Discussions
Law of Attraction? Is it Science or Hocus-Pocus?
Posted by filosofia • 11/08/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: philosophy, quantum, science
A few days ago, I published a post about philosophy in which I happened to mention quantum theory and some of the thought experiments associated with it.
Now, as you may know if you've ever visited my blog, I have one tiny piece of AdSense on there. It's there as an experiment really. I think it's earned me one penny or something like that lol! Maybe it's just uselessly taking up space on the blog, but, in a way, I've grown to like it. Anyway, as I'm sure you know already, the adverts adjust themselves to "keywords" in the blog content. Yesterday I found that the ad was for quantum theory, the very thing that I had mentioned in the post! But it added also this thing called the "Law of Attraction" which certainly was not in the post I wrote. This seems to suggest that many people associate the two together.
So my question to the experts in the BC community is as follows: Is the law of attraction a reliable inference from quantum theory? Or is it wishful thinking?
Or to put it another way, is it science or hocus-pocus?
(As always, I do not wish to take sides in any discussion that might ensue, but occasionally put in a remark or two.)
User Comments
-
Law of Attraction seems to me a little innocent idea.
I recently found myself investigating movements like Secret, Law of attraction, scientology,...etc. It seems to me that they are wisely collected old ideas of eastern world by the western world.
So we have to be clear about Law of Attraction. Has it some certain definitions??-
From Google: The Law of Attraction states, "That which is like unto itself, is drawn."
Can you understand it? -
theoreticaly yes, practicaly no.. Can you??
-
I failed in class 11th, But then I cam first in my engineering as well as MBA, only bcoz of applying Law of Attraction. yeah
-
LOOOOOOL!!!! DUUUDE!!!!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS
RESURACTION
****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
-
-
Oh, wow! Me and my friend constantly argue over this! He insists that it's true, how he "has seen it work" and etc. So, I thought, why not? Next time I had a chance, I gave it a try, didn't work. He said "You have to think of it without any doubt" Tried that, didn't work! I mean, if you know it's going to happen, it probably will. Fact of life, no science. If it worked like it's supposed to, why do I not know anyone that has won the lottery?
I don't think it's real, but I am a skeptic on many subjects.-
So are you saying that if good things happen, it's worked, but if they don't, it hasn't worked?
This doesn't seem like the law of gravity does it? What goes up, must come down?
-
-
The law of attraction wa popularized by a video called "The Secret" Oprah promoted it. In the The Secret video, they talk about how it works becasue of quantum phisycs. All the molecules vibrating in your body at a certain resonance atracts like things.
Yes the law of atraction does work, but I believe the quantum phisics link is hogwash. The more you think about something the more your reticular cortex notices similar things. Ever buy a new car and all of a sudden you see that same car in the same color all over the place. That is your reticular cortex at work. The same principal causes the law of attraction to work.-
@ncarey
I agree with you and couldn't have said what you did any better myself. -
Spot on Ncarey.
Add to that the time spent thinking on faliures and worrying will be redirected to thinking about possibilities and opportunities. -
i agree also ncarey! -
yes, spot on. It was like when I wanted to get pregnant and man I suddenly noticed how many pregnant women were out there.
-
-
strong mind
-
The law of attraction is an incredible cop out. It takes the stance that if you prepare your mind you will attract what you want. However, it says nothing about preparing to take advantage of what you are attracting. It is like saying lottery ticket come to me.
Being ready for your luck is as important as attracting it. I think what the law of attraction does is make you more psychological aware of opportunities not create new ones. If you are actively looking for things you are more likely to find them. However, it does not do the work of being prepared to take advantage of the opportunities. There is nothing about education, work, or effort. -
So if the connection to quantum theory is hogwash, why do so many people put the two together?
-
For those who are curious, this is Filosofia's blog:
filosofia08uk.blogspot.com/
The law of attraction is the kind of snake oil you can sell to people who somehow feel good when they wallow in their shared ineptitude with millions of others. -
I always heard it was "opposites attract," not similarities. And if you want to make that look scientific, you can throw in some vibrating molecules, hit them with a couple of magnets, and watch the opposite poles attract and the similar poles repel. Probably just as valid as this other twaddle about laws of attraction.-
More valid, because you can observe it. I think the laws of repulsion are more realistic. In fact, I should write a book called the "Law of Repulsion" and cash in on it. I'll put David Ogilvy on the cover.
-
Well, all I can say is that my husband and I are about as opposite as you can get: He's Indian, South African, Hindu, a geeky engineer-type, quiet, and a Gen-Xer. I'm white, American, brought up Christian, artsy-crafty, gregarious, and a Baby Boomer. We just celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by having a Hindu marriage ceremony in Durbs. I'd say we exemplify the "opposites attract" thing pretty well.
-
I agree with that. I had a girlfriend once who is exactly like me except with boobs. It was great at first but then it got really boring. Made me depressed.
-
that sounds like my husband and I Sweet Violet although my husband is Middle Eastern engineer, and I am a british artsy fartsy type He says he is the left brain and I am the right and between the both of us we have one brain
-
-
This discussion has already been had; www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/search.php?q=The+Secret -
This is nothing different that a dozen of other things that have come down the pipe before it. Prosperity Theology, Manifestation, and the like.
The problem with these things is that they take a very real internal principle, and attempt to dress it up in a way to make it seem like an external tool.
You can think about driving a Rolls every second of the day for the rest of your life and you are not going to "manifest" or "attract" a Rolls to your garage.
You can however use the power of your words and thoughts to transform YOURSELF. You might even be able to transform yourself into the kind of person who does the kinds of things it takes to own a Rolls.
BUT as long as you are focusing on external things, you are simply wasting your time. You are trying to use a screwdriver to do a hammer's job. -
There are so many things I could focus my attention on. It's not possible or even advisable to focus on them all. What if I made a conscious decision only to focus on things that were good for me? Wouldn't I start to notice a lot more things that were acting in my favour? That would be an improvement right from the word go, wouldn't it?
-
As far as I know, this is how the Law of Attraction relates to Quantum Physics:
One of the most famous experiments in Quantum Physics is the notorious Double Slit Experiment. You might wanna look it up for a full explanation since I’m not a physicist, but the short and relevant part for our discussion would be this: If you fire a single photon of light (or an electron) through a thin plate with 2 parallel slits in it, you don’t get a simple pattern on the other side, like you would expect from particles going through 2 slits; what you do get is an interference pattern which is a known behavior of waves, not particles. It’s like the photon, which is often thought of as a particle, acted like a wave, went through both slits simultaneously and interacted with itself to create the interference pattern. If you want to prove that the photon went through both slits at the same time, you must place a detector in each of the slits to catch the photon when it passes, but when you do, the photon changes its behavior back to acting as a particle displaying a simple particle-like pattern on the other side of the plate. This is called The Observer Effect since the act of "observing" the experiment changes its outcome. The new age people claim that the presence of a conscious observer (the scientist conducting the experiment in the lab) is the sole responsible for this transformation, clearing the path to these wild theories that your thoughts can affect the physical world outside of your body; but the more simple, logical, and wildly acceptable explanation is that in order to detect a photon passing by, the detector must interact with the particle/wave, and by that action changes its behavior. So it's not just "observing" - it's "interacting". No need for any conscious observer; your mind didn’t affect the photon; the detector did.
Sorry, I would love to think that my thoughts can affect the physical universe, but the true is that all this new age quantum physics stuff you saw in “The Secret” and “What the Bleep” is just invalid.-
I never saw those films so I wouldn't know really...
Thanks for that fantastic explanation, by the way. -
Just one short polite response for such a long cool comment? -
@urikalish
Thanks for your explanation. I appreciated it. -
So it's not the observer's observation that alters the experiment, but the observer's method of observation, namely sticking a plate in the path of the proton.
-
The plate was there the whole time, it's the addition of the photon detectors.
-
Yes, but even with only the plate, it doesn't all add up
If the light travels from the source to the screen as particles, then the number that strike any particular point on the screen should be equal to the sum of those that go through the left slit and those that go through the right slit. In other words, the brightness at any point should be the sum of the brightness when the right slit is blocked and the brightness when the left slit is blocked. However, it is found that blocking one slit makes some points on the screen brighter, and other points darker. This can only be explained by the alternately additive and subtractive interference of waves, not the exclusively additive nature of particles.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment
It illustrates particle-wave duality. Depending on which method of observation you use, you get either particle or wave properties. Neither of them depend on the observer, but they do depend on the method of observation.
-
-
totally real if you have a brain that is wired to believe it,
totally unreal if you don't believe it
i'd like to see statistics on peoples success after reading it.
the only thing i got from the secret was, get out of bed twice, if you get up and say it's a crap day, jump back in, climb back out and say something positive-
Yeah, that might work...
-
-
But what about Dr. Emoto Masaru's work with water? and rice? Several people have replicated the rice experiment on YouTube, and Dr. Emoto Masaru's work has been replicated although not everyone has access to that kind of specialized equipment.
Actually I have seen the law of attraction work, although it's not as simple as wishing for things and getting them. -
Law of Attraction is 101% true. It is not just a imaginary!!! 10 days ago I have created blog on a law of attraction. Because I personally experienced the effect of law of attraction in my life. If you want to know the detailed information on law of attraction fill free to visit my blog. You will like my work universalmindlaws.blogspot.com-
horsefeathers
-
Excuse me?
-
road apples
-
codswallop
-
Poppycock.
-
-
Well, I must admit I also experienced the law of attraction first hand. There's a church tower close to my house that regularly gets struck by lightning.
-
I really don't believe that by visualizing alone I can achieve anything....some things are not in my destiny.
-
I don't go along with the idea your life is a result of the things you think about. Your life is a result of the choices you make, but even then things happen that have nothing to do with what you think, how you live your life, the choices you make. I highly doubt victims of crime, or genocide, etc brought it on themselves due to thinking about it.
Byrne says, "To attract money, focus on wealth. It is impossible to bring more money into your life when you focus on the lack of it."
Sometimes focusing on the lack of it is what motivates people to work hard, change careers, take financial risks.
"he only reason any person does not have enough money is because they are blocking money from coming to them with their thoughts. "
rubbish, some people don't have money coz they waste it on stuff they don't need, or are not good with finances, or because they are in a sucky job and need to go back to school and get a degree.
Thinking about something is the start, but a person has to act on it to set the conditions for something to happen they desire. -
You are as you think no great magic in self fulfilling stuff....however why you may be able to control what you think and do you cannot control what others think and do so think 6 degrees of separation....I know someone who got canacer and was promptly told it was there fault because they didnt think the right thoughts I would say what I think about that but that would probably is not allowed here. Further more what works Oprah may not work for me we are 2 different people and I might need different tools to manifest what I want.-
Yes, I would say that is piffle. Millions of women think about the possibility of breast cancer and have mammograms, and yes a percentage of that population will get it. It is because some think of it, have mammograms and check their boobies, they are able to detect it. Not thinking about the possibility of a negative is a dangerous thing to do, and promotes ignorance that could cost a woman her life.
-
-
Law of attraction only applies to something you can do about. For things you can't do anything but wishful thinking, it doesn't work. -
It all sounds a bit snake oil to me from what I'm reading on this. I still can't really see how it connects with quantum theory, which, though weird, has at least the virtue of being correct.
(Not that I really can claim to fully understand that either, so I suppose this is an "argument from authority") -
There's also the phenomenon of neuroplasticity which totally messes up everything we "know" about the way life works. Neuroplasticity is that our brains (everyone's brain, all the time) reprograms itself to do most efficiently that which we do most. So if we are constantly thinking positive thoughts and seeing possibilities, the brain physically rewires itself (in as little as twenty minutes, according to the fMRIs) to do those things more efficiently. Because the brain has rewired itself, we also tend to make choices that reinforce this new wiring, but it has to become a habit because it can also be undone at least partially in as little as twenty minutes, too.
Neuroplasticity throws a wrench into the works of "what works and what doesn't" and it could be that that is why different people experience different levels of effects from the law of attraction. You have to keep your brain rewiring in shape or it won't continue to work.
I might also point out that intermittent reinforcement is the strongest possible conditioning tool and that one or two early "hits" will make it easiest to continue the positive thinking and behaviour.
Sorry for being so scientific but it's my background and what I blog about . . .-
Wow! you just got my vote for the "Scientist of the Month" award. This is totally new stuff to me (I know, probably everyone else has already got the t shirt). Neuroplasticity?
I'm going to try it now... -
Maybe in the future, we'll learn how to rewire our brain so we can control what other people thinks and we can move objects by just thinking. By this we can manipulate what to happen and whats not.Only then the Law of attraction will be applicable. Or maybe not, think also that others may have known how to do it not just you.
For now, for circumstances that are out of your control, its just wishful thinking. And when the outcome is what you wished to happen, don't think that your wish has been granted, its a mere coincidence. Unless you believe on fairy godmothers. -
To braincatcher: Yes but you do realize don't you that, if what the Attractionists are saying is true, then your statement you just made has re-porogrammed your brain so that what you said will turn out to be true for you, so it won't work for you, and circumstances will be beyond your control.
-
Are you saying that If I think It won't work for me, and It didn't work, the Law of Attraction did work because what happened is what I'm thinking beforehand?
-
No. I'm saying that if the attractionists are right, then that's what would happen.
-
-
My Law of Attraction rant:
necrofiles.blogspot.com/2008/12/law-of-attraction.html -
there is no science behind it, if anything it is psychology
-
Both. Check my posts about this on my blog www.guruinjeans.blogspot.com -
Almost everything in life, there will always be the believers and the skeptics. Humans are conditioned through their upbringing to not accept things easily. Only when it happened to them personally, they will start to search deeper into the matter.
So for the non-believers or skeptics, don't look on the surface, check out the details. You don't know what you don't know until it's revealed to you!
If you care to explore some truth in the Law of Attraction, then you might want to head on to insidemybubbletoday.blogspot.com.-
Claudia still has not shown up at my house.
-
Of course Wenny that is assuming that most people here haven't done their homework and used logic to determine the difference between what is fact and what is fiction and what is possible and what isn't.
-
-
I agree with all the skeptics and naysayers. You find what you're looking for... it's another take on prayer and meditation with a skanky version of new-age mixed in... not saying ALL new age is skanky... but this one tends to be more often than not. Reminds me of something to take the place of other religions, which I'm not in favor of... but perhaps this is all people are ready for.
Yes... it is good to be aware of what one wants, needs and to focus on the positive. I agree that one can redirect one's life, create new pathways in the brain, replace old habits with new. I do not believe that "the secret/law of attraction" is anything more than the latest version of self-help. One of the reasons I have stayed away from "What the Bleep" is because the woman behind it is basically running a cult, a scam and is using skanky new-age for her own benefit.
At best it shows how people so badly want something they can embrace that includes some level of logic/science to improve and control their lives... in that both "the secret" and "what the bleep" rely heavily on Someone's interpretation of Quantum Physics. It's a new brand of faith which relies a little more on logic.
influential... yes.
elements of truth... perpahs
an ATTEMPT to mix science/logic with religion/spirituality... yes
THE ANSWER... no
but at the same time... let people at it if that is what they want. Question the people who are profiting from selling this philosophy.-
You need to define the word "skanky". I can't find it in the dictionary.
What's wrong with making a profit out of philosophy? It sounds a completely delightful idea to me... -
There is nothing Absolutely wrong with profiting from a philosophy... but if it is philosophical quackery then it is always good to know where one's money is going. There is a fine line between scamming people and profiting from illegitimate philosophy/information.
Not going to define skanky... it was a descriptive word that seemed to fit at the time and imo does not require further description. -
I totally agree with you about philosophical scams. But the real question is: How are us ordinary people supposed to judge when a philosophy is true or is quackery? We don't have advanced knowledge of the criteria for making our decision.
So we have to rely on the pronouncements of experts in the field, and learned people. But how do we know for sure that these learned people themselves are being entirely honest with us, and that they don't have any axes of their own to grind?
-
-
The Law of Attraction; it sounds like something from that book called...'The Secret'. The book was more spritual than science. I personally don't beLIEve it! -
well i think it just has to do alot with your surroundings and the age you start observing them because then thats when you deteremine what you like and what you dont like in a guy or a girl ya know?? haha but thats what i think i can go into way more detail but i wont right now haha -
Even if you don’t believe in the secret law of attraction you get what you dominate your mind with.
tinyurl.com/98krvh -
Filosophia:
Here is an article that I wrote on the subject:
Law of Attraction, Einstein And Quantum Physics
Also, there is a great movie called:
What The Bleep Do We Know?
Both explain the theoretical link between the Law of Attraction and quantum physics.
Douglas Manning
SuccessHound.com-
Quantum physics is very nice...
-
-
Then I guess Dr. Eric Amidi, Quantum Physicist, who was among those to discover the TOP QUARK at the FemriLab in 1995, is a liar when he says, "everyone can be a miracle worker. There is a science behind it. When you know why and how The Secret works, using it will be easy."
To find out more, read: www.Law-of-Attraction-Masters.com/go/BehindSecret.html -
The law of attraction is real; I’ve seen it work. But it is not science. The law of attraction is really a form of magic, but with all the hocus pocus removed. I think science is tossed in to make it seem more reasonable. The essence of the law of attraction is very old; it is not anything new. I’ve read about vision boards in occult books decades ago, long before the Secret arrived. -
-
Do you know who made that movie?
-
-
I know first hand its real, all the male friends I talk to on the internet are very similar, physically, in ways of thinking, and personality. Even when I use a different greeting to make friends I tend to attract the same type of guys, lucky me cause they're nice guys! -
I think it is mostly hocus-pocus. -
It works for me so far. -
IT WORKS IF YOU WORK IT
Add Your Comment
Login to leave a message.
