Pseudoscientific beliefs persist and re-emerge across media generations

Evidence

Years after the initial Secret mania subsided, manifesting surged back into popularity among younger generations, especially on TikTok. Many young women began to diligently write a “manifestation journal” based on the idea that “scripting” a desire makes it more likely to happen. This new faith blended easily with numerology. In one video with two million views, a TikToker recommended the “3x33” method: taking “the sentance [sic] I told you” and writing it down thirty-three times in three days. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 601

Categorization

• CANDY: The ‘3x33’ numerology method is a light, tweetable oddity — people really think writing a sentence 33 times in 3 days will manifest desires.
• QUESTION: Does manifestation’s TikTok revival count as evidence for or against Marx’s ‘omnivore monoculture’? It suggests niche subcultures (law of attraction, numerology) persist and merge rather than flattening entirely.
• XREF: connects to: When education declines, pseudo-scientific cults proliferate as paranoia — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 156; Facts shift constantly while manipulative techniques stay stable across millennia — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 1003