Law of Attraction: A Witch’s View of New Thought

In the past few years two films promoting New Thought, or the Law of Attraction, have gained quite a following. “The Secret” and “What the Bleep Do We Know?” put basic New Thought principles into a snazzy new package for the 21st century. The ideas they promote are the power of positive thinking, the detriment of negative thinking and a primitive concept of sympathetic magic known as the Law of Attraction, or like begets like.

The Secret actually boils this down into “Ask. Believe. Receive.” Ask the Universe to provide, believe the Universe will provide and presto! The Universe provides. It’s a very simple concept and is very simple to put into effect. Think pretty thoughts and pretty things will happen.

As a Witch I don’t buy this. I know better. I know the Universe is too complex for simple formulas. I know that more than pretty thoughts are required to make things happen.

In “What the Bleep” quantum physics is used as a scientific basis for the Law of Attraction. Which would work if quantum physics explained everything. I mean, As Above, So Below, right?

Ah, but quantum physics doesn’t explain everything. It talks about a world of sub-atomic particles that no human has seen. They are studied obliquely rather than directly. They are as ephemeral as astral aether to your average Joe Blow. True, they are the building blocks of everything, but that doesn’t mean everything works according to their rules.

You see, while “As Above, So Below” may be a spiritual truth, it’s not a scientific one. In science the macrocosm is ruled by Newtonian physics and the microcosm by quantum physics. Two totally different ways of looking at the Universe, and both are true. Witches have to be aware of both sets of rules in order to be effective.

Example: if I am in an 8X8 room with my back to a wall, an open window in the opposite wall and an orange in my outstretched hand, the two sets of rules give different answers for what will happen if I simply let the orange drop.

In quantum physics the moment before I let the ball drop is a moment of infinite possibility. Anything could happen. Lightening could strike, aliens could attack or the ball may rise to the ceiling or suddenly be whipped out the window by the wind. If that orange behaves like a subatomic particle then something quite mysterious is liable to happen.

Newtonian physics looks at the orange as simple matter. If I drop the ball it will hit the floor, maybe bounce once. No great mystery.

The Law of Attraction states that if I ask the orange to rise to the ceiling and believe that it will rise to the ceiling then the Universe will cause that orange to rise. Quantum physics says the Universe is influenced by my will and will be a good sport.

However, though that orange may be made up of untold numbers of subatomic particles, it itself is not a subatomic particle anymore than a cupcake is a yeast fungi. It is mass, is subject to Newtonian physics and, this what the Law of Attraction ignores, the laws of probability.

It is highly improbable that when I drop the orange it will suddenly transport itself to a remote region of the solar system. It is very probable that the orange will simply hit the floor.

Chaos magic talks about probability in magical workings, something many Witches don’t consider. A Witch in some ways must act as a mystical bookie, running the numbers and checking the odds. Some Witches express this as being in tune with nature, in harmony with and working with the flow instead of swimming against the tide.

However, even after finding a high probability your desire will come true, it often requires more than “Ask. Believe. Receive.” to come to fruition. The Witches Pyramid is “To Know, To Will, To Dare and To Keep Silent.” The Law of Attraction requires little to no daring. To Dare is to be passionately active. Thinking pretty thoughts isn’t daring at all. I can stay in bed all day thinking of nice things and dare nothing.

For instance, you are going to the mall and want a particular parking place. Parking lots are in a constant state of flux and there is a high probability that you will get the spot you want on an average day. You Know what you want and exert your Will by visualizing the spot you want all the way to the mall and surprisingly you find someone pulling out of your spot just as you approach. Not a lot of daring there, huh? Would the same trick work on the Friday after Thanksgiving? Bet you’d have to get up pretty early to improve the probability, huh?

Now let’s say you want a job. You Know what you want, you state your Will and the Universe will give you a job. Right? Not exactly. This economy has a low probability of your finding a job with minimal effort. This requires a high level of Dare. You’re going to have to hustle and put a lot of effort into getting hired. Even then, the probability of your finding a job still isn’t awesome.

The films “What the Bleep” and “The Secret” don’t talk about the last two parts of the Witches Pyramid, which is where all the real work lies. Daring isn’t a comfortable, easy thing for us to deal with. Keeping Silent? Well, like the Taoists say “Those who say don’t know, those who know don’t say”.

Keep Silent is about not frittering away your talent, your energy and losing your power in dissipation. Keep Silent is a warning against those who try so hard to convince you of their argument. Uncertain people talk. If someone claims your life can transform by merely wishing it so goes to the trouble of making a 2 hour movie to convince you of that fact, you must wonder why their wish was to make a film instead of lounge on a beach in Cancun?

Witches are daring, active and smart. They don’t accept simplistic truths wholesale, but dig for ever deeper meaning. They accept that sometimes they have to hold two things in their mind simultaneously to function this Universe. They learn from their limitations and transform them into empowering experiences. They know experience is far more reliable than words, and that mystic experiences validate both the quantum and Newtonian views of the world. Apples fall from trees and spirits soar to other realms.

I don’t think New Thought is a useful addition to Pagan wisdom because, however snazzy the graphics, it doesn’t wrap far enough around the reality of our lives.