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Law of attraction (New Thought)

The law of attraction is the New Thought spiritual belief that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person's life.[1][2] The belief is based on the idea that people and their thoughts are made from "pure energy" and that like energy can attract like energy, thereby allowing people to improve their health, wealth, or personal relationships. There is no empirical scientific evidence supporting the law of attraction, and it is widely considered to be pseudoscience or religion couched in scientific language. This belief has alternative names that have varied in popularity over time, including manifestation and lucky girl syndrome.

For other uses, see Law of attraction.

Advocates generally combine cognitive reframing techniques with affirmations and creative visualization to replace limiting or self-destructive ("negative") thoughts with more empowered, adaptive ("positive") thoughts. A key component of the philosophy is the idea that in order to effectively change one's negative thinking patterns, one must also "feel" (through creative visualization) that the desired changes have already occurred. This combination of positive thought and positive emotion is believed to allow one to attract positive experiences and opportunities by achieving resonance with the proposed energetic law.


While some supporters of the law of attraction refer to scientific theories and use them as arguments in favor of it,[3][4] it has no demonstrable scientific basis.[5] A number of scientists have criticized the misuse of scientific concepts by its proponents.[6][7][8][9] Recent empirical research has shown that while individuals who indulge in manifestation and law of attraction beliefs often do exhibit higher perceived levels of success, these beliefs are also seen being associated with higher risk taking behaviors, particularly financial risks, and show a susceptibility to bankruptcy.[10]

Philosophical and religious basis[edit]

The New Thought concept of the law of attraction is rooted in ideas that come from various philosophical and religious traditions. In particular, it has been inspired by Hermeticism, New England transcendentalism, specific verses from the Bible, and Hinduism.[41][42][43][44][45][46]


Hermeticism influenced the development of European thought in the Renaissance. Its ideas were transmitted partly through alchemy. In the 18th century, Franz Mesmer studied the works of alchemists such as Paracelsus[47] and van Helmont.[48] Van Helmont was a 17th-century Flemish physician who proclaimed the curative powers of the imagination.[48][49][50] This led Mesmer to develop his ideas about Animal magnetism which Phineas Quimby, the founder of New Thought, studied.[48]


The Transcendentalist movement developed in the United States immediately before the emergence of New Thought and is thought to have had a great influence on it. George Ripley, an important figure in that movement, stated that its leading idea was "the supremacy of mind over matter".[48][51]


New Thought authors often quote certain verses from the Bible in the context of the law of attraction. An example is Mark 11:24: "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."[52][53][54]


In the late 19th century Swami Vivekananda traveled to the United States and gave lectures on Hinduism. These talks greatly influenced the New Thought movement and in particular, William Walker Atkinson who was one of New Thought's pioneers.[55][56]

Criticism[edit]

The law of attraction has been popularized in the early 21st century by books and films such as The Secret. The 2006 film and the subsequent book[57] use interviews with New Thought authors and speakers to explain the principles of the proposed metaphysical law that one can attract anything that one thinks about consistently. Writing for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, Mary Carmichael and Ben Radford wrote that "neither the film nor the book has any basis in scientific reality", and that its premise contains "an ugly flipside: if you have an accident or disease, it's your fault".[58]


Others have questioned the references to modern scientific theory, and have maintained, for example, that the law of attraction misrepresents the electrical activity of brainwaves.[59] Victor Stenger and Leon Lederman are critical of attempts to use quantum mysticism to bridge any unexplained or seemingly implausible effects, believing these to be traits of modern pseudoscience.[7][8][9]


Skeptical Inquirer magazine criticized the lack of falsifiability and testability of these claims.[58] Critics have asserted that the evidence provided is usually anecdotal and that, because of the self-selecting nature of the positive reports, as well as the subjective nature of any results, these reports are susceptible to confirmation bias and selection bias.[60] Physicist Ali Alousi, for instance, criticized it as unmeasurable and questioned the likelihood that thoughts can affect anything outside the head.[1]


The mantra of The Secret, and by extension, the law of attraction, is as follows: positive thoughts and positive visualization will have a direct impact on the self. While positivity can improve one's quality of life and resilience through hardship,[61] it can also be misguiding. Holding the belief that positive thinking will manifest positivity in one's life diminishes the value of hard work and perseverance, such as in the 1970s pursual of "self-esteem-based education".[62]

In 1897, Ralph Waldo Trine wrote In Tune with the Infinite. In the second paragraph of chapter 9 he writes, "The Law of Attraction works unceasingly throughout the universe, and the one great and never changing fact in connection with it is, as we have found, that like attracts like."

[63]

In 1904, , a strong influence in the New Thought Movement, gave a lecture in which he claimed that thought precedes physical form and "the action of Mind plants that nucleus which, if allowed to grow undisturbed, will eventually attract to itself all the conditions necessary for its manifestation in outward visible form."[64]

Thomas Troward

In 1906, in his New Thought Movement book used the phrase Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World, stating that "like attracts like".[65]

William Walker Atkinson

In his 1910 The Science of Getting Rich. espoused similar principles – that simply believing in the object of your desire and focusing on it will lead to that object or goal being realized on the material plane (Wattles claims in the Preface and later chapters of this book that his premise stems from the monistic Hindu view that God provides everything and can deliver what we focus on). The book also claims negative thinking will manifest negative results.[66]

Wallace D. Wattles

In 1915, author William Quan Judge used the phrase in The Ocean of Theosophy.[67]

Theosophical

In 1919, Another theosophical author discussed the 'Law of Attraction'.[68] Besant compared her version of it to gravitation, and said that the law represented a form of karma.[69]

Annie Besant

published two books on the theme. The first, The Law of Success in 16 Lessons (1928), directly and repeatedly references the Law of Attraction and proposes that it operates by use of radio waves transmitted by the brain. The second, Think and Grow Rich (1937), went on to sell 100 million copies by 2015.[70] Hill insisted on the importance of controlling one's own thoughts in order to achieve success, as well as the energy that thoughts have and their ability to attract other thoughts. He mentions a "secret" to success and promises to indirectly describe it at least once in every chapter. It is never named and he says that discovering it on one's own is far more beneficial. Many people have argued over what it[71] actually is; some claim it is the law of Attraction. Hill states the "secret" is mentioned no fewer than a hundred times, yet reference to "attract" is used less than 30 times in the text.

Napoleon Hill

In 1944, published Feeling Is the Secret, which promoted creative visualization and emotional feeling as a form of meditation to receive desires from the universe. His second book on the topic, Out of This World (1949), explored the reasoning behind the so-called "feeling" and how assumptions if repeated enough can "harden into fact". His third book, The Power of Awareness (1952), Goddard explains of the concept of "I am" to reason that the Human subconscious mind has a "god-given" ability to manifest and create reality if it is impressed by the feeling.[72]

Neville Goddard

In 1960, and Napoleon Hill co-wrote Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude.[73]

W. Clement Stone

In his 1988 The American Myth of Success, Richard Weiss states that the principle of "non-resistance" is a popular concept of the New Thought movement and is taught in conjunction with the law of attraction.

[74]

The 2008, book Money and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Health, Wealth & Happiness appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list.[75]

Esther and Jerry Hicks'