The phrase Law of Attraction, altough used widely by esoteric writers, does not have an agreed-upon definition. However, the general concensus among New Age thinkers is that the Law of Attraction takes the principal "Like Attracts Like" and applies it to conscious desire. That is, a person's thoughts (conscious and unconscious), emotions, and beliefs cause a change in the physical world that attracts positive or negative experiences that correspond to the aforementioned thoughts, with or without the person taking action to attain such experiences. This process has been described as "harmonious vibrations of the law of attraction", or "you get what you think about; your thoughts determine your experience."
The phrase is closely associated with New Thought beliefs and practices, from which its most common definition arises, but it also has a long standing (and more complex development) in other esoteric fields such as Hermeticism and Theosophy. Recently, the New Thought version was popularized by the 2006 film The Secret.
The more materialistic interpretations of The Law of Attraction have been criticized in the media, the scientific community—which cites what they believe to be the deliberate misuse of the scientific term law and the lack of any scientific evidence for the claims made by advocates for the Law of Attraction—and by some proponents of the New Age Movement and spirituality in general.
History
The quality of this article or section may be compromised by "peacock terms".
You can help Wikipedia by removing peacock terms.
The idea behind the Law of Attraction is not new. The concept can be found in Hinduism and, due to the influence of Hinduism on Theosophy, it is mentioned in early Theosophical texts as well.
An influential modern book on the subject in the English language is As a Man Thinketh by James Allen (1864 - 1912), which was published in 1902. The title derives from the ancient Jewish Book of Proverbs, chapter 23, verse 7: "As [a man] thinketh in his heart, so he is." Allen took this ambiguous idea of a correspondence between "a man's heart" and his existence to a logical extreme, stating that, "The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reaches the height of its cherished aspirations. It falls to the level of its unchastened desires -- and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own."
Although As a Man Thinketh does not contain the term "Law of Attraction" in so many words, it explains the principle clearly and its popularity demonstrably gave rise to a century of writings on the subject. It has remained in print in book form for more than 100 years. Variant editions of As a Man Thinketh in print during the 21st century include those published by Dover Books. Barnes and Noble, Filiquarian, and Tarcher; there are also audiobook and ebook editions; and at least three gender-switching spin-offs, each titled As a Woman Thinketh, which are by Gwendolyn Haynes (Million Words Publishing, 1997), Dorothy J. Hulst, (Lushena Books, 2000), and Cindy Cashman (Action Publishing, 2007), respectively.
In
In the wake of Atkinson's success, other "New Thought" authors very quickly wrote their own books promulgating the principle. For example, in 1907, just one year after Atkinson's breakthrough was published, Elizabeth Towne, the editor of The Nautilus Magazine, a Journal of New Thought, published Bruce MacLelland's book Prosperity Through Thought Force, in which he declared that "dwelling on any quality of mind adds that quality to you, whether it be helpful or injurious," and also clearly set forth what was to become a classic New Thought epigram: "You are what you think, not what you think you are." Around this time, the term "Law of Attraction" also appeared in the writings of the Theosophical authors William Quan Judge, in 1915, and Annie Besant, in 1919.
By the mid 20th century, writings on the subject had become common and dozens of authors had addressed the topic under various names, such as positive thinking, "mental science", "pragmatic Christianity," "New Thought", "practical metaphysics", Science of Mind", and "Religious Science".Among the mid 20th century authors who used the term were Sri K. Parvathi Kumar (1942)[18] and Alice Bailey (1942).
In 2006, a film titled The Secret presented the "Law of Attraction" to a new generation and was soon after developed into a book by the same name. The movie and book sold at a tremendous pace and gained widespread attention across the media from Saturday Night Live to The Oprah Winfrey Show in the
Randi rejected the McCains' belief and instead said their recent career good fortune was nothing more than "being in the right place at the right time."
Principles
Many people who accept the Law of Attraction as a guide for right living do so on the basis of their faith in the Universe and The Universe's 'Laws'; thus, to them, the nature of the 'Law' is not one to be settled scientifically, and the word 'Law' carries the same belief-based weight as non-scientific 'Laws' from other religions, such as the 'Law of Karma' and the Ten Commandments. This is especially true among those who are adherents of various New Thought. One common way that New Thought adherents utilize the Law of
Attraction is through the practice of positive affirmations.
Some proponents of a more modern version of the Law of Attraction claim that it has roots in Quantum Physics. According to them, thoughts have an energy that attracts like energy. In order to control this energy, proponents state that people must practice four things.
* Know what one desires and ask the universe for it. (The "universe" is mentioned broadly, stating that it can be anything the individual envisions it to be, from God to an unknown source of energy.)
* Focus one's thought upon the thing desired with great feeling such as enthusiasm or gratitude.
* Feel and behave as if the object of one's desire is already acquired.
* Be open to receiving it.
Thinking of what one does not have, they say, manifests itself in the perpetuation of not having, while if one abides by these principles, and avoids "negative" thoughts, the Universe will manifest a person's desires.
This list of four steps (of uncertain origin), couched in quasi-scientific terms, is quite similar to, and was influenced by, the panentheistic "Seven Steps in Demonstration" first outlined in the book Become What You Believe by Mildred Mann (1904 - 1971):
* Desire. Get a strong enthusiasm for that which you want in your life, a real longing for something which is not there now.
* Decision. Know definitely what it is that you want, what it is that you want to do or have.
* Ask. [When sure and enthusiastic] ask for it in simple, concise language. . .
* Believe. Believe in the accomplishment with strong faith, consciously and subconsciously.
* Work. Work at it. . . a few minutes daily, seeing yourself in the finished picture. Never outline details, but rather see yourself enjoying the particular thing . . . Eventually, you will see a time where it will just appear, as a gift or such, or you may see an opportunity to get what you were asking for.
* Feel gratitude. Always remember to say, "Thank you, God [or the universe]," and begin to feel the gratitude in your heart. The most powerful prayer we can ever make is those three words, provided we really feel it. Feel as though you already have what you wanted.
* Feel expectancy. Train yourself to live in a state of happy expectancy... Find a way it will appear in your life, and keep believing in that. May it be that someone gives it to you, or you find an initiation to get it.
Criticism
The Law of Attraction, especially in its less religious contexts, has been criticized for
* Implying the law has a scientific foundation when no such basis exists.
* Not defining its methodology correctly according to denominational New Thought practitioners.
Criticism of the Law of Attraction comes from other directions as well.
In the mainstream media, talk show hosts such as Larry King have pointed at the sufferings in the world and asked, "If the Universe manifests abundance at a mere thought why is there so much poverty, starvation and death?" This theological problem is known as Theodicy.
It has also been pointed out that most of the people discussed in recent books on the subject live in a culture that has paths to allow people to overcome adversity and that the same is not true for much of the world. The same cannot be said of earlier proponents of the Law of Attraction, however, especially those who, like Wallace Wattles (1860–1911), claimed in his book The Science of Getting Rich (1910) to have used the principle to rise from a life of grinding poverty to one of merely comfortable industry.
Scientists are critical of the lack of falsifiability and testability of the claims. All of the evidence is both anecdotal and, because of the self-selecting nature of positive reports as well as the subjective nature of any results, highly susceptible to misinterpretations like confirmation bias and selection bias.
The few claims by proponents that seem to reference modern scientific theory remain under question. While brainwaves do have an electrical signal, it is unclear what principles of quantum physics behave the way proponents of the Law of Attraction claim. Opponents claim that the use of the term "Law" and the vague references to quantum physics to bridge any unexplained or seemingly implausible effects are hallmark traits of modern pseudoscience ideas.
Within spiritual circles, the Law of Attraction has been criticized for conflating ego with the higher self, and promoting narcissism.[citation needed] The concept is also criticized by members of various predestinarian and fundamentalist Christian denominations, due to its deviance from their teachings.
"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." - Albert Einstein 1879-1955...
Use the Law of Attraction in your life. Watch the primer video, download the free 80-page book, and see inspirational quotes about the law from people you know.
Truth is, not too long ago I would have laughed at the ideas in this book [about The Law of Attraction]. I'd have written them off as "New Age Nonsense" and felt smug and justified in doing so. In fact, I loved nothing more than to think of myself as one of the few "wise ones" who could see through the smoke that "fooled" almost everyone else. It turns out, I was the real fool. Rather than helping me in life, my skepticism slowly but surely cut me off from any sense of wonder and possibility. I became, frankly, an arrogant but miserable jerk.
But I was lucky. Despite my commitment to criticize all that failed to fit my own sense of reality, a thought eventually popped into my head that changed everything. The thought was this:
"If we can only accept what we currently believe, we have already reached our full potential."
This thought literally pulled my life out of the grips of skepticism and made it possible for me to entertain ideas I would have otherwise dismissed out of hand. Ideas that are full of promise, power and hope. Ideas that can make us greater than we are and more powerful than we might imagine ourselves to be.
Inspiring Quotes About the Law of Attraction
Don't believe that the Law of Attraction is real, well, you're just about the only one. See the company the law keeps below. And, if you already "get" the law of attraction, know *you* are not alone.
* "I am no longer cursed by poverty because I took possession of my own mind, and that mind has yielded me every material thing I want, and much more than I need. But this power of mind is a universal one, available to the humblest person as it is to the greatest." -Andrew Carnegie
* "It is done unto you as you believe..." -Jesus
* "The secret is the answer to all that has been all this is and all that will be" - Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882
* "You create your own universe as you go along" - Winston Churchill 1874-1965
* "Take the first step in faith you don't have to see the whole staircase just take the first step" - Martin Luther King Jr. 1929-1968
* "All that we are is the result of what we have thought." - Buddha
* "Whatever we think about and thank about we bring about." - John Demartini
* "What power this is I cannot say. All that I know is that it exists." - Alexander Graham Bell 1847-1922
* "Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." - Albert Einstein 1879-1955
* "What you resist persists." - Carl Jung 1875-1961
* "All power is from within and is therefore under our control" - Robert Collier 1885-1950
* "Whether you think you can or can't either way you are right." - Henry Ford 1863-1947
(This is your lensmaster's personal favorite.)
* "Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls" - Joseph Campbell 1904-1987
* "All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force... We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter." - Max Planck (Nobel Prize in Physics 1918)
* "Be the change you wish to see in the world." -Gandhi
* "Until one is committed there is hesitating, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans. That the moment one definitely commits oneself,
* "To gain happiness, you must learn to enjoy that which you have. It is not how much you have. It is what we THINK about that which we have that produces happiness. In building a happy, contented live, you must give happiness to others. No one living unto himself will ever be contented with his lot. Your happiness is reflected upon you through the service you give to others. And the thought you give to the creation of happiness will attract a happiness-service from others. Start creating the happiness-habit by producing happy, love-filled thoughts.Happiness is an attribute of love; therefore, you can never be happy until you give your love to others." - Dr. Forest C. Shaklee Sr.
* "Life is a mirror of your consistent thoughts." - Napoleon Hill author of Think and Grow Rich
No comments:
Post a Comment