I thought manifesting money would make me more spiritual

How 'Manifestation Culture' has influenced the way we think about money

Maybe you’ve heard this before:

You can manifest everything you want. Your thoughts create your reality. Lack is an illusion. Money is just energy and the only limitations on your abundance stem from your own beliefs.

That’s pretty basic manifestation promo. When ‘The Secret’ came out in the early 2000’s, this type of thinking about the Law of Attraction started permeating the new age. Since then, it has grown into a whole subculture. Words like ‘manifestation’ and concepts like ‘the law of attraction’ are commonly known in the new age now.

With the rise of coaches on social media, Manifestation Culture became the norm. It was one of my coaches actually, that mentioned this term to me.

She said Manifestation Culture is the mindset in the new age that we can manifest anything we desire.

Maybe you’ve heard this kind of comparison:

How much money you make is a reflection of how much life force you have in your body, which is how much you're connected to your soul. Money is just a physical manifestation of abundance. We are inherently abundant, it is a vibration that is already within us. We can tap into any frequency on a spiritual level and manifest anything we want. So if you tap into your abundance frequency, you must therefore make plenty of money. If you walk the path of your soul, you must therefore make plenty of money. You can’t be spiritual and poor at the same time.

Which we can then make mean:

If I don't make a lot of money, I have failed at spirituality.

Because what is more spiritual than manifestation, creating your own reality with your thoughts, being abundant and in complete bliss and ease in life?

To an outsider, this conclusion would sound pretty confusing.

They might think: “Wasn't spirituality supposed to be about tapping into a spiritual dimension or something? This just sounds like plain old materialism!”

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So where does this go wrong?

Manifestation Culture is full of distortions, in my opinion. In the new age, there are a lot of people that want to sell their product/service and that use marketing strategies based on playing into pain. That means: manipulating our wounds in order for us to buy services we wouldn’t have bought otherwise.

There are also negative infiltrations stemming from dark occult forces that permeate the new age, a.k.a. ‘the false light’.

Overly simplifying the Law of Attraction can lead to a lot of self-blame, anxiety, OCD and suffering, which generates energetic ‘food’ for negative entities, like guilt, shame, fear and greed.

These entities have their finger in every pie; they have infiltrated any widely spread ideology in our world (don’t get me started on that). And you could say: they are here to reflect our own ego back to us, so we may liberate ourselves in the grander scheme of things. That is the function of evil.

It is definitely a challenge for the spiritual seeker to discern what is real light from what is false light, while engaging with (online) spiritual material.

And the false light works through people.

After creating the problem of ‘not manifesting money while a spiritual person should be able to’, people with bad intentions can swoop in to manipulate with shame and guilt.

Not everyone in the new age has bad intentions, of course, and abundance coaches are not all bad. In fact, some of them helped me a lot.

But I also saw a lot of distortion out there—pushy messaging that was more shaming than empowering. Here is the gist of it, with my deconditioning notes in cursive:

“If you don't make the kind of money you dream about, you have an abundance block (=there is something wrong with you, you can’t trust yourself, trust me), you’re still not getting this spirituality thing right. You’re not taking responsibility over your life, you’re playing small (as if every image of a dream life should look the same). You are not very feminine, because otherwise you would be magnetic by now (as if all liberated women look and express the same and sexuality equals money). There is no excuse to not have money. Even if you can’t afford it, investing in yourself always pays back (=I’m now going to make you dependent on me and let you give me all your money, no matter if your circumstances and nervous system capacity can support that.)”

Maybe someone listening to this was perfectly happy with their money situation. But because their level of money is now equated to their level of spirituality (/life force, sexuality, magnetism, attractiveness, etc), they might feel less confident.

Depending on their sensitivity to toxic shame in general - which is determined by how much their parents used it on them - they can fall for it.

Maybe now they start chasing an image of abundance that isn't theirs, just to prove that they’re spiritually evolved.

I know I did.

But as I wrote in my post on dropping my new age practices, turns out I don’t need that many crystals in my house. And I don’t need other spiritual status symbols either, to prove that I’m spiritual.

Spirituality = materialism in Manifestation Culture

In Manifestation Culture, good old materialism has gotten a shiny new jacket.

With a materialistic mindset, value is assigned to how much money and other status symbols we acquire.

With a manifestation mindset, value is assigned to how much money and other status symbols we are able to manifest.

It is literally the same belief system: the old age in a new age jacket.

Only the status symbols are different.

But no, wait, that is not even true. Often, in Manifestation Culture the the status symbols are literally the same: the villa, the expensive car, the gold jewelry, the expensive brands, the tropical vacations...

Just open Instagram and type in some spiritual hashtag and you’ll see.

Common status symbols have all been reclaimed into spiritual expression, with the reasoning that they are a reflection of self-worth.

In this mindset, expensive stuff reflects an expensive vibration inside. Which is absolutely better than trying to compensate for an inner emptiness with status symbols, which the ‘old materialism’ is known for so well. But still, we have to look through this.

Because if we turn it around, does that also mean that if we don’t get these luxury items and other status symbols, we don't value ourselves, that we don't allow ourselves to receive, that we are not magnetic or attractive or feminine?

It is now almost like we should have expensive luxury taste, in order to be spiritual.

Is that true?

All this conditioning plays into the marketing strategy: “you're not fulfilling this image of abundant yet? Then what you think is your spirituality is just a delusion, you’re not living your dream life, here, let me fix you, for money.”

As you can see, we can take universal truth around manifestation, twist it and turn it into a pain point to sell things.

Now, someone might be more or less receptive to this kind of marketing. I was very receptive to it.

I built an image of a dream life that wasn’t even mine, all based on messaging about abundance I saw of Instagram.

Turns out my dream life looks totally different. Less luxury brands, more sustainability. Less tropical vacations on the other side of the world, more visits to places I actually like. Less expensive jewelry, more jewelry from small businesses bought to mark a memory.

It is all about values and these are mine. Yours can be different. They can even be an exact match to the common image of abundance in Manifestation Culture or even plain old materialism. No shame, just looking at things as they are.

As long as it is authentic for you.

And turns out my spirituality was just fine all along. Do I have work to do around manifestation skills? Definitely. AND my spiritual development is completely okay as it is.

We all have things ‘to work on’ and that should never put us into lack consciousness.

That is such a trap. Healing ourselves doesn’t mean neurotically fixing ourselves. This is the opposite of self-love or abundance.

We all need to love ourselves enough to already find self-acceptance within the imperfection. Only then will we be able to truly be abundant.

Our soul is already perfect and in abundance. In order to connect to our soul, we need to connect to our body, feel what there is to feel, move our energy and be real with ourselves. I’m all about authentic spirituality.

What I like to go into now, is a deeper view of the Law of Attraction and money manifestation.

Distortions in Manifestation Culture are all based on the following faulty premise: we should be able to manifest exactly what we want.

Should we, really?

What if it is more complex than that?

In my twenties, I never made more than 1000 euros a month. And I was super spiritual. I was walking the path of my soul. I was individuating the shit out of myself. My intuition was blazing and my heart was completely informing my decisions.

And I still didn't make a lot of money.

For some people, stepping into the path of their soul or doing some manifestation practice they found on TikTok immediately leads to financial abundance.

For others, like me, it doesn’t. Why?

There can be all kinds of reasons. I’ll share some the lessons that I learned below. But first, let me finish my story.

Shame about our money situation

I didn’t make a lot of money in my twenties.

And then I hid that.

Why?

Because I was embarrassed.

I thought it would expose me as a fraud.

Bad at manifestation!

Not really spiritual at all!

Don’t trust her!

I tried everything, especially different iterations of ‘letting go real hard that I wanted money, so that it would come to me’.

Well, that kind of manipulation has never quite worked out for me, has it ever for you?

Because of my shame, to people that would ask me if I could make a living with my spiritual business, I would start beaming and say yes. These people were mostly imposing family members and total strangers, by the way.

The truth was: barely.

(In the Netherlands, this is usually the first question that gets asked after telling people we have an unusual/alternative income. Culturally, we are very direct, which has its pros and cons, and being nosy about spiritual people’s income seems to be a cultural staple.)

In my thirties, I figured this whole manifestation thing out a little bit better and I made more money, but not much. I’ve had some good phases, though, and most importantly, I figured out what makes me abundant and how to consciously steer it.

For me, it remains one of the deepest spiritual practices to stay in integrity in this pursuit of money. It has caused me much more trouble than relationships ever have. We all have our own achilles’ heels.

In the process, I’ve learned some important lessons

1. Ultimately, Divine Will determines what we can manifest, not our egoic wants and needs. Even if we manifest from our ego, it comes with a steep price where we only manifest a form, not what life is really about on a deeper level. Even if we get money then, we might still feel empty inside. Or we get money at the expense of something else: our health, our connections, our credibility. Not everyone has a life path where they get their egoic desires manifested with the purpose to realize it was not about that (see: Jim Carrey)—a lot of people get a life path where they are steered away from what they think makes them happy, towards what truly makes them happy. While the ego might prefer one of those paths over the other, in fact neither of them is better or worse.

2. Our subconscious beliefs and traumas play into how much money we can manifest, including repressed desires on how we really want to live, which might transcend money or typical images of success and abundance. When I got real with myself, I realized I just want a simple life. Most of all, I don’t really want to worry much about money or do complicated bookkeeping. And I have manifested both things in abundance. I don’t have to do quarterly taxes, for example, only yearly. It really simplifies things and also, I haven’t had a lot of money so far because of it, which pushes me to heal my relationship to ‘the system’. I’m sure this will keep evolving. Money is never about money.

3. Privilege is real and the level of it determines whether people have easy access to enough resources and support to ‘manifest’ something. Even if you believe that thought creates reality, the reality is that trauma, social background and upbringing shape our thoughts subconsciously as well. If we didn’t have a lot of privilege growing up, there is a lot more subconscious material to work through in regards to manifesting what we want. In theory, everyone can liberate themselves—this is an empowering truth. In practice, I believe that the safe relationships required to heal and thereby make such leaps in consciousness might not be available to everyone everywhere all the time. Also, not all environments feel safe for the nervous system, and then the natural state of abundance can be difficult to access. We have to start where we are, and for some people, that is further back than for others. It is all much more complex than ‘just think happy thoughts’.

We all have different lessons when it comes to money. Maybe you need to emphasize something different right now, like deconditioning from the idea that money is evil or unspiritual. To you I say: I’m not here to tell you that money is NOT spiritual. It can definitely be a reflection of inner soul wealth. And it should be, in my opinion.

As you’ve seen: for me, the liberation lies elsewhere.

Feel free to share your own lessons below—we can learn from each other.

This story doesn’t end in “and then I suddenly got rich”

This is not one of those marketing texts that tell you that eventually, I figured it out and made a lot of money! (And here’s how you can, too, if you pay me.) Not that there is anything wrong with that, if done in integrity, but I think it’s refreshing to read (write) something else.

My money story so far ends in lessons that transcend money.

It ends in a feel for abundance and knowing exactly when I can totally manifest money, and when I’m probably going to remain having to deal with a low number in my bank account. I’ve learned to stop pushing.

One thing I know is that I’m not going to ‘manifest’ from a state of stress and shame about being bad at manifestation or spirituality.

I am very aware now of the subtle messaging of shame around money in Manifestation Culture, and how shaming is used as a marketing ploy by abundance coaches that manipulate pain.

I have healed most of my sensitivity to it. And I hope this essay has served you to unravel some of the conditioning, too. If it gave you value, you can consider donating below.

The main reason I’m posting this: to publicly serve as an example that you can still be spiritually evolved, even if you don’t have a lot of money, even if you haven’t manifested what you desired.

Spirituality is not about perfection, it is about connecting to what is.

And the ‘form’ or circumstances of our life don’t determine who we are. These circumstances are fleeting anyway.

If we have manifested a lot of status symbols, that doesn’t determine we now suddenly have more worth.

If we don’t have the ‘Manifestation Culture image’ of abundance, it doesn’t mean we are not abundant.

I believe these are truths that needs to be shared in the spiritual community. And I don’t see them being shared much, so I’ll be a martyr of them (sorry, got carried away with Human Design terminology there, if you’re a fellow HD nerd, can you tell I have a 3/5 profile, hope motivation and wanting view?)

Maybe, your dream image of abundance looks different and you have attained it already, your life looking like the opposite of what we’re conditioned to strive for.

Or maybe, like with me, your dream image of abundance is different and you haven’t attained it yet.

As long as we keep connecting to ourselves on a soul level, and as long as we bring compassion to whatever we feel and think, we are in the abundance frequency. (=Abundance lessons for people with Liver Blood Deficiency in TCM). And from there, things will unfold according to Divine Will, which we can tap into via our own heart. We will know what actions to take and what structure to create in which money can be received, through following our intuition.

Currently, I am investigating how I can build my life back up with a regulated nervous system, and have this be reflected in my work and income. That is now part of my image of abundance too, and it wasn’t before.

So my development around money manifestation keeps refining my spirituality. It is always moving and fluctuating, just like the amount of money in my bank account.

I truly believe these things: money is never about money, and the number in my bank account doesn’t determine the level of spirituality I have that day, or ever.

If money is energy, then energy can also be expressed in many different ways, that all form our image of abundance. And that image is unique to each person, just like our dreams are unique.

What does abundance look like to you?

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I write about authentic spirituality; intentional and slow living both online and offline, commentary about unhelpful conditioning in the new age, and nervous system work - the ‘Unwinding’ part. I’m also a psychic channel and occasionally write energy updates and share what my guides say - the ‘Divining’ part.

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