'The Secret' - Law of Attraction (POV, Christian, Christ, scientology)

[michel]

These so called "New discoveries" make me laugh.........more often than not, they are a 're-packeged' version of something we have always known about.

When push comes to shove, Looking for a partner for life (for a woman) is down to sex, and finding a male who is "prettier, healthier, and more confident" than the next man, and one she believes will enable the two of them to pass on the very best of both their better genes..........

Freud was right; most of it is down to sex.

[maggie2]

Originally Posted by Scarlett Wampus

Maggie first of all I think its great that it worked for you. That really is very good indeed.

I would question though whether it could still work if individuals were also encouraged to ask questions about who they are, what they are responsible for and whether metaphysical idealism really fits their reality as snugly as the Law of Attraction says it does. I think it would still work but I think many of the things believed about the Law of Attraction would have to modified to do such questions justice.

Well, Scarlett,

I certainly have asked questions about who I am and still do. I also question what I'm responsible for on a daily basis.

Here's an example of what I mean by that. Yesterday my two daughters and both their pre-teen daughters were shopping for shoes for all the girls for my one daughter's wedding in June. By mid-afternoon I was beat and went off on my own for some quiet time. Later in the day my youngest daughter, who will be the maid-of-honor at the wedding found me and she was cranky and bitchy. I had actually been half asleep when she started whining at me and, unfortunately, I wasn't awake enough to tune in to the vibes around me. Instead of being able to repel her negative vibes I absorbed them and responded to her in kind, being almost as snappy as she had been.

I was not happy with myself over that because I choose to create win-win situations wherever possible and in this instance I didn't do that. After we parted on none too friendly terms I thought about the situation and asked myself what I was responsible for in what had transpired.

I realized that I know better than to let her push my buttons and I had let that happen. I could have said that I needed a minute to get my bearings before responding, I could have counted to 10 and didn't, I could have done a couple of other things but didn't. I was quickly able to see my part in the problem and decide what I needed to do to correct my part of it.

This evening I spoke to her on the phone and apologized for not tuning in before responding. I also explained what I wanted to do to get the shoe issue dealt with (it still hadn't been resolved by late yesterday). Lo and behold she also apologized. When I was able to be gracious and accept responsibility (not blame) for my part in the situation she too could do that. We have now totally gotten beyond the problem and are both looking forward to getting the shoes needed sometime in the next three weeks.

You speak about the Law of Attraction not fitting them 'snugly'. I don't think it fits anyone snugly when a person first starts to practice it. In fact, it may take a long time for it to fit well. I know in my own life it has taken me quite some time to be able to use the Law of Attraction successfully. And lots of times I still don't do as well as I'd like with it. It's a process, not something that you do and are finished with. It's like a journey that never ends as long as you're alive. It's not like going to University and getting a degree and then you're done.

"Often when people first hear this part of the Secret they recall events in history where masses of lives were lost, and they find it incomprehensible that so many people could have attracted themselves to the event. By the law of attraction, they had to be on the same frequency as the event. It doesn't necessarily mean they thought of that exact event, but the frequency of their thoughts matched the frequency of the event. If people believe they can be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they have no control over outside circumstances, those thoughts of fear, separation, and powerlessness, if persistent, can attract them to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." - Dr Joe Vitale

To believe that makes the mind omnipotent in the view of the person believing and that can be trouble. Belief is powerful but its not that powerful.

Let me tell you two stories that are absolutely true. Both demonstrate the power of our minds.

There was a man who worked for the railroad and he got locked in a cooler car on the train one evening. He couldn't get out and he thought the refrigeration unit was turned on. He had something he could write with and when they found him the next day he had written on the wall of the car, 'cold', 'getting colder', 'freezing' 'can't make it much longer' and a couple of other similar phrases. The man was found dead. The thing was though, the refrigeration unit WAS NOT WORKING on that car. He did not freeze to death from actual cold, he froze to death because he BELIEVED the unit was on.

Second example. There is a woman with multiple personality disorder. One of her personalities has diabetes and the others do not. When the personality with the diabetes is the one she's acting out she has diabetes. When that personality moves into the background she's perfectly healthy. Same body, different personality. Powerful mind!

I could provide you with other similar instances of the power of the mind, but those two are sufficient for now or I could be typing forever!

[maggie2]

Originally Posted by michel

These so called "New discoveries" make me laugh.........more often than not, they are a 're-packeged' version of something we have always known about.

When push comes to shove, Looking for a partner for life (for a woman) is down to sex, and finding a male who is "prettier, healthier, and more confident" than the next man, and one she believes will enable the two of them to pass on the very best of both their better genes..........

Freud was right; most of it is down to sex.

Holy cow, Michel,

I don't think I've ever disagreed with much you've said here on the forums but I have to disagree with half of this post.

I DO AGREE that this is nothing new. However, the science that proves it is fairly new and the way it is now being expressed is new. Kind of like the old, old versions of the Bible and the newer versions, same story, different way of expressing it.

What I disagree with is that it's all about sex. Most people think it's all about money. And actually, it's all about a balanced life where you create improvement in ALL areas, relational, spiritual, financial, intellectual and physical. And I assure you, Michel, I have seen vast improvements in my own personal life using these principles.

[Scarlett Wampus]

Maggie2 the mind is powerful no doubt although I wouldn't mind more information as to the origins of those stories. No offence intended but I suspect there is more to them than presented here.

Again, the point I'm trying to make is that the metaphysical beliefs the Law of Attraction is based upon skew things to make our desires and moods seem to have an inordinate amount of power which they do not.

I used to have a view of reality centred on power of the psycho-spiritual Will to affect change, in principle not unlike what The Secret promotes. Over the period of a few years I became unusually physically fit, popular and academically achieved. I believed this was because my Will was strong and so did members of the organisation I belonged to who shared belief in this doctrine. I was fiercely competitive and focussed so it was strong that regard but I also believed in a supernatural dimension to it. My confidence spiralled upwards in tandem with my sense of power & control over myself, others and the world in general. At the peak of all that I suddenly took a fall and became seriously ill.

Trying to understand what had gone wrong in the wake of that I realised that I'd had no appreciation of my physical limits. I'd pushed my body far beyond the threshold of what it should be subjected to because I believed so much in "mind over matter" I didn't acknowledge that there was a threshold. I'd also mistaken my previous success for being almost solely due to my Will without acknowledging that a large part of it was due to factors I had nothing to do with personally: I'd been lucky when it came to inherited looks, physical strengths, intelligence, finances, etc.

Focussed effort and conviction can do astonishing things but are quite powerless without the adequate resources to make use of them. Also if focused effort and conviction don't operate within reasonable limits then at some point we are going to discover actual limits whether we "attract" them to us or not. That's what you need to know about the real secret. No pseudo-science or metaphysical idealism is necessary to make use of it, thankfully.