Of course, Nafousi uses her own ‘journey’ as proof of the power of manifestation — it’s a common tactic among self-help ‘gurus’, because in the absence of any data or scientific proof, they have to offer themselves up as an example that what they’re selling actually works. I can’t help but bristle slightly. The elephant in the room is the fact that, with or without manifestation, the world tends to make way for people like Nafousi: moneyed, privately educated, well-connected, young, beautiful and able-bodied. Given those advantages, success requires only the barest amount of effort. That’s not to say that Nafousi hasn’t worked hard or experienced her fair share of bad times — and as the famous Zadie Smith quote goes: “Suffering has an absolute relation to the suffering individual — it cannot be easily mediated by a third term such as ‘privilege’.” Still, a big part of manifestation is the theory that “we attract the energy we put out” — so if we wallow in “low vibrational frequency” emotions like fear, anxiety, anger, envy etc we’ll attract low vibe outcomes. Nafousi advises her readers to switch to a more “high vibe” mindset by practising gratitude and focusing on the joyful aspects of their everyday lives. All of which, I would bet, is infinitely easier if you’re everyday life is easy to start with.
