The Law of Attraction is big business.
It’s what’s given “The Secret” author Rhonda Byrne a net worth of over $100 million dollars – the theory that if you think positively and focus hard enough on the outcome of what you desire, the Universe will manifest it into your reality, before your very eyes. So it comes as zero surprise that countless more identikit self-help gurus, thought leaders and spiritual experts have hopped hot onto the bandwagon like eager bunnies since Byrne’s book was published back in 2004.
In slightly different guises, they all peddle pretty much the same exact taglines – That what you focus your mind (and feelings) on the most, is what the Universe will provide for you. So positive thinking and feeling equals positive outcomes (equals even more positive bank balances).
Positive Thinking & the Law of Attraction versus ‘Looking on the Bright Side’
Everybody needs cheering up every now and then (unless you’re a serious oddball!) A friend to lift you up out of a negative mood or a depressive day; or a juicy little pleasure to treat the senses. But positive thinking – the kind that’s taught in most modern self-help circles and especially in relation to the Law of Attraction – is more often a fast route to delusion and disappointment. Relentlessly keeping up the kinds of blinkered, commercialized positive thoughts required by the LOA is less about optimism and a whole lot more about sidestepping the hard facts of human life, and what it is you actually came here to do.
So What Are We Here to do?
We’re here to grow, heal, unify, shake off the grip of the ego and expand our edges into love. But these edges are where its actually the hardest to DO this work, because of the darkness and fear, the pain and the trauma that live there. But the edges are exactly where we need to try to stand, and they are exactly where the Law of Attraction won’t let us.
So why do we keep (literally) buying into this wave of positive thinking?
Right now, life’s a jungle. It can be pretty scary, unstable and unpredictable. We live on a damaged planet and the systems we all thought had been keeping us safe – our governments, authorities, healthcare officials, banks – have all been doing, so it turns out, a resolutely terrible job.
But despite all of that, positive thinking and the Law of Attraction promise a direct line to happiness, where all your dreams will come true. Because if you focus your mind on the positive, stay unnaturally optimistic, visualize the future you desire, and turn your gaze away from the messed-up world you see around you, all that hard stuff goes away!
But Positive Thinking & the Law of Attraction WORK!
I remember the first time I came across a copy of the Secret, it was stuffed into a heaving bookshelf, inside a big draughty farmhouse in north Wales where I was staying with my then boyfriend’s huge family. I read the book cover to cover then decided to give it a go – use the principles described to attract something small, but still improbable enough to impress and prove “the Secret” actually worked. And you know what, after just a week of visualizing, imagining, believing, and maintaining an irritatingly positive attitude it DID work – I had managed to attract into my reality, out of thin air, a pair of (free) VIP tickets to a sold-out music festival I desperately wanted to go to! Years and years of similar kinds of adventures through the Law of Attraction followed and still are.
So what’s so bad about this? If thinking in this way gets results and attracts real, tangible improvements to your life, why is it a lie? Two reasons.
1. Positive Thinking Denies the Truth and Creates a Fear of Feeling
Here’s the thing.
Positive thinking encourages you to deny what IS. It encourages the denial of anything you don’t want or like, or anything that doesn’t make you feel good, all of the time – the denial of anything negative at all. And looking at life through this kind of unnaturally rosy lens won’t actually allow you to stand at those powerful edges of human experience and do the things you came to Earth to do.
Say whaat?? But isn’t life ALL about chasing your desires, creating positive experiences and manifesting your dreams?
YES! But not only that. You also chose to be born into a broken world, at a pivotal point in its evolution and that gives you a responsibility – yes, a very real, very human responsibility – to get to work on healing, mending and dealing with the darkness you discover while you’re here. Not just pretending it doesn’t exist. But the Law of Attraction doesn’t make any space for this necessary piece of the human path and instead, it does something even worse.
The Law of Attraction actually creates genuine fear around thinking and feeling into the truth of what is. Because if you see something you don’t like and feel a negative emotion or have a negative thought, the law dictates that you’ll attract more of it. According to the Law of Attraction, unless you maintain a relentlessly positive outlook by holding positive emotions and repeating positive affirmations, it’s YOUR fault if anything negative happens. Owch. That makes this universe a pretty fearsome place to be.
2. Positive Thinking and the Law of Attraction is a Privilege
Rhonda Byrne’s “the Secret” worked for me (and probably works for you) because of privilege. I got the gig tickets because my life was already set up for this kind of magic to weave through it easily and without any drastic shifts. And I didn’t work for that privilege – I was born into it. A child soldier in war-torn Sierra Leone isn’t quite as lucky, and neither is a victim of systemic abuse (something the Law of Attraction conveniently likes to ignore, so perhaps it’s not a universal law after all…? But that’s another article…)
So what about this responsibility we’re all born into?
We’re all Earth Keepers here. A lot of people (and especially the ones with the power) seem to have clean forgotten just what this means, but those of us born with privilege are actually the ones in positions to take on a much bigger share. And this means not just using the power of positive thinking to manifest what you have the luxury of desiring, but digging deep into the difficult, the darkness, the trouble, and the strife.
And acting on what you find there.
The Law of Attraction Lie (and the Alternative)
The Law of Attraction is an art of vibration and frequency and it doesn’t really speak of action. Instead, it preaches habits of passivity and the expectation and attitude that life should happen for you and around you, and because of you. But it doesn’t ask you to participate, get your hands dirty, stand inside the chaos and be brave enough to look the fear, pain and trauma right in the eye. But THIS is exactly what you need to do, because it’s the only way you’ll grow, evolve and truly help humanity ascend into the new paradigm.
Sorry to break the spell, but manifesting that brand new car or beautiful new home isn’t the edge-walking work you’ve been called here to do. It may make life a little easier, and just a little more enjoyable (for you) but it’s not your mission here. For that, you’ll have to first shake that ego loose, take a good look around the world you find yourself in, and ask what you can do to make it better.
Your turn!
What are your experiences with the Law of Attraction? Does it make you fear the truth of your reality, or bring you more blessings than you can count? Share your thoughts below with the Numerologist community!
