My Critique of "The Secret" and Law of Attraction

[Craig Browning]

Ok, I watched Louise Hay literally go from nothing to being one of the heavy weights of the New Age movement during the 80's and yes, she started many years earlier "affirming" that she'd become a vital "source" in the L.A. spiritual community. It took a bit of time and nearly loosing it all to boot, but she got there and she brought an handful of friends with her, including Marianne Williamson. I say this, I was there!

So on your point about the mind/thought setting the focus and allowing us to "see" those opportunities that allow us to move forward and create our reality, you are kind of correct. Kind of, in that everything comes with a price, this too is a law within mysticism and life itself -- NOTHING IS EVER FREE THERE IS ALWAYS AN EXCHANGE. With Louise and Marianne both I saw them loose a great deal of their down-to-earth sense of connection with people in exchange for business success and propelling that carnal enterprise forward, frequently with curious rehash when it comes to the material shared. . . but that goes with the territory, I can't list the number of New Age writers who've plagiarized Victorian writers like DeLawrence and Blavatsky or any number of great spiritual icons from around the world, claiming it to be "channeled" or insinuating that it's their own view and they got it from no source but their own heart. . . an odd thing given that they have books by the very people they "paraphrase".

Your contention however, like most New Age material, negates the law of Karma let alone Reincarnation and the fact that we are responsible for our past-life transgressions. So given that the most dominate energy from that previous lifetime will be part of who we are in this new life be it positive or negative, how does all this "Self-Creation" fit the bill? There's a huge probability that your personal karma is going to nix those lofty goals so that your own soul path find balance and is able to actually learn the lessons you are supposed to be learning rather than running from them and trying to "fix it" but accumulating more and more negative karma by way of your ego-based self-centerdness.

So many that follow New Age ideologies RUN when faced with such points in fact; on one hand they will talk about Karma and Reincarnation, etc. even Hermetics and yet, when those same principles start regulating and negating self-will and fantasy, they come up with excuses. My favorite being the re-write that all Karma is instant and does not transfer from life to life even thought that's what's been taught for thousands of years the world over. This newer idea however, is more commercially appealing, isn't it? But even on that level, it cannot explain away the fact that karma can and will affect those various affirmations -- there is an "outside" influence that can only be controlled when we deal with it head on and learn the lessons it offers us.

One can become rich & famous by way of focus but as I've said, there is a price. I was offered the world in my younger days but only if I made certain compromises such as being a rent-boy to older, very powerful men that could hand me my career. So long as I was willing to to keep my personal beliefs and points of view "Politically Proper" when in so-called Polite Society. Too, I had to be willing to apply "pressure" in ways that would be to my personal benefit, which is a kind way of saying that one must use creative intimidation and even "muscle" from time to time, keeping an ear to the ground so you could usurp any advantage the competition might be gaining and so on.

I ended up known but not part of the upper crust because I wouldn't sell my soul -- the price of doing business. I've certainly lived an amazing life and even tasted what it would be like to be part of that high profile life but I couldn't and wouldn't pay the asking price. This is what these teachings leave out.

NO, I'm not saying that all people with money or fame are corrupt or evil, only that there is a price. The majority of upper-middle-class bums simply have to work 60-70 hours a week, have no true "family life" and ultimately pay with their health. They must still deal with office politics and the schmooze the client games a.k.a. dirty pool. Not the scale of manipulation and usury we've seen with Microsoft and other such "pseudo-monopolies" but even a generous soul pays for his/her sins in life, so take a long hard look at his price.

Pardon my rant, but I've not only played these games over the years as a patron, I used to make the pitch. I can no longer do so because I know where the gaps and inconsistencies lay as well as what kind of racket it actually is. Sorry, but 35 years in the business and I've become quite jaded. Not because of "failure" but because of the lies.

[craig weiler]

I think that the law of attraction as featured in The Secret works just fine. People all over the world are getting exactly the lives that they believe they can have.

The problem is that people don't understand their true intent. Few people can face their deepest fears and therefore have no access to their true subconscious expectations. You are not going to get the material possessions you dream about or fame or wealth if your subconscious doesn't really want them for some reason.

It's quite simple. You can tell where you're head's at by where your feet are at. We are already living up (or down) to our expectations.

It takes a bit of the old spiritual warrior inside of us to recognize and honor this, no matter how unpleasant.

[Craig Browning]

[Scepcop]

Hi all,
A LOA blogger named Melody Fletcher is taking the time to address my LOA critique article on her blog. She will be addressing it in a four part series. I told her that I'd post it in my forum to thank her for taking the time. Here is part 1 of 4:

http://www.deliberateblog.com/2012/03/2 ... ic-part-1/

It is in response to my LOA critique here:

http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/LawofAttraction.htm

Hope you all find it interesting.

[Gforcewarp9]

Back in the 80's when I was in the punk scene, we hated hippies just because of this kind of crap. Namely, we felt that their attitudes were fake, which "manifests" itself ever so nicely in this smug idea that we are all creating our own reality with our thoughts. Yeah, O.K, please go tell starving children in Sub Saharan Africa to try "visualizing abundance." Or, I know, tell them it's their "karma" and that we choose our parents before we're born! In any case, in my 20's and 30's, I traveled around the country quite a lot, which invariably led me into scenes with a lot of hippies, as the traveling punk and rainbow hippie scene really do intertwine considerably, despite my earlier negative feelings about hippies, becoming friends with people in that scene was unavoidable, and I still have many of those friends to this day. However: after living in places such as Boulder, CO., Tucson, AZ--( where I once watched a couple of Rainbow Hippie chicks holding hands and skip into traffic as nothing could happen to them, because they were like little magical hippie faeries! They almost caused an accident! ARGHH.) Port Townsend, WA, and last but not least Cortes Island, BC-- I can tell you I've had just about enough of this New Age nonsense all ready! The link to the article "New Age Bullies" really says it all.
When my son born, he cried and screamed all day and all night for hours and hours on end. My husband and I had no sleep for many, many months. After 6 months, I was running on about 3 hours of broken sleep a night. I had him in and out of the medical clinic every other week. It was the hardest, and loneliest time of my life. I didn't have a lot of friends at the time on Cortes, and my mother who only lived there part time was gone for the winter. I went to a "mom's and babes" group and told the group what was going on with our sons crying and screaming and our subsequent intense lack of sleep. Not one, but four women got up one at a time and said a version of this: "well, I know that when I'm stressed or in a negative space, it affects my baby..." I went for support, and what I got, was passive aggressive judgement. I literally walked down the hall afterword with my son in the Baby Bjorn on my chest while giving the finger with both hands. Now, gee, I had gone there "expecting" support and empathy, and I got the opposite. so according to hardcore LOA adherents, I need to check in with my subconscious thoughts? Wow I screwed up again!
At a baby group many months down the road I attended because a nurse was coming to talk about safety issues. I remember saying something out loud about how I would be terrified if my son started choking, and another mother (young, hippie, yoga teacher...yada yada) says "just don't visualize it too much." Now this is the same woman, who had a child with no Midwife or any other medical attention on the Island (to far away from a hospital for legal home births with a mid-wife)luckily, everything turned out O.K, but if you asked her if she was scared, she would tell you "she just didn't dwell on it." (Incidentally, another couple on a neighboring island tried this a few months back and the non licensed midwife and had to call the ambulance and the baby didn't breath for over 10 minutes...) On the face of it, sure, don't spend to much time worrying about things that haven't happened--but I don't think that's what she meant. I think she meant, if I don't "visualize" it, because that could "make" it happen! Well crap, if that's the case, I should certainly have brought down a passenger jet with all 300 other passengers on it while I was very intensely "visualizing" the plane plummeting to Earth--which by the way, happens every time I fly. Now, some might say that the 300 people counter-acted my "negative" visualization, however even if that's true, than my thoughts really don't create everything. What horse shite it all is. I am a 3d generation worry wort, passed down to me from my grandfather who was a prodigious worry wort. So far, none of the terrifying things I imagine have come to pass (I'm knocking on wood despite my belief that it's a silly superstition) and most of the smaller things I worry about don't either. And, despite all my worrying, good and wonderful things still manage to come my way. I don't get everything I want, but who does?
While I certainly agree that having a positive attitude is a useful tool for dealing with life, and may certainly have an affect on you life, I believe LOA is just like any other religion-- sold as a comforting elixer to sooth our existential terror that we're not in control. In other words, all so much magical thinking.

[Craig Browning]

Gforcewarp9, you seem to be bitter at the world and unwilling to accept any kind of responsibility about your own reality. Like so many, your lack of "faith" is what keeps you from seeing how there is a truth to the metaphysical explanations and yes, it does explain why we have so many starving and impoverished people in the world as well as deformed children or "accidents", etc. Your experiences focusing on the extremes -- those that live in the fantasy world, as I call it, vs. those that are a bit more inclusive when it comes to actual metaphysical principle. "New Age" types love to find loop holes, especially when it comes to Karma; literally rewriting what this law is, does and its area of effect. The Lord Buddha has many stories in his life about times he didn't collect tithes or was harmed or suffered loss and he ALWAYS tied it to past life situations and his earned karma. Today's New Age types want us to believe that Karma only happens in our current lifetime and in the "now" vs. from life to life, as has been taught for millennia. To this end I think we actually agree on the idea of how "fake" these people are not to mention how smug and un-god-like they are when it comes to being a living example. Quite frankly, they're just as annoying as those fanatical Christians out there trying to save everyone's soul.

Your experiences of rejection and "not feeling the love" however, do come from how you have rejected and looked down at the very people you sought help from -- you literally created this problem for yourself. The fact that you've shared it here tells me that you are looking for a way to fix your life and get out of your hole but I'd say, given how much venom you seem to have stored away that you're not ready to deal with what must be done to fix it all. The course isn't directly mystical and filled with meditation, chanting, etc. though aspects of the system that will help you, evolved out of that world. Point blank, you need some serious mental health counseling and possibly more; you need to have someone that can help you look at yourself a bit more honestly than you're used to doing and find where you have created the issues in your life. 12-step Programs would call this an "Inventory" or 4th step but there's more to it than that. That fact is, dealing with your own inner-truths is universal and clinically proven to be the second step towards correcting the direction your life is heading. . . the first step is realizing that you can no longer ignore that 500 lb gorilla that keeps you feeling suppressed and stifled, and the fact that you honestly need help dealing with your own truth. It's time consuming, painful and frequently the sort of thing that baby steps are needed in, but until you do this you can't escape the hellish and "empty" life you've known . . . the life that's obviously made you rather bitter.

Don't judge the Pagan/New Age types too harshly in that a truth does exist within what they teach. Like any teaching you must learn to filter the B.S. in order to find the more legitimate essence of truth laying at its core or, as the case were, finding those "elders" that have walked the path for decades, many of them kicking & screaming along the way (in much the way you are) but who ultimately came to understand the simplicity of it all and the value of living life vs. sitting around chanting, praying and walking through all manner of theatrics thinking it will give you enlightenment. It doesn't work that way! Never has, never will. True enlightenment and personal freedom come through two courses of action; learning to know and no longer fear your own personal truth, and to serve as a care-giver to all that live within this dimension and the Universe itself.

Take a look at the Old Testament prophets and show me one major player that wasn't tormented by their own hypocrisy let alone what they saw and condemned in others. They still held to a sense of belief and a desire to serve that greater purpose even though they were tasked regularly, to face their deepest fears and uncertainty. This is what life is about; enduring such things but likewise growing as the result of them, allowing the hard times to help us find the light, so to speak.

No, all that "hippie stuff" as you call it, isn't valid. It's filled with crass commercialism, hypocrisy and all the other blights you will find in any other path of faith. Don't let what you see in the actions of the many blind you from the greater truth -- the wisdom and act of true being that will be found within the few. You see, no matter the tradition, religion or philosophy the true adherents of that path is rarely observed and followed by more than 10% of the congregation -- look for those that aren't "in it" for self-glorification and you'll find the more honest teachers. Most of my teachers have been rapscallions and hell raisers not those freaks that sit on fluffy pillows with pink cloud dreams and rose tinted glasses.

I really hope that you find a genuine guide that you can trust and relate to. Someone that can help you sit aside your trepidation long enough to try healing your own life and life view.

[Gforcewarp9]

[Craig Browning]

I think you just proved to everyone where you problem is. . .enjoy your angst and misery

[Arouet]

Also, please try and use more paragraphs - walls of text are hard to read.

[NinjaPuppy]

[Gforcewarp9]

[Gforcewarp9]

[quote="NinjaPuppy"]Welcome to the forum Gforcewarp9. I'd like to put in my $.02 into this subject so bear with me as I make an attempt to do that.


Thanks NinjaPuppy (love your screen name!) for writing a thoughtful and empathetic response to what I wrote. And also, thanks for the compliment about my well written sarcasm! Which by the way, you are right--doesn't always come across well in these types of posts. As for it coming across like a personal attack in my response to Craig, well it darn-tootin' was, because him ignoring everything I wrote and taking it upon himself to tell me I need serious "mental health counseling and possibly more" got this ol' Irish gal up on her hind hooves. He may be for real, but if he doesn't want to come off like a pompous jerk, he should try listening instead of diagnosing for a change. For the record, I hope that this ridiculous exchange between me and Craig the... (o.k I lay off the name calling this time.) dies down, and maybe we can an actual discussion about the subject of LOA, rather then whether or not I have issues in my life. Thanks for being the voice of reason here Ninja Puppy.

[PS: Even though I didn't really come here to discuss the trials and tribulations of child rearing as there are a zillion other forums for that-- I'd like to say thank you for backing me up with your experience in the crying baby dept. NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE, has any idea what it's like to go through that unless they've been through it, and it sounds like you have. My husband went to work two weeks after our son was born and I was alone with him for 8, sometimes 9 hours a day for months on end and it was the hardest thing I've ever gone through. But, somehow though there were many dark nights (and days that turned to night and vice-versa relentlessly, and what seemed like endlessly,) my son and I survived, and we are still here to tell the tale. He doesn't scream and cry all night any more, and today he is taking his first school picture. I couldn't be a happier and more proud Mama.]

[NinjaPuppy]

[Gforcewarp9]

[Craig Browning]