Law of attraction (New Thought)
In the New Thought spiritual movement, the Law of Attraction is a pseudoscience based on the belief that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person's life. The belief is based on the ideas that people and their thoughts are made from "pure energy" and that a process of like energy attracting like energy exists through which a person can improve their health, wealth, and personal relationships. There is no empirical scientific evidence supporting the law of attraction, and it is widely considered to be pseudoscience. Advocates generally combine cognitive  reframing techniques with affirmations and creative visualization to replace limiting or self-destructive ("negative") thoughts with more empowered, adaptive ("positive") thoughts. A key component of the philosophy is the idea that in order to effectively change one's negative thinking patterns, one must also "feel" (through creative visualization) that the desired changes have already occurred. This combination of positive thought and positive emotion is believed to allow one to attract positive experiences and opportunities by achieving resonance with the proposed energetic law. Supporters of the Law of Attraction refer to scientific theories and use them as arguments in favor of  it. However, it has no demonstrable scientific basis. A number of researchers have criticized the misuse of scientific concepts by its proponents. History. The New Thought movement grew out of the teachings of Phineas Quimby in the early 19th century. Early in his life, Quimby was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Early 19th century medicine had no reliable cure for tuberculosis. Quimby took to horse riding and noted that intense excitement temporarily relieved him from his affliction. This method for relieving his pain and seemingly subsequent recovery prompted Phineas to pursue a study of "Mind over Body". Although he never used the  words "Law of Attraction", he explained this in a statement that captured the concept in the field of health: In 1855, the term "Law of Attraction" appeared in "The Great Harmonia", written by the American spiritualist Andrew Jackson Davis, in a context alluding to the human soul and spheres of the afterlife. The first articulator of the Law as general principle was Prentice Mulford. Mulford, a pivotal figure in the development of New Thought thinking, discusses the Law of Attraction at length in his essay "The Law of Success", published 1886–1887. In this, Mulford was followed by other New Thought  authors, such as Henry Wood (starting with his "God’s Image in Man", 1892), and Ralph Waldo Trine (starting with his first book, "What All the World's A-Seeking", 1896). For these authors, the Law of Attraction is concerned not only about health but every aspect of life. The 20th century saw a surge in interest in the subject with many books being written about it, amongst which are two of the best-selling books of all time; "Think and Grow Rich" (1937) by Napoleon Hill, "The Power of Positive Thinking" (1952) by Norman Vincent Peale, and "You Can  Heal Your Life" (1984) by Louise Hay. The Abraham-Hicks material is based primarily around the Law of Attraction. In 2006, the concept of the Law of Attraction gained renewed exposure with the release of the film "The Secret" (2006) which was then developed into a book of the same title in 2007. The movie and book gained widespread media coverage. This was followed by a sequel, "The Power" in 2010 that talks about the law of attraction being the law of love. The revived and modernized version of the Law of Attraction is known as manifestation. Descriptions. Proponents believe  that the Law of Attraction is always in operation and that it brings to each person the conditions and experiences that they predominantly think about, or which they desire or expect. Charles Haanel wrote in "The Master Key System" (1912): Ralph Trine wrote in "In Tune With The Infinite" (1897): In her 2006 film "The Secret", Rhonda Byrne emphasized thinking about what each person wants to obtain, but also to infuse the thought with the maximum possible amount of emotion. She claims the combination of thought and feeling is what attracts the desire. Another similar book is James Redfield's  The Celestine Prophecy, which says reality can be manifested by man. "The Power of Your Subconscious Mind" by Joseph Murphy, says readers can achieve seemingly impossible goals by learning how to bring the mind itself under control. "The Power" by Rhonda Byrne and "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho are similar. While personal testimonies claim the secret and the law to have worked for them, a number of skeptics have criticized Byrne's film and book. "The New York Times Book Review" called the secret pseudoscience and an "illusion of knowledge". Philosophical and religious basis. The New Thought concept of the  Law of Attraction is rooted in ideas that come from various philosophical and religious traditions. In particular, it has been inspired by Hermeticism, New England transcendentalism, specific verses from the Bible, and Hinduism. Hermeticism influenced the development of European thought in the Renaissance. Its ideas were transmitted partly through alchemy. In the 18th century, Franz Mesmer studied the works of alchemists such as Paracelsus and van Helmont. Van Helmont was a 17th-century Flemish physician who proclaimed the curative powers of the imagination. This led Mesmer to develop his ideas about Animal magnetism which Phineas Quimby, the founder of New  Thought, studied. The Transcendentalist movement developed in the United States immediately before the emergence of New Thought and is thought to have had a great influence on it. George Ripley, an important figure in that movement, stated that its leading idea was "the supremacy of mind over matter". New Thought authors often quote certain verses from the Bible in the context of the Law of Attraction. An example is Mark 11:24: "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." In the late 19th century Swami Vivekananda traveled to  the United States and gave lectures on Hinduism. These talks greatly influenced the New Thought movement and in particular, William Walker Atkinson who was one of New Thought's pioneers. Criticism. The Law of Attraction has been popularized in the early 21st century by books and films such as "The Secret". This 2006 film and the subsequent book use interviews with New Thought authors and speakers to explain the principles of the proposed metaphysical law that one can attract anything that one thinks about consistently. Writing for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, Mary Carmichael and Ben Radford wrote that "neither  the film nor the book has any basis in scientific reality", and that its premise contains "an ugly flipside: if you have an accident or disease, it's your fault". Others have questioned the references to modern scientific theory, and have maintained, for example, that the Law of Attraction misrepresents the electrical activity of brainwaves. Victor Stenger and Leon Lederman are critical of attempts to use quantum mysticism to bridge any unexplained or seemingly implausible effects, believing these to be traits of modern pseudoscience. "Skeptical Inquirer" magazine criticized the lack of falsifiability and testability of these claims. Critics have asserted  that the evidence provided is usually anecdotal and that, because of the self-selecting nature of the positive reports, as well as the subjective nature of any results, these reports are susceptible to confirmation bias and selection bias. Physicist Ali Alousi, for instance, criticized it as unmeasurable and questioned the likelihood that thoughts can affect anything outside the head. The mantra of "The Secret", and by extension, the Law of Attraction, is as follows: positive thoughts and positive visualization will have a direct impact on the self. While positivity can improve one's quality of life and resilience through hardship , it can also be misguiding. Holding the belief that positive thinking will manifest positivity in one's life diminishes the value of hard work and perseverance, such as in the 1970s pursual of "self-esteem-based education". The belief was that for students to succeed academically (and largely, in life), they must develop a positive sense of their own self-worth. The rationale behind this theory comes from the perspective that people who are successful are also generally positive when discussing their success (e.g., motivational speakers), therefore one's success must be related to how they view themselves. Thus, the  American education system received a complete reconstruction to ensure students felt valued in their academic efforts. Grading curves were implemented so that fewer students were held back, honour rolls were removed to prevent lower-achieving individuals from feeling disappointed in themselves, and teachers could no longer grade assignments using red ink as this was viewed as "stigmatizing". Students were no longer held to the same standard of achievement. It was later realized that this system was ultimately unsuccessful in promoting success; lower-achieving students who were advanced further into higher-level grades were unable, or unwilling to, garner an understanding  of the curriculum. Thus, in spite of having grandiose self-value, student academic achievement was unable to match it. While empirical research has shown that there is an existing relationship between student self-worth and school achievement, the motivation of students to work hard and achieve based on their own academic merit cannot be discounted.