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The nuts and bolts of reality creation Oct 22, 2006 (114 of 120 found this helpful)
Esther and Jerry Hicks have been putting out the channeled Abraham material for about twenty years, but it has recently enjoyed a surge in popularity. I only discovered it about a year ago and have read their last three books. This latest one, The Law of Attraction, is probably the most succinct and direct summary of the philosophy, which is actually quite simple, though not always easy to put into practice. I would recommend this book to anyone familiar with self help and/or channeled type material, as well as anyone new to this kind of thing. If you are already something of a self help or new age junkie, you will find Abraham amazingly clear and no frills. I mean this in a good way, for when studying a system of self improvement, you don't need a lot of theory and superfluous philosophy, ritual, chatter and so forth. Some of these can be fascinating, but if you are mainly interested in improving your life, what's crucial are the fundamentals. For the same reason, this book is an excellent introduction to the whole concept of the law of attraction. In the forward, author Neale Donald Walsch says, "This is it...put all the other books down." A strong statement, but it illustrates the power and importance of Abraham's message.
Abraham is described as a collection of evolved non-physical entities. They are channeled by Esther Hicks, who also gives many public workshops. Essentially, the message of this book is that your thoughts and feelings determine your reality. Esther acknowledges that she first encountered the phrase, "You create your own reality" in Jane Roberts' Seth books. The Seth material, however, while also channeled and carrying a similar message, is far more complex and technical. I find the Seth books interesting and may reread them some day, but if you are primarily interested in putting these ideas into practice, as opposed to studying them, I would recommend Abraham. The advice Abraham gives again and again is that it's important to feel good, because how we feel attracts more of what we have, whether good or bad. A simple message, and one that has been stated many times before, but unless you have truly mastered it (or dismissed it as impossible, in which case this book obviously won't be of interest -Abraham makes no effort to prove the "validity" of the ideas to skeptics) this book is one you should definitely read.
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The Law of Attraction Requires an Open Mind & Positive Thinking Apr 22, 2007 (60 of 64 found this helpful)
Back in the mid-to-late `70s, when I was still a fairly young pup, I tried my hand at wading through the works of existential guru, Carlos Castaneda. Even now, Castaneda is a powerhouse of metaphysical gems of wisdom designed to expand the mind; so I occasionally venture down memory lane and re-read all those tomes of wisdom he produced in an attempt to better understand his thought processes. For the most part, I have been successful. Yet the one thing that I still had a difficult time with until recently, was comprehending Castaneda's concept of `intention.'
What was this mysterious `intention,' to which Castaneda repeatedly referred, and why couldn't I grasp it?
Finally, after reading the words of Abraham in The Law of Attraction, the meaning became clear: intention is merely the process of creating, or bringing into existence, that which we desire. Simple; yet, for some reason, one of the most difficult things for most of us to comprehend, much less attain. Yet, again, it all boils down to `intent.' When one desires something strongly enough the Universe has no choice but to oblige.
Lately, however, it seems the Law of Attraction on which the recent movie, The Secret, is based, has come under fire. How, postulate many who are either unable or unwilling to see the logic behind this Law, can creating be as simple as the adherents proclaim?
Are the debunkers right? Is this `Law' merely some New Age, woo-woo mumbo jumbo or a bona-fide Law similar to gravity, or possibly something in between?
In all fairness, I have to admit that, I too, wondered how it could be so simple. How could one possibly desire something badly enough to `create' it into existence without, oftentimes, even acting on that desire, other than to think about it? And what about such desires as, say, wanting to fly? Could we manifest an ability that seems to go totally against the physical Laws with which we all must (seemingly) abide? Although I've not personally experienced this, what about those who are purported to levitate or bi-locate or miraculously heal themselves or others of terminal diseases? It seems to me that if it is, indeed, possible to do these things, could it not also be possible to fly?
And yet, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that...isn't that what we do every day? We desire something that to many would seem impossible, we think about having it, and if we think long and hard enough, eventually (if not sooner) we find a way of manifesting whatever it is we so strongly desire into existence. As the saying goes, a house begins as a fleeting thought, then becomes an idea, eventually makes its way to a blueprint, and ultimately finds expression in being `manifested' or constructed out of tangible, material substance. Yet, it began as a mere thought, a desire.
In fact, some of our greatest Teachers and thinkers - from the ancient Sumerians, Egyptians, Hindu, Chinese and Native Americans to Socrates, Plato, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Gandhi and Mother Teresa taught some version of `thoughts become things.'
Even with all the evidence indicating that humans are capable of achieving feats far greater than even they realize, why have the majority of us believed that either the average person isn't capable of greatness, or that the greatness which has, historically, been achieved is some fluke?
I suspect that, for the most part, it may be because we, as a conglomerate society, have been taught that only `the gods' are capable of creation. Further, that we must sacrifice all to `the gods' and rely on their good graces (and their whims) in order to experience the benefit of their bounty. Has this not been what has happened throughout the world over the last three- to four-thousand years in the forms of various religions?
Yet, is this really true? Do we really need to worship some elus
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Covers the Law of Attraction, Deliberate Creation, Art of Allowing, Segment Intending, and More Sep 27, 2006 (509 of 585 found this helpful)
"The best scenario is to desire something and to bring yourself into the belief or expectation of achieving it...If you have a strong desire for something but you doubt your ability to achieve it, it cannot come, at least not right now, for you must bring your thought of desire and your thought of belief into alignment." - From the book
For several decades, a group of advanced spiritual teachers known as Abraham has channeled messages through Esther Hicks. What began as a series of audios has now been compiled in book and deck form, with Esther and her husband, Jerry, disseminating three major laws advocated by Abraham: The Law of Attraction, the Law of Deliberate Intent, and the Law of Allowing.
In The Law of Attraction: The Basic Teachings of Abraham, the Hicks' convey the fundamentals of the "Creative Workshop" which is the place that we enter, every day, as we ponder what we want--and don't want--out of life. They assert that individuals are always creating and attracting, regardless of ignorance of the three Universal Laws. We create by default, they say, just by thinking and speaking along certain lines--believing in the likelihood of a result and gathering confirming data from our environment. Here's an example of this creation from the book:
"The steady offering of details of illness is very influential in the increasing sickness in your society. If you allow yourself to focus upon the constant barrage of unpleasant statistics regarding the never-ending stream of possible physical maladies, it cannot help but affect your personal point of attraction."
Here are a few more snippets of Abraham's wisdom as conveyed in The Law of Attraction, as channeled by Esther:
"Your negative emotion is your indication that you hold beliefs that are contrary to your own desire."
"The more you think of what you want, the more the Law of Attraction will bring the evidence of it to you, until you *will* believe it."
"If there are others who see something in you that they do not approve of, most often you see their disapproval reflected back through their eyes, and you feel that you have gone wrong in some way. And we say unto you, it is not *your* lack, it is *theirs*. It is *their* inability to be the *Allower* that brings forth their negative emotion; it is not *your* imperfection."
"When you consider many subjects at the same time, you generally do not move forward strongly toward any of them, for your focus and your power is diffused, whereas if you are focusing upon that which is most important in any point of time, you move forward more powerfully toward that."
Now, let me share a bit of my impressions and experience. As a teaching, I was first introduced to the Law of Attraction by Michael Losier. In my opinion, his book of the same name is far superior to this title by the Hicks'. I had experience with manifesting what I desired before I read Michael's book, so I was familiar with the law of attraction. However, I have some misgivings about a portion of it, and here
is my reasoning:
Most times I read something on the Law of Attraction, I feel sick to my stomach. I was totally turned off by Lynn Grabhorn's Excuse Me! Your Life is Waiting, but found Michael Losier's book Law of Attraction pretty darn sensible.
Yet, I can't help but feel the Law of Attraction is a bit simplistic--offering only a portion of the big picture. I'm especially troubled that the Law of Attraction seems to fly in the face of the wisdom of avatars like Jesus. For example, the Bible encourages compassion with passages like "weep with those who weep". Yet, books like the Hicks' pretty much advocate turning away from anything unpleasant and instead focusing on "feeling good". After all, those poor souls are only attracting what matches their vibration--so let them suffer with their miserable magnetism.
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Great Primer on the Law of Attraction Dec 10, 2006 (28 of 28 found this helpful)
After seeing the movie, "The Secret", I wanted to know more about the Law of Attraction. Researching the Internet led me to the Abraham-Hicks website so this was the first book I decided to read.
First, I will say that the idea of Abraham being channeled would have ordinarily turned me off from reading the book at all. Fortunately, I bought the book *before* realizing that the non-physical entities known as "Abraham" was the teacher of this knowledge so I went ahead and started to read it anyway. I was going to skip the Foreward (written by Neal David Walsch) because I was eager to get to the basic teachings but even the Foreward "spoke" to me. I didn't skip anything after that.
This book has so much wisdom that after I got started I really didn't care whether Abraham was "real" or not. It's written in the format of Jerry asking his wife Esther, who channels Abraham, questions about the LOA and life in general. I began to wonder if Esther *wasn't* channeling Abraham, how did she know all of this herself? I kept post-it note flags with me while I read this so I could go back and pull out all of the things that were most impactful to me. After I finished the book, it had so many yellow flags sticking out of it, I didn't know when I would have the time to do it! Instead, I just purchased "Ask and It is Given", another book by the Hicks', hoping the more I read the concepts, the more they will stick in my brain and I will begin to live them.
The only reason this book did not get 5 stars from me is that it is somewhat repetitious in the questions asked. This is not a book to be read in one sitting, but slowly injested over many readings. I noticed the repetition more on the occasions when I read more. Read this book. It will change your life - or, rather, you will change your life.
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Happy New You Dec 20, 2006 (33 of 35 found this helpful)
The Law of attraction is not magic. It is not about making things appear out of thin air. It is about consciously and deliberately focusing your mind, your heart, and your spirit on that which you do want rather than what you don't want. Many times people think that it's all about "wishful thinking" that it's just sitting in your living room waiting for something to fall in your lap, and sometimes, things do work out that way. I have had several incidences where without any real effort on my part, things just seemed to fall into my lap. But more often than not, the Law of Attraction gets us to start expecting great and wonderful things to happen and what we expect usually comes to pass. If we expect the day to turn out crummy, it will, even if wonderful things happen, because our attention is so focused on it being crummy, that we literally by-pass all the good and choose tofocus on the not-so-good so then we can say with pride, "Well, that certainly was a crummy day..."
The Law of Attraction gets you to pay attention to what you are focusing on. Focusing on things just makes those things appear even larger. That is why I do not necessarily believe in the Fundamentalist Christian way of thinking. They focus on guilt, on punishment, on judgment, on hell, on the devil and then a lot of them wonder why they feel so oppressed. They somehow think that God is picking on them or condemning them. When in actuality it is simply because they are focusing on these things that are not "heavenly", not "godly", not "lovely" and so it will appear as if they are being tested or tempted or misdirected all because they have used the Law of Attraction in a negative way. Trust me, I used to be a fundie and I used to think that was how God got His kicks; by picking on me. I'm not saying to not be accountable for what you may have done or didn't do, but to me, the glorious thing about God is that God is a God of Love and Love does not lack in any good thing. God is always willing to make "all things new". What would happen if my primary focus became one of Love, of Peace, of Goodwill? What would happen if I focused more on the Heaven within rather than focusing on a heaven in some future existence? What would happen if I focused more on my brother's innocence rather than on his guilt? The Law of Attraction simply states that I will get more of what I am focusing my attention on.
Everything is already available to us. The reason why the majority of us are not living the life of our dreams is because we are literally "hell-bent". We see things as they are and not as they can be. We forget to express gratitude and appreciation for all the things that we are receiving on a moment-to-moment basis. How many of you today actually said, "thank you" for the clean water that came pouring out of your faucet this morning? Clean water is a gift. Did you know that there are many countries in the world today where clean water is rare? This is not to make you feel bad or guilty for having clean water at your disposal, it is simply saying that we have so much to be thankful for. We have eyes to read this, we have ears to hear the songbirds in the trees, we have trees and songbirds, we have minds and hearts and souls and bodies and we can go to where it is we need to go today with these amazing things called cars. Most of us will eat at least twice today. Most of us will sleep in dry, warm beds. Most of us will watch television or listen to the radio or work on the computer. If the only prayer we ever had to pray was, thanks, it would be enough.
The Law of attraction works because it has to. It is a law and whether or not we believe in this Law does not negate the fact that it is working. This book will help us use it in a more conscious and more deliberate way. It is not about ignoring other people because they may be fat, or poor, or not as attractive as you might be. What it is saying is to not give your energy to these th