Last summer, Millie Court left the Love Island villa as the show’s winner, with £50,000 and a new boyfriend by her side. She truly appears to be living her dream life. But is it possible that she found love simply because she manifested it?
Millie recently told a reporter, 'I do feel like I manifested Liam. Before I went on Love Island, I wrote down in my journal that I wanted a tall man, dark and handsome, who was funny. And here he is.'
This probably isn’t the first manifestation success story you’ve heard (even from Love Island: former Islander Molly-Mae Hague has also talked about manifesting the future she wants). The practice, in which individuals use mantras, vision boards and self-belief to achieve their goals, has become wildly popular in the last 18 months thanks to TikTok and the pandemic.
I first came across manifestation when my best friend Izzy mentioned she’d begun visualising her future life. I didn’t let on, but I was instantly sceptical.
Then, two months after she began manifesting, one of Izzy’s visions came true: she started dating James, who soon became her boyfriend. The dating scene in Lancaster, where we’re both from, can be pretty depressing - Izzy meeting her perfect guy despite this made me believe that there could have been some magic at play.
I ask Izzy why she was drawn to manifestation in the first place. She tells me, 'I think I needed something to hold on to. It was a coping mechanism, because I was having such a tough time.' Izzy spent lockdown caring for her mum, who was diagnosed with cancer. 'The idea that I could create my future life, when I was feeling very powerless to do anything, was really helpful.'
After seeing the results of Izzy’s manifestation, I decide to try it for myself. I know exactly what to ask the universe for: a flat of my own. I live in Berlin, where the demand for housing outweighs the supply to the extent that apartment listings are inundated with hundreds of responses within minutes. So far, finding my dream place has felt impossible.
'A big part of manifestation is to trust and surrender that what you want will come into your life at exactly the right time'
I start by journaling, meditating and focussing on the feeling I would have if I lived in my own home. I repeat mantras - but I still don’t truly believe that ‘I will receive everything I desire’.
Meanwhile, I begin discussing manifestation with my friend Chris. He moved to Berlin aged 20, and spent two years working as a janitor before achieving his dream of working in photography and filmmaking full time. Despite his laidback persona, his career success story is one of hard work and determination. Did manifestation also play a part?
As he tells me, 'My way of manifesting was to constantly have my goals on my mind. It’s not the standard practice of manifestation, but I feel like because I invested so much headspace in my future vision, it had to come true.'
I ask him if he believes that the universe brings us what we ask for. He’s certain it does. 'There’s a power of the mind that we are yet to discover. We are just not yet capable of comprehending how powerful that is.'
As we talk, Chris pulls up Instagram and shows me the pastel-hued feed of Hannah Krutmann. Alongside spirituality content, Hannah shares photos of her stunning glass-roofed Berlin apartment, which she believes she manifested to fruition.
I want to know more, so I ask Hannah if we can chat. She tells me she first came across manifestation through the film The Secret - but this depiction made her feel uncomfortable.
'I felt like it was so much about getting material things - privileged white men just manifesting big cars and houses.' She sees the film as responsible for many misconceptions surrounding manifestation. 'I wanted to believe it, but it felt very wrong to me.'
Then she discovered the work of Lacy Phillips (To Be Magnetic) and Dr Tara Swart (The Source). 'They both talk about manifestation in a psychological and neuroscientific way and I really resonated with their techniques.'
Hannah’s book Everyday Magicdetails her manifestation practices. They include 'writing a really concrete list of your vision. This helps you stop doubting and reminds you not to settle for less than what you want.'
She also finds manifestation role models: 'When I was searching for my apartment, I called so many friends asking them how much rent they pay, and how they found their places. This showed me my manifestation was possible to achieve.'
When I speak to spirituality coach Aimie Duggan, she begins by explaining that 'a big part of manifestation is to trust and surrender that what you want will come into your life at exactly the right time.' As a woman of colour, Aimie is aware of how someone's circumstances play a part in their manifestation journey: 'Having privilege definitely helps.'
I ask her if she has advice for me on my manifestation journey. 'Celebrate it like you already have it,' she tells me. 'Feel it in your body, act like it’s already here and it will come.'
Meanwhile, my dad asks me how the flat hunt is going. 'No news,' I tell him - and yet, after a few weeks of researching the practice and hearing advice from manifestation veterans, my attitude has shifted. 'I feel like the right place is going to find me,' I tell him.
I know without asking that my dad thinks manifestation is complete nonsense. But he surprises me by responding, 'That’s what your mum used to say when we were looking for a house together.' (My mum died several years earlier.) 'I always dismissed her - how could the right house just find us? But she was always right.'
I couldn’t have asked for a clearer signal from the universe that I was on the right track. Manifestation may seem too good to be true - but I, for one, am a believer in its power.