The Law of Attraction and the New Age version of synchronicity suggests that when a person focuses on the outcome of their desires, the universe magically rearranges reality to the tractor beam of their thoughts. It is taught that their thoughts attract things out there. It offers everything that can be imagined.

It is a ‘something for nothing form of magical thinking. It promotes faith, belief, and hope. It offers delusional control over life, the kind that only children believe. It is an escape hatch from the limits of reality and anesthesia to death anxiety. It disappoints, confuses, and deludes its followers into blindly attaching to its promises. People must lie to themselves to swallow its claims. These gullible humans become evangelical minions, preaching the empty gospel of unlimited prosperity to fill the bottomless pit it offers.

The followers of the Secret and the Law of Attraction do not manifest anything by their thoughts alone. They connect dots based on delusional teachings. Their teachers manipulate and exploit human needs to satisfy their primal cravings in the name of love and light. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing profiting from an industry that sells false hope. Make no mistake, the New Age market is a cash cow for manipulators.

New Age synchronicity is the glue that holds the delusion together. Rather than using Carl Jung’s interpretation (the man who invented the idea), coincidence is turned into a fantasy. Carl Jung believed that synchronicity was a subjective relationship to the objective world. In other words, dreams and archetypes reflect the physical world, thus giving meaning to the person’s experience.

A good example would be the Tarot. Each card represents elements of the life cycle of a human being. Every image reflects the human experience. You name it fear, joy, suffering, happiness, grief, adventure, success, failure. In other words, you can never go wrong when you pull a card. This does not invalidate the experience because it speaks to what one is looking for in one way or another. If you suffer from trauma, you will interpret meaning from any card you pull because that is what you are looking for. The same card can be interpreted in countless ways from numerous points of view.

The difference with the New Age version of synchronicity is the addition of external forces and entities. Autonomous invisible beings and forces guide the seeker to delusional heights feeding their divine narcissism, such as believing one is the return of Quetzalcoatl or the one and only divine teacher of the world.

Another good example can be found in the 1999 movie “The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.” The main actress Milla Jovovich who plays Joan of Arc is in prison and conversing with the devil, played by Dustin Hoffman. In the scene, she is trying to convince herself and the devil that all the synchronistic things that led her to this point were orchestrated by God. She talks about finding her sword in the middle of the field and the wind blowing through her hair at just the right moment. She interprets these things as messages from God. Hoffman elegantly unpacks her belief system by showing her they were random events. A soldier accidentally dropped his sword in a field, and she found it. The wind blew simply because it blew. He ends with, “you saw what you wanted to see.”

Joan of Arc was seeing through her belief system. She interpreted events from a need to be guided by a higher force. She was convinced she was called by God. But the fact of the matter was that she did all these things because of what she believed in and what she valued and cared for. She was motivated by her childhood, possibly the loss of a father, lack of guidance from her mother, or a series of humiliating events that harmed her self-esteem. Growing up, she projected her need onto a heavenly parent who led her to greatness. She unconsciously invented an answer to her problem.

Delusional reality creating is nothing more than an adult-child asking its parents for food, shelter, and toys.

Children who were robbed of their subjective rights, blamed for their innocence, and shamed for their natural creativity, grow up with unmet needs. They gravitate to religion and spirituality because they can have their socially accepted invisible friends, which gives them the feeling of being cared for—and indeed, they are being cared for, but by themselves, not an external mommy, daddy, alien, or spirit. 

Spiritual seekers are less likely to become deluded if they understand that these are inner archetypes rather than external autonomous entities. Healing happens when one works with inner child and mother/father archetypes. The Tarot does guide us if we interpret it properly. Magic does exist if we understand subjective language and its relationship to the natural world.

Just like Christianity and other religions that teach “God is listening to your prayers,” humans flock to the doctrine of “you can have everything” because it feeds their greed, laziness, and inner child needs and, for others, exploits the genuine need for a better life. It is unrealistic because it offers an irrational sense of control when life is unpredictable.

Life is not about grasping vast unreachable dreams to fill a huge void; rather, it is about realizing a self-contained system built into nature and our biology. It is about the reality of creating what you want through action and commitment rather than prayer, which is another form of the Law of Attraction.

This obvious distinction becomes murky when faith and psychological identification are involved. The deeper the conviction that you are a conduit of the divine, the deeper the delusion. When the believing brain is activated, the sky becomes green instead of blue, the natural world becomes an illusion instead of a solid reality, and winning American Idol becomes a certainty despite the fact that one cannot sing.

No matter how much you wish for something, it does not mean it will happen. And if this belief that ‘anything is possible is stubbornly held onto, the believer will eventually become dismayed, disgruntled, and blame themselves for not trying hard enough. The truth is, they were sold a lie in the first place. Let’s give a few examples:

1) A believer in the Law of attraction desires a parking spot. They assume their thoughts will cause the other driver to back out of the intended parking space at just the right time. Sometimes it happens, and most times it does not. But because of confirmation bias, the believer only counts the times it works, thus deluding themselves with confirmation bias.

2) An out-of-town friend suddenly shows up at a believer’s doorstep. And because the believer has been thinking about them lately, they conclude they manifested their friend’s appearance. This “belief” fills them with magical confidence, which stirs their emotions, strengthening their conviction.

3) A career path has been created on a manifestation board. The believer puts time and effort into crafting the perfect life-affirming expensive car, elaborate home, and stardom. The more emotions are invested into the imagined life, the more doors will appear to magically open. Spontaneous opportunities show up at every turn. All these external events are believed to have happened because of the person's thoughts making them happen. When in fact, anyone who focuses on their dream will see opportunities that move them closer to achieving that dream. The difference is they accept that life is unpredictable and will shape their journey. They will learn and not be stuck on an unrealistic image as they go.

4) Consider never having been told that an apple is edible. That this round red thing with a stick coming out of the top is just a plant. Then imagine reading the teachings of the Law of Attraction for the first time. Next, you get lost on a hike and end up in the middle of an apple orchard. You are hungry, yet you have run out of snack bars. So, you ask the universe for something perfectly healthy to arrive magically. Just at that moment, you see a worker in the field chomping on an apple. You walk up to this person and say, wow, I never knew these were edible. At that moment, you look around and are amazed at the abundance the universe has supplied you, and you assign that event to your universal powers of manifestation. The fact of the matter is you were ignorant. Nothing changed in the natural world; what did change was your perception through knowledge.

Now consider a scenario where you get lost, there is no apple orchard, and you run out of food. You have asked the universe to supply food, but nothing shows up; things deteriorate, and you are stranded for days with no food or water. Finally, some passersby happen upon your location and guide you back to the highway. In this case, your story could change to the universe saving you, and the part where it did not feed you can be re-scripted into a story about learning a lesson of patience. In both scenarios, the person must adjust the story to meet the belief that their thoughts magically cause the universe to respond. But this is a delusion; the truth is, when you change your perception, you change your experience.

5) And finally, if I decide to buy a yellow Toyota truck, I will see these vehicles almost everywhere I go. This does not mean the universe increased the number of these vehicles on the road (fantasy thinking); rather, the person saw what they wanted.

The belief that thoughts leave your head and travel through space and time is simply not true. Science can clearly prove this.

From the article ‘The Secret Law of Attraction Doesn’t Work: Here’s Proof:

According to real physicist Andrew Zimmerman Jones, the idea that quantum physics dictates that thoughts can control the “material world” is simply not true, and scientists who have training in quantum physics do not believe it is true based upon their expertise. Byrne’s ideas, extracted from Wattles’ earlier book, are just fabricated nonsense. Consciousness does not affect reality.

The people who believe in Byrne’s ideas are buying advice from someone who has no knowledge of quantum physics and then applying it to their lives, often with disappointing results. Besides physicists scoffing at Byrne’s ideas, those in the field of neuroscience also say the Law of Attraction does not exist.

According to neuroscientist Russell Poldrack, energy fields that are emitted from our brains are much too small to directly impact anything material or cause items, money, situations or other material things to manifest magically:

..these fields are minuscule…Plus, remember the inverse square law: the intensity of an energy wave radiating from a source is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from that source…The brain’s magnetic field of 10–15 teslas quickly dissipates from the skull and is promptly swamped by other magnetic sources, not to mention the earth’s magnetic field of 10–5 teslas, which overpowers it by 10 orders of magnitude!

So, it is clear that when actual scientists get involved in the discussion, Byrne’s ideas carry no weight at all; but it’s not just scientists who state that The Secret Law of Attraction doesn’t work; studies have shown that positive thinking can actually be detrimental to achieving goals. A study out of Germany proved that people who concentrated on positive thoughts about getting a job not only failed to manifest that job but ended up making lower salaries than those who did not purposely think positively. Fantasizing led to less action and thus, fewer positive outcomes overall.

The natural world grows lifeforms over a long period of time. It is an organic process. But thought, on the other hand, is the one thing that deludes human beings because it offers an “instant” image of a desire, wants, or need. This is an adult-child belief system. Children believe magical things can happen that are impossible because they have not lived enough life to figure out its limits.

If nature creates through a slow organic (quite beautiful) process, what makes a New Ager think they can magically circumvent the natural world? What makes them think they can obtain their desires without physical effort? They have been fed a doctrine that caters to their adult-child desires, and the Law of Attraction drug pushers know this.

No one is saying that creating your reality is wrong. Quite the opposite. What is being said here is you can create your reality rationally, in a really effective way, without dead-end delusions.

Your thoughts do not change the external world without physical actions, but they position you differently, availing you of opportunities you are focusing on. Exploring this phenomenon can be quite adventurous, serendipitous, and synchronistic. Where there were no doors, doors, appear simply because the focus had changed. Life reveals what you are Focusing on, and being conscious of this is the realm humans have called magic.

All spiritual/subjective experiences are valid but can become delusional if the person does not understand the subjective language. They will become deluded if they do not understand the difference between the natural world and their inner world. The key here is to understand that what is going on within gets mirrored in the outer world. If you are going through a crisis, the world will look bleak. If you are experiencing bliss, the world will look magical. If you are focused on something, you will see it in your environment—it all comes from within.

If you are conscious of this, you can experience a sense of alignment and magic. I do believe that when a person tunes their life into the flow of things, their experience becomes more conducive to their happiness. They eat healthier, spend more time in nature, listen to beautiful music and find employment that satisfies their desires.

Natural magic (the realm of the inner world & its relationship with the outer world) is an emotionally fueled process based on archetypes and dream imagery rooted in childhood. It is what the body does in real-time such as "thoughting" (my term for thinking as a process). As a life force, you are a current, much like a river, which produces a constant fluid experience from head to toe every moment. It flows with every heartbeat and breath, constantly moving toward what it needs and desires.

Our biology produces desires for the "very next thing," such as food, bathroom, exercise, nature, relationships, sex, water, art, travel, and so on. It is also emotionally healing, just like it does with a cut on the finger. It is moving, through emotions and thoughts, personal mysteries (unconscious stuff), into awareness to feel whole and in tune.

When we relax into our natural feelings, including all the negative uncomfortable energy that arises and learn to trust our natural selves, then, over time, our biological needs and desires have a better chance of being fulfilled. What we think we need and want (based on unrealistic promises that fuel chronic lust and greed) is not always what brings us contentment and serenity.

Authenticity is natural and produces its own happiness born from our human (realistic) needs, wants, and desires. Religion has always used faith and hopes to exploit our natural instincts, and the Law of Attraction is another scam in the line of religious tyranny.

You cannot stop creating as long as your heart beats, for you are a natural creator and artist. The heart beats, the lungs breathe, thoughts appear, and feelings arise; you are a current, a verb, a Livingness.

Live your life with all of your heart so that when you are old, you will embrace death-like sleep after a full day of work and play. Do not worry about the afterlife, be concerned with your ‘only life’ or you will miss the moment's beauty. None of us know what will happen after we die, but one thing is for sure, we are one with the universe by default, and we never had a choice in the first place. I invite you to trust life and let it unfold naturally. Do what you love by taking real action with a focused mind and an open heart. Educate yourself with grounded information and stay away from delusional teachings that are nothing more than an empty well.

— Zzenn