The Law of Attraction

Most people are familiar with the Book and Movie called The Secret, which presents the concept of the Law of Attraction in a highly styled and compelling manner, like a real life Da Vinci Code thriller. If anyone is unfamiliar with it, here is a video link, so take 20 minutes or so to watch and then come on back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b1GKGWJbE8

The Law of Attraction is real, there is no doubt. However, I believe it is being presented to the public in a naive, simplistic, and dangerous manner by the creators of The Secret. For one thing, the makers of The Secret present the "universe" as a mindless genie that must obey your every thought and whim, both positive and negative. This means that if you are rich, you deserve it because of your amazing ability to manifest material benefits, and if you are poor and destitute you brought this on yourself through negative thinking. While there is truth here, it is shrouded in faulty logic. This explanation of The Law of Attraction also provides a wonderful justification for the hoarding of wealth by the rich, and the injustice of poverty. It is an error, and a dangerous one that can lead to people feeling guilty because of their negative thoughts, and overly proud because of their success. It has the potential to rob people of their mental freedom and health, as well as their money of they purchase the self-help products they make available.

In a sense, the creators of The Secret want you to believe that each person creates their own reality. This is illogical for many reasons. For one thing, if you want to call something a Law, then there must be a Law Giver and an Enforcer of the Law. Now, this is not necessary with Laws of Physics per se, because they are observations of the physical universe, like gravity etc, and could exist independent of a Law Giver. But, the Law of Attraction assumes an intelligent universe of consciousness and thought, therefore it is different. And if the Law of Attraction presupposes a Universal Intelligence, then we cannot be the creator of our reality, the Intelligence is, since we need to use its Law to manifest. We can perhaps participate, we can vibrate in tune with the Intelligence of the Universe, but we can never be the creator of our own reality, the Law Giver is,since it created the law.

Lets look at it another way. Lets say we really can create our own reality using the Law of Attraction, that the Universe MUST obey our thoughts, emotions, and powers of visualization, and manifest our deepest desires. Then, we must admit one of two things: First, if humans really can create their own reality, then one could imagine a person manifesting a reality where he or she desired the Law of Attraction out of existence completely. This is absurd, but the makers of The Secret want you to know you can manifest ANYTHING you want, good or ill, and it will come to you, including potentially wishing away the very Law we need to manifest! How could we manifest with a Law we can potentially manifest out of the Universe? Unless we are the Law Givers, the Intelligence behind the Universe; in short, each of us are GOD. This appears to be what the creators of The Secret are saying; that humans are godlike beings who can create through thought anything they desire, good or bad. (Sounds a lot like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). We know that is not true, because The Secret tells us we need to use the Law of Attraction to manifest, so we are dependent on the law. Only the Law Giver can be God in this sense, because he is the source of the very thing we need to use to manifest our desires. Second, if there is a God, and God created the Law of Attraction to answer our every whim, or to respond to negative thoughts, then we must question divine intentions. After all, there is so much suffering in the world, so much pain and death, so much injustice by the rich and powerful against the poor that a truly intelligent and compassionate Law Giver would not allow the law to activate in this way. If true, then the people of Hati brought the earhtquake upon themselves through negative thought. That is absurd and a blame the victim mentality, besides, they could not ALL have been thinking negatively. If the law existed in this sense, we would have to conclude that the Intelligence behind the Universe is competitive, disinterested, detached, perhaps evil, and truly takes sides with the wealthy and powerful agaainst the poor and destitute. Yet how can this be?

It cannot. As I stated before, the Law of Attraction exists but at the command and whim of a loving Law Giver who ensures that it works for our ultimate good. God is in control, not us. When Jesus was in the desert, he was tempted by the devil to turn stones into bread. He refused, because he knew that the Law of Attraction can not be used in a selfish and materialistic manner,and even if it could, it would destroy the body, mind, and soul of the person using it in this manner. Jesus said many times that his Father knows what we need, and will give it to us of we ask in the right manner, and for the right reasons. We cannot call down woe by negative thoughts, or abundance by positive thoughts ALONE. God ensures that we learn the lessons we need to learn, and protects us from the effects of our wrong thinking.

Henry Thomas Hamblin presents an excellent and balanced view of the Law of Attraction from His Book Dynamic Thought. I offer an excerpt below:

PART VIII
THERE has been a lot of nonsense written and spoken about the Law of Attraction. People have been solemnly taught that all they need to do is to adopt a certain mental attitude, think thoughts of success and abundance, and then to sit and wait for abundance of all good things to drop from the skies at their feet. The folly of it is seen when we find that these teachers of "abundance" and "opulence" have themselves to work for a living, by teaching the very thing which, if true, would save them from all necessity of working.

Supposing it were true, then what is possible for one would be possible for all, and if all adopted this method of getting a living then who would till the soil or make our clothes? Would everything we need. come from the skies?

Even if these were true and man could draw all that he needed by the power of thought from the blue vault of heaven, then no one would have anything to do, life would become stagnant, and the race would perish from inaction.

Life is action, and if a man ceases to work he at once begins to disintegrate and soon requires six feet of earth wherein to cover his bones. When business men retire they quickly die, and those who, being born with riches have no necessity to work for a living, have to find work and interest of some sort in order to prevent themselves from mental and physical decay.

There is no such thing as getting something for nothing. The principle of the "square deal" runs right through life and the Universe. A business man who tries to get something for nothing, who, in other words, fails to give value for money, finally finds himself without a customer. Those who try to evade this law by creating trusts and combines will find that their ill gotten gains will be confiscated by a power greater than themselves. The "square deal," reasonable profits, fair wages, honest straight-forward business integrity, all these will succeed and continue to succeed, as long as there remain people to do business with; but the "ring" or "combine" or "trust," squeezing its swollen, dishonest profits out of the life and blood of the common people, can only do business so long as the community allows them to. All who read history know what has been the fate of tyrants in the past, and there is no reason for believing that the profiteers and extortioners of the present day will fare any better.

Even if, however, a man can filch a fortune by unfair means, i.e., by not giving good value for money, by extortion or profiteering, he will lose in one direction exactly in proportion to that which he gains in another. Let him make a fortune by sharp practice; let him snap his fingers and sneer at integrity and honor and universal law; let him rejoice at what he has done; let him think himself a fine, clever fellow; nevertheless nemesis awaits him. He will lose in love, peace of mind, happiness and health in exact proportion to his dishonest gain. He makes money, granted, but he loses that which money cannot buy. The writer has known men to be happy until they became wealthy, then they became of all men the most miserable. He has known to be healthy while they were comparatively poor, and full of sickness and trouble when they became passing rich. There is a Law of Compensation running through life and the Universe and you cannot avoid it. If you are to succeed you must work and accomplish; if you are to receive the riches of the world you must give of your best in exchange.

"Then give to the world the best you have, And the best will come back to you."

This is where the Law of Attraction operates, not by your sitting still and expecting the impossible to happen, but by the giving in faith and confidence of your best efforts to the World. By calling upon your hidden powers, and by creating powerful thoughts, you attract to yourself armies of thoughts of a similar kind, which passing into your subconscious mind are translated into actions of the highest type, the type that glories in achievement, and that wins Success. Thus if you give your best to the world, then in the form of a rich and abundant success "the best will come back to you."

These people who expect to be successful without working for it, take, many of them, great comfort from John Burrough's famous poem, the first verse of which is as follows:


"Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind, or tide, or sea;
I rave no more ’gainst Time or Fate,
For lo! my own shall come to me."

Never was a sublime truth more perfectly expressed, but its meaning is the exact opposite to that which the "no work" people attach to it. It does not mean that we can literally sit and "think," without effort, good things into our lap. Instead, it describes the mental attitude of the man of faith--the man who believes he can succeed. Having adjusted his mind to the correct attitude, he is serene and calm, knowing that his efforts in the objective world of effort will be successful, owing to his mental world being in tune with all the higher cosmic forces. These words therefore represent the mental attitude of a well poised, confident man, and have no connection with his physical life. Such a man owing to his mind being at peace, is always capable of the best and highest effort. It is those whose minds are at rest who work the best. Therefore those who think that they can become successful without translating their thoughts into actions, are deluding themselves.