the law of attraction

     In William Atkinson’s book The Law of Attraction, he describes a thought vibration emanating from the mind that interacts with the physical world that can be compared to ripples in a lake or a magnetic field. The thought vibrations leave the mind and enter the world in all directions. These vibrations attract those with similar vibrations. For instance if we think high and positive thoughts, we attract those with high and positive thoughts and if we think negative thoughts, we attract those with negative thoughts. Many more people are tuned into negative vibrations than positive vibrations. The vibrations add an additional component to things than what we would experience under normal or materialistic circumstances. Many psychic phenomenon are also handleable using this method. Atkinson and other occultists believe that these vibrations will eventually be able to be picked up through empirical methods, and these have been discovered since then as mentioned below.

     I define idealism to mean a system of philosophy that results in a direct interaction between the subject and the physical world. One can also factor in a direct correspondence between a universal mind and the physical world, which would be considered an objective idealism. In this case the law of the attraction would be labeled an idealism. The traditional definition of idealism is that the world is contained within the mind or a universal mind. In this case the law of attraction would appropriately be named a dualism/idealism, as I believe the world considered exterior from the mind in this case. The law of attraction should be regarded as developing a new version of karma. All of the different karmas take different starting points and lead to variations in effect.

     The rest of the book is mostly applied ethics. The key to this system is that a person has the ability to shift their mind from a negative vibration to a positive vibration through an act of will. There are two types of effort: active effort and passive effort. A passive effort is the result of the traveling along the same path it is used to. This can be corrected with an active effort, which is the result of a thought-impulse or motion-impulse. And this sends forth vibrations into the world. All thought impulses continue to vibrate along passive lines until corrected. It is only when one asserts the “I” that he begins on his path to self-mastery. This can be progressed through the saying of affirmations which is repeating to yourself over and over again what you want. Every person has a strong will and they just need to make use of it. Atkinson believes dualistically that one can regain brain cells through proper mental training. One should not think negatively, since one who thinks negative thoughts expects the negative thing, and according to the law of attraction, it is the same as if he actually desired it. He should turn those negative thoughts into positive thoughts and according to the law of attraction, this will occur. He should repeat the affirmations I can and I will. When you live on the I can and I will plane, you will see the vibrations manifesting themselves into action. One should start small and take little steps to get rid of this negativity. Negative thoughts include worry and fear and positive thoughts include courage and interest. In order obtain what you want you should visualize it. It is best to not focus on many things, and to focus on one thing.

     Atkinson’s theory of will is almost identical to Johann Fichte’s except flowered in American language and less rigorous. Atkinson was relying on American papers to expound this theory and Atkinsons influence probably comes directly from these papers and Indian religion. Atkinson’s theory of karma is different than Fichte’s and this will be discussed in a future post. Fichte is a subjective idealist and Atkinson is not, their ethics are different, and there are numerous other differences. Atkinson would also probably be considered more of a process philosopher although their processual elements to Fichte. Although their Foundations are similar, there systems of thought are drastically different. Atkinson’s thought develops in a different way than Fichte’s. Atkinson writes on topics such as concentration, success, and psychic phenomenon, while Fichte develops a lot in politics, morals, and epistemological analysis.

     Here I discuss whether the law of attraction should be considered physics or metaphysics. Many consider the law of attraction physics, and many consider it metaphysics, and I opt to consider it metaphysics. There seems to be a large amount of scientific evidence supporting the law of attraction. Examples would be the alpha waves recorded emanating from the brain and the discovery that meditating near a puddle of water causes it to change shape. I don’t know whether the scientists have recorded the alpha waves emanating from the brain and actually changing the electrochemical makeup of another person’s brain. Such evidence seems to be a large amount of support for this theory. However, once the metaphysical distinction is made between the mind and the brain and that it is recognized that it is in fact a metaphysical hypothesis that the mind is a complete product of the individual’s brain, this theory becomes just as unprovable as any other. There are in fact versions of idealism that regard the brain simply as sense data in the mind or that would regard the alpha waves emanating from the mind as nonexistent since they are not experienced immediately under normal circumstances. Further there is an ambiguity in the law of attraction that says exactly how these thought vibrations interact with things at long distances since it cannot be known whether the analogy between ripples in a lake or a magnetic field holds, and I do not believe this has been recorded in scientific experiments. So if they are taking the electromagnetic data and deducing from that things that are not recorded from the data such as a long distance or instantaneous interaction, they are doing metaphysics. In general, if the source of what you are recording is physical but what you deduce from that information is metaphysical, it immediately reduces to metaphysics.. And indeed I believe most of the quantum mechanics that is being done right now is like this as well and is essentially metaphysical. Indeed, there are realistic interpretations of quantum mechanics as well as idealistic that will never be resolved. This has been seen before (throwing metaphysics on top of physics) in philosophy, and Schelling’s organic idealism comes to mind. So ultimately I reduce this system to another metaphysical theory, and a solid one.