The key ideas

The Cosmic Ordering Service: A Guide to Realizing Your Dreams

Barbel Mohr, 1998

A self-described committed atheist gives friends photocopies of a text about “ordering” wishes from the universe, and it becomes an international bestseller. A light, humorous book about orders instead of pleas, parking spaces, and the courier’s call. With an honest examination of the author’s beliefs and psychology’s alternative explanations.

Who it is for

For anyone who has heard about “ordering from the universe” and wants to understand what the author proposes, where play and mindset fit, and where scientifically unsupported promises begin.

If, after reading this book, you decide cosmic ordering is complete nonsense but still place an order with the universe just to prove me wrong, you have already subscribed to the service, exactly as I once did.

What the book is about

Germany, 1995. Photo editor and graphic designer Barbel Mohr writes a short text about “ordering” wishes from the universe and gives photocopies to friends and acquaintances. Three years later, Omega in Aachen publishes it as a book. Publishers report translations into fourteen languages and a total print run exceeding one and a half million copies.

Something else is more intriguing. Mohr says she had previously been a committed atheist with a materialist worldview. How did such a person write a wish-fulfillment manual? Why did this light, almost playful little book spread so widely?

Its status first: this is a book of the author’s beliefs and personal experience rather than research. Mohr describes what she believes and what she says happened to her. Where psychology explains the same stories differently, we will say so separately.

Idea 1. The atheist who began “calling”

Mohr describes her former worldview as materialist and mechanistic. Then, she says, she discovered she could speak to an invisible force and receive answers.

Next comes the image that gave the book its title. She writes that you can literally “call” this force and place wishes like catalog delivery orders. The orders are then “delivered.”

Her presentation matters. It is the experience of an ordinary person who initially disbelieved, rather than a revelation to someone chosen. She invites skeptics to try instead of arguing. She calls her method cosmic ordering.

Mohr relies on personal experience: “try it yourself.” That is an honest invitation, but such a test mainly reveals what someone notices and remembers, saying little about how the world works.

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About the author

Barbel Mohr (1964–2010) was a German writer who previously worked as a photo editor, photojournalist, and graphic designer. The Cosmic Ordering Service was her first book, published in 1998. She later wrote around twenty books and gave seminars and lectures. She died in 2010 at forty-six after a serious illness.

All books by this author: Barbel Mohr

Terms from the book

  • Confirmation bias
  • positive thinking
  • Cosmic ordering: Barbel Mohr’s term and method: formulate a wish as an order to the universe, then let it go. An image from the book rather than a scientific concept.
  • Inner voice: In Mohr’s model, the channel through which she believes clues about “delivery” arrive. The author’s image, not a psychological term.
  • Small orders: Mohr’s advice to begin with everyday details to practice hearing the inner voice. Her technique rather than a tested method.

All terms

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