The Law of Attraction: The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham [ペーパーバック]

Esther and Jerry Hicks have been putting out the channeled Abraham material for about twenty years, but it has recently enjoyed a surge in popularity. I only discovered it about a year ago and have read their last three books. This latest one, The Law of Attraction, is probably the most succinct and direct summary of the philosophy, which is actually quite simple, though not always easy to put into practice. I would recommend this book to anyone familiar with self help and/or channeled type material, as well as anyone new to this kind of thing. If you are already something of a self help or new age junkie, you will find Abraham amazingly clear and no frills. I mean this in a good way, for when studying a system of self improvement, you don't need a lot of theory and superfluous philosophy, ritual, chatter and so forth. Some of these can be fascinating, but if you are mainly interested in improving your life, what's crucial are the fundamentals. For the same reason, this book is an excellent introduction to the whole concept of the law of attraction. In the forward, author Neale Donald Walsch says, "This is it...put all the other books down." A strong statement, but it illustrates the power and importance of Abraham's message.

Abraham is described as a collection of evolved non-physical entities. They are channeled by Esther Hicks, who also gives many public workshops. Essentially, the message of this book is that your thoughts and feelings determine your reality. Esther acknowledges that she first encountered the phrase, "You create your own reality" in Jane Roberts' Seth books. The Seth material, however, while also channeled and carrying a similar message, is far more complex and technical. I find the Seth books interesting and may reread them some day, but if you are primarily interested in putting these ideas into practice, as opposed to studying them, I would recommend Abraham. The advice Abraham gives again and again is that it's important to feel good, because how we feel attracts more of what we have, whether good or bad. A simple message, and one that has been stated many times before, but unless you have truly mastered it (or dismissed it as impossible, in which case this book obviously won't be of interest -Abraham makes no effort to prove the "validity" of the ideas to skeptics) this book is one you should definitely read.

After seeing the movie, "The Secret", I wanted to know more about the Law of Attraction. Researching the Internet led me to the Abraham-Hicks website so this was the first book I decided to read.

First, I will say that the idea of Abraham being channeled would have ordinarily turned me off from reading the book at all. Fortunately, I bought the book *before* realizing that the non-physical entities known as "Abraham" was the teacher of this knowledge so I went ahead and started to read it anyway. I was going to skip the Foreward (written by Neal David Walsch) because I was eager to get to the basic teachings but even the Foreward "spoke" to me. I didn't skip anything after that.

This book has so much wisdom that after I got started I really didn't care whether Abraham was "real" or not. It's written in the format of Jerry asking his wife Esther, who channels Abraham, questions about the LOA and life in general. I began to wonder if Esther *wasn't* channeling Abraham, how did she know all of this herself? I kept post-it note flags with me while I read this so I could go back and pull out all of the things that were most impactful to me. After I finished the book, it had so many yellow flags sticking out of it, I didn't know when I would have the time to do it! Instead, I just purchased "Ask and It is Given", another book by the Hicks', hoping the more I read the concepts, the more they will stick in my brain and I will begin to live them.

The only reason this book did not get 5 stars from me is that it is somewhat repetitious in the questions asked. This is not a book to be read in one sitting, but slowly injested over many readings. I noticed the repetition more on the occasions when I read more. Read this book. It will change your life - or, rather, you will change your life.

"The best scenario is to desire something and to bring yourself into the belief or expectation of achieving it...If you have a strong desire for something but you doubt your ability to achieve it, it cannot come, at least not right now, for you must bring your thought of desire and your thought of belief into alignment." - From the book

For several decades, a group of advanced spiritual teachers known as Abraham has channeled messages through Esther Hicks. What began as a series of audios has now been compiled in book and deck form, with Esther and her husband, Jerry, disseminating three major laws advocated by Abraham: The Law of Attraction, the Law of Deliberate Intent, and the Law of Allowing.

In The Law of Attraction: The Basic Teachings of Abraham, the Hicks' convey the fundamentals of the "Creative Workshop" which is the place that we enter, every day, as we ponder what we want--and don't want--out of life. They assert that individuals are always creating and attracting, regardless of ignorance of the three Universal Laws. We create by default, they say, just by thinking and speaking along certain lines--believing in the likelihood of a result and gathering confirming data from our environment. Here's an example of this creation from the book:

"The steady offering of details of illness is very influential in the increasing sickness in your society. If you allow yourself to focus upon the constant barrage of unpleasant statistics regarding the never-ending stream of possible physical maladies, it cannot help but affect your personal point of attraction."

Here are a few more snippets of Abraham's wisdom as conveyed in The Law of Attraction, as channeled by Esther:

"Your negative emotion is your indication that you hold beliefs that are contrary to your own desire."

"The more you think of what you want, the more the Law of Attraction will bring the evidence of it to you, until you *will* believe it."

"If there are others who see something in you that they do not approve of, most often you see their disapproval reflected back through their eyes, and you feel that you have gone wrong in some way. And we say unto you, it is not *your* lack, it is *theirs*. It is *their* inability to be the *Allower* that brings forth their negative emotion; it is not *your* imperfection."

"When you consider many subjects at the same time, you generally do not move forward strongly toward any of them, for your focus and your power is diffused, whereas if you are focusing upon that which is most important in any point of time, you move forward more powerfully toward that."

Now, let me share a bit of my impressions and experience. As a teaching, I was first introduced to the Law of Attraction by Michael Losier. In my opinion, his book of the same name is far superior to this title by the Hicks'. I had experience with manifesting what I desired before I read Michael's book, so I was familiar with the law of attraction. However, I have some misgivings about a portion of it, and here
is my reasoning:

Most times I read something on the Law of Attraction, I feel sick to my stomach. I was totally turned off by Lynn Grabhorn's Excuse Me! Your Life is Waiting, but found Michael Losier's book Law of Attraction pretty darn sensible.

Yet, I can't help but feel the Law of Attraction is a bit simplistic--offering only a portion of the big picture. I'm especially troubled that the Law of Attraction seems to fly in the face of the wisdom of avatars like Jesus. For example, the Bible encourages compassion with passages like "weep with those who weep". Yet, books like the Hicks' pretty much advocate turning away from anything unpleasant and instead focusing on "feeling good". After all, those poor souls are only attracting what matches their vibration--so let them suffer with their miserable magnetism.

I agree with Abraham that being joyful is the best gift we can offer to the world, but I can't see how burying heads in the sand will add good vibes to the planet. Yes, what you focus on increases--I agree with that, too. But to run away from those who are hurting and suffering merely because we don't want to taint our precious vibration field... It smacks of "fiddling while Rome burns".

While I appreciate the wisdom of the Law of Deliberate Intent, the Law of Allowing and even much of the Law of Attraction-- I can't help but feel something is missing from this picture. (Perhaps...heart?) I'm very big on "over thinking" to my detriment. And even Abraham advises that it's best to "follow good feelings" rather than monitor our thoughts 24/7. But for one such as I who is a "mental type", it's not so easy to turn off the constant evaluation of thoughts when buying into the Law of Attraction. It can create a cycle of fear, in my opinion.

To be fair Abraham *does* address this very thing in The Law of Attraction:

"...some of you feel uncomfortable with what seems like the overwhelming task of monitoring thoughts, sorting them out, and offering only those that will yield things that you *do* want. We do not encourage a monitoring of thoughts, for we agree that would be incredibly time-consuming and cumbersome, but instead recommend a conscious utilization of your Emotional Guidance System."

I totally concur with this idea, but the rub is that in order to be aware of how we create by default, we need to educate ourselves, in part, as to how our thought patterns, expectations, and emotional state contributes to manifestation. And that involves a degree of thinking/monitoring--at least in the beginning stages--which can be a bit frustrating.

I love the information on Segment Intending and the Art of Allowing, and know them to be very helpful in deliberate creation. I just feel that the way in which Abraham's wisdom is offered is a bit "top heavy". If you're just beginning your journey towards Deliberate (conscious) Creation, I recommend that you get Michael Losier's book, as well as two decks from the Hicks' (also published by Hay House): the Ask and It Is Given Cards and The Teachings of Abraham: Well-Being Cards.

However, if you want thorough information straight from Abraham's mouth, then you'll no doubt want to get this book. The Law of Attraction is quite readable, but the way some of the wisdom is presented may give you a bit of a headache--especially as you juggle some of the ideas on attracting undesired situations.