New Age Manifesting Techniques

Sometimes people suggest to me that I try visualizing making money, finding just the right apartment, being healed, or finding the perfect soulmate. They feel smug that they have recently learned New Age manifestation techniques, and want to share them with the uninitiated. They put on their comforting voices, give me a pep talk about how the Universe gives us exactly what we ask for, and how if we have anything missing in our lives, it is our fault because we are obviously creating it our difficulties. And that is wrong. We should have only positive things in our lives. Be positive, and everything will be fine. And if it isn’t working out, it must be my karma. I must have done something bad in the past that is now keeping me from having everything I want.

I just look at them. There is no point in even trying to explain. Since I was a baby, I was immersed in the metaphysical. That was when my father discovered books about how to make money through attitude. “It’s all in your attytude,” I would dance around, singing. “It’s all in your attytude!” I gave him presents of clay tablets proclaiming “PMA.” Positive mental attitude. He told me enthusiastically how to visualize what I wanted, and he passed on the books to me, a precocious girl ready to learn. I visualized being able to levitate every day.