The person with the stronger vibrations?
This might be just as nutty as The Secret, but the idea of the universe lining itself up to obey my whims makes me quite uneasy.
If I could get the universe to obey my whims, everybody should be very scared. My whims involve things like crashing a 500-km asteroid into the Earth and boiling the oceans because my feet are cold.
Maybe that’s what makes me uneasy - if my whim is to win a couple million in a lottery, maybe someone else’s whim is to kill me when I merge in front of them in traffic. :eek:
Fortunately for all of us, very few astronomers believe in things like The Secret. I can’t speak for homicidal maniacs, though.
Indeed, sometimes people’s luck arrives all at once, good and bad:
That story stuck with me because she won it a few days after I left the hotel where she won it, where I had played the same machines.
No, not at all. She is failing because – being, when all is said and done, a Negro – she secretly wants to fail. 
I’d bet it’s more about wanting a good excuse to take a fucking break…
“Fault” doesn’t have to imply that someone did something wrong. It can also be used simply to explain where the responsibility for a negative result lies. Something can be my “fault” without my having done anything “wrong” in causing that bad thing to happen.
Now, if someone says I had a miscarriage because of my own desires, let’s not say they’re saying it’s my “fault,” but clearly they are saying there is something I did which brought the miscarriage about. Now, why would they tell me this if they were not intending to imply that, if I were to refrain from doing this in the future, I would not have miscarriages in the future?
No talk of “fault” here still, as you can see. But there is definitely the recommendation: “Change the way you think or feel, and you won’t have a miscarriage next time you concieve.” That is not only false, but if I believe it, then I am basically doomed to think that any miscarriage I have in the future is–yes–my fault. It doesn’t matter that the word “fault” wasn’t used in the exposition of The Secret to me. What I will think, inevitably, if I am the least bit rational, is “I knew changing my thinking would prevent miscarriages, but I didn’t succeed in preventing miscarriages, so I didn’t succeed in changing my thinking.” Doing X when it will lead to Y, where Y is bad, and where you know X will lead to Y, and where you know Y is bad, and where you could refrain from doing X, makes Y your “fault” by definition.
I explained how the law of attraction works, how those who teach it mean it to be understood to work.
While what you say is technically true, the practical fact is that people perceive personal responsibility in different ways; when somone chooses the word “fault”, they generally mean “whose bad (choice/behavior/thought/decision) led to this fucked up result?”. If they want to know whose great (idea/thought/beahvior/choice) led to this marvelous result, they don’t say: “Whose fault is this delicious meal?” Whose fault is it that this company doubled its profits? Whose fault is it that this child is so healthy and smart and good-natured? Whose fault is it that this house is so beautifully decorated?
And you know it.
Yes, I know it–and I said it.
But I don’t understand the relevance of your comment. If anything, what you’ve just said would tend to lend support to my argument that The Secret does inevitably and irresponsibly lead to people placing fault (fault) on themselves incorrectly and unnecessarily.
Do you think anyone expects their child to get cancer and die? Because that actually happens to people, you know.
That’s because you’ve switched horses.
fault = negative, bad, wrong, inadequate, erroneous, fucked up.
vs.
Responsible = responsible
They aren’t the same. I didn’t say there was no responsibility, I was trying to explain that the*** value judgment*** (represented by the word “fault”) on one’s own (thoughts/beliefs/focus/fears/mental and emotional energy) was not built into the law of attraction itself and shouldn’t be seen that way.
I explained that:
And the response was:
You then said:
And now you say:
It looks to me like you’re changing your point, moving away from the issue of any value judgment inherent in the use of the word “fault” and on to the issue of whether assigning any kind of responsibility (via the operation of the law of attraction) will make people feel responsible.
Are you taking issue with “fault” representing a negative value judgment on a person’s responsibility, or something else?
Also, I think Oprah buys into and promotes this stuff so she can convince herself that she somehow manifested her good fortune. It’s a lot easier to feel like you deserve it that way, vs. having to admit that a huge portion of it was luck.
You appear to be asking if, according to the law of attraction, someone’s child contracting cancer and dying is a direct result of that person expecting their child to get cancer and die, the answer is likely not, because people don’t generally expect their children to contact cancer and die. But that isnt’ the only way that the law of attraction would operate to lead to that result. The most obvious way it might is through fear, and there are others - if one embraces the law as true, it becomes a matter of searching one’s own thoughts, feelings, speech, focus, fear, emotion to see where connections might lie. Everyone has to answer these questions for themselves and if they can’t do it alone but want to understand more, they should seek a teacher or read some books on the subject. Something a little more in-depth and less one-dimensional than “The Secret”.
Actually I think Oprah feels that Oprah earned it through hard work, talent, etc.
I’m sure she does, and it’s partly true (course, having extraordinary talent is a bit of luck right there). But she’s smart enough to know that something lifted her above everyone else who works hard and has talent. It’s pretty convenient to be able to say that it all happened because you had the right attitude.
So you’re saying that people who fear that something bad might happen make their children get cancer and die? Nice.
The Secret inevitably leads any (minimally rational) person to unnecessarily and incorrectly find fault with themselves.
The Secret accomplishes this while carefully avoiding the use of the term “fault” itself.
“And you know it.”
No, I’m explaining how the law of attraction is supposed to operate.