Hello 1-2-3 Manifesting

Not that anyone had the illusion that the Oxford dictionary word of the year for English speakers anyway would be genocide But I was certainly surprised that the word that captured 2024 was ldquomanifestrdquoI wonrsquot deny I rolled my eyes After all as a Gen Xrsquoer I was there when this thing beganmdashin the era of The Secret that inescapable bestseller by Rhonda Byrne which proposed that you can attract what you want through positive vibes Visualize it and its yours it said providing several anecdotes as evidence of this methodologyThe Secret was not itself new It reframed similar ideas popular since the late 19th century I guess since the book has sold over 30 million copies it wasnrsquot much of a secret anymore and a rebrand was called for Enter ldquomanifestrdquoYou may rightly scold me for my skepticism After all the thing we call a selffulfilling prophecy that if we are convinced we will fail we will do things that lead to failure is the same as manifesting Every vrat katha is structured like The Secret If you keep the vrat by the 16th day like all the others in the kathaanecdotes you will win back your husband acquire a mansion or have a son and become sabki favourite And every teleshopping network advertisement is structured like a vrat kathamdashif you use the gemstone the penis enlarger the herb mixture then just like Kamal Heera or Mohan you will grow taller richer more virileWords recur through the ages manifesting new meanings birthed in those times In capitalismrsquos early years manifest meant a shiprsquos cargo What does it mean in the age of late capitalism Often the influencer types who propagate the power of manifesting leave out the power of privilege cosmetic surgery a PR team dogged practice and some random good luck The idea that you can manifest something alone prevents you from imagining you could build something together with others Then even our relationships risk becoming instrumental serving the goal of manifesting rather than allowing us the opportunity to grow and change together to bear each other to accept the flawed with the fabulousFocusing on an individual goal blurs out as in portrait mode the complex reality which is the true backdrop of our endeavours It may seem rooted in hopes and dreams but itrsquos also an attempt to inoculate ourselves from rejection Itrsquos not just about accepting ldquoreailtyrdquo Itrsquos just that disappointment is also a way of accepting ourselves and a chance to go towards new dreamsWords also reveal meanings that donrsquot find enough place in a time When realism is constantly presented as superior to fantasy when the empirical is elevated as rational while the emotional imaginative or mystical are downgraded as irrational is it any wonder that we want to present every human yearning as having ldquoscientific basisrdquo What else is fake news Why else do we live in a world where both followers and votes can be boughtLife is an interplay of dreams and reality one infusing the other the way songs once infused dreams and desire into movie plots Both have their place But when they become interchangeable and all dreamers must be doers so then what importance do dreams really havePerhaps the trouble with manifesting is not just that its psuedoscince but psudedofantasyParomita Vohra is an awardwinning Mumbaibased filmmaker writer and curator working with fiction and nonfiction Reach her at paromitavohramiddaycom