One of the biggest bandwagons that has rolled through the self-help community in recent years is the so-called Law of Attraction. This claims that you attract into your life whatever you think about. Before I explain why I believe that this is not a law, not true and not helpful let me differentiate the LoA from some similar but different self-help concepts that actually do work.
- Positive Thinking. There is considerable evidence that having a positive, optimistic, can-do frame of mind will lead to much better outcomes in many circumstances than having a negative, pessimistic or cynical approach. Studies show that positive thinkers generally do better, live longer, and are healthier and happier than negative thinkers.
- Focus, Goal Setting and Planning. There are many benefits in having a clear focus on what you want to achieve, in setting goals, in measuring progress against those goals and in taking corrective actions when you fall short. Many successful people base their day on having an action plan that they work through.
- Visualization. Visualizing a successful action can assist you to achieve it. If you are nervous about making a speech then visualizing yourself giving a confident, dynamic performance will help you to do just that. Visualizing a great golf swing or a good tennis backhand stroke can help supplement your training and practice.
- Self-Belief. Most successful people have enormous self-belief. They know that they have something special to offer and that they can achieve great things. They use this self-belief as the basis on which to build the plans, improvements, learnings and actions that lead to success.
- An Attitude of Gratitude. Most of us have a great deal to be thankful for. Counting our blessings and giving thanks help us to get our difficulties into perspective and engender a positive frame of mind.
So having listed some self-help mantras that actually work let us turn to the big idea that does not. The Law of Attraction as expounded by Rhonda Byrne in her best-selling book, The Secret, and by her many followers claims that all you need to do is to think about the things that you want in your life and the ‘Universe’ will supply them in abundance – whether they are positive or negative. So if you think about money you will get money; if you focus on your debts you will stay in debt. If you think about being slim you will become slim whereas if you constantly worry about how fat you are you will stay fat. Unfortunately for the proponents of this law there is no scientific evidence to support it. There are plenty of anecdotes from people who believe the law worked for them but for each of these stories there are many other possible explanations. No one has carried out a controlled experiment showing that the so-called law actually works.
Furthermore the law runs up against some very practical difficulties. What if several people all want the same promotion and think about it furiously? How can they all get the same post? The law implies that whatever difficulties you have in life are the result of you thinking the wrong thoughts. So it appears that an abused child, a rape victim or a prisoner in a concentration camp was somehow to blame because they thought negative thoughts. This is offensive to victims and flies in the face of common sense.
According to the LoA if I want to win the gold medal in the 100 metres in the next Olympic Games or become President or get Jennifer Lopez as my girlfriend then all I have to do is think about my goal and it will come to me. If we want a cure for cancer then we should stop spending money on research and just think about it instead.
The appeal of the LoA lies in its easy nature. You do not need hard work and discipline to lose weight or get rich – you can do it by thinking. Unfortunately this just is not true. The LoA is delusional. It is dangerous because it misleads people into believing that imagery alone will work without action. To succeed in life you need a mix of talent, diligence, skills, hard-work and maybe a little luck. You can achieve great things – but in order to do so you have to do a lot more than just think about them.
Hi Paul,
You might enjoy this blog called ‘The Attraction Delusion’…
http://annhawkins.com/2012/07/there-is-no-law-of-attraction/
Paul, I think you are oversimplifying things. By thinking about what you want, you are more likely to spot opportunities (think selective observation) and to take action in that direction. The law of attraction says you will attract what you think about, not that you will magically achieve it in the absence of appropriate action and other positive conditions.
The entire pharmaceutical industry is tested against placebo’s and when you said “Unfortunately for the proponents of this law there is no scientific evidence to support it”. To the contrary there is more scientific evidence to support placebo’s do more good than any other form of medication.
So I challenge you to discredit:
-the ability of placebo’s among dogs (and other animals)
-several high profile studies are showing that placebos work just as good as anti-depressants.
-You Can Placebo Yourself Into Inebriation
-Placebo Still Works even Though You Know its A Placebo
-One patient participating in a trial for antidepressant medication swallowed twenty-six of the placebo pills in a suicide attempt. Even though they were completely harmless, his blood pressure somehow dropped dangerously low.
I have become your fan after reading this article.
As you correctly put across, the law of attraction, as stated in “The Secret” book / movie, is actually delusional. If feeling & wishing could give everybody everything, then there would be no poverty, misery & evil in this world. No wonder so many people are failing and ending up in frustration.
This law in itself (as described in the book / movie) incorporates multiple laws in the background that need to be understood. For example, the law of cause & effect, the law of sowing & reaping, the law of prosperity, and last but not the least – the law of vibration. We need to master all these laws to lead a nearly perfect life.
I came across a wonderful concept known as destiny tuning. It is the missing ingredient in the law of attraction. Please do have a look at it – http://www.abundancearena.com/has-anyone-tried-destiny-tuning-technique
Hello, feeling and wishing blindly won’t create miracles. But they enables you visualize your goal and then you have clear thoughts of PROPER ACTIONS IN PROPER TIME that makes you focus on your true goals by repeatedly practicing it.That is called QUALITY THINKING. QUALITY THINKING enables one to create GOAL FOCUSED ACTIONS. And then you do actions to achieve them. This is what the book wants to tell us. But the book failed to explain the ROLE OF THOSE ACTIONS in life. Then many people blindly believed in MIRACLES EVENTUALLY HAPPEN without ACTIONS to change their life and eventually got lost.
My understanding is the one essential ingredient necessary for the LoA to begin to thrive is the accompanying Law of Allowing. The author of this article did not do his homework!!
Firstly, when you claim the law of attraction is untrue, it then becomes your responsibility to disprove it. You must provide your own empirical evidence to prove it does not work. All you have done is to discuss how there is no evidence that is does work, therefor the only conclusion a correct minded person could draw from your article is that the law of attraction might not be true. Secondly the basis of the law of attraction is based on believe and you shall see. The opposite is to see and you shall believe which is what you are waiting for. LOA requires a large use of the imagination and emotional energy to make changes in ones life to create and manifest your desires as most are creating things they dont desire through internal dialogs and negative emotions which then creates more of the undesired, reaffirming ones positioning as a victim ensuring one will continually meeting a victimizer. The closest this article gets the truth is in the title. If using your imagination could be considered delusional then you are correct, that is what may be what is necessary to obtain the desired shifts and results in you life. BTW, many survivors of the concentration camps were interviewed and the one thing they all had in common was that they believed they were not going to die in the camp and had a positive feeling that things would improve which are the 2 ingredients for the LOA.
I rather stick with the self-help concepts listed above and apply them as best as I can as I’ve done throughout my entire life.
That Law of Attraction theory somehow seems to me like a very ingenious and clever way for these people to sell their LoA books. Not to mention the documentaries they are making and the seminars that for sure they are holding everywhere. The target market seems enormous, though. Lots of people will probably want to buy several of those books since almost everyone on the planet wants to improve their lives in one way or another.
I hate to say it, though, but just 15 minutes into their Netflix LoA doumentary, titled The Secret, I came to the same conclusion discussed in this article by the author on why the LoA is more delusional than not. They smartly took several trendy self-help topics that we can all agree on, blended them into a far-fetched, easy to follow theory (think about it persistently and you get), and created a whole new, self-promoted, angle in order to write and sell bestselling books that will make them all filthy rich — that is, if they were not already born into privileged lives. They get so wealthy selling their made up delusion that some might even be able to join that 1% that they so cleverly spoke about in their Netflix documentary.
Well done for them but thanks but no thanks. Not for me. My advice to ya’ll… do good and try to think positive as much as possible, and just deal smartly with the bad or negative things that will happen to you throughout your short little life, folks… because for sure you will see plenty of the good, the bad, and the ugly while on this unforgiving world. Make the best of it. That is all there is.
Sorry loa fans and believers if law of attraction is that effective then why do more than 90 percent fail in fact i worked with the best teachers inlcuding abraham hicks for years yet despite what ever upgrades and improvments i make using law of attraction there are no big changes even with serious action. Sorry law of attraction is not a law but a theory.
There is soooo much stuff on youtube alone by individuals claiming they know how to better your lifes using manifestion methods and law of attraction etc
The thing is its human nature for us all to want something for nothing right i mean it worked for the Kardashians didnt it.
We all wish there was some magical and simplistic way to materialise what we want simply by wanting it or as some bloggers and books (the secret) claim by imagining you already have what you desire ,
Its no wonder these bloggers get so many views or books get good sales because they have hit on something that everyone wish was true, they are telling you what you dream of hearing, if we want something convince yourself you already have and let all the feelings of having what you desire to engulf you truely believe in it.
The problem actually comes after people tries all these methods wanting something so badly and believing in it no end and yet many months or years even and STILL NOTHING HAS MATERIALISED
The outcome often is that where you have mentally focussed and believed in your desire so adamantly and yet still nothing has materialised you can all too well sink into a DEPRESSION and this is due to the FACT you have been duped into convincing yourself this is some magical power and it is soo gonna work, these bloggers and the like will then answer your query as to why it didnt work simply by saying ( oh you must have had some self doubt in the back of your mind thats why it didnt commit because you didnt commit ? any excuse to enforce their blag.
End of the day all it does is play with your emotions because you are convinced to fully believe and remove all doubt and things will happen. BUT THEY DONT. end of the day it simply messes with your mind falsely getting your hopes up and leaving you in a state of depression.
I think the key point here is to be realistic, if you really want a nice car go and work for it, if you really want to be rich do your homework look through all avenues in which financial opportunity may come ie starting up a business maybe ? ie youll never get rich working for others,
reallytry to find motivation in going out there and bettering yourselfs. if its a certain man or woman you desire but this specific person doesnt know you yet then make the effort introduce yourself. if its someone that doesnt want you then dont wish for them to change their mind, accept itand move on somethings are meant to be ?
ultimately its probably best we stop believing in this baloney that by wanting something it will materialise.
The great Bruce lee once said DO NOT WISH FOR AN EASY DAY. INSTEAD WISH FOR THE STRENGTH TO OVERCOME A HARD ONE.
haha! that is why you attract all the negatives in the world
Law of attraction sucks. If you want something you have to work your ass off for it. Plain and simple.
When you think about your dreams the law of attraction prepares the opportunity you need to get your desire. No one said it will get you directly. For example if you think about becoming rich the law of attraction tries to lead you to get your desire, like you suddenly find a good jod in a news paper or what ever.
An interesting article, but I think you’re misunderstanding the Law of Attraction or maybe haven’t done your due research.
Thinking alone doesn’t attract miraculous things to you… no one says that. What it says is that we are vibrational beings who operate on levels of frequency, and being in a certain state or ‘frequency’ tunes you in to other experiences on that same frequency. Those things don’t magically appear. There’s a so-called ‘bridge of incidents’ comprised of inspired ACTIONS that get you there.
Joe Dispenza does a great job of explaining LOA from a Quantum perspective, maybe you should check him out.
It doest exist. I know.
The problem with your premise is that you are relying on the Law of Attraction “as expounded by Rhonda Byrne in her best-selling book, The Secret . . .” I have been using the principles for many years (about 40) and always found the book and its movie somewhat misleading because they very significantly oversimplify the process. They were originally intended to include information from Abraham-Hicks, but A-H was ultimately omitted. I don’t know why. But I suggest you start with A-H (their first book was Ask and It is Given), which I believe was the actual source of The Secret, then move on to other info, as suggested in Rose’s great comment above (August 5, 2020). I would start you with a Bruce Lipton (stem cell biologist) book or video on “The Biology of Belief,” before you even try to tackle Joe Dispenza (neuroscientist). And if you can handle Joe, you may be interested in Lothar Shafer’s (physicist) In Search of Divine Intelligence, or supposedly easier to read, Infinite Potential. And there are many, many more–some more helpful, others maybe not. None of this negates your work, as the 5 concepts you list above are consistent with the LOA. Bottom line: LOA and The Secret are not synonymous.
Nobody (other than you) says merely thinking about something will bring it into existence. I challenge you to find any proponent of law of attraction that doesn’t say you must take action. You’ve left out just enough to make your argument seem legitimate.
thanks for info.