Today, the practice of “manifesting” is widespread. It is one of the many ways people feel that they can cope with the anxieties of daily life by taking control of situations where they once felt powerless. The term manifesting, as it grew out of New Age/New Thought, refers to the practice of thinking aspirational thoughts with the expectancy of realizing them in tangible results. Some of these philosophies were developed by people who had studied Christian Science, and yet their constructs, premises, and conclusions diverge from it in significant ways. 

Some root the movement in Eastern religions. But much of its popularity today was influenced by a bestselling book and an accompanying movie that suggest that we can create for ourselves a mind-set that attracts wealth, success, and sometimes spiritual understanding by presenting to the universe what we wish then working to make it a reality. This starts from a personal desire for change and tends to encourage self-absorbed thinking and human will.

In Christian Science, what’s manifested is divine goodness, which doesn’t involve human manipulation or even start with us.