The Law of Attraction

[Done-With-It!]

The Law of Attraction simply says that you attract into your life whatever you think about. Your dominant thoughts will find a way to manifest. But the Law of Attraction gives rise to some tough questions that don’t seem to have good answers. I would say, however, that these problems aren’t caused by the Law of Attraction itself but rather by the Law of Attraction as applied to objective reality.
Here are some of those problematic questions (all are generalizations of ones I received via email):

• What happens when people put out conflicting intentions, like two people intending to get the same promotion when only one position is available?
• Do children, babies, and/or animals put out intentions?
• If a child is abused, does that mean the child intended it in some way?
• If I intend for my relationship to improve, but my spouse doesn’t seem to care, what will happen?

These questions seem to weaken the plausibility of the Law of Attraction. Sometimes people answer them by going pretty far out. For example, it’s been said by LoAers that a young child experiences abuse because s/he intended it or earned it during a past life. Well, sure… we can explain just about anything if we bring past lives into the equation, but IMO that’s a cop-out. On the other hand, objective reality without the Law of Attraction doesn’t provide satisfactory answers either — supposedly some kids are just born unlucky. That’s a cop-out too.
I’ve never been satisfied by others’ answers to these questions, and they’re pretty important questions if the Law of Attraction is to be believed. Some books hint at the solution but never really nail it. That nail, however, can be found in the concept of subjective reality.
Subjective reality is a belief system in which (1) there is only one consciousness, (2) you are that singular consciousness, and (3) everything and everyone in your reality is a projection of your thoughts.
You may not see it yet, but subjective reality neatly answers all these tricky Law of Attraction questions. Let me ’splain….
In subjective reality there’s only one consciousness, and it’s yours. Consequently, there’s only one source of intentions in your universe — YOU. While you may observe lots of walking, talking bodies in your reality, they all exist inside your consciousness. You know this is how your dreams work, but you haven’t yet realized your waking reality is just another type of dream. It only seems solid because you believe (intend) it is.
Since none of the other characters you encounter are conscious in a way that’s separate from you, nobody else can have intentions. The only intentions are yours. You’re the only thinker in this universe.
It’s important to correctly define the YOU in subjective reality. YOU are not your physical body. This is not the egoic you at all. I’m not suggesting you’re a conscious body walking around in a world full of unconscious automatons. That would be a total misunderstanding of subjective reality. The correct viewpoint is that you’re the single consciousness in which this entire reality takes place.
Imagine you’re having a dream. In that dream what exactly are YOU? Are YOU the physical dream character you identify with? No, of course not — that’s just your dream avatar. YOU are the dreamer. The entire dream occurs within your consciousness. All dream characters are projections of your dream thoughts, including your avatar. In fact, if you learn lucid dreaming, you can even switch avatars in your dream by possessing another character. In a lucid dream, you can do anything you believe you can.
Physical reality works the same way. This is a denser universe than what you experience in your sleeping dreams, so changes occur a bit more gradually here. But this reality still conforms to your thoughts just like a sleeping dream. YOU are the dreamer in which all of this is taking place.
The idea that other people have intentions is an illusion because other people are just projections. Of course, if you strongly believe other people have intentions, then that’s the dream you’ll create for yourself. But ultimately it’s still an illusion.
Here’s how subjective reality answers these challenging Law of Attraction questions:
What happens when people put out conflicting intentions, like two people intending to get the same promotion when only one position is available?
Since you’re the only intender, this is entirely an internal conflict — within YOU. You’re holding the thought (the intention) for both people to want the same position. But you’re also thinking (intending) that only one can get it. So you’re intending competition. This whole situation is your creation. You believe in competition, so that’s what you manifest. Maybe you have some beliefs (thoughts and intentions) about who will get the promotion, in which case your expectations will manifest. But you may have a higher order belief that life is random, unfair, uncertain, etc., so in that case you may manifest a surprise because that’s what you’re intending.
Being the only intender in your reality places a huge responsibility on your shoulders. You can give up control of your reality by thinking (intending) randomness and uncertainty, but you can never give up responsibility. You’re the sole creator in this universe. If you think about war, poverty, disease, etc., that’s exactly what you’ll manifest. If you think about peace, love, and joy, you’ll manifest that too. Your reality is exactly what you think it is. Whenever you think about anything, you summon its manifestation.
Do children, babies, and/or animals put out intentions?
No. Your own body doesn’t even put out intentions — only your consciousness does. You’re the only one who has intentions, so what takes precedence is what YOU intend for the children, babies, and animals in your reality. Every thought is an intention, so however you think about the other beings in your reality is what you’ll eventually manifest for them. Keep in mind that beliefs are hierarchical, so if you have a high order belief that reality is random and unpredictable and out of your control, then that intention will trump other intentions of which you’re less certain. It’s your entire collection of thoughts that dictates how your reality manifests.
If a child is abused, does that mean the child intended it in some way?
No. It means YOU intended it. You intend child abuse to manifest simply by thinking about it. The more you think about child abuse (or any other subject), the more you’ll see it expand in your reality. Whatever you think about expands, and not just in the narrow space of your avatar but in all of physical reality.
If I intend for my relationship to improve, but my spouse doesn’t seem to care, what will happen?
This is another example of intending conflict. You’re projecting one intention for your avatar and one for your spouse, so the actual unified intention is that of conflict. Hence the result you experience, subject to the influence of your higher order beliefs, will be to experience conflict with your spouse. If your thoughts are conflicted, your reality is conflicted.
This is why assuming responsibility for your thoughts is so important. If you want to see peace in the world, then intend peace for EVERYTHING in your reality. If you want to see abundance in the world, then intend it for EVERYONE. If you want to enjoy loving relationships, then intend loving relationships for ALL. If you intend these only for your own avatar but not for others, then you’re intending conflict, division, and separation; consequently, that’s what you’ll experience.
If you stop thinking about something entirely, does that mean it disappears? Yes, technically it does. But in practice it’s next to impossible to uncreate what you’ve already manifested. You’ll continue creating the same problems just by noticing them. But when you assume 100% responsibility for everything you’re experiencing in your reality right now — absolutely everything — then you assume the power to alter your reality by rechanneling your thoughts.
This entire reality is your creation. Feel good about that. Feel grateful for the richness of your world. And then begin creating the reality you truly want by making decisions and holding intentions. Think about what you desire, and withdraw your thoughts from what you don’t want. The most natural, easiest way to do this is to pay attention to your emotions. Thinking about your desires feels good, and thinking about what you don’t want makes you feel bad. When you notice yourself feeling bad, you’ve caught yourself thinking about something you don’t want. Turn your focus back towards what you do want, and your emotional state will improve rapidly. As you do this repeatedly, you’ll begin to see your physical reality shift too, first in subtle ways and then in bigger leaps.
I too am just a manifestation of your consciousness. I play the role you expect me to play. If you expect me to be a helpful guide, I will be. If you expect me to be profound and insightful, I will be. If you expect me to be confused or deluded, I will be. But of course there’s no distinct ME that is separate from YOU. I’m just one of your many creations. I am what you intend me to be. But deep down you already knew that, didn’t you?

[Done-With-It!]

Whenever you form an intention, that intention has two primary components. The first component is the content of the intention. The content is the information part of your desire. It’s whatever you decide you want, such as a new career, a better relationship, or an extra $10,000. That part is pretty straightforward.
The second component of an intention is the energy you bring to the intention. Some people describe this as a feeling, like passion or gratitude, but the feeling is actually the result of the energy, not the energy itself. However, you know there is energy in your intention when you connect strong feelings to it.
I’ll explain the energy component in more detail in a moment, but first let’s address…
Failure experiences with the Law of Attraction
I often hear people complain that they’ve dutifully and correctly applied the Law of Attraction, but their intentions just aren’t manifesting. Some of the more stubborn believers will continue beating their heads against the wall, using the same ineffective approach even though it generates no results week after week. (Please don’t do that to yourself.) Others give up within a matter of hours when their cappuccino grande fails to manifest, concluding that the whole Law of Attraction concept is bogus. (Please don’t do that to yourself either.)
I’ve previously written an article called Why Do Intentions Take So Long to Manifest? which covers some common problems people experience when trying (unsuccessfully) to apply the Law of Attraction. Now I want to address the most common mistake of all.
Content alone is not enough
Here’s the #1 mistake people make: They mistake content for complete intentions. The problem is that content alone isn’t enough because energy is an essential component of every intention.
Great content + no energy = an intention that won’t manifest anything but frustration.
Consider all the content that’s available to you on the Internet these days. Does that content just whiz around the world by itself? Of course not. Electricity is required to deliver it to you. Without electricity that content is dead in the water.
Suppose I write a new article for this web site, and before I can post it, my electricity goes out. Initially I’m frustrated that my content isn’t getting delivered to my readers. How do I solve this problem? Is the problem with the content itself? Do I need to improve the quality of the content… to write more content… or to post it on my wall? Those would be pretty stupid solutions, wouldn’t they? But that’s exactly what many people do when trying to “fix” their intentions that don’t seem to be working.
If you’re nitpicking the verbiage of your intentions, you’re like a writer nitpicking the wording of a private journal entry that no one else is going to read. It just doesn’t matter.
What is the energy component of an intention?
The energy of an intention isn’t the same thing as electricity, but it’s a good metaphor for understanding the concept. Don’t get hung up on the exact term — it’s the concept that’s important.
Many people refer to energy as the emotional juice you bring to an intention. That’s part of it, but strong emotions are the result, not the cause, of that energy.
If you want to see some high-energy intentions, look no further than children. Kids are intention-manifestation masters. When they really want something, there’s no mistaking it. They’ll ask for it, they’ll jump up and down, and they’ll drive everyone crazy expressing their desires. And assuming they don’t give up, kids are pretty darned good at manifesting what they want.
What kind of energy do you bring to your intentions? Do you speak of them like you’re talking about a piece of burnt toast? Or are you so juiced that you’re just dripping with enthusiasm?
I’m not suggesting you should behave like a kid throwing a sugar tantrum, but if you get more excited about the coming weekend than you do about your intention, well… the weekend will be the only thing you manifest.
Emotions measure intentional energy
As I mentioned earlier, strong emotions are actually the result of energy, not the cause of it. The value of emotions is that they let you know how much energy you’ve managed to pack into your intention. If you’re so gushingly enthusiastic about your intention that people keep telling you to shut up about it, you clearly have plenty of energy behind it.
So what’s the real source of this energy then?
The source of this energy is actually the universe itself. The energy is already there. You just need to connect some of it with your intention.
Consider how electricity works. The electrons are already sitting there in the wires of your home, and they start flowing when you flip a switch to complete the circuit, thereby creating a current and providing usable electrical power to your appliances. Although the electrons as particles move at a fairly slow pace, the electric field moves at the speed of light, so your appliances turn on right away.
Your intentions work much the same way. The energy is already there. You just need to get the current flowing in the right direction. And this has virtually nothing to do with the actual content of your intentions. Electricity doesn’t care whether it’s powering a computer or a coffee maker, nor does intentional energy care whether you’re building a business or a bomb.
Polarity
So how do you get this energy current flowing? First you need to understand the concept of polarity.
Going back to the electricity example. Imagine a battery. It has two terminals which are polar opposites of each other, one positive and one negative. If you hook the battery up to a circuit, electrons will flow in one direction, thereby creating a current. If you flip the battery around and hook it up the other way, you’ll reverse the flow of electrons through the wires, thereby creating an identical current in the opposite direction. (I’m trying to keep this analogy simple, so if you feel the need to out-nerd me by bringing up things like differential resistance, manifest a life.)
Now what if you wanted to increase the current flowing through your circuit? You could do that by adding more batteries, right? But in order for this to work, the batteries must be aligned to create a current in the same direction. If you put batteries into a device with some facing the correct way and some facing the wrong way, the device won’t work because you’ll screw up the current.
So what does this have to do with intention-manifestation? Well, the energy you apply to your intentions also has polarity, much like a battery. It can flow one way or the other way. You’ll know you have a strong intentional current when you experience strong emotions. No emotions means you have no current.
Many people screw up their intentional energy flow by trying to use both polarities in the same circuit. You can’t do that and expect to get good results with the Law of Attraction. It just won’t work. You must use either one polarity or the other, and you must remain congruent in your usage.
So what are the two polarities of intention-manifestation, and how do you apply them to build a strong intentional current? I’ll cover that in detail in my next article, so stay tuned. Update: here it is… Polarity