All matter has energy potential and the energy can released… or more accurately transformed into kinetic, potential, thermal, gravitational, sound, elastic and electromagnetic energy. Each form can be measured by science. As Adam suggests claims about energy need to be back up by evidence otherwise they are effectively meaningless.

Quote ”The Secret says that thoughts have energy, and similar energies are attracted to each other”.
This, in fact, is true. The Law of Resonance dictates that it is so. Unquote

Can you explain how similar energies are attracted to each other?
I couldn’t find any scientific papers on the Law of resonance. Good ol’ wikipedia had a page on Resonance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonance but I don’t see the connection.

Within the EM spectrum there is an interesting band in the infra-red, from about 700 nm to 1000 nm, where absorption by enzymes within the intracellular respiratory chain can take place.
Apart from that,
We are all electromagnetic beings:

The human body grounds electromagnetic radiation in the environment because of the electrical conductivity of our body. It is attracted to us. We generate it.

All living systems are based on electromagnetic energy. Every cell in your body is generating an electromagnetic field, every plant, every rock, the planet itself, the whole universe is made up of energy.
You wouldnt get a shock from static electricity if you weren’t carrying it in your body.
I know that you cant see it yet, but talking to you personally may help me to show you what ”energy” is as opposed to your view that it is just, well, energy that we all have inside us and we use it to power our muscles etc.
See you monday 🙂
love
Elaine xx

(OK so you are now expecting some yin yangs personal monologue … but hang in there just a moment longer … you might like this peek thru my lens)

Its a fact: We are exposed to more information in an average day than folks from centuries past experienced in a lifetime. Im sure you agree.

All our waking hours, our 5 senses are bombarded with input. We are by nature adaptive creatures, & this modern challenge has forced us to develop robust ‘filters’ to keep out what would otherwise be the *literally* maddening white noise of constant multi-sensory input

When our concious mind focuses on something, we ‘punch thru’ said filter and LET IN relevant input … that WAS THERE ANYWAY

Example: You are told your ex has just bought a white Lexus. Guess what, you now see white Lexus everywhere.

Heres the thing … they were always going to be in our line of sight anyway, but would not have gotten thru the filter as they meant nothing

I hold that we “attract” into our lives that which we focus on, not by function of some cosmic transmitter (Gawd) but far more likely because we let already existing information / situations / people THRU THE FILTER we just punched a hole in via concious thought

Same result, doesn’t invalidate the ‘attract what you focus on’ schtick, but removes the mysticism & voodoo element

Waddya think?

Now we’re talking! Brenda… Thank you for that considered and brilliant contribution.

I absolutely share your thoughts about beliefs. And indeed, the Secret does not address that at all.

Joe Vitale wrote the foreword to one of my books and I am very aware of his work. He does certainly offer some more elements of actual strategy than those offered up in the Secret. But they are not correlated with the Law of Attraction per sé.

One of my favourite books ever is ‘As A Man Thinketh’ by James Allen (which incidentally if anyone wants a copy of, it is in the public domain and I am happy to email you an electronic copy) which is exclusively about thinking the right kind of thoughts and could easily be the bible for the law of attraction.

And you are quite right… It gets people thinking. It certainly has me.

The reason for me saying all these things here? …

Someone recently suggested that I was closed minded for not embracing the law of attraction as offered up by the proponents of the Secret.

I’d just like to say that this blog entry was a chance for me (and my regular readers) to think critically about the subject. Critical thinking about a subject before (potentially blindly) accepting it, is far more open minded, in my opinion.

There are elements of the Secret that have use and convey positive messages. But I think it is problematic to use it as a panacea and to not recognise it has some flaws.

Thanks again Brenda 🙂

Great blog – interesting subject. I really understand your point of view on this — but think what is missing is that and in fact was missing in the secret, was the idea that you have to take inspired action — fantasizing about a pile of money delivered by a dumptruck to your house isn’t going to ‘manifest’ itself in your life — it’s not magic afterall.

I disagree with it not being connected in some measure with Hypnotherapy. As a therapist (and why I named my practice Building Belief) is that it’s not about the thoughts you keep in your mind at any given time, it’s the core, unconscious beliefs that are really driving the car in your life to where you are going. You can think all the happy, abudance thoughts you want, but if you have unconscious limiting beliefs, it will, well, limit you.

I work with clients to first and foremost understand their limiting beliefs about their concern and once this is neutralised, it’s easier to teach them to focus on what they want, instead of what they want to avoid. When we keep in mind what we want (or what we don’t want for that matter) these thoughts affect the way we feel and subsequently, our next actions.

Obviously it’s more resourceful to think about what you want so your consciousness (your awareness) is tuned into the positive possibilities for yourself so you can take the next inspired action towards your goal. Otherwise, you are thinking about what you don’t want or want to avoid — and you can never find your solution there.

Joe Vitale (one of the speakers in the secret) did a great follow up to it called ‘the missing secret’ which goes into what the secret misses which is the unconcious beliefs and inspired action. As well, Napolean Hill is all about inspired action… Guess my point is that it’s easy to see all the flaws in the secret — and then to say the Law of Attraction as merely a manipulation to line the pockets of those who feed on people who want change… but it obviously got people thinking… and a lot of the negativity about the concept of LOA is about personal responsibility — and it’s right to question how bad things can happen to good people (eg rape, murder)… These are questions which could be considered as perhaps the person has some unconscious belief about how dangerous the world is… but I will leave you with the thought that if you believe it to be true it is for you, there is no right or wrong beliefs — moreso, is that belief resource for you?

You obviously realise that when you think about what you do not want firstly you feel bad… So by changing your thoughts to something you want, you feel better and are in a better position to take inspired action towards what you want (instead of away from what you want to avoid).

So regardless of whether you buy into the hype of LOA, your core beliefs, your cognitions (thoughts) and your feelings lead you to the next step of action (or inaction) in your life, giving you the results you want. Believe in it or not — call it what you will, as long as it serves you. =)

Michael, I take it all back… That video changed my life too.

Ps. That is hilarious, made me laugh out loud…!! 🙂

Thanks for that Mike, I concur with you 🙂

Mazen, my thanks to you also for your contribution here… I found your way of explaining the LOA enjoyable to read.

Appreciated, Adam.

Elaine, you may well be one of my favourite people on the planet… But I have to take you up on this ‘Law of Resonance’ thing and this notion of ‘energy’.

What kind of energy is it, and how is it stored?

In much of New Age culture, which many people seem to include hypnotherapy in (and I believe should not be so) this “energy” is considered to be something that actually exists and that special practitioners can manipulate, draw upon, and wield to help others.

In real-life terms, “energy” is a measurement of something’s ability to perform work. That is what it actually means.
So if we then use the term in its actual real-life way, when various therapists/practitioners/healers (etc) talk about this kind of energy (or chi or whatever) or your body’s energy fields, they’re not actually saying anything that’s very meaningful.

We all tend to know about Einstein’s equation and scientific theory about energy; E=mc2. That is translated to mean energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.

Speed can be measured in miles per hour, for example, and mass can be measured in pounds and ounces, though I should probably be less imperial and more metric with my examples! Therefore, the energy of any object is the amount of work it takes to move a few pounds a few miles in a few hours. That is something we can measure and quantify, isn’t it?

Energy is really a measurement of that work. I cannot find in any of Einstein’s work, or anyone else of his ilk in similar fields discussing fields of mystical power generated by human spirits.
For me, when people refer to this ‘energy’ as some powerful force, I just require some clarification. I would like the person telling me about it, to define it for me.

Energy itself is not the thing being measured: energy is the measurement of work performed or of potential.

For claims made by law of attraction proponents to have some credibility, surely someone needs to explain how this energy is being stored or manifested, right? Is it like the potential energy within fat cells that we store in our body? Is it heat that can spread through the body? When there is all that talk of magnetic forces, is it a measurable amount of electromagnetism? If it cannot be measured and quantified, can we actually call it energy? I don’t think so.

I assure you I do remain open minded and do readily listen to people discussing energy, but I personally like to apply some modicum of critical thinking to it.

Thank you for your continued contribution Elaine, I really do appreciate it, promise! 🙂 A.

As you believe, so it is. That about sums ‘The Law of Attraction’ up, I think.
But wishing, wanting and REALLY believing are two very different things, and there is the crux of the matter.
Here is the link with Hypnotherapy.
Change your beliefs from a deeper subconcious level with hypnotherapy….OR experience something first hand that is emotionally profound and you can change your beliefs.
Then you will find that what you believe in becomes real in your life, because you MAKE IT SO.

Enterprise over and out for now :o)
Elaine xx