Manifesting Reality: Consumerism, Capitalism, Spirituality, and Synchronicity

[Ishmael Fleishman]

I have been wondering about a trend I have observed online and among some people I know. This idea manifests reality through the will to power. In short, to manifest their wants and desires to the universe, and then, through the grace of the universe and the love of God, these things will come to pass, manifesting our dreams into reality.

 

I have seen this new-age message in New York Times articles, on YouTube, and among business consultants and associates.

Examples include the lifestyle coach who woke up one morning, felt that she was ready to meet the man of her dreams, and told the universe that this was what she wanted. She then proceeded to walk out her front door, and a few hundred meters down the road from her posh London home, she then manifested the man of her dreams, another good-looking successful A-lister like herself, delivered to her by the universe on cue and on demand. The man, whom she married a few months later, is supposed to live happily ever after.

Or the fellow who really wanted a rare Bentley car to add to his collection—a car with yellow trim highlights—pushed this intention out to the universe, and then a week later, he was invited on a road trip, and there at a dealership, just as he imagined, it was the Bentley that he had asked for delivered to him.

Another variant of this is the deification of Donald Trump. People have come to worship him because he is wealthy, white, and flaunts the strictures of normative morality; he is everything they wish themselves to be. Their people are promoting the idea that Trump is the second coming of Jesus Christ on earth.

Then there is the whole prosperity theology, "a religious belief among some charismatic Christians that financial blessing and physical well-being are always the will of God for them, and that faith, positive speech, and donations to religious causes will increase one's material wealth. Material and especially financial success is seen as a sign of divine favour."

This idea goes back far into history and is booming in Africa and Latin America, where traditional churches have lost relevance as people are sold on the notion that God is here to reward them with material wealth in this world today if only they join the correct congregation.

I know from my own experience of a family member who became wildly wealthy because he was part of the right congregation, which laid the groundwork for making the right connections and meeting the right people, which afforded him the opportunity to accrue the wealth he now enjoys. However, this family member believes that this wealth is proof of God's love for him and his personal relationship with the divine.

Such tales are marketed by those who claim that God and the universe are here to serve your material, sexual, and other needs.  And if you just have to have the correct attitude, then the universe will provide.

I have several problems with this idea.

First, it blames the victim—the woman who was raped because deep down in her soul she wanted to be raped—and the black man suffering from systemic racism is morally inferior; his failure is not in God's favour and therefore poor because God punishes the wicked. The business that failed was not because the system was rigged but because the person behind the venture did not manifest their will to power due to their own ethical, spiritual, and psychological shortcomings.

This idea of manifesting one's destiny says that “might is right." That wealth, statues, and health are the signposts of God's grace upon you. By this measure, Ellon Musk is God, or at the very least the one closest to the right hand of God, and his earthly power and wealth are the proof of his eminence as lord over the vermin of this world.

What I find interesting about this idea is that it pushes an extremely materialistic notion. Nowhere do I find the ideas of service, sacrifice, ecology, or community bedrocks for my notion of spirituality. It is flat out about “I” and what “I” can get out of the world and how the universe simply exists to service “my” needs, wants, and desires.

 

I was raised within a faith, a faith whose lessons I have taken to heart, a faith in which God is not my personal Bitch at my beck and call.

 

I do not subscribe to an interventionist God, who takes a personal interest in the minutia of my life. Experience, has shown me that there is a spiritual thread that connects all things across the universe. We are all divine, just as the maggots who devour rotting flesh are divine. I have experienced coincidences that could be claimed to be the result of my will to manifest things. However, in hindsight I cannot prove causation.

I do accept that melancholy does make the world a darker place; however, simply being positive is not going to make you into the next tech billionaire. There is a human trait to only record the positive—the myth of success. We only observe the relationships that last: the old buildings still standing, the business still turning profits, and the celebrity with the latest movie or song. We convince or delude ourselves that the world is just one continued tale of never-ending victories. The balloon always rises, and our own incapacity to rise is only in accordance with our own personal failings.

There was a recent article in the NYTimes suggesting that the world should be explicitly planned, run, and controlled by billionaires because their wealth is evidence of their intelligence to make the correct decision and that the government should simply step aside into oblivion.

An associated phenomenon I have observed is the claim to authoritative knowledge based upon one's association with those deemed to be successful. This morning, an associate said to me, “I was listening to this really brilliant podcast by this woman who spent a week on an island with billionaires." This woman’s ideas are valid not because they are sound or researched but rather because she was blessed to be in the presence of billionaires. It is a variation on the claim of authority via association. In the same way that people claim that the Bible is true in totality because it is the word of God,.

The stench of capitalism co-opting spirituality—for the spirit has become ensalved to the flesh—makes me think of Martin Luther and his own objections to the church 500 years ago.

Now maybe I am wrong; maybe evil things happened to bad people because that is what they deserve. Maybe God loves Americans more than he loves Afghans. Maybe our personal failures are just our failures to be in God's favour. It could simply be that my lack of greed is proof of my immorality.

Edited January 18 by Ishmael Fleishman

[Alchemist]

The Masterkey system is the first book I came across that had this 'truth' revealed. Also the "Power of the subconscious mind" is another old bestseller written by a chemist, and "the secret" is our modern bestseller.

It takes a lot of perseverance to accomplish but it might just work.  I managed to make the wish to see a future event come true as a hypnopompic vision but it took a month of repetitive repetition day and night and was very mentally draining. 

Probably has nothing to do with God directly, if true, it simply uses a science we do not know which is there but difficult to test.

[saguaro]

This 'law of attraction'/manifestation is a fluffy belief system rooted in materialism and narcissism. It's insidious because in this belief system whatever transpires, good or bad, is on you. It allows people to justify their problematic behaviour on the people that are affected by it.

 

On 18/01/2024 at 1:22 PM, Ishmael Fleishman said:

The stench of capitalism co-opting spirituality—for the spirit has become ensalved to the flesh—makes me think of Martin Luther and his own objections to the church 500 years ago.

Now maybe I am wrong; maybe evil things happened to bad people because that is what they deserve. Maybe God loves Americans more than he loves Afghans. Maybe our personal failures are just our failures to be in God's favour. It could simply be that my lack of greed is proof of my immorality.

 

Spot on.

 

I don't have much time for it, I've only ever heard it espoused by narcissistic and parasitic people. It's always seemed kinda culty to me.

[fyzygy]

Capitalism has always conspired with religion to claim spiritual monopoly. "Manifest destiny" shaped the course of American history: the bounty of a stolen continent was proof positive of God's blessing -- even if it meant decimating "pagan" Native America, and removing First Nations peoples to reservations that inspired Hitler's concentration camps. A light on the hill, and all that crap. "In God We Trust" is printed on American money. Go figure the biblical contradiction. 

 

Personally I don't see the inherent harm in attempting to "manifest" one's reality. It's called wishful thinking, or in some contexts, prayer. I'm also reminded of intention-setting during psychedelic healing sessions, and even of traditional San Pedro rituals in which material wealth was the desired goal. Apparently the curanderos didn't have a problem with it. The idea of Lord Elon tripping in order to dream up ever more nefarious ways of enslaving nature and humanity, on the other hand, I would strictly classify as black magic.