Like many here I'm sure, I have been reading and studying the occult, religions and various traditions as far back as I can remember. I have come to realize that at the basis of all of these is the use of the law of attraction. Most of these don't call the forces "LoA" though.

Take traditional ritual magick methods as offered by The Golden Dawn for example. They have built vast and complex instructions to teach about the make up of man, spirit, the universe etc. They offer practical rituals which must be practiced and practiced in order to achieve certain changes in oneself. Meditation practice. Visualization. The key thing though is that all of this is to generate powerful emotions which the Magician then focuses towards a specific goal. This could be conversation with "God" or one's "Higher Self" or "Holy Guardian Angel" or whatever label you choose. Or perhaps it can be to secure a better job or wealth or whatever. There is no shortage of specific purposes of rituals as found in ancient manuscripts. (many of these manuscripts can be found at SacredTexts.com)

Witchcraft and various Tribal practices are similar. Chanting, drumming, dancing, offerings etc. creates a focus of energies towards a specific goal. A key element in Wicca is feeling good as well (love, balance, peace etc.) which is also a key element in successful LoA usage.

Religions of every tradition offer Prayer and belief as the method of causing change. This is even a more direct route than ritual magick in that one is simply asking "God" to answer a specific desire. I believe that the problems with modern Prayer is that it has simply become rote and without feeling. People mouth the Prayer at church on Sunday while thinking about the upcoming work week etc. I know that there are many devout people who may be truly sincere in their Prayer, but there seems to be a missing element to it. It seems to me (and I am not a Christian) that there is a lack of allowing... of acceptance or perhaps even plain belief that one is "worthy" of recieving what they want from "God". To my knowledge a major tenent of Christianity is a base belief that all are in a negative situation called "sin"... which can only work against Prayer? I could be wrong though. Affirmative Prayer seems a much more logically effective form of communication with the Divine Consciousness than the disheartenment approach of begging and acceptance of suffering.

On the oppposite side of the Judaistic beliefs, is modern Satanism. Some may shun the idea of that belief system, but it offers a very... "Humanistic" view and a selfish stance on life. It is also practiced by thousands of people and is no longer a "fringe" religion. Their belief is a sobering one. Their methods may even be more practical than many others... in that they use whatever they want to achieve a heightened emotional state (visualization, ritual, sex, imagery, sound, drugs etc.) to focus their desires through. Choas Magicians take a similar approach.

The point being in all of this is that throughout our history we have known various methods to utilize what we are calling today the Law of Attraction. Some methods may have been or are more successful than others. They all require asking, acceptance, belief, visualization, heightened emotions, focus and will.


What do you think?

'As above so below', but there again the Golden Dawn and all the rest lived in the 1920s - different world. I've been trying for years to put science and magic together and String Theory might be on the path.

agree

I think it's a matter of syntony and focus of thoughs, affecting your individual unconcious. I think that may have a link of the individual unconcious with the collective unconcious(that have some influence in reality). But that's a theory. I don't know if some author have developed this idea or something similar. As it's based in some reading about Jung, I imagine he may have written something about.

Hi Goldstein, yep try searching 'The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious' (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.9 Part 1) its all there