This thought experiment also explained why so many people struggled to leverage the Law of Attraction (LOA) in their lives. The LOA has been talked about for millennia in millions of different ways — from the Bible to The Kybalion, to Napoleon Hill's famous perennial seller Think And Grow Rich. However, it wasn't until two decades ago that the LOA was thrust into mainstream awareness by The Secret, a book and documentary that presented a watered-down version of ancient wisdom that tasted highly palatable to mass-market consumers.
The Secret claimed that you get what you think about and focus on. This idea is just another form of spiritual escapism. "You mean I can sit on my couch and pretend I have a million dollars, and it will come to me? Bingo!"
But when students actually applied this principle to their life, it didn't work. They could visualize until they were blue in the face, but they wouldn't change anything else about themselves. They didn't take action towards their goal. They thought, "I am a millionaire" and said, "I am a millionaire" in front of the mirror, then turned around and acted like a poor person. Of course, their actions are the strongest expression of what they subconsciously believe to be true, not their thoughts or words. These people did nothing to change themselves, then wondered why the universe didn't magically deposit a million dollars into their bank account. As God said, "I will do nothing for you that you will not do for yourself. That is the law and the prophets."
These students were acting like a lazy version of Joe. If Joe wanted to turn water into wine, he might visualize and imagine what it would feel like to have wine in his goblet. After months of visualizing, being positive, and anticipating the wine showing up in his goblet, he'd become frustrated. "Where the fuck is my wine?" he'd scream to the universe.
But of course, the universe can't magically pour wine into his goblet. Doing so represented a mathematically unparsimonious route through mutual expectation. If wine were to suddenly appear in his goblet, Joe would get a massive prediction error. He would freak out, in much the same way that a poor person would freak out if a million dollars were to magically appear in her bank account out of nowhere.
But Joe also hadn't carved any rivers that would allow the wine to flow into his goblet via the path of least resistance. He hadn't gotten off his butt, walked to the shops and bought the wine so it could make its way into his goblet. Therefore, the wine couldn't show up in his goblet. The free energy was minimized in the system by continuing to manifest water in his goblet, not wine.
This was not to say the Law of Attraction is a farce — it's just misunderstood. You don't get what you think about. You get who you are. The free energy principle offers a scientific explanation for a universal law that mystics have whispered about since the dawn of time.
This thought reminded me of another passage from Conversations With God.
Does that mean I cannot ask for anything I want? Are You saying that praying for something actually pushes it away from us?
This is a question which has been asked through the Ages — and has been answered whenever it has been asked. Yet you have not heard the answer, or will not believe it.
The question is answered again, in today’s terms, and today’s language, thusly:
You will not have that for which you ask, nor can you have anything you want. This is because your very request is a statement of lack, and your saying you want a thing only works to produce that precise experience — wanting — in your reality.
The correct prayer is therefore never a prayer of supplication, but a prayer of gratitude.
When you thank God in advance for that which you choose to experience in your reality, you, in effect, acknowledge that it is there… in effect. Thankfulness is thus the most powerful statement to God; an affirmation that even before you ask, I have answered.
Therefore never supplicate. Appreciate.
But what if I am grateful to God in advance for something, and it never shows up? That could lead to disillusionment and bitterness.
Gratitude cannot be used as a tool with which to manipulate God; a device with which to fool the universe. You cannot lie to yourself. Your mind knows the truth of your thoughts. If you are saying “Thank you, God, for such and such,” all the while being very clear that it isn’t there in your present reality, you can’t expect God to be less clear than you, and so produce it for you.
God knows what you know, and what you know is what appears as your reality.
But how then can I be truly grateful for something I know is not there?
Faith. If you have but the faith of a mustard seed, you shall move mountains. You come to know it is there because I said it is there; because I said that, even before you ask, I shall have answered; because I said, and have said to you in every conceivable way, through every teacher you can name, that whatsoever you shall choose, choosing it in My Name, so shall it be.
Yet so many people say that their prayers have gone unanswered.
No prayer — and a prayer is nothing more than a fervent statement of what is so — goes unanswered. Every prayer — every thought, every statement, every feeling — is creative. To the degree that it is fervently held as truth, to that degree will it be made manifest in your experience.
When it is said that a prayer has not been answered, what has in actuality happened is that the most fervently held thought, word, or feeling has become operative. Yet what you must know — and here is the secret — is that always it is the thought behind the thought — what might be called the Sponsoring Thought — that is the controlling thought.
If, therefore, you beg and supplicate, there seems a much smaller chance that you will experience what you think you are choosing, because the Sponsoring Thought behind every supplication is that you do not have now what you wish. That Sponsoring Thought becomes your reality.
The only Sponsoring Thought which could override this thought is the thought held in faith that God will grant whatever is asked, without fail. Some people have such faith, but very few.
The process of prayer becomes much easier when, rather than having to believe that God will always say “yes” to every request, one understands intuitively, that the request itself is not necessary. Then the prayer is a prayer of thanksgiving. It is not a request at all but a statement of gratitude for what is so.
Neale Donald Walsch
