Tag Archives: Law of Attraction

Musings re “The Secret”

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As indicated yesterday, Rhonda Byrne‘s book, The Secret, has been helpful to me.   But, I do have reservations.

For example, I do wander about using the “Law of attraction” to obtain a parking spot or
fabulous wealth. Though, true enough, perhaps if I felt differently I would be
wealthy and would readily find a parking spot each time I needed!  Oh me of
little faith!

The issue is the unconscious dimension of our experience. The real, the
essential negative self-talk takes place beneath the surface in the form of old
recordings buried deep in our neurological structure. And, yes, since they are
“unconscious” we can’t see them because then they would be conscious! BUT, we
can be self-aware and be honest about the images that flutter through our
conscious mind and about the poor choices that we make. Then, we can ferret out
what these old recordings are.  Or at least some of them.

I’m casting doubt on just how much impact “the power of positive thinking” can
play when our wounds are buried deeply in our subterranean depths. But, it
can’t do any harm to become conscious of “stinkin thinkin” and practice new
refrains or mantras. In other words, it can’t do any harm to attempt to
re-program our brain. It won’t do any harm to attempt to “brain-wash” ourselves
anew with positive and affirming thoughts. For, “brain-washing” is what
happened in the first place.

Let me share something that has been personally useful. I think it was Rumi who
noted once, “The only antidote to depression is praise.” Here, I’m going to
exercise literary license and replace “praise” with “offering thanks.”  Then I
can apply a couple of admonishments from the Bible, such as, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

What Rumi had in mind was that when life gets grim, we can still exercise choice
and focus on the many good things that are present in our life, even if it is
nothing but the blessing of the very breath of life itself. It has helped me,
when despair beckons, to “pray the alphabet” which Mary Karr taught me in her
memoir, Lit. “Praying the alphabet”, in this context, means going down the
alphabet and making yourself find something or someone starting with each letter
of the alphabet for which you can give thanks. This gets interesting with X, Z,
and Q; but I manage! The beauty of this strategy is that it is on some level a
simple cognitive behavioral therapy strategy. You can’t whole-heartedly focus
on more than one thing at a time. So, focusing on the wonderful things in your
life can pre-occupy you for a moment and take your attention away from that
gnawing despair.

The Law of Attraction

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I was channel-surfing last night and I happened by Joel Osteen. He always gets my attention as he is so unusual looking. On this particular “drive-by” he was discoursing re the power of the words, “I am.” He developed the point that whatever you complete the sentence, “I am….” with is what you get. He developed this point very well, noting for example that if you say, “I am a louse” then probably you are going to be a louse. If you say,“I am stupid”, then probably you are going to be stupid. Now in the time I was there he did not reference Rhonda Byrne’s book, The Secret, which described this truth as “The Law of Attraction”—whatever you put out there with your words is what you will attract. And this “Law of Attraction” is being popularized by many of our contemporary self-help, New Age, spokespersons.

This “Law” can be described as simplistic but I don’t totally dismiss it. I too believe that it is with our words that we create our world and with obsessive self-talk perpetuate it. And I’m very pleased to see someone in Osteen’s position promulgating a message like this. I just hope it is taught to the kiddies in Sunday School as that is when it needs to be learned.

Osteen’s sermon was a simple self-help spiel and I was impressed with what I heard. I’m pleased to see an evangelical preacher preaching a message of self-empowerment. And he didn’t trot out that “hell fire and damnation” stuff either.

The Secret

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I’ve read The Secret by Rhonda Byrne several times.  And I’m about ready to read it still again.  However, I am embarrassed to admit this.  I am an intelligent, educated, and erudite man so this book is “beneath” me.  It is such a light-weight, new-age, self-help book that it is roundly criticized in the professional circles that I function in.  If offers so much to so many desperate people who then lamely cling to its promises of wealth and health even though their circumstances are so limiting.  It is the new age equivalent of the “prosperity gospel” of the right-wing religious fundamentalists.

HOWEVER, I have read it repeatedly and am about to again.  This is because I whole-heartedly believe in one of its central theses—-that our thinking shapes our reality.  Get rid of “stinking thinkin “, and your world can change.  Yes, I do subscribe to that belief though I have so much “stinkiin’ thinkin” that remains.  But, as they often say in the 12-step movement, “Progress, not perfection.”

Proverbs declares, “As a man thinketh, so is he.”   Someone once said, “Our thoughts become us.”  And Mike Dooley declares daily on his web site, “Thoughts are things.  Choose the good ones.”  Byrne quotes Henry Ford in her book, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, either way you’re right.”