Mar 21st 2009 Podcast
“The more you think about this law, the deeper you will see it goes. It literally hands you a blank check, signed by the Maker of Universal Law, and leaves you to fill in the amount—and the kind—of payment you want!” –Robert Collier
This morning I read a post on the Zen Habits blog (btw, a great blog) about the law of attraction: Why the Law of Attraction is Wrong, But Why It Still Works. The bottom line of the post is that the steps that the law of attraction spells out work but the law itself is wrong. If you state what you want, keep it in mind, and take action it works but, he says, the law of attraction is wrong. Well, OK.
But… those steps are the law of attraction plain and simple, no more, no less.
What the author is really taking issue with is all of the theory’s that have grown up around the law as to what is causing it to work – not the law. Confusion of the theory with the law. Let me say this: had confusion of the theory of electricity occurred with the electric light then maybe you would be sitting in the dark just as many who are trying to use the law of attraction may be. More on this later.
The big theory at the moment involves quantum physics and our thoughts actually affecting matter. And I say: “Interesting I like the idea of the theory, but who really knows?” Ultimately does it matter about a theory? The rules work, that is the law works so we use it.
Wallace Wattles in 1910 wrote The Science of Getting Rich. The book details the law of attraction, doesn’t even call it the law of attraction and yet every word tells you exactly what you should be doing to bring important changes to your life by attracting the things you want in.
How can you ever have something other than what everyone else has if you don’t know what it is? So you visualize it, you turn it round in your minds eye and begin to think about exactly how you want it. As you go through your day you allow the idea into mind to encourage you on but obviously you are working and you need your prime focus on the activities at hand.
These first steps will begin to activate subconscious thinking and according to Wattles and most LOA writers actually cause it’s formation (it doesn’t matter what you believe is causing the formation). The third part is the kicker. Ideas will begin to enter your consciousness about how to go about getting your thing — as you get them take action. That is what Wattles describes, those are the core ideas of the law of attraction, that is the law of attraction and every other writer has said so.
The problem is we fill up the pages with all sorts of reasons why things are the way they are to help others relate. It can distract from the main idea.
Here is the same thing again: a girl sees boy she likes and thinks about him. She has the vision and her mind begins to work, perhaps she gets ideas from friends on how to get him, maybe she reads a book, but her mind automatically starts gathering ideas…it’s how we humans work. She gets the idea that she should make her self as pretty as she can and begin to talk to him. So she primps, begins to smile at him, and says hi.
And there it is: vision, the action ideas come, action taken. If she doesn’t get that boy, another boy will find her because she is more attractive and it stemmed from the vision.
The law of attraction is basic, simple, we use it intuitively and yet we miss it for the big areas of our lives because so much crap gets in the way of our clear thinking and belief .
Break it down for yourself very simply and begin to believe. If a particular theory helps you believe then that theory is great, I consider theories more like analogy’s they help me understand but may or may not be the truth.
Merriam-Webster says that a theory is: a hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation b: an unproved assumption : conjecture c: a body of theorems presenting a concise systematic view of a subject.
So enjoy the discussion but don’t be put off anything by the theory behind it. Theories are just tools.
My background is in electronics. Electronics is built on theory and when I started learning – I had the worst trouble because all of the discussions of how circuits worked involved these long discussions of the theory behind it, very confusing. Later I learned to set the theory aside and just note what happens – do this and get this effect. When you apply voltage to a light bulb it comes on*. Do I really care about electrons (invisible particles that flow through solid matter) and the atomic theory of conductors and insulators? No, just give me cause and effect and maybe I’ll come back for the other stuff later. So it is with the law of attraction, just use it.
The steps that Wattles discussed, that Rhonda Byrne put into The Secret, that Ester Hicks channels with Abraham and reveals… All of these boil down to vision, idea formation, action. Just get it. Set the theory aside, set the part about getting a boost from the universe aside if you want … This stuff is part of you … it works … just get it, just use it.
————————————————————————————————————————————
*Even Thomas Edison had things wrong about the most basic laws of electricity, he said current flowed from the positive terminal of a battery and through the circuit to the negative terminal. Now, “We Know,” (wink, wink) that the invisible electron current flow really goes from the negative terminal to the positive. Even if this is true, does it really matter to most people? It didn’t matter to Edison and he was the most successful inventor of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Do you think Edison practiced the law of attraction? Just read Think And Grow Rich.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Great post Mike!! What I find fascinating about the LOA is that like gravity, it is a law that simply is there to use in the right way. When used correctly it will manifest exactly what you want! No doubt about it! I like what you said – just get it- just use it! Simple Science!