I answered this on Yahoo Answers and I thought you might enjoy my thoughts.
“A friend recently introduced me to The Secret: Law of Attraction, a concept I found extremely interesting. Upon further research, I found that it is strongly linked with the new thought movement. Both of these concepts believe that everything in our lives is attracted to us via our thoughts, so illness comes from negative thoughts. How can this be applied to, for example, a 6-year-old boy with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, or a very ill baby, as they aren’t going to have negative thoughts enough to bring on such illness? I just don’t understand how this works, and when asking my friend, who is a complete believer in this, she didn’t know the answer.”
My Answer:
New thought is not a theory of everything. People are born with certain propensities toward health, well-being, attitude etc. You will find those who are attracted to New Thought are searching for meaning. There are just some things we don’t understand.
Why a child is born with a life-threatening or debilitating illness is a mystery. That being said, the child’s life is still being dramatically influenced by his or her thoughts and the thoughts of others. An infant is positively influenced by the loving and secure feelings of those around it.
If the 6-year-old child, by the grace of God or some higher power, is able to step back and feel blessed for being alive as long as he or she has been, then a transformation will occur in the child’s experience. Life will suddenly seem “better”. Though nothing will have changed. This might influence the child’s health condition in a positive way, and it might not. It is still a mystery as to why some people miraculously heal while others don’t. One thing is for certain. If the child begins to feel gratitude for the time he or she has had here on Earth, then the experience of the illness will change. The child will no longer feel like a victim and that will improve the child’s condition dramatically. Maybe not physically, but emotionally. There are many studies that demonstrate how a persons thoughts can improve their physical condition. Many survivors of life-threatening illnesses attest to positive thoughts as an integral part of their healing process.
Rather than looking for evidence that proves New Thought to be inaccurate, spend some time investigating its’ accuracy in your own life. Begin small. Start by visualizing insignificant things that you want to manifest into your experience like a blue butterfly. Visualize it and then notice how butterflies begin to show up everywhere in your life. Don’t be attached to seeing an actual butterfly. Be open to pictures, jewelry, etc. When you see a butterfly, then pick something else. Notice that what you focus on appears in your life. Just keep visualizing small insignificant things until you appear. This will build your belief that what you think about will show up. With practice, you can get bigger and bigger. Many people attest to this phenomenon but it must be experienced personally to really get it.
10 Comments
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
Well said Matthew. Even young children have agendas, although we might not know what it is at the moment. The disease, the sickness puts them on a path in life full of experiences they would never have had if they had not gotten sick.
Life is amazing. Keep pumping out great information.
I don’t leave many comments, but i did some searching and wound up here How the teachings of the bible are related to the law of attraction. And I do have some questions for you if you don’t mind. Could it be only me or does it look as if like several of the comments come across like they are written by brain dead folks? 😛 And, if you are posting at additional online social sites, I’d like to follow everything fresh you have to post. Could you list of the complete urls of your public sites like your linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?
Hi Josh, Thanks for your interest in my work. You can find me on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/matthewferryinternational Just “Like” my fan page and join the conversation. You can also connect to me on twitter here: http://twitter.com/#!/matthew_ferry
I liked How the teachings of the bible are related to the law of attraction, interesting
Hi, I have been reading about law of attraction for a few years now. I too am confused as to children who suffer with illness. My daughter was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at the age of 4 she had dipg. Drs will say 0% survival rate no cure and no found ideas of what causes this cancer to grow. They gave my child 1yr max to live along with all kids with this type. However I’ve met a few kids who are doing well 3yrs past diagnosis. My question is how did my child get this? My child who has been described as the happiest child. She never was without a smile even after going thru cancer she did it with such grace. Did her dad or I create this for her? Was we in so much fear we transferred it onto her? I’m a believer in law of attraction but not clear on the disease and kids aspect…
Kathy, you are in a gut-wrenching situation. My heart goes out to you and your daughter. Referencing the law of attraction in this kind of situation is part of the reason I’ve re-evaluated my beliefs about the law of attraction. That said: I don’t have an answer for you.
With reflection, I think the biggest mistake we make as law of attraction believers is underestimating the circumstances and conditions we are inside of. I have found that our influence over our circumstances is just that “influence” not absolute. I believe the mistake for most of us make is fooling ourselves into believing that we are all powerful and can transform situations with absolute power. Show me an example of that? There isn’t one.
The law of attraction helps us to focus on the outcome and roll with the punches. In the end, we are participating in something much much bigger than our individual life. We are one of the trillions of things happening on the planet. Most of which is completely out of our awareness and out of our control.
Your situation is impossible. I acknowledge you for seeking to find hope, find solutions and look within yourself. That is very helpful and practical. In the end, the only thing you can control is your relationship to what is happening. I hope you find your way to a place of peace in this process and celebrate every moment you get with your daughter.
Matthew.
Thank you for this reply. As a mother who had a gravely ill daughter in utero, who I fought with every mm of my body as another to save, nearly costing my life with hers, it’s comforting to hear a not so black and white “obviously you caused it with your thoughts” feeling on it.
Kathy my heart aches for you and I send love and strength to you and your precious daughter xx
As a childhood cancer survivor I battle with this. I’m am in my late 20’s, single mom, and full of unforgiveness. I constantly battle with the memories of my childhood, and I feel like I have a victim mentality. To others they see me as positive and loving but I hate my life. I constantly research love, cancer, and I just want to be happy and fulfilled and not worried about getting cancer again or never finding love. I just want to love myself but all I see or think of is past hurt and pain. I constantly ask the universe for guidance and try to put myself into alignment but it is often forced and never genuine. Sometimes I feel like I just have more “lessons” to learn but I am tired of the lessons. Tired of people and I wish I could just forget ever having cancer all the crap I have ever been through. I just want to be happy, have a good job or stable income, a loving and supportive husband and family and good health. I pray for this daily and all I can do is continue to convince myself that the universe is working in my favor. Holidays, birthdays, Mother’s Day, bring me into depression. I should be happy but I’m not sure why these days make me depressed. I just want to be happy.
There is no one answer to the question, “How do I stay happy”. Every one of us must find our path. The world is filled with survival consciousness. You were given the gift of cancer early on in life. It gave you the burning desire for happiness. Your desire is being fulfilled sometimes and not in others. It takes practice. Happiness stems from the recognition that all is well. That’s the focus. All is well. No husband? All is well. No kids? All is well! The desire to be happy gets blocked by definitions. Broaden your definitions and find your happiness. It takes practice. You will find it one day and it will be lost the next day.