The Law of Attraction

[theseeker]

For those who don't know, the Law of Attraction is basically - "think positive, positive things will happen. think negative, negative things will happen."

 

I want to get people's thoughts and opinions on this. This "force" that brings like minded individuals together simply because of their state of mind. I have a friend of mine who believes she found the love of her life because of the Law of Attraction.

 

I am an atheist. So I don't really go with the whole "god and higher power/forces" mumbo jumbo. That's just not me. My mind is very logical and rational about things. But I am also very open to different viewpoints and different ideas. I had never heard about the Law of Attraction until recently, so I am still learning about it.

 

To me, it's a load of mumbo jumbo. They try to give an explanation to it with this "it's your mentality" thing, but in reality, most things that happen are basically through sheer coincidence, and most things that you obtain is simply just through hard work.

 

But there are people who believe in this. And that it has worked for them. That the Law of Attraction is real.

 

But what about other people who think positively, and yet bad things still happen to them? I don't know how the Law of Attraction could explain that.

 

I am one of those people that many negative things have happened to me, even though I had a positive outlook towards the situation to begin with. But even my positive mentality didn't stop negative things from happening.

 

Something like this seems like something you would follow only if you believe in it. Like deities or miracles. The Law of Attraction feels no different.

 

Me being open-minded, I would like people's opinions on this. Is there something to it? Is it mumbo jumbo? Is it real?

 

What are your thoughts on the Law of Attraction?

[Strange]

It is a way to sell self-help books to the gullible.

[Spyman]

What are your thoughts on the Law of Attraction?

Since this is in the Physics section, it needs to be pointed out that this is not a law of science and that it don't have any scientific basis whatsoever.

[swansont]

Since this is in the Physics section

 

!

Moderator Note

Not anymore, since it has nada to do with physics

 

From my lay perspective, it sounds like an issue of leveraging confirmation bias. If you have a positive outlook you will shrug off the smaller negative things that happen and remember the positive ones, so you will feel like more good things are happening. You'll also tend to look for the positives in situations that others see as negative, and perhaps be happier as a result. YMMV.

[SlavicWolf]

The peddlers of that "law" did not explain what happens when two people want two contradictory things. One wants X and another also wants X.

 

Do you think like me that calling that BS a law is an insult to real laws (such as those of physics)?

[Roamer]

I think the law should be something like this to be closer to reality:
Think positive, and positive things have a tiny tendency to occur to you more ofte,

act positive, and positive things have a moderate tendency to occur to you more often.

[John Cuthber]

I think the law should be something like this to be closer to reality:

Think positive, and positive things have a tiny tendency to occur to you more ofte,

act positive, and positive things have a moderate tendency to occur to you more often.

Through what mechanism?

Without a plausible means, the idea is unreasonable.

 

However there's a well documented alternative explanation of why people might believe that it's true even if it isn't.

[Roamer]

Through what mechanism?

Without a plausible means, the idea is unreasonable.

 

Umm, almost all mechanics in the psyche that interact ?

Basic human behaviour ?

Our conscious and unconscious tendencies to do what we want ?

Our decisions regarding which peers to hang out with ?

Our believe(or absence of belief) in something positive when something potentially positive comes around ?

Our desire to go to that party with all those hip people ?

 

I can try to pinpoint what tiny mechanic in our psyche effects us, but in the end we are the "sum"/decision of all the smaller mechanics in our psyche.

Thinking is our main mechanic of short term changes in our psyche,

acting is our way of interacting with the world around us.

 

I'm not saying being ultra-positive all the time is best or something like that, btw,

being negative is a good defense mechanism against a negative environment.

 

 

 

 

However there's a well documented alternative explanation of why people might believe that it's true even if it isn't.

Humans have many beliefs, they will keep their beliefs as long as those beliefs serve them one way or another.

[Space Babe]

The concept on which the law of attraction is based is not at all rational and manifests a non-logical connection between two aspects - the mental (or subjective/psychological) world (the desires and needs of the people) and the outside world (focused on the universe, which has no direct connection with the circumstances occurring on planet Earth).

In other words, the assumption that a particular law that is defined as a natural one, connects the outside world with the inner world, and the reason or main purpose of this connection is the temporary well-being of the mental aspect of a particular carbon based life form that has evolved on a particular planet for which no one else knows that it even exists in the universe. 

A mental world that denotes different desires and needs of people does not guarantee that they will be realized, that is, circumstances that do not entirely depend on or depend on man, predict the likelihood that they will remain unrealized fantasies, partially fulfilled or entirely fulfilled.

Every action or inaction of a person has a certain consequence in the outside world, seen within the surroundings in which he lives, and these same consequences most often have an effect on him,  and certain other persons as well  (and these are in fact those circumstances that do not depend on the man in question).

If a person does not take action and effort to accomplish something he wants, it is very likely that the same desire or need will not be achieved at all. But even when a person takes certain actions, it does not provide success in certain situations. When everything would depend on the man in question, then all his needs would be fulfilled, but the obvious fact is that he is not the only one who lives on this planet, and not all things and decisions depend on him. Of course, there are other circumstances that do not depend on us, and precisely these circumstances decide the final result.

On the other hand, the universe is defined as the whole space and time and its content, including stars, planets, galaxies and forms of energy and matter, and itself as such is very dynamic. As such, there is absolutely no direct connection with the mental aspect of a particular carbon based life form that has evolved on a particular planet within the universe. The only outside world that can affect human life is the very nature of planet Earth, such as weather, natural disasters, or even a solar storm, meteor originating from space.

From this we can conclude that there is no direct connection between these two drastically different aspects.

I have discussed with a couple of people who actually believe in the law of attraction and some of them even consider it as a natural law. To me, it is very illogical  how this law is defined as "natural". I think this is just an imaginary human law with a psychological twist to be interpreted as natural only because of the presumed presence of the action of natural elements, such as the universe (which is indeed a very broad notion).

In reality, the law of attraction is a human "law" because its existence dates from a certain period when homo sapiens began to exist in a parallel manner,  in comparison with the actual natural laws (such as the law of gravity, Kepler's laws for planetary motion, Bode's law...) which have always existed in the universe, even when life of this planet has not yet appeared.

Moreover, the law of attraction is not calculated and is not based on principles, but on dogmatic beliefs in the context of certain psychological concepts created by man and nobody else.

While natural laws are universal and exist and operate everywhere in the cosmos, regardless of location, this is not the case with the law of attraction. On the contrary, it is applied only to the benefit of the people of planet Earth, and it does not work for all people, but only for certain people based on moral relativism.

Also, depending on the psychological needs of the person, this law of attraction can over time be changed in terms of its essence, and this is not the case with natural laws that are never possible to change.