The Science Of Manifestation: Can This Stanford Neuroscientist Convince A Skeptical Dan To Give It A Shot? | Dr. James R. Doty

This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hello, my fellow suffering beings, how are we doing? Anybody who's listened to this show for a minute probably knows that I've got a long-running beef with the concept of manifestation. I associate manifestation with the power of positive thinking, the law of attraction, or that book, The Secret, the idea that you can get or achieve whatever you want purely through the power of your thoughts.

So like make a vision board and you can get a diamond necklace or cure your cancer or whatever. All of which is very clearly bullshit. Back when I was a news reporter, I interviewed some of the proponents of this hogwash and many of their followers who spent tons of money trying to make this stuff real for themselves, and usually, in my experience, it didn't work out so well, except of course for the gurus who made a ton of money. My friends Jeff Warren and Sebane Selassie are both meditation teachers who I deeply trust and admire, and they have long tried to convince me that there's a more subtle and legit version of manifestation.

And for a long time, uh, they had minimal success at this. But then I met today's guest, James Doty, who's a neurosurgeon who's just written a whole book about the science of manifestation. And I've got to tell you, he definitely opened my mind. But I also have to tell you his version of manifestation bears almost no resemblance to the secret or the power of positive thinking or junk like that. Dr.

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