I've often referred to The Law of Attraction as being the Self Help/New Age equivalent of Christian Word of Faith. But in all honestly I'd never actually read or listened to LOA. So I recently decided to download the abridged version of the audio book from Audible. I just wanted to post my initial thoughts about it here.
The thing that surprised me the most was that the recording was from the eighties and was of Esther Hicks actually channelling the group of discarnate entities collectively known as "Abraham". Esther spoke with what I'd describe as an Eastern European accent while speaking on behalf of Abraham. She sounded rather robotic, a bit like an alien, I thought. I was not expecting this at all and felt it was a bit creepy. As you'd expect, there are red flags throughout the recording for most Christians. Only Freebelievers would be open-minded enough to listen all the way through. For example, there are references to reincarnation.
The main issue, which is the very essence of the theory, is that you are in complete control of your life through your thoughts; you can have anything you want if you can believe it; everything that happens to you is the result of the focus of your thinking. If you're the victim of an injustice then its your fault, because you attracted it through your wrong thinking. I believe that much of what happens in life is, to an extent, random. We often develop beliefs based upon random life occurrences. The study of this is known as Operant Conditioning.
I do believe to an extent, that our beliefs do attract circumstances to us, according to what we believe: whether they are good or bad. I’ve experienced this myself, I believe, many times. I also believe in some sort of "karma": if a person is driven by negative beliefs, attitudes, thoughts and emotions - they will attract negative circumstances as a result, directly or indirectly. This could be likened to some degree to punishment for sin - but more of a correction, a learning process, than mere punishment. But this operates on a more direct, physical level as well as a spiritual level. For instance, if a person's attitude is proud, their inevitable rudeness towards another will likely provoke hostility from them. Such a person cannot exactly say they are being punished by God as a result of this. If a person is depressed all the time, its likely they'll do little to attract other people to them, other than people who themselves are dull and depressed. I feel LOA does not quite cover this idea of karma. Although it could be implied through the generic idea of LOA.
There is no mention of God or a divine plan for your life. But to be fair, LOA does emphasise the fact that your inner being knows what is best for you and what you really want - I agree with that. But there seems to be no allowing for the fact that many people are confused and don't know what they want on a conscious level; or they think they know what they want, but actually want the wrong things; or they want the right things but with wrong motives. The focus of LOA is on what you want. In fact, Abraham constantly repeats the phrase, "What you are wanting", over and over again like a mantra.
I've covered what I see as the bad points - are there any good points? Actually, yes, there are. I do believe in some kind of Law of Attraction: our persistent thoughts creating beliefs that attract circumstances of like-kind to us. I like the focus on our thoughts attracting like thoughts, people and circumstances. I like the fact that the focus is on self, rather than trying to control or judge others. When you realise that you are responsible (to whatever extent) for what happens in your life - you can take action to attract what it is you actually want. Then there is no need to control or judge other people, who are responsible for their own destiny.
LOA does not recommend monitoring all of our thoughts. But to simply be aware of this universal law and to make an effort to focus on the things you really want, instead of what you don't want. They recommend spending 15-20 minutes each day in a "workshop" in which you focus on what you want, with positive emotion. I like this idea of a workshop: it seems simple and practical.
In conclusion, I believe there could be something viable to the Law of Attraction - if you are open-minded about it. There are some things that you might no agree with, but you can mentally filter them out. The focus on being able to have anything you want through your thoughts, is somewhat exaggerated and imbalanced, in my opinion. But I like the focus on what you think about the most - you are likely to attract. The 15 minute workshop is a great idea. But it does not account for those who are immature, imbalanced and insecure. Personally, I unsuccessfully dabbled with ideas such as LOA in the past. I'm returning to things like this now because I've matured over recent years, so I feel ready to try these things. This maturity has come through time and experience, often painful experience. As a Christian, I had to detox from religion through the grace message: Joseph Prince's righteousness-by-faith emphasis, followed by Freebeliverism. At the same time as FBN, I also started The Work of Byron Katie, which helped me greatly in letting go of negative, confusing beliefs.
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