{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"\u201cThe Whisper Method\u201d Recycles Old, Bad Ideas","description":"A new \u201cmanifestation trend\u201d called \u201cThe Whisper Method\u201d has gone viral on TikTok. If the word salad in that sentence is new to you, \u201cmanifestation\u201d is the practice of focused, intense thinking about what you want until you get it. The practice is grounded in New Age philosophy and seems to re-emerge every few years in some new form. The \u201cWhisper Method\u201d is the latest manifestation of manifestation, and TikTok is where it is all happening.  The \u201cWhisper Method\u201d involves thinking of what you really want and identifying who can give it to you. Then, you are to imagine whispering instructions into that person\u2019s ear, such as, \u201cYou\u2019re going to give me that promotion.\u201d Or, \u201cYou\u2019re going to fall in love with me.\u201d If you really believe (and whisper), then eventually you shall receive.   We\u2019ve seen this kind of thing before. Years ago, Oprah popularized \u201cThe Secret,\u201d a philosophy that if people put \u201cpositive thoughts and vibes\u201d\u2019 into the universe, they\u2019d get positive results back. In other words, if we send out energy claiming a bigger bank account, a smaller waist, or a better parking spot during Christmas, we\u2019ll get those things.  From a motivation standpoint, it\u2019s easy to understand how something like The Secret or The Whisper Method gains traction. It involves little work with big rewards. Beneath the irrationality and geographic specificity (these strategies aren\u2019t very popular in war-torn areas or regions inflicted by famine), there is a truth. The human imagination is incredibly powerful.   In a 2006 episode of Oprah, she described \u201cThe Secret\u201d this way: \u201cWhat you focus on gets bigger.\u201d Short of the weird metaphysical claims to be able to \u201cmanifest\u201d new objective realities, Oprah was not entirely off base. God created humans with creative ability. We cannot create out of nothing, or ex nihilo, like God did, but humans are unique among creation in our ability to make something out of the world around us. Thus, humans invent and build and improve and innovate. And, in Psalm 37, we are told that if we \u201cdelight\u201d ourselves \u201cin the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart,\u201d though that has more to do with God first giving us rightly ordered desires once He is our ultimate delight.   Various studies have demonstrated that athletes who routinely imagine themselves performing well often develop a measurable competitive edge. However, even the most imaginative and sincere visualization techniques cannot magically bend reality. Thus, researchers believe that visualizing strong athletic performance is a way of practicing the sport. Not to mention, that any athletic improvements served by visualizations are in addition to actually physically practicing the sport.  The Whisper Method isn\u2019t about training for a good performance or searching our hearts and motives to make sure they align with the will of God. The Whisper Method is about the illusion of control. It assumes that internal focus can determine external realities. This desire for control is nothing new, nor has The Whisper Method shifted from changing our own actions in place of manipulating the actions of others. In that way, The Whisper Method reflects the cultural ethos that other people are primarily objects to be used in service to our own ends.  We didn\u2019t make the world, and we\u2019re not in charge of it. God did, and He is. We\u2019re not to worry ourselves over controlling it but instead are to \u201ccast all our anxieties on Him.\u201d If we are going to \u201cwhisper,\u201d it should be in prayer to the God who made us and loves us.  In honest prayer, our hearts are taught what they truly desire. In prayer, we place those desires at the feet of our Heavenly Father, ask Him to conform them and us to His will, trusting that everything He does will be for our good. All of which makes prayer the opposite of The Whisper Method, which only pretends that we can control the world and assumes that our strategies for controlling it are fully informed and perfectly wise, as if we have the faintest idea of what\u2019s really best for us. We don\u2019t.  In his book on prayer, Pastor Tim Keller wrote that \u201cGod will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything He knew.\u201d Thank goodness we don\u2019t live in a world where our wishing, or our \u201cwhispering,\u201d makes it so. ","author_name":"Breakpoint","author_url":"https:\/\/breakpoint.org","html":"