The Law of Attraction isn’t a law – it’s positive thinking with magic glitter on it.
From the wiki page: “One example used by a proponent of the law of attraction is that if a person opened an envelope expecting to see a bill, then the law of attraction would “confirm” those thoughts and contain a bill when opened. A person who decided to instead expect a cheque might, under the same law, find a cheque instead of a bill.”
Oh, that is fantastic! According to this philosophy, if a belligerent person were to point a gun at me, and I expected that inside the gun was one ounce of confetti and no bullets, upon him pulling the trigger, I would be celebrating, not dying.
For anyone who possesses common sense, there is a problem with this idea – that pesky problem of reality. I can’t change a bullet into confetti with my mind, and expectant thinking can’t change a bill into a check (or even a cheque). When a bill is sent out as a bill, it stays a bill, even *gasp* if you expect it to be a certificate for a new car. Of course there are thousands of anecdotal examples of “I expected a parking spot to open up, and WOW!!!! Someone was leaving!!!”
Yeah…big shocker that a parking space would open up or you might get a check in the mail once in a while. The positive confirmations of this BS are clung to like the Lombardi Trophy, while the colossal daily evidence against it, and the common sense rebuttal, are denied.
Did it work for Rhonda Byrne, multi-millionaire author of “The Secret?” Or was she perhaps the benefactor of brilliant marketing campaign and a gullible segment of the population looking for the next shortcut to happiness and wealth? If you’re a believer of The Law Of Attraction, please don’t let my sarcasm blind you to this important message – you have been deceived.
[box]”The Secret” was a well-named book, but the true secret was never divulged: Promising easy riches to people can sell a lot of books.[/box]Positive Thinking – Now That’s A Good Idea
Positive thinking is nothing more than having high expectations for yourself. When you expect to find prosperity, expect to be liked, and expect to be fit, all of those things become much more likely to happen. But it isn’t through Law Of Attraction magic…
Proponents of positive thinking will tell you that your mindset plays a key role in how the world responds to you, by result of your beliefs manifesting in your actions and body language, thus influencing the trajectory of your life. The Law Of Attraction takes this 17 steps too far, suggesting that you can control the world and change reality with your expectant vibes.
I want to see a non-magician demonstrate that bill-into-check trick. Maybe a hidden camera could capture the bill’s ink moving around at the time of expectation?
I suppose The Law Of Attraction could have some benefits; after all, beliefs do matter, and this would encourage you to have very positive expectations. But any benefits of this belief are from the positive thinking aspect of it, not the magical hubba hubba. It’s dangerous to your well-being to think that expectant beliefs can solve your problems and bring you checks in the mail. That could easily get in the way of, ya know, actually doing something to cause a check to be sent to you in the mail.
When The Law Of Attraction turns my junk mail into chocolate – go ahead everyone, expect that really hard for me, or is it limited to checks only? I’ll have to ask Rhonda the rules – I’ll take it all back. Until then, let’s think positively and put magic back in its Fiction cage.
(photo by followtheseinstructions)