the lie of attraction

[Tamra]

I always enjoy and benefit from your posts ALG

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Mags

ALG, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that you (and other successful practitioners of LOA) follow this pattern - you get into an alpha state (vibrational match) then you focus on manifesting specific things into your life.

It's definitely my preferred approach to get into alpha, before doing any manifestation. When I really want to manifest big intentions, I will make sure I get very "alpha". For me, this means that I will experience things like:

(a) seeing a lot of colours (especially purples, blues and greens) swirl in my head

(b) getting tingly sensations in my arms, or a sense of numbness

(c) the feeling that my body has become very heavy.

And then I'll start the manifestation.

When I do not feel very positive, I avoid doing the heavy-duty manifestation. Instead I'd usually work on feeling better. I normally do this either by exercising or listening to music.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by moonrambler

Have you considered how much time ALG spends with these concepts? The amount of reading he does, the amount of time spent in meditation/visualization, the amount of time he contributes to this forum and to his blog?

This is kind of like learning to play the piano. You don't become a master by staring despairingly into space.

Now, the reading definitely took me a lot of time. When I first started experimenting with the LOA, I could scarcely believe that it was possible. To answer my own questions about LOA, I had to read a lot of books. And I read books from many different perspectives, not just what we think of as "LOA" books.

For example, I also read books about Buddhism, quantum physics, meditation, hypnosis, psychology, faith healing, neuroscience, Indian spiritual teachers (like Osho, Krishnamurti and Sai Baba) ..... And now, I'm reading about magick, witchcraft and wizardry in different cultures around the world.

Then again, this is just the old me. I love reading - if I wasn't reading LOA and LOA-related books, I'd just be reading books about other topics that interest me.

The time spent visualising is not so much. And the reason is self-explanatory to meditators. Focusing on your intentions is not that different from meditating on your breath, or any of those traditional meditation methods. That is to say, it is not easy to really, really sustain your concentration on your intentions for any extended period of time.

In many meditation books, 15 minutes is already considered quite challenging for beginners (actually, nine breaths is already considered challenging). And I think that it's fair to say that the same applies for LOA visualisation. In other words, I'm saying that it's actually quite difficult to sustain your concentration on, say, wealth-related thoughts for 10 to 15 minutes, without getting distracted and having your thoughts stray off.

The good thing about LOA is that, well, you're constantly thinking throughout the day, and therefore every minute of your waking hours is potentially a chance to practise/use the LOA to create.

Sometimes for example I am at work doing something very technical, tricky and difficult, and then I will just take a break for one minute, take a few deep breaths and to think positive thoughts to myself like, "I can do it .... It's easy, it's easy .... This is fun and very interesting ..... Any moment now, I will get a great idea on the best way to solve this problem ... the solution is coming ..........".

Then I go back to work, and sure enough, a few minutes later, I get the solution / great idea. It is really that simple. In fact, I feel that attracting mental things (like ideas) is one of the easiest kinds of things that you can do with LOA.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

Then I go back to work, and sure enough, a few minutes later, I get the solution / great idea.

Suddenly I see why I got that great big bonus from my company.

[cylon]

Well ALG anytime someone argues with you, you really go all out in presenting your views and doing your best to answer questions, so good for you. I probably would have given up.

But when it gets to the point that they aren't so much attacking your views as attacking you personally for having those views, then you really can't go further because it's not about the topic anymore, it's about ego, and that doesn't help anyone. You aren't the type to draw someone out to make them feel bad, so it's only fair you should receive the same treatment, and if not, move on, which you have.

I agree with you but of course it's hard to limit the negative influences but what choice do you have. Anyway, I'm sure exchanges with people who disagree help to clarify things for people who are reading the exchanges, I benefited from them.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

Once you form this habit of ignoring negative matters of no real consequence, you will discover that you free up a lot of mental energy to focus on the positive things that you do want. For example, many of us may get angry or frustrated with little incidents in life like rude people; traffic jams; office politics; the printer that keeps getting jammed, and so on. Understand that if you choose to give your attention to such things, you are wasting your attention that could be given to more worthwhile things. Furthermore you may even attract more of what you don't want.

Next time you encounter a small little negative matter of no real consequence, simply imagine that you have an "Ignore" button. Click on it and let the matter be moved to your "Ignore" list. It is removed from your reality. You have conserved some thought energy and you can use it for your positive intentions.

Thank you for posting this. I like the way you've worded this as it has really caught my attention and helped me very much.

[Ree]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

Next time you encounter a small little negative matter of no real consequence, simply imagine that you have an "Ignore" button. Click on it and let the matter be moved to your "Ignore" list. It is removed from your reality. You have conserved some thought energy and you can use it for your positive intentions.

This is brilliant! I've enjoyed reading this entire thread and this nugget about an "Ignore Button" is the icing on the cake. I'm sure I'll use this a lot in the future.

You obviously always put a lot of time and thought into your posts and I for one appreciate it....... so thanks for sharing all your great ideas and wisdom, ALG!

[cylon]

The part with office politics rings true for me, lol.

I'm learning to forgive but at the same time, not forget. If someone harms you, you really do need to ignore them--but how to do that without being upset with them at the same time can be a challenge.

Having a hard time enforcing my own personal boundaries while at the same time rising above situations with others--yet that very conflict creates more drama.

Yikes! Good stuff here to remind me, to just let stuff go. You don't have to get along with everyone but you also don't have to hold onto ego damage.

[Ree]

Originally Posted by cylon

The part with office politics rings true for me, lol.

I'm learning to forgive but at the same time, not forget. If someone harms you, you really do need to ignore them--but how to do that without being upset with them at the same time can be a challenge.

Having a hard time enforcing my own personal boundaries while at the same time rising above situations with others--yet that very conflict creates more drama.

Yikes! Good stuff here to remind me, to just let stuff go. You don't have to get along with everyone but you also don't have to hold onto ego damage.

Cylon, for me the solution lies in the words to the Beatles song: Let it be.

That's my mantra when I find myself in the midst of goings-on that I know are negative. Even when I know rude comments and behavior is being aimed at me I am really able to just "let it be." It's a huge relief. Besides, it only touches you if you allow it to

[Angela]

Perfect, Ree! I love ALG's "ignore" button, but mine would say, "Accept!"

Ignoring, for me, signals willful rejection of reality -- turning your back on what's real. I don't think ALG uses the word that way though, do you, ALG? I think that word for you, is like "Accept" is for me. Acknowledge, let go, and generate. Hey! What do you know!! Look at the acronym for that!!!

How's that for a synchronicity.

[cylon]

Originally Posted by Ree

Cylon, for me the solution lies in the words to the Beatles song: Let it be.

That's my mantra when I find myself in the midst of goings-on that I know are negative. Even when I know rude comments and behavior is being aimed at me I am really able to just "let it be." It's a huge relief. Besides, it only touches you if you allow it to

Ok I'm going to try this. I thought I had to somehow release all my resentment of other people. I do my best but maybe I should just not even go that far, just say let it be and that's that and whatever. What's done is done.

[Ree]

Originally Posted by cylon

Ok I'm going to try this. I thought I had to somehow release all my resentment of other people. I do my best but maybe I should just not even go that far, just say let it be and that's that and whatever. What's done is done.

Yess! Here's the thing: It's going to be anyway

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by RT Wolf

Moonrambler, I'm not sure whether it was Mr Wang's blog you found:

It wasn't Mr. Wang . . . I looked again and still can't find it. It seems to have disappeared into the ether.

There is another tricky thing. "Every significant breakthrough, is a break-with" - Stephen Covey.

I think this probably was it in my case.

[Mags]

Originally Posted by moonrambler

I couldn't understand why everything seemed to be getting worse, the more I delved into LoA and IM, the worse things got. I know that often there does seem to be this aspect that we hear from successful people: "I was just about to give up when . . . " I found a website about LoA where the author discusses why oftentimes, once we start with this stuff, that things get worse before they get better. She even had it as a warning or caution or something. I can't find it though! Maybe somebody here knows what I'm talking about.

I don't know exactly which website you're talking about, but my take on why this happens would be that when we start actively working with LOA in our lives, we really start focusing consciously on removing blocks that we have towards what we are manifesting.

That conscious attention kind of magnifies our issues/limitations/negative things for a short period while we work through them. They are at the forefront of our vibration and so things seem to get worse. Once we've broken through or transcended that barrier, the issues have no further effect on us, and then things get better.

You know how when you detox your body, it seems to feel worse before it gets better (people often report a lot of aches and pains when they start a detox). I guess starting to actively work with the LOA is like a detox for the mind .

[Frans]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

What we want to do, as LOA practitioners, is to expand our beliefs about what is possible and what is believable. If you can believe that the bizarre and the amazing can really happen to you regularly, then it becomes possible to manifest bizarrely and amazingly positive things for yourself on a regular basis. (Of course, by then, what you consider "bizarre" or "amazing" will have changed as well).

ALG, I find this paragraph the quintessence of the more than 1500 posts you have submitted to these forums.
Moreover, I can tell you that this paragraph changed my point of view with regards to I-M completely:

When I first read your first posts in this forum, I thought: oh man, this ALG fellow must be one of the most naive persons I know, he simply believes ANYTHING.
I do realize now that in order to manifest extraordinary things, you must believe that those things CAN exist (hence your success with your amazing manifestations).

Thanks and keep up the good work!

[RT Wolf]

Yikes. BF must be feeling very much crushed. Not only did ALG (who is a respected member) just ignore him, others praised his idea of ignoring (even though not particularly him).

BF, those are some limiting beliefs you have there. ALG is not special like that. He has been creating powerfully for a number of years now, and used to create before he knew LoA, too, by working hard and applying lots of self-discipline.

I would suggest going back to read some normal PD material before attempting IM. Stuff like Steve's old articles on productivity and such, and Brian Tracy's stuff, as well as other books like that you can find from the libary.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by RT Wolf

ALG is not special like that.

I am definitely not "special like that".

If you really want to know who's "special like that", it's Anagogy. I know my LOA well, but when I read Anagogy's posts, I know that he knows it much better.

The reason why you may not have noticed is that unlike me, Anagogy never says, "Oh, last week I just manifested this, this week I just manifested this." In fact, he is very careful to refrain from posting any details about his personal life. All he does is post advice & explanations, when someone has a query.

But from the advice and explanations that Anagogy gives, I know that this guy is a master manifestator. REALLY.

So pay very close attention to Anagogy's posts. He is quite a guru. It's just that he likes to wear a cloak of relative invisibility.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Frans

When I first read your first posts in this forum, I thought: oh man, this ALG fellow must be one of the most naive persons I know, he simply believes ANYTHING.
I do realize now that in order to manifest extraordinary things, you must believe that those things CAN exist (hence your success with your amazing manifestations).

As a matter of fact, recently I've been deliberately playing around with bizarre and unusual intentions, just to see what will turn up in reality. Two examples:

1. See what happened when I started thinking about dragons.

2. See what happened when I started thinking about "Harry Potter".

Example 1 was fun, but of course, ultimately of no practical value.

Example 2, surprisingly, opened up a whole new world for me to explore.

[cylon]

I always make a point to read Anagogy's posts as well.

ALG you scared the other guy off!

I believe it was becoming personal. You debated with that mrs. corgan chick forever and she was just as argumentative, but maybe not in the personal sense. Oh well.

[bf1983]

I haven't been scared off.

I've just been making the world a better place and getting richer and happier by DOING SOMETHING rather than thinking and filling up forums with whirrings of my minds about dragons, Harry Potter and heaven knows what else.

How can a person truly be attracting so much into their life when they clearly spend so much time posting in Forums?

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Angela

Ignoring, for me, signals willful rejection of reality -- turning your back on what's real. I don't think ALG uses the word that way though, do you, ALG?

But I really do mean "ignore", Angela. Let me elaborate.

Suppose you go to a bookstore. You want to buy something to read. You quickly glance at 100 different titles on the shelves. In the end, you pick two books that look interesting to you; you pay for them, and you leave.

What has happened? 100 books had offered themselves into your reality. You accepted only two of them. You had ignored 98. And so it is, for all the other aspects of your life. All of us are continuously filtering reality. We selectively focus on certain things, and we ignore the rest.

Now, the amount of consciousness we bring to this process can vary considerably. A lot of our filtering is unconscious.

In other words, we don't realise that we are letting in, and we don't realise that we are shutting out.

Furthermore we don't realise what we are letting in, and we don't realise what we are shutting out.

Consequently we often tend to believe that we are in touch with "objective reality", when in fact all we're really in touch with is what we let in.

Filtering is pretty much inevitable, because reality is much too complex and overwhelming for us to take in as a whole (furthermore our five senses are inherently filters, and so is our human brain - but let's not get too esoteric here).

The point I want to make here is that just realising that we're constantly letting in, and shutting out, is very important. And it is important whether or not you believe in the "magical" or "paranormal" aspects of LOA.

Because that realisation allows us to bring a higher degree of consciousness to the process. And that is always helpful and useful.

Consider any conventional time management system that you may use, say, while you're at work in your office. Almost invariably, the TM system will involve some kind of list of "things to do", plus some way to prioritise the items on the list. You then take action on the high priority items, and leave aside the low priority items for later (if ever).

That's a kind of filtering. With a relatively higher degree of consciousness. You are deliberately focusing on the things that you judge to be important, and ignoring the things that you judge to be not important.

-- Part 2 coming up.

[Acting Like Godot]

-- Part 2 is here

The important point here is that this conscious filtering process (as explained using the example of a time management system at work) can be brought, not just to your work, but to your reality in general.

In fact, Rampage of Appreciation (Process No. 1 in Abraham Hicks) is an example of conscious filtering. For those who don't know, this process is simply about deliberately paying attention to the positive aspects in your life, as you go about your daily routine, and appreciating those positive aspects.

The very fact that you're focusing your attention on positive things means that you're not focusing your attention on negative things. This is an example of conscious filtering.

Now, not all negative things can be easily ignored. And not all negative things should be ignored.

BUT some negative things can be easily ignored, and should be ignored. For example, if you encounter a faceless individual on the Internet who you judge to be rude, hostile etc etc, and you cannot see any benefit in engaging the person, well, this is one example of the kind of situation where you can easily ignore the negative thing.

Now, discussing LOA more generally, and bearing in mind that all of us are ALREADY continuously filtering reality ("letting in" and "shutting out"),

what should we, if we enjoyed a high degree of consciousness, deliberately choose to let in or shut out of our respective realities:

- love or hate?
- happiness / sadness?
- wealth / poverty?
- health / illness?
- harmony / dispute?
- nice people / nasty people?

[cylon]

Originally Posted by bf1983

I haven't been scared off.

I've just been making the world a better place and getting richer and happier by DOING SOMETHING rather than thinking and filling up forums with whirrings of my minds about dragons, Harry Potter and heaven knows what else.

How can a person truly be attracting so much into their life when they clearly spend so much time posting in Forums?

Well you're obviously in the wrong forum, lol. Don't waste your time if you get nothing from it.

[cylon]

Look at it this way, ALG, even if you rigthly choose to ignore personal attacks, the responses you gave to them and others in the past who wanted to debate you, have given plenty of food for thought for people like me who are going from hardcore skepticism to this new world of possibilities, so all of us here may have attracted this, who knows/cares.

lol.

As far as the concept of ignoring, even though time may be an illusion it's still precious. I will spend my time learning about things that matter to me, but pointless arguments, while from time to time I enjoy the debate myself, being "right" isn't as important to me lately as learning and growing.

[Angela]

ALG, yes, I understand now that by "ignore" you mean the natural filtering process you go through when you're focusing on what you want to be, have, and do. And I still think we're thinking the same way, except that for me, the word "ignore" means an active focus on the thing you're ignoring, ironically, while for you it's not charged like that. If I'm ignoring some of those books on the shelves, for instance, I'm resisting them -- like when you're a teenager and you ignore that attractive person in the hopes that they'll be attracted to your "cool." The word doesn't work for me because it has me focusing on the very thing that distracts me from what I consciously want. So I think you and I use the same filtering, but different words for it.

Now that I think about it, the word "ignore" is charged for me because my mom's most effective discipline when I was little was to say, "I'm just going to ignore that behavior" when she really meant, "I'm mad, and you had better cut that crap out or you're going to feel my wrath!"

You didn't notice my ALG acronym?

[ThoughtsMatter]

Wow ALG, those last two posts of yours really hit home with me and you really got me thinking.

Their is a lot to absorb from your posts but the main thing that jumped out at me was where you said:

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

Suppose you go to a bookstore. You want to buy something to read. You quickly glance at 100 different titles on the shelves. In the end, you pick two books that look interesting to you; you pay for them, and you leave.

What has happened? 100 books had offered themselves into your reality. You accepted only two of them. You had ignored 98. And so it is, for all the other aspects of your life. All of us are continuously filtering reality. We selectively focus on certain things, and we ignore the rest.

And:

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

In fact, Rampage of Appreciation (Process No. 1 in Abraham Hicks) is an example of conscious filtering. For those who don't know, this process is simply about deliberately paying attention to the positive aspects in your life, as you go about your daily routine, and appreciating those positive aspects.

The very fact that you're focusing your attention on positive things means that you're not focusing your attention on negative things. This is an example of conscious filtering.

So, if you focus on the positive things in your life...

• you'll notice even more positive and less negative things
  
  
• you'll feel better and you'll be happier
  
  
• you'll focus on doing more positive things because it makes you feel better and happier
  
  
• you'll be more aware of different steps you need to take to get even more of these positive results.

Which to me is a great way to go about reaching whatever goals you have in life.

Man, I hope this all makes sense

Thanks for the great info ALG!

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by ThoughtsMatter

Which to me is a great way to go about reaching whatever goals you have in life.

Now as a budding LOA practitioner, I shall comment on the topic of "reaching goals in life". Firstly, I will share a few thoughts on the question of what goals one should be setting.

Every psychology student will know Maslow's hierarchy of needs. If you are not familiar, go here:

Mr Wang Says So: How To Touch The Face of God

Simply put, human motivations come in a hierarchical order. In general, you have to satisfy your lower needs, before you work on your higher needs.

For example, if you are starving and caught in a war zone, your goal is to get food, shelter and safety. Before achieving that goal, you do not think about higher levels of need, such as gaining social respect, or developing your musical talent, or helping the starving African children.

Now, the LOA, as described in "The Secret", is often criticised for its emphasis on materialistic needs, or "selfish" needs - such as getting more money, or a new car, or a new love relationship. What about the loftier ideals - like helping the starving African children; or saving the dolphins; or creating world peace?

There are several flaws in these criticisms.

Firstly, the LOA does not tell you what goals and intentions you should or should not have. It does not say, for instance, whether you should intend for a new BMW or for world peace. The LOA is simply how mind & reality operate.

"The Secret", a DVD show, offers examples of what you can do with the LOA. Many of its examples relate to what, in Maslow's hierarchy, would be described as 3rd or 4th-level motivations. Not to 5th level needs (self-actualisation) which are the loftier, more noble and more "inspiring" sort of goals.

But the LOA is not the "The Secret". "The Secret" is a DVD show. "The Secret" explains the LOA, and it uses certain examples to do so, but the LOA is not limited to those kinds of examples. In fact, the LOA is, for all practical purposes, limitless - it encompasses all of reality.

Therefore the LOA may be used for any kind of goal.

---- Part 2 coming up.

[cylon]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

But the LOA is not the "The Secret". "The Secret" is a DVD show. "The Secret" explains the LOA, and it uses certain examples to do so, but the LOA is not limited to those kinds of examples. In fact, the LOA is, for all practical purposes, limitless - it encompasses all of reality.

I agree. The Secret is about the subject, it is not the entire subject nor does it try to encompass the whole subject. Many folks think that by attacking the DVD and giving negative characteristics to the producers, or the materialistic notions THEY PERCEIVE from the content, that they are debunking something.

"The Secret costs money therefore it's materialistic and materialistic is not spiritual therefore LOA is crap."

[Acting Like Godot]

--- Part 2 is here.

If the LOA can be used for any kind of goal, why hasn't ALG put a stop to global warming; reversed the US subprime crisis and saved our dwindling rainforests?

The short answer is that while the LOA can be used for any kind of goal, conscious creation is nevertheless a skill. See my earlier post. This means that your ability to successfully create with the LOA, is precisely that - an ability.

Sorry, folks. My current level of ability does not enable me to magically stop global warming; reverse the US subprime crisis or save our dwindling rainforests.

(But check with me again, in 20 years time).

At this point, I do want to go back to Maslow's hierarchy. Remember - in general, only after your lower needs are satisfied, can you advance to focusing on your higher needs.

That is why I think that it is perfectly ok, completely natural, and in fact a very good thing, that many people first seek to use the LOA to for "selfish" reasons. They want to fix their personal problems and they want to be, do and have all the good stuff.

I say that this is a very good thing. Why? Because you are not doing the world any favours, by being broke, depressed, unhappy, angry, sick, poor, homeless, jobless etc. See my response to Robc, in the following thread, where he asked:

Am I being greedy with intention manifestation?

Robc's marriage was broken. Due to his company's downsizing, he was about to lose his job. He was fat and unhealthy. He was still traumatised by his painful childhood (when he was the victim of sexual abuse).

Suddenly Robc discovered the LOA, and his life began to turn around. "Inexplicably", as usual. No, he is not problem-free yet, but things have improved sharply for him. (He tells his story in his own words, here).

So my point is very simple. Was the world a better place, when Robc's life was a mess? No, of course not. But the world has improved, as a result of Robc improving his personal circumstances. At the very least, the number of unhappy people in the world has decreased by one.

It is when your own life is going well and smooth and you have no major personal issues to deal with, that you will finally, really be able to focus on your nobler, higher, loftier aspirations, goals, intentions and motivations (Level 5, in Maslow's hierarchy), whatever they may be.

So please do the world a favour. Help yourself.

[cylon]

Great stuff!