An alternative to the law of attraction
Oct 19th, 2008 by katesaltfleet
After the response that I got to my post about the dark side of the law of attraction, I felt the need to elaborate on the alternatives. I pressed my Stumble button today and the first thing it served up was a site called The revolutionary pleasure of thinking for yourself. Maybe I had attracted this to me to help me write this post, because I think this is a truly meaningful way to develop as a person. I offer thinking for yourselfism as an alternative to swallowing someone else’s theories.
First, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with the law of attraction in itself. It is a theory which is as valid as any other theory and one thing we all know is that there is no shortage of theories in the world. Whether you find any value in it is of course subjective. Many people swear that by “putting into action” the Law of Attraction that many good things have come into their lives. Great, I’m not here to rain on someone’s parade, if you believe it’s working for you and life is good, then that’s good 
However, presenting as a cure-all and blaming people for attracting bad things into their lives seems a little simplistic to me.
If you would like to read about someone’s experiences about the law of attraction in their life, then have a read of Caroline Middlebrook’s series over at Life Should Feel GOOD! She’s put together a good introduction and some resources and if you’re not sure what all the fuss is about, take a read and draw your own conclusions.
My objection was to the hyperbole surrounding The Secret
Picture credit: Bendus
I don’t think you have missed something. The feedback I’ve gotten from people who believe in The Secret tells me that they don’t agree with the get rich variety either… but that misses the basic point: to what extent do we influence our own reality. Are we responsible for all of it, or just a large part? And to what extent does it make sense to blame people for where they’re at?
HI Kate,
Well…. In my experience the personal growth movement is all about asking questions, going deeper, learning what you can about consciousness and development. If someone is telling you: “Your consciousness isn’t high enough yet to understand”., then I’d RUN, they aren’t a teacher, especially spiritual teacher.
“Jesus said: ‘Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’
If I were to take that advice and look to my 4 yr old as an example, on how the Law of Attraction might work, this is what I’d take from her:
1. Ask lots of questions.
2. Enjoy the moment.
3. If you are pissed off say so. - Loudly
4. Scream for what you want. If that doesn’t work. Ask nicely. Ask for what you want again and again and again.
5. Run, Play, Dance and Laugh.
6. Look no further ahead than a few hours.
This approach seems to work for her. She gets most of what she wants, (dolls, ice cream and a mom to hold her at night) and what she doesn’t get she mostly forgets about by the next day.
Here’s another approach to the Law of Attraction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cp5T5MlDBM
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
In my point of view, the Law of Attraction is not a standalone law. We have to see it as just a piece of puzzles. To see the whole picture, we must take other laws of the universe in account.
I run like crazy from anyone who tells me anything like “your conciousness is not evolved enough to understand”! I have been exposed to two cults in my life and it was their unwillingness to entertain questions and opposing views that clued me in to the “cult” aspect of the group.
Although The Secret is presented as an all or nothing proposition, I believe the reality of the law of attraction or karma or the golden rule is that you stay focused on your goals and see them as being real and attainable. I honestly don’t believe in any practice that promises riches beyond belief etc. because I don’t think that everyone needs or should have that kind of money. I know that many strict adherents to the Law of Attraction philosophy would tell me that my thinking shows I have limiting beliefs. But the reality is that this is my reality and I can make it whatever I want and in my reality not everyone needs to be insanely rich
You keep asking questions… I’ll keep reading ‘em.
As I said in Reply to your last post on this issue, life happens. There are definitely things we can do to increase the odds in our favor. I run a blog and have a business centered around this with an emphasis on wellness.
There is no one thing which guarantees your success. Persistence as described by the Mom of the 4 y/o in the comments above is a good example. We get persistence beat out of us by a school system that teaches experimentation and mistakes are “wrong”. So, we pick up many wrong ideas from many different sources. The law of attraction seems to help people sort out these wrong ideas but it is not a philosophy you follow mindlessly.
Thinking for yourself, trial and error, reading biography and finding mentors so you have examples of people who got to where you want to go and can apply the same principles to your journey is another way to learn to think for yourself without having to make all the same mistakes again. I agree with Raymond Chua, there are many principles to apply and this is just one of them.
Hi everyone,
Thanks for your thought provoking responses. I agree with what Raymond and Bruce said about finding and learning from mentors, but that only being one part of the puzzle. You can stand on someone’s shoulders but you still need to do the reaching for yourself.
Jeni Treehugger’s little nugget has found its way onto my office post-it wall!
Melissa has a good point about karma and the Golden Rule, and this is another topic on which I shall be blogging in the not too distant future.
I liked Michelle’s 4 year old’s approach. One of the most difficult things about being a grown up is not being able to say so if you are pissed off! Sadly the You Tube video you linked to has disappeared
Opps! I had to reupload the video. Here is the new link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk5nMMYv4SQ
Kate, feel free to edit or combine or whatever the comments!