Magness has a tendency to generalize too far from very limited evidence.

If wishing/manifestation always worked like Aladdin’s Lamp, of course we would see everyone re-making the world into their own versions of the Arabian Nights.

Conversely, if mainstream scholars were honest about paranormal topics, Steve Magness would not have a “performance coaching” racket where he can spout pseudo-materialist claptrap. (Conveniently, Magness does not name any names, he just implies that “some in the self-help world” are wrong and he is right.) Without getting too close to “Project Stargate” territory, and demanding biological and medical evidence of extreme athletic performance, we can still build a scholarly case that “manifestation” does work for athletic performance. But Magness has a master’s degree, a very selective grasp of the relevant literature, and a high degree of motivation to position himself as an expert so he can transition from athlete to coach.

He cited Effects of deception on exercise performance: implications for determinants of fatigue in humans, which was a study with a sample size of 9, so I don’t think Jessica Utts has to worry about getting overshadowed quite yet.