Does Anyone know about the Law of Attraction and some book series called "the secret"??

I have a good friend who is hardcore about this "Law of attraction" stuff and while he is a caring and loving person...he blames me for my troubles saying that "my negitivity attracted these things to me" I checked into this law of attraction stuff and I smell a collosial load of BS, but I need specifics to present to him.

I dont know much about it, but I know there is no actual scientific law of attraction via telekinesis. There is the law of gravity, but this is talking about events, not matter.

Knotty

Yes Knotty, I have come across this. And I agree it is all BS. And you're right. There is no scientific basis for this rubbish. Its phoney science.

The best deconstruction I have come across is in a book by Barbara Erenreich called Smile or Die.

Its a look at the whole culture of positive thinking. And there is a section on the Laws of Attraction and The Secret.

The author is not saying a positive attitude is bad. But what she objects to is the mistaken belief that if something bad happens to you then it is your personal fault and it happened because you had bad thoughts. That of course is nonsense. Bad things happen and good things happen. Life is far more random than we like to admit.

Erenreich explains how The Secret was designed by people with a background in advertising to make money. That's why they called it The Secret. Because its a great hook to get people to buy it.

I didn't fall for it but both the book and the film were pushed at me hard by an alternative healthcare practitioner within our state healthcare system. I was a little sceptical about the book but on seeing the film I knew it was rubbish. The film is quite poorly made and melodramatic and that shows up the flaws in the faulty logic of the theories even more than when reading the book. And it was good to read a professional deconstruction by Erenreich too.

I hope this helps.

GloriaG

Gloria,

Thank you for that info, I will see if I can get that book on amazon.
Ya, my friend has been into this stuff for a long time, so I dont know how to break it to him. He sees the world as purposeful and as a result of our thoughts and beliefs, but I tried this for about 3 days, then had a massive autistic meltdown from stuffing all my "negitive" thoughts. I have autism, just in case you were wondering.

I have actually found the book "women's bodies, women's wisdom" by Christine Northrup to have a much more healthy attitude about emotions which is basicly in a nutshell, "there are no bad emotions and we should not be afraid of expressing how we really feel, but when we do stuff our emotions it is bad for our mental and physical health" Now I dont believe that expressing emotions can magically heal your body of cancer or something like that, but stuffing emotions has never worked well for me, everytime I tried, I nutted up.

but here is a great site about expossing alternative medicine BS as well as debunking other stuff

[whatstheharm.net]

[whatstheharm.net]

Hi Knotty,

Yes the book is on Amazon. Good luck with helping your friend.

I agree that stuffing negative emotions causes damage to yourself. I think its a common sense that we've lost sight of. I often feel so much better after a good cry and talking about something that is bugging me. It must be natures way. But so many cultures teach us to bottle up our feelings. Or make us feel guilty about any negative ones. I don't believe that bad feelings are a faulty design. I'm sure they have a purpose to alert us to something we need to deal with. And that's what Christiana Northrup is into as well. So, yes, I rate her books too.

But I have also discovered that there's a lot of BS in the alternative medicine too. Thanks for those links. I'm sure we'll all find them useful.

Knotty,

I'm sorry to hear about your friend's behaviour. I want to give a big +1 for GloriaG's suggestion of Ehrenreich. Btw, Smile Or Die is the UK title, but it's known elsewhere as Bright-Sided. You might feel a bit of connection with Ehrenreich when you read about her experiences in a breast cancer support group, where she was told that her anger and negativity "attracted" her cancer.

To me, the Law of Attraction (LoA) is one of the worst things to colonise popular thought in recent years. Its followers are cluelessly unempathic. In a way though, that's kind of the genius of The Secret. It taps directly into a mindset that already existed in a big way, and in America particularly i.e. what psychologists sometimes call the just world hypothesis ( I prefer its original name, the just world delusion).

"Just world" posits that we live in a universe with predictable karmic consequences. The universe (or God) smiles on winners because of their inherent goodness. It's the very same egocentrism that children display e.g. my parents divorced because I was "bad". As we grow up, we start to realise that the Sun isn't actually following us around (lol) and that we aren't the Centre of the Universe. Sometimes, bad sh*t just happens, and occasionally, good sh*t too.

A weak version of LoA is probably true i.e. that people's inherent confirmation bias will make them perceive more positivity or negativity around them, and that will amplify their goal-oriented behaviours. But that's a long way away from claiming that the Universe wants to give you a BMW :P

Another of the writers to famously expound on this absurdity was Susan Sontag in "Illness As Metaphor." She bumped against the "positivists" when she came down with cancer in the 1970's. A great debunker of the "cancer personality" theories of the time, she went on to examine how different diseases have been seen to be linked to attitude, disposition, lack-of-virtue, negativity, failure-of-will, actions out of God's favor, or other factors in some way under one's own control. What no doubt began as some laughable human attempt to wrest power over the unknown, random, and horrific mechanisms of disease turned against the sufferer, in effect saying: "You not only have to endure the disease but the knowledge you brought it upon yourself."

This is not to say that there are no benefits to be seen from various positive or optimistic psychological manipulations. Certainly some degree of hopefulness will more likely bring one into treatment or regime, but as you've stated above, it's a weak version. Imagining more power or control than you actually have over events is an ordinary human delusion that's been evident since we started to notice these things and imagine ourselves to be in possession of secret, magical powers -- and probably why cults have had such an easy time of it pretending to peddle these to the gullible.


Ellen

I just watched "The Secret". The ideas promoted in the secret are at odds with LGAT.

There is so much negativity in those 4 day ACCD seminars that is can really do a number on your head.

You've been warned!

Thanks, for the advice and the whatstheharm.net is a great resource.
I had to let my friend go... I hated that but he got so deep into the blame the victim aspect that I could not stomach it anymore. I did give him the title of the book and left the door open if he wanted to renew our friendship when he let go of that crap. I hated doing that but I had to in order to keep my sanity. The door is always open if he chooses to let it go.

I take back what I said on Dec 6th about LGAT being at odds with "THE SECRET"

It is the secret.

From Scientology to EST to Landmark to Lifespring to ACCD and many others, they promote confusion with their twist and they MAKE MONEY.

They want to cause enough confusion for you to buy into whatever they promote which changes all of the time.

They sell their books, train more coaches, give group seminars and claim this is for you to be successful in life. Take charge of the way you view your world.

Make it happen! Be ruthless! Be in charge of your destiny! and oh by the way...it will cost $$$$$$$$$

But isn't your life worth it?

STAY AWAY FROM THIS STUFF!

I was very disappointed earlier this week to see that convicted felon James Arthur Ray (3 counts of manslaughter) was back on the self-help circuit.
If it's not bad enough that he only served 18 months for causing the death of 3 people under his (mind)control, and playing with thousands of people's minds - and wallet$, now he is back in the fold and evidently welcomed back by his cohorts - "psychology of the future" summit.. psychology of the future ???

Psychology event ? A list of the 'top 30 thinkers and visionaries'?
Of course, you guessed it, the credentials of 'psychology' of these people are seemingly sparse or missing, and outside of the occasional researchers in this group are followed up by the salespeople wanting to make their $ as James Ray is, and back on track to attain his self-proclaimed goal of becoming the first 'self-help billionaire'. YES, you heard that right ! James admits that his goal is not helping people, selling books, or leading you into enlightenment, but it's all about reclaiming his $4 million mansion that he sold to pay the lawyers in his murder defenses.....
James is speaking under the heading of "what is your true power" and still rests on his laurels from his book 'harmonic wealth/harmonic theif'. Jame's true power was coercing people to pay $10,000 to attend his personal self-help retreats where he helped himself to people's wallet$ and bank account$, puts on a white robe and forces people to call him God, bow at his feet, and cower in his presence.
This guy is really really really sick and belongs back in the legal institution
that his $millions bought his way out of.