How to be a spiritual realist

A few weeks ago, I posted on Instagram about Roxie Nafousi’s heavily-hyped Insta-hit book, Manifest. Now a Sunday Times bestseller, the book is about manifesting your best life through vision boards and harnessing the energetic force of ‘the universe’ to attract everything from romantic love to your dream job.

I wanted to know what people thought because, while it’s easy to be sneery and cynical about such things, I’m fascinated by the science behind manifesting. Neuroscientist and senior lecturer at MIT, Dr Tara Swart, explained in her 2019 book, The Source, how things like visualisation and journalling actually prime your brain to make micro steps towards your goals every day.

I don’t believe - for example - that I could have manifested my way out of a breast cancer diagnosis. But, as a tool for focusing on what you want in order to get shit done, I do believe it works. Roxie commented on my post: …