The Law Of Attraction In The Thought World

By James Napier

The Law of Attraction is not a concept that has suddenly been discovered. A century ago many Americans embraced The Law of Attraction, said their daily affirmations, visualized what they wanted, and waited for the universe to deliver it to them, thanks to the writings of William Walker Atkinson who believed it was a "mighty law that draws to us the things we desire or fear, that makes or mars our lives."

"Our thoughts, we must realize, are not just things - they are FORCES," William Walker Atkinson declared in his book Thought Vibration: The Law of Attraction in the Thought World, a Law of Attraction classic written nearly a century ago.

When we replace thoughts of anger, hate, envy, malice, jealousy with positive, optimistic thinking," Atkinson says "A strong thought, or a thought long continued, will make us the center of attraction for the corresponding thought-waves of others....The man or woman who is filled with Love sees Love on all sides and attracts the Love of others....And so it goes, each gets what he calls for over the wireless telegraphy of the Mind."

Born in Baltimore, Maryland December 5, 1862, Atkinson, around the turn of the 20th Century, moved to Chicago and became a prolific writer. He wrote numerous new thought and positive thinking books under his own name, as Theron Q. Dumont, 13 books as Yogi Ramacharaka , Swami Panchadasi, Theodore Sheldon, The Three Initiates, Magus Incognitus and probably many other names not yet identified. Often he would quote these "expert writers" in his own books, all of whom were himself. Atkinson was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1903. It's not clear whether he ever practiced, but his Yogi Ramacharaka and Swami Panchadasi books became far more popular than his new thought writings. Today, a new generation is discovering his writings about the Law of Attraction.

Atkinson claims in Thought Vibration that "Many of the 'stray thoughts' which come to us are but reflections or answering vibrations to some strong thought sent out by another. But unless our minds are attuned to receive it, the thought will not likely affect us." Birds of a feather do not always, however, flock together since "There are, of course, widely varying degrees of positiveness and negativeness, and B may be negative to A, while positive to C." So, one of the benefits of affirmations, along with the fact they establish new mental attitudes in us, is that "They tend to raise the mental keynote so that we may get the benefit of positive thought-waves of others on the same plane of thought."

Atkinson insists "It is a waste of time to fight a negative thought-habit by recognizing its force and trying to deny it out of existence by mighty efforts. The best, surest, easiest and quickest method," he writes, "is to assume the existence of the positive thought desired in its place; and by constantly dwelling upon the positive thought, manifest it into objective reality." There may be a time to make a mighty effort, especially when the will and imagination are co-operating and in agreement. This becomes a great time for Desire to spring into action.

We draw to our aid and assistance the great volume of similar thought waves with which the universe is filled when we focus on such affirmations as "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better," or "My life energy is high," or "Nothing is too good to be true. Nothing is too good to happen. Nothing is too good to last."

We set into motion what Atkinson refers to as the great Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction should make us realize there is no value to thinking of all the possible things ahead of us, which might upset us and our plans. "When the mind is full of worry thoughts," Atkinson writes, "it cannot find time to work out plans to benefit you." "More than half the people of the world are slaves of every vagrant thought which may see fit to torment them," Atkinson says. Our minds were given us for our own use, not to use us and he encourages his readers to "Wake up and display a few signs of life!"

Positive auto-suggestion - and I use a phrase from Atkinson - "impresses upon us the importance of passing on to the subconscious mind the proper impulses, so that they will become automatic and 'second nature.' Atkinson asserts that "If you are confronted with the question: 'Which of these two things should I do?' the best answer is: 'I will do that which I would like to become a habit with me." Our mind, he says, "has been likened to a piece of paper that has been folded. Every afterwards it has a tendency to fold in the same crease - unless we make a new crease or fold, when it will follow the last lines. And the creases are habits; every time we make one it is so much easier for the mind to fold along the same crease afterward. Let us make our mental creases in the right direction."

Atkinson also points out in Thought Vibration that it is an axiom of psychology that "Emotions deepen by repetition." Each indulgence, we discover, makes a habit more at home. All too often we fancy that our emotions are who we are, which is far from the truth. "It is true that the majority of the race are slaves of their emotions and feelings, and are governed by them to a great degree," Atkinson observes. "They think that feelings are things that rule one and from which one cannot free himself, and so they cease to rebel. They yield to the feeling without question, although they may know that the emotion or mental trait is calculate to injure them, and to bring unhappiness and failure instead of happiness and success." Our emotions are not the way we are in the sense that we're made a certain way and have no choice in how we react.

Atkinson says that "one positive thought will counteract a number of negative thoughts," which I've found to be the case with the French healer Emile Coue's "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better," a phrase that became popular in the 1920's. We soon find our body "acting out" - responding to these thought forces - in so many beneficial ways! "...say to yourself: 'I like to do so and so,' and then go through the motions (cheerfully, remember!) and act out the thought that you like to do the thing." In other words, take an interest in it; become absorbed in your task until it creates for you what Joseph Campbell refers to as timelessness.

"In order to attain a thing it is necessary that the mind should fall in love with it," Atkinson writes. "The mind works on the subconscious plane....along the lines of the ruling passion or desire." If we scatter our thought forces, "the subconscious mind will not know how to please you, and...you are apt to be put off from this source of aid and assistance." According to Atkinson, "the man whose mind is full of a dozen interests fails to exert the attracting power that is manifested by the [person] of one ruling passion, and he fails to draw to him persons, things, and results that will aid in the working out of his plans, and will also fail to place himself in the current of attraction whereby he is brought into contact with those who will be glad to help him because of harmonious interests."

Atkinson says he turned around his life and business when "I simply began to realize what a good thing I had, and how much people wanted it, and how glad they would be to know of it and all that sort of thing, and lo! My thought seemed to vitalize the work and the seed began to sprout." His advice? "Keep in love with the thing you wish to attain...see it as accomplished already, but don't lose your interest!" Why is love so important? "Nothing but intense love will enable you to surmount the many obstacles placed in your path. Nothing but that love will enable you to bear the burdens of the task." Love then enables us to direct the power of our Will [which is in full agreement now with our imagination] toward the desired end with "invincible determination."

Here's where the power of belief comes into play. "So long as there exists in your mind the last sneaking bit of doubt as to your right to the things you want," Atkinson says, "you will be setting up a resistance to the operation of the Law [of Attraction]....Stop this crawling in your mind," he writes. And when it is time to toss away the playthings of the past, do not cry and mourn because, to move forward, its time to leave our playthings behind us, even though we enjoyed, at the time, the game of getting them.

"A state of discouragement is not the one in which bright ideas come to us," Atkinson writes. "Men instinctively feel the atmosphere of failure hovering around certain of their fellows." The Law of Attraction, whether we believe in it or not, is in full operation. We're at total liberty to oppose it and produce all the friction we want (it doesn't hurt the Law!) or co-operate and bring our desires into harmony with it.

"If you set your mind to the keynote of courage, confidence, strength and success, you attract to yourself thoughts of like nature; people of like nature; things that fit in the mental tune," Atkinson says. "Your prevailing thought or mood determines that which is to be drawn toward you - picks out your mental bedfellow. You are today setting into motion thought currents which will in time attract to you thoughts, people and conditions in harmony with the predominant note of your thought....and you will be attracted toward each other, and will surely come together with a common purpose sooner or later, unless one or the other of you should change the current of his thoughts."

Atkinson ends Thought Vibration by encouraging his readers to "Get the best that is to be had in the thought world. The best is there, so be satisfied with nothing less. Get into partnership with good minds....You must be tired of being tossed about by the operations of the Law - get into harmony with it."

So, Atkinson believed our thoughts to be real forces. They go forth from us in many directions in search of like thoughts - forming combinations - going wherever they are attracted and "flying away from thought centers opposing them. And your mind attracts the thought of others, which have been sent out by them conscious or unconsciously."

What, we may ask, am I sending out from my inner world every day and what am I receiving back?

William Walker Atkinson writes in Thought Vibration: "Worry could content itself with wringing its hands and moaning, 'Woe is me,' and wearing its nerves to a frazzle, and accomplishing nothing," William Walker Atkinson writes in Thought Vibration or The Law of Attraction in the Thought World. Desire acts differently. It grows stronger as the man's conditions become intolerable, and finally when he feels the hurt so strongly that he can't stand it any longer, he says, 'I won't stand this any longer - I will make a change,' and lo! Then Desire springs into action."

From our powerful desires, which spring from knowing exactly what we want - which he said the majority of the people of his era were unsure of - Atkinson believed we set into motion the attractive forces of a powerful principle which he refers to many times in his writings as the Law of Attraction.

His vigorous, forceful style of writing reads like you're holding a newly released book in your hands. "I have tried to infuse my words with the strong vital energy which I feel surging through me as I write out this message of strength to you," Atkinson wrote toward the end of his 1912 classic Mind Power: The Secret of Mental Magic. "I trust that these words will act as a current of verbal 'electrons,' each carrying its full charge of dynamic power...and thus awaken in you a similar mental state, desire and will, to be strong, forceful, and dynamic - determined to assert your individuality...which the universal Creative Will and Desire is hoping that you will be and do," which then Atkinson believed would activate the positive aspects of the Law of Attraction and draw into your life what you truly desire.

It is a romp to read Atkinson who told his readers, "I send to you this message charged with the very dynamic vibrations of my brain, as it converts the Mind-Power into thoughts and words."

Atkinson died November 22, 1932 in California, to the end a believer in what he called the "great Law of Attraction."

You can find out more about the universal law of attraction here.

James Clayton Napier worked as a TV news anchor, talk show host, and feature story reporter in Texas for thirteen years. James interviewed thousands of people during his career from the highest and mightiest to those whose lives were so quiet they might never have been noticed had he not decided to tell their stories. He has also taught TV news reporting and speech communication at three universities. Learn more about James' current projects at http://dollarsloveme.blogspot.com