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Modern renaissance

In modern times, one of the earliest known formulations of the Law in the Western hemisphere is contained in the 1906 book Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World by William Walker Atkinson^[2], editor  New Thought magazine.

In March 2006 a film named The Secret reporting on the “Law of Attraction”, gained much attention via internet video websites. The film was inspired by the 1910 book The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles, which in its introduction refers to the origins of the theory of the Law of Attraction as follows: “This theory is of Hindu origin, and has been gradually winning its way into the thought of the western world for three hundred years. It is the foundation of all the Oriental philosophies, and those of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Schopenhauer, Hegel and Emerson…..” Buy a copy of the famous books of Wallace D. Wattles or in downloadable audio format

Criticism:

Skeptics claim that the explanations of the law of attraction (and even the use of the term “Law” itself) misuse and misrepresent mainstream understandings of electromagnetism and quantum mechanics in a way often characteristic of pseudoscience. Proponents respond that it is a matter of spiritual energies, not physical ones. Results are not scientifically verifiable as they are not reproducible or independently verifiable. Claimed effectiveness is only given through anecdotal testimony about the success of the Law of Attraction which is often inconsistent and unreliable. So skeptics argue that it is nothing more than a round-about means of self-motivation and a confirmation bias applied to acts of increased risk-taking, and has no further metaphysical effects. However, it must also be noted that such arguments in no way prove that it does not work. ^[3]

Within spiritual circles, the Law of Attraction has been criticized for conflating ego with the higher self, narcissism and promoting thinking that supposedly was humanity’s leading edge several hundred thousand years ago, but now is a developmentally early cognitive stage.

References and footnotes

1. ^rent a car bulgaria Redden, Guy, Magic Happens: A New Age Metaphysical Mystery Tour, Journal of Australian Studies: 101
   Louise Hay, “the Queen of Affirmations”,(9) believes that “our thinking creates our reality”. In short, if one’s consciousness is in tune with the “whole”, creation becomes a resource from which we can manifest whatever we want; the fruits of our “magical thinking” enter our personal lives in the form of synchronicity. According to Hay’s bestseller, “You Can Heal Your Life”(10), your life can be transformed by never dwelling on the negative, as the “metaphysical principle of life” is the “law of attraction”: you get what you think about; your thoughts determine your destiny.
2. ^ “Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction” Out of Copyright version
3. ^ Greg Beato (April 2007). The Secret of The Secret: A cult self-help DVD fleeces the credulous. Reason Magazine.

Further reading

• Thought Vibration Or The Law of Attraction in the Thought World (1906, 2006) William Walker Atkinson ISBN-13: 978-1596059344
• The Secret (November 28, 2006) Rhonda Byrne, Beyond Words Publishing, ISBN-13: 978-1582701707
• Guide for Living: Law of Attraction - How to Attract Money, Love, and Happiness David Hooper, Kathode Ray Enterprises, ISBN-13: 978-0975436158
• The Writings of Florence Scovel Shinn ISBN 0875166105
• The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles
• The Law of Attraction: The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham (December 1, 2006) Jerry and Esther Hicks, Hay House, ISBN-13: 978-1401917593
• Hidden Laws: Ultimate tools for Divine Co-Creation by Ulla Jacobs ISBN 1412082145

External links

• Understanding the Cosmic Law of Attraction
• Articles on the Law of Attraction
• Thought Vibration Or The Law of Attraction in the Thought World, (1906, 2006), William Walker Atkinson — Out of copyright, online copy

Today, May 3 has been declared the National Day of Prayer:

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 20, 2007

National Day of Prayer, 2007
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

A prayerful spirit has always been an important part of our national character, and it is a force that has guided the American people, given us strength, and sustained us in moments of joy and in times of challenge. On this National Day of Prayer, we acknowledge God’s grace and ask for His continued guidance in the life of our Nation.

Americans of many faiths and traditions share a common belief that God hears the prayers of His children and shows grace to those who seek Him. Following the tragedy at Virginia Tech, in towns all across America, in houses of worship from every faith, Americans have joined together to pray for the lives that were lost and for their families, friends, and loved ones. We hold the victims in our hearts and pray for those who suffer and grieve. There is a power in these prayers, and we can find comfort in the grace and guidance of a loving God.

At this important time in our history, we also pray for the brave members of our Armed Forces and their families. We pray for their safety, for the recovery of the wounded, and for the peace we all seek.

The Congress, by Public Law 100 307, as amended, has called on our Nation to reaffirm the role of prayer in our society and to respect the freedom of religion by recognizing each year a “National Day of Prayer.”

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 3, 2007, as a National Day of Prayer. I ask the citizens of our Nation to give thanks, each according to his or her own faith, for the freedoms and blessings we have received and for God’s continued guidance, comfort, and protection. I invite all Americans to join in observing this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first.

GEORGE W. BUSH

The President in this message mentions the Virginia Tech tragedy and joining in prayer for those who suffered.

He also mentions our armed forces and their families.
This seems to be a better path to follow that those who would say that based on the Law of Attraction that “the students attracted this event” or along this same pattern of thinking that the people of Iraq “attracted” the war there or the people of Darfur have “attracted” their own genocide.

In the last segment of the movie The Secret there was a discussion about world events and how we should have peace marches instead of anti-war rallies…

Well based on that thinking we should all take advantage of this special day and be praying as our President suggests regardless of whether you agree or not with the politics because it is an opportunity to heal hurts and move on.

After 911 there was a great unifying of the country that brought about some initial positive and useful changes, but our national focus was soon lost and things have reverted back to the same kind of thinking patterns as before.

Why is it that it seems to take tragedy to get get our attention?

Why is it that almost all the “news” is about what is wrong or what one may describe as negative in nature?

Why aren’t there more ‘everyday’ stories in the news about ‘good’ things that are happening?

There are good things happening out there some place aren’t there?

Why is it we don’t seem to get as excited for good?

Why are so many of our lives so pathetic that we can only feel good by watching all the wrong that happens to others on the news?

Is it simply because we resent good for others when it doesn’t also come to ourselves?

What is the ramifications in your life with this kind of thinking if there is a law of attraction?

Is the news that is reported and we watch “attracting” more of the same since that is our national focus or is something else going on?

How does the law of attraction REALLY work?

Why isn’t it working for me the way I want it to?

Is it that I simply don’t understand it?

What are the specific steps I must follow?

Can you describe them in such a way so that ANYONE can understand them, follow them and get results in ANY situation?

Interesting point.

Can the Law of Allowing be summed up by the song from the 50’s sung by Doris Day?

“Que Sera, Sera Whatever Will Be, Will Be”or is that an oversimplification?

I didn’t know it as another law.

But I have heard it taught as ‘practicing contentment’ as stated from Philippians 4:11b-12 NIV
“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned THE SECRET of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

Interestingly the rest of that chapter has a lot of additional things to say.

Verse 4 tells us Rejoice always - one cannot re-joice until one first has joy then to emphasize this point the verse continues with, “I will say it again: Rejoice!”

A similar word to rejoice is bliss.

You know in the dictionary “bliss” is defined as great joy or happiness.

Which reminds me of the Joseph Campbell quote at the end of the movie ‘The Secret’, “When you follow your bliss… doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else.”

Verse 6 tells us “Do not be anxious about anything.” and continues with what to do instead, “…but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

Almost sounds like what they were talking about in the movie The Secret doesn’t it when it says ‘present your requests to God’.

Of course the context includes vs 5 which the first part is somewhat unclear from the KJV which uses the word moderation or from the NIV which uses the word gentleness, but The Living Bible uses words everyone can understand and it says, “Let everyone see that you are unselfish and considerate in all you do. Remember that the Lord is coming soon.”

Verse 7 talks about peace.

Verses 8-9 tell us how to think and what to practice [sounds sort of like what we might be looking for if follow the steps or ideas specified by the law of attraction as mentioned in the movie] and the NIV states, “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me [this is the Apostle Paul speaking] or seen in me - put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

Any one looking for peace in their lives? Sounds like a good way to go about getting it.

Verses 10-12 follow which we already mentioned are about contentment and they are followed by verse 13 which states, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” NIV

Taken out of context sounds like we can do everything - after all that is what it states isn’t it?

Verses 14-18 talk about sharing in experiences as well as ‘giving and receiving’.

Then comes verse 19 which stares from the NIV, “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

Again taken out of context this could be construed to mean the universe is your catalog, but look again at the context.

That is a different paradigm from what is presented in the movie The Secret.

Sometimes I feel like my life is like a jig saw puzzle and some of the pieces are missing.

You know…

You get out a jig saw puzzle box and empty out all the pieces on to a table or other suitable surface and you begin to turn all the pieces face up.

I call this the WOW “look at this - there is an awful lot of pieces here”.

And then I say to myself, “why did I have to use the negative word ‘awful’?”.

There I go already deciding that something is awful and I have just started!!

Next you begin sorting through the pieces.

I call this the awareness phase.

You know, that is when you begin to notice different colors, patterns, the shapes of the pieces, etc.

That is when I always begin to look for the ones with the straight edges because those pieces mark the perimeter of the picture unless of course you have a round shaped puzzle.

I don’t know about you, but I have never attempted a round one– the square or rectangular ones are challenging enough and the thought of a round one presents additional mind pictures — like the need to be well-rounded…

Anyway back to the straight-edged pieces - they form the perimeter of the picture, the outer edge. Those pieces are like the boundaries we set up for ourselves that tell us where we can go and where we can’t.

As a child we need those boundaries to help keep us safe because we are unaware of what potential dangers may lurk around the next corner and we start hearing the word ‘NO’ a lot in our lives and then there is that list of don’ts:

Don’t do this and don’t do that.

Don’t touch the hot stove.

Don’t run out in the street.

Don’t hit your brother.

Don’t color on the walls.

Don’t throw the ball in the house.

Don’t jump on the furniture.

Don’t wave the stick around.

Don’t poke your sister with it.

Don’t you know you can poke her eye out?

Don’t run with scissors.

Boy that one sure brought an instant smile to my face when I first saw the ad for the T-shirt that says: Runs with scissors!

All these boundaries!

All these limits!

Hey can’t I do anything and just have some fun?!

If you haven’t figured it out yet I call this the boundary phase.

When I was a child a lot of the boundaries I just wanted to test.

You can just see it in the little kids today. You tell them they can’t do something and they get that mischievous grin on their face and the next thing you know they’ve disappeared and later when you find them what are they doing?

That’s right…Exactly what you told them NOT to do.

Later on you learn that some of the boundaries are actually a good idea like when you burn your finger and there’s a sudden realization of OUCH that hurts.

They say curiosity killed the cat. Well it can nearly do the same for an inquisitive 2 year old who was told to stay away from the electrical outlets.

Yes you guessed it.

I had a shocking experience when I stuck a wet metal key I had just previously had in my mouth into an electrical outlet!

You can say I saw the light and never did that again.

What is it about life lessons that we seem to have this innate desire to want to learn so many things the most painful way?

Anyway back to the puzzle -So I find all these straight-edged pieces representing the border of the puzzle picture and begin fitting these pieces together.

So now I have the picture frame and I notice particular colors or distinctive markings and begin looking among…

But what about all those other ‘don’ts’ that you didn’t see or maybe more properly feel a result?

How are those limits or boundaries affecting you 10, 20, 30 or 40 years later?

Do you even remember all of them?

And now later in life we begin to learn that even though we don’t (oops there is that word again) necessarily like boundaries we may actually give ourselves some. Self-imposed limits to keep us out of some sort of situation that may lead to some sort of difficulty or trouble.

Did you know that there are entire books about how to set boundaries?

So there you are putting the straight-edged pieces together to form the boundary or outside edge of this puzzle and something is wrong.

Everything is going together nice and easy and then suddenly you have two pieces that don’t join together correctly. You look back to the table and sort through all the pieces again thinking for sure you must have missed one. But you don’t find any. Then you look in the box or on the floor and still no missing piece. You are a little frustrated and wonder whether or not your practical joker friend took one. But no one is around. It’s just you. You briefly ponder making the pieces fit by pounding two of the pieces together, but decide against that after all you are a person of integrity and you can’t do that, Can you?

No, so you then figure well I guess it’s OK I’ve got all but one piece of the border together leaving a gap.

So you ignore this little inconsistency and go on.

Next you begin paying close attention to the colors, markings or anything distinctive along the border pieces that you’ve just put together or on the remaining big spread out puzzle pieces.

You quickly notice several pieces that all look very similar and yes you were right they form a portion of a picture and they actually fit together.

You may look at the box now for the picture of what the finished picture is supposed to look like.

But what do you do IF there is no picture?

Isn’t that like your life?

You’ve put some pieces together in this area of your life or that area and you may have had an idea once on what you thought your life was supposed to look like.

But maybe that was a long time ago when you were still a child and you had all these hopes and dreams and life seemed so simple then.

But now…
But now…
But now time has moved on and things have changed and what was once thought to be simple is not any longer.

What do you do now?

Is there a place to go to find missing pieces…like that practical joker friend who may have hidden them from view?

What if a piece got eaten by the dog or fell on the floor and scooped up by the vacuum cleaner.

What do you do when the pieces are no longer there? And these aren’t pieces just to a jig saw puzzle but your life?

Isn’t that what happens to so many of us along this journey we call life?

What do you do?

‘The world I see holds nothing that I want.’ - A Course In MiraclesThe Secret is out, way out, and I am glad it has become so popular. Those who have been entrenched in feelings of powerlessness are finding their mojo by applying its principles. Yay to the setting of intentions, the power of positive thinking, and the wondrous Law of Attraction! Yay to manifesting our perfect soul mate, our ideal income, and our wildest dreams! Rock on, minds of mankind!

Are you detecting a hint of sarcasm? OK, I’ll fess up. I do have a slight problem with The Secret. When it comes to the Law of Attraction, I’m a bit of an outlaw. To me it’s a little piece of the truth, and that can be dangerous in the minds of egos seeking to play God. I believe that educating people as to the power of their thoughts without also teaching the Law of Allowing is a bit like teaching people to inhale without teaching them an intimately inseparable part of the process ­ exhaling!

To put it simply, the Law of Attraction is about getting what you want. The Law of Allowing is about wanting what you get and seeking ye first the Kingdom, letting go and letting God. When applied in tandem these Laws address our wholeness, the active and receptive male and female energies within each person.

It’s no secret that getting what you want doesn’t automatically lead to lasting fulfillment. If that were the case, the married, rich, and famous among us would not have such an abundant supply of expensive anti-depression and anti-anxiety medication in their bathroom cabinets.

Yet we want what we want. What’s up with that? Wanting can be defined as desiring, but it is also synonymous with lacking. ‘The Lord is my Shepard, I shall not want’ means that when we surrender our attachment to a specific outcome and trust in the benevolence of the universe, we shall not lack. That’s the law of allowing.

When we get rigidly attached to our desired outcomes, however, we are coming from the assumption that we are not whole beings until we get what we want. And that’s an illusion that life delights in us letting go of.

Thaddeus Golas, in The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment, says ‘There is a good attitude to take towards any goal: It’s nice if it happens, nice if it doesn’t.’ Does that mean we are to be detached from having passion? No, just detached from craving an outcome, from thinking there is some tear in the fabric of God’s perfection that needs to be stitched before we can fully enjoy being alive.

I love watching dogs run after seagulls on the beach. They set their sites on a flock and are single-minded, focused, and quite passionate about running down a bird. At the same time, they are very fulfilled in the thrill of the chase, having a tremendous amount of fun just frolicking on the beach. Going home without having achieved their gull doesn’t, for one moment, diminish their love of the journey.

When we realize that just being alive is a gift that keeps on giving, we may set and pursue our ‘gulls’ just as passionately, but far less frantically. We value the process as much as the intended outcome. We embrace both the inevitable hopes and disappointments along the way with loving arms wide enough to be grateful for it all.

When we have tasted the nectar of a fulfillment that is not dependent on the outside world granting us our desires, we realize that life blesses us just as much when we don’t get what we want as when we do. In those times we get to practice letting go and being friendly with what is. A heavy burden gets lifted each time we release the arrogant assumption that we are in possession of the big picture perspective enough to really know what our highest good is supposed to look like. When what we want pulls a no-show, we get to more thoroughly chew on the following slice of humble pie, which a lesson in A Course In Miracles invites us to digest: ‘I don’t perceive my best interests.’

There’s nothing wrong with having goals and using the Law of Attraction to manifest them. Yet you can attain the world, only to have it magnify and intensify your inner turmoil. An ego’s basic condition of lack, that nagging sense of Å’not enough-ness,’ cannot be overcome by worldy success. When Jesus said his Kingdom is not of this world, he was speaking for all of us.

Even my mother, a practicing devout atheist who doesn’t believe in anything beyond the world of her senses, will exclaim, after the first bite of some fabulous dessert, ‘Out of this world!’ (It has been said that there are no atheists in foxholes, and I would venture to add that there aren’t any biting into Junior’s New York cheesecake either!)

The Big Secret is that there is a state of being available to us humans that is out of this world. Echoes of it visit us ever so briefly in worldly moments; the first few morsels of cheesecake, the first few mouthfuls of romantic love, and other fleeting states. For some people who have chosen to ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom’ with single-mindedness of purpose, that state sets up shop and sticks around as part of the fabric and foundation of a sense of self rooted in eternity.

That’s what I want. Perhaps that’s what we all want, even when we are seeking to manifest material things: to abide in a love that is not of this world.

Have you had enough of a sense of ‘not enough’? Are you ready to have out of the state of wanting that always leaves us wanting more? I invite you to proclaim, by your own divine authority: ‘ I am as God created me, and I am free, whole and complete as I am. I am enough, I have enough, and I do enough. I wake up from the dream of lack. I am drenched in abundance at all times. Every sunrise is proof of my infinite wealth, every breath is a miracle, and all is supremely and eternally well.’

When that state of enoughness takes root in you and permeates your being, you will most probably be moved to chase some gulls and have some fun.

Gangway, I’ll see you on the beach!

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Scott Kalechstein is a modern day troubadour and inspirational speaker.
He travels through the United States, Canada and Europe giving
concerts, talks and workshops, as well as presenting at conferences.
Please visit www.scottsongs.com to sample CD’s. You can also sign up
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bi-monthly basis.

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