Law of Attraction

Attraction, or the Law of Attraction, is considered by New Thought writers as referring to the idea that thoughts influence chance. The Law of Attraction argues that thoughts (both conscious and unconscious) can affect things outside the head, not just through motivation, but by other means. Essentially, "if you really want something and truly believe it's possible, you'll get it", but putting a lot of attention and thought onto something you don't want means you'll get that too.[1][2]

The Law of Attraction became widely popular after the release of The Secret, a 2006 film by Australian television writer and producer Rhonda Byrne. Byrne followed up the film with a bestselling book of the same title and appeared on a series of talk shows in 2007.

Various scientists have stated that many of the Law's claims are impossible, violating scientific principles and a scientific understanding of the universe. [3]

Overview

The Secret lists three required steps — "ask, believe, receive" — as the essence of the Law of Attraction:

Thinking of what one does not have, they say, manifests itself in not having, while if one abides by these principles, and avoids "negative" thoughts, the universe will manifest a person's desires.[4]

As physical hypothesis

Others have questioned the references to modern scientific theory, and have maintained, for example, that the Law of Attraction misrepresents the electrical activity of brainwaves.[8] Victor Stenger and Leon Lederman are critical of attempts to use quantum physics to bridge any unexplained or seemingly implausible effects, believing these to be traits of modern pseudoscience.[9][10][11] Writing in the New York Times, Virginia Heffernan characterised The Secret as "a series of misquotations ... and fraudulent maxims" that nonetheless "takes [her] to a happy place."[6]

History

Thomas Troward, who was a strong influence in the New Thought Movement, claimed that thought precedes physical form and that "the action of Mind plants that nucleus which, if allowed to grow undisturbed, will eventually attract to itself all the conditions necessary for its manifestation in outward visible form."[19]

In 1906, William Walker Atkinson (1862 - 1932) used the phrase in his New Thought Movement book Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World.[20] The following year, 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 summarized the principle, stating: "You are what you think, not what you think you are." [21]

References

1. Whittaker, S. Secret attraction, The Montreal Gazette, May 12th 2007.
2. Redden, Guy, Magic Happens: A New Age Metaphysical Mystery Tour, Journal of Australian Studies: 101
3. Scientific American; Jun2007, Vol. 296 Issue 6, p39-39: "The brain does produce electrical activity from the ion currents flowing among neurons during synaptic transmission, and in accordance with Maxwell's equations any electric current produces a magnetic field. But as neuroscientist Russell A. Poldrack of the University of California, Los Angeles, explained to me, these fields are minuscule and can be measured only by using an extremely sensitive superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) in a room heavily shielded against outside magnetic sources. 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. An object twice as far away from the source of energy as another object of the same size receives only one-fourth the energy that the closer object receives. The brain's magnetic field of 10-15 tesla quickly dissipates from the skull and is promptly swamped by other magnetic sources, not to mention the earth's magnetic field of 10-5 tesla, which overpowers it by 10 orders of magnitude!"
4. Whittaker, S. Three steps to the 'Law'. The Montreal Gazette, May 12, 2007.
5. Storr, Julie Ann (11 2006). "Open the Gates of Manifestation". http://www.nibbana.com.au/page.aspx?id=64. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
6. Kaptchuk, T., & Eisenberg, D. (1998). "The Persuasive Appeal of Alternative Medicine". Annals of Internal Medicine 129 (12): 1061.
7. Scientific American; Jun2007, Vol. 296 Issue 6, p39-39: and the same article online Scientific American Magazine, June 2007; article entitled "The (Other) Secret" page 1 http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-other-secret
8. Cosmic Mind pages 8 through 19 http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Quantum/01CosmicMind.pdf
9. The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question - pages 189 to 198 by Leon Lederman with Dick Teresi (copyright 1993) Houghton Mifflin Company
10. Non-science posing as science; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-science/#NonSciPosSci

Bibliography

• The Secret (November 28, 2006) Rhonda Byrne, Beyond Words Publishing, ISBN 978-1582701707
• Automating law of attraction

External links

• Abraham Hicks: It all started here
• The Secret: A New Era For Humankind
• The Law