| Tuesday, July 11, 2006 |  |
| The Law of Attraction |
 "Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Choose yourI was just watching The Secret, a 1.5 hour film about .... well, it isn't that it is that secret, or is it? The Law of Attraction. A bunch of inspiring motivational speakers and authors tell you, very well, and very convincingly, about what might be the biggest secret you need to know in your life. It costs a couple of dollars to see it online, but if, like me, you're on a Mac Intel that their video system can't handle, you can look around and find it on YouTube or in Wikipedia. Next to my bed is the book Ask and it is Given, which teaches exactly the same thing. And, well, there are lots and lots of books that do so. The Master Key System is a cheap e-book. There are lots, and there has been for a long time. In 1957, Earl Nightingale, the co-founder of the Nightingale-Conant Corporation, and a famous motivational speaker and author made a record called "The Greatest Secret". Same secret. And, yes, lots of folks would automatically be completely unwilling to accept such a far-out and naive new age idea. Doesn't matter. The proof is in the pudding. It is a concept that pretty much is self-proving. Except for the annoying aspect that if it doesn't work for you, it is for the same reason as why it works, and one is quite likely to reject it. The simple point is that you get what you focus on in life. You get the types of experiences that you consistently think about, that you feel you're likely to get, that you expect and that you believe in. You attract to you that which you're emanating. With what we've learned from quantum physics that doesn't have to be as outlandish an idea as you might think. Who is observing and how they're observing will influence what is observed. You can't say with certainty what is there without taking into consideration how it is observed and by who. Well, certainly at the quantum level, but, to the chagrin of some scientists, a lot of folks have found that to apply quite well to life in general. It is rather easy to understand, and in many ways easy to demonstrate. You go out into traffic and look for red cars, and you'll see a whole lot. Our senses are filters, as are our brains, so if you focus on a particular wavelength of stuff, it should be no great surprise that you'll get it. It should not be an extraordinary mental jump to the hypothesis that life works like that all the time. Whatever you focus on, you'll see more of it. Or more tangibly, you'll get more of it. Whatever you're thinking all the time, you'll be it. Whatever you're believing will tend to be validated. You think you have problems, and you're looking for problems - you'll have problems. It can be put very simply by calling it "attraction". You attract that which, uhm, you're attracting. I.e that which you're broadcasting strongly that you want. If you tell everybody you know that you're looking to adopt a kitten, you'll attract a kitten in no time. No surprise. If you didn't tell anybody, it would be harder. But even if you told just yourself, and you thought a lot about getting a kitten, you'd probably succeed. You'd probably succeed a little faster if you put a picture of a cute kitten on your refrigerator, and you looked at that every day. That would make you think about it, feel positive about it, look forward to it, look for it, and be ready for it. And if any kitten should be available in your environment, you'd be quite likely to run into it. The funny, or not so funny, thing is that it works just the same whether you think about the positive or negative version of it. I.e. whether you want it or "don't want it". It is a well-know fact for a hypnotist or an NLP practitioner that negatives don't matter at all in the mind. Whether you think "I don't want to burn myself" or you think "I want to burn myself", it has pretty much the same result. Both will be a message to yourself, to your nervous system, and to your general environment that you're looking to burn yourself. Psychology in general seems to be unfamiliar with that, as are usually public leaders. That's what gives rise to stupid campaigns like "Say NO to Drugs!". Or "Don't Smoke!", or "Don't have Sex!" or whatever it is. It is like when I tell you "Don't think about a pink elephant!". You can not even process what I'm saying without thinking about a pink elephant in some way. Whether there's a "no" or a "don't" in there or not, it is a suggestion to think about what I'm putting forward. And a hypnotist can tell you that it is probably more effective as a suggestion if it is camouflaged as a negative than if it is as a positive order. "You don't have to.. Get really relaxed!" works much better than "Get relaxed right now!" So, same thing with your own thoughts and feelings. Whether you're getting worked up about wanting something or about wanting it to go away, if you spend a lot of energy on creating it in your thoughts and feelings, you're just the same attracting the actual experience to you. That gives the rich-get-richer, poor-get-poorer effect. I.e. you automatically get more of what you already have. No sinister motives have to be assigned to anybody to explain that. If you make a lot of money, and you have proof of being good at it, and you spend a lot of thoughts on imagining how you'll do even better, and you look for it, and you expect it ... then you'll be very likely to succeed, and get more of it. If you spend your energy on lamenting what you don't have, and how hard and impossible it is, and you react negatively to the obstacles you find in your way, you're naturally attracting more of the same. The hard part here is of course how to change one's direction, if one doesn't like it. Mainly because of that feedback loop. You see what you don't like, you get irritated about it, think about it, curse it, complain about it. It is hard to suddenly spend one's creative powers on something entirely different. It is so much easier when one already is going in that direction. If one decides to give it a try, one might quite likely give up too easily. Lots of people believe in the power of positive thinking. So, maybe you'll start saying affirmations. You might tell yourself every morning that everything is perfect, and all that you need is coming to you. And, well, if you start believing it, and you act accordingly, you're probably good. That might do it. But if you don't really feel it, it doesn't matter what you say to yourself. The point is that you attract that which you believe, that which you sincerely feel, consistently. And if you start feeling something different, it might take weeks before you see any result of that. And in the meantime you might well have decided that it didn't work, and you go back to your old unsuccessful ways of trying to change your world. In order to change and to change your circumstances, you have to keep going in a new direction long enough for it to actually manifest. In my own experience, I've never found anything to contradict the law of attraction. I've worked as a counselor with hundreds of clients, and I've always found that they had a life that corresponded with their internal make-up. They had pretty much the successes and failures that they expected to have. They could do or not do pretty much what they believed they could. They might not be happy with what they got, but they generally had gotten exactly what they were asking for. And the only workable approach to personal change I've found would be to change your mind and start asking for something else, and believing you ought to have something else happening. Despite that, I must admit that I personally find it as hard as anybody else to change my direction in life if things aren't going my way. At least sometimes I do. When things are flowing in a good direction, it is easy to make more good things happen. But if proof is stacking up that you aren't doing well at it, it is a little too easy to believe it. Then it is nice to have some good meta-beliefs. Like, personally, I believe that things always work out. It is a little vague, and that doesn't tell me when or how, but I know that all problems eventually get sorted out. I mean, I've made it this far, so of course they do. And it is nice to be able to look back at past experiences where one has accomplished something against the odds, simply by keeping focused on it. The Law of Attraction is kind of annoying, unless one has mastered it. You get that which you put out. Pisses me off a bit. It would be so nice to blame somebody else if you don't succeed in something. Much harder to admit one just didn't agree with oneself well enough. But on the other hand, it could be the most positive and mind-blowing thing to know about life, in comparison with which all other details will pale. Wherever you currently are, you can do whatever you want, as long as you're clear about it and you focus on it. [ Inspiration | 2006-07-11 23:50 | 64 comments | PermaLink ] More > |