Can writing down a wish make a dream come true? What Gen Z should know about manifestation

While scrolling through social media, a video suddenly appears. In it, an influencer says with a smile that every morning she used to write in her notebook, "I did well. After three months of effort, I got admission to university!" Believe it, she says, the universe listens to you.

Another video says to write down your wish using the 3-6-9 method and fulfil every dream. Some say to make a vision board, others say to think positively. Then, supposedly, life will change. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook — videos like these are everywhere now.

This idea that "you get everything just by wishing for it" has a formal name: manifestation. The word "manifest" simply means to express something, to bring it into reality, or to make it appear before your eyes. In other words, manifestation means turning a wish or dream inside your mind into reality.

In the age of social media, the idea of manifestation has split into two parts. The first is ordinary and realistic. Here you want something. You think about it clearly, set a goal, believe in yourself that you can do it. Then you get to work to achieve that goal. In other words, here there is both wanting and working.

The second idea revolves around the "power of the universe". It says that whatever you think, the universe will return it to you. It is said that your thoughts have a "frequency". Good thoughts attract good things, bad thoughts attract bad things. This is called the "law of attraction". According to this idea, even if you just sit quietly and think about something, it will one day come to you.

Manifestation did not begin in today’s social media era; it started nearly 200 years ago. Its roots lie in nineteenth-century America. Medical science was not as advanced then as it is today. Sick people often had to go through painful treatments. Both suffering from illness and its treatment were painful.

At that time, a clockmaker named Phineas Parkhurst Quimby appeared with a new philosophy. His idea was that many physical illnesses are caused not by a problem in the body, but by a wrong belief in the mind. So if thoughts and beliefs could be changed, illness could also be cured.

This is how a new spiritual and philosophical movement — New Thought — grew in nineteenth-century America. Its three main ideas were: one, the human mind is very powerful. Two, thoughts are not confined to the head; they can also affect a person’s health, character and life circumstances. Three, positive thoughts bring good results and negative thoughts bring bad ones. Many consider Phineas Quimby one of the pioneers of the New Thought movement.

In 1866, the spiritualist Andrew Jackson Davis used the phrase "law of attraction" for the first time. At the time, however, he used it to explain how souls are divided into different levels after death. Later, in 1906, William Walker Atkinson changed the meaning of the idea in his book "Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World". According to Atkinson, thoughts too have a kind of vibration, and that vibration draws similar things towards itself.

The famous writer Napoleon Hill then added the ideas of money and success to it. His book "Think and Grow Rich" was published in 1937. Its main message was that if you want something very intensely and believe in your mind that you will get it, the way to get it will open up. Hill popularised the spiritual idea of attraction together with money and material success.

Then came an even bigger turning point in 2006. Australian television producer Rhonda Byrne first made a documentary called "The Secret". Later she published a book by the same name. The book’s main subject is manifestation and the law of attraction. Millions of copies of the book were sold around the world.

Go on the internet and it seems there is no end to manifestation methods. Among the popular ones is the vision board — pasting pictures matching your dreams on a large board. There is scripting — writing your dream in a diary as if the event has already happened. In the 3-6-9 method, you write the same wish three times in the morning, six times at noon and nine times at night.

There is also standing in front of a mirror and repeating positive sentences — "I am confident", "I am capable", "I can do it", "I am successful". This method became popular through writers like Louise Hay. One of its forms is the 55-5 method — writing the same sentence 55 times a day for five consecutive days. There is visualising the scene of success with eyes closed, the "as if" technique — thinking as if the thing is already yours — and thanking the universe in advance for what you have not yet received.

However, there is no reliable evidence for the story linking the 3-6-9 method to the scientist Nikola Tesla. There is no proof that Tesla taught this method. It is not even certain whether he knew of any such method at all. So it is better to treat it as a story that spread on the internet.

Followers of manifestation usually advise following a few steps. First, make the wish or goal clear — saying "I want to do well" is not enough; instead say, "I want GPA-5 in the HSC exam". In the next step, write the wish in a diary, many writing in the present tense, as if the goal has already been achieved. Every night before sleeping, spend five minutes visualising the scene of your success with eyes closed. Doubt is considered the biggest enemy, so you are told to firmly believe that you will get what you want. And finally, you are told to surrender your wish to the universe and give your hundred percent to work the rest of the time.

"If you just wish for it in your mind, the universe will bring you everything" — there is no reliable scientific evidence for such a claim. But some manifestation methods can help mentally. For example, writing down your goal, remembering it regularly, speaking positively to yourself, or visualising success. These habits can help keep your goal in focus and increase attention to work.

Suppose you write in your diary that you want to do well in the HSC exam. Every day when the writing catches your eye, you will remember your goal. Perhaps then you will sit at your study table a little longer, plan your studies, or focus more on exam preparation. In other words, remembering your goal can also change your work. But writing it in a notebook alone will not bring good exam results. For that you must study, practise and learn from mistakes. In the end, this is no magic of the universe; it is the result of your own effort, planning and persistence.