Friday, February 8, 2008

The Law Of Attraction


The Law of Attraction simply says that you attract into your life whatever you think about. Your dominant thoughts will find a way to manifest. But the Law of Attraction gives rise to some tough questions that don’t seem to have good answers. I would say, however, that these problems aren’t caused by the Law of Attraction itself but rather by the Law of Attraction as applied to objective reality.

Here are some of those problematic questions (all are generalizations of ones I received via email):

  • What happens when people put out conflicting intentions, like two people intending to get the same promotion when only one position is available?
  • Do children, babies, and/or animals put out intentions?
  • If a child is abused, does that mean the child intended it in some way?
  • If I intend for my relationship to improve, but my spouse doesn’t seem to care, what will happen?

These questions seem to weaken the plausibility of the Law of Attraction.I personally reccomend that you visit www.makingyousmarter.blogspot.com for some attraction advice.
Sometimes people answer them by going pretty far out. For example, it’s been said by LoAers that a young child experiences abuse because s/he intended it or earned it during a past life. Well, sure… we can explain just about anything if we bring past lives into the equation, but IMO that’s a cop-out. On the other hand, objective reality without the Law of Attraction doesn’t provide satisfactory answers either — supposedly some kids are just born unlucky. That’s a cop-out too.

I’ve never been satisfied by others’ answers to these questions, and they’re pretty important questions if the Law of Attraction is to be believed. Some books hint at the solution but never really nail it. That nail, however, can be found in the concept of subjective reality.

Subjective reality is a belief system in which (1) there is only one consciousness, (2) you are that singular consciousness, and (3) everything and everyone in your reality is a projection of your thoughts.

You may not see it yet, but subjective reality neatly answers all these tricky Law of Attraction questions. Let me ’splain….

In subjective reality there’s only one consciousness, and it’s yours. Consequently, there’s only one source of intentions in your universe — YOU. While you may observe lots of walking, talking bodies in your reality, they all exist inside your consciousness. You know this is how your dreams work, but you haven’t yet realized your waking reality is just another type of dream. It only seems solid because you believe (intend) it is.

Since none of the other characters you encounter are conscious in a way that’s separate from you, nobody else can have intentions. The only intentions are yours. You’re the only thinker in this universe.

It’s important to correctly define the YOU in subjective reality. YOU are not your physical body. This is not the egoic you at all. I’m not suggesting you’re a conscious body walking around in a world full of unconscious automatons. That would be a total misunderstanding of subjective reality. The correct viewpoint is that you’re the single consciousness in which this entire reality takes place.

Imagine you’re having a dream. In that dream what exactly are YOU? Are YOU the physical dream character you identify with? No, of course not — that’s just your dream avatar. YOU are the dreamer. The entire dream occurs within your consciousness. All dream characters are projections of your dream thoughts, including your avatar. In fact, if you learn lucid dreaming, you can even switch avatars in your dream by possessing another character. In a lucid dream, you can do anything you believe you can.

Physical reality works the same way. This is a denser universe than what you experience in your sleeping dreams, so changes occur a bit more gradually here. But this reality still conforms to your thoughts just like a sleeping dream. YOU are the dreamer in which all of this is taking place.

The idea that other people have intentions is an illusion because other people are just projections. Of course, if you strongly believe other people have intentions, then that’s the dream you’ll create for yourself. But ultimately it’s still an illusion.

Here’s how subjective reality answers these challenging Law of Attraction questions:

What happens when people put out conflicting intentions, like two people intending to get the same promotion when only one position is available?

Since you’re the only intender, this is entirely an internal conflict — within YOU. You’re holding the thought (the intention) for both people to want the same position. But you’re also thinking (intending) that only one can get it. So you’re intending competition. This whole situation is your creation. You believe in competition, so that’s what you manifest. Maybe you have some beliefs (thoughts and intentions) about who will get the promotion, in which case your expectations will manifest. But you may have a higher order belief that life is random, unfair, uncertain, etc., so in that case you may manifest a surprise because that’s what you’re intending.

Being the only intender in your reality places a huge responsibility on your shoulders. You can give up control of your reality by thinking (intending) randomness and uncertainty, but you can never give up responsibility. You’re the sole creator in this universe. If you think about war, poverty, disease, etc., that’s exactly what you’ll manifest. If you think about peace, love, and joy, you’ll manifest that too. Your reality is exactly what you think it is. Whenever you think about anything, you summon its manifestation.

Do children, babies, and/or animals put out intentions?

No. Your own body doesn’t even put out intentions — only your consciousness does. You’re the only one who has intentions, so what takes precedence is what YOU intend for the children, babies, and animals in your reality. Every thought is an intention, so however you think about the other beings in your reality is what you’ll eventually manifest for them. Keep in mind that beliefs are hierarchical, so if you have a high order belief that reality is random and unpredictable and out of your control, then that intention will trump other intentions of which you’re less certain. It’s your entire collection of thoughts that dictates how your reality manifests.

If a child is abused, does that mean the child intended it in some way?

No. It means YOU intended it. You intend child abuse to manifest simply by thinking about it. The more you think about child abuse (or any other subject), the more you’ll see it expand in your reality. Whatever you think about expands, and not just in the narrow space of your avatar but in all of physical reality.

If I intend for my relationship to improve, but my spouse doesn’t seem to care, what will happen?

This is another example of intending conflict. You’re projecting one intention for your avatar and one for your spouse, so the actual unified intention is that of conflict. Hence the result you experience, subject to the influence of your higher order beliefs, will be to experience conflict with your spouse. If your thoughts are conflicted, your reality is conflicted.

This is why assuming responsibility for your thoughts is so important. If you want to see peace in the world, then intend peace for EVERYTHING in your reality. If you want to see abundance in the world, then intend it for EVERYONE. If you want to enjoy loving relationships, then intend loving relationships for ALL. If you intend these only for your own avatar but not for others, then you’re intending conflict, division, and separation; consequently, that’s what you’ll experience.

If you stop thinking about something entirely, does that mean it disappears? Yes, technically it does. But in practice it’s next to impossible to uncreate what you’ve already manifested. You’ll continue creating the same problems just by noticing them. But when you assume 100% responsibility for everything you’re experiencing in your reality right now — absolutely everything — then you assume the power to alter your reality by rechanneling your thoughts.

This entire reality is your creation. Feel good about that. Feel grateful for the richness of your world. And then begin creating the reality you truly want by making decisions and holding intentions. Think about what you desire, and withdraw your thoughts from what you don’t want. The most natural, easiest way to do this is to pay attention to your emotions. Thinking about your desires feels good, and thinking about what you don’t want makes you feel bad. When you notice yourself feeling bad, you’ve caught yourself thinking about something you don’t want. Turn your focus back towards what you do want, and your emotional state will improve rapidly. As you do this repeatedly, you’ll begin to see your physical reality shift too, first in subtle ways and then in bigger leaps.

I too am just a manifestation of your consciousness. I play the role you expect me to play. If you expect me to be a helpful guide, I will be. If you expect me to be profound and insightful, I will be. If you expect me to be confused or deluded, I will be. But of course there’s no distinct ME that is separate from YOU. I’m just one of your many creations. I am what you intend me to be. But deep down you already knew that, didn’t you?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this page Simon i wish you could just let me know if you really apply these principles in your life.

Ann,
Warsaw Poland

Anonymous said...

A lot of people are talking about the law of attraction now that the book The Secret has become such a big success. Do you believe in the law of attraction? Some people live by this law, others think its BS

Jill Karner
New York, USA

Anonymous said...

Opportunities follow a little “attraction theory” in that if you start looking for them, they will show up. Know yourself and your capabilities and start pursuing the ones that make sense to you.

Joe Collins
London, UK

Anonymous said...

You are a great writer Simon.I was immediately reminded of Danile Kiyosaki, who has written many articles about The Law of Attraction and Intention Manifestation. Although I’m vaguely familiar with the concepts, I have invested much of my personal beliefs in them because I find applicable

Daniel Scott
Hong Kong

Anonymous said...

The way you see the world matters. Some people would go even further and say we create the world as we see it. If you look at a situation as a bunch of problems to be solved, that’s what you’ll see — problems. But if you start to see the good in that situation, if you start to see what’s great about it, and what good things that situation brings about, what do you see? You see opportunities. No matter how bad a situation is, there is something positive. Even the most impoverished, violent, drug-ridden housing project has something good in it. Maybe it’s generosity. Maybe it’s great, loving children. Maybe the drug dealers are great business men. Start looking for it and you will find it.

Todd Meyhew
Los Angeles

Anonymous said...

Let’s face it, I could use ‘God’s Will’ as an excuse for any action, or an indictment against God for not stopping terrible things from happening. Simon discusses some of the contradictions that can occur when the Law of Attraction is applied to objective reality and the same is true for God’s Will. Things like conflicting intentions, abuse, and relational issues where outcomes depend on the actions of others become an issue. We need to be capable of making sense of reality without compromising our faith. This can be a stumbling block for some people.

Tyrel
Boston,Massachussets

Anonymous said...

Hey Simon The writer of “A Little Weird” and I have both been working with the law of attraction and the lottery. Were both experiencing the same frustrations which I find very interesting. Neither one of us really won that much in the lottery when we played before we discovered and began to consciously work with the law of attraction. He and i both noticed that after we started to work with it we started winning small amounts in the lottery every time we played. Every single time bear and i buy tickets we win at least 2 dollars. Bear has better luck on scratchers. He will buy a 1 dollar one and win 2 dollars. He will use that 2 dollar won and buy another one and win 5 dollars. Then use that money to buy another one and win more money. He can stand there and do this 5 or 10 times before he finally gets a loosing one and stops. And this is not a one time incident either, this sort of thing happens a lot. There have been times when we have a few of the numbers on the same row and all of the other numbers will be off by 1 digit. Those are really frustrating.

Richard
Brussels

Anonymous said...

Ever since Steve Pavlina wrote about the Law of Attraction almost a year ago now, I’ve had mixed feelings about the cat getting out of the bag. You see, I was taught the Law of Attraction (thoughts held in mind produce after their kind) growing up. When I saw that post I was exuberant that someone else, not from my family or church (a normal person), got wind of it and was telling the world about it. So, as news of the Secret spread on the Internet, and now in the real world through Larry King and Oprah, I’ve reserved judgement about the presentation. Until now.
Susan
Austin,Texas

Anonymous said...

Brendin watched ‘The Secret’ with me and loved it. After watching it he wrote two pages of what he is thankful for. I have been writing spiritual material for several years.

Rachael,
San Diego, California

Anonymous said...

Recently I watched The Secret. Essentially, it says that 1) we are all energy and 2) we get what we put out. So if you are constantly thinking negatively, you are only going to get negative back. It’s called the Law of Attraction and you can read more about it here. You may have seen it talked about on Oprah, but I swear to you, I saw it before the trendsetter for middle of the road America mentioned anything. Anyway, I got really excited at the idea of being able to control my life positively. I decided to do some of the things they talk about it the movie, one of them being to visualize what I want in my life. I wanted to make a visualization board but I couldn’t find one of those fancy real estate magazines to cut out my fantasy house, so I visualized having one. Friday night, TBU and I had nothing to do and we didn’t want to spend any money, I visualized us going out and having a good time for free. I have also been visualizing having more money, because dar. This is where it gets interesting, on Friday night, TBU and I took a walk and as we came back to our place what was sitting on our mailbox? A fancy shmancy real estate magazine. Ok, that was pretty cool but they are kinda everywhere and they’re free so that wasn’t so hard for the universe to provide. We were still bored with nothing to do. Then right as I got out of the shower at 8:30pm our friends called with extra tickets to a concert AND they bought us dinner. Ummmm, wow. Dinner and concert for free? Well played universe. While at the concert our friend ask me to start a business with her. Even though the money hasn’t actually manifested yet, I am really excited. All of this led me to start saying, “If you can visualize it, you can millionize it.
Monica
Ottawa, Canada

Anonymous said...

Simon,i wonder whether you’d like to tell me about it.

Stokely
Beijing ,China

Anonymous said...

I love your site Simon.Keep it coming.

Lisa
Austin,Texas