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Law of attraction (New Thought)

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This article is about the New Thought principle. For the scientific and historical laws, see Laws of attraction. For the film, see Laws of Attraction.





Law Of Attraction: Definition

The phrase Law of Attraction, used widely by New Thought writers, refers 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. The Law of Attraction says that which is like unto itself is drawn. [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] Instead, the Law may be explained as an illusion created by the connection between self confidence and success or ones own perception, like the placebo effect.

Overview

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

Step† Commentary by Gazette[4] Commentary by Nibbana[5]
Ask Know what you want and ask the universe for it. This is where you need to get clear on what it is you want to create and visualise what you want as being as 'real' as possible.
Believe† Feel and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way. Focus your thoughts and your language on what it is you want to attract. You want to feel the feeling of really 'knowing' that what you desire is on its way to you, even if you have to trick yourself into believing it – do it.
Receive Be open to receiving it. Pay attention to your intuitive messages, synchronicities, signs from the Universe to help you along the way as assurance you are on the 'right' path. As you align yourself with the Universe and open yourself up to receiving, the very thing you are wanting to manifest will show up.

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]

Interpretation

Skeptical Inquirer magazine criticised the lack of falsifiability and testability of these claims [6]. Critics have asserted that the evidence provided is usually anecdotal and that, because of the self-selecting nature of the positive reports, as well as the subjective nature of any results, these reports are susceptible to confirmation bias and selection bias.[7] Physicist Ali Alousi, for instance, criticized it as unmeasurable and questioned the likelihood that thoughts can affect anything outside the head.[1]

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]

As principle in Quantum mechanics

Main article: Quantum mind/body problem

Some interpretations of the Law of Attraction place it in a quantum physics framework. According to proponents of this law, thoughts have an energy which attracts whatever it is the person is thinking of.[1] This concept has not gained broad acceptance within the scientific community.[12]. The concept has also been connected to quantum entanglement.

In health science

Main article: Neural top down control of physiology

The principles of the law of attraction have also been interpreted in the realm of medicine and illness. The law of attraction has some parallels with the Placebo effect. In 1990, Bernie Siegel published a book, Love, Medicine and Miracles, which asserted that the threat of disease was related to a person's imagination, will, and belief.[7][improper synthesis?] Siegel primarily advocated "love" as the source of healing and longevity stating that "if you want to be immortal, love someone."[13][14] Siegel's description has been rejected by some from within the medical community.[15]

Personal responsibility

Robert Sapolsky, a professor and neuroendocrinologist, devoted a chapter in his book, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, to Siegel. Sapolsky refers to Siegel's general idea as "benign gibberish" but is particularly critical of what he sees as blaming patients for their illness, based only on anecdotal evidence[16]. Sapolsky sums up his primary criticism as follows:

Where the problems become appallingly serious is when Siegel concentrates on the main point of his book. No matter how often he puts in the disclaimers saying that he's not trying to make people feel guilty, the book's premise is that (a) cancer can be caused by psychosocial factors in the person; (b) cancer (or any other disease, as far as I can tell) is curable if the patient has sufficient courage, love and spirit; (c) if the patient is not cured, it is because of the insufficient amounts of those admirable traits. As we have just seen, this is not how cancer works, and a physician simply should not go about telling seriously ill people otherwise.[16]

History

An "occult law of attraction", 1879

In 1879, the New York Times was the first major newspaper to use the phrase "Law of Attraction", describing the wagon trains of the Colorado gold rush as "moving in obedience to some occult law of attraction that overcomes all obstacles in their progress to their destination".[17]

A physical "energy of attraction", 1902

As early as 1902, references to something similar to the law of attraction can be seen particularly in discussion of matter formation. John Ambrose Fleming, an electrical engineer and turn-of-the-century physicist, described "every completed manifestation, of whatever kind and on whatever scale" as "an unquenchable energy of attraction" that causes objects to "steadily increase in power and definiteness of purpose, until the process of growth is completed and the matured form stands out as an accomplished fact".[18]

The New Thought Movement, 1904–1910

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]

The book "The Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace D. Wattles espouses many of the exact same principles[improper synthesis?]—that truly believing in the object of your desire and focusing onto it will lead to that object or goal being realized on the material plane (Wallace indicates in the Preface and later chapters of this book that his premise stems from the monistic Hindu view that God pervades everything and can deliver that which we focus on). In addition, the book also indicates that negative thinking will manifest negative results.[22]

The "law of attraction" in Theosophy, 1915–1919

The phrase "Law of Attraction" appeared in the writings of the Theosophical authors William Quan Judge in 1915,[23] and Annie Besant in 1919.[24]

The Law of Success in 16 Lessons

Before the release of Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill released The Law of Success in 16 Lessons (1928) which directly references the Law of Attraction, by name, repeatedly.

"Think and Grow Rich", 1937

In 1937, author Napoleon Hill published his book Think and Grow Rich which went on to become one of the best selling books of all time, selling over 60 million copies. In this book, he discusses the importance of controlling your own thoughts in order to achieve success, as well as the energy that thoughts have and their ability to attract other thoughts. In the beginning of the book, Napoleon Hill mentions a "secret" to success, and promises to indirectly describe it at least once in every chapter of the book. It is never named directly for he says that discovering it on one's own is far more beneficial. Many people have argued over what the secret actually is, with some arguing that it was the Law of Attraction.

Mid-1900s–2000

By the mid 1900s, various authors addressed the topic and related ideas[improper synthesis?] under a range of religious and secular terms, such as "positive thinking", "mental science", "pragmatic Christianity", "New Thought", "practical metaphysics", "Science of Mind" / "Religious Science", and "Divine Science".[1][25] Among the mid 20th century authors who used the term were Florence Scovel Shinn (1925), Sri K. Parvathi Kumar (1942)[26], Alice Bailey (1942)[27][28][29], and Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov (1968)[30]. Author Louise Hay in 1976 released a pamphlet in which she links various diseases and disorders to certain thoughts and states of minds. This list was included in her 1984 best-seller book You Can Heal Your Life, in which she promotes positive thinking as a healing method.[31] Other proponents of the Law of Attraction included Wallace Wattles, Robert Collier, and Helena Blavatsky, who all published books in the early 1900s.

21st century

In 2006, a film entitled The Secret (2006) based on the "Law of Attraction" was released and then developed into a book of the same title in 2007. The movie and book gained widespread attention in the media from Saturday Night Live to The Oprah Winfrey Show in the United States.[1] The same year the Hicks' The Law Of Attraction was on the New York Times best seller list.[32]

The success of the film and various books led to increased media coverage. Oprah Winfrey devoted two episodes of her show to discussing the film and the law of attraction.[33] Talk show host Larry King also discussed it on his show but criticized it for several reasons. He pointed to 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?"[citation needed]

King's remark is similar[improper synthesis?] to a criticism that the law of attraction only works because most of the anecdotes cited in books and movies are about people who live in a culture that has paths to allow people to overcome adversity, while this is not true for much of the world.[1]

In August 2008, Esther and Jerry Hicks's book Money and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Health, Wealth & Happiness appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list.[34]

See also


waffles are good

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b Whittaker, S. Three steps to the 'Law'. The Montreal Gazette, May 12, 2007.
  5. ^ Storr, Julie Ann (2006). "Open the Gates of Manifestation". Retrieved 2007-06-10. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  6. ^ a b http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/secrets.html
  7. ^ a b Kaptchuk, T., & Eisenberg, D. (1998). "The Persuasive Appeal of Alternative Medicine". Annals of Internal Medicine. 129 (12): 1061.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ Cosmic Mind pages 8 through 19 http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Quantum/01CosmicMind.pdf
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ Non-science posing as science; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-science/#NonSciPosSci
  12. ^ MARY CARMICHAEL and BENJAMIN RADFORD Secrets and Lies. The Skeptical Inquirer, May/June 2007.
  13. ^ Woo, L. (1989, May 5). Doctor's prescription: Love yourself Caring can cure when science can't, Siegel tells 1,300. The Orange County Register.
  14. ^ Siegel, B. S. (1990). Love, Medicine and Miracles: Lessons Learned about Self-Healing from a Surgeon's Experience with Exceptional Patients. Harper Paperbacks.
  15. ^ Surviving terminal illness with big dose of optimism Surgeon prescribes peace of mind. (1991, June 18).The Atlanta Journal, E1.
  16. ^ a b Sapolsky, R. M. (1998). Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, 2nd Edition: An Updated Guide To Stress, Stress Related Diseases, and Coping (2nd ed., p. 178-179). W. H. Freeman.
  17. ^ New York Times (1879-04-06). TO LEADVILLE IN WINTER: COLORADO'S NEW MINING CAMP. New York Times, April 6, 1879. Retrieved from http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9506EED9123EE63BBC4E53DFB2668382669FDE.
  18. ^ “Waves in Water, Air and Ether,” delivered in 1902, at the Royal Institution, by J. A. Fleming "“All branches of physical science demonstrate the fact that every completed manifestation, of whatever kind and on whatever scale, is started by the establishment of a nucleus, infinitely small but endowed with an unquenchable energy of attraction, causing it to steadily increase in power and definiteness of purpose, until the process of growth is completed and the matured form stands out as an accomplished fact."
  19. ^ Judge Thomas Troward, “The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science,” 1904.
  20. ^ William Walker Atkinson. Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction. Advanced Thought Publishing. 1906. Out of Copyright version
  21. ^ MacLelland, Bruce, Prosperity Through Thought Force, Elizabeth Towne, 1907
  22. ^ http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Getting_Rich
  23. ^ Judge, William Quan (1915). The Ocean of Theosophy. United Lodge of Theosophists. p. 103.
  24. ^ Popular Lectures on Theosophy. Theosophical Publishing House. 1919. p. 79. {{cite book}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Unknown parameter |unused_data= ignored (help)
  25. ^ Griffiths, L. ‘Law of attraction’ has long history in inspirational writing East Valley Tribune, April 21st 2007.
  26. ^ Kumar, Sri K. Parvathi (1942). Occult Meditations. Dhanishta. p. 230. ISBN 8189467042.
  27. ^ Bailey, Alice A. (1942). Letters on Occult Meditation. Lucis Trust. pp. 53, p265.
  28. ^ Bailey, Alice A. (1942). Esoteric Psychology II. Lucis Trust. pp. 111–113. ISBN 0853301190.
  29. ^ Bailey, Alice A. (1973). A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. Lucis Trust. pp. 1166–1229. ISBN 0853301174. Section Two - Division F - The Law of Attraction
  30. ^ Aïvanhov, Omraam Mikhaël (1968). Cosmic Moral Law. Prosveta. p. 384. ISBN 2-85566-445-4.
  31. ^ Mark Oppenheimer (2008), The New York Times, The Queen of the New Age, article retrieved January 26, 2008,
  32. ^ NY Times Bestseller information March 11, 2007
  33. ^ A new spin on positive thinking
  34. ^ NY Times Bestseller information August 31, 2008

Bibliography

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