Sunday, April 29, 2007

Coffee Talk

The Law of Attraction
Recently I was asked to watch The Secret by my wife, and it has me thinking about the law of attraction. The bases for the concept is that the thoughts you have attract goods, health, people, etc to you. You basically create your life through your thoughts, and it is your belief in the reality of those thoughts that actually make them a reality. You are sending your thoughts into the universe and the universe is adjusting to meet your request. The process comes back to the law of attraction because what you put out, positive or negative, will come back to you. This would mean that you can create your future by focusing on what you want and allowing the universe to deliver it to you.

While watching this video I was consistently thinking, where is God? Are these, in a way, prayer requests or are these people feeling that it is their own power that can create reality? I was always taught not to pray for money or houses or cars, so therefore I will ask the universe and not God for those material items. Is faith the same as focusing on your thoughts?

With any theory there are positive and negative aspect, and they should be evaluated thoroughly before faith is placed in them. My question tonight is have you seen The Secret and what are your thoughts on the law of attraction? Talk amongst yourselves...

4 comments:

Rich Uncle Moneybags said...

I'm seeing more and more of this idea or concept that people create their own destiny or that the "universe" will make everything equal. If it wasn't for all of the religious and metaphysical research I did while in college searching for my own direction I probably wouldn't think anything of this. Since I have, there's a lot I can say.

First, the correlation between these ideas and the New Age Movement/Eastern Religions/Ancient Pagan Mysteries etc. is undeniable. They all focus on some sort of Nature/Force/Karma that will keep everything in balance.

Secondly, they all focus on the individual person as being able to "tap" into this force with the right amount of meditation/focus/prayer to gain some kind of experience of a spiritual origin. Some religions even call for the need of drugs to aid in this.

Thirdly, they all claim that with the right amount of both of these, one can obtain a higher spiritual calling/level/dimension etc.

In my opinion, they are all talking about an individual becoming a god. Throughout history you hear of all kinds of stories on people who have become a god some way shape or form. The path to become a god usually leads one through trials, tribulations, and ultimately enlightenment to the fact that god is not a person or being outside of the world, but is a tiny piece of everything in the world and is within each of us (and androgynous), we just need to "find the light," "use the force," or "do what Jesus would do."

If that's your cup of tea, have at it. I live in America and we all have that freedom to hold whatever beliefs we want to hold dear. In my opinion, The Secret sounds like it is building blocks to this exact end. The same as most movies, tv shows, books, commercials, magazines, newspapers, etc these days.

There is going to come a time in the not to distance future, maybe 2 generations from now where beliefs in a higher being like God will be a minority opinion and belief, if the current pace continues. People may not think so with the Islamic religion so big and strong, the Catholic religion and many various Christian religions around the world, but at least in America I can see the battle almost daily in all shapes and sizes.

The battle reaches the issues of abortion, cloning, same sex marriage, global warming, and even political affiliations.

The battle is all psychological and idealistic and is founded upon information and access to ideas.

In the end you need to choose, worship God and be at his mercy, or worship yourself and take yourself beyond your wildest dreams and capabilities. It's my belief that one will take you to great wealth, fortune, and happiness, the other will lead you to absolute ruin. The irony is, which is which and when will that all happen.

Jason said...

If you believe that your thoughts have the power to changes the course of the universe then you are not a believer in God. I am all for positive thoughts, and knowing what you want and doing everything you can to obtain, but it is God's will and not our own that ultimately shapes our destiny.

Also I don't feel comfortable comparing these thoughts (as mentioned in "The Secret") to prayer because I was always told not to pray material wants. In "The Secret" they say if you focus on that new car or that big house or that pile of money it will come to you. The universe will shift and bring it to you. This is not the way a Christian should view his or her relationship with "the universe".

Anonymous said...

Wow, I haven't seen the movie you're referring to, but I am very familiar with the ideology behind it.

Dan is absolutely right when he compared this thinking to "New Age" and many eastern religions. This really isn't a new teaching, it's been around for ages. We humans continually try to elevate ourselves by denying the existence and/or power of God and putting on ourselves the attributes that God alone possesses.

Jason, I agree with you that our lives and ultimate destiny are in God's control and His Will will be done! God has also given us free will and with that we can choose to accept Him and subject ourselves to His Will or we can deny Him and go our own way. As Dan said, one leads to eternal life and the other to eternal destruction. The choice is ours.

Something to keep in mind is that those who buy into this type of teaching, just might find material wealth, happiness, etc. in this world. Perhaps it will appear that the philosophy works, but, what will they find in eternity?

El secreto said...

Hi!

Nice blog. I felt very identified withn you cause the first time I saw the movie I was thinking the same, where is god? But then I thougt god is the universe, therefore he might be giving anything you ask for, even if its bad for you.

Noeadays I simpli focus on what I want and keep thinking on it until I get it, And I must Say, It works every time, even if its not good for me.

Thanks for sharing!