Law of attraction - a different view

You may be aware of a little thing called "the law of attraction". For those who are not, here is the best thread ATS has to offer regarding the subject :

Skyfloating's How "the law of attraction" works

Focus. Something is focussed on, until it becomes familiar. The familiarity with it builds trust and the attraction of "things like it", things similar to it.
Focus can be applied in many different ways. One can look at something out there in physical reality or in here, in the mind. One can write about it (writing being even stronger than thinking), speak about it, listen to others speak about it, see it, touch it, feel it, do it, immerse oneself in it (whatever it is one wants to attract). But this is all done in the sense and tense (present tense or past tense) of it already being real, solid, substantial, important, normal, appreciated (rather than needed, wanted, longed for). Basically, one focusses for while (in this manner), and then "lets go of it". "Letting go" not in the sense of loosing interest, but in the sense of no longer requesting or requiring it (afterall, you have to pretend its already real).

Now I have always been convinced that this "technique" works but was never satisfied with the explanation of how it works. I may have figured it out...... ( )

Recently I have been occupying myself with researching a thing called "Unconscious Thought Theory" or UTT.

Unconscious Thought Theory

UTT

We can work out simple problems with our conscious minds quite easily, but we have 'bounded rationality' and find complex problems significantly more difficult. If we consciously think too hard about a complex choice, we consequently may well make the wrong choice.

A better way is to let our unconscious mind choose, giving it sufficient information and then letting us decide at a later moment. Unconscious thought can be defined as thought or reasoning that takes place when conscious attention is directed elsewhere.

This is similar to the principle of incubation in creativity, where you ponder the problem and then do something else whilst your unconscious comes up with good ideas.

Conscious thought is linear and convergent, whilst unconscious thought is parallel and divergent, making it far more powerful in considering a wide range of possibilities. The problem is that our conscious mind does not always trust what our unconscious mind thinks, in particular its ability to think rationally.

Conscious thought is not as logical as it thinks and is very liable to bias, effectively weighting decisions according to criteria such as social desirability.

Unconscious thought Theory

The conclusion, unconscious thought alone is superior to conscious thought for making complex decisions!!!

Experimental "proof":

Dijksterhuis and van Olden showed subjects four pictures and then broke them into three groups. One group was asked immediately to choose the one they liked the most. A second group was asked to was asked to study the pictures and list what they liked and did not like about them. The third group were given anagram puzzles to solve for five minutes and then asked to choose a picture.

All three groups were presented with a poster of their choice, and then a month later asked how much they liked the poster now and how much they would sell it for. Surprisingly, the third group, who did puzzles and then chose, were most attached to the picture and wanted more money to part with it.

When a problem becomes increasingly complex our conscious mind has difficulty making decisions, where our unconscious mind has no problem handling complexity. Our conscious mind, when in doubt, will make up an answer which might not have any bearing on the reality of what it is doubting.

I always like to see the conscious mind as a "computer" with the capacity of an abacus while our unconscious mind has the capacity of the biggest fastest super computer.

Basically our life is a continuous string of decisions taken. Each choice is a stone in the path that called your life. At any point you could decide to lay your stones in one direction or the other. But usually we lay stones only to reach the location for the next stone. Thinking a couple of feet or miles ahead is to complex to comprehend for our conscious mind yet we allow this apparatus to pave the road.

The unconscious mind, as I pointed out, does have the ability to "think" ahead. If it has a destination planned a couple of feet away, it will lay the stones in front of you in such a way that that particular goal is reached.

Back to LOA

As Skyfloating already pointed out, the "trick" with the "law of attraction" is to think about something as if it already being real and then letting go of it (as in, no longer requiring it).

Through this process our unconscious mind will start to question how this goal can be achieved. Being as the unconscious mind is, it can (unconsciously) plan a route towards that goal. We are unable to consciously comprehend the complexity of laying out such a path because it involves taking multiple decisions, in multiple situations, in multiple time frames.

Easier said, our unconscious mind can see every possible route from our thought of being rich towards the goal of becoming rich and adjust your behavior in accordance with reaching this goal. Because you are never aware of your unconscious decisions, you will ascribe this phenomenon to some mystical force but actually it is you who is making it happen....

I am interested in your thoughts (conscious or unconscious )

Peace

Time for some unfunded, non-scientific, speculations.....

According to my understanding, LOA works only if you focus on a subject/situation that you desire as if it is already within you reach or is already yours. Subsequently you let go of this thought ( de-focus?? ) while you are convincing yourself it is already real....

So, consciously we think of ourself in a certain situation and tell our conscious it is real. Unconsciously we are already working to understand how our conscious mind is perceiving this notion as real when the unconscious knows it is not.

The unconscious mind starts puzzling in what situation, or what steps should be taken, for this notion that the conscious mind has to line up with what the unconscious mind knows. The unconscious makes suggestions to the conscious mind which will be perceived by the conscious mind as independent decisions and not as a sequence of decisions that will eventually lead to achieving the notion earlier perceived in the conscious mind.

How do you make the unconscious mind focus on what you want? I think the LOA works because the conscious mind is confusing the unconscious mind by deliberately forcing it to perceive something which is not as fact. Through this confusion you are forcing your unconscious mind to make logic out of something which isn't...

As a logical consequence the unconscious mind will steer your person in the direction of what your conscious mind perceived as real. I think it also work, for instance, with consciously thinking of yourself as inferior. The unconscious mind will plot out a course that will get you to the destination your conscious mind already perceives as real.

Peace

Hello. Good post. A lot of the LOA books are based on premises fro Occult theory. Hermetic arts and modern magickal text will all include "As Above,So Below" The Microcosm in the Macrocosm. The Law of Attraction works on the premise that Like attracts like. If you wake up and you get a bad phone call that makes you FEEL bad you will generally end up thinking about it or other negative thoughts that all effect how you FEEL.Since words and thoughts create our reality it spirals on from there. You end up attracting more negative influence into your life by feeling bad and thinking bad thoughts. "What the B*&p Do We Know" is a fantastic movie or book to explain the power of words and thoughts on the human body." The Secret" even has some merit to it in regards to simplifying quantum psychology and General Semantics. We experience reality based on what we are told by parents,elders, and what we read. Language thus forth makes/allows us to perceive our reality. Robert Anton Wilson would be a good start as far as reading up on Reality Tunnels and Semantics. Back to the LOA though there is a book out about the Science behind the Secret. You may wish to check that out. Going on the whole Unified Field view if we are all one and division is an illusion then we would just have to think about the object and feel the emotions of gratitude for receiving it. Richard Bach's "Illusions" is also a great book demonstrating the Law.

reply to post by ANSPHAR


Thank you for that eloquent reply ,

Back to the LOA though there is a book out about the Science behind the Secret. You may wish to check that out. Going on the whole Unified Field view if we are all one and division is an illusion then we would just have to think about the object and feel the emotions of gratitude for receiving it. Richard Bach's "Illusions" is also a great book demonstrating the Law.

And this is were it always starts to turn misty for me.....

Unified field theory, being one, connective-ness etc etc....

A unified field theory to cover the relationship between the thought of "having" something and actually physically obtaining it??

The way I understood UFT is that it should explain the relationship between quantum mechanics and physics. But with LOA you are not dealing with actual measurable "things", just notions and concepts.....thoughts.

I do not think thoughts have any ground in the physical realm. They are just that, thoughts! I believe it is the way you can fool your conscious mind into accepting decisions from your unconscious mind who is trying to reach a goal. The goal it is trying to reach is because you fooled it by consciously perceiving a notion as real....



Funny stuff...

Peace

reply to post by operation mindcrime


I believe in What the Bleep and The Secret they talk about Scientist showing proof that thoughts are tangible. Fred Alan Wolf if I am correct talks in length about it. I know in NeuroPsychoImmunology they discuss how thoughts are stored in neuropeptides and play a role in the immune system and nervous system. they have done test with the Rhinovirus with exposing it to people and seeing if everyone got sick. Stress and negative thinking played big in progressing to illness. Lets say a co- worker comments on a cough and it bugs you all day. You focus on the cough and become curious if your getting sick. Eventually you will start to even feel sick and that will lead to actual illness. I do know Dr.Deepak Chopra addresses Thought in his book "Quantum Healing" and Andrew Weil,MD talks at leangth on the importance of positive thought and happiness and how they relate to how our body reacts. BTW Queensryche is amazing. Sorry to go off topic.

Originally posted by operation mindcrime
I do not think thoughts have any ground in the physical realm. They are just that, thoughts!

How so? If you believe the cognitive organ is the seat of all thought, surely then thoughts are grounded in the physical realm just as your web browser is grounded within the glorified pocket calculator you are using to read this post.

I have pondered it along lines similar to yours but then there's some odd things that defy such explanation. I haven't yet decided if I want to talk about them, again.

Unconsious complex planning plays a role whether or not you believe another realm of causality exists to carry-out manifestation of your desire. Occult teachings consider the unconscious mind to be directly in contact with that realm. There exists less of degree of forced choice between your ideas and the spiritual than you might at first believe.

Needless to say, I am ambiguous as usual. Only the dead know the truth.

. Basically, one focusses for while (in this manner), and then "lets go of it". "Letting go" not in the sense of loosing interest, but in the sense of no longer requesting or requiring it (afterall, you have to pretend its already real).

I was thinking as well that in some conditions, you might find out that what you want really isn't even that important after "attaining" it, and you would actually let go of it. The grass is greener as they say. I suppose there would be a value in "trying it on" and finding out it wasn't what you wanted rather than being the person who desires something for months, fixates on it, and either gets it and finds it wasn't what they wanted, or never getting it in the first place.

I think the law of attraction might work nicely as well since it would allow you to see more options and make more decisions over someone who isn't using it. I think most people have vague goals, LOA would allow you to know your goals. Studies prove that we don't know what will bring happiness into our lives, and you would think that being able to visualize it with LOA would help you know what would. I was also going to mention that psychologists know that a part of happiness is being able to detach from failed or impossible goals and being able to attach to new goals and work on those. I would think LOA helps with that as well, since it seems like the beginning, middle, and end of whatever people are interested in gets done sooner than it would normally.