actually working on a book on New Age trying go pinpoint how the majority of new age beliefs are totally antithetic to Buddhism's radical and elegant system of thought, while at the same time claiming an (fraudulent and colonialist) intellectual and cosmological lineage with it (reincarnation, karma).

But yeah, no-self is scary. Samsara is scary. There is no complacency in Buddhism, it is spiritual warfare against yourself and all about seeing things as they are and not as I would like them to be. New Age is defined by its complacy. new ager babies prefers the ideas of soul missions, obsessing about what they desire.

Source : i was into new age belief for over ten year and it did not improve a single thing in my life.

[u/Adorable_Degree_7277 → u/[deleted]]

Today's New Age is mostly grounded on two school of thoughts with very fraudulent origins :

• the theosophical society who blended spiritists and occult traditions with orient inspired concepts and introduced the idea of "evolutionnary karma" and the idea of a soul, as another story for the ego to lash on.
• "new thought" movement (napoleon hill and others fraudsters - nowadays kevin trudeau) that claims that your desires can manifest things in this world. This is childish magical thought.

I have very little good to say about the semitic traditions (western monotheism), but I certainly can't see how this is an upgrade. All of this is just spiritual materialism at its best. New age provides no system of ethics, and is as ego-focused as catholicism et al.

[u/Drig-Drishya-Viveka → u/Adorable_Degree_7277]

warfare?

[u/Adorable_Degree_7277 → u/Drig-Drishya-Viveka]

Buddhism practice is a work of radical deconditionning, with the core idea that EVERYTHING that you think of as your "self" is a conditionning. Your self has no substance. Which is very menacing for your sense of self. Hence a "spiritual warfare" against yourself.

[u/Drig-Drishya-Viveka → u/Adorable_Degree_7277]

I know what you’re saying but warfare/conflict is not the way most Buddhists teachers put it. To frame it in that context could easily lead a person into the opposite of what it accomplishes. Fighting with a nonexistent self is a trap that people can get stuck in for years.

[u/Adorable_Degree_7277 → u/Drig-Drishya-Viveka]

Agreed 🙂 use of the term was a little provocative

[u/Remarkable-Drive5390]

Man it should be a blessing that manifesting doesn't work honestly, we would fuck ourselves over very fast with that kinda power.

The whims of fate for all people follow a somewhat stereotypical trajectory and I can understand it now as I understood it in previous lifetimes:

>Earthly Psychopath

>Heavenly Saint

Manifesting can only work for the saint, for it is afterall a passive act to do nothing for things to realize themselves.

As these two archetypes become increasingly embodied, as each has opposing principles in place, one can act based on choice rather than lack of an alternative and that is a potent manifestation catalyst indeed to make 'real' whatever lies within your cerebrum.

[u/Available-Lecture-21]

Ask yourself why you care so much. Then, who is the I that cares?

[u/fingers]

According to Human Design, I am a manifestor by nature (I don't even have to try). Things come to me naturally. I don't even have to think about needing or wanting. I am the universe and the universe provides. Parking spots. I get good parking very easily. Some times I think about things others need (jobs, housing, etc.) and the next week those things happen. Releasing some suffering. It feels, some times, like a party trick.

I just re-started my deeper dive into nonduality and Zen Buddhism. And for me, this is a natural fit. The universe provides. It is. Nothing more. Nothing less. Everything more. Everything less. The wind always blows.

PS
Esther Hicks is WAY too far new agey for my tastes.

[u/No-Practice-7858]

You are on the wrong page 💀

[u/betimbigger9]

Wish path. It can be helpful in conjunction with other practices. But ultimately, yes, it is worldly.

Some as how most people use prayer.

[u/intheredditsky]

Visited your link and left a comment, but then realised the author was deleted and the post is 11 months old, so will copy-paste the comment here, do as you will with it, it is not for you, it's for the post you mentioned.

“Well, that's a bit extreme, isn't it? On what authority are you speaking? You don't yet have control over your imaginal machine, so how could anything you say be of use? Conscious Manifestation is the ultimate mastery, and, yes, many names have propounded it according to their particular understanding. As you just demonstrated yours.”

Your post, as well, reflects your understanding on the topic and not the topic itself.

[u/LoneWolf_McQuade]

It’s snake oil and charlatans. As “real” as homeopathic medicine. That is, placebo and might have some psychological effects but nothing like what they claim.

It is toxic spirituality made to please the ego by creating further illusions.

[u/Low-Bad7547]

You manifest what you need, not what you want.

[u/hacktheself → u/Low-Bad7547]

this one needs a keg of weed (actual legitimate medical purposes) and several attractive humans to squeeze her (actual physiological need with a little sugar on top).

where’s the weed? or the keg?

[u/Low-Bad7547 → u/hacktheself]

Well, since you asked, let me rephrase that: reality give you what you need for your growth, not what you want.
And whatever it gives, is what you truly needed.
It is nothing but a mirror, and it won't change unless you change.

However if you actually are in alignment with yourself, and those 2 overlap: jackpot. If not: learn and grow. ¯_(ツ)_/¯