The Law of Attraction
The subject of the law of attraction has been done to death over the past 15 years. So much has been written and said, so much has been claimed, and yet there is still considerable confusion about whether this stuff really works or not.
The basis of the law of attraction is that “like attracts like”
This is expanded in “The Secret” and it is stated with certainty that:
# Your thoughts are magnetic and thus have power to attract situations, people and events into your life.
# Positive thoughts attract wealth, health, and love.
# You have caused all the joy, happiness and fulfillment in your life by your positive thoughts.
# Negative thoughts attract poverty, sickness, and loneliness.
# You have caused all sickness, misery and unhappiness in your life by your negative thoughts.
# How you think creates your reality.
# You are 100% responsible for your life.
The cosmic vending machine
The way this is usually sold is that if you think enough of the right thoughts, with sufficient intensity, you can manifest whatever it is that you want and the “Universe” will deliver it into your life.
In this model the “Universe” is seen as a cosmic vending machine.
Many of us have at some or other stage in our lives [often at times of desperation] bought into this and given it a go.
Does it work?
Sometimes it works and more often it doesn’t.
When it doesn’t, we tend to react in one of two ways, we either throw our copy of “The Secret” in the trash, grind our teeth and soldier on in varying degrees of solitary desperation or, we decide that we are missing something and buy another book or take another course.
Please don’t think I am sneering or disparaging these behaviours. I have done both! I have experienced amazing success and positive outcomes in my attempts to manifest things and abject, soul-destroying failure.
On the plus side, I have experienced financial success, amazing relationships, health and healing and on the negative side I have experienced soul-crushing set backs and seemingly irresolvable long-term defeats.
Here is a summary evaluation of the law of attraction:
TRUTH OR LIE?
# The law of attraction is a lie because it is a partial truth masquerading as an absolute truth.
CAUSATION & CORRELATION
# There is no scientific evidence to support the claim made by teachers of the law of attraction that there is a direct causal link between your thoughts and the circumstances and events you create.
# There are a number of factors that can establish a correlation between how your thoughts determine your responses and the outcomes you experience.
EVIDENCE BASIS
# The law of attraction is a belief presented as a fact, and in the absence of any scientific basis for this belief it is not a fact and it is therefore false.
DOMAINS OF INFLUENCE
# There is a provable causal connection in the inner domain of your influence “here”, in the everyday material world, that how you respond to an event affects your experience of that event and the outcome that follows from that.
# We have no way of saying with certainty that intentions placed in the outer domain – “out there” in the realms of possibility – have correlation with or causation of the outcomes.
RESONANCE
# In the inner domain of reaction/response and outcome, there is no scientific evidence that thoughts have resonance. The scientific claims, made by teachers of the law of attraction, on the magnetic resonance of thoughts are based on pseudo-science and as such are meaningless. What happens is based on cause and effect not resonance.
# In the outer domain, from a scientific perspective there is no evidence that our thoughts have any effect on “stuff out there” or that “stuff out there” responds to our thoughts.
DOING vs BEING
# The idea of just “putting it out there” and waiting for the cosmic vending machine to deliver your manifestation is non-sense.
# There is no such thing as effortless success. This is a verifiable based on the empirical evidence of the lives of many successful people – including many of the teachers of law of attraction.
# The focus of doing is to: [1] set the “direction of travel” – have a vision and a goal; and [2] to develop a range of “how to” skills – needed to make the journey a success, specifically to recognise and act on opportunities as they emerge, and to cope with the disappointments and setbacks along the way.
# It is these skills that build the correlation between your responses and your outcomes.
# Balance activity with non-activity – “doing without doing” – proceed on a “do-be-do-be-do” basis.
# Take direct action by acting on inner prompts and intuitions as they arise.
THE CONFLICTED MIND
# One of many reasons why the law of attraction doesn’t work and thoughts don’t create things is because the different levels of your mind are in conflict and working against each other.
# The “monkey mind” that has not been trained to stop thinking is full of so much “junk thought”.
# The key to developing a good working relationship with your mind is to have tools, techniques and resources that work with all levels of your mind.
# The objective is to have them all working together, moving you in the same direction, and at the same time!
WANT TO KNOW THE REAL SECRET?
The outcomes that you experience are determined by your responses to the events in your life.
This can be expressed as: Outcome = Event x Response
The strength and quality of your response is determined by the skills and the experience you bring to it.
The stronger your response – the better the outcome.
Your thoughts, feelings and reactions are within your command and your control, and will determine your responses to the events you experience.
You are 100% responsible for your responses to the events in your life and this in turn will shape, influence and create the outcomes that you seek and that are aligned with your life purpose and vision.
I call this: “The Law Of Response And Outcome”