I've learned through years of sad experience that whenever people tell me I'm crazy or I'm stupid or I'm just plain wrong, that I'm definitely on to something. That's not a proclamation of genius by any means; I'm under no such delusion. However, people have the strongest negative reactions to what? The things they fear, of course. And next to death, the biggest fear most of us have is being wrong. So lately I've been testing the idea that the law of attraction is a fascinating topic that we've only just begin to understand -- and if there's really something to it, that the really interesting stuff is yet to come. Guess what kind of reaction I've been getting?
Which is odd, really. Given that our whole lifestyle is the result of the human drive to understand, to refine, and to apply new ideas you would think it would be obvious that cars, jobs and relationships are about the least interesting things we might accomplish if consciousness can truly manifest anything it desires. I mean, I can work and buy a new car -- I'm honestly not too worried about that department. You have to live life anyway, so why not develop a skill and use it to earn a decent living, right? But changing the world--I mean really fundamentally revolutionizing society...now that's an interesting proposition.
Well, maybe not to most people in Western culture. We're mostly comfortable with society, and the thought of changing it is a bit scary. However, I'd be willing to bet there's at least 5 billion people on the planet who might be interested. If only they had a few hundred dollars lying around to buy the latest Law of Attraction Course...
Just think of the killing somebody could make. That's 5 billion, times say two hundred...what a market! If they save up for 20 years, they just might be able to afford it. Too bad that will put half of them past their expected lifespan. Meanwhile, I won't even be retired. Well...not unless I write a Law of Attraction book and sell 5 billion copies...
Doesn't this strike anyone else as just a little bit wrong? We have more than any other culture on earth, and we're talking about ways to get more? And to make it worse, we're talking about doing it by thinking even more about ourselves and what we want? We have been warned by every spiritual tradition since the dawn of man against becoming self-absorbed and materialistic. And here we are witnessing the convergence of the popular spirituality with just that. I have yet to find a single teacher of the Law of Attraction who doesn't teach that this is a spiritual principle. But where is the spirituality in a principle that serves only the individual, and turns the awareness of the individual only towards itself? That's no new spirituality; that's plain old-fashioned narcissism, the classic wolf in sheep's clothing.
We have to expect more of ourselves and of each other.
Redux
I've said before, the Law of Attraction is not about you or me. It's about us. It only makes sense that it would be. If one person has the ability to attract all the wealth, relationships and joyous circumstances that they can imagine, how much would it take to attract change for the rest of the world? How much energy and visualization and committed action would it take to put an end to violence in the world? To put an end to war? To hunger? To disease? How much would it take to change the course of politics?
The Law of Attraction sounds like magic when it's all about getting what you want. But when you take a higher perspective, it's something very different. It's an urgent invitation to create change in the world. And not as isolated individuals happy to do their part, but as a collective, committed to aligning our minds and actions to creating a new world.
But how can we do this? This seems to require a sort of action, a sort of organization that we haven't seen before. And that's exactly what we need to be exploring right now. We have revolutionary forms of media at our fingertips, new ways of connecting with people across the globe, access to a diversity of ideas that is unprecedented in human history. It's almost like the answers are staring us in the face, but we're just not looking. Or at least, not looking beyond our own face. The Law of Attraction seems to be pointing to something greater than our own gratification, but until we start to care we're not going to see it.
