The Law of Attraction - Overview and History

I was recently pondering how much I believe in the Law of Attraction. I am sure that most people in the self-help and New Age communities have heard of The Law of Attraction. This phenomenon has been made popular in recent years by Esther and Jerry Hicks who claim to have received revelation from a discarnate entity named Abraham. I used to believe in discarnate entitles such as guides, but now as a Christian I tend to believe in angels and evil spirits instead.

I believe the Wikipedia definition of The Law of Attraction provides a basic overview of what it is and provides a brief history of it. There is quite a lot on the internet about this subject: if you Google the term “law of attraction” it will return a lot of links. I found this link near the top of the list of results returned, which I feel gives a rather good overview of the process. I think the official website for the Law of Attraction is found here.

It might surprise some people to learn that The Law of Attraction is not something that is entirely new: the concept of like-attracts-like and that the thoughts we think continually are what determine our life experiences – has been around for some time now. I was first switched-on to this concept back in 1993 or 1994 when I read the book The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Dr Joseph Murphy (1898-1981). You can read a brief description of the life and works of Dr. Murphy here. Apparently, Murphy wrote his first book, The Miracles of Your Mind, in 1953; he wrote his third book, the classic The Power of Your Subconscious Mind in 1962; so you can see that this concept of law of attraction is not entirely new.

The Wikipedia definition of law of attraction makes mention of author Napoleon Hill who in 1937 published his classic book Think and Grow Rich. This book emphasises the concept that our thoughts attract other thoughts of a like kind and that success and prosperity in life is to be found in controlling our thoughts. Some people believe that the underlying message in this book points us towards the law of attraction.