I asked a group of Potter Pundits earlier this week if they’d ever heard or read about a connection between author J. K. Rowling and the word “manifesting”? I didn’t recall anything about in her work but thought maybe she had in an interview. I got several responses, most of the “Nope, never” sort — and one with the link to the YouTube video above from ‘Mystica Finance.’ That’s not a typo; there’s no ‘l’ intentionally. Here’s how the site describes what they do:
Dive into a universe where the mysteries of the cosmos align with the dynamics of the monetary world. Here, we explore the ancient secrets and energies that influence our financial decisions, intertwining fate with finances. From historical tales of wealth and prosperity to modern financial strategies infused with mystical insights, Mystica Finance is your guiding star on a transformative journey to financial enlightenment
Here at Mystica Finance, we blend cutting-edge AI technology with expert human oversight to bring you unique and insightful content that merges cosmic themes with financial expertise. This innovative approach ensures accuracy, creativity, and a touch of cosmic wonder in every piece we present. Content on Mystica Finance is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended as financial advice. Always consult a professional for personalized financial guidance before making any decisions.
I highlighted their “blend” above because the video does indeed display some “cutting-edge AI technology” in its likenesses of Rowling, images that suggest she participated somehow in this project. I suspect that will be more and more commonplace but it is still jarring to me.
I asked my team of Backchannel Moderators about “”manifesting” because I had been asked the same question by a researcher looking into the work of Baptist de Pape, a writer most famous for a 2014 book titled The Power of the Heart: Finding Your True Purpose in Life. For more on that book, see its website, watch the trailer for the documentary movie based on it, or read the Simon and Shuster promotion page for it. In brief, de Pape’s thesis is:
With exciting spiritual and scientific insights, The Power of the Heart presents fascinating evidence that the heart is more than a physical organ. It possesses its own intelligence, capable of transforming your views of money, health, relationships, and success. Mindfulness exercises and contemplations guide you to activate the heart’s special powers—including intuition, intention, gratitude, forgiveness, and love.
As an Orthodox Christian and Perennialist, outside of the money bit and New Age exercises, I’m sympathetic to books about the cardiac intelligence rather than the cranial, discursive kind. As a charter member of the Royal Society of Rowling Readers, I’ve had to give a lot of thought to the power of the heart or at least the meaning of it as a symbol, cf., my Ink Black Heart and Deathly Hallows: The Heart is Not About Emotions and Affection but the Human Spiritual Center.
The man who wrote me, though, wasn’t writing about de Pape’s first book but his latest, a book published today by Inner Traditions and Simon and Schuster, Manifestation Perfected: Six Steps to Embody Your Soul. He wrote to ask me about the J. K. Rowling content in this book. From Perfected‘s Amazon blurb:
HAVE YOU BEEN WONDERING how to realize your dreams more effectively? In Manifestation Perfected, Baptist de Pape gains insight from the lives of three of the most important personalities in the realm of manifesting—Oprah, J. K. Rowling, and Anita Moorjani. From vital health to professional standing and fame to financial success, he examines their similarities, differences, and life lessons to provide a full set of guideposts for our own manifestation process.
How have these three master manifestors become so successful while following what is essentially a path of spiritual trust? Building on their inspiring examples, Baptist guides us through the process of successful manifestation, removing it from the unrealistic realm of magical thinking and grounding it fully in the mechanics of creating the life each of us was born to live. You will discover how to align yourself with your soul’s intentions, how to stay aligned no matter what anyone says, and how to develop spiritual trust to know that the universe will support you so you can proceed with confidence. As you adopt a series of six easy-to-follow intuitive steps, you too will enter the boundless flow of creativity and become the master creator of your life and happiness.
Join me after the jump for a discussion of Rowling’s repeated and dismissive statements to readers about the the supposed “secrets” or “rules of writing” that explain her success, what those “rules” are according to her and according to click-bait marketers, and how de Pape probably uses those “rules” as the foundation to his claim that Rowling is a “master manifestor” whose model you can and should imitate.
Rowling has a few trigger issues. One that is relevant to this conversation is her reading someone invoking her life story or method of writing to make a buck or present themselves as an expert. She has a pin to pop those balloons. Here are the examples that Nick Jeffery and Beatrice Groves shared with me from Rowling’s twitter index:
[Rowling uses the word ‘graft’ in the UK English sense of “hard work, labor” rather than the US English meaning of “the acquisition of gain (such as money) in dishonest or questionable ways.” See the Strike Finder for examples of her usage of that word and Merriam-Webster online for why Americans just don’t understand her “Keep Grafting” advice to wanna be writers.]
Q. Do you have tips for others trying to write?
A: I have to say that I can’t stand lists of ‘must do’s’, whether in life or in writing. Something rebels in me when I’m told what I have to do before I’m fifty, or have to buy this season, or have to write if I want to be a success.
Ten Habits All Best-Selling Writers Have In Common. These Five Tips Will Transform Your Writing! Follow J.K. Rowling’s Golden Rules For Success!
I haven’t got ten rules that guarantee success, although I promise I’d share them if I did. The truth is that I found success by stumbling off alone in a direction most people thought was a dead end, breaking all the 1990s shibboleths about children’s books in the process. Male protagonists are unfashionable. Boarding schools are anathema. No kids book should be longer than 45,000 words.
So forget the ‘must do’s’ and concentrate on the ‘you probably won’t get far withouts’, which are:
[She then discusses the importance of Reading, Discipline, Resilience and Humility, Courage, and Independence, for which exposition see the original essay.]
I often recommend a website called Writer Beware (https://accrispin.blogspot.com) to new and aspiring writers. It’s a fantastic resource for anyone who’s trying to decide what might be useful, what’s worth paying for and what should be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately, there are all kinds of scams out there that didn’t exist when I started out, especially online.
Ultimately, in writing as in life, your job is to do the best you can, improving your own inherent limitations where possible, learning as much as you can and accepting that perfect works of art are only slightly less rare than perfect human beings. I’ve often taken comfort from Robert Benchley’s words: ‘It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up, because by that time I was too famous.’
All well and good — but, frankly, pretty smug as well. Take a look at the supposedly ridiculous Rowling’s 8 Rules of Writing from TutoringYou.com circa 2017. It is definitely click-bait as Rowling decries, at least with respect to its sub-title, “Here’s the Structure She Uses to Write Best-Selling Novels.” Trust me, there’s nothing in the piece about structure in general or the specific structures Rowling does use in almost everything she writes.
The “Eight Rules,” however, are all quotations lifted from Rowling interviews — and mirabile dictu they communicate the five virtues that Rowling shares in her ‘On Writing’ essay, her “genuine advice” about how to become a better writer. I’m grateful that she wrote up her “genuine advice” so the collection of her quotations became a discursive essay with bullet-point virtues laid out coherently and indisputably her take on the subject. The substance of what she wrote, however, was already discernible in the pieces she dismissed; they had real value and represented what she thought because they quoted her statements faithfully.
I haven’t read de Pape’s Manifestation Perfected but I’m willing to guess in public that de Pape probably uses those “rules” evident in Rowling’s interview quotations and ‘On writing essay as the foundation to his claim that Rowling is a “master manifestor” whose model you can and should imitate. I suspect, along with his 4000 Euro course to guide your “perfect” manifestation (of the power of your heart?), that the book is a variant on other “manifestation for abundance” programs and the ‘Mystica Finance’ AI generated video at the beginning of this post. I welcome a Guest Post review of the book from any reader willing to put my best guesses to the test!
Until then, we’ll “keep grafting” here to plumb the depths and heights of Rowling’s artistry and meaning, not to mention her Golden Threads. Thank you for joining us on that adventure!
