A spiritual trend taking over TikTok has a disturbing past: 'Don't do it'

TikTokers are using Grabovoi codes, also known as “cheat codes” for the universe, to influence their health, wealth and love lives.

It’s no secret that manifestation, or the spiritual practice of bringing something tangible into your life through attraction and belief, is huge on TikTok right now. It is, in its most basic form, thinking about something really hard until it comes true (or doesn’t).

It might not magically work, but it certainly doesn’t hurt, and it orients your mind toward a goal that often benefits from that kind of focus anyway. For instance, if you try to manifest your soulmate, you might find your mind more open to the possibility of meeting new people, which could actually lead you to a lovely relationship.

Grabovoi codes work in a similar way. Instead of saying, “I am so happy and grateful for my soulmate,” one would say, write down or trace numbers in the air that correspond to new love, which then supposedly inputs a sort of “cheat code” into the universe to get what you want. Or so believers claim.

For example, according to TikTok user @spiritualtarotguide, the code “888 412 1289018” will bring you love. Other codes help with lucid dreaming, reality shifting, health and beauty. They shared multiple codes for manifesting “money.”

Some users say they really work.

User @anilasita said she was “cynical” before, but the code “524 741 8” brought her “unexpected money.”

“I was like, ‘I don’t think we’re on some Sims s***. I don’t think real life works that way’ … until I randomly decided to test it out myself,” she explained.

She wrote the number in the air and said it twice with a smile on her face, and later that day found a shopping cart she could use for free and got a random booking for her business.

“OK universe, I heard you,” she said.

Skeptics warned against welcoming unknown energy into your life.

“Don’t do it,” one said.

“You’re selling your soul,” another wrote.

There’s no evidence that using the codes makes any sort of deal with the devil or dark spiritual forces. They supposedly work on the alternative medicine principle of radionic signatures, which suggests that everything has a unique vibration ascribed to it. The “cheat codes” unlock that vibration for whatever you want — no soul-selling necessary.

There is controversy attached to Grabovoi codes, though it has nothing to do with their form or function. They were invented by mathematician Grigory Grabovoy, who was convicted of fraud in 2008 for promising the parents of children killed in a school shooting that he could resurrect their children.

Manifestation experts would describe any skepticism about the cheat codes as a “limiting belief,” but it’s important to remember that you should only dabble in mysticism in scenarios that are not harmful to yourself or others. If you find a wad of cash after drawing a Grabovoi code in the air, good for you — just don’t expect to pay your bills with cheat codes unless you’re playing The Sims.

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