In this 4 Part series, I’m answering the challenge set by Winston Wu, a fellow blogger, who posed some interesting questions about LOA in his post Debunking the Law of Attraction. In Part 1, I set the stage and explained that I’m in no way trying to convince anyone of anything, but am simply providing clarity to those who want it and resonate with this information. In Part 2, I answered questions 1-5. Today, I’m going to tackle questions 6-10.
6. Is there any objective reality? If not, then how come you can bring a brown table into a room full of people, yet everyone will see the same thing, without you telling them what it is? And even if you told them it was a blue table, they’d still see a brown table. Doesn’t that indicate that the brown table has an existence in objective reality?
Yes and no. As I explained in my answer to Question 1 (in Part 2), there are global beliefs or “agreements” that we all pretty much abide by. So, we all see the table and the tree and the ocean. In that sense, there is a kind of objective reality. We’ve all agreed to it, to a certain extent.
However, the experience one has when looking at that table is not objective. One person may like the table and see it as beautiful, while another will hate it and see it as ugly. This is where our own, personal filter comes in, which creates our own, personal reality.
Also, and I’m adding this just because I think it’s really interesting: How do we know that we all see “blue” the same way? How can we possibly know if my blue is the same as yours? If I were to see the color blue as red, for example, and you pointed to a blue table and asked me what color it was, I’d say “blue”. I would see red, but I would’ve come to associate what I see with the word “blue”. Even if you take light wave frequencies and the fact that our eyes function basically the same into account, how do we really know that we all experience the color blue them the same way? We don’t. It’s totally subjective and it’s interesting to think that my “blue” may be quite different to yours… These are the things I think about over a cup of tea. Ha.
7. To what degree do thoughts create reality? Are there any limits? If so, then why doesn’t Wayne Dyer or Deepak Chopra define any? And aren’t they misleading people into thinking that their thoughts are all powerful by not doing so? Or do they have a vested non-spiritual interest in promoting this concept? If there are no limits, then why can’t you materialize and dematerialize matter in the physical universe like “Q” in “Star Trek The Next Generation”?
I believe I answered this question fully in Part 2, Question 1. Theoretically, there are no limits. I can’t speak for Drs. Dyer or Chopra, but in my opinion, when they make statements such as these, they are looking at the subject from a more theoretical angle. They are looking to open people’s minds to the impossible, much as I described in Part 1. I’m happy to bring this subject more into the practical. That’s just my style, though, and it’s not any better or worse.
8. Another variant of this principle is that “expectations create reality” as well. In other words “Expectations manifest. You attract what you think about. What you expect will be drawn to you. And what you fear also will manifest.” Now if that’s true, then how come most things don’t go according to plan and how come expectations often fail?
First of all, “Most things don’t go according to plan” is a limiting belief. That’s actually not my personal experience at all. But again, as I said in my answer to Question 5, you may not be aware of what you’re expecting. You attract what you repeatedly think about, as this will inform your vibration. And if you are thinking thoughts and you have beliefs that you are not aware of (your subconscious), then you often don’t know what you’re creating. But by looking around, you can see where your vibration is at. Your reality is mirroring it back to you. And your emotions and feelings will tell you if you are manifesting what you want or what you don’t want. So, I’d like to restate and clarify the statement “What you fear will manifest”.
When you are focusing, consciously or inadvertently, on what you don’t want and are lining up with that, your emotions are going to tell you. The more negative the emotion, the further away your focus is from where you want to go. And the more intense the emotion, the more energy you are giving to what you don’t want. So, if you are experiencing fear, it’s because you are focusing and lining up with something you really don’t want. The fear is the indicator that you are doing this.
So, it’s not quite accurate to say that you manifest what you fear. You manifest what you line up with, whether it produces fear or joy. However, most people don’t know that the fear is a message and, spurred on by a misguided belief that we must “push through the fear”, will continue to focus on the energy that’s causing that response until they manifest it into the physical.
9. If “expectations create reality” then how come we don’t always get what we expect? How come there are so many let downs and disappointments in life?
I believe that I’ve answered the question on expectations fully. There are so many disappointments in life because we have been trained to focus on the unwanted, which continuously lines us up with more stuff that’s unwanted, keeping the cycle going. We have the ability to just as easily line ourselves up with a series of triumphs and there are plenty of people out there who have done this. We idolize them and worship them because we think they’re special. But we all have the ability to do it. It does take some retraining, though. We are so good at walking into a room and noticing the one thing that’s amiss, even if everything else is perfect. WE look for what’s wrong. And when something disappointing happens, we talk about it and think about it and can’t leave it alone. We focus, focus, focus on what we don’t want and continue to line up with it. Even if, in a brief moment of hope, we manage to expect a better outcome, it may well not be enough to counter the massive amounts of focus we’ve given to what we don’t want. Besides, most people that achieve a negative outcome are not really disappointed. Their true reaction is more along the lines of “I KNEW this would happen! See? I shouldn’t have even tried!”, which is indicative of a negative expectation. Wanting to expect a good outcome and actually achieving the vibration of expectation are two very different things.
10. Another variant of this is that you will “manifest what you fear” as Wayne Dyer like to put it. If that’s so, why aren’t children who are afraid of the boogie man at night not actually harmed or taken by one? And how come children afraid of monsters under their bed don’t get eaten or killed by them? How come people who get scared after watching a horror movie don’t manifest the creatures from the movie into real life? How come Dracula, Werewolves, Frankenstein, Jason or Freddy Krueger haven’t manifested into reality yet?
To understand this explanation it’s beneficial to have read my answer to Question 1 in Part 2. There are global beliefs or agreements about what’s possible in this world. Most of us do not believe that the boogieman exists. Also, even if someone did, they would still have to match up with the experience of meeting up with one (horrible or otherwise). The fear that most kids have of the boogie man does not extend to this. However, many children do see non-physical energy, which will match their fear or lack of it. To bring this non-physical energy into the physical would, again, take tremendous focus. Most kids will not spend 18 hours a day obsessing over the boogie man. They take a break from the fear and play and that energy creates, too. If they feel predominantly safe, then they will stay safe. If they feel predominantly scared or vulnerable, then they will match up with an experience that matches that, but in a way that they can most easily accept (manifestations always come to us in the way that’s easiest for use to accept, given our beliefs and circumstances). For example, a child who feels predominantly vulnerable, may meet up with a bully on the schoolyard. Personally, I’m not so sure that’s too different from a boogie man.
When we watch scary movies, a big part of us knows that this is fiction, even if we suspend our beliefs enough to really get into the movie. Again, just because you think of Dracula, doesn’t mean that Dracula would pop up in your bedroom, much to the chagrin of every teenage girl alive today. Your vibration would have to be a match to that experience. What could happen is that you focus on Dracula and the next day, a book about Dracula catches your eye. You see a movie about vampires playing at the Cineplex. A kid at the grocery store in front of you is dressed as Dracula, even though it’s not Halloween. Suddenly, you see vampires everywhere, but in a way that’s acceptable to you.
Now, if watching that scary movie made you feel truly terrified and you spent some time with that feeling, it would manifest. You’d become afraid that someone was in your house, for example. By giving energy to the scary thoughts, they would gather more thoughts, making it easier to think this way. If you continued focusing this way, instead of talking yourself out of it, turning on the lights or doing something to distract yourself and allowing yourself to feel better, you could manifest your own personal boogie man, in time. Real life monsters do exist – the evening news is full of them.
I’ve really enjoyed the discussion the comments so far. Boy, do I have some awesome thinkers among my readers. 🙂 In Part 4, I’ll be answering the final 5 questions. Please tell me what you think and if you find these posts interesting, please share them on StumbleTwitGoogleFace or whatever.
Hey Awesome Melody,
Great going. LOA is just perfect and the way you are answering all the questions is just enjoyable. Very easy to tackle ifs & buts of LOA.
I have few questions which I will be sending you once you are through with last part of this series because, the question list is reducing after reading your each answers 🙂
All the best again for the last part. I know you will Rock as usual 🙂
Huge Hugs & Love,
Sameer
Hey Sameer,
Your questions are always excellent, so I’m looking forward to them.
Huge hugs!
Melody
Hi Melody,
This is really a terrific explanation answering those questions.
As for the boogie man? Sure, it exists, and many, many people children and adults have attracted and seen him. Ever watch ID TV? I know I try not to for that very reason. LOA, that is 🙂
No doubt that our fears do create and attract real monsters. They do not have to wear long teeth, horns or whatever the legend boogie man looks like, but there do exist all right. And some people have attracted them to show up right up their nose. Many of them were killed by the monster too.
Hey Sylviane,
There are plenty of people out there that will agree to play the role of boogie man. Our prisons are full of them. We don’t need to manifest monsters will fangs and scales. But I think those types of movies also help us to deal with those fears. I find it interesting that in the past, we conquered the monsters. They were horrible and evil and the hero killed them at the end of the movie. Now, more often than not, we make them endearing and we begin to root for them. We even have a show about a serial killer who we support. We are seeing more shades of grey instead of black and white, are gaining more compassion for our “monsters”. In humanizing vampires and werewolves, we are also gaining more and more understanding for why our real monsters may act the way they do, instead of simply writing them off as evil.
It’s all part of the awakening! Yay! 😀
Huge hugs!
Melody
Melody…
I love this post. It is so juicy.
I have lots of thoughts about the questions posed but I’m going to focus in on #6.
I agree with your response but I want to add on to the conversation about the color of it.
I bet that if we talked to extremely innovative or highly ‘evolved’ individuals, they could see something other than a table. What we call a table is a label trademarked by our culture. How we perceive something is often limited by our own imagination:) Fran
Hey Fran,
I agree with you. And you don’t even have to be that evolved. People that can see auras, will often see them around objects as well as people (they are more subtle, but they are there). They are already seeing something “different” from the rest of us.
And it doesn’t even have to be in the literal sense – seeing a different physical object. Kids are great at this. While we see a table, they see a fort, a spaceship, a house, etc. Is their experience any less real just because we don’t automatically turn everything into something more fun? I say we all start doing that. How great would that be? 🙂
Huge hugs!
Melody
I think we do not have to limit ourselves to humans here. What do you think about animals? I think a horse, a dog, a bird and a fly would interpret this energy widely differently. And the man from New Guinea who had never been in contact with our civilization before probably would not see it at all. I think this is fascinating stuff to play around with.
Love,
Anny
Excellent point, Anny! I’m sure animals perceive us very differently. NOt only do they see differently (never mind insects!!!), but they are much more adept at paying attention to their non-physical senses. They will know when you’re afraid or upset, etc, not just by looking at you. They can feel it.
I love trying to think myself into different perspectives. How fun! And, it gives me a glimpse of what we must feel when we decide to come and play here… think about THAT! Ha.
Hugs!
Melody
I am very much enjoying this series of answers to questions. I like being able to hop back and forth and read your previous answers too…this feels very good to me.
I also want to say that I am reviewing a book on April 4 that is about the neuroplasticity of the brain. Science has found that a number of things that you describe here are very true and this group of authors has just found a way to teach yourself (easily) to manipulate the thinking side of the brain for a better outcome.
I have been asking about what is it I am doing which is making me choose to feel stuck with weight loss and finances and even quite depressed and I am not a very depressed person in life – my description would be more as an intense optimist – your comment about seeing the negative is true for me – I see it right away, but I am driven to make the world and myself better – I am an utopian thinker…so I see problems right away and my brain rushes in to think of corrections which I want to believe are more wonderful that the situation poses.
I did the chapter on finding fears in this new book, actually I am doing all the exercises, and suddenly it was as though answers to my stuckness were falling all over me. The easy exercise they proposed just opened the door to see the start of at least 20 fears which manifest into about 7 belief systems. Now if I find someone to muscle test me, by the weekend I could identify the “stoppers” in the group and continue on the path.
This book takes Melody’s descriptions and puts them into a clinical description and game plan and suddenly I feel a sense of hopefulness that has been missing.
I even asked a gal working in her garden to do the muscle testing exercise with me – even though I would have to reveal a traumatic moment in my life for her…
Several psychics have told me I was born feeling unworthy….What does one do with this? Try cheerleading the self….if I can decode the unconscious mind with muscle testing I can actively release the stories and the synapses connected to this belief of unworthiness and then translate it into a new story….very exciting “stuff” to me…
The key is often a very little thing or a conversational miscue from childhood – such as when I learned the Lord’s prayer I thought I could just meet Howard and meet GOD….as in “hallowed (Howard) be thy name.”
I think this series and the great comments and lengthy comments are just a terrific discussion. Any body able to drop by and help me muscle test????
Hey Patricia,
I can’t wait for your review of that book. It sounds awesome! I was aware of some of the research being done in neuroplasticity, but would love to read more.
I’m so glad you’re manifesting your answers! When you ask, as you have so intensely, they always come. Sometimes it just takes a while.
It’s great that you’re always looking for solutions, but maybe it’s time to just let things be as they are? You don’t have to fix everything. That’s not our job and you have value even if you’re not the rescuer or fixer. 🙂
Howard be thy name. I LOVE IT. Ahahahaha. Thanks for that.
Let me know how it goes, sweetie!
Huge hugs!
Melody
Hi Melody and all,
Quick observation – my Mother and I saw colors differently. Our blues and greens were not the same, and color combinations that were harmonious to me, she sometimes saw as ugly. I don’t think it was mainly a generational or not-getting-along thing – we laughed about it a lot. Our perceptions were just really different.
“Reality,” such as it is, lies in our emotions about what we perceive. Which is what LOA is all about. The reality you see is the reality of your emotion. When I first moved to Mexico, I felt threatened when I saw gangs of teens by the side of the road or in the park. But they never did anything aggressive, and in fact were either polite or indifferent to my existence. Now I see groups (different word!) of teens relaxing and having fun – zero threat! As my emotions cleared (vibration raised), so did “my” reality.
Interesting answers, Melody! Thank you also to Winston Wu for initiating the conversation. Hugs,
Mary Carol
Hey Mary Carol,
Thanks so much for sharing this! It was just something I was pondering but you’ve made it so real. Yay!
I had a time when I was really afraid to go into a certain neighborhood in Barcelona. And sure enough, when I went there, I manifested scary people and even one very scary incident that had me running for safety in a panic. Then, if finally dawned on me (duh!) to clean up my energy about it and I did. From then on, I had no fear and yep, you guessed it, no more incidents at all. 🙂
Huge hugs!
Melody
So true anny, I was saying just the same thing the other day, recently our national TV station, has been alerting us of the warning signs of bowel cancer, if you keep seeing or hearing this over and over which may I say has being repeated quite often either on the radio or TV, you are bound to start looking for the signs, worrying, ‘sometimes needlessly.
I kinda know why I saw or heard these repeatedly, I am a recovering worrier-no-more and although I just happened to be watching TV as I hardly ever do so now, it made me realise how my “constant” fear or worry manifested itself in various forms, I know this cause I experienced it “I created what I feared”.
Tinu, my dear, stop watching TV… 😛
Huge hugs!
Melody
Mel, you’re outta the park on this stuff. I love your explanations of LoA.
My favorite is how you explain the ‘pressure’ of mass-belief vs. the ‘purity’ of individual belief.
This is most often seen when people wonder “Uh, how come we can’t fly?”
And you’re right, it’s just a belief, a limiting one, and one the Jeb Corliss has broken for himself.
http://jebcorliss.net/
Now, some hardcore skeptics will say “he uses a wingsuit”, but they’re the same skeptics who will go to their grave not experiencing the beauty of flying, Jeb-Corliss style.
And how much ya wanna bet, Jeb is working on flying with even less material, like normal clothes, or a skin-graft, or some s***?
Thanks Jason!
OMG, that’s is so AWESOME!!! Thanks so much for sharing Jeb’s page. I loved the video on the home page.
I always wonder why people think that manifestations can only come by thing popping up out of thin air. For example, if you want a car, it’s only a manifestation if the car shows up in your driveway one day or you win it in a raffle? It’s not valid if you find a way to get the money for that car easily? We manifest what we want in ways that we can believe and understand. A human who has figured out a way to fly is no less spectacular because he did it in a way that we can comprehend… That’s how it works!
Thanks for the awesome example! 🙂
Huge hugs!
Melody
Exactly, Mel.
Picture this:
There’s a group of LoA-learners sitting by a campfire on the peak of a mountain. Jeb Corliss is one of the group, there is also a s***starter there.
S***starter: “Hey, if LoA works then how come people can’t fly!?”
…
Heads subtly incline towards Jeb.
…
Jeb Corliss steps up. “I agree with s***starter here,” he says, extending his hand to shake with s***starter.
S***starter: “See! This guys agrees with m–whoaaaaaa!”
As they clasp hands, Jeb tugs the doubter off the cliff with him…
Ahahahaha. Cute. I guess that would be one way to drive the point home. They still might not get it, though… The S***starter may well declare “that wasn’t LOA. That was Batman!”
Ha.
A few years ago I read an article about regularly screening women for breast cancer. The importance of this is highlighted many times by emphasizing how high the risk is to get this disease. In Holland this screening is done every two years and at this time women are also urgently advised to investigate their own breasts every month (if not every week) in order to find something suspicious as soon as possible. This program is being promoted as being very succesful as in this way breast cancer in a very early stage is discovered in a lot of women. The message being: what would have happened if they had not done this and if they had not come for these check ups. We save a lot of lives by doing this. But in this article the question was asked: how many cases of breast cancer have been created by this procedure of constantly focussing on the disease instead of trusting that one is healthy? The attention is focussed on an energy of fear, even if the women are healthy to begin with.
This article made me think and I have stopped having these check-ups. The self examinations I never did anyway.
Love,
Anny
Hey Anny,
Excellent point and not one many have the courage to make. The thing is, our bodies are always changing, recreating themselves in every moment. At any given time, a doctor could find something abnormal, but if the cause of that abnormality vanishes, then it would, too. I’m investigating German New Medicine, which theorizes that cancer, for example, is actually a natural and beneficial process, but that out view of it, the fear it causes, and the way we treat it, keeps it in the destructive stage and never allows it to get to the healing stage, which would happen naturally, if we let it.
I, too, believe that our insistence on focusing on cancer has actually created more cancer. However, the discord that cancer represents has to be there to begin with (what the cancer represents). If you’re happy and have no resistance and have a thought about cancer, you’re not going to create it. I wrote about this in the following post: http://www.deliberateblog.com/2011/10/20/can-the-law-of-attraction-give-you-cancer/
Huge hugs!
Melody
Good for you Anny!
Do we have more cancer today because we have more screening? Are we “catching” more cancer that really isn’t cancer at all, nor something needing treatment. We see lower incidents of cancer in third world countries but how much screening is being done there? We need to ask the right questions of what we’re seeing.
Sorry Melody, I couldn’t resist jumping in here! Btw, kudos for tackling these challenging questions so admirably!
Lori
Hey Lori! No worries, I always love to hear from you. And yes, I’m back to looking at GNM, as soon as I get a chance to research it more.
Thanks for stopping by!
Huge hugs!
Melody
I agree that just thinking about cancer will not cause this disease. I also think that if you are happy and have no resistance, you will not start doing these self examinations because it is probably a sense of fear that urges you to do that.
Love Anny
Humans are subjective. There is no way you can ever determine if there is an objective reality since everything we see, feel, taste, touch and hear are subjective. Even the instruments we make contain our biases.
If you didn’t exist, there would be no reality, at least none that you’d be aware of since you’d have no awareness. And, since everything is subjective, we must create our reality from our subjective senses.
Things always go according to plan. What happens is the result or what we really believe, regardless of what we say we believe. You get ‘let down’s’ because deep in side, it’s what you expect-the Law is unfailing.
Expectations are superficial and may or may not reflect what we believe. What happens is what you believe.
A child may thing there are monsters in the closet but does not really believe it. And we have created many monsters in life.
Hey Philip,
I agree – true objectivity is not possible. But we sure have tried haven’t we? 🙂 If we can just get enough people to agree with our version of reality, then we can call it objective. Why do we have such a need to set norms and standards? I think that we’re moving out of the era where we feel this need and slowly but surely back to individual freedoms, where having a subjective reality is totally ok. 🙂
Huge hugs!
Melody
When we are told “judge not,” people think it has something to do with sin-blah. A judgment is a final decision. We are told not to make a final decision because whatever we make a final decision about becomes our reality. We do not have all the facts about anything so we create a reality, final decision, based upon incomplete data. Any wonder why things get screwed up? Because we are subjective beings, our reality is ever evolving based upon our understanding at any given moment. Make no judgments, let reality flow.
Is there any objective reality?
Given that at quantum levels, consciousness brings things into reality, the question is which consciousness? Of course it is a shared one. If there is no absolute consciousness, only a shared one, then we all co-create reality and as such there is no such thing as objective reality. There is a spectrum of subjectivity and Objectivity is just one side of it.
To what degree do thoughts create reality?
Well, according to the above well proved process, consciousness seems to be an innate property embedded in the fabric of space and time. If Space and Time are two threads woven into each other to make the fabric of the universe then mind can be considered another thread. Mind, Space and Time then create each other. However I suspect that Space and Time, and thus apparent physical reality, emerge from how mind interacts with itself.
I think Einstein, who created the whole Relativity Theory around the relationship between space and time, knew this when he said “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. Actually imagination is pretty useless in manifestation without the intention to back it up with your free will. No intention or free will leads to everything being created by consensus by everybody except you. You become subject to everyone else’s creative power.
Get your intent and free will in order and then marry them to your imagination and you will find that you are the author of your own auth-entic reality. You become your own author-ity. When you become your own authority by being true to your authentic self, you don’t even need to give yourself permission to do seomthing you have been denying yourself because you are already self-author-ised!
Lovely Jazz! I agree – real objectivity isn’t possible. We cannot ever really prove or isolate what another is experiencing.
What if Space and Time are simply illusions (part of the game)? I think they are, BTW, but since I can’t prove it, I’m posing it in question form. 🙂 Our minds (in the big sense, not the ego sense) created the game and have ability to play within its artificial boundaries. The constant that must remain is free will – that’s what makes the game fun and beneficial.
I love that: “You become your own author-ity”! We are the author-ities of our own live. 😀
Huge hugs!
Melody
Thank, Melody.
All of your terrific tips on focusing on what you want remind of something I heard years ago.
When I was growing up, my parents had an artist friend (he and I shared a birthday, both Geminis, though he was considerably older than I). Anyway, he said something to my mother that stuck with her, and with me:
“Every day, you make a choice. Why not choose to be happy?”
That’s awesome Delving! I love that. I’d like to amend that: Every moment you make a choice. Why not choose to be happy? 🙂
Huge hugs!
Melody
Hi Melody
Another great one! Your explanation of vibration is really clarifying and I think it is something we often miss in the LOA process and what leads many astray. It is more than just the individual thoughts we think, which explains why certain things happen and do not happen for us even when we are thinking or not thinking certain specific things. Coupled with deeply rooted subconcious beliefs that are calling the shots, and there is a lot more to the equation. While I think that the person’s questions addressed common themes of a skeptic or person who does not quite grasp the concepts, the examples he used like children getting taken away by monsters were a bit silly I think…just had to comment on that 🙂
Hey Kelli,
I agree – the idea that thoughts create reality can be quite misleading for people. Either, they become afraid to think anything at all, or they realize that each thought does not, in fact, immediately materialize and then they come to the conclusion that LOA doesn’t work… 🙁
Silly or “entertaining” ? LOL
Huge hugs!
Melody