Several days ago I finally watched The Secret video online. This was easily one of the best 90-minute experiences of my life. I knew the feature film was going to be good but, frankly, I was stunned.
What is “The Secret”?
“The Secret” of course is The Law of Attraction – a unique metaphysical idea that’s been getting a lot of attention lately. The Law of Attraction is the mechanism behind intention-manifestation. According to this law, you manifest absolutely everything into your existence all the time regardless of your conscious effort.
In short, “ask and you shall receive.”
In this article, I want to explore the ideas behind The Law of Attraction and share my own current approaches to integrating this model of reality into my own life. I’m fairly new to this way of thinking but have already found it inspiring and really breathtaking at times. I have no interest in “selling” anyone on this idea (or any other idea for that matter) but simply hope you will consider this truly revolutionary framework with an open mind.
Many of you are familiar with my discussion on how to manifest money. Judging by the popularity of that article, there is a wide interest in these ideas: intention, manifestation, visualization, attraction, etc. Initially, what’s appealing about The Law of Attraction is the apparent ease with which one can manifest something desirable into his/her life. What appears “easy” about intention-manifestation is at both what attracts us to *and* makes us skeptical of The Law of Attraction.
Why does attraction challenge our “way of seeing”?
The typical modern human’s way of seeing the world is through a strong work ethic model. Even if you don’t consider yourself successful, your ideas about what you can get (or what you already have) are based on what you think you deserve. To further complicate things, many people still see the world as a win-lose arrangement. For one person to win, someone else must lose.
But The Law of Attraction does not create the world in these terms. Instead of seeing acquisition in terms of what you deserve, it looks at gain, growth, and progress in terms of congruence. Instead of a win-lose model of competition, attraction & manifestation exists within a win-win model of abundance and prosperity.
If there is one “secret” of The Law of Attraction, I would point to the first of these two important points: congruence. A number of synonyms come to mind for this concept of congruence: correspondence, agreement, equivalence, harmony, etc. The idea of congruence is especially important. You cannot manifest your intentions until you are in harmony with the intention and you have integrated The Law of Attraction into your way of interpreting reality.
For example, this morning I wanted to manifest iced tea into my reality. I focused on the tea, visualized receiving the tea, and repeated the manifestation mantra in my mind (“In a relaxed and healthy manner and for the good of the universe, I will manifest iced tea into my reality”). I wanted to complete my morning writing at a local café and imagined the manifestation occurring there when I arrived.
Through this process of intention-manifestation, I consciously intended to get the iced tea for free at the coffee shop (I like to think of it as a donation). At this particular café, I often get freebies from the employees I have come to know. But some of the employees are not always so generous. Of course, I never expect the free items and am always quite grateful when they do manifest. I do expect, however, that some will charge and others will not. I’m usually surprised when freebies manifest outside of this range of expectations.
Needless to say, on this particular morning the person I found at the register was not on my usual list of “generous employees.” Immediately my intention seemed impossible. Unconsciously – that is, despite my conscious intent to manifest – I had already decided that it was not likely to happen. As I’m sure you’ve already guessed, I paid for the iced tea. It’s not that my intention was ineffective or that The Law of Attraction was proven wrong. I simply was not congruent with the intention and was not really embracing The Law of Attraction.
We need to be in harmony with the intention and the law through conscious awareness and effort, but we also need to accept the idea on a deeper, subconscious level if we hope to see real results. Really making this part of your worldview takes time and effort and an initial suspension of disbelief.
Personally, I’m quite new to this way of thinking but already find it eye-opening. Listening to Steve Pavlina’s thorough exploration of subjective reality, I began to realize just how powerful such a “way of seeing” could really be for individuals and for the world. I’m compelled to begin applying this view of reality in my life just to test the waters. Perhaps you’re in this same boat: you know a little bit about The Law of Attraction and intention-manifestation and you’re interested in trying it out. I don’t think there’s any better way to really explore this particular idea than to try it on.
Take off your old reality lens and try seeing things in this new light – even if just for 30 days. I’d love to hear the results. In my next post about The Law of Attraction, I’ll provide a “getting started guide” for beginners based on my experiences to date. If you have something to contribute, feel free to leave a comment here or contact me directly through the link above.
Tags: law of attraction | intention | manifest
