Law of Attraction

Our Leader doesn't really post on this board anymore. I don't even know if he reads the posts. You might want to email him your request. And no, I couldn't find anything in the Zen Habits archives that shows his opinion on the Law of Attraction. I could fill you in on my own opinion, but that isn't relevant to your question.

Nice image. Kind of made me facepalm for a second, until I realized it's not in your signature. If it were in your signature, I would have to keel you now.

Hi guys ... just wanted to let you know where I stand on the LOA, as asked here ... just remember that I'm just one guy, and this is just one guy's opinion, but since it was asked ...

I don't really believe in the Law of Attraction. I believe that it can work, but not for the reasons claimed in the "law" (which is not really a law or even a scientific theory, as it cannot be proven false).

The reason the Law of Attraction can work is because someone following it does the following three things:

1) Very specifically states what he/she wants -- something many people fail to do otherwise.

2) Constantly focuses on it.

3) Actually takes action to make it happen. This part isn't a part of LOA, but it naturally follows from 1 & 2.

The combination of those things will, more likely than not, make a desire or goal come true.

But not for the reasons that are stated in the Law of Attraction, as I've seen it stated. Most statements of the Law of Attraction (there are different definitions, which makes it hard to argue against it) use pseudo-scientific explanations for why LOA works, about how our thoughts go out into the physical world and influence it somehow. Various scientific phenomena, such as electromagnetism, are used in some of the explanations, but there have been no actual scientific studies done to support this theory, as far as I know. And as I said, the LOA cannot be proven false, and if a theory cannot be proven false, it is not scientific.

However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't take what is useful from LOA and put it into practice. If you can very specifically state what you want, constantly keep that goal on your mind (focus), and (this is important) take actual action to make it happen, you will have a great chance at achieving anything you put your mind to doing.

I'd love to hear more from others on what they think about this. Thanks for the great question, calande! I plan to repost this on Zen Habits, so thank you!

Man, it's starting to sound like I need to actually read this thing and see for myself what everyone is debunking.

For those who didn't notice, Our Leader went on to post a revised version of this article on the main site.

I'm moving this to the Philosophy section.

Well the LOA seems to be attracting a nice load of cash for Rhonda Byrne at the moment :wink:

All cynicism aside as the debunkers do state the LOA isn't so much a law as more as stating the damn obvious...if you devise a clearly though out goal, focus on the you self actualising the goal and then dedicate yourself to taking the necessary steps to achieve said goal, there is a pretty good chance you will succeed in your endevour.

If nothing else, I think the success of The Secret and all it's many spin offs highlights how desperate we have all become in the search of happiness and self fulfillment....I see the LOA as in many ways the self help equivilant of selling snake oil.
I suppose many of the new adherents to the LOA will be convinced that they have indeed found 'The Secret' but if they had applied basic common sense to their goal setting in the first place they could have saved themselves the price of admission.

Faith is powerful and always implies belief in something not entirely tangible or certain. Those of us who prefer belief in science, tend to find practical reasons why something like the so-called law of attraction works while those who prefer magical or religious elements to their faith tend to find them in one book or another. Like Lou, I believe the "law" works because we focus and stick to the search for everything we encounter that can add to and aid us to achieve our goals... and so we eventually achieve them.

There seems to be no doubt that this works. We can speculate on the science and psychology behind it, but there's lots we still don't know for sure about why. We can see many people with no more faith than Lou's principles succeeding using those principles. If others want to add "reasons" why it works to help them believe, I don't see anything wrong with that unless they start trying to require me to believe likewise.

Wow, I didn't expect my tiny little post to hit the ZH front page, I'm touched! :)
Thanks for your opinion. I believe in LOA because all of us feel attracted or rejected by others, and there are reasons behind it (positive or negative feelings among others). However, I'm not convinced by most scientific explanations that are exposed on the web.

But there are charismatic and positive people who attract to themselves many smart, wealthy, creative and hardworking people, while bad-tempored people attract only problems to themselves. This is something we can experience in real life :roll:

If you consider the LOA essentially the same as you would think about the power of intention, then this is something that has been and is currently being studied in a scrupulously scientific manner. You can find an overview in Lynne Mctaggarts The Intention Experiment, or on the IONS website (www.noetic.org). There is a notable amount of scientific proof at this point that thoughts have and/or are energy and as such have an effect on the world around us.

Be well always-Joel

That intention experiment thing sounds like something Stu would be interested in to write about on his happiness blog. I'd love to see him parse it down to an understandable soundbyte. While you're at it, ask him about The Secret.

Our Leader.

-"FekketCantenel"

LOL you had me cracking up with this. Sounds like Leo's starting a cult! I haven't read Secret, but I largely agreed with Leo's post on the subject. Our Leader knows what's up. ;)

I call him that all the time. Read the Monthly Challenge 'post your challenge here' thing. I hope it becomes a meme around here.

I think I'll not bother with The Secret, since someone complained that the book was one long repetition of the same idea through various examples. Last time I sat through that was when I read Getting Things Done cover-to-cover. Abridged versions for me!

I think I'll not bother with The Secret, since someone complained that the book was one long repetition of the same idea through various examples. Last time I sat through that was when I read Getting Things Done cover-to-cover. Abridged versions for me!

-"FekketCantenel"

Yep, The Secret is not an original concept, it is purely various examples of the LoA culled from a multitude of sources.

I'm sure there are probably far better books out there that explain the theory.

I think I'll not bother with The Secret, since someone complained that the book was one long repetition of the same idea through various examples.

-"FekketCantenel"

I am bothered that I read it. I resisted for soooooo long. The book was even 45 percent off by the time I caved in. I found myself telling the shopkeeper that 'I'm not some crazy New-Age nutjub' as that is how I had thought of Secret believers.

The fact that I was self-conscious about it was unexpected, but quite telling.

It was amazingly repetitive and states in one chapter that 'The Universe is your catalog. Whatever you want, it can be yours.'

The repetion was ridiculous, but it does drill the point into your head.
That particular quote bothered me because I felt like it is not stressing positive thinking but rather commercializing the LOA.

I read a book by Esther and Jerry Hicks that I liked initially but found it had a strong religious undertone....which was not what I was looking for.


However, since reading these two books, I have made a giant leap in retraining my thinking. I don't know that I would have done this without a bit of guidance.

Hi Guys.
You can find a lot of nonsense about the law of attraction,
because 'the Secret' is the popular version of it.
But that does not mean that there is no essential truth about it.
I am writing a website about this. If you are interested, please visit:
http://www.lawofattraction-fourthway.com/index.html
Rudolph. :)

Eh, The Secret... nothing more than an extremely well marketed repetitive book full of an old idea.

Leo has made a good point; most people don't know what they want (#1) - my own wife told me so the other day!

As for the second point Leo made (#2), I believe that most people focus on what they don't want, which is why they get more of what they DON'T WANT.

There is a very subtle difference here. Recognizing this sublety will make all the diffrence for you. You can read more about it here.