The Law of Attraction and Child Abuse
The law of Attraction provides that you attract into your life whatever you focus your thoughts on. That means that our life today is a product of our past thinking and our future life will be a product of our current thinking (putting aside for the moment the concept that there is only one time – Now). So if everything in our life today is exactly as we wish it to be, then our thoughts have been well focused and the Universe has rewarded us. But if there are parts of our life that do not give us the joy or satisfaction we would like, then we have some learning to do. Learning about the Law of Attraction can be one of the most exciting and rewarding undertakings we can do. Learning what has caused your current state of affairs and learning how to move from that state to a blissful state opens a door of limitless opportunities.
However, learning it also raises some hard questions that are not easily answered. These are questions that the Law of Attraction does not seem to address. Nor has The Secret addressed them.
The first such question that seemed so blatant to me stems from my years of work as a social worker. I have studied and worked in the field of child abuse and child protection. I have seen countless children who have been subjected to varying degrees and varying types of abuse. (I also was abused as a child.)
How does the child attract this abuse into her life? A child cannot focus on abuse until after it becomes a pattern. A child does not know punishment; a child does not know physical abuse until after it occurs repeatedly. A child does not know emotional abuse until after it has been experienced for a period of time. A child cannot focus on the punishment, abuse or neglect until after it comes to understand it at some level. This is when the child’s expectation of the treatment and fear of it set in.
And that fear and expectation cannot occur until after the child has knowledge of the possible treatment - which can only occur after experience. The younger the child, the less able to focus on the abuse; the less able to focus on what might happen. So how does the Law of Attraction explain the experiences of the child? The child can’t focus on what she doesn’t know – if, depending on her age, she is able to grasp any of the experiences at all. A child expects innately love, nurturing and protection. How does she attract it into her life? So far, I have seen the Law of Attraction to be silent on this issue.
People who believe in reincarnation might offer the explanation that the child attracted the abuse in a past life and karma is now catching up. Of course, there is no way of proving this to be or not to be a plausible explanation. Most things in our lives could be explained by such a focus. If you accept the philosophies of karma, reincarnation, karma bridging from one life to another, and intentions and attractions bridging from one life to another, then the explanation would be acceptable. If you don’t accept these philosophies, the explanation falls flat.
Another explanation is found in the concept that, since the child can’t invoke the Law of Attraction, the abuser intends and attracts the abuse. But is that possible? Does the Law of Attraction allow one person to attract actions that will directly hurt, possibly maimed, and in some instances kill another person? Will the law of Attraction work for one person while destroying another? If so, that is difficult to swallow.
Another explanation is that a child is just born unlucky. In other words it is the luck of the draw as to whether or not a child will be born into a family where she will be abused. This would be like a lottery, a random draw. That I also find unacceptable.
Although I can give many theories of and reasons for child abuse that do not relate to the Law of Attraction, I am at a loss to explain child abuse from The Law of Attraction perspective. In fact, I am just at lost if I try to explain any development or preference of any young child or baby.
Maybe I don’t understand The Law of Attraction completely enough. I have no difficulty applying it to adult – even teenager and preteen children. I accept its working but I have difficulty wrapping my mind around its application with young children. I have the same difficulty when applying it to people with diminished intelligence or brain functioning. So I am struggling with these issues and I appreciate any discussion and enlightenment that might be directed my way.
