More and more proof for the Law of Attraction is being published. Recently I read The Science Behind the Law of Attraction. It’s a thin workbook but packs a wallop in terms of effectiveness.
It’s written by Srini Pillay, M.D., a brain-imaging researcher and Harvard psychiatrist. He’s written two other books, Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons to Overcome Fear, which I am currently devouring, and Your Brain and Business: The Neuroscience of Great Leaders, which I haven’t started yet but am excited to read.
I interviewed Dr. Pillay for my Hypnotic Gold members. (It will go out to members in September). What I admired is how evidence based Dr. Pillay is in his answers. He doesn’t speculate. He tells you exactly what science reveals with current research. This isn’t opinion. It’s fact.
Reveals Evidence LOA Works
When he declares in The Science Behind the Law of Attraction that the Law of Attraction is real, he says so from a point of authority, based on current research. The rest of his book tells you how to use your brain to best align with the Law of Attraction to get more of what you want.
Dr. Pillay draws on his experience as a Harvard psychiatrist and brain-imaging researcher to describe seven scientific laws that explain how the Law of Attraction really works. I found it fascinating.
For example. the mirror neuron system in your brain causes you (and others) to reflect the emotions you feel. As Dr. Pillay writes, “If you feel not loved enough and you put that out, you create a similar emotion in another person. You get back the emotions you put out.” In other words, you attract what you feel through brain activity.
This also helps explain in part why critics of the Law of Attraction tend to band together, while fans of it tend to unite, as well. Each group is attracting like-minded members through the mirror neuron system in their brains.
Again, the Law of Attraction works. We’re just usually oblivious to it.
Dr. Pillay says the future is unknown, so you can fear things won’t work out, or you can have faith that they will. It’s your choice.
It’s a choice that causes your brain to feed you supportive information. Fear the future and you’ll attract info to support the fear. Have faith in a positive future and you’ll attract info to support that choice.
The brain is a type of GPS system that delivers information from reality based on your preferences. It’s just that most of the time your preferences have been unconsciously running from a default setting.
If you haven’t been aware of what your default setting has been, you’re probably coming from the one programmed in you as a child from the sources around you (culture, media, religion, family, etc), and you’re probably coming from fear.
But that can be changed.
Visualization is an important tool to communicate with your brain. But the images need to be specific and emotional. Just “thinking” or just “imagining” isn’t enough. You need to get involved emotionally with the new mental movie of what you want to attract to engage the brain. This also primes you to take action.
As Dr. Pillay writes, “A recent study has shown that first-person imagery or embodied imagery (where you are totally in the situation you imagine) is much more powerful in stimulating the brain’s action center than third-person imagery.”
In other words, get into the mental movie of attracting what you want.
Don’t just see yourself attracting your goal; mentally and emotionally step into the experience of attracting your goal.
It’s the difference between watching yourself (detached) going out on a date or being in the mental reality of going out on the date. The latter is far more powerful in engaging the brain and turning it on to help you attract the actual experience in real life.
Obviously, taking action is still important. That’s probably why the word ‘action’ is in the word ‘attraction.’ But the seven principles in his book help “turn on” the action switches of your brain. As a result, naturally taking action becomes easier.
Again, Dr. Pillay’s book is based on the science of how the brain operates. This is important. The book’s subtitle states, “A Step-by-Step Guide to Putting the Brain Science Behind The Law of Attraction to Work For You.” Knowing his seven principles, and doing his exercises, can help you consciously attract more of what you want.
I endorse the book as well as Dr. Pillay. His books are in book stores, and of course at Amazon. (I don’t make a dime if you buy any of his books.)
What would you like to attract, anyway?
Ao Akua,
PS – If you want to better understand the Law of Attraction, and learn advanced ways to use it in your life, be sure to check out Miracles Coaching.
Note: I wrote about more evidence for The Secret‘s Law of Attraction on this blog last year at http://blog.mrfire.com/scientific-evidence-for-the-secrets-law-of-attraction/
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31 Comments
Dr. Joe,
I’ve been practicing your teaching of “Once you get the lesson, you don’t need the experience.”
I encountered a stumbling block. What if I still can’t get the lesson even though I ask myself what it is?
How do you know the lesson behind the experience? Thanks.
Hi Alfonso. Sometimes you need an objective listener. That’s why I think a coach can be priceless. But when doing it alone, ask yourself something like, “If I had to guess what the lesson is, what might it be?” The guess often leads to the insight.
Thanks Joe
Nice to see science is catching up with what we know! Looking forward to the day when Law of Attraction becomes accepted wisdom.
I’ve located Pillay’s book on ‘your brain and business’ – should be a great read.
Have a wonderful day!
Hi Joe,
It was truly my pleasure to meet you at Unseminar9 and again at Brewsters Pizza.
I was a bit perplexed by something you quoted from the book and hoped to get some clarification.
As Dr. Pillay writes, “If you feel not loved enough and you put that out, you create a similar emotion in another person. You get back the emotions you put out.” In other words, you attract what you feel through brain activity.
I don’t understand how you can create the emotion in another? If that belief is already in them, then yes, it would be mirroring. I get that. But are you saying that you can create an emotion in another that is not there? That doesn’t make sense to me? What am I missing?
Thanks for all your work in raising the vibration of humanity at this time.
Love and Light,
Roxanna Whittington
Hi Roxanna. I like your question but Dr. Pillay should answer it, not me. My understanding is that mirror neurons have nothing to do with beliefs. It’s an unconscious match making brain activity. You might want to read his book. Great to meet you, as well.
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Hi Joe,
This makes total sense to me and I even wrote a post similar to this several months ago. The GPS is like our vibration that we are carrying with us and it will take/ attract to us what we are sending out.
I also wrote about how our body is a sophisticated computer that comes with a basic version or default program in which we can upgrade through personal/spiritual development and other tools that are available.
This book sounds interesting and is way more detailed than my blog post.
Enjoy the book, my friend.
Let me see if I can get this straight. According to Dr. Pillay: “If you feel not loved enough and you put that out, you create a similar emotion in another person. You get back the emotions you put out.” According to you: “In other words, you attract what you feel through brain activity.” So perhaps a person feels that s/he is not loved, in a marriage, say. And what if it is true? What if the partner really doesn’t love him or her? The person feeling unloved caused the partner’s lack of love? What I’m hearing here is: never rely on your own emotions and instincts. Don’t trust your emotions, fake them, and the universe will give you what you want. “Use your brain to best align with the Law of Attraction” (program your emotions) “to get more of what you want.” Because the universe rewards fake feelings over telling the truth, even to yourself, and that is how to get more of what you want (always the goal).
Huh?
I think Kathryn’s points are perfectly clear. But maybe that’s just because we LOA critics “band together” (even as the LOA believers “unite.”) 🙂
BTW, does the research that Dr. Pillay cites substantiate your famous pronouncement in The Secret about how the Universe and LOA work? You know, the mail-order catalog metaphor? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zW1F7Fd71s
Thanks for replugging that video snippet. 🙂 As for Dr. Pillay, I’m amazed that people ask me what his research says when they can easily read his book. Maybe even ask him. Hey, there’s a crazy idea!
Touche. 🙂 I should have made myself more clear. I really wanted to know if YOU think that the research Dr. Pillay cites substantiates your claim in that little vid snippet that the Universe is like a mail-order catalog, that it “really is that easy,” and that “you do it all with your thoughts.” …
IMHO, yes. But you’re free to look through the universe’s catalog and choose “Disbelief” if you like.
Actually, this isn’t about my choice to believe or disbelieve — or rather, that’s not the issue I’m attempting to address here. It is about your claim in the video snippet that “you do it ALL with your thoughts” and “It really IS that easy.”
Yet time and again since The Secret was released (or more accurately, since criticism about what critics view as The Secret’s simplistic magical-thinking message became more mainstream), you have said you’re the “action guy” in The Secret. You have tried to distance yourself from the idea that you do it ALL with your thoughts. You’ve said action is necessary too, a sensible piece of advice IMO. I’ve wondered why, in that case, you haven’t disavowed the vid snippet or at least said that it was taken out of context and that it is a misrepresentation/oversimplification of your overall message.
However, I think you have now answered my question about that. I originally thought you didn’t try to qualify the snippet because it is too effective as a marketing tool to bother with those fine points. But I guess I was wrong. When I asked if you thought Dr. Pillay’s work validated the message in the video snippet, you said yes, so I guess what you are saying is that it really *is* “that easy,” and you CAN “do it all with your thoughts.” Thank you for your honesty…
Wow. You’ve taken agreement to a video snippet as agreement to a larger philosophy. Surely you know better. First, the video snippet you refer to is the only one I am legally allowed to use from the movie The Secret. Second, in the same movie – in the same movie – I can be seen saying that you must take action. You need both. I’ve been saying, writing, teaching and preaching that for years. Thought leads to action. It can also lead to in-action, but that’s a different thought. 🙂 I have repeatedly explained that misleading snippet, in teleseminars and more. Choosing to ignore that fact (or not do all your homework), is sad and certainly not “critical thinking.”
Okay, Joe, I understand about legal limitations. The producers of The Secret obviously wanted the most catchy sound-and-sight bites. Never mind that many of these snippets may be a misrepresentation and oversimplification of more complex principles (as is The Secret itself, IMO, but that’s something on which we will just have to agree to disagree).
Kathlyn and Gay Hendricks, who were interviewed for the original DVD, have written that they were concerned from the get-go because it seemed that Rhonda Byrne wanted to steer the conversation away from complex or even mildly negative concepts in favor of the feel-good stuff. From a pure marketing standpoint that was a winning strategy. How well it served the people who saw and believed in The Secret is a different question.
In my opinion it is inaccurate to say that I didn’t do all my homework. On many occasions you have written and spoken about things being effortless and easy – almost like magic, even – with no qualification about action and hard work. Yes, you have also written and spoken on other occasions about the importance of action and hard work. It depends upon what you’re marketing. (And of course, the fine print in the disclaimers, particularly the more recent ones, tells even more.)
In any case, on this thread I specifically asked you if you thought Dr. Pillay’s book substantiates the idea that “you do it all with your thoughts,” and that “it really is that easy,” as represented in that single video snippet. And you said that his work does substantiate the snippet, in your opinion. You didn’t qualify your reply with any mention of the necessity of action. That would have taken an extra sentence or two. However, I also wonder why you would have even made the remarks about the catalog and doing it ALL with your thoughts in the first place, knowing that it flew in the face of your other teachings about taking action as well. Or were you just the victim of bad editing by Rhonda and gang?
And by the way, I’ve never represented myself as a “critical thinker.” I do like to raise questions about matters that some people seem to accept blindly, but I don’t pretend to have answers. But even some of the skeptics think I’m not critical *enough*. They’re probably right.
I was interviewed for over two hours by Rhonda. She kept what she wanted in the film. I don’t blame her. It was her movie.
I don’t believe you are saying this 🙂
Wouldn’t common sense dictate that since you bring Dr. Pillay up that people would naturally ask you about him? If you feel that it is a crazy idea to ask you to explain further, why not just say, “Hey go check out this guys book, he has some really good stuff.” But you don’t say that…
Actually, that’s exactly what I say in my review. You might want to go back and read it.
Joe, I’m saying that at some level, emotions can be authentic. If we automatically dismiss or override or “clean” every feeling because it might offend the Law of Attraction and prevent us from getting “more of what we want” then we become mere robots, programming ourselves emotionally to trip the desired switch that will unlock the purported door to all our desires. It’s one thing to tend to spiritual development and strive for a higher or deeper emotional and/or spiritual state than a merely reactionary one. It’s another thing to automatically override every emotion that doesn’t immediately feel good because it supposedly jinxes our chances with some apparently over sensitive Law that can’t handle a universe of real, thinking, feeling human beings. Painful feelings might be a message from our deepest intuition; not something naughty to be whisked away for fear the universe will send us more of them. Allowing emotions of only one “frequency” makes us robots, unable to respond to actual life. What does it matter if we get everything we want, if we have to live in such a controlled emotional state, afraid to feel, inflexible in our responses, unable to deal with real human beings and a changing environment?
No one is saying override an emotion. One way to clear a blocking emotion is to actually listen to it, explore it, and learn from it. I’m for awakening, not robotics. My latest books and audio programs are all about this subject.
Glad that there’s finally a scientific proof of law attraction, since many people just won’t believe what can’t be explained logically.
Well, I, myself, always believe in LoA, like I believe in God….lol
Not everything can be explained logically.
Thanks for writing this, Joe 🙂
Thank you, Elsa. I totally agree.
Joe, good afternoon.
My name is Naziya. I live in Kazakhstan.
I do not know and write in English, but sincerely express my gratitude to you for your good intentions. I am glad that you have.
It is a pleasure to meet you through your books. Now I’m reading your book “The Secret of attraction. The Big Book of wish fulfillment,” translated into Russian. In the book you mentioned your blog http://www.blog.mrfire.com, I opened it and decided to write to you and once again express my gratitude. An amazing book, and most importantly, I am changing.
I am confident that you will understand me. I also want you to see my comments and wrote a response to at least “hello Naziya.”
Thank you very much. Good luck!
Hi Joe
I really enjoyed the part of the article related to visualization. Where you state that it is necessary to get involved emotionally with the new mental movie of what you want to attract.This will prime the brain for action.
Thanks for the great post!
I am a musician with a home studio. I’ve been struggling with my finances and depression. I’ve used the clearing audios every day and adopted a mindset of positivity and gratitude. The first band I recorded got signed to a record label and their contract says that they record at my studio and the record label will make the checks out to me. This band is my absolute first client. Thank you Joe. I look forward to the day we cross paths so I can tell you the difference you helped make in my life face to face.
What does science tell about the Law of Attraction? It tells that LoA doesn’t work. Do you need a proof by scientific evidence? Read this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vanessa-van-edwards/law-of-attraction_b_2082921.html
http://www.heatherkappes.com/?page_id=68
But if you are a hard die believer in LoA, affected by cognitive bias, then please refuse to believe in science. For instance refuse to believe that your personal computer was built by using science knowledge, refuse to believe in Newton gravity law, refuse to believe in scientific evidence in general. Program your brain with positive thinking like a robot. Don’t accept your feelings as they are. Don’t love yourself as you are. Throw your life experience and your own judgment into the trash. Never desire to save your emotions. Thanks for reading.
Cheers!
There will always be disputes about wether Loa is real or not. What I do know is that there is nothing wrong with positive thinking…why subject yourself to a life of not believing in who you are ( FYI robots don’t have feelings) I also refuse to live in fear and anxiety, that is not what I signed up for. So I believe anything that promotes well being in everything you do is s better place than giving up. But whatever works for you eh.? You sound very happy in your life :/