The universe kinda becomes like a god. All that energy and vibe stuff is like a way of praying. It’s all about faith, not really backed by evidence.
It’s like how I see thunder, so there must be a god of thunder. In this case, seeing vibration and energy (like in String Theory, which still hasn’t been proven) makes me think there’s gotta be some deeper meaning and that it can make my wishes come true.
And of course, there are people out there selling books, spreading fake news, and posing as manifesting professors just to cash in on others’ ignorance.
But hey, for a lot of people, it’s just a way to find hope and relax a bit through positive thinking, focusing on their goals and planning things out. So I’m not trying to bash “believers”, just sharing a shower thought.
The woo-ey aspects are actually pretty interesting. Since the mechanism relies on focusing your subconscious, belief is crucial. If you don’t believe in your goal, and the efficacy of the method, your subconscious won’t buy-in, and without subconscious buy-in it flat out doesn’t work. Subconscious buy-in is the mechanism. You can’t try to consciously trick the subconscious, it’s in there with the one trying to trick it. You have to really believe.
A lot of people can’t believe that it’s internal. They don’t think that ability could possibly be in them anywhere, so in order to cultivate the requisite belief they have to attribute the mechanism to some kind of external woo. So even if the woo isn’t real, belief in the woo can be integral to the mechanism working.