Law of Attraction and Mormonism (repost from Celestial)

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_nebosite
_Emeritus
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Law of Attraction and Mormonism (repost from Celestial)

Post by _nebosite »

Hold on before you swipe left!

I know about The Power of Positive Thinking and The Secret and I agree with the snake oil sentiments of those works. The idea that we can get what we want just by thinking about it hard enough is hype. When I say “Law of Attraction”, I’m not talking about the hype, I’m talking about the Zen-type idea of aligning ourselves to the practices of abundance, appreciation and allowance, the same idea reflected in D&C 121:46 "thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever".

I’m a skeptical but believing Mormon who has found a productive spiritual path in noticing the parallels between Mormon doctrine and ideas associated with the Law of Attraction. I was so struck by the parallels that I expected to find lots of writing about it on the internet, but there isn’t much. To help fill this void, I started my own blog: The Law of Attraction and the Book of Mormon

The reason for this post in not for a reflexive bash of Law of Attraction, but rather for some thoughtful discourse about what Law of Attraction means when it is not hyped and we think about it from a spiritual perspective. My background is in science and engineering, and notice the general failure of logic and science to describe fundamentals of existence such as consciousness or even existence itself, therefore I think it makes sense to bet that we can sense a productive path for ourselves through our feelings and impressions.

In a real, but subtle way, I do believe our desires and thoughts shape reality. A Book of Mormon example of that is found in Alma 29:5: "... to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience." My purpose in pointing this out is not to prove something about the Book of Mormon. Who wrote the book or whether Nephi was a real person is not really the point for me. As a spiritual seeker, I notice what brings feelings of peace and direction. I notice this feeling in Mormon doctrine and I notice the same flavor in Law of Attraction.

So, I'm looking for comments from other spiritual seekers like myself who look beyond pre-packaged belief and who have also seen something interesting in the ideas of the Law of Attraction.

Anyone out there?
_Amore
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Re: Law of Attraction and Mormonism (repost from Celestial)

Post by _Amore »

Psychology has been my passion since I was a teen. I majored in it for part of college but decided on a different career path, though I still love learning about it.

I partly believe in the LOA, because I also acknowledge we are complex human beings living in a dynamic world of others, so the LOA is not a an exclusive cure-all. From the little I’ve gathered, quantum mechanics experiments have shown that just by someone looking at them, subatomic particles change, but of course this is subtle - nevertheless real influence.

A tricky part is figuring out what you really want in the big picture and putting thought, feeling & intent into it while keeping open to something better than your finite mind planned. Also, you can’t BS yourself- if you don’t really believe an affirmation- trying to force it anyway can backfire, making you focus on your skepticism instead. Another challenge is that there’s no one-size-fits all (which is partly why some just ignore the power of belief despite placebo effect). Each of us must carve our own paths regarding what inspires and motivates us - can be fun but lonely - but definitely beats the alternative.

One more thing to keep in mind - to some extent, we do attract what we need to help us be aware. It’s best to be proactive rather than reactive- which involves exploring and managing shadow aspects so you rule them rather than visa versa.
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