Manifestation books, read with a sceptical ear

What the research says about positive thinking

Psychologist Gabriele Oettingen spent two decades testing what dreaming about a good future actually does. Her studies, summarised in her 2014 book, found that positive fantasies on their own often lower effort: in one experiment, people who pictured an idealised future showed lower energy afterwards than those who pictured something more realistic. What helped was "mental contrasting": imagining the wish and the outcome, then the obstacle in yourself that stands in the way, then a plan for it. She calls it WOOP: Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan.

That is the "Yes, but" for most of this shelf. Clarity about what you want is useful. Believing that wanting it hard enough will bring it, without the obstacle and the plan, can leave you worse off.

The eight

1. The Secret, Rhonda Byrne

The book that made the "law of attraction" a household phrase, from an Australian television producer, published in 2006 alongside a film. Its claim: thoughts attract matching events, so think about what you want as if you already have it. Yes, but: there is no evidence that thoughts change outside events by themselves, and the book's suggestion that people attract illness or misfortune can add guilt to bad luck. Brisbane's Libby catalogue lends it.

2. The Magic, Rhonda Byrne

A 28-day program of gratitude practices: a gratitude list each morning, thanking people, a "magic rock" at night. Yes, but: the daily gratitude habit is the sound part, and studies of gratitude journals do find modest gains in wellbeing; the promises of money and health from it are not supported.

3. Ask and It Is Given, Esther and Jerry Hicks

Teachings Esther Hicks says she receives from a group of non-physical beings called Abraham, with 22 exercises for shifting your "emotional set point". The emotional-awareness exercises are practical. Yes, but: the source is channelling, which you have to take on faith, and the book frames hardship as a failure of your vibration.

4. The Law of Attraction, Esther and Jerry Hicks

The Abraham teachings narrowed to the law of attraction itself, deliberate creation and "allowing". Shorter than Ask and It Is Given. Yes, but: same caveat on the source, and it says even less about action.

5. Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill

The 1937 bestseller on "the thirteen steps to riches", built on desire, faith, autosuggestion and persistence. Its practical core, a definite written goal and daily action, holds up. Yes, but: Hill said the industrialist Andrew Carnegie set him the task of interviewing successful men; Carnegie's biographer David Nasaw told a 2016 investigation he found no evidence the two ever met, and Hill only began telling the story after Carnegie had died.

6. The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, Joseph Murphy

A 1963 classic from a New Thought minister: repeated affirmations and visualisation reshape the subconscious, which then reshapes your life. Yes, but: it includes stories of illness healed by belief. Never use it in place of medical treatment.

7. Manifest, Roxie Nafousi

A 2022 bestseller from a British "manifesting coach" with seven steps: be clear, remove fear and doubt, align your behaviour, overcome tests, embrace gratitude, turn envy into inspiration, trust. It is the most grounded of the pure manifestation books, with a lot about self-worth and behaviour. She reads it herself. Yes, but: the action and self-worth parts are doing most of the work; the claims about energy attracting outcomes are belief.

8. Rethinking Positive Thinking, Gabriele Oettingen

The counterweight. A psychologist's accessible account of the experiments above and of WOOP, her four-step method. Read it after any of the others. It is the only book on this shelf that tests its claims.

Common questions