Free Paper Example: Unlocking the Science Behind the Law of Attraction

Introduction

The laws of attraction are concepts that explain the connection between human beings and their universe. The common belief is that the universe will provide what the thoughts are most focused on (Farber, 2016). The scientific basis of the law of attraction has always been questioned, and some people, such as Farber (2016), have dismissed its existence. However, studies such as Mullins (2008) indicate that there might be some logic behind attraction law. Based on the law of attraction, people can achieve anything on which they set their minds. The scientific research on the law of attraction is minimal, but some are interested in the subject. As a result, the existence of the law of attraction continues to be a point of contention. However, available research indicates that attraction laws are a matter of perception rather than a fundamental universal law.

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The Process

The laws of attraction start with brain processes and end with the brain's experiences. Mullins (2008) indicates that there are three ways to meet the process; there is the law of attraction-law numbers. The second one is the law of asking-creating and law number (Mullins, 2008). Finally, the law of allowing, according to Mullins (2008), most people lose their vibrational journey. The low mentality of negative perceptions about oneself causes one to focus on the lack of what they do not have and, subsequently, the manifestation. Mullins (2008) does not present much science in his research to ascertain attraction laws' credibility. Still, one of the study's objectives is to establish how thought can be manifested into training people to be successful in every area of their lives. Mullins's (2008) insights emphasize the psychological perspective, where the brain is responsible for the manifestations. The study tends to indicate that the brain tends to perceive what it gives out. Giving out positive energy and thoughts would allow the brain to perceive events from a similar perspective.

Philosophical Foundations

Like the universe is governed by a set of laws, so is the human thought and mind. According to Albina (2018), people have yet to understand that everything works per definite law, which is the law of thought. Albina (2018) even compares the law of thought to the law of mathematics. Albina (2018) attempted to contribute to the growing scientific interest in harnessing positive thinking. The author also wanted to establish the philosophical foundation of the laws of attraction. According to the research, grateful minds and positive thoughts create a happy disposition, contributing to an emotionally and mentally healthy society (Albina, 2018).

Based on the law of attraction, works on the principle that prosperity, happiness, health, success, prosperity, and every other condition are a product of individual thinking. According to Albina (2018), these are created by either conscious or subconscious thought. Everything that happens to someone's life is due to the thoughts they hold either consciously or subconsciously. These factors are anchored on visualization and imagination. Albina (2018) used qualitative-quantitative quasi-experimental research to establish the impact of the law of attraction. To test his hypothesis, Albina (2018) used two groups of people: a control group and an experimental group. After a 28-day training regarding the law of attraction, the experimental group exhibited higher levels of happiness and gratitude, attributed to the lecture training on attraction laws.

The findings from Alibina (2018) are not that different from Mullins (2008). Both researchers recognize the power of the mind over the experiences that one has. However, unlike Mullins (2008), Albina (2018) did not recognize the divine matrix and quantum physics' role in attraction laws. However, both scholars call for further studies on the law of attraction and its topics.

While the two authors have shown the logic behind attraction laws, there is no scientific proof to verify the existence of attraction laws. Both scholars have shown that the law of attraction is all about perception. Mullins (2008) has indicated that positive thoughts manifest themselves through a person's actions. Simultaneously, Albina (2018) shows how human functionality's psychological aspect would influence their overall mood, which is happiness. Both authors indicate that thinking in a particular manner changes the perception of one's mentality to conform to their thoughts.

Important Concepts

Vibration is one of the most common themes regarding the law of attraction. According to Mullins (2008), the universe and everything in its existence are composed of energy and vibrations. While that is scientifically true, the connection between such vibrations and human thought is yet scientifically established. The vibrations that exist within objects in the universe are due to their amount of energy. Everybody possesses a certain level of energy that causes its atoms to vibrate. The more the vibrations, the higher the energy within these objects. However, while that might make sense in physics's scientific realm, there is little connection between bodies' energy and the thought within human minds. That goes to show that the laws of attraction are a matter of perception.

People can work out solutions to their problems subconsciously. So far, the closest that science has come to explaining the laws of attraction is through the subconscious—the brain's ability to work out the solution to a problem in the background. The subconscious or unconscious problem-solving is something that has scientific evidence. Scholars such as Ritter & Dijksterhuis (2014) have referred to it as the incubation period. The incubation period is when a person has stopped having task-related conscious thoughts (Ritter & Dijksterhuis, 2014). The article indicates that is conscious thought absent during the incubation period. There are also unconscious processes that contribute to creative thinking. An example of an incubation effect would be someone trying to locate his car keys. However, since he is running late, he decides to take the bus instead. While sitting on the bus, going through the report, he is supposed to present at work, but then the location where he placed his car keys finally comes to mind. That is an incubation effect because his brain had managed to work out the problem despite the absence of conscious thought. Such phenomena might be misinterpreted as a typical case of the law of attraction, but it represents an incubation effect in reality.

The lack of scientific evidence means that attraction laws are hardly ever discussed in the scientific realm and have received criticism for being unmeasurable, susceptible to confirmation bias, and labeled as a modern pseudoscience product. There have been attempts to disapprove, such as claims, by using scientific experiments to show the power of the law of attraction.

The reversing age experiment is one of those experiments used to show the effectiveness of attraction laws. The reverse aging experiment is a test of perception to see the impact of mindset on a person’s aging process. According to Pagnini et al. (2019), literature increasingly points to the importance of psychological factors in the aging process. Pagnini et al. (2019) experiment demonstrates the psychological aspect's power over biological processes. It is a study that replicates part of the original reversing age experiment that was performed by Ellen Langer in 1979 (Friedman, 2015). The experiments involve putting the participants in a setting that mimics their youthful days. The intervention was tested as a randomized trial that consisted of an experimental group, a control group, an active group, and a no-treatment group (Pagnini et al., 2019). The participants were asked to behave and converse as if they were living in the 1950s. The research findings showed significant improvement in the experimental group's physical strength, memory, manual dexterity, posture, gait, and other senses that they had lost due to aging. Supporters of attraction laws believe that a person's thoughts can influence their experiences and physical aspects.

However, while the reversing age experiment turned out to be a success, it still faced skepticism from the scholarly world. For one, Langer's experiment has never been successfully replicated, and that throws doubt into the authenticity of the theory behind the experiment. Second, even if the experiment was a success, it is still a placebo effect. The placebo effect has been scientifically proven to work in the medical field, as shown by Hróbjartsson & Gøtzsche (2001), but the placebo's success does not translate into laws of attraction. The brain being part of the human body, can affect and be directly affected by interactions with the body. However, the law of attraction posits that humans can affect objects and events outside of their bodies. So far, there has been no published scholarly article that has been proven to show the human brain's ability to tap into other objects' vibrations and influence events around the body.

The law of attraction point of weakness is that it is unmeasurable. Its central argument that positive and negative thoughts attract positive and negative experiences, respectively is not something that can be tested in a lab setting or experimental basis. No known technology has the capability of reading people's minds and knowing about their thoughts. The other alternative, which is the measurement of experiences, is also something that cannot be quantified. An experiment such as Albina (2018) used control groups to measure the law of attraction, but the experiment had many limitations that can be used to dismiss the credibility of the results.

Limitations

The 29-day training on the steps to harness positive thinking was used as an instrument for inducing positive thoughts among the participants (Albina, 2018). While the group did end up showing higher happiness levels than the control group, there was no proof that the increased happiness and gratitude levels among the experimental group were due to their experiences. The experiment can be argued to have worked like the placebo experiment, which tricks the mind into thinking it is happy. Also, the experiment pertained to an issue related to the human body. The brain, being the central nervous system, can influence moods and emotions such as happiness.

Mullins (2008) failed to use peer-reviewed scholarly sources to argue for the existence of the law of attraction. Most of the sources used as argument points were published books by professional writers looking to motivate their readers. From a theoretical point of view, the study came up short by failing to tie a scientific argument to the existence of the law of attraction. As used in the article, sources such as Hicks (2006) depend on the argument of divinity to pass their point, which might not be enough to justify a scientific concept.

Conclusion

The findings from the research articles all point to the lack of a scientific basis for the existence of attraction laws. The available evidence has not been enough to prove the laws of attraction as a scientific concept. Also, there is very little research on the topic, which is an indicator of the little interest that scholars have in the topic. There is a need for more research on the subject, especially regarding its effect on bodily functions such as aging and emotions.

References

Albina, A. C. (2018). The Law of Attraction: Positive Thinking and Level of Gratitude towards Happiness. Publication Board Members, 17. http://js.cmu.edu.ph/dev/uploads/The_Law_of_Attraction_Positive_Thinking_and_Level_of_Gratitude_towards_Happiness.pdf