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Can You Manifest a Purple People Eater?

cartoon brain holding magnets

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Can you manifest a purple people eater? - cartoon of a purple monster and multicoloured butterfly

Manifestation is all over the internet, part of the whole law of attraction vibrational package. Because I have a bit (or a lot) of a fixation on purple people eaters, they’ll help us see what we might or might not be able to manifest. The purple monster critter in the image above is someone I’ve previously dubbed the Should Monster; I feel like an actual purple people eater would be too classy for the butt-scratching, but it’s hard to know for sure.

The law of attraction

TheLawofAttraction.com says “manifestation is where your thoughts and your energy can create your reality” and you can “manifest anything you want in 24 hours.” Oh, but not necessarily; it has to be something that’s actually doable in 24 hours. Um, okay then. “Manifestation doesn’t just work with your thoughts, there has to be a form of action on your part. This could be actually applying for the jobs that suit what you are looking for and going to the interviews.”

They sort of backpedal on that, though, saying that your intentions are what will determine your success. But if there’s something your intuition tells you to do, then go right ahead and do it.

I don’t know who Gabby Bernstein is, but she ranks high in Google search results, and here’s what she has to say: “Manifesting is the process of vibrating at a high frequency so that you become a vibrational match with the Universe and can co-create your world.” Keep in mind that this vibrational frequency business is by no means a literal thing, and unless this has meaning for you on a spiritual level, in a literal sense, it’s basically made up.

Ask and ye shan’t receive

As far as I can gather, manifestation is a blend of “want it properly and the universe will deliver”, with a bit of “we don’t want to admit the universe doesn’t really work that way, so we need an excuse,” and an undercurrent of “but if it doesn’t work, it’s because you’re not doing it properly.” I’m not a fan of the blame-y side of the LOA, in part because it says that if you’re crazy, it’s because that’s what you attracted.

If the whole LOA thing works for you, that’s fantastic, but where I think the whole faddishness runs into problems is that if I’m trying to manifest a purple people eater and it’s not working, it’s supposedly because I’m not setting the intention properly. All of a sudden, I suck because I’m not good enough at manifesting for the universe to give me the purple people eater that it has waiting for me.

On the other hand, maybe I realize that the reason a purple people eater isn’t coming my way is that they don’t exist (gasp!). Maybe I’m better off looking for a pot-bellied pig instead. If I’m sufficiently excited about this, I will scour the internet to find out ways to put my pot-bellied self next to one of the porcine variety. Being enthusiastic, I’ll chat up breeders (because presumably, such a thing exists). They will sense my enthusiasm, and they will want to help me make a pot-bellied pig part of my piggy environment at home. My keenness and follow-through will bring on the pot belly, no manifestation required.

What you’re putting out into the world

What you put out there into the world affects what you get back, not because you’re supposedly vibrating at 5 gazillion Hz, but because human interaction is a two-way street, and you’re half of it. Your behaviour can influence how other people react to you, but can’t control their reactions. Anyone you’re interacting with has all of their own shit going on, and there’s diddly squat you can do about that part of the whole equation.

It doesn’t matter how well set your manifestation intention is if the person you’ve got a job interview with just found out that morning that her partner of 30 years has been cheating on her with their daughter’s best friend. She would rather be anywhere other than interviewing you, and you look disturbingly like said daughter’s best friend, so no matter how much you’re trying to manifest the hell out of it, you’re not getting that job.

The world isn’t fair, period

I saw this on Pinterest: “Your life is your garden, your thoughts are the seeds, if your life isn’t awesome, you’ve been watering the weeds.” This is the same sort of nonsense idea that if you just plant the right seeds, everything will be hunky dory. If things turn out otherwise, it’s your own damn fault and you screwed up. Thanks, but no thanks.

The world is full of good things and bad things. No amount of LOA manifestation or toxic positivity is going to make the bad things go away. But maybe if we’re realistic, and accept that purple people eaters aren’t waiting at our beck and call, we’ll be able to enjoy the glory of pot-bellied pigs. Or something like that.

Have you ever manifested (or tried to) a purple people eater or some other such unrealistic being?

Writing about science and debunking pseudoscience makes my heart sing! Visit the How to Spot Pseudoscience to explore other Science Corner posts on Mental Health @ Home.

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