Destiny/Going With The Flow vs Law of Attraction

[Youami]

This is something I have thought about extensively since discovering the law of attraction/you create your own reality material years ago. Please read this with an open and un-biased mind because I am genuinely interested to hear others perspective on this matter.

I will preface this by saying that I personally have no doubt whatsoever that the law of attraction works and that we can indeed manifest desires into our lives by focusing on and energizing them. I have successfully done it many, many times. On the face of it this seems very beneficial and self empowering, the notion that we are in control of our reality. What I have started to think however is what if the law of attraction is actually a bit of a trap?

What I mean by this is what if we each have a unique destiny and life purpose we are meant to fulfill, and that all of the major events, people and circumstances connected to that path we are meant to be on are already in place when we get here, and that just by remaining in present moment awareness and following our heart/excitement, we automatically will be on the right path for us, which incidentally contains everything that we truly desire and that is truly beneficial for us.

Being that we still have freewill, we can however veer off this path at anytime if we so choose. This is where I feel that using the law of attraction to manifest our personal mind-based desires could perhaps interfere in what we are really meant to be doing, and as such can take us off the path we were meant to be on.

The reasons I have begun to think this are several:

1. Most of the major sources of information about LOA such as Abraham Hicks are channeled from some 'spiritual' source or entity. This in and of itself makes the information highly suspect to me. They (Abraham Hicks) basically say we are here to be creators of our experience and explore that to it's fullest. However if you take that out to its furthest logical conclusion, you then have a world of selfishness where everyone is focused on manifesting their next desire. The very nature of desire is that when one is fulfilled, there is another that pops up immediately behind it, and on and on. Surely this is the strengthening of the ego mind that most spiritual texts warn against.

2. When I look back on my life before I discovered LOA, it is very clear to me now how all the people and places and events in my life all worked together of their own accord to bring me the perfect life and relationships for me personally, but without any conscious intending of it on my part. I have had some amazing experiences and met some amazing people and been exactly where I needed to be at the right places at the right times, all without me trying to exert any control over it or putting any conscious effort into it whatsoever, just by basically staying in the present moment and following my highest excitement. No intentions, affirmations, visualizations etc.

3. Since using the LOA to 'manifest' things that I have wanted for myself, I have definitely achieved those desires many times over, however other areas of my life have simultaneously gotten worse. I can definitively say my life overall was better off before discovering and putting into practice the 'law of attraction'. Has anyone else experienced this? I feel it may be difficult for some to admit this has also happened to them because the premise of LOA is so self empowering, but I'm sure others must also have experienced this besides me.

4. I actually emailed these concerns and questions to the Truthcontest.com website. If you have ever visited that site, it basically states that the present moment and maintaining present moment awareness is the ultimate truth of life and challenges anyone to come up with a better theory. I emailed the author of the website asking these same questions and asked if he thought the law of attraction was beneficial of not and he replied with one word in all caps: TRAP. I had already formed the thoughts above before I asked him this, but I find it interesting that he also feels that way.

So, what do you think and what have your experiences been with this? I look forward to hearing some thoughts on this matter.

[FallingLeaves]

I personally agree that it is a trap. But you can't argue with people about it because everyone seems to 'know' that getting what you want is the best thing.
But I have seen time and time again that my own best interests were served, when what I wanted was simply withheld. And looking back at the choices I made, I can't help feeling, if I had been allowed to get what I 'wanted' some very bad things would have happened in my own life. And I would have replicated that out to the lives of others around me.

Same with expecting to get what you 'deserve'. Another similar trap I see people falling into! But again it is inarguable.

I'm currently more able to accept what I get as opposed to expecting to get what I want, and for me at least that is enough.

But as far as going with the flow I can't really do THAT either. Maybe I wanted it too much

I think it is a perception of being omnipresent, omniscient and or omniscience. One can obtain a small speck of awareness into one of the three and explain it as LOA or synchronicity and so on.

Perhaps it is beneficial here to realize that the term “I” can have different connotations.
One way to envision it, is that there is the I that in any given present moment I feel and believe myself to be. Usually this is an I that is created by the mind by filtering the information available in the present moment through the ego and is thereby an I limited in space, time, and understanding, to here and now. This is an I that exists for that present moment only and becomes a different I in each subsequent present moment.

This present moment I can be dramatically different from previous present moment I(s) in its desires and wants depending on the number of, or nature of the filtered information in, subsequent present moments. The wants and desires of this I are influenced by what information the egoic filter has allowed to pass into this present moment and what interpretation and meaning the mind gives this information.

But when this I, through the process of memory, watches itself from moment to moment, it can become aware of the existence of another I. An “higher” I which stands beyond the experience of this present moment I, yet encompasses and is experiencing all of the I(s) from all of the previous and subsequent present moments. The present moment I, though it can be aware of the existence of this higher I, is limited in space and time by definition, and therefore can never be aware of and know what the higher I sees and knows outside of space and time, beyond the present moment. If one wishes to channel a spiritual being then this is probably the spiritual being that should be channeled. Perhaps this is the being that can know what the present moment I truly was in past moments and can best choose which path among many to choose for future moments.

Of course, there is still that pesky limitation in time and space that the present moment I suffers from, so it may not understand nor appreciate the path the higher I chose for it. Perhaps our highest excitement is just the higher I guiding the present moment I into one of the next present moments from which there are many to choose from. Moving on a path toward an experience it wishes to have, but through which it must experience through the lens of the present moment I. The present moment I may feel like it was trapped into something it does not desire nor want. Yet, at some distant subsequent present moment, though memory and contemplation in hindsight, the present moment I may come to understand that it was where it needed to be and when it needed to be there. The higher I had guided it there for reasons beyond its present moment understand at that time, and that feeling of being trapped was just another part of the experience.

Anyway, given that I often feel I have become trapped in some pretty rotten present moment situations, I would like to think so.

[freejoe]

your posting is very interesting I myself do not use this LOA as all do who use it
there is this thing , a balance in energy always what you get needs to come from some place ? isn't it always energy conversion , whats wrong with the energy direct and be in that ? your HS has a say in what is good for you . ask him if goals are not the same , what you call path . when are you free to chose your own path ? if all work is done . but than things just come to you no asking is needed ..I can only see why it could be a trap as distraction from a path that needs be taken first ? also its easy to create contradicting realities your self and be in that . is that not what you do ? also ? if there are to many possibilities for you to chose from and you don't really know what to do now, your heart is not where the mind is and HS might want you to find love and do what you love with love and not go after goals just cos you can

(the last bit is most meaning full)

[inavalan]

Originally Posted by Youami

... So, what do you think and what have your experiences been with this? I look forward to hearing some thoughts on this matter.

1. Karma, as a law of balancing, may explain the negative side effects you experienced.

2. You can apply the LOA to attract knowledge instead of material things. For example, imagine yourself knowing the purpose of your life, and happily fulfilling it.

[Since1973]

I am a little familiar with LOA, but I’m far from expert -however this is my opinion.

LOA has been misunderstood and manipulated to become a tool for personal gain ie money and power etc. If they’re honest, that is what most people want from it and they’re spending a lot of time and focus to turn that energy into material goods. However, I don’t believe that is what it’s really about.

I think the Universe is energy and I think you can consciously tap into various energy streams and I think you can be influenced by energy streams. Just think of how your emotions can change at different times, in different places. All of us have walked into a room and felt our energy change, or left a meeting with someone feeling different than we did before the meeting. Science has even backed this up by telling us our thought waves will mimic those of the people we are near. (A simple Google search will find this information.).

Additionally, I think many of us have experienced how our thoughts can influence our emotions and our energy. We can wake up feeling good, but then experience something we label as negative eg an unexpected bill arrives or a family member is grumpy and the thoughts we have about that can influence how we feel, act and behave. Many times a ‘negative’ energy will bring more ‘negative’ energy. However, if we can stay calm and look for the silver lining, maybe that ‘negativity’ can be turned around. Yes?

Well, I think that’s what LOA is. You can decide your thoughts and create an energy experience for yourself that is ‘negative’ or ‘positive’. You can control your focus and the direction of your thoughts and influence your experience in that way. I think all of us can see the truth of that, as I’m sure we can all recall ourselves doing that.

The issue with LOA, as I see it, is that people want that positive energy to turn into $50 in their wallet, or a new car in the driveway, just because they thought about it really hard.

Where it gets all mixed up is that if you have a positive attitude, are able to discipline your thoughts and manage your time constructively and are a generally happy and positive person, you are probably going to be successful in many areas of your life, including financially. You are probably also going to be able to attract friends / partners who share your positivity etc and then you’ve got yourself a great big happy success story.

I do know that Abraham says, ‘Feel better now, that’s all you have to do. Change your thoughts so you can feel better now.’ It would seem that many people think they need the money, life partner, dream job before they can ‘feel better now’. It’s like they’ve put the cart before the horse. ‘Feeling better now’ is more likely to bring you what you want, but even if it doesn’t, you’re still feeling positive and having a great experience anyway.

What we really all desire is a positive life experience. LOA can help with that.

Anyway, I hope that makes sense.

[jro5139]

I think you're right on everything you said.

It seems like the loa is mainly being used for material or 3D gain in the current spiritual community. The issue with this is that we are being given the opportunity to ascend (that's what I believe), but to ascend, you must be more service-to-others than service-to-self. So it doesn't seem like there is a lot of teaching geared towards being service-to-others.
I also think you are right about material wealth not being satisfying. It's only satisfying for a short time, and then you want the next thing. It's pretty obvious to me when I see people with money that they are not all necessarily happy. If money and material made people happy than you wouldn't see so many celebrities that are committing suicide or ending up in rehab over and over again.

My personal experience, because I have found what I believe to me my soul mission and am working on it, is this... I found my mission by going with the flow, before my mission came to me, I had a list of random things I wanted to do, not one of the things happened, and then, shortly after, my mission presented itself to me. Now had I done those random things, maybe I would not have been able to do my mission. So I do believe that certain things that don't happen, are for a reason.

My understanding of channeled messages is that they have to go through the person doing the channeling. And so there is usually some of the person that gets through along with the message, or their own personal opinions or biases. In other words, it's very difficult to find a pure channeled message that hasn't been at least a little biased by the person receiving it.