587 The Law of Attraction
Two instances lately got me writing
about the “Law of Attraction” (LoA), a blog I came across that extols the
perceived positive impact the LoA had; and a friend making that ubiquitous
comment, “you’ve gotta think positively … it may just work out" (doh! ... of course it
may, for Chrissake; then again, it may not). Believers credit The Law of
Attraction with all sorts of good fortunes. Its definition goes something like
this:
“Your thoughts create your
reality. You attract whatever you think about, positive or negative, and
manifest it into reality. You create your own reality.”
Which of course is
great, just think: You receive an envelope in the mail. If you think a bill
will be inside, then a bill will be inside; but if you think a check will be
inside, then you will open the envelope and find a check. Here is a quote from
the book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (yes, I have read it ... from the painful
beginning all the way through to the painful end):
(David Schirmer:) “When I
first understood The Secret, every day I would get a bunch of bills in the
mail. I thought, how do I turn this around? The LoA states what you
focus on you’ll get. So I thought, what if I just visualize checks coming in
the mail?”
Well ... he did and they came,
“It’s amazing, today I just get checks in
the mail!”
(Tell me, Rhonda, for how long, how
often, how sincerely do I have to visualize winning the Lotto? One month? One
week? Every day? With all my brain-power?)
For my thinking the LoA is an awful
cliché, a profound misunderstanding of the processes that create fortune and
make man great. There is a book Bright-Sided, about how the relentless
promotion of positive thinking has undermined America, where middle America
(and dare I say middle Australia) is littered with the carcasses of people
being crushed by un-fulfilled dreams, as they believe in the meaningless
mantras prescribed by the Law of Attraction (and The Secret) (and Bob
Proctor).
I'll get to Bob Proctor in a minute, but before I do, I want to get to the bottom of the enigma of the Law of Attraction, the Secret and the perceived power of wish-thinking. What is it about the concept that so unhinges people, leads them to throw logic to the wind and fall for such obvious charlatanry and humbug?
(As I write my blog 590 ... a thought comes to mind: Considering the LoA:
“Your thoughts create your reality. You attract whatever you think about ... and manifest it into reality. You create your own reality”
... what are the refugees of the world doing wrong, that they cannot - for the life of them - attract the better existence they so crave and so vividly imagine?) Anyway ...
Obviously there are ideas that are compelling, but the universal truth:
Any one of man's
achievements is preceded by a thought, is bastardized, where the LoA now claims: Any thought of man can
manifest any desired achievement. The original principle has been hijacked,
turned into clichés that are rolled out aplenty; mis-quotes abound and are
taken out of context ad nauseam.
Just think about this nonsense: “Your thoughts create your reality. You attract whatever you think about, positive or negative, and manifest it into reality. You create your own reality.” As if! I mean, if you just think you'll be living in a harbour-side mansion, your thoughts will create that reality for yourself?! What devilish deception. Frankly, what treacherous a delusion. This cliché is unsurpassed, right up there with "you are what you eat"; I'm a vegetarian ... I am broccoli, peas and beans?
I shudder at the thought what Ralph Waldo Emerson, who nevertheless believed in the infinitude of man, would think of his ideas being mis-used for the Law of Attraction; how on Earth can he or a man like Albert Einstein - with his well known quote "imagination is everything; it is the preview of life's coming attractions" - been drawn upon to instil in people the notion that if they just imagine riches (or anything) ... they will come to them. It beggars belief.
Furthermore, when that process is
used in the context of health, this idea is very scary, indeed outright
dangerous. It is a belief among many New Age thinkers that affirmations
can heal; however, if one’s belief in the power of the mind prevents one from
taking their medication … the outcome can be dire.
OK, but now let's check the science behind the LoA ... let me quote from an article in The Guardian: The Secret Law of Attraction Doesn't Work: Here's Proof ...
People who are into
The Secret believe that the laws of quantum physics prove that like
attracts like; in other words: if you think about something in a positive way
often enough and properly, that thing will magically manifest in your life
because “the universe” will provide it to you.
(By Rebecca Savastio:) "According to
neuroscientist Russell Poldrack, energy fields that are emitted from our brains
are much too small to directly impact anything material or cause items, money,
situations or other material things to manifest magically:
"... these
fields are minuscule … Plus, remember the inverse square law: the intensity of
an energy wave radiating from a source is inversely proportional to the square
of the distance from that source … The brain’s magnetic field of 10–15 teslas
quickly dissipates from the skull and is promptly swamped by other
magneticsources, not to mention the earth’s magnetic field of 10–5 teslas,
which overpowers it by 10 orders of magnitude!"
"So, it is clear
that when actual scientists get involved in the discussion, Byrne’s ideas carry
no weight at all; but it’s not just scientists who state that The Secret
Law of Attraction doesn’t work; studies have shown that positive thinking can
actually be detrimental to achieving goals. A study out of Germany proved that
people who concentrated on positive thoughts about getting a job not only failed
to manifest that job, but actually ended up making lower salaries than those
who did not purposely think positively. Fantasizing led to less action and
thus, fewer positive outcomes overall.
"The German study
supports previous research out of London which showed that students who thought
positively about their week got less accomplished during that week than the
control group. It’s as if spending time thinking and fantasizing about positive
things prohibits action which might otherwise have been taken during that time.
This wasted time could have potentially actually led to a positive outcome had
the person not simply thought about the outcome.
"Despite plenty of
anecdotal evidence of The Secret Law of Attraction working, no real
science is available to support it, and plenty of anecdotal evidence of it not
working also exists. The anecdotal evidence that supports the Law of Attraction
is no more than the result of a placebo effect combined with confirmation bias.
"So what’s wrong
with the placebo effect if it helps some people? The problem is, for the many
more people it doesn’t help, a much worse, more depressed, more
vulnerable psychological state is often realized. This can lead to worse
outcomes in the short term and a poor quality of life overall.
"One of the most devious
aspects of The Secret is that if someone fails to get what they want, The
Secret dictates it is the person’s own fault. The Secret also blames
cancer patients for manifesting negative energy and therefore causing their own
cancer. It is this kind of victim-blaming mentality that makes this way of thinking so dangerous."
In a similar vein, here's a piece of
information I picked up for my essay on BELIEF:
“It
is known that among patients recovering from injury or illness, those who pray
for relief often experience slower recovery rates - most likely due to them being inclined to neglecting their medication, as they anticipate divine help." (Tom Knox, Mail Online, 18 Feb 2011)
I mentioned Bob Proctor. Thirty years ago I met him (virtually) via a video course that came with a book: You Were Born Rich, now you can discover and develop those riches. (Simply: the Born Rich course). The idea appealed to me: and I paid my hundreds of bucks. After the weekend I was all fired up: Bob told us all we have to do is imagine and think about intensely what we want in life, then we'll manifest it (mind you, there was no 'money back guarantee'; I would've applied for it.)
Later on I wrote this essay SECRET for my book with no title, instead three definitions for the term en.light.en.ment
Now, the thing is, there is of course a lot of anecdotal 'evidence' that the LoA works; many people will tell you. But let me shine a somewhat sobering light on the issue:
Imagine a man has a sick child. He is very religious and he most intensely, sincerely prays for his child to get better. Soon the child is cured ... what do you think the man will do? Will he thank the doctors and the medicines? Quite likely he will look to the heavens, clasp his hands and say, "Thank you, God."
Then move on to this hypothetical: You believe in the powers of the Law of Attraction. Your business is not doing too well. You apply The Secret, you do all the affirmations and positive thinking you can muster ...
... scenario one: You either do nothing else or you may work incessantly, but regardless of what you do, your business just does not improve. In this case no thought is given to the LoA ... it just does not come into play; you are not very likely to say, "hmmm, this Law of Attraction thing really does not work very well". Instead you simply resign yourself to the fact that you have screwed up somewhere.
... but here's scenario two: Not only do you apply the LoA, but on top of that you work your butt off ... you make all those phone calls, implement all that marketing, staff training and improvements to your business plan. Your business picks up no end. What do you put it down to? (Well, that depends entirely on how gullible you are!)
Here's another example about the issue of gullibility: Say you're a believer and the LoA is your thing; and you also play Lotto. Each week a million people buy a Lotto ticket and - say - they all believe in the LoA. On Saturday one person wins a million dollars. That person is likely - are they not?! - to jump up and down and tell everyone who will listen: See, the LoA works, told you so! I just wonder ... one person won, the LoA worked a million bucks worth; for 999,999 it didn't work. But who's gullible here?
You know what is in play when we think the Law of Attraction has delivered? Psychologists call it the optimism bias. We naturally want our life to be positive ... so we think positively; and it is only a small step to believe that our positive thinking has been a factor in our positive experiences. We believe what we want to believe ... it's that simple.
Trust me, if you're ever happy and successful, it is in spite of the Law of Attraction,
not because of it ... i.e. it's quite likely the LoA will ultimately make you miserable (because you will not ever get that Ferrari you visualise owning, due to the LoA ... however, you may get it one fine day if you work hard and save your money.)
Here is another thought (you're still here? Or am I losing you?):
You may say, "but thinking positive must be a good thing!" Well, thinking positive certainly is better than thinking negative. But here is the rub: There is something much, much - in fact, infinitely - better than thinking positively: Thinking realistically.
And that is the lesson to be learnt here: Thinking negative is no good, thinking positive can also get you into a lot of strife, but if you learn to think realistically, if you apply yourself and (as the vernacular goes) you Get Real, you're ahead of the pack. Now things will start working out for you. You have cracked The Secret, so to speak.
(Incidentally, the issue of having a positive attitude is a different story altogether.)
A wise man said two thousand five hundred years ago, "there's only one problem in the world, people don't recognise reality ..." (Confucius). Think about it. Think about it some more. Even more. See?! Furthermore, this is one definition of enlightenment: The state of having insight into the true nature of things; to see things realistically.
Oh, last but not least: Yes. The Law of Attraction indeed does work. For some.
Rhonda Byrne, Bob Proctor et al ... they're all millionaires.
If you require more reading, go here, here, here, here, here and here.