This episode interacts with the latest dispatch from The Embassy - here is an excerpt: View Sharon Melzer, 24, has long believed in manifestation, or the idea that she can bring her hopes and dreams to life by visualizing them. Coming Soon: Your Beautiful, Successful, Confident Life - Ayson Krueger - NYT - 7/26/25 Manifestation is one of the watchwords of our time. The idea is to take an idea, a preferred future, and manifest it, or put it into the universe in order to make it a reality. It is believing in a future that isn’t here yet - and the belief that belief itself is a big part of turning a desired idea into reality. There is a part of this I accept, but the part I believe probably doesn’t qualify as what people call manifesting an idea into reality. More on that in a bit, but first, let’s look at the latest turn in manifestation, involving, of course, artificial intelligence. Sharon Melzer’s AI generated videos are an example. Now, thanks to improved artificial intelligence technology, she can be — by putting herself, or an avatar that closely resembles her, in videos depicting her ideal future. These digital vision boards are a little like movie trailers showing coming attractions. In one, Ms. Melzer is flying on a private plane, giving a keynote address to a packed room and getting a notification on her computer that she reached 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. Coming Soon: Your Beautiful, Successful, Confident Life - Ayson Krueger - NYT - 7/26/25 She says that she watches these videos, and there are about 20 of them now, when she wakes up in the morning and before she goes to bed - instead of, in her description, scrolling through Tik Tok or Instagram. She watches herself achieving her dreams instead of other people (supposedly) achieving theirs. Not a bad thing, certainly, if that is the alternative. This idea of making the right moves so you can live your best life now and into the future is not foreign to the Christian space. It is Joel Osteen’s philosophy - living your best life now is thought a birthright, something the universe, or God, depending, gives us if we make the right moves or picture the right future or have the right kind of faith. It is a bit of the main character syndrome I talked about in my last dispatch - an invented life with an outcome within my control. Using A.I. for manifestation has taken off in the past year, said Catherine Goetze, the C.E.O. of CatGPT, an A.I. educational platform. … To Ms. Goetze …, the videos look real enough that she is compelled to remind users they are not “crystal balls,” she said. “The computer has been trained to reflect back at you what you tell it, so if it shows you as a billionaire, it doesn’t mean you are going to be a billionaire. It just means you told it you want to be a billionaire.” Coming Soon: Your Beautiful, Successful, Confident Life - Ayson Krueger - NYT - 7/26/25 Well, yes … right. Otherwise, there would be a lot of billionaires. I guess. I’m not a billionaire, maybe I just didn’t manifest hard enough. Or have enough of the right kind of faith. Or have the right software. But I don't think so. I don’t want to say a positive outlook on the future coupled with positive action toward that future isn’t important, even vital. But it seems like we are talking about something else here. For one thing, using Ms. Krueger as our example, she has 20 or so videos, depicting her in various aspects of a preferred future, but some of these may not go together. If there are 20 pictures, different pictures, of your future, it is quite likely that the over/under on how many of these happen is about one half. It is quite likely, in fact, that accomplishing one of these things precludes accomplishing others. If one of these things happens, it will very likely require hard work, disappointment, redirection … it will be a journey. That journey may include a positive outlook, maybe even manifestation, and it may end with the desired outcome, but it will likely be hard earned. And here is the first thing that strikes me as I ponder this trend of manifestation. The destination of the journey is important, it isn’t just any journey that will do - but, with these caveats in mind, it is the journey that is the point. Life is the journey, the outcome doesn’t produce life, whatever outcome there may be is the fruit of a life. Or, I should say it is one fruit of a life. It isn’t even the most important fruit. It is, as I spoke of Living a Discovered Life, part of life that is “under the sun”. It is fine, great even, but it can’t be the point. I have spoken with many people who have had a difficult journey, or who are in a difficult stretch in their journey. I’m sure you have too. That might describe you right now. One of the things that I have said to others and have reminded myself of during these times is God does not promise us relief from these difficult parts of the journey. In fact, it is through these difficult parts that most of the real fruit is produced. This is the fruit we are not manifesting, partly because we don’t have this fruit in mind, but mostly because we aren’t sure what it looks like - at least not from here. AI can’t help me make a video depicting a wiser future me. Or a more peaceful me, or more contented, kinder, more faithful, more humble, more joyful, or a more hopeful me. Or a more loving me. What would that even look like, exactly? As soon as I am the point of the manifestation, these things fade out of focus - they come indirectly, by God’s grace, on an outward focused journey. If God is gracious, and if I act in the faith He gives me, and if I imperfectly persevere through the difficult parts of the journey - a measure of these fruits find their way to me, even though that wasn’t the outcome I had in mind. Faithfulness in the journey is the point of a life that is more than good outcomes “under the sun”. … Read the whole thing here. The Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe
