Sunday

The Illusion of Attraction - Part ONE


I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard people ask, “Why didn’t it work? I did everything I was suppose to; I made myself think positively, envisioned the outcome I wanted, put it on my vision board, held the right emotions… I did everything the Law of Attraction told me to do. Why didn’t it work?” Next they start trying to figure out what they did wrong. Was it because they said “I need…” instead of “I want…” – yes that must be it!  Really??

 I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the Law of Attraction ever since it was popularized by Rhonda Byrne’s movie “The Secret” in 2006.  While many of the ideas shared fit my own of how we can more consciously create our lives, there was always something in how it was being portrayed in the movie that didn’t completely resonate with me.  Recently it hit me, what if the missing puzzle piece is that there isn’t anything actually missing – maybe it’s the idea of the “Law of Attraction” that’s flawed. Yes, our thoughts, feelings and beliefs contribute greatly to our outcomes – but the idea that we are solely responsible for creating our realities is not a Law, but an Illusion!

Perhaps you’ve heard of the master illusionist David Copperfield? His genius is to create illusions, visual manifestations that appear real.  A few years ago I got to attend two of his performances in the same evening. The show includes his famous “Portal Illusion”, which can be viewed online on You Tube, where he appears to teleport himself and a woman from the audience to a beach in Hawaii.  Together they suddenly disappear and within seconds a livestream video shows the two of them suddenly appearing on a beach in Hawaii. To make the illusion more believable, before leaving Ottawa they ‘randomly’ pick a number of audience members to help create a picture to bring with them on their journey. In awe, the audience gasps in unison as the woman who now appears to be on a beach thousands of miles away, pulls the picture out from her pocket. Everyone is amazed and I hear a couple behind me asking each other – “Was that for real?” David leaves the woman on the beach and reappears in the Ottawa audience, just a few seats away from me.

 “The Secret” has served as a catalyst for thousands of people, awakening them from the illusion of being mere victims of their circumstances, to considering the possibility that their thoughts, feelings and beliefs alone, are responsible for creating what happens to them.  They started taking control and as a result became more aware of how their thoughts and feelings were affecting what they are attracting.   David Copperfield can make a car appear out of thin air or vanish before our eyes and reappear on a beach thousands of miles away – or so it seems.  Many of the people whose lives were significantly changed by following the ideas presented in “The Secret” started believing that through the proper use of the Law of Attraction they could create anything they wanted.  All they needed to do is to think the right thoughts and feel the right feelings and ‘poof’ it would appear.  We know that what David Copperfield does in his show is an illusion – not real.  What if the Law of Attraction is like that; sometimes it can appear that only our thoughts and feeling are creating our realities, but in reality there is much more involved! 

Back to David Copperfield’s show - take two.  For the second time I’m witnessing his amazing Portal Illusion, but wait… the woman he’s taking with him is the same woman from the first show, the one he left on the beach in Hawaii. Not only that, somehow the exact same members of the audience are  ‘randomly’ picked to create the picture they bring with them – which was pretty amazing  in itself when you see how these people were chosen!  And the picture ends up looking the same too. Now we’re starting to see some of what goes on behind the scenes contributing to the illusion and it looks like there are a lot of people in on the secret!  

Now, my intention isn’t to ‘out’ David Copperfield. During the show he himself assures us that he isn’t trying to convince us that what he is doing is real; he is creating illusions.  My intention is to invite you to question the probability that any of us could be even remotely capable of creating our reality on our own. David Copperfield, a master illusionist, requires a huge team, very specific conditions and supports to create the magic he presents in each show.  He could never pull off such magic all on his own.  Likewise, none of us are capable of manifesting anything on our own and no one thought or emotion is going to make or break our ability to achieve a goal. There is always so much more going on under the surface and in our environment that is contributing to and influencing the possibility of every success or failure we experience. The idea that we could control every outcome with our thoughts, beliefs and feelings is an illusion – believing that is all it takes would be a delusion.

Think of a goal you recently achieved or a time when something happening that you didn’t want to have happen – like catching a cold. Try to bring into your awareness every contributing factor that lead to that outcome.  Every thought, feeling, belief, choice, action, the people involved and the added influence of their thoughts, feelings, beliefs, choices and actions; items that were used and how they come to exist, the various synchronicities and coincidences and choices people made that contributed to such happenstance; the weather, the elements, cells, bacteria, planetary positioning … just try to acknowledge every single contributing factor and to figure out what exactly lead to the outcome.

Even Jesus acknowledged; “I can of my own self do nothing.” John 5:30

We are not creating our own reality, nor are we merely pawns of some greater force.  We are participants of a co-creative process, on this planet that we are part of, constantly supported and influenced by higher intelligences, each other, the elements, every aspect of nature and celestial influences.  

No comments: