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The problem with "The Law of Attraction"

I think "law of attraction" can sidetrack people from what is right inside and in front of them.

When someone smiles, even if no one sees them, it's better than not smiling. And if others do see it, it can be calming and contagious.

If someone is kind, it makes him a kinder person immediately, right then. No one has to endorse or approve it. It's done; it's already happened.

Every bit of peace one adds to a situation adds peace to the world, that moment and forever.

Why look outside for books about that or think of it as a "law" one has to research and believe in? Does gravity work better for those who have studied astrophysics? Does the rain fall harder on meteorologists than on other people? If it's true, it's just true without working at drawing it into your life. It's already there.

Sandra

Someone wrote in an unschooling chat in February 2012:
I was confused about the Law of Attraction stuff for a while. I couldn't tell where it ended and Unschooling began, at first. It made it hard to do the "sifting" of the unschooling information out there.
In a discussion on a yahoogroup about strengthening marriages, March 2010, Sandra responding to an explanation:

LOA is really, at it's basis, based on a scientific notion of "like attracts like."

Biologically, tigers in heat attract tigers. The north pole of a magnet doesn't attract another north.

It's not "a scientific notion." The phrase "like attracts like" has been in the English language for a LONG time and has nothing to do with science but all to do with interpersonal realities and sociology (though it predates "sociology" and other modern science).

Honest people who decide to eliminate dishonest people from their friends seem to be "attracting" honest people, but they're accepting honest friends and discouraging dishonest ones. Drug users attract other drug users. Bowlers find other bowlers. Unschoolers attract other unschoolers. Attraction happens because of the needs people have, not because of any "law" or "science."

Its been around for a very long time. I was going to say forever, but i don't really know that. :)
Taking ideas that have been around for a long time, packaging them, adding jargon and selling them is what's irritating. Some parts are true, but other parts are added by someone who wants to make money, and passed on by others who have been assured they, too, can make money from it.
Anyway, just wanted to offer maybe a different perspective of what LOA might mean for some of us. It's not about the culty facination of people who are channeling information, although that can be useful for some people as well. :)
That whole quantum physics justification for it, though, has to do with channeled "wisdom." Imaginary friends and imagining futures, neither of those help unschooling work. Unschooling works in the moment, directly, not from wished-for results.
It's a perception tool of insight for how we ARE the change agents of our life if we bring awareness into our lives... and isn't that a huge part of unschooling? being aware?
Certainly awareness is important, but awareness in the way a mother touches and speaks to and thinks of her child in the next moment she is near him is the awareness that makes unschooling and peaceful parenting work.

Sandra

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