“So be it! See to it!": Reflections on Manifesting, Visioning, Imagination & Dreaming

“Imagination is one of the most powerful modes of resistance that oppressed and exploited folks can and do use.” - bell hooks

I want to talk about the concept and practice of *~manifesting~*. I initially viewed ‘manifesting’ with skepticism. I saw manifesing as a term often used to obfuscate privilege, creating an illusion that personal success is solely due to positive thinking, while rendering invisible the ways in which wealth, social capital, and the devalued/ exploited labour of BIPOC folks contributed to their achievements. I also viewed manifesting as a way to blame structural suffering on a “bad mindset”, and in many contexts, these terms are used as tools for oppression. However, my exposure to Black feminists and Afro-liberationist leaders, including Octavia E. Butler, adrienne maree brown, bell hooks, Prentis Hemphill, and Tricia Hersey have inspired me to see visioning, dreaming, and manifestation as powerful tools, not just for self-actualization, but for our collective liberation… hear me out!

Octavia E. Butler, a Black woman who in the '70s ventured into the predominantly white space of science fiction writing without any role models wrote in her journals, "So be it! See to it!" about all her hopes and dreams, and made them happen. Her mantra speaks to me about writing down visions and turning them into reality, an act of power and defiance. For those of us who exist on the margins, we often internalize the limitations and imaginations imposed by the dominant culture, but here was a Black woman who dared to dream boundlessly.

adrienne maree brown in her book Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds speaks about how reclaiming our imagination as oppressed peoples allows us to break free: “Imagination gives us borders, gives us superiority, gives us race as an indicator of ability. I often feel I am trapped inside someone else's capability, inside someone else's imagination, and I must engage my own imagination to break free.”

Prentis Hemphill highlights the healing power of imagination: "Trauma and ongoing oppression can render us hypervigilant, limiting our ability to dream and vision. Believing we can conjure new worlds is how we heal our relationship to imagination and creation."

Tricia Hersey, creator of “The Nap Ministry,” advocates for reclaiming our rest and dream space as our birthright and as a means to receive ancestral wisdom and guidance. She says, "I believe we can freedom dream, and we can imagine ourselves free. Imagination is our greatest tool because the world that we live in now was imagine and thought up by people. Some folks sat down, mostly white men, sat down and was like, “What we going do? What we going to make? How we going to create? And what could it look like? What would it be?” They sat down and invented and created this. And so we can imagine a new way. We can imagine a way, a new world, and a new opportunity for us to be rooted in that liberation. It is a political tool. It is a social justice tool.”

Ross Gay, in his beautiful essay on Mercy, wrote “The imagination, rather than being cultivated for connection or friendship or love, is employed simply for some crude version of survival. This corruption of the imagination afflicts all of us: we’re all violated by it.” Gay’s essay reminds us that reclaiming our sense of imagination is not just for those with lived experiences of oppression. The imagination and invention of white supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy, colonialism and capitalism cuts even the most privileged and powerful off from the fullness of their own humanity - it cuts them off from the relational parts of themselves that allow them to connect, and we are all so much smaller for it.

Reclaiming Our Dream Space

We've been conditioned to believe that dreaming is dangerous because it threatens the systems of dominance. But part of healing is reclaiming dreaming and visioning as our birthright. adrienne maree brown wrote, "What you pay attention to grows." What if we shifted our attention, and by extension, our actions, towards liberation, justice, peace, pleasure, and beauty? What might become of ourselves, of our world? Radical visioning draws us nearer to our highest potential both individually and collectively. We need to dream and imagine a radically different world – one that may not seem within our reach yet. This is not naive optimism but a politically necessary act. Dreaming and vision fuel our hope and guide our actions towards a livable, just, and sustainable future.

Therapy and the Power of Imagination

This brings me to the power of visioning in the context of therapy. In the therapy world, I sometimes encounter two extremes: traditional forms of western psychotherapy (and even some well-intentioned anti-oppressive proponents) in which imagination is stifled by an over-emphasis on deficit-focused narratives of dysfunction; and the aspects of the positive psychology movement, which often bypasses the complexities of power and oppression in favour of individualistic traits of “resilience.” The nuanced conceptualizations of imagination put forth by Black feminists, theorists, writers, and educators, transcend these binaries. They balance individual agency with systemic forces, personal responsibility with social and environmental justice, and couple the magic of dreaming with committed action. 

This is why I named my practice “New Suns,” inspired by Octavia E. Butler’s quote, “There is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.” Reading Butler inspired me to cultivate a therapy space where radical hope and boundless possibilities coexist with the stark realities of our times. A place where we do not need to deny the oppressive impacts of the status quo in order to envision radical possibilities for hope, transformation and healing.

Conclusion

All this to say, I've transformed from a skeptic into someone who embraces feeling, dreaming, playing, resting, visioning, and yes, manifesting. Setting wide intentions for my "one wild and precious life" (shout out Mary Oliver!) and our one wild and precious world is not just magical thinking; it's a radical act; it's a necessity.

I hope this post resonates with you, encourages you to embrace your dreams, and inspires you to experiment with manifestation and imagination. I wrote a guided practice for those interested in trying it out for themselves that you can read by clicking here.

Please feel free to share your experiences and thoughts, and if you're interested, explore more with New Suns Therapy. May we envision and create a world filled with hope and limitless possibilities.