What is wrong with the law of attraction? Why does it not work?

The affirmation ‘I am only attracting good things into my life’ has been very popular in the spiritual community in the past few years. There is something to it for sure, but if this manifestation worked, every single person on Earth would be healthy, happy and would have the perfect romantic relationship due to the amount of available books, films and workshops on manifestation.

So how does the law of attraction work? And how it does not?

The Secret, Celestine Prophecy and other similar books have caused quite a serious mass hypnosis for millions of spiritual people and the New Age community. Their main message was to convince people that if we are smart enough, we could manifest every single thing we desired.  

This is very similar to the so-called gold-making in the Middle Ages, when people believed that the basis of the material world was a Prima Materia and everybody was seeking that in their search for wealth and happiness.

And as no one managed to find the Philosopher’s Stone, neither can anyone find the Secret, either. According to experience: neither the gold-making, nor the attracting does not work the way they should.

So why is this constant search for happiness there deep inside of us?

Why do we constantly seek wealth and chase other desires? The problem is not with attracting whatever we want, but with who wants to attract what and most importantly WHY. This is exactly the reason why the whole trick – despite of all the efforts – will not work. 

Because the desires that we use for targeting the object of our attraction, actually reflect our inner supressed feelings. This produces a never-ending cycle, because we maintain an imbalanced state, which needs to be ‘fed’ constantly: it is necessary to invest energy to maintain this imbalance.

This ‘lack’, this negative balance is what must be offset by filling the hole with another new desire. 

For example: somebody wants to be successful and wealthy. But this desire stems from the fact that this person feels very small and lame and they think that if they attract success and create recognition, then this inner (unconscious) state will disappear.

But – and here is the point! – the feeling of low self-esteem is not a natural state. In order to constantly maintain this negative inner state, energy is needed. And therefore, even if the lack is filled with new feelings of success, the low self-esteem will not go away, as the original ‘I’m not good enough’ state has not disappeared, it has not been solved. 

So if there was a natural state of wholeness within our emotional body, then there would be no need to chase anything external in order to escape the feeling of low self-esteem. Then the desire for success would be unnecessary, too, because the feeling would simply be within.

This means that the reason why you cannot ‘attract the positive’ into your life is that in reality, there is a negative inner state (mostly unconsciously) in your mind, which manifests into ‘negative’ life experiences. 

Therefore, in fact, the law of attraction works naturally, because all your inner supressed dynamics are manifested in the outer reality, but your personality – certainly – does not want to face this.

So how does it all work in practice?

Let me give you another example, which may seem off-topic, but it actually is about ‘attraction’ from another perspective. The balance-imbalance example above illustrated the dynamics of attraction. But this time I am going to explore the driving force of this whole dynamics. 

Why do people want ‘good’ things in their lives? Why do they want to be happy? Why do they want to be successful? The following analogy will be about this and the meaninglessness of it.

Let’s imagine that you are visiting a big city and you want to find the most beautiful and most wealthy building in it. You are walking in this city for days, visiting its streets, seeking the wealthiest building.

Then, after a while you come across a nice building, but you cannot know whether that is the wealthiest, so you keep on searching. And if this city is big enough, it is clear that you will keep searching and searching all the time while you are there.

So what are you going to remember from this sightseeing tour and of the other sights in this city? What is going to stay a memory? Are you going to remember the fountains, interesting buildings or other fascinating sights you saw while seeking that one building? Are you going to come back to this city to visit, having another GOAL?

Well, people nowadays – ‘spiritual’ or ‘non-spiritual’ – usually seek this one building: the building of happiness and/or the building of wealth. And in the meantime they miss out on everything else in life: because nothing is ever good enough. 

The question is: what would your life be like if you just walked in the city without seeking one particular building? And enjoyed and admired where you are? Do you think you would have a different experience? You certainly would…

Both travellers visit the same city, but they have a different perspective: the first is constantly unhappy about every street and building; the other is interested in everything and enjoys the experience.

It is the same city – but two COMPLETELY different experiences and perspectives. Throughout both journeys you work, you do your errands, you earn money, you love and hate. You do exactly the same. But the very basis of your experience and inner perception is completely different.

So all you have to do is: let go of the need to find ‘the money’, ‘the happiness’, ‘the romantic relationship’. Because you will be walking in the same city anyway – i. e. you are going to live the same life. 

The choice is yours.  

Kunó

http://www.kissbalazskuno.hu