There is currently a profusion of self help books, videos, classes and gurus peddling the promise of unlimited wealth.

The quantum genie is out of the bottle and suddenly all the old snake oil salesmen are experts in physics, meditation, visualisation and manifestation.

Serious studies into the effects of intention, prayer and visualisation have been appropriated and exaggerated to the point where most folks probably feel that they are lacking some basic function of humanity if they haven’t already created a castle in the countryside from repeating a few simple mantras for a month.

It certainly helps manifest plenty of money for the writers of the many books on the subject…

Like the diet industry before it, the self help industry is now a bloated joke, with increasingly bizarre and left field gurus taking centre stage to promote their latest book, attempting the same sleight of hand that worked so well for the diet industry – overcomplicate a problem to make people feel that they need an expensive and increasingly elaborate solution.

Just as the solution to being overweight is not complicated (consume less calories than you burn up, through a combination of a balanced diet and exercise), the solution to the modern diseases of stress and anxiety is similarly simple – meditation, connecting to nature and doing things we enjoy with people we love.

None of these activities will sell many books, DVDs and talk shows, though. There is not a lot of kit needed to meditate (cushion, little bell or loose fitting pyjamas excepted), walking in the countryside (walking boots, walking trousers and poles aside) or spending quality time playing and talking with our loved ones.

Rather than be encouraged to enjoy these simple pleasures, we are bombarded with images of ‘perfect’ celebrities who have ‘made it’ and manifested unlimited wealth and power into their lives.

We are made to feel inadequate (just as women are for not being unhealthily skinny) because we are not fabulously wealthy.

But there is one question that we need to ask ourselves before we step on the self help conveyor belt to unlimited wealth and power being manifested in our lives: why?

Why do we want to be incredibly wealthy? It is possible, if you spend many years focussing purely on accumulating more and more money, that one day you may achieve your dream.

Of course, by then your children would have grown up, left home and married, your husband, wife or partner would be feeling pretty neglected, you will likely be a one dimensional machine of a person – but, hey, you could have wealth and power.

What will you do with all that money, when there is nothing of any real value left in your life to enjoy it with?

I am reminded of the story of the fisherman and the businessman.

My point here is not that accumulating wealth or power is necessarily wrong, but that it may not be for everyone.

Money is a currency, something which is exchanged for real things like goods and services. As an end in itself, it is not a very imaginative or necessarily rewarding goal.

When we consider our aspirations in life, merely accumulating wealth may not actually do us much good in the final analysis.

We should go that one step further: why do we aspire to be wealthy? What will I do with the money when I have it? Is it worth devoting 10, 15, 2o years of my life to, possibly at the immediate expense of my relationships with my family, friends and my soul?

It is the answer to the why question that will tell us what we really aspire to in our life – and it may just be that we find we have most of what we want already…