Nothing seemed to be working out for Gaurav Behl in 2013. At 35, his life was in a rut — his recruitment company was bleeding money, his relationships weren’t working out; there were many setbacks. He had made all the wrong choices. Then — as if out of thin air — he conjured a new life for himself.
He manifested it. He sold his company, worked on his relationships, and life took a 180-degree turn.
Today, Gaurav is a part of India’s growing manifestation industry whose English-speaking, Instagram-scrolling, positive vibe-hunters are landing dream jobs, exotic holidays, and ‘dream’ partners.
They will tell you as much.
“I manifested my boyfriend, my job, and my holiday in Thailand,” says 23-year-old Shreya Bhargava, a consultant at Deloitte.
The fad began when the runaway hit The Secret, a 2006 self-help book by Rhona Byrne, urged readers to curate their vision boards, journal incessantly, and build ‘connections’ with the universe. Across the world, big names such as Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, and Jim Carrey are advocates of affirmation and manifestation as a way of realising your dreams and shaking up your life. Today, more and more Indians are claiming to be in conversation with the universe: “Putting it out there in the universe and the universe speaking back” to them. It is almost a part of a new vocabulary of the wealthy who are carefully constructing their future. And a marked shift away from the previous generations’ obsession with stone rings, horoscopes, and Shani temples.
In Gurugram, manifestation coaches regularly conduct sessions. They vary depending on the theme but largely prepare you for manifestation through conversation, meditation, and exercises that encourage you to delve into your past and achieve the requisite ‘state of mind’. There are online sessions too.
“We live in a yes-universe. If you say yes to the universe, it says yes back,” declares Gaurav who is following that principle as a ‘life coach’. And people are flocking to clean up their energies.
It all works on the ‘Law of Attraction’: If you focus your energy on what you want to achieve, the universe emits it back. And there you have it — a pot of money, success, and healthy relationships. No room for second-guessing.
Student-turned-coach Kshitij nonchalantly says it is a law as sacrosanct and “real as the law of gravity”. An entire ecosystem is brewing, with coaches training you to achieve the state of mind suited to this dream-like existence.
Prerna, 24, a computer engineer at Deloitte, attends Gaurav’s workshops faithfully. And faith doesn’t come cheap — an online workshop costs at least Rs 8,000 a day. In 2018, she created her vision board that listed a trip to Goa, a Rolex wristwatch, and an evening gown she had been eyeing for a while.
“Everything came true,” says Prerna in trademark motivation speaker’s style. The year began with a holiday to Goa, and she received the Rolex as a gift from her father.
“If you have it in your mind, you have it in your hand,” she adds.
Visualisation is at the core of manifestation. And to design their vision boards, young women are scouring Pinterest to find a template that suits them, and some even upload them on social media, hoping to inspire others. Minimalist designs are popular—a nod to the white-girl aesthetic that is dominating Instagram. Most vision boards feature artfully curved white text against a delicate pink background with a generic flower somewhere in the frame.
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Assume you have a partner, and you do
Manifestation practices are vague, and so are the principles behind them. Almost nobody mentions hard work, strategy, office politics, and networking — the standard template to ace your LinkedIn aspirations. People who manifest operate in a dimension free of such passé constructs, and instead rely entirely on vibes.
It’s not just those enchanted by The Secret who are manifesting. The community also consists of people who struggled with tough times, personally or professionally. Prerna says she had a difficult relationship with her parents until she received guidance through the coaching sessions. London-based Krupesh, who works with Amazon, made the decision to leave India through manifestation.
“We emit the vibrations because we are energetic people. It is soul work. Vibrations are equal to desire,” says Preeti Sagar, a Delhi-based manifestation coach who focuses primarily on relationships.
She has 16,000 followers on Instagram and spreads affirmations by the dozen through her posts — ‘Eight affirmations to manifest your soulmate’, ‘How to be loved by everyone’, ‘Easy way to manifest a specific person’. There is no nuance, no complexity. You just have to assume you already have the person to actually have them. Positive affirmations can raise your vibrational frequency to match your goals.
The moment you open Preeti’s website, a message pops up: “Manifest a specific person fast”. If you click on ‘Take Action’, you set a process into motion — five videos provide instructions on how to get someone “to pursue you, adore you, love you, and do everything for you just the way you want”. The website then tells you: “Indeed it works like magic!”
It almost sounds like late-night magic remedy commercials selling nazar–suraksha kavach (talisman) and divine aura gems. Except it’s none of that. It’s about believing something will happen and making it happen by ridding yourself of doubts.
And Preeti says there is proof — she cites a client’s experience. Her client, a European woman, is trying to manifest a popular billionaire. The process is going smoothly, according to Preeti who refused to divulge any more details.
“I am very good at my job,” says Preeti who has appointments lined up on all days of the week except Sunday. She claims to be psychic and sees herself as a friend to her clients — but she’s no fair-weather companion. She clarifies: “[I’m] a friend who sees more than you do.”
Apart from matters of the heart, money and financial success are important for ‘manifestors’ too. Prerna attended one of Gaurav’s workshops when she was still in college. Participants were asked to write ‘a cheque by the universe’ and told to fill in any amount.
A couple of weeks later, the amount was with her. She explains how it happened: Her grandmother had deposited a sum in the bank that matured at that same time as did an amount set for her by her parents. And Prerna says this with utmost certainty, convinced that she manifested it. She then attended a session on ‘New Year Intention Meditation’ and imagined what she wanted and who she wanted to be in the following year. “Whatever I visualised, I’m living it,” she says in exhilaration. She lives in a grand state of ‘yes to the universe’.
Manisha Thapa, 22, who watched a YouTube video on manifestation and called it “bullshit” initially started reading The Secret and manifested her former partner back in 2019. In November 2020, people reached out to her for lessons. “Then I realised I could make it a business. From then onward, I started guiding people. You won’t believe me, but all of my clients see the results,” says Manisha. She is on Instagram as @the_manifestation_queen_ and frequently shares her clients’ success stories in which they tell you how they manifested their partners back and how satisfying the experience was.
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A thriving business
Nothing is stopping the manifestation industry from growing. Gaurav Behl claims to have trained 8,000 students and 350 teachers. Prior to the pandemic, he used to travel to tier-1 cities and conduct workshops, but now, he has largely shifted online. Each session is attended by 30 to 60 participants. He goes on yearly retreats in 5-star hotels, alternating between Udaipur and Goa – cities where Gaurav is proactively nurturing a ‘manifestation’ culture.
He travels extensively, acquiring information from leading manifestation experts from across the globe. He distills their ‘teachings’ and modifies them for his clients, saying that differences in cultural contexts are necessary to accommodate. And he has only learnt from the best — Esther and Jerry Hicks’ study of Abrahamic teachings. This school of thought is at the helm of the 21st-century ‘Law of Attraction’.
One of Gaurav’s converts is Kshitij Gondhalekar, a former sales professional. Kshitij recalls thinking it was “a beautiful concept” and after attending an event realised that he had found his calling. “People told me I was meant for this,” he says. Entranced, he decided he would either succeed as a manifestation coach or “die trying”. Making money wasn’t the easiest task, and it took him two years to turn manifestation coaching into a full-fledged profession. He earlier disagreed with coaches who told him: “Just focus on your work. The universe will send people.” He wanted to make it happen himself.
He now conducts weekly webinars for 1,500 to 2,000 people, for which he uses paid advertisements. Kshitij charges hefty sums to prove that manifestation works. A one-day workshop is charged at Rs 5,000. He also conducted online training for teachers — with a fee of Rs 2.2 lakh. Today, Kshitij is earning way more than he did in his previous job.
Women dominate
What’s striking is how overwhelmingly women-centric the manifestation industry is. Seeking alternative means to solve your problems is not a phenomenon unique to women. Yet, manifestation as an aesthetic is deeply feminised. None of the creators dominating social media are men. Male influencers with a large following typically advertise themselves as ‘life coaches’ — though the content is similar to manifestation ideals.
Gaurav’s workshops, too, have mostly women though the number of male clients has gone up in the last couple of years. He says that men feel comfortable confiding in him because they find common ground with him, and that’s why they are less likely to approach a woman coach. “Men feel reluctant to build that emotional connection. At sessions, people often cry,” Gaurav says.
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The influence of Instagram
Manifestation-related content is being churned out on Instagram in huge quantities — from reels telling you how to manifest correctly to creators sharing spiels on their videos and how they overcame all obstacles. Moreover, Instagram algorithm ensures you come across ideas and posts you’re most likely to buy into — motivational, affirmative posts easily dominate one’s feed. It’s difficult to resist believing in ideas that a perfect life could be attained through ‘energy’.
“The problem with manifestation is not that it is wholly unscientific. Instead, it’s easy to sell a watered-down version of it to those who don’t know any better. Social media, especially TikTok and Instagram, is notorious for popularising the concept of liking a post to manifest wealth, love, or power. These posts often have a pseudoscientific explanation of how manifestation works and this, ultimately, earns it a bad rap in scientific circles,” wrote psychologist Mark Travers in Forbes.
For some, watching manifestation reels is better than falling for the illusion of celebrity ‘good life’. But there is also something like too much of a good thing. Psychologists warn about the negative impact of ‘positive thinking’ — it isn’t realistic to force ourselves to constantly think positively all the time and assume that everything will work out. Manifestation completely ignores the emotional spectrum.
‘Toxic positivity’ is a concept that is steadily seeping into our vocabulary. It’s defined as “the excessive and ineffective overgeneralisation of a happy, optimistic state across all situations. The process results in the denial of the authentic human emotional experience.”
Preeti Sagar says you do not need to be a ‘happy’ person to manifest. But most manifestation coaches promote ceaseless patience and trust in the unquantifiable. In a world overwhelmed by a global crisis, glaring inequalities, and an uncertain future – that may not be possible for everyone.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)