Het geheim heeft aandacht wereldwijd aan de „Wet van Aantrekkelijkheid.“ gebracht Miljoenen en miljoenen mensen stierven om het „Geheim te kennen; “ en veel van hen waren verbaasd en tevreden om over de creatieve macht van hun eigen gedachten te leren. Wat, echter, waren zeer teleurgesteld en zelfs geïrriteerd en verstoord door het enkele onderwijs in het Geheim - roepend hen, „Materialistic, Narcistisch, Mean-spirited, pastei-in-de-Hemel, Wensgedachte, V.N.-Spiritual,“ en een lange lijst van andere oordelen en kritieken. Het schijnt sommigen magisch zoeken terwijl anderen naar praktisch aspect zoeken; maar met de Wet van Aantrekkelijkheid, vinden wij allebei.

Zo, wat is het Grote Geheim?

De wet van Aantrekkelijkheid is werkelijk geen geheim; dit concept kan in praktisch elke godsdienst en oude wijsheidsteksten worden gevonden. De wet van Aantrekkelijkheid, zoals die door het Geheim wordt vertegenwoordigd, eenvoudig vertelt ons die als als aantrekt. Als u rond kijkt, is het duidelijk; de mensen associëren niet gewoonlijk met mensen zij niet als, zijn of niet houden van. „Vogels van een veer,“ zoals zij, „troep.“ samen zeggen

Zo, waarom vraag de Wet van Aantrekkelijkheid een „Geheim?“ „Macht-dat-ben in het algemeen,“, breng hun tijd en geld niet machtigend de massa's door; zij onderwijzen hen - via massamedia en onderwijs - wat „is en niet is,“ en wat „zij ons““ willen „weten. Ik realiseer dat geluiden zoals een samenzwering; maar wanneer een kleine groep mensen een grote groep mensen controleert, behandelt u samenzwering. Het feit is dat elke godsdienst en overheid hun burgers, aanhangers, enz. vertellen, wat de waarheid is, en wat zij zouden moeten denken, eerder dan hoe te te denken - let nooit op dat zij allen uit verschillende truths overgaan. Maar de wijsheid van Aantrekkelijkheid is inderdaad gemeenschappelijk voor allemaal.

Wij allen hebben dingen als, „als mens thinketh gehoord, zodat heeft het aan hem gedaan; “ maar wie dit aan ons verklaart? Ben van mening dat het Joodse Oude Testament onderwijst dat, „het aan u volgens uw gedachten wordt gedaan; “ en het Christelijke Nieuwe Testament heeft Jesus die het zelfde ding onderwijst. De oude godsdiensten waaruit Judaism - Egyptenaar, Babylonian, en Sumerisch - ook te voorschijn kwam delen deze wijsheid. The Buddha also said, “Man is formed and molded by his thoughts;” and the great Hindu sage, Gandhi, said, “Man often becomes what he thinks himself to be.” The Secret, it seems, is only a secret to those who have never read anything of any spiritual significance.

All religions, in fact, use and teach prayer simply because of the importance and creative power of human thought. It matters what you think because what you think ultimately becomes “matter.” Your thoughts are things; whether you understand how it “works,” or not. Of course, if you still don’t believe this, you could spend the rest of your life pretending that the ancient sages, teachers, healers, prophets, wise men, and messiahs were completely clueless as to the nature of existence; and that you’ve had it all figured out since your Sunday-school days. You can’t do anything without thought; and those who think more effectively live more effectively.

Magical or Practical?

Still others balk at the idea of The Secret, or the idea that we create our own reality with our thoughts, because they think God creates our reality with no input from us. We want something to happen, we ask an invisible person in the sky, and He either says, “Yes,” or “No.” Despite the constant reminders that, “All things are possible to he who believes,” or “God sends his rain on the just and unjust alike,” people still cling to the idea that all prayer isn’t answered, or even “handled” in the same way. But, regardless of “how” you think prayers are handled and processed, prayer is a thinking process. How do you pray without thought? What do you pray for if you aren’t thinking about it?

Of course, in other areas of life, some people are successful while others are successful; but this is based on what a person knows, or how much thought, attention, and focus they put into what they are doing. Is it possible that people who believe prayer, or “creating your reality with your thoughts,” is a random, or yes-no proposition, are simply praying and thinking in such a way as to only generate occasional success? “No! I didn’t do anything wrong! God just doesn’t want me to have that thing…” Do you think you are thinking and praying exactly the same as everyone else?

Consider this verse from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“Though your knees were never bent; to heaven your hourly prayers are sent. And be they formed for good or ill, are registered and answered still.”

The “magical guy in the sky” version of how our thoughts (prayers, dreams, wishes, hopes, etc…) become reality isn’t necessarily wrong; but it is only one of many ways of looking at what’s going on in our experience. There are other ways of viewing existence now that give a lot of credence to many of these ancient teachings — ways that blend science and religion, or practical and magical.

Science and medicine have long known that the mind (psyche) causes illness in the physical body (soma); psychosomatic illness isn’t “imaginary illness,” it is simply a problem in the body that arose from the mind, or as a result of thinking. Psychosomatic illness has largely become associated with hypochondriacs, or malingerers; but it is simply another way of saying, “Mind-body illness.” By the same token, the Placebo response has been successfully used as a viable part of medicine for ages. The Placebo response is best known as the phenomenon of a patient getting better, or experiencing a healing, as the result of a treatment (usually a sugar pill) with no known healing properties. Though placebos are often mistakenly thought of as, “Fake cures;” the healing that occurs as a result of someone taking a placebo is as real as any healing. Healing is healing — regardless of “how” the healing response was stimulated.

Of course, after years of consistent, statistical data on placebos, we can’t really say that sugar pills have “no known healing properties;” it is well-known and accepted that a significant portion of the people who take placebos will experience relief — a percentage similar to, or larger than, the percentage receiving benefits from “real” drugs (with real side-effects). Insight into the Placebo response, Psychosomatic illness, and recent discoveries regarding the Stress response, have painted a much clearer picture of how it is “done to us according to our thoughts.” Besides the obvious effect of people healing because they “think they’re supposed to;” people also get sick because they think they’re supposed to — and even simply because they think. And now we know why; or, we can at least trace the path between thought and thing.

“As a man thinketh…”

The next time you think you’ve lost you’re mind, don’t worry; nobody really knows where the Mind is, to begin with — so, it was already “lost.” But, thanks to some rather barbaric medical experiments, we do know that when thoughts “arrive” in the brain (presumable from the mind) they create electrical activity in the region of the brain the thought stimulates. Once the thought is converted to electricity in and by the brain, it can travel through the body via the meridian and nervous systems — much like the impulses that travel through the phone lines when you dial a telephone number. The electrical activity in the brain and nervous system stimulates the production and release of chemical energy and signals from various organs and endocrine glands throughout the body. It is these chemical “messenger signals” that activate cell behavior, movement, and change — all of which are simply physical extensions and expressions of thought.

In a very literal sense, we can now see the pathway between how “…a man thinketh,” and what “is done unto him.” Make no mistake; just because we can see this chain of events doesn’t mean it isn’t magical. We don’t know how or why any of this happens; but we can follow the very real and clear path between thought and thing. On a practical note, when you receive, or dwell on, a “negative” or stressful thought, it stimulates electrical signals that correspond to that thought; those signals stimulate other chemical signals which in turn create or change the physical expression of your body’s individual cells – which, collectively, appears as symptoms of illness, or other feelings or behaviors.

When we think stressful thoughts — those thoughts that cause us to experience uncomfortable emotional responses — what we are actually experiencing is the chain-of-events we collectively call the stress response. This response, like the placebo response, is simply one more way of tracing thoughts from psyche to expression in the body. With the stress response, however, the chemical hormones (stress hormones) released are responsible for all of our bad feelings, weight gain and retention, bad moods and attitudes, and, according to the APA (American Psychological Association), about 90% of all trips to the doctor’s office. Imagine that; no stress – no illness.

Your Job is Always the Same: Be of Good Cheer

Whether you think that your thoughts or prayers have some weight with God, or some magical character, or that your thoughts or prayers are themselves creative in a mysterious way, or if you think your thoughts are just one step in a very mechanical process that causes changes with energy and chemistry, it really doesn’t matter; your job is the same in each case. If you get too hung up on your beliefs about what might be happening, you could forget to do what you should do in every situation — think about what you want, and be happy.

Religions teach various methods of achieving a useful or effective prayer-state, or a state of mind and body that is conducive to effective prayer, communication, or manifestation — most of the reasons people typically pray. The methods used by religions range from meditation techniques, isolation, stillness, calming and quieting the mind, closing the eyes, and certain hand and body positions and gestures, to various words and thought forms to be contemplated or repeated in various ways. All of these methods are designed to elicit specific states of peace, calm, and quietude in the mind and body.

If you are using any of the techniques taught by any of the teachers from The Secret, they will invariably involve calming, centering, or relaxing the mind and body in order to maintain the desired emotional state for effective manifestation or attraction. Likewise, just as The Secret advocates thinking positively, regardless of the situation, Jesus and other great sages did the same: “Fear not; be of good cheer…,” and “Peace; be still,” are but two examples from the New Testament where Jesus was instructing his followers that, if they wanted things to be better, they should start acting with more peace, calm, faith, and gratitude. A more recent song phrased this ancient wisdom in this way: “Don’t worry; be happy!”

Likewise, whether you think your request will be granted by an unseen authority, or that a series of feelings and actions (stimulated by thinking a specific thing) will lead you to create your desired change, or lead you into a situation where a “Divine connection” could be made, both approaches require that you think specifically about what it is you desire – your desired outcome. “All things are possible to he who believes,” says the scriptures; and, “Whatsoever you desire, when you stand in prayer, believing, it will be given to you,” remind us that we must think about what we want – and think positively (believing) – in order to receive our desire in a way we will recognize and appreciate.

Magical, or Practical, if you want to create change, or have it created for you, the steps you must take are always the same: You must think specifically about what you desire; You must calm your mind and body so that you can think “immaculately” about what it is you want (and so you can hear answers and inspiration…); and you must maintain a state of positive expectancy. Whether you are religious or not and whether you think The Secret is rubbish, or not, there has always been only one way of reliably and effectively creating the changes you seek – and that is to seek them. Some ways of seeking are more effective than others; but the one that is most effective just happens to produce immediate practical benefits to your health and life — and quite possible “magical” results in all areas of your life!

by Pete Koener of Explore * Expand * Evolve with Pete & Jennifer Koerner