A Leaf in the Wind − 14 August, 2007
The Law of Attraction is commonly associated with New Age and New Thought theories. It states people experience the corresponding manifestations of their predominant thoughts, feelings, words, and actions and that people therefore have direct control over reality and their lives through thought alone. A person's thoughts (conscious and unconscious), emotions, beliefs and actions are said to attract corresponding positive and negative experiences "through the resonance of their energetic vibration." The "law of attraction" states "you get what you think about; your thoughts determine your experience." The idea has received intense criticism from multiple circles in the media, the scientific community, and even other areas of the New Age Movement.
You want a new car. All you have to do is think about it really hard, imagine yourself getting it, and BAM. The universe will provide it. Ask, and you shall surely receive.
I cry bullshit. A thousand times I cry it. It's new age mystical nonsense at its finest, but somehow its managed to win over so many people. Surely nothing but a slew mindless hopefuls. Or maybe they're just hopeful. I suppose you can't blame someone for that.
Cheryl is the one that brought this up to me. What had a long conversation about whether or not it was possible, and what kind of pressure that would put on a person if their happiness rested squarely in their own hands like that. She asked me what I thought, if life was ours to control, or if there was an ultimate fate waiting for us.
I told her everything happens by chance.
"So, what? There's just no point to life? You just... get old and die? That's so depressing, to think that you get nothing out of being alive."
"I don't think it's a depressing view at all. On the contrary, I think there's something beautiful about making your own destiny and writing your own story. It's a sort of freedom."
"But there's no point to it."
"I wouldn't say there's no point. I think you have the find the point in every day. and you have to make yourself happy. That's one of the greatest points of life right there, avoiding misery and somehow making yourself happy."
"So it's like a game."
"Yeah," I said. "Yeah.... yeah."
"I don't know about that. I like to think there's some kind of reason behind what happens in life, that we're headed in some kind of direction. It's just too saddening to think that we don't really live for anything."
I respected her opinion, valued it even. Eventually, she got off the phone to go to bed, but I was left with her words buzzing in my ears. Who really knows if there's a point or not to what we do. I suppose we won't know until it's all been said and done.
You want a new car. All you have to do is think about it really hard, imagine yourself getting it, and BAM. The universe will provide it. Ask, and you shall surely receive.
I cry bullshit. A thousand times I cry it. It's new age mystical nonsense at its finest, but somehow its managed to win over so many people. Surely nothing but a slew mindless hopefuls. Or maybe they're just hopeful. I suppose you can't blame someone for that.
Cheryl is the one that brought this up to me. What had a long conversation about whether or not it was possible, and what kind of pressure that would put on a person if their happiness rested squarely in their own hands like that. She asked me what I thought, if life was ours to control, or if there was an ultimate fate waiting for us.
I told her everything happens by chance.
"So, what? There's just no point to life? You just... get old and die? That's so depressing, to think that you get nothing out of being alive."
"I don't think it's a depressing view at all. On the contrary, I think there's something beautiful about making your own destiny and writing your own story. It's a sort of freedom."
"But there's no point to it."
"I wouldn't say there's no point. I think you have the find the point in every day. and you have to make yourself happy. That's one of the greatest points of life right there, avoiding misery and somehow making yourself happy."
"So it's like a game."
"Yeah," I said. "Yeah.... yeah."
"I don't know about that. I like to think there's some kind of reason behind what happens in life, that we're headed in some kind of direction. It's just too saddening to think that we don't really live for anything."
I respected her opinion, valued it even. Eventually, she got off the phone to go to bed, but I was left with her words buzzing in my ears. Who really knows if there's a point or not to what we do. I suppose we won't know until it's all been said and done.
Comments:
Electronic Goose (August 15, 2007. 03:15am)
I don't think it's depressing either. It's beautiful, that chance created all this ... but you're working yourself up for a hard philosophical debate when you throw destiny in there ...
Oblivious (August 15, 2007. 03:18am)
I couldn't agree with you more.
peahayes (May 1, 2008. 03:51am)
When I read "you get what you think about; your thoughts determine your experience." I think about cognitive-behavioral therapy (if that's the right term), which teaches that if you change your behavior/thinking, you can change your feelings. So I personally don't take the Law of Attraction literally as it's stated above. But the idea that if you are depressed or are feeling pain, but can help to heal yourself by changing your thought patterns is very appealing. It suggests that you can take control of your destiny. Not completely, of course, because there are always events beyond your control. But you are not powerless, is, I think what it's suggesting.
intrepideddie (May 2, 2008. 01:58am)
Yeah, this drivel (with the exception of Pea Eye's take on it) is epitomized in that crap book/video going around "The Secret." Just for the sake of scientific investigation, I tried a little experiment. For over a month I thought the happy thoughts with the goal of, er, "male enhancement." Nothing. A month wasted. On a completely unrelated note, I did come across the largest rooster I've ever seen...