If you view the law of attraction as nothing more than a motivational tool, then this post isn’t for you. It is a good motivational tool, and I don’t dispute that. This post is for the people who think the law of attraction has some kind of special power, and invoke silly arguments to try to defend it.

1. Belief in the Paranormal/Supernatural.

   Believing that the law of attraction is more than just a motivational tool, that it actually has some power to control the universe, requires a belief in the supernatural. To believe that wanting, or wishing for, or concentrating on a goal will cause an increase in the chances of that goal occurring requires a belief in the supernatural. To believe that thought alone has the ability to change events requires a belief in psychic powers.

   That’s exactly what psychic powers are: controlling events with thoughts. If you can actually control events with your mind, then the law of attraction will make you money, because James Randi will give you a million dollars.

2. Anecdotal Evidence.

   The fact that some people who have made lots of money claim to use the law of attraction doesn’t mean that the law of attraction has any effect. Can you say placebo effect?

   Some people claim that keeping a rabbits foot brings them good luck. Some people think that breaking a mirror will bring bad luck. Nonsense. There’s no scientific evidence that good luck charms have anything more than a placebo effect. Likewise, there’s no evidence that the law of attraction is anything but a placebo.

   There are plenty of people who are wealthy who don’t claim that the law of attraction made them their money. There are also lots of people who are not wealthy who blindly cling to the law of attraction in a desperate attempt to change things.

   In the words of Steve Pavlina, “I often hear people complain that they’ve dutifully and correctly applied the Law of Attraction, but their intentions just aren’t manifesting.” Of course, it’s because they aren’t putting enough energy into it. Just like faith healers tell people it’s a lack of belief that stops them from walking.

3. Unreliable Sources.

   It seems that many of the people who claim to have made fortunes using the law of attractions are the very same people selling books and movies about the law of attraction. It seems to be a conflict of interest when the people telling you the law of attraction works are the same people selling the law of attraction.

   The drug companies always think you need their latest pill, and every car maker will tell you that their models are the best in the business. They are, of course, biased. Without independent validation, these kinds of claims should be treated with serious skepticism. (Even with independent validation, a healthy dose of skepticism is always a good idea.)

4. Blaming Victims.

   Picture this: You’re driving along the road late at night, listening to the radio. You’re on your way home from dinner at a friend’s house. Your favorite song is on the radio, and you’ve got a smile on you face. Every so often, a car passes you heading the other direction. Suddenly some drunk asshole swerves over into your lane, plowing into your car head-on.

   Now tell me, who do you blame for that accident? Is it your fault? Did you attract that accident? The Secret specifically says that people do attract the car accidents they are in.

   I have nothing else to say about this.

5. Quantum Physics.

   The Secret makes mention of quantum physics, as did a commenter on the last post. Let’s be clear about this: quantum physics doesn’t affirm the law of attraction or any other claims about the supernatural.

   Yes, quantum physics states that the act of observation can affect quantum particles. That does not mean that observation can control quantum particles. They still behave in a nondeterministic manner. i.e. They act randomly. Their behavior follows statistical rules, just like coin tosses.

   If you can demonstrate that your thoughts can control the outcome of quantum-level events, I’m pretty sure you would win a Nobel prize. It would be, by far, the biggest discovery in quantum mechanics.

6. The Cast.

   Much of the cast was made of up people who’ve made their fortunes selling this “secret,” and few of them have any credentials that were impressive to anyone willing to do any critical thinking. Among the cast, we’ve got some philosophers, a feng shui consultant, a metaphysicist, and a visionary. Yes, a visionary.

   Philosophers – Philosophy is a degree in sitting around, thinking deep thoughts. That’s fine, but it doesn’t qualify you to make outrageous claims about “the most powerful law in the universe.” I used to think logic was part of philosophy, but I guess not.

   Feng shui consultant – What is it about charging obscene fees for arranging furniture that qualifies this person to give advice about wealth? The formula for wealth she used was:

   1. Make up claims of understanding old, hokey Chinese belief about Qi.
   2. Charge lots of money to move furniture around.

   Metaphysicist – This is just another way of saying philosopher. Strangely enough, the philosophers and the metaphysicist seem to have written lots of books about wealth, and not so many about the nature of life, intelligence, the universe, or anything else that traditionally falls into the realm of philosophy.

   Visionary – Seriously, his job title was listed as “Visionary.” This doesn’t even mean anything. It’s a self-appointed title that’s as meaningless as “guru,” and somehow even more self-indulgent.

If you want to buy into The Secret and the law of attraction, that’s your right. If you want to avoid critical thinking and hold onto ridiculous claims, you can. But the law of attraction is bunk, and you’re wasting your time and money.

This “secret” has been kept from you your entire life. World leaders have suppressed it since the dawn of civilization. They have used it, even abused it, while the ignorant masses grind their way through their lives. And if you spend $29.95 on the DVD, the secret will change your life.

So, what’s the secret that’s been suppressed for ages and ages? The Law of Attraction, the idea that you will draw toward you the things that you think about most. Basically, if you concentrate on positives, you’ll attract good fortune, while if you concentrate on your Visa bill, your Mastercard bill will show up, too.

Never mind that The Secret claims it’s been known, used, and taught by everyone from Plato to Einstein. Never mind that it’s been in every new age self-improvement book ever written. And never mind that some of the people in the video have been hawking it to gullible schlubs since well before I was born. It’s a secret, and you need to watch this movie to find out about it.

The Problem with The Secret and the Law of Attraction

I’m all for giving people good advice. Unfortunately, The Secret isn’t giving good advice. The law of attraction isn’t really advice at all. It’s a get-rich-quick scheme, a 30-pounds-in-30-days diet. The law of attraction sells the idea that good thoughts, instead of hard work, will bring good things.

Easy sells. It’s sexy. Losing thirty pounds without dieting sounds great. Earning six figures part time sounds great. The idea that just thinking good thoughts could change your life sounds absolutely wonderful. Hard work doesn’t sound so great. In fact, it sounds kind of hard. However, hard work has the best chance of yielding the best results. Selling easy paths that don’t work distracts people from the real path that could actually help them.

Telling people that cutting out trans-fats will cause them to lose weight distracts them from the fact that eating less will cause them to lose weight. Telling people that they can earn six figures by flipping houses distracts them from the fact that good investments and budgeting will build wealth. Publishing a video claiming that good thoughts are the catalyst for improving one’s life distracts people from the fact that hard work is the only reliable catalyst for improvement.

The Truth in the Law of Attraction

I’m willing to grant that there’s a little bit of truth to the law of attraction. If you concentrate on improving your life, while your neighbor concentrates on how much his life sucks, you probably stand a better chance of improving than your neighbor, if only because you’re more likely to see the opportunities and take the risks that can help you out.

There’s no magic, though, and no law. It’s about you trying to better yourself. Big surprise. Trying to do something increases the chances of succeeding at doing something.

I’m sure that The Secret’s cast would use this to defend themselves, saying that it’s good thoughts and hard work that really accomplish improvements. Sleezy infomercials pitching ab exercisers do the same thing when they briefly mention “proper diet” when claiming weight loss. Real estate scams print “results not typical” in tiny letters when discussing all the millionare success stories. A scam is a scam, even if you aren’t technically lying. Ab infomercials aren’t selling proper diet, real estate flipping programs aren’t selling personal bankruptcy, and The Secret isn’t selling hard work.

The Lies in the Law of Attraction

Since concentrating on negative issues is a surefire way to attract more of them, according to The Secret, your best bet to get out of debt is to simply not worry about it. Imagine having more money, and keep spending the way you’ve been spending. Somehow by imagining you’ve got money, you eventually will. Budgets are for chumps! That money you want will show up eventually. Either that or the debt collectors. But don’t think about that. That would attract problems.

If the law of attraction really worked the way The Secret says it does, then your best bet for improving your financial fortune would be to buy lottery tickets and think really, really hard about winning. Let me know how that works out for you.

The Insanity of The Secret

The Secret says that the people who have debt, heath problems, etc. are attracting their problems. Likewise, people with wealth are attracting prosperity. As evidence for this, The Secret cites the fact that people with debt and health problems talk more about these things than people without them, while prosperous people talk more about their wealth. This clearly shows that thinking (and talking) about debt attracts more debt, while thinking about wealth attracts more wealth.

First off, most of the wealthy people I know don’t talk about their wealth much. Second, isn’t it possible that people get problems and then talk about them? Doesn’t that seem to fit Occam’s Razor pretty well? I don’t talk about my lung cancer very much, but if I actually had lung cancer, I might.

Joe Vitale, a “metaphysicist” who appears in The Secret, tells us that people who get into car accidents do so because they were thinking about them too much, that they attracted car accidents. In my experience, the people who get into the most car accidents are not thinking about the possibility of accidents, or anything else to do with driving.

What about the people who get struck by lightning? Are they the ones thinking about it the most? When I think about getting hit by lighting, I get off the damned golf course.

A Case Study

The Secret tells the story of a gay man who had a terrible job with coworkers who treated him like crap, who was constantly physically assaulted by gay-haters, and who was heckled by homophobes when he did stand-up. By concentrating on his problems, he was causing them to magnify. When he learned about the law of attraction, he changed what he was concentrating on. By just concentrating on the good life he wanted, the mean coworkers quit their jobs, the gay-haters stopped assaulting him, and suddenly he was a riot on-stage and the hecklers were gone.

Are we seriously supposed to believe that good thoughts made others quit their jobs? That good thoughts stopped constant physical attacks and turned audiences full of homophobic hecklers into gay-embracing, supportive audiences delivering standing ovations? Are you kidding me?

Burglary victoms, don’t invest in better locks and an alarm system. That’s just concentrating on the problem. What you should do is concentrate on what you want. You know, a house that hasn’t been broken into, and a stereo that hasn’t been stolen.

Rape victoms, it’s your fault. If you were thinking good thoughts, those rapists wouldn’t have attacked you and violated you in ways you never thought possible. Now, go clean up and think about something positive, because if you keep thinking about the rape, it’s going to happen again. Mr.Vitale says so.

Why Even Care About The Secret?

Why do I have such a problem with the secret? Because it’s taking advantage of gullible people. It’s a slick sales pitch targeting the unfortunate. Sadly, people like Oprah and Ellen DeGeneres are helping them, instead of promoting people who actually have useful advice.

Promoting a false hope, a lie, about what it takes to improve ones life simply exacerbates the problem. Every person who spends more time hoping for extra money spends less time actually budgeting. Encouraging people to hope and think about change, rather than working for change, digs them deeper into the holes they are in.

It’s the right of every slimy guru to sell artificial hopes and dreams to fools, just as it’s the right of gullible people to buy that snake oil. That doesn’t mean we should say its acceptable.

A Solution that Doesn’t Rely on Hope

The truth is that improving your situation is usually possible, but it’s usually not easy. If you want to get out of debt, you need to build a budget and plan. Thinking about more money isn’t going to help. Actually getting a second job to earn more money will help. Hard work will always triumph over good wishes.

You don’t have to work hard if you don’t want to. You can take the false hopes. You can think really hard about improving your situation, instead of actually trying, and working, to improve your situation. But while you’re feeling upbeat about how eventually all your “hard thoughts” are going to pay off, your neighbor is actually getting a second job. In a few years, he’ll have whittled his debt down, while you’ve continued to rack up more credit card bills. In the meantime, the makers of The Secret will have made a pretty penny off your indulgence and gullibility.

My “Scientific” Experiment

In the name of fairness, I’m going to try the law of attraction for myself. If it works, I’ll rewrite this post to say that the law of attraction is scientific fact, and I’ll buy copies of The Secret for all my friends and family. I’m going to think about something I really want, and I’ll really hope it materializes. I’m going to hope like I’ve never hoped before.

However, if my thoughts can really control reality, then everyone involved with The Secret, you’d better stay off the streets, because what I’m thinking about, what I’m really, really hoping for, is that each of you gets crushed by a runaway garbage truck.

(See also: The Top 6 Reasons Why the Law of Attraction (and “The Secret”) is Bunk)

Best Comment

Sosuke Says:
February 20th, 2007 at 3:43 pm

“The Secret”, when combined with hard work and good exercise will make all your dreams come true!

*Hard work not typical of those who purchase “The Secret”

About a year ago, I bought a brand new stainless steel grill. I absolutely love it. It makes wonderful burgers, grills chicken like a champ, and cooks steaks good enough to may Bobby Flay jealous. Well, it does all those things when I don’t mess up.

A couple of weeks after buying the grill, I opened the refrigerator to find a plastic tub full of raw, marinating chicken. My roommate at the time had bought this chicken, and was clearly planning on grilling it. I gave it a sniff, and thought it smelled a bit off. Whether it was really the chicken, or just the marinade, I couldn’t say. But I knew I had to let him know. How would I feel if I let him eat bad chicken? What if he got salmonella? Or e. coli? Or a cold sore? I could have prevented that!

So, out of only the most genuine concern for my roommate’s health and safety, I asked him how long the chicken had been marinading. “A few days.” I told him that I didn’t think it would really be safe to eat chicken that had been sitting uncooked for that long, even in the refrigerator. He blew me off, but then checked online, where other people also told him that three days is a bit too long. (Everyone knows that random Internet sites are trustworthy sources of information.) He ended up throwing the chicken out and eating something else.

This isn’t the story of how I saved him from certain salmonella, though. I don’t honestly know whether or not the chicken was safe to eat. As long as he cooked it thoroughly, it probably would have been fine. Upon later reflection, I realized that my concern for his health was not the primary reason I asked about the chicken, not by a long shot. The real reason was that I knew he was planning on using my grill. How dare he?! If he’d asked, I wouldn’t have minded, at least not much. He was going to use without asking, though, the bastard.

My roommate using my grill, even without permission, would not have been the end of the world. But I let my emotions get the better of me, and I did so without even realizing. Rather than recognizing that I felt insulted by him neglecting to ask for permission, and acting properly, I turned to a passive-aggressive technique to get him to not use my grill. The appropriate thing to do would have been to let him use my grill, but to tell him that in the future, he should ask before planning to use it. By not recognizing my own emotions and how they were affecting me, I let myself act in a way I normally wouldn’t. By neglecting to step back and evaluate the situation, I allowed myself to ignore the real issue.

Acting the way I did didn’t cause any massive problems. I don’t know if my roommate ever even realized the real reason I asked him about the chicken. It’s not the end of the world if he did. It could have caused problems, though, if he’d seen through it and he’d gotten upset. Two passive-aggressive people do not a happy home make. Acting the way I did is fairly transparent. Behaving that way repeatedly will eventually be noticed, and it can’t possibly breed anything but bad feelings.

What would have happened if it had been a boss that had slighted me? Would I have started neglecting my duties at work? Would I have become passive-aggressive there? That could have been a problem.

Inevitably, everyone we know is going to hurt our feelings at some point. If we don’t step back, and realize what the problem is, we greatly increase the chances of the situation escalating, perhaps immediately, perhaps over the long term. How many friends have you drifted apart from because some minor, possibly even unintentional insult turned into a big deal? (Hint: If you have bad feelings toward someone you drifted apart from, and can’t fully explain the feeling, that might be what happened.)

How many couples split because tiny issues built until they were driven apart? Sally feels that John just doesn’t care anymore, and John thinks that Sally’s turned into a nag. Likely, neither of them has really changed much. Instead, they’ve let the little things build up. They’ve let the feelings of resentment build. John has been shirking his part of the household work and he doesn’t take Sally out much anymore. Sally has been acting distant because John hasn’t been doing his housework, and she doesn’t realize her tactics are not helping the situation. Neither of them are showing much affection. Both Sally and John need to step back and realize that there’s no critical problem. They’ve simply let tiny things build until they’ve convince themselves that the problems are huge.

However, if we take the time and put forth the effort to just step back and really figure out why we are acting the way we are, we can often fix the underlying problem. We don’t have to compound minor issues. Sometimes we need to work through the problem with the others involved. Sometimes we just need to understand why we’re upset, or why we’re acting the way we are, and just stop. Once we understand the problem, it can more often than not be easily solved. We just have to try. We have to pay attention, look past the superficial issue, to find out what’s really underneath.