Toxic Trends: Law of Attraction and elitism
The Law of Attraction teaches that the universe and all of its components exist as frequency. The principle states that the situations and people "attracted” your life are the direct result of the frequency that you put out with your emotions and thoughts. On the outside it appears like a very empowering concept: change your perspective and your entire life will fall in line to match that perspective.
When I initially learned about The Law of Attraction, I was recovering from a road accident, debt, processing the trauma of family abuse, and dealing with symptoms of PTSD. The idea that I could just manifest my frequency higher and make a lot of this suffering just go away sounded amazing. What I didn't realize until later is that this was just prosperity gospel repackaged in a new age wrapper. The idea that if you just open yourself to the blessings available for you everything will work out wasn’t a new one for me. It's a frequent staple of high demand and thought-policing religions and one I remembered from evangelical Christianity. It was one of the many problematic things that drove me from the Christian religion in the first place, so why didn't I recognize it? The answer is that the Law of Attraction preys on desperate people who are hurting and it can be hard to see how something that sounds empowering can actually keep you feeling powerless.
The graphic above is a common example of messages that frequent Law of Attraction enthusiasts new age pages and social media groups. It's warning you that if you're vibrating at "too low of a frequency" that you'll attract more fear, guilt, or shame to you and that if you just focus on emitting love, joy, and abundance that you'll attract that back to yourself. At first, that sounds great; until you consider that this also means that if you're experiencing hardship, illness, disability, or suffering... the Law of Attraction asserts that you must have brought it upon yourself. YIKES! Not so empowering anymore, is it?
Reinforcing the Law of Attraction reinforces the idea that anything bad that happens to us is the result of our own internal state of mind is extremely damaging. For every person that this appears to work for, there will be a hundred that are wondering what they’re doing wrong, why they can’t overcome oppression, abuse, or why bad things continue to happen to them. It's also a very damaging message to those living with physical or mental illness and disability. When I was trying to heal my relationships with my family I tried applying the Law of Attraction, believing that if I only emitted enough loving energy that I could manifest healthy relationships, and attract the love and support that I needed. I have never felt more alone. And when I examined why it wasn't working, the principle's function conditioned that it must be me. In this metaphysical principle, there isn't any room for objectivity and that life's unpredictable nature means that sometimes harmful things just happen to people without provocation. Or what role that privilege plays in the ability to manifest prosperity, healing, or our dreams through the power of positive thinking/vibration.
I’m always astounded that Lightworkers and new age prosperity enthusiasts seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that those “manifesting” themselves out of distressful situations also seem to have strong support networks, different social privilege, are generally attractive, and already have a lot of opportunities afforded to them. It never occurs to them that the Law of Attraction could be a more comfortable concept for ‘privilege’ that tries to sell the illusion that these blessings are equally accessible to everyone instead of what it is; metaphysical elitism. Magic should make us feel empowered to influence our circumstances, but principles that function off of elitism are anything but empowering.
Metaphysically elitist principles (and the Law of Attraction isn't the only one) require that some succeed and others fail. Those that succeed did so on their own merit, while those that fail brought it upon themselves. If we're to rise together in building a compassionate culture around magic, then overcoming metaphysical elitism, and the Law of Attraction, need to be one of the first victories of this revolution.
💙 Elisa Fynnley Wynnter
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