Life Changing Mindset

Is there CREDIBLE evidence supporting the Law of Attraction?

Meaning, anytime I hear anyone with anything they claim supports the Law of Attraction, there's always someone saying "more New Age nonsense" or "they're misinterpreting/twisting scientific principles" or "that's just anecdotal and it can't be proven."

Are there examples of evidence for the Law of Attraction that nay-sayers don't have such an easy time dismissing? Evidence that comes from people whose credibility isn't so easily attacked?

Serious answers only please, either supporters or nay-sayers, just have serious answers to contribute.

Public Comments

1. The problem with the so-called "law of attraction" is that there is no way to test whether or not it exists. How would you measure it? It can't be seen and unlike the law of gravity, it's effects can't be observed in any scientific way.

For example, if I focus my attention on something I desire (as the law of attraction suggests) and that thing comes into my life, how do I know that it was the law of attraction that was responsible for it? It could just as easily come into my life because I acted on my desire or that I told other people what I wanted and they helped bring it into my life. The "success" of this "law" could easily be attributable to more down-to-earth reasons. It's less magical to think of things this way, but more realistic than believing in some force.

The other problem with the law of attraction is that we can easily interpret whatever happens to us as proof that the law of attraction brought it into my life. It's not unlike a horoscope. If you read your horoscope you're more likely to pay attention to things in your life that day that correspond to your horoscope's prediction. Psychologists call that the confirmation bias - we tend to pay attention to things that confirm what we want or believe to be true.

I recorded a few podcast episodes on the topic of positive psychology in which I address this law of attraction. You might want to listen to them. Here's one:

http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2008/02/09/episode-46-thinking-positively-or-running-away-from-your-feelings/

There's also the problem of what scientists call "falsifiable" - when a theory is so vague that there's no way to disprove it. This is another problem with the "law of attraction". Might sound a little dull and scientific, but I did an episode on this topic and I think you'll find it helpful and interesting (at least I hope so). Here's the link to that episode:

http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2007/02/11/episode-3-falsifiability/

Hope this helps!

Michael
Host of The Psych Files podcast
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http://www.psychfilespodcast.com

2. To me, once you get in the mind frame of seeking truth it always has to be from a standing point of what you know and understand from where you are now. This law of attraction or whatever they are discovering about it doesn't make it the whole "truth", no more than science can make their discoveries an absolute truth. People roamed the earth for years without even thinking about a thing such as the law of gravity, but that doesn't make this law non-existent because at the time they did not understand or had any basis in which to even disover or think about it. Science progresses, and the more they discover, the more questions arrise and things that just can confuse the hell out of you when you get into quantum physics.

I feel that this Law of attraction isn't anything new...no more than the law of gravity was new when they discovered it, but I also feel that the explanation or percetion of it isn't the complete picture either. You can't discredit that some people through what they believe as the power of faith or believing have actually accomplished things that go against medical science and understanding. People have cured themselves of all kinds of diseases, and what about the placebo effect? Doctors recognize that much has to do with your mental focus and belief that it "works".

So in things like this, people search for answers, and they come to discoveries on effects of meditation, studies on prayer and faith. In fact the law of attraction has had many different names and spoken in various degrees. Try William James, a prominent philosopher and psychologist in the 19th century who wrote the Will to Believe.

Think of logic where someone sets a goal and if they are negative and say "I will never get this, I am not smart enough, blah blah blah. but if he instead said "This is possible, I can make it work" and then is inspired to look into ways in how....then who is more likely to achieve the goal? LOA just goes even further with that same type of thinking, and has progressed, and goes well beyond what the Secret was trying to say.

So keep looking from where you are. And using logic instead of saying "This is so stupid. It is New age crap" etc, and begin to say. "Not sure about this, but if it is true, then I want to find some evidence to back it up and open to finding this. I will know if I find that." Which way of thinking do you think could answer your own question...from a logical point of view?

Either way, what law of attraction would say is that "if you think you can, you're right, if you think you can't, you're right." So no matter what, your belief would be valid, and you would be supported in your belief and find all the reasons why it is new age crap magnified and attracted to you.