6 May 07

I seem to be mostly recovered now.

I’ve noticed a fair amount of extended blog activity about the Law of Attraction. If you haven’t heard of it, to quote Wikipedia, “‘Our thinking creates our reality.’ In short, if one’s consciousness is in tune with the ‘whole,’ creation becomes a resource from which we can manifest whatever we want; the fruits of our ‘magical thinking’ enter our personal lives in the form of synchronicity.”

Which contains a nugget of truth. If we spend more time thinking about something, then that thing becomes more important to us and we favor it more in our actions. And there are usually many more opportunities to accomplish our goals than we initially expect. I saw that with Otherspace; I never expected to find as many artists as I did.

But I have two problems with how the Law of Attraction is presented by some bloggers. First, it’s presented as though all you have to do is think. I’ve read bloggers who make it seem like you just have to sit in an easy chair and dream, and your dreams will manifest around you. That’s a perversion of the Law, which implies that resources are available, but won’t necessarily make your dreams happen for you.

Second, it’s materialistic. It’s a way of getting more. For millenia, sages have been saying that the secret of happiness lies not in having more, but in wanting less. So why spend all this energy on another method of consumption?