# Is the Law of Attraction true? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 1, 2013, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146 "2013-10-01T23:49:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/21 "2013-10-02T11:18:18Z")
In one word, no. There is no evidence that by merely thinking of the result you want that the universe is going to bend and bring that result to you. That being said, there is a psychological factor where, if you concentrate on the result you want you’re more apt to do the things yourself that will being about that result. But that’s just psychology in action; there’s no magic involved and there’s no scientific “law of attraction.” ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/22 "2013-10-02T11:36:31Z")
> [@Gateway](#): > > Why I ask: The law of attraction is very important to know exists if you are to accomplish anything: If it exists and you don’t follow the rules then you will likely not get what you want. I don’t necessarily dismiss things outright even if they sound ‘out there’. > > Someone did tests on water writing words on water containers and looked at the results. Water which got wholesome words when you looked at them under a microscope had formed snowflake like crystals, those with unwholesome words turned into negative shapes. There was a study done in Washington DC to see if a very large group of meditators could regularly get togeather for meditation sessions and lower crime. DC was considered the murder capital of the world or something like that according to the place I saw this. Crime was lowered something like 20 percent. There are MANY who believe in the LOA and swear by it, which to me is an important factor. Also quantum theory seems to support the ideas somewhat. > > So as for what I think about it, some of the mechanisms are legit, but as far as the whole thing goes, I can’t say I know for certain if it works like some people think (our mind LITERALLY IN ITSELF sends out some magnetic signal to the thing you are trying to attract.) I say legit because without going into a lot of detail, things like thinking about what you want can bring more desire –\> motivation –\>attainment. Psychological? Seems to be so. Metaphysical? Yet to know. > > So I’m looking for scientific answers (that I can comprehend) about why you think or don’t think it’s some sort of real magnetic phenomenon or not. If you sit on your ass and wish for things, the Universe is under no compulsion at all to provide them to you. If you define your goals and\*\* take actions \*\*to fulfill them, you will achive many of the things you seek. This is not a “Law of Attraction.” This is a “Law of Economics.” Good things come to those who work hard and never give up. It may appear to a lazy person that good things just happen to some “favoured” people but aside from the statistically insignificant outlier or Kardashian, all successful people work hard to achieve their success. (This does not mean that they then do not slide on the ice for the rest of thier lives.) ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/23 "2013-10-02T11:48:33Z")
> [@Gateway](#): > > What are your thoughts, and hopefully your reasoning. It’s complete and utter bullshit. People who believe in it are very gullible, and easy to market to. Of course the marketing people are gonna push this “law” as hard as they can. > [@Trinopus](#): > > I know a couple other intriguing examples. One of the most fun – and trivial to program on a home computer – is the [Serpienski Triangle.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinski_triangle) Page down a little to the part where it says, “Or More Simply:” > > Chaos Theory merges so wonderfully into fractal math! Wonderfully fun stuff! > > (I’m betting you were already familiar with both of these examples!) I looked at the second example and got [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5biIXoKAHo) running through my head. Thanks a lot. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/24 "2013-10-02T12:11:11Z")
People pick up on cues from others. What you put out will influence what you get back and what you expect from a encounter will determine what you put out. One’s life long patters tend to repeat till we change ourselves. It is usually very evident in relationships, where we tend to fall into the same pattern that fails time and time again. Larger then that, on a universal scale well perhaps it would require beings such as angels who watch over us and help us, they may also respond to what we put out. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/25 "2013-10-02T12:13:22Z")
> [@Gateway](#): > > Why I ask: The law of attraction is very important to know exists if you are to accomplish anything: If it exists and you don’t follow the rules then you will likely not get what you want. This is wrong and I can prove it. 1. Everyone who enters a lottery dreams of winning it. The vast majority lose money. 2. I have never used the ‘law of attraction’. I retired aged 55, owning my own house. I have a great group of friends and decent health. 🆒 **Of course I achieved these things by my own efforts, not by some woo nonsense.** At my first job interview (immediately after my leaving University , the company interviewers asked if I had any questions. “Yes” I replied “What is the company pension plan like?” It was a superb plan (e.g. index-linked rising payments; lump sum included) and now I live off it comfortably. 🙂 Similarly with my other achievements (save for a deposit; be pleasant to people; exercise and eat right etc.) > [@Gateway](#): > > I don’t necessarily dismiss things outright even if they sound ‘out there’. I simply want evidence to believe in stuff. I believe in gravity. I believe there are likely to be aliens somewhere in the universe (just not that they have visited us.) If you don’t look at the evidence, you’ll waste a lot of your time and money. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/26 "2013-10-02T15:52:04Z")
Despite many, many years of thinking about them far too often, such ladies as Olivia Newton-John, Geena Davis, or (more recently) Kristin Chenoweth, Stana Katic, and Kari Byron have never been drawn to my presence. Hence, the Law of Attraction is bogus. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/27 "2013-10-02T16:23:09Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Math nitpick… is that $500K a year? Was it a $1 million win? Or did you mean approx $50K a month? Typo. It was $500K per year. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/28 "2013-10-02T17:17:25Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Typo. It was $500K per year. See what the Law of Attraction gets you!? ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/29 "2013-10-02T17:54:24Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Despite many, many years of thinking about them far too often, such ladies as Olivia Newton-John, Geena Davis, or (more recently) Kristin Chenoweth, Stana Katic, and Kari Byron have never been drawn to my presence. Hence, the Law of Attraction is bogus. 🙂 I was absolutely horsecrazy when I was a girl. I lived and breathed and dreamed horses. I read horse books, made elaborate plans about what sort of horses I wanted, I had model horses, and I made tack for those model horses out of kraft paper (which I carefully crumpled and smoothed out so it resembled leather) and brass wire (I made buckles that were less than a quarter inch long). If the law of attraction worked, I would have been surrounded by horses. I didn’t need the law of attraction. I needed money to get horses. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/30 "2013-10-02T18:03:29Z")
Well, an awful lot of copies of The Secret were sold. You’d think the # of billionaires would have increased exponentially since then. Or, further proof it’s bullshit: if positives attract, and like attracts like, what happens when you try to touch the positive poles of two magnets together? If it sounds too easy, it is. ---
**Author:** ![Gateway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@Gateway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gateway)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/31 "2013-10-02T19:41:23Z")
I forgot to mention in my previous post, the meditation thing I haven’t checked into yet. The water crystal experiment I don’t know if another has tried to test water like that yet. So while it isn’t necessarily certain for me yet, it does make me wonder. ---
**Author:** ![Gateway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@Gateway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gateway)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/32 "2013-10-02T19:51:19Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > What the hell is a “negative shape” for a water crystal? [http://www.lifencanvas.com/2012/09/the-water-crystals-experiment.html](http://www.lifencanvas.com/2012/09/the-water-crystals-experiment.html) While I found them negative, at very least what you can say is that positive worded water turned into crystals ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/33 "2013-10-02T19:54:55Z")
> [@Gateway](#): > > [http://www.lifencanvas.com/2012/09/the-water-crystals-experiment.html](http://www.lifencanvas.com/2012/09/the-water-crystals-experiment.html) > > While I found them negative, at very least what you can say is that positive worded water turned into crystals What would you accept as evidence that it doesn’t work? ---
**Author:** ![Gateway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@Gateway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gateway)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/34 "2013-10-02T19:58:55Z")
> [@glee](#): > > This is wrong and I can prove it. > > 1. Everyone who enters a lottery dreams of winning it. The vast majority lose money. > > 2. I have never used the ‘law of attraction’. > I retired aged 55, owning my own house. I have a great group of friends and decent health. 🆒 > > **Of course I achieved these things by my own efforts, not by some woo nonsense.** > > At my first job interview (immediately after my leaving University , the company interviewers asked if I had any questions. “Yes” I replied “What is the company pension plan like?” > It was a superb plan (e.g. index-linked rising payments; lump sum included) and now I live off it comfortably. 🙂 > > Similarly with my other achievements (save for a deposit; be pleasant to people; exercise and eat right etc.) > > I simply want evidence to believe in stuff. > I believe in gravity. > I believe there are likely to be aliens somewhere in the universe (just not that they have visited us.) > > If you don’t look at the evidence, you’ll waste a lot of your time and money. :smack: I appreciate this answer,it coming from one who says he achieved what he wanted. My question though is are you sure you didn’t use the LOA to get it? The LOA frormula is ask, believe, receive. Also focusing on what you want, coming from the place of already having it (like having the same feeling). Are you sure you didn’t do this at all? Even praying to God or “if someone is out there” once about what you were trying to acquire? Are you sure you weren’t coming from the place of already feeling like it was yours? ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/35 "2013-10-02T19:58:56Z")
> [@want2befree](#): > > _ **thinking about hot Asian guy in the about 35-45 year age range** _ Viola! Here I am - not hot, not Asian, married and 50. Maybe your thinker is broke. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/36 "2013-10-02T20:05:04Z")
But at least you’re musical. ---
**Author:** ![Gateway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@Gateway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gateway)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/37 "2013-10-02T20:08:24Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > What would you accept as evidence that it doesn’t work? I’m not sure, that which is a clear counterexample WOULD do it, but that person might not know if he is really using it or not. Like, maybe someone put in a lot of effort, but maybe they were of the frequency of doing hard labor for success and its not a real example of it not existing. Or the person is lying, OR don’t realise they were on some level using the law and not knowing. With that said I don’t know what would show me it is real or not. And maybe a counterexample wouldn’t do it if it’s not a law but you can use it in a lot of cases and it would work, but not always required ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/38 "2013-10-02T20:24:02Z")
> [@Gateway](#): > > [http://www.lifencanvas.com/2012/09/the-water-crystals-experiment.html](http://www.lifencanvas.com/2012/09/the-water-crystals-experiment.html) > > While I found them negative, at very least what you can say is that positive worded water turned into crystals Um, no. At the very least I could say that Mr. Emoto takes nice pictures of ice crystals from bottles that he says had sayings taped to them. At this point I know nothing about how many pictures he takes to get nice ones. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/39 "2013-10-02T20:29:10Z")
> [@Gateway](#): > > I’m not sure, that which is a clear counterexample WOULD do it, but that person might not know if he is really using it or not. Like, maybe someone put in a lot of effort, but maybe they were of the frequency of doing hard labor for success and its not a real example of it not existing. Or the person is lying, OR don’t realise they were on some level using the law and not knowing. With that said I don’t know what would show me it is real or not. > > And maybe a counterexample wouldn’t do it if it’s not a law but you can use it in a lot of cases and it would work, but not always required So, nothing really? Why ask questions like this if you can reason away any response that don’t fit your thinking? What do you want from this thread? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146/40 "2013-10-02T20:44:19Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I was absolutely horsecrazy when I was a girl. I lived and breathed and dreamed horses. I read horse books, made elaborate plans about what sort of horses I wanted, I had model horses, and I made tack for those model horses out of kraft paper (which I carefully crumpled and smoothed out so it resembled leather) and brass wire (I made buckles that were less than a quarter inch long). If the law of attraction worked, I would have been surrounded by horses. > > I didn’t need the law of attraction. I needed money to get horses. You went about it the wrong way. You should have found some evil your parents did you (like make you move to California) and demand misery compensation. Worked for my daughter. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-law-of-attraction-true/670146.md?page=3)