Future Self Call

The research

The science behind manifesting: why speaking from your future works

Researchers have studied the habits inside manifesting one by one. Several hold up well, and they fit together into two minutes a morning.

By Future Self Call · · 11 min read

An arched window floating through a starry sky toward a sunrise, a person standing inside it while loose pages drift past.

The short answer

Manifesting hasn't been studied as one single method, but most of the habits inside it have, and several hold up well. Feeling close to your future self, reflecting on your values, picturing the path and planning for the obstacle, gratitude, and talking to yourself as "you" all have peer-reviewed research behind them. Put in the right order, they make a two-minute morning practice with real reasons to work.

In 2024 Cambridge Dictionary picked "manifest" as its word of the year. People looked it up almost 130,000 times on the dictionary's site that year, and the new definition is a fair one: using methods like visualization and affirmation to imagine getting something you want, in the belief that it makes it more likely to happen.

That last part is what everyone wants to know. Does it make it more likely?

We want to answer carefully, because a lot of writing on this topic promises the moon. We won't tell you that thoughts send signals to the universe. What we can tell you is more useful. Most of the practices people bundle under "manifesting" have been studied on their own, by psychologists with no stake in the trend, and several of them hold up well. Done together and in the right order, they make a daily habit with real reasons to work.

Each section below ends with a short script you can say out loud tomorrow morning.

Your future self is closer than it feels

Hal Hershfield, a psychologist at UCLA, has spent years on an idea called future self-continuity: how connected you feel to the person you'll be later. For many of us that person feels oddly distant, almost like a stranger, and we tend to treat a stranger's needs as less urgent than our own.

In one well-known set of studies, Hershfield and colleagues showed people realistic, age-progressed images of their own faces. People who met their older selves this way chose to set aside more money for later in a hypothetical retirement task than people who saw their current faces (Hershfield et al., 2011).

It isn't only about money. In a 2018 study, students wrote a letter to themselves either three months or twenty years in the future. The ones who wrote to the distant self, and came away feeling closer to it, exercised more in the days that followed (Rutchick et al., 2018). Researchers have since built a whole family of these interventions, and a 2025 systematic review gathered 23 studies of them. Their effects on behavior ranged from small to large, and the authors call them a promising way to support change (Grekin et al., 2025). They also note that results are mixed and most participants were young adults, so we hold it with an open hand. The direction is still encouraging: the more vivid and familiar future you feels, the more you act on their behalf.

The newest version of this is a conversation. In a 2024 MIT Media Lab study, 344 people aged 18 to 30 chatted once with an AI version of their future self. After that single chat their anxiety went down and they felt more connected to who they're becoming (Pataranutaporn et al., 2024).

This is the part of manifesting that feels most like magic, and it turns out to be one of the most grounded. When you speak as the person who already lives the life, you make that person vivid.

Say it tomorrow"It's a year from now. I'm sitting in my kitchen and it's quiet. The thing I was worried about last October worked itself out, and here's what I did to get there..."

Affirmations that land are about who you are

"I am abundant" is what most people picture when they hear the word affirmation. The research version looks a little different, and it's worth knowing.

In psychology, self-affirmation means reflecting on the values that matter most to you, the things that make you you. Geoffrey Cohen and David Sherman reviewed years of these studies in the Annual Review of Psychology. Short, well-timed affirmation exercises helped people stay steady under pressure, with better results in school, health and relationships, and in some studies the benefits lasted months or longer (Cohen & Sherman, 2014).

A brain imaging study adds something nice for anyone who likes future-focused practice. People who reflected on their core values showed more activity in brain systems linked to self-related thinking and reward, and the effect was stronger when they thought about those values in the future (Cascio et al., 2016). The paper's title says it plainly: self-affirmation "is reinforced by future orientation."

So the affirmation with the most support behind it is a plain sentence about what you care about, said from the place where you're already living it. We go deeper on this in affirmations in your own voice.

Say it tomorrow"I'm someone who keeps my word to myself. Today that looks like the twenty minutes I promised to the thing that matters."

Picture the path, not only the finish line

Visualization is the heart of manifesting, and there's good research on it, with one detail that changes everything: what you do with the picture matters.

Gabriele Oettingen, a psychologist at NYU, developed a technique called mental contrasting. You imagine the future you want in rich detail. Then you name the one thing inside you most likely to get in the way, and you make a plan for it. A meta-analysis of 21 studies with 15,907 participants found that this combination helped people reach their goals. The effect was strongest when another person walked them through it, rather than reading the steps on a page (Wang et al., 2021). Oettingen's free version of the method is called WOOP: wish, outcome, obstacle, plan.

We love this finding, because it gives the dream a job. You let yourself picture the good future fully, then you use that picture to see the next real step.

Say it tomorrow"Here's what it feels like when it's done. Here's the moment, probably this afternoon, when I'll want to skip it. Here's what I'll do instead."

Give the vision an if-then

If there's one study every person who manifests should know, it's this one. Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran pooled 94 studies, with more than 8,000 participants, of what they call implementation intentions: plans written as "if this happens, then I'll do that." The effect on reaching goals was medium to large, d = 0.65 (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006).

The reason it works is simple. An if-then hands the decision to the moment ahead of time, so when the moment comes you aren't negotiating with yourself. It's a tiny piece of the future, placed in your day in advance.

Say it tomorrow"If it's 7:30 and I've poured my coffee, then I open the document and write one paragraph."

Gratitude, spoken from the future

Gratitude is part of most manifesting routines, and it has some of the friendliest research of all. In a classic 10-week study, people who wrote down a few things they were grateful for each week felt better about their lives as a whole, and more optimistic about the week ahead, than people who listed hassles or neutral events (Emmons & McCullough, 2003). A 2025 analysis of 145 studies from 28 countries found that gratitude practices reliably lift wellbeing (Choi et al., 2025).

There's a nice twist available here: future you can be grateful to you. Hearing "thank you for what you did this week" from the person you're becoming puts two supported things together, a grateful frame and a close, vivid future self.

Say it tomorrow"Thank you for showing up on Tuesday when you didn't feel like it. That's the day things started to move."

Why hearing "you" hits differently

Most of us talk to ourselves in the first person. Ethan Kross at the University of Michigan found that a small switch changes how that talk works. Across seven studies with 585 participants, people who coached themselves using their own name or "you," instead of "I," handled stressful tasks like public speaking better and saw them more as a challenge than a threat (Kross et al., 2014). A little distance gives you the voice of a calm friend.

That's exactly where future you speaks from. They call you by your name. They say "you did this," not "I hope."

The voice itself may matter too. A 2024 brain imaging study played 21 people short self-talk sentences, made either in their own voice or in someone else's. The brain responded to the two voices differently, and when the sentences were affirmations in their own voice, the results pointed to areas tied to self-reflection and memory (Jo et al., 2024). It was a small, early study of brain activity, so we treat it as a promising lead rather than a conclusion. It's a lovely one to follow.

Knowing it's a ritual doesn't break it

Some people worry that manifesting only helps if you believe in it completely, and that understanding the psychology will spoil it.

A surprising line of research speaks to this. In a Harvard trial, Ted Kaptchuk and colleagues gave patients pills and told them openly that they were placebos with no active ingredient. Those patients still reported more improvement over three weeks than a group that got no pills (Kaptchuk et al., 2010). A later study with healthy adults found the same kind of open ritual eased emotional distress, both in what people reported and in a brain measure (Guevarra et al., 2020).

We're not making any health claim here, and Future Self Call isn't a treatment for anything. The point is narrower, and we think freeing: a ritual you do on purpose, knowing exactly what it is, can still change how you feel.

You don't have to choose between understanding your morning practice and enjoying it.

Putting it together: a two-minute morning

Here's what all of this looks like as one short practice. Say it to yourself, record it, or write it down.

  1. Arrive in the future

    Speak as yourself a year from now, in a specific place. Add one or two concrete details: the room, the light, what is in your hand.

  2. Name a value

    Say one sentence about the kind of person you are being, for example "I'm someone who keeps my word to myself."

  3. Thank your present self

    From a year ahead, thank yourself for something small and real you did this week.

  4. Name today's obstacle

    Picture the moment today when you are most likely to slip, and name it out loud.

  5. Set one if-then

    Make a plan for that moment: "If it's 7:30 and I've poured my coffee, then I open the document and write one paragraph."

That's it. It takes about two minutes. Each step is something researchers have tested on its own, and none of it asks you to wait for the universe to deliver. It asks you to meet the person you're becoming, then take one step toward them before lunch. If you want a longer version with an example, our morning practice guide walks through each step.

What manifesting is, in our words

We use the word the way most people do in everyday life: deciding who you're becoming, speaking from there, and acting like it a little more each day. We don't promise that a practice will bring money, a partner or a diagnosis you want. We do believe a daily, honest conversation with your future self is one of the kindest, best-supported habits you can build.

The hardest part of this practice is doing it every day. That's why we built Future Self Call: each morning, a short phone call from future you, about a year ahead, optionally in your own voice. It remembers what you said yesterday, thanks you for something real, and says your sentence with you. The founding list is free.

Words we use

Manifesting
Using practices like visualization, affirmation and journaling to imagine having something you want, in the belief that it makes it more likely. Cambridge Dictionary's word of the year for 2024.
Future self-continuity
How connected you feel to the person you will be later. Researchers measure it, and many studies link a stronger connection to choices that favor the future.
Self-affirmation
In psychology, reflecting on your core values. It isn't the same as repeating "I am" slogans.
Mental contrasting (WOOP)
Picturing the outcome you want, then the obstacle inside you, then a plan. WOOP stands for wish, outcome, obstacle, plan.
Implementation intention
A plan written as "if this happens, then I will do that."

The numbers, with sources

Questions people ask

Does manifesting work, according to science?

Manifesting hasn't been studied as one method. The habits inside it have, and several hold up: feeling close to your future self, reflecting on values, mental contrasting with if-then plans, gratitude and distanced self-talk. Used together as a daily practice, they have real reasons to help.

Is manifesting the same as positive thinking?

Not quite. The versions with the most research behind them pair the good picture with something practical: a value, the obstacle you expect, and a plan for it. Picturing the path, not only the finish line, is the part that turns a feeling into a next step.

Do I have to believe in it for it to help?

No. Research on open-label rituals found that people still reported feeling better when they knew exactly what they were doing (Kaptchuk et al., 2010; Guevarra et al., 2020). You can understand your practice and still enjoy it.

How long should a manifesting practice take?

Two minutes is enough to start. The five steps in this article (future scene, value, thank you, obstacle, if-then) fit in a morning before your coffee is ready.

Can manifesting bring money or a specific person?

We don't promise outcomes, and no study we cite measured them. We use manifesting for what research supports: feeling close to the person you're becoming, and turning that into one step today.

Sources

  1. University of Cambridge (2024). "Manifest" is Cambridge Dictionary's Word of the Year. www.cam.ac.uk/news/manifest-is-cambridge-dictionary-word-of-the-year
  2. Hershfield, H. E., et al. (2011). Increasing saving behavior through age-progressed renderings of the future self. Journal of Marketing Research, 48(SPL), S23-S37. doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.48.SPL.S23
  3. Rutchick, A. M., Slepian, M. L., Reyes, M. O., Pleskus, L. N., & Hershfield, H. E. (2018). Future self-continuity is associated with improved health and increases exercise behavior. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 24(1), 72-80. doi.org/10.1037/xap0000153
  4. Grekin, E. R., Thomas, H. A., Souweidane, M. A., & Stidham, J. L. (2025). The effects of future self-continuity interventions on behavioral outcomes in adults: A systematic review. Personality Science, 6. doi.org/10.1177/27000710251391610
  5. Pataranutaporn, P., et al. (2024). Future You: A conversation with an AI-generated future self reduces anxiety, negative emotions, and increases future self-continuity. MIT Media Lab, arXiv:2405.12514. arxiv.org/abs/2405.12514
  6. Cohen, G. L., & Sherman, D. K. (2014). The psychology of change: Self-affirmation and social psychological intervention. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 333-371. doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115137
  7. Cascio, C. N., et al. (2016). Self-affirmation activates brain systems associated with self-related processing and reward and is reinforced by future orientation. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 11(4), 621-629. doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsv136
  8. Wang, G., Wang, Y., & Gai, X. (2021). A meta-analysis of the effects of mental contrasting with implementation intentions on goal attainment. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 565202. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.565202
  9. Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69-119. doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1
  10. Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-389. doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.2.377
  11. Choi, H., Cha, Y., McCullough, M. E., Coles, N. A., & Oishi, S. (2025). PNAS, 122(28). doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2425193122
  12. Kross, E., et al. (2014). Self-talk as a regulatory mechanism: How you do it matters. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(2), 304-324. doi.org/10.1037/a0035173
  13. Jo, H.-J., et al. (2024). Neural effects of one's own voice on self-talk for emotion regulation. Brain Sciences, 14(7), 637. doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14070637
  14. Kaptchuk, T. J., et al. (2010). Placebos without deception: A randomized controlled trial in irritable bowel syndrome. PLoS ONE, 5(12), e15591. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015591
  15. Guevarra, D. A., Moser, J. S., Wager, T. D., & Kross, E. (2020). Placebos without deception reduce self-report and neural measures of emotional distress. Nature Communications, 11. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17654-y

Future Self Call is a daily wellbeing practice, not therapy or medical care. The studies above looked at the practices it's built on, not at Future Self Call itself. Results vary from person to person.