WARNING: Please do not attempt to read this while driving or operating heavy machinery, and be sure you watch the following brief video first, which serves as an appetizer, as well as extremely pleasurable foreplay: Dr. Seuss’s Reaction to the Law of Attraction!
When I was a teenager I was first exposed to The Law of Attraction via Richard Bach’s book, Illusions. Then I went on to read Think and Grow Rich, and I didn't.
Later on The Secret brought the universal law to the masses and everyone was trying to conjure up money and yachts and relationships with positive thinking and imagery.
Was it just hype made hip through good marketing, or is there some timeless truth to it all?
Can one be an outlaw to the Law of Attraction, or is it working whether you believe it or not, whether you work it or not?
Nowadays, get rich quick schemes aside, I am just plain aware that when I think thoughts that make me feel really good, I, like, feel really good, even if money doesn’t come knocking on my door. Why not choose high quality thoughts that stimulate feel good endorphins? There is no downside to it, as far as I can tell.
And maybe there is more to it than just feeling better.
On July 13 of 2006 a front-page NY Times article caught my eye. The title read: Paralyzed Man Uses Thoughts to Move a Cursor. The story described how, after neuroscientists had implanted a small sensor in his brain, a man had learned to use his thoughts and intentions to control a computer, a television set and a robot.
Wow! I stopped chewing on my breakfast and gave the article my full attention, excited about the implications and possibilities of mainstream science catching on and harnessing the power of thought.
I grew up completely ignorant of the role my thinking plays in the creation of my life. My parents and teachers couldn’t teach me what they didn’t know. My training in this culture taught me to focus my attention in a worrisome way on what I didn’t want, what I didn’t have, and what I fear might happen. The habit has been to run around struggling to make things happen in the external world, like attempting to turn on the appliances one by one when the lights go out instead of checking the fuse-box.
Our beliefs, thoughts and attitudes are the fuse-box.
When I was eighteen I read some books on metaphysics and began experimenting with affirmations. I was writing “I am a money magnet,” twenty times in the morning and again at night. After a few days of this, I walked onto a New York City subway and spied a five-dollar bill on the floor near my feet. Pocketing the surprise, I promptly forgot about it and went about my business. In all my years of living in the city, I had never found any bill larger than a dollar, but I did not link the five-spot with my prosperity implants. The next morning I filled my tummy with pancakes and my mind with money magnetism. I hopped on a city bus and took a seat right next to another loose, unclaimed five-dollar bill. This time I couldn’t deny the connection. I had magnetized some money into my life with my thoughts!
I began to feel creepy. Could my thinking really have that much power? If it was true that I was responsible for magnetizing what came into my life, then that would mean my habit of proceeding through life like a victim was worth discarding, or at least challenging. But I was far too fond of blaming my parents, the government, and God for my problems. Self-inquiry, holding my thoughts and beliefs up to the light of consciousness, was far too scary for my young mind to handle. I put affirmations on the back burner for a spell before I was willing to play with them again.
Three years later I was taking classes in meditation and spirituality offered by Hilda Charlton, a wise and beloved guide who helped thousands in her lifetime. Every Thursday night about four hundred of us students would come to receive her teachings in NYC.
One month she talked a great deal about experiences she was having with visitors from other planets. Hilda claimed that extraterrestrials regularly appeared in her living room and conversed with her about spiritual matters. Each time she brought up the subject in class, I rolled my eyes in disbelief, mentally asking Scottie to beam me up! I couldn’t see how intelligent people could believe that beings from outer space were available for fireside chats. That was too far out even for me!
One cold, blustery evening Hilda seemed to focus her warm, penetrating gaze directly on me as she addressed the group. “Do you want to know why I’m spending all this time talking to you about ET’s? To get you out of your little mental boxes, that’s why! Some of you are so shut down and closed tight! There’s a whole universe teeming with life out there, dimensions upon dimensions! Open your minds, kids. Free yourself from the pettiness of worshipping your doubts.”
In that moment I clearly saw the fear fueling my skepticism, and I prayed to at least open at the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial life, telling myself that Hilda had shown herself worthy of my trust many times over and had no reason to be deceitful. I felt an opening, as if my inner skeptic said, “All right, we’ll consider it.”
Two weeks later a friend called. “Scott, I know you sell things on the street, and are open to creative ways to make some cash, and I just discovered two hundred T-shirts in my basement. Wanna sell them? I’ll give you a great price!” I graciously declined, feeling strongly that short sleeve T-shirts would not sell at any price during the winter. “Oh, that’s too bad!” he said. “They have a picture of a UFO landing on the earth and they say ‘I Believe’ on them.”
My head started spinning. I couldn’t rationalize away the synchronicity at play. I bought the ET-shirts and offered them up for sale at Hilda’s classes, selling them all in two nights.
On another occasion a friend who was struggling with having to find a new place to live at the last minute asked me for support. I led her through a visualization in which we imagined the perfect living space coming into her world quickly and easily. We mentally toured the rooms of her new home, giving thanks for what we declared would be the easiest move of her life. As we went through the process we both had some resistance, internally muttering, “This is such Metaphysical Mumbo Jumbo!” We voiced the doubts and laughed at ourselves, admitting, “Hey, this can’t hurt, it might even help, and it sure is fun!”
Two days later my friend, while fetching the morning paper in her bathrobe, noticed a For Rent sign on the lawn of her neighbor to the left. She investigated the situation and ended up moving into the house next door. It turned out to be quite literally the easiest move of her life!
These, and many other experiences, have inspired me to gradually make space in my head for a universe that works with me and for me, as I learn to think in harmony with my desires and not against them.
Using the power of thought instead of a mouse to control a computer… Wow! What will we think of next? How exciting are the possibilities! What if enough of us used our thinking intentionally to create what we most deeply desire? What if a bunch of us humans took a stand as magnets for a happy and peaceful world?
If our thoughts can move a cursor, then what else can they move?
Later on The Secret brought the universal law to the masses and everyone was trying to conjure up money and yachts and relationships with positive thinking and imagery.
Was it just hype made hip through good marketing, or is there some timeless truth to it all?
Can one be an outlaw to the Law of Attraction, or is it working whether you believe it or not, whether you work it or not?
Nowadays, get rich quick schemes aside, I am just plain aware that when I think thoughts that make me feel really good, I, like, feel really good, even if money doesn’t come knocking on my door. Why not choose high quality thoughts that stimulate feel good endorphins? There is no downside to it, as far as I can tell.
And maybe there is more to it than just feeling better.
On July 13 of 2006 a front-page NY Times article caught my eye. The title read: Paralyzed Man Uses Thoughts to Move a Cursor. The story described how, after neuroscientists had implanted a small sensor in his brain, a man had learned to use his thoughts and intentions to control a computer, a television set and a robot.
Wow! I stopped chewing on my breakfast and gave the article my full attention, excited about the implications and possibilities of mainstream science catching on and harnessing the power of thought.
I grew up completely ignorant of the role my thinking plays in the creation of my life. My parents and teachers couldn’t teach me what they didn’t know. My training in this culture taught me to focus my attention in a worrisome way on what I didn’t want, what I didn’t have, and what I fear might happen. The habit has been to run around struggling to make things happen in the external world, like attempting to turn on the appliances one by one when the lights go out instead of checking the fuse-box.
Our beliefs, thoughts and attitudes are the fuse-box.
When I was eighteen I read some books on metaphysics and began experimenting with affirmations. I was writing “I am a money magnet,” twenty times in the morning and again at night. After a few days of this, I walked onto a New York City subway and spied a five-dollar bill on the floor near my feet. Pocketing the surprise, I promptly forgot about it and went about my business. In all my years of living in the city, I had never found any bill larger than a dollar, but I did not link the five-spot with my prosperity implants. The next morning I filled my tummy with pancakes and my mind with money magnetism. I hopped on a city bus and took a seat right next to another loose, unclaimed five-dollar bill. This time I couldn’t deny the connection. I had magnetized some money into my life with my thoughts!
I began to feel creepy. Could my thinking really have that much power? If it was true that I was responsible for magnetizing what came into my life, then that would mean my habit of proceeding through life like a victim was worth discarding, or at least challenging. But I was far too fond of blaming my parents, the government, and God for my problems. Self-inquiry, holding my thoughts and beliefs up to the light of consciousness, was far too scary for my young mind to handle. I put affirmations on the back burner for a spell before I was willing to play with them again.
Three years later I was taking classes in meditation and spirituality offered by Hilda Charlton, a wise and beloved guide who helped thousands in her lifetime. Every Thursday night about four hundred of us students would come to receive her teachings in NYC.
One month she talked a great deal about experiences she was having with visitors from other planets. Hilda claimed that extraterrestrials regularly appeared in her living room and conversed with her about spiritual matters. Each time she brought up the subject in class, I rolled my eyes in disbelief, mentally asking Scottie to beam me up! I couldn’t see how intelligent people could believe that beings from outer space were available for fireside chats. That was too far out even for me!
One cold, blustery evening Hilda seemed to focus her warm, penetrating gaze directly on me as she addressed the group. “Do you want to know why I’m spending all this time talking to you about ET’s? To get you out of your little mental boxes, that’s why! Some of you are so shut down and closed tight! There’s a whole universe teeming with life out there, dimensions upon dimensions! Open your minds, kids. Free yourself from the pettiness of worshipping your doubts.”
In that moment I clearly saw the fear fueling my skepticism, and I prayed to at least open at the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial life, telling myself that Hilda had shown herself worthy of my trust many times over and had no reason to be deceitful. I felt an opening, as if my inner skeptic said, “All right, we’ll consider it.”
Two weeks later a friend called. “Scott, I know you sell things on the street, and are open to creative ways to make some cash, and I just discovered two hundred T-shirts in my basement. Wanna sell them? I’ll give you a great price!” I graciously declined, feeling strongly that short sleeve T-shirts would not sell at any price during the winter. “Oh, that’s too bad!” he said. “They have a picture of a UFO landing on the earth and they say ‘I Believe’ on them.”
My head started spinning. I couldn’t rationalize away the synchronicity at play. I bought the ET-shirts and offered them up for sale at Hilda’s classes, selling them all in two nights.
On another occasion a friend who was struggling with having to find a new place to live at the last minute asked me for support. I led her through a visualization in which we imagined the perfect living space coming into her world quickly and easily. We mentally toured the rooms of her new home, giving thanks for what we declared would be the easiest move of her life. As we went through the process we both had some resistance, internally muttering, “This is such Metaphysical Mumbo Jumbo!” We voiced the doubts and laughed at ourselves, admitting, “Hey, this can’t hurt, it might even help, and it sure is fun!”
Two days later my friend, while fetching the morning paper in her bathrobe, noticed a For Rent sign on the lawn of her neighbor to the left. She investigated the situation and ended up moving into the house next door. It turned out to be quite literally the easiest move of her life!
These, and many other experiences, have inspired me to gradually make space in my head for a universe that works with me and for me, as I learn to think in harmony with my desires and not against them.
Using the power of thought instead of a mouse to control a computer… Wow! What will we think of next? How exciting are the possibilities! What if enough of us used our thinking intentionally to create what we most deeply desire? What if a bunch of us humans took a stand as magnets for a happy and peaceful world?
If our thoughts can move a cursor, then what else can they move?
Scott Grace is an intuitive, game changing, changing life coach who serves worldwide and does sessions via phone or Skype. Read more about his coaching practice at Intuitive Life Coaching Jump Starts & Tune Ups or schedule a free intro session through email at info@scottsongs.com
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