I was troubled seeing how many people really buy into what The Secret and Law of Attraction says. My amazement come because some of the people that was cited to support this are educated, but somehow they are unable to think critically and unable to see the many inconsistencies that exist. Even worse, by doing a little bit of googling, people should be able to find out the problems of this law of attraction and their criticisms. And I personally believe that some logical thoughts would suffice.
The other problem which is very common but dangerous is that people cite the bible to show that such a law of attraction does exist. The most famous of course is when Jesus said, if you asked then you will receive. The other one is when Jesus said if you have a faith as small as a mustard seed you will be able to move mountains. My concern is two fold. First, people take the word out of context to support their argument for the Law of Attraction. This is not the way to read the bible. Second, by taking the word simply to support our argument, we become the master of the Word of God, and not the other way around. We should be the one who conform our thoughts to the Word of God. He is the Master!
Now, to put things in perspective, The Secret is a self-improvement or self-help program. It was started from a TV shows which then continued with a book with the same title. The secret that they refer is the Law of Attraction. Law of attraction basically says “Like attracts like”. If you think positive, those positive will come to you. Its main claim is on the power of believe or thinking that can affect situation, events, environment, etc. Wikipedia lists three basic steps: Ask, believe, and receive.
Not scientifically sound:
Now many people claim that such law of attraction is true because they have experienced it as such. The problem with this claim is that it is very similar to the claim of people who believe in superstition. Human tends to collect positive data. What I mean is that, we tend to see what we want to see. So when things happens as we expect it, we will count it as evidence. But the problem is that when things does not happen as it is, we ignore it. And this is the thing, there is no statistical evidence to support law of attractions. When the law of attraction fails, many people either ignore it or they blame the people for not doing it right. I personally believe that such behaviour is not scientifically sound, especially since they claim it is a “law”. And to say that it is a law when like attracts like is such a no-sense. In Physics negative charge attracts positive, and in society men are attracted to women. Well, I know, those people will try to explain what they mean by “like”, but never mind. For me it is obvious enough there is no such scientifically evidence for such a law. If you don’t believe me, try and see whether majority scientists will believe in such laws. Try to get some statistics 🙂
Now, is it possible that things change if we think positively? Yes it is possible. Because people will put more effort, they will have more confidence, etc. But all this happens naturally and not because of the Law. We have to admit that there is a limit to our thinking power. We will never be able to change a can of coke to a living mouse no matter how hard we think or believe. There are natural laws to obey. Therefore, saying that what we need to do is simply to ask and believe does not make any sense. There are other factors affecting our lives.
So for me, just as in any other new age thoughts, the Secret and the Law of attraction is offering a little bit of truth while at the same time offering lies. It is not founded in science or any historical evidence.
Contradicting christian faith:
A nice article for a catholic point of view for the Secret and Law of attraction can be found at this link below:
Best-selling New Age ‘The Secret’ seen as offering only false happiness
http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=23402
The main problem is that this thinking makes us “like god”. We only need to wish and believe it. It is as if we are the master, the ruler, the god. We are not God. When will we learn to admit it?
Last Word:
Well, at least I have to say what I have to say. People will keep on reading and believing in such stories because they want to. And as long as there are people who buy this things, there will be people selling it. All New Age movements are not really new. When we learn history, we will find such similar thoughts have been there in the past. My only hope is that some will come to their senses. Either through their reasonings, or their search for the truth, or through their faith 🙂