The Law of Attraction: Competing Intentions

Another question for which The Law of Attraction and The Secret do not appear to provide answers to the following question: If two or more people have conflicting intentions, how is it determined as to whose desires are granted?

Suppose a husband and wife have strong feelings as to the direction their relationship should take and those feelings are not aligned, then whose desires will take precedence? One spouse could be focused on building a strong profession and climbing the corporate ladder while the other spouse could be focused on building a strong family unit with lots of time and activities together. Although not necessarily mutually exclusive, these two positions could be problematic in a relationship. One spouse could be focused on having children while the other could be focused on maintaining an independent child free relationship to allow as much freedom as possible for other things. One could be a spender and the other could be very frugal. Situations arise daily in a relationship where spouses can be opposed to each other in their wants and desires.

Look at a divorce situation. Look at the competing wants and intentions; look at the tactics and expense to which the parties will go in attempting to manifest their intentions. Usually this a competitive event in which the spouses attempt to shred each other for personal gain. In rare occasions there will be an amicable separation and / or co-operation on issues surrounding the children. The ultimate winner is always the lawyers who have their intentions manifested (payment) no matter what the outcome of the spousal war.

How is it decided which spouse will be granted his / her desires? Is there a competition within the Universal energies? Is the outcome dependent on whose intentions are more focused? Does the Universe look to see which intentions, if granted, would provide the most gain? If so, would that be gain on a global scale? Do Universal energies even allow that that kind of competition to occur?

There are probably times when both spouses have their wishes granted and the result is a parting of the ways, a disintegration of the relationship. In this situation, the parting is for the better.

Another scenario where conflicting intentions can arise is in the employment arena. A vacancy can arise for which two or more people can intend to successfully apply for the position. What determines which person will be successful? Merit and seniority are often cited as the reason for success. However, we all know situations where successful candidates have not been the most senior, had the highest or most relevant education or were seen to be the most qualified candidate overall. Potential, charisma, and right connections are sometimes cited as being the reason for success in these instances.

What leads to that success? Proponents of The Secret will say is The Law of Attraction at work. Although it is not possible to prove otherwise, it is necessary to ask why The Law of Attraction worked for the successful candidate but not for the others. It certainly appears like a win / loss situation. But is it? Did each person receive exactly what they were intending? How could that be? If the intending is being done incorrectly; if The Law of Attraction is being applied incorrectly, then The Secret is that you will receive exactly what you believe you don’t want.

Some of the ways of applying The Law of Attraction incorrectly will be discussed in the next post. If we wish to use The Law of Attraction to our benefit, we must understand its application and we must understand how it can produce the very things we think we don’t want. Those who learn the ways to use The Law of Attraction effectively become very successful in achieving the successes they want to see in their lives.

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.

Science and The Law of Attraction

If the Law of Attraction is to explain how everything that we have comes into our lives; if The Secret is to explain how we come to our state of wealth, our state of health and our state of happiness, then some further questions need to be answered.

Many people accept that the Law of Attraction and The Secret can be used to gain whatever wealth a person desires. Many believe that money, jobs, houses, cars and any other item of material wealth will materialize if the tenets of The Secret are followed. The big names associated with The Secret who appear to have used its principles to gain their success add credibility to the concept. The developments in Quantum Physics assist in steering our reliance on modern physics for explaining happenings in the universe to other plausible explanations. Since knowledge is not static and the arena of physics has been developing so quickly, the explanations offered by Quantum Physics merit exploring.

The recent discovery of silica on Mars, proving the once existence of water on that planet, could be explained as a mere accident. But the knowledge and energies of the Universe could also be used as an explanation. After all those years of exploration, it took a ceased wheel to drag in the soil to uncover the silica and prove the water theory. Could that mechanical failure and ensuing discovery be explained by The Secret and the Law of Attraction? Could it be explained as the Universe, through its energies, knowing what the scientists so badly wanted and fulfilling their wishes? Is the discovery a manifestation of the wants and desires of the scientists and people who were willing to spend millions (billions?) on the project and spend countless hours monitoring and evaluating the data from the spacecraft? Is it a case of wanting something so badly that the Universe gives it to you? Is it a case of the Universe modifying our inadequate technology by something so simple as a broken wheel to ensure our efforts and wishes are met? Far fetched ideas? Maybe. Maybe not. Had that one incident not occurred, the mission would have probably ended without providing the evidence of water having existed on Mars. It seems that at some level it is plausible that The Secret and the Law of Attraction do apply to such discoveries.

How about past scientific discoveries? How many came at a time when the world needed a great discovery or when a change in thinking was needed to send science in a new direction. By accident Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928. That discovery of the first antibiotics transformed the practice of medicine. Methods of mass production were established by American companies and by D Day in 1945 enough of the antibiotic was available to treat all the bacterial infections incurred by the troops.

Was this discovery really an accident? Fleming just happened to notice the effect mold growing on one of his slides had on the bacteria he had placed there. He just happened to notice this as he was cleaning his lab. Was it really an accidental discovery or did the deep desire of scientists to find an effective means of combating infections lead the Universe to provide the circumstances for the discovery. The Secret would support this latter hypothesis.

Another such discovery was Frederick Banting’s discovery of insulin. It was his deep-seated belief and his vision that allowed him to convince the University of Toronto physiology department head to give him laboratory space and an assistant. This discovery has saved millions of lives; over 15 million people today have diabetes who, in all likelihood, would have died were it not for insulin. This discovery also revolutionized the practice of medicine.

Did the energies of the Universe conspire to ensure the discovery? Did the Universe play a role in having the department head give against his beliefs after having actually scoffed at Banting’s ideas? The Secret and the Law of Attraction would agree on the intervention of the Universe. So would many past and present scientists and philosophers.

What the Power is

I cannot say
All I know is

That it exists.

Alexander Graham Bell

It is matter of personal belief as to what extent you accept that The Secret And the Law of Attraction have been instrumental in the big scientific discoveries over time. But to know if you see merit in the theory, you need to be aware of the principles in and behind The Secret. Once you know those principles, then you can make an informed decision.

I believe there is merit in The Secret!. I am convinced that it explains a lot of things that I see happen - both good things and things that are not so good. I believe that it explains to a great degree the prevalence of some illnesses in our society and the devastating medical conditions that some people and families find themselves in. But I see areas where I have difficulty accepting that the Law of Attraction or The Secret produced the results. The next article will address one of those areas.