“Be Good, Do Good and Feel Good.”
Have you heard of “The Secret”? It swept the world a few years ago. Over 4 million books have been sold and the 2006 movie has had countless screenings. The Secret defines the “Law of Attraction” as a way of bringing things into your life. It is a form of ‘manifesting’ or ‘creative visualisation’. The Secret suggests that if you think positively, you will call good things into your life. It suggests that if you think negatively, you will call negative things into your life. Say you have negative thoughts about money (like that you don’t have enough), the Secret says you will continue to call a lack of money into your life.
Does this match reality? If you think good thoughts, are you protected from bad things? Can you be happy, healthy and live to a ripe old age by thinking positively? What if you think positive thoughts, but act like a jerk?
If we look to science for some clarity about this, we immediately have a misunderstanding. Until Newton described gravity, the “Law of Attraction” was a term for why water flows to the sea and apples fall from the tree. The Law of Attraction was folk wisdom for gravity. The Secret suggests that all the great thinkers knew about the “Law of Attraction”, but the term had a different meaning until very recently.
So what can science say about the Secret’s “Law of Attraction”? Laws are things that are universally true, like gravity. They apply in all places at all times. So if the Secret’s Law of Attraction is true, it is true always and everywhere. That would mean that people who are the victims of crimes or natural disasters have somehow drawn these tragedies into their lives. It’s hard to believe that the 229,866 people who died in the Boxing Day Tsunami invited it into their lives. In fact, this seems a dangerous way to think, especially if it leads to blaming the victim.
Maybe it’s not a universal law, but more of a guideline. How true is it that we draw negative or positive things into our lives by our thoughts? If you accept that our lives are filled with our actions and our actions flow from our thoughts, then it would make sense that thinking negatively, doesn’t help us to act positively. According to research from (I’m not making this up) the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, thinking positively, but acting negatively doesn’t lead to happiness, but generous behaviour is linked to happiness, health and longevity.
So, the science behind the Secret says that if we want good things in our lives, thinking positively is the first step and acting positively is the second step. Putting it simply “Be Good, Do Good and Feel Good.” And if we’re all doing good things for each other, we’re all going to have more positive things in our lives.
For more information about the Secret, the science and good things to do locally, visit our website.
