“The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne swept across the globe, beguiling readers with its promise of unveiling the magical power of the Law of Attraction, and the ability to manifest your deepest desires. It gained some serious traction due to its clever team of marketers, Byrne herself, and the trust, or vulnerability, of people looking for a better life.
The concept of the Law of Attraction has become so ubiquitous that even the instructions on a simple purchase of body cream makes mention of manifesting as if it were an essential ingredient in our daily lives.
So what is the law of attraction? It’s the idea that your thoughts have a specific energetic vibration, so if you think positive thoughts, you’ll attract good things to yourself–almost instantly. If you think negative thoughts, you’ll attract negative things to you over time.
“It really does take many negative thoughts and persistent negative thinking to bring something negative into your life. However, if you persist in thinking negative thoughts over a period of time, they will appear in your life.”
“If you can think about what you want in your mind, and make that your dominant thought, you will bring it into your life.”
Ask, believe and receive. The universe will work on your behalf to bring you what you want. Or will it?
We don’t want what we’re thinking negatively about. But Byne clearly states that if we think negative thoughts they’ll eventually catch up with us, and we’ll create disastrous circumstances.
Why then aren’t planes falling out of the sky? Most people who board a plane have thought about it: “What if the plane crashes? What if I don’t make it? How many seats away are the exits? Are the windows airtight? Am I going to need to grab an oxygen bag before I go down in flames?”
According to Byrne, planes should be falling out of the sky. Yet flying remains one of the safest ways to travel.
Children want things more often and more intensely than anybody else on the planet, but sometimes what they want just isn’t realistic. If the law of attraction were real, every little kid would have a pony and a race car.
If the law of attraction were real, nobody would age, either. How many people lie about their age? How many people are focused on looking younger?
I know I’m not getting any younger no matter what I try to manifest.
But maybe all these people are focusing on what they don’t have. What about people who focus on the positive?
95% of the information we process is outside of our conscious awareness.
That includes most of what you think and how you feel. Different studies have suggested that on the subconscious level, we have anywhere from 7,000 to 40,000+ thoughts per day.
Many of our thoughts and emotions are negative. They have to be negative, because life has problems big and small that we have to handle. If we aren’t handling those problems,
we’re probably living frustrating lives.
If the law of attraction were true, all of us would manifest negativity constantly.
Some of us are born into situations beyond help. Did people in developing countries without enough food to eat “manifest” their negativity? Are those people simply in need of a mindset adjustment?
The secret is a sad representation of human potential, and places an undue burden of responsibility on individuals, absolving external factors and systemic issues from the equation. It capitalizes on the trust and vulnerability of well-meaning people. At its core, it’s magical thinking in a self-empowering disguise.
Amunet Burgueno is a writer, voice actress, and master hypnotist. While supporting over 100,000 people with their spiritual and personal growth, she learned the meaning of life is to embrace your humanity, play, and be creative.
