Megan Fox believes she “manifested” her relationship with fiancé Machine Gun Kelly.
The couple shared their engagement back in January this year – with an intimate video on Instagram showing Kelly, real name Colson Baker, getting down on one knee – and now the Transformers star has revealed how the origins of their romance actually go way back.
“(Kelly) is literally my exact physical type that I’ve been manifesting since I was four,” Fox, 35, told Glamour magazine. “I’m also four years older than him. So, I think I made him.
“My thoughts and intentions grew him into the person that he is, who knows what he would’ve looked like or been like if it wasn’t for me.”
What is manifesting?
The term ‘manifesting’ is one you’ve probably seen crop up a lot more over recent years – particularly amongst influencers who are into things like spirituality, self-development and positive psychology.
It’s fair to say Fox’s description of it – in terms of ‘growing’ her ideal partner since the day he was born – is quite an extreme example. But lots of people are into the concept of manifesting in order to live more intentionally and achieve personal goals.
Anoushka Florence, founder of The Goddess Space, where she creates sacred spaces for women to gather and connect, says she profoundly believes in manifestation.
In her view, manifestation is “connecting to a heartfelt intention within you and working with it to bring it outside. There is a fine art to manifestation, in calling in everything you desire and believing it can be so. Manifestation requires a process,” she says.
And this process, according to Florence, can be broken down into three steps.
She explains: “One – a dream that has come from your heart space. Two – the ability to envision it and feel it in your bones as though it has already happened. Three – letting go of expectation of what that thing will look and feel like and allowing it into your life.”
Much of this, she says, is rooted in having trust in yourself, your desires and the universe.
Royce Christyn – actor, director and author of Scripting The Life You Want: Manifest Your Dreams With Just A Pen And Paper – believes manifestation is a simple but powerful way to get what you want.
“Scripting allows you to manifest your dreams with just a pen and paper. It is a simple list-making practice to figure out your wants and intentions and can then be used to script your future – like writing your own movie script,” Christyn explains.
“The first step in manifestation is knowing what you do want – most people start out knowing what they don’t want,” adds Christyn. “And when you write these things down, imagine them like you already have them – get the good feelings now.
“Scripting and your daily want list are in many ways like waking visualisations or wakeful meditations – visualisations have been studied and utilised by everyone from scientists to Olympians because they work.”
Does manifesting really work?
It sounds like a simple way to attract everything you want in life – be it a new job, the ideal romantic relationship or even a pay rise – but is that too good to be true?
Florence says that in her experience, yes, manifesting does work – and she also wrote a comprehensive list of everything she wanted in a romantic partner: “I wrote a very detailed list connected to what I envisioned in a partner, spelt it all out and set it on fire, letting it go and releasing it into the ether. It took about two weeks for him to meet me.”
Similarly, Christyn shares that manifesting and scripting has had a huge impact on his life.
“Using my scripting method, I have manifested guest-starring with Selena Gomez on an Emmy Award-winning sitcom, directing documentaries, meeting the person I consider my soulmate, who is now my husband.”
Can anyone manifest anything?
So, is a lottery win or your dream job really as simple as writing it down and believing hard enough? On the other hand, have we just put a price-tag in the form of a book or course, for something that’s really just working and planning for the life you want?
Perhaps understandably, many people are sceptical about manifesting – and it’s important to acknowledge that with any type of goal-setting, your personal privilege and the circumstances you are dealing deserve consideration.
Florence says that “it can be like a placebo effect, where the effects of the inner workings to trust and believe create a placebo effect. That proves the power of trust and intention,” she adds.
“We are all manifesting, and you might not even know it. Check into what you are manifesting within the beliefs and thoughts you hold. We are often manifesting our reality without even knowing it. If we can manifest bad, we can manifest good too.”
Aaron Surtees, psychologist and founder of City Hypnosis, says: “Manifestation is incredibly effective. This holistic approach to goal-setting focuses your thoughts on the desired outcome, whether that is mindfulness or visualisation techniques.
The self-help strategies can help you visualise an outcome before it happens, such as a desired goal.
“The technique is based on the laws of attraction and the theory psychologists teach and practice daily is based around resetting your subconscious mind. Through reprogramming your mindset, you will have a positive outlook, which can help you achieve your goals.
As for manifesting that lottery win…
“No one can magic up a winning lottery ticket, but through manifesting positivity, you will see tangible changes in your life,” says Surtees. “You can train your brain to be stimulated in certain ways, which is all down to the chemicals in our bodies.”