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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Martha Gill

Not quite religion, not quite self-help: welcome to the Jordan Peterson age of nonsense

An illustration of a man in a spotlight holding a book and preaching in front of an audience.
Illustration by Dominic McKenzie. Illustration: Dominic McKenzie/the Observer

What links these two news stories? The first: “manifesting” has been declared Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year. The self-help practice, based on the magical belief that mental rituals can move the universe in your favour, has exploded in popularity.

Having kicked around for years, it surged into the mainstream during the pandemic, when Google searches of the term rose by 600%. Since then, manifesting courses and retreats have sprung up everywhere, and celebrities from Dua Lipa to Simone Biles are now claiming they “manifested” their success.

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