By True Indigo

The Law of Attraction and The Secret have generated a great deal of attention from people worldwide as a path to abundance in recent years. In essence, the supplicant sets their intention toward a desired outcome and the universe answers this intention by providing abundance where before there was scarcity. The petitioner, of God, or the Great Spirit, or the Universe, whichever label suits the individual, asks the universe to provide abundance, believes the request will be returned, and receives the abundance from divine or energetic intervention. Not only is this philosophy flawed in practice, the theoretical underpinnings are flawed. This is why.

An intention is an energetically positive impulse. Notice the direction of energy flow. The energy flows from within a person outwardly into the universe. So far, so good. This is the correct path to the creation of abundance. Robert Anton Wilson in his Prometheus Rising published in the late 1980s described this phenomenon using coins as an example. Begin looking for coins lying upon the ground, and you will begin finding coins, because you weren’t previously intending to find them. We find whatever it is we seek. The creators of The Law of Attraction and The Secret, however, exchanged this positive impulse for a negative energetic impulse by replacing the energetically positive intention as an energetically negative request.

Both the Law of Attraction and The Secret suggest it is possible to enter into an exchange with universe without any gift, good, or service provided at all by the person seeking abundance. In other words, the person seeking abundance provides nothing other than a want to have abundance created, and the universe arranges reality to provide this abundance free of charge. For the person who has no gift to bring to the exchange, or more precisely, has not discovered their gift, this is a very subtle and powerful temptation.

These teachings are commercially successful because they mimic the underlying premise of the commodity economy: to get more than one gives. These arguments are particularly well-suited to a consumer society whose members have been trained since childhood to be possessed of an extraordinary and nearly endless list of wants and wishes. A new mechanism is proposed that promises the fulfilment of this endless want-stream through a novel and yet entirely congruent means: through yet more wanting. The LoA is a law of attractiveness. It is a very pretty idea.

Unfortunately, regardless of what economic structure mediates the transfer of goods and services, a want does not satisfy anything or anyone. Whereas an intention is an energetically positive impulse, a want is an energetically negative one. A want does not provide abundance to anyone. Only a gift provides abundance. What the Law of Attraction and The Secret suggest is there is a way to get something for nothing. Nothing, that is, except a want – and a want never creates abundance.

A want, or a desire, are projections of unfulfilment. These things, called wants, wishes, or desires, illustrate the contours of an individual unfulfilment, therefore, wants, wishes, and desires trace the topography of an individual unhappiness. Whatever it is we want indicates the limits and boundaries of our unhappiness. If what we want is money, the want indicates our unhappiness that we haven’t enough money. If what we want is relationship, the want describes our unhappiness in relationship. What the Law of Attraction and The Secret try to do is to create an entirely new form of economic structure whereby our unfulfilment and our unhappiness creates the abundance that flows into our lives. This is a false teaching. There is no balanced equation here. The numbers simply do not add up.

The Law of Attraction and The Secret, inadvertently, not by design or mischief, provide a surrogate thought process that interferes with the individual search for self-essence expression and therefore interrupts the process of self-actualisation and self-discovery necessary before self-essence intention may be defined, developed, and transmitted as gift in co-creation with universe. Within these schema there is no need to discover self-essence at all, much less transmit this essence into the world for the greater abundance of everyone.

It is only through the creation of gift that abundance is realised. Wants have absolutely no place in the creation of abundance. How then, do we get what we want if wanting does nothing to result in having?

This is extraordinarily simple: we stop wanting. We stop wanting anything. This one simple thought must be cherished: stop wanting. Stop wanting anything from this day forward. What The Law of Attraction and The Secret do is place the individual in a perpetual and unending field of unhappiness and unfulfilment. The attracting person is placed in a life negative position forever, a never-ending posture of supplication and desire and therefore unhappiness while waiting for their wishes to materialise. What then, might replace the LoA as a mechanism for the creation of abundance?

Every individual is possessed of a unique self-essence, and this unique self-essence is the fuel used in the creation of abundance in the form of gift. The more beautiful the gift, the greater the abundance the gift will create in the life of the creator.

A brief survey of the actual numbers is instructive. The following persons, well known to everyone, all provided a self-essence gift to society for the creation of their own abundance. Steven Spielberg, estimated personal wealth: $3.4 billion AUD. Oprah Winfrey, estimated personal wealth: $2.75 billion AUD. Paul McCartney, estimated personal wealth: $1.45 billion AUD. David Bowie, estimated personal wealth: $1.37 billion AUD. Jerry Seinfeld, estimated personal wealth: $745 million AUD. This list could go on and on. The gifts each of these people gave to the world continue to be given, forever. We can enjoy the gifts each of these people created anytime we listen to the radio or watch a film or catch a rerun on the television.

What occurred in each case of this financial abundance was the creation of a unique gift. In each instance the more beautiful the gift, the more abundance created. The comedian Steve Martin took a banjo, a white suit, a fake arrow through his head, some balloon animals and ‘happy feet’ to create a gift of beauty never before made in the history of the universe. These gifts all began as an expression of a unique self-essence. The people sharing them all formed an intention, to film, to sing, to laugh, to contribute something of lasting value to the marketplace of life. Their gift abundance allowed them to contribute to the abundance of those lacking abundance.

Just as civilisation has returned full-circle in its appreciation of Eastern philosophy that inhabits so much of our spiritual understanding, the return of a gift economy is upon the world. Gifts of beauty create abundance not only for the creator, but for the entire society and the entire world. Inform intention through the transmission of self-essence and entirely reverse the energetic polarity of attraction from a negative want to a positive gift. Give without the expectation of return. A gift of beauty is rarely denied.

None of the people identified in The Secret such as Galileo, Shakespeare, Newton, or anyone else provided abundance to the world or themselves through asking, or wanting, or desiring. They provided abundance to the world and themselves through the presentation of their own unique, irreproducible gift to which the world responded.

This principle relies upon the cessation of want and the implementation of giving in the creation of abundance. It replaces a philosophy of encouraging spiritual consumerism with a philosophy that encourages spiritual production. Our gifts are inside our souls. Every person has a gift. Find it, and abundance will come effortlessly. There is no one exactly like you, and there never will be again. This is the source of all abundance. It lies within, not without. Intention begins the process. Gift provides the fuel.

True Indigo is the Alaskan author of A Personal Aristocracy: Cultivating the Power of Spiritual Nobility, published by North Atlantic books and distributed in Australia by Brumby Books. He is currently at work on a book on perfection and a second on self-essence transmission.