Sending a message to the universe — is manifesting a formula for success or dangerous magical thinking?

The practice’s popularity picked up when it went viral on TikTok

Can visualising an outcome make it a reality? Conor McGregor and Oprah Winfrey have credited manifesting with their success. McGregor pictured here leaving Blanchardstown Court, Dublin, where he is charged with dangerous driving in relation to an incident in west Dublin in March. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire.

Diana Celestine was let in on the secret about 10 years ago. Then an IT consultant in Charlotte, North Carolina, she’d made a passing comment to a friend lamenting the state of her love life — something along the lines of “I’ll probably never get married”.

Celestine had just been joking around. But her friend stopped her, deadly serious.