Spirituality and LOA - The Law of Aliens
First, Old-School LOA…
Positive thinking is always a plus – and for people who habitually engage in self-defeating thought patterns, learning to think positively can be truly transformative. However, the “Law of Attraction” and similar approaches that I’ve noticed online view negative thinking as the cause of any kind of difficulty that anyone faces in life. If bad stuff happens to you, it’s because your negative thinking attracted it.
Proponents insist. Does the individual suffering dire misfortune appear mentally sound? Well then, the negative thinking must be unconscious. Did the person recently ace a series of personality tests and clinical psychological evaluations? Then the negative thinking was somehow missed or it occurred in a past life.
LOA Breakthrough: The Law of Aliens
The law of aliens states that if bad stuff happens to you it’s because of aliens. Not a trace of trouble-making aliens in this solar system? Then they must exist in another one. Turns out that we’re alone in the universe? Then the aliens are from a different universe.
Which LOA do you believe in?
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Lisa at Mommy Mystic has me as a guest. She puts a lot of attention on the last couple chapters of Original Faith, which I found hardest to find language for -- Thanks, Lisa!
As Time Allows – I’m no longer able to reply to every comment and email I receive. My illness is progressive and bedridden time has gone up by a couple hours over recent months, so I need to focus on getting posts done. But I read everything I get, and sometimes take direction for upcoming posts from comments and emails. So please keep them coming and I’ll reply as time allows.
Positive thinking is always a plus – and for people who habitually engage in self-defeating thought patterns, learning to think positively can be truly transformative. However, the “Law of Attraction” and similar approaches that I’ve noticed online view negative thinking as the cause of any kind of difficulty that anyone faces in life. If bad stuff happens to you, it’s because your negative thinking attracted it.
Proponents insist. Does the individual suffering dire misfortune appear mentally sound? Well then, the negative thinking must be unconscious. Did the person recently ace a series of personality tests and clinical psychological evaluations? Then the negative thinking was somehow missed or it occurred in a past life.
LOA Breakthrough: The Law of Aliens
The law of aliens states that if bad stuff happens to you it’s because of aliens. Not a trace of trouble-making aliens in this solar system? Then they must exist in another one. Turns out that we’re alone in the universe? Then the aliens are from a different universe.
Which LOA do you believe in?
###
Lisa at Mommy Mystic has me as a guest. She puts a lot of attention on the last couple chapters of Original Faith, which I found hardest to find language for -- Thanks, Lisa!
As Time Allows – I’m no longer able to reply to every comment and email I receive. My illness is progressive and bedridden time has gone up by a couple hours over recent months, so I need to focus on getting posts done. But I read everything I get, and sometimes take direction for upcoming posts from comments and emails. So please keep them coming and I’ll reply as time allows.
Posted by Paul at 7:25 PM Permalink
18 Comments:
When I first moved to CA back in the late 70's everyone I met was "chanting for dollars." They didn't call it that.... it was my cynical term. but they were oh-so-spiritual as they sat and chanted in the surety that this "spiritual practice" would bring them wealth. Bugged me then and bugs me now. Particularly since focus on MORE isn't a very spiritual attitude, and none of them were starving... just inconveniently placed lower in status than they wished. (Reminds me of Janis Joplin's "Lord Won't You Buy Me A Mercedes Benz")
I'd prefer to believe in aliens.
One of the main points of the Book of Job was to overturn this way of thinking. There’s so much evidence against it (just this morning I heard a report of a seven year old boy gunned down with his father in a drive-by shooting) that it has to be heavily emotion-driven.
I’d guess that the main emotion is fear - that it’s a matter of people trying to convince themselves that nothing bad can happen to them if they just keep meditating, doing yoga, going to church… People with this sort of take on their religion/spirituality are doing the same thing with it, so to speak, even when they happen to hold different beliefs.
Nothing I have seen suggests that there is a fairness or balance in the universe. One action on your part will not attract reward or retribution.
And aliens? Why bring in malevolent little green men when we can be so awful to ourselves?
Often they are "blessings in disguise" - apparent "bad stuff" which nevertheless heralded something else.
A person with a religious (you might prefer to say a spiritual) temperament will be disposed to see blessings as being showered down constantly, needing only to be recognised as such. The recognition does of course required surrender to divine will.
From such genuine and unarguable awareness (how can I dispute the subjective perception of another?) spring the crude caricatures of spiritual awareness which you referred to in your post, Paul.
Again, though, I don't live and die by LOA alone. There are other energy laws, including karma (past life and present life), that dictate what happens to me.
Eh, but that's just me. I can't say that what works for me will work for anyone else. I just know that my life today is infinitely more joyous and contented than my life was before learning about LOA.
~ With Love ~
I'm reading this interesting book called Occult America that is all about the history of various metaphysical ideas in the U.S. and a BIG one is the whole law of attraction/think positive type ideas. Americans have been attracted to these ideas in various forms for 150 years - connects well to the whole 'American dream/self-determination' thing...
“If you have a dream, it is possible.”
“Attract anything you want in thirty days!”
Such overstatements try to sell people – often they’re literally trying to sell people on a book or other product – on the idea that the ONLY factor in their happiness or success is how positive or negative they are. And that’s obviously not the case. Take, for example, people who die in genocides or are born cognitively disabled. All sorts of factors have huge impacts on people every day beyond their attitudes.
But of course that’s not to say that our states of mind don’t have an impact. Clearly they do, and in some situations, that’s the key to changing our lives for the better – that is, overcoming our own negative thinking.
In other cases it’s not.
As to the paranormal question of whether mind can affect matter, if it can, it would seem to be a relatively weak force. If your child, say, is diagnosed with cancer, you may well pray or meditate – but it’s really doubtful you’ll do that instead of getting medical help. And if you had to choose between medical care and prayer, you’d probably opt for the medical care...
Everything that happens to us is not always a result of our thoughts...no question. But everything we decide to do began with a thought. Your book was a thought first before it became a reality.
True...some people promote an idea in order to sell books, tapes, videos and so on and make money. Even when they do their message may still have great merit and be very helpful to others who may need to be given hope. It is much better, in my opinion, for a person to think that their dreams can come true than to think their dreams are impossible. If I'm not mistaken I believe a couple of songs have been written about dreams coming true.
So, for example, it's generally a good thing to encourage people to follow their dreams. But to turn a motivational saying like "If you can dream it you can do it" into a literalized law or dictum is false. How many kids dream of playing professional sports? That's just one of countless literally impossible dreams that people have. We don't all have the same gifts and same opportunities.
Susie, not sure what you're saying about thought coming first - you mean before behavior? Seems that way to me too. I think the behaviorists in psychology thought differently but it's been ages since I read that stuff. I remember disagreeing with their idea that thought is just a "byproduct of behavior."
I have a common sense understanding of how the "Law" of Attraction works. Here is a simple example. We are in the process of remodeling our kitchen. We replaced our kitchen faucet, which was only two years old, with a new one that better matched the new decor. I thought (had the idea in my mind first) that maybe I could try to sell the used faucet. But I did not know where to go to sell it. I began asking others and eventually someone suggested I place a for sale ad on Craigs List on the Internet. I did just that. I ended up "attracting" several potential buyers. I finally sold it to a woman who wanted it for a vacation home she and her husband were remodeling.
Initially I had doubts that anyone would want to buy a used kitchen faucet. But I quit thinking that way. Had I continued to think that way, had I gone with my doubts, I would have never inquired about where I could sell the faucet. I would have never listed it for sale. I would have never attracted any potential buyers. I would have never sold it. In other words, my thinking influenced the outcome.
I can't believe they're bad - that's just projection on our part.
how much fun would that be!
imagine. phone call.
"hi, guess what. An alien came for tea."
"no, not Allen. An alien."
"no, not Ailene Who? Alien, you know, the guys with the space ships."
"yeh, right. no it was very cool."
"no, we just chatted, right? about stuff. mom, dad, the kids, you know."
"no really. very polite. didn't slurp his tea. did refuse the macaroons, nut allergy he said."
"VERY FUNNY. NO, that doesn't mean he's allergic to me."
"Wait, there's someone at the door..."
(screaming)
"Leave me alone, I don't need your funny white jacket with arms that tie behind me... murph murph murph...."
OK, maybe not fun after all. You gotta' keep it a secret.
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