Saturday, May 1, 2010

Science Against Law of Attraction

That’s right, straight from the mouth of one of the most revered names in science to your eyes. Contrary to what your teachers told you in grade school it is not necessary for an experiment to reproduce itself in order to be considered both valid and significant. This is an important lesson to remember throughout life; however, with respect to the process of a theory becoming established as a law it is important that any experiment conducted with that theory as its fundamental backbone be reproducible under most circumstances.

The experimental trials of the law of attraction which have been performed with the use of test subjects have left a great deal of grey in the decision as to whether or not the law is actually a law at all. Since researchers are dealing with the human psyche rather than a physical object which can be manipulated and controlled it is all but impossible to establish proper testing conditions which will guarantee a high level of accuracy and completely unbiased results.

In order for a trial of the law of attraction to be considered conclusive it is necessary that the test subject follow the guidelines meticulously. This means that they must remove all of the negative energy from the subconscious portion of their psyche. This is a condition that is considered to be “mission critical” in an experiment yet is impossible for researchers to control.

A test subject cannot be forced through any artificial means to remove negative thoughts from their subconscious; they may not even know that these negative thoughts are there (after all, there is a reason that it is called the subconscious). Since the key element to finding success with the law of attraction is to allow positive energy to dominate your thought processes any negative energy remaining, even deeply buried away from the conscious mind, will have an adverse reaction on the results of the experiment.

In addition, since researchers are dealing with the human psyche there is another factor which has never been officially proven through scientific means but which is accepted as fact all around the world: the power of the human mind. You may be looking at this in confusion, asking yourself why the power of the human mind would be a problem when it is the power of the human mind which you are attempting to harness in order to find success with the law of attraction.

The reasons are simple. There are three main factors which stand in the way of a person achieving their goals. One of these is the body, the other is the environment. Each of these plays a small role in a person’s ability to carry out a task which they have chosen for themselves; however, they are not the key factor responsible for the success or failure of a person’s appointed mission. The human mind is the primary obstacle standing in the way of a person and their dreams. If they do not believe that they will be able to overcome the other environmental and social obstacles standing in the way of achieving their goal then they will not be able to. On the other hand, if they believe that they will be able to triumph over these adversities they are almost guaranteed success. This is not always due to some form of cosmic influence, however.

Let us look at this dilemma through the eyes of a young adult who is straight out of college and attempting to start his career. If he has a great deal of doubt in his ability to succeed in his chosen field and land a job he will be happy for his mind will recognize that negativity and make it fact. He will not be as aggressive as he needs to be in hunting down jobs, and when he does find a job he will almost inevitably crash and burn in the very first interview because he will be so sure of his failure that he will not be able to put his best foot forward. On the other side of the coin, if he is confident that he will be able to succeed he will portray that confidence in everything that he does, allowing him to get through his interview with flying colors and land the job of his dreams. There was no cosmic influence here, merely a readjustment in attitude that led to a readjustment in presentation. It is impossible to look at the results of an experiment relating to the law of attraction and be able to say with one hundred percent surety that the positive results of these trials were a result of some form of cosmic influence rather than sheer human determination.

Experimental results are not the only issues causing contention among the scientific community. A large portion of the theory has fallen under fire as well. The simple truth of the matter is that from a scientific standpoint the cold, hard evidence supporting the physical existence of the law of attraction in nature is weak indeed. Unlike many other experiments dealing with non-metaphysical properties of science it is virtually impossible for scientists to actually examine the individual components which make the law of attraction.

Vibrations being emitted from the body with respect to moods and emotions are still largely a conceptual idea, and while scientists may be able to pinpoint the precise energy signatures being emitted by the body the technology to recognize whether it is good or bad, stemming solely from the body’s physical self or having some foundation in the body’s emotional channels simply does not exist.

In addition to these difficulties scientists do not yet have a means with which to identify the specific energy waves which comprise an event. For every change dealt to the status quo in nature there is both a waterfall of precursor events which must occur in order for events to proceed as needed for a specific outcome and a “ripple effect” of changes which will occur as a result of this change. It is impossible to determine whether or not there is, in fact, an energy based reason for each of these events, and how the various forms of energy which must collaborate to bring circumstances to these ends work together is still a mystery.

Are you confused yet? Probably, which is precisely the point upon which a great deal of the controversy surrounding this law is founded. The theory simply does not make sense in any manner that can be specifically addressed by a scientific team and proven using scientific methods. Where does that leave the scientific community? Still turning its wheels looking for answers.

More Science Against Law of Attraction

In his book Six Easy Pieces Feynman states:

“…nature, as we understand it today, behaves in such a way that it is fundamentally impossible to make a precise prediction of exactly what will happen in a given experiment. This is a horrible thing; in fact, philosophers have said before that one of the fundamental requisites of science is that whenever you set up the same conditions the same thing must happen. This is simply not true, it is not a fundamental condition of science…We stated…the sole test of the validity of any idea is experiment. If it turns out that most experiments work out the same in Quito as they do in Stockholm, the those “most experiments” will be used to formulate some general law…We will invent some way o summarize the results of the experiment, and we do not have to be told ahead of time what this way will look like. If we are told that the same experiments will always produce the same result, that is all very well, but if when we try it, it does not, then it does not.”