Is the Law of Attraction a Hoax?

The Law of Attraction claims to be able to turn all your dreams into realities. If that’s true, why doesn’t everybody have everything they want? Or is that merely oversimplifying the whole issue?

Here’s a line from a song in Disney’s 1940 movie Pinocchio:

• When you wish upon a star your dreams come true.

It’s a great animated film adding a new dimension to a classic tale, but it is, of course, first and foremost a movie for kids. Once you hit adulthood you put away those childish things. You wise up to the world and have to start dealing with reality, with the facts you know to be true and certain.

For example, you know that unless somebody leaves you a fortune in their will, you’re probably going to have to work hard just to get by. You know that no one is going to provide you with a fantastic job, a new car, or the house of your dreams, just because you’re a decent, stand-up sort of person. You know that it’s entirely possible for you to win the lottery, but the odds are heavily stacked against it.

Knowing all of this, the big question is: if it isn’t possible to make significant improvements in your life, why is there so much fuss and hullabaloo about the Law of Attraction?

Some people will tell you that there must be something in it, otherwise why would there be so many books, CDs and movies made about the subject? Can we honestly believe that it’s possible to get in touch with the energy of the cosmos and interact with it to make things happen in our lives? Or is the truth more fundamental than that – and are we simply too cynical to give the idea the head space it deserves?

So now it’s time to take sides. Does the Law of Attraction work or doesn’t it? Apparently, it does. But you’ve got to be dedicated, motivated, and totally single-minded in pursuit of whatever it is you’re looking for. If you can do that, it seems, all your wishes really can come true.

So is this just another way of saying you get what you strive for? Is it possible that if you focus on what you want, keep it in your mind, and track it down with dogged determination, that it’s inevitable that it will come your way? Before we answer that question, let’s find out more about the Law of Attraction and its main components.

The Law of Attraction has a number of core concepts to back up its claims. The two most often quoted are as follows:

• Like attracts like
• Thoughts become things

If you look closely at these concepts, you’ll notice something. They’re old hat. Like has always attracted like, which is why your friends and you have so many things in common. In its application to the Law of Attraction, the phrase is meant to highlight the fact that you bring into your life the things that match your thoughts, feelings and actions. So, for example, if those thoughts, feelings and actions are always negative, then it’s likely that you’ll draw negative energy toward yourself:

• I hate my boring stupid job
• No one appreciates me
• I never have enough money

The Law of Attraction states that:

• like attracts like
• thoughts become things

To activate it in your life you need to:

• know what you want
• think about what you want
• do things to bring what you want into your life

If you ask any inventor, or writer, or composer whether or not thoughts become things, it’s pretty certain they’d agree wholeheartedly that they do. We know that’s the case, because human beings have the unique ability to create entire worlds out of thin air. We can visualize anything we put our minds to, and the potential within our brains is virtually limitless. If we can think about something, in other words, then one way or another we can turn that something into a reality.

The Law of Attraction – in title at least – is a new twist on an old idea, a way to organize your thoughts and your life to help you reach more of your goals. The Law tells us that if we know what we want, and if we can focus on what we want, and if we do everything we can to bring the thing we want into our lives, we’ll get it. Maybe it’s true, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. What seems to be rising out of the ashes here, so to speak, is the fact that “getting what you want” comes down to a very single-minded and unflinching mindset or attitude. If you’ve got that, the sky’s the limit.

Do you need to follow a course on the Law of Attraction in order to be able to make your dreams come true? Maybe not; but perhaps that might help to crystallize your efforts and make it easier to focus on one thing at a time. Modern living is absolutely packed with distractions, and finding time to zoom in on one specific detail, over and over, every hour of every day, takes some doing. Keeping “the thing that you want” in the forefront of your mind can be a real challenge when your boss is on your back, the kids are driving you up the wall, or you’re simply trying to juggle and cope with any number of ordinary and everyday events.

It would be nice to believe it’s not a hoax, to believe that you can get everything you ever wanted in your life, and to believe there’s an unlimited supply of universal energy just waiting to be tapped into. Maybe believing in the process is the key ingredient that elevates it from theory into reality. It might be that if you have enough faith that things will work out the way you’d hoped, then in fact they will.

For some people, the jury’s still out. They’ll argue back telling you that opposites attract, or that thinking about something won’t necessarily bring it into existence. And while their arguments can’t simply be dismissed out of hand, they tend to highlight a deeper lack of understanding about the human condition. For humans, anything is possible – which just might be the reason why so many people use the principles behind the Law of Attraction to carve out a better life for themselves.