Law of Attraction is popular but is it science or hocus pocus?

We will lay out the philosophy of the Law of Attraction and then probe it.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE LAW OF ATTRACTION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS:

The Law of Attraction claims that there is an unavoidable law that we all have to deal with, that what you think about is what you attract. The more you think about it the more you attract what you think about.

Attraction is energy. This energy does not consist of parts. But it is real. It is a monad. It is not a material or physical entity. Nothing can exist unless it is attracted. The energy transformed into matter at the Big Bang. All things are made out of the power of attraction. Attraction is not an intelligence or a personal being. It is just a power. Any simple thing can become a complicated entity. And so it is with the law of attraction. The law of attraction made us.

We are of its power and its power is ours to enjoy. The Law of Attraction is not magic or occult or supernatural. It is natural.

The teaching of the Law of Attraction is vital for helping us to feel good and safe in the world. Even if the Law of Attraction is untrue and does us no good it won't do us any harm! Lovers feel its power. They see that there is a power in their love that draws blessings. Nobody senses the magic better than they do.

Like attracts like. This is more true than in the power of thoughts than anything else. If you inflict unhappy thoughts on yourself you will draw unhappy events and people into your life.

Psychologists believe that your thoughts control your experience. If you are in a wonderful situation, you will make it a misery for yourself by your negative thoughts and beliefs about it. You will destroy its potential to be a wonderful experience for you. This is based on the idea of the Law of Attraction.

We go further than the psychologists. We hold that the power of the Law of Attraction is psychic as well as psychological. The power of the Law of Attraction is the power of the mind. Each thought is a psychological and a psychic magnet. What we attract by them is up to us. It can be good for us. It can be not so good for us. We can bring money into our lives by the power of thought and the power of desire alone by using invisible forces.

Believers in the law of attraction use affirmations to make what they want to happen happen. These affirmations can be very beguiling eg: I believe that the visible and invisible power of the love we wonderful human beings create, heals all of us. I believe my unconditional love reaches out to the edges of the universe to heal, empower and bless.

Or: I believe in the power of love and that it is stronger than any imperfection. My heart is a temple of this power.

If you don't have your perfect life, your perfect house, your perfect inner peace, your perfect health and your perfect love interest then you have not used the law. This is your responsibility alone.

Evaluation: Thoughts are a form of action and have consequences but the law of attraction sees thoughts as things you act with. If thoughts are not things or powers, then the law of attraction is nonsense.

The law however blames thinking negative things for the evil in the world. Thoughts become things. Thoughts create reality. You use the thoughts to create reality but the thoughts are the real makers and creators. You are just directing them. So you are the reason a thought is bad - you could have it good instead.

As Starhawk says of the law, "It is hard to imagine a philosophy that could more swiftly produce extreme paranoia." No wonder for it clearly blames the victim and if the blame is in the wrong - which it is - then things can only get worse. The child who is raped is to blame for the rape and the rapist deserves pity for what this bad child made him do. We simply cannot avoid fearing having bad thoughts and the bad thoughts of others. Bad thoughts are inevitable. If bad thoughts are things then bad is a thing too. It is like you put the thing bad in the thing called thought to make the thought bad too. No thought can be all good. For example, being treated in hospital only happens because somebody else in this world doesn't have a chance.

An innocent baby dies in a dreadful fashion. Why?

So you are faced with a choice -

#blame God for what happened

#blame the baby, past life, baby had bad thoughts?

#blame somebody who was responsible for the baby for thinking the wrong thoughts

The doctrine of the law of attraction says the hideous death of the baby was caused by harmful thoughts and forces and by the disorder we have brought through them into the spiritual world and the physical world. It says, all the "wrong" we do makes the world a worse place. To hurt another person without need or justification is saying, "I am a wrongdoer", and it is affirming that you affiliate yourself with your enemy, the harm and the forces that do harm. It calls harm on yourself. It is a negative affirmation. Negative energy being irrational in itself will not care who it attacks - even the doer.

This an appalling doctrine. Believers will reply that it is true that doing harm has bad consequences, mystical and mundane, but we may escape the consequences. But if so then other people may suffer them instead. That way they can avoid blaming the baby and blame those who have negative energy. But it follows that we should try to absorb the badness so that it torments and kills us instead of poor babies who never got a chance.

Then if God should be respected - some atheists think God if not real should be a respected doctrine - then you must blame the child! God comes first and God makes the child so the child is nothing in comparison. God is the ultimate bad thought! What about hell?

People seem to want to believe in it clearly despite the evidence. For example, why does the law not kill your political rivals? Why do hated tyrants still thrive and live in glory?

There are people who buy safes in the prospect of putting the money the law of attraction will bring them into them. And the safes remain empty. Those who think the law of attraction works get a more positive frame of mind and that can be helpful. But there is nothing occult in this. The law of attraction when taken in sense that thoughts become things as in thoughts of becoming a world ruler will become real accuses murder victims and rape victims of attracting or causing their fate. That is a revolting doctrine. The law of attraction appeals to people who want to think it is working for them but who show no regard for the insult heaped on others less fortunate.

Those who claim to believe in the law of attraction, say that a single momentary thought can attract disaster. If the law is true, one momentary thought can do this. One thought that you might have cancer attracts cancer. Thinking long-term that there is something wrong when there isn't can lead to depression. The more you think bad things and things that make you feel bad, the worse you will feel. If the law of attraction were true, it would not matter how much you think something bad. But it does and so the law of attraction is false.

Please perceive how evil and slanderous and judgmental it is to say that one thought can lead to great suffering and disaster.

Even if a person does not get cancer, the believer will say that they did draw it to themselves but then better thoughts cancelled out the attraction. That automatically accuses everybody on the planet of enabling and attracting and making cancer.

Science would need to scientifically prove the law of attraction before it could work with it. But it cannot be proved.

The Law of Attraction says that what you attract to you will come to you magically. What we need is more important than what we want. Teachers say we might use the Law of Attraction for what we want. If we forget what we need, and ask for what we want, we are telling the universe to give us gratification even if we will later regret it. This is a very important rule for them. If the Law of Attraction leads to disaster for practitioners the rule gives the teachers an excuse for saying the Law of Attraction is true. The problem is it leaves nobody really sure if it works or not. Making excuses for its failure could be masking its ineffectiveness.

Suppose the law is really true. If you use the law of attraction and harbour beliefs that contradict it though you feel unaware of the contradiction, on some level you will see the contradiction. The contradictions will annul and weaken the power of the law of attraction in your life. That is why it is so essential to sever links with faiths and religions and outlooks that deny the supernatural power of the mind and the divinity of every living thing. But again it gives people a way to cover up the law if the law is bullshit.

The Law of Attraction demands patience for the magic to bear fruit. "Do not wait around in a state of panicky impatience for your inner powers to deliver the blessings you have ordered. Trust that your powers know the best time and the best place to manifest the blessings. The trust itself is an affirmation that empowers your request. Impatience is a sign of fear and mistrust. It will dilute your powers." When you are patient, you will see the magic as bearing fruit or about to though it is not. It's a good trick to stop you seeing that what is helping is not the magic but your positive attitude. If you are stressed enough while waiting to get what you used the Law of Attraction, it may happen that if you get it you will decide it was not worth it and take no pleasure in it. You will not even the law did you any good. The law cannot be perceived to work unless you have a positive patient attitude. It is not the law that helps but the attitude.

Unrealistic optimism is dangerous. Keep your perception evidence based instead of thinking that good things are coming regardless of how it looks.

Believers often say the Law of Gravity is a form of the Law of Attraction. But gravity existing does not mean you can magnetically attract a mansion to yourself.

"Gravity is a form of the law of attraction. It keeps the universe organised sufficiently. One day it will suck the whole universe in and there will be nothing but attraction as pure monadic energy. But there will be a Big Bang. We program today what that Big Bang will be like. If you want to be Britney Spears or Madonna or Jesus Christ in the next universe that can happen. Just make sure that you want to be better off than they are now!" When put like that the doctrine is very attractive but it is nonsense.

Is the law of attraction only valid for winning virtue? If you believe that your efforts to become less avaricious and more generous will work that does help the process. But that is only because it is you encouraging yourself and seeing some results that will keep getting better and better. It is not the law of attraction.

Among devotees of the law of attraction, fear creates what you fear. So if you eat healthily to avoid heart problems you will get heart problems.  Every tomato is poison.  This is how evil the law is.

No version of the law of attraction that is about becoming a better person as in more virtuous interests anybody. That is significant.

The notion of the law of attraction as being a catalyst for becoming more caring and noble instead of rich and beautiful would make a good substitute for religion and God. Pity it cannot be correct. As flawed as it is, it is better than condoning a God who creates suffering.