Beyond Attraction and Positive Thinking
Small Communities, Big Gardens, Progressive Communication, and Empowering the Mind!
In the vast and often bewildering tapestry of life, the philosophy of Calvin Coolidge emerges as a guiding light, illuminating the path to success with the simple yet profound virtue of persistence. Coolidge, with his trademark wit and wisdom, reminds us that when the chips are down and the orchestra of life seems to play out of tune, it's persistence that conducts the symphony towards triumph. Yet, as we delve into this philosophy, let's not forget the playful mantra of "do-be-do-be-do," encapsulating the essence of action and being, and the disciplined habitual thinking required to align with our values as uniquely individualized subjective selves.
Imagine, if you will, a world where talent, genius, and education stand at the starting line, poised for the race of success. Talent dashes ahead with grace, Genius leaps with bright ideas sparking, and Education strides with a backpack full of knowledge. Yet, as the race progresses, each finds themselves entangled in the brambles of disappointment and disillusionment. Talent looks around, befuddled by the absence of a cheering crowd; Genius scratches its head, puzzled by the lack of recognition; and Education trips over the diploma it thought was a ticket to easy street. In the end, it's Persistence, the tortoise in this race of hares, who crosses the finish line, steady and unwavering in its purpose.
Coolidge's words resonate with timeless truth: "Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." But let us not forget the rhythm of existence, the "do-be-do-be-do," that jazzes up the journey. This isn't just about doing with relentless determination; it's about being—being true to our values, being present in the moment, and being in tune with our inner selves. It's a dance between action and introspection, where disciplined thought and persistent effort waltz in harmony.
As we embody the "do-be-do-be-do" philosophy, we recognize that persistence isn't merely a stubborn refusal to give up. It's a disciplined approach to life that embraces both action and reflection. It's about doing with purpose and being with awareness. It’s about crafting a life that resonates with our deepest values, even when the world seems to play a different tune.
In a humorous twist, we might imagine Persistence as the seasoned crooner, serenading us with the melodies of "do-be-do-be-do," a reminder that in the grand concert of life, it's the rhythm of action and being that creates harmony. So, let's take a leaf out of Coolidge's book and "Press on" with a song in our hearts and a swing in our step, solving the problems of the human race one persistent note at a time.
As Coolidge astutely observed, talent, genius, and education might grab the headlines, but it's persistence that steals the show. So, as we face the challenges and opportunities that life presents, let's persist with the joyous determination of "do-be-do-be-do," dancing towards our goals with disciplined thought, aligned with the unique melody of our individual values. After all, in the symphony of life, it’s the persistent heart that sings the sweetest tune.
From The Laws of Manifestation: David Spangler
There are two approaches to manifestation:
1) Based on visualization, will, and positive thinking, attract what is needed or wanted. ( Peter’s Approach )
2) Based on manifesting a quality of being and letting life configure itself to us, the way a flowing stream shapes itself around a boulder in the water. ( David’s Approach )
They both work for different people, but David’s approach is the latter.
David’s approach is based on being connected to his own inner inspiration and sense of calling and connected to the world around him.
“...manifesting was not about attraction so much as it was incarnation.”
Although there are similar elements in the respective approaches, there are also important differences.
David didn’t actually visualize or hold images of what he needed; it was about positive beingness, not positive thinking.
Again, both work and are solution sets that can be used. Peter, the practitioner of the first method, was fond of saying. “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
The difficulty to overcome with the first method is that as any community grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to ensure that everyone is visualizing the same way or being equally positive in their thinking. Therefore, Peter thought that David’s approach would be a compliment to how FindHorn had been working and in some ways, might even work better.
What is Findhorn?
So what I get out of this is that the second method is a step beyond the first method, and if Peter is using the old laws of manifestation, then David was using the new laws. But we must know the difference if we are to better understand all this. Now let’s step outside the duality of the old/new paradigm shall we?
David never saw the old/new paradigm as Peter did, but adopted the terminology for the sake of his lectures.
To David manifestation describes “a personal co-creative relationship we each form with life and spirit. It takes a unique form for each of us. In effect, we each need to find what works for us. There is no ‘new’ or ‘old’ about it.”
Years later, he adds a bit of precision to the mix stating:
“It’s about our power as participants in the interactive web of life. It is about who and what we are as generative sources of spiritual and co-creative energy. It is about our capacity to go beyond the imagery of adeptship and the power represented by Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer’s apprentice to become partners with Gaia, the life of our planet. It’s about incarnation and integration, coherency and collaboration. Because of this, there is no end to the learning that is possible about manifestation.” - David Spangler
“Manifestation is most frequently understood and taught as a power based on a law of attraction and positive thinking. It postulates a relationship between mind and matter that says our thoughts affect the material world outside us in a metaphysical way, attracting to us events, people, and objects that correspond to and mirror our thinking. If this is true, then we want to think positively in order to attract positive outcomes. More specifically, if we have a particular desire in mind, we need to think positively about acquiring or accomplishing it, as the power of those positive thoughts is what will bring manifestation.
From my perspective and experience, this approach has limitations. For one thing, If I know exactly what I need or want, then visualizing it is a powerful tool. But if I don’t know, then visualization may limit my possibilities. There might be many ways a particular need of mine could be met if life has the freedom to present me with different opportunities or possibilities. Peter would say that the good was the enemy of the best and that we should not settle for less than what will do the job perfectly. But sometimes the familiar is the enemy of the possible. We may form images on the basis of what we already know or what we think is possible, neither of which may be the best solution to the need we want to fulfill through manifestation.
Likewise, what is meant by positive thinking? Does a single negative thought of doubt or worry cancel out my manifestation? What about two negative thoughts? Three? Four? How much negativity overcomes the positivity?
An excellent manifestor I once knew was a man who was a perpetual worrywart. He worried about everything. But none of his worries ever came to pass. Though he could be quite negative and pessimistic in his speech and even his thinking, his relationship to people and to life was very open, positive and loving. And he was usually successful when he set out to manifest something, even though he always claimed that it wouldn’t happen for him. He was proof that one thought didn’t always attract its corresponding reality. Otherwise, his life would have been one disaster after another.
In electromagnetism, likes don’t attract at all; they repel. You can see this easily if you try to put the two positive or the two negative sides of a magnet together. In this case, the difference or unlikeness attracts. The idea that like attracts like is an observation from human relationships, but even there, it doesn’t always hold true. Actually, if we think about it, we should be thankful that the so-called “law of attraction” isn’t really a law at all, at least not like gravity or the laws of thermodynamics. Imagine if every thought, feeling, or attitude you had actually had the power to attract its corresponding reality in the world. Life would be chaos, or worse. We would certainly learn to discipline our thoughts!
A proponent of the law of attraction could say that not every thought has the power to attract, just as not every magnet is of equal strength, but if the “field strength” is powerful enough, then attraction will take place. I happen to agree with this, but then the question becomes how one determines a thought’s power. It’s not simply a question of whether a thought is either positive or negative, as those who believe in the law of attraction accept that both kinds of thinking attract corresponding consequences. What makes a thought powerful? Is it its clarity? The passion behind it? The conviction of belief?
I’m sure these things all play a part, but we all have examples from our own lives and the lives of others where the most clearly, passionately, and enthusiastically held thoughts and images still fail to produce any corresponding result. Yet at the same time, my files are full of stories of amazing manifestations brought about by clear thoughts held with conviction. It happened a lot. It happened at Findhorn. Sometimes, it can happen in humorous ways.
A friend of mine was trying to sell her house. She held a clear image of her house being purchased within the time frame when she needed the sale to take place and as part of her positive thinking, she had a prayer-like affirmation that she said several times a day: “Jesus, please sell my house.” The problem was that she would get the words mixed up, as we sometimes do, and would say, “Jesus, please buy my house.”
She was visiting my wife and me when she got a phone call from her husband saying the house had just been sold. As she got the news, she burst out laughing. I asked her what had happened, and she said, “You know how I kept getting my affirmation mixed up and asking Jesus to buy my house? The buyer is a Mexican-American named Jesus!”
There is a phenomenon of attraction that happens in our lives, often manifesting as synchronicities and amazing coincidences, but it just doesn’t work all the time or in ways that we always expect. I would hardly call it a “law,” but it is something to take into consideration and be aware of. If not a law in itself, it seems to point to some deeper process at work. What might that process be? Like a mystery, we need to delve more fully for clues." David Spangler
Continuations:
"One clue is in the nature of the world. This is “Gaian” thinking. We are using ‘Gaian’ as an adjective to refer to an awareness of systems and wholes, just as the planet itself is a whole. Relating to the Greek Goddess of the Earth, Gaia. In James Lovelock’s book, the Gaian Hypothesis, he refers to the Earth as a living organism. To perceive and to think like Gaia is to think in terms of relationships and interconnectedness and what the cyberneticist and anthropologist Gregory Bateson called “the patterns that connect.”
A system is a complex whole acting as a single unit but made up of interconnected parts that mutually influence each other in dynamic ways. Our body is a system made up of organs, tissues, cells, and the like. Often, as in our body, the parts that make up a system are themselves systems. Common social systems in everyday life are families, businesses, schools, and governments. The environment is an ecological system.
The key to system thinking is to realize that a component of a system acts differently when it's part of the system than when it’s separated and observed in isolation. Taking systems apart to study their parts can give us important knowledge, but can never tell us how the system as a whole operates.
Systems thinking, or “Gaian” thinking, takes into account these complex interactions and dynamics and considers whatever system it’s examining as a whole. It is the opposite of reductive or analytical thinking that pulls things apart to consider only the individual components separate from everything else in their environment." David Spangler
Most goal-oriented thinking tends to be linear, reductive, and analytical in nature, rather than systemic. It focuses upon achieving a particular goal and marshals its forces and logic to do so. In so doing, it may not think broadly enough or systemically enough, and though it reaches the goal, it sets into motion unforeseen consequences in the process. The story of Mickey as the sorcerer’s apprentice is a perfect example of this. Further, by trying to fix the problem he created in a similarly linear and reductive way by chopping up the magical broom, he only made the problem much worse as each of the fragments transformed into a new broom that kept obeying the magical impulse to fetch water.
There are many examples in history of this kind of thinking and the problems it creates and especially in our relationship to the environment. Like Mickey, as would-be adepts, we have tried to manage a holistic systemic, interconnected world in disconnected, linear, and narrowly-directed ways. No wonder we are facing problems of climate change and environmental disorder. What is needed now is to learn to think like a planet, to think in terms of wholes and systems and interconnections: Gaian thinking.
You may wonder just what this has to do with manifestation, but it’s very important. All manifestation takes place within interconnected systems. Manifestation is a participation in such systems, but we see it as a linear response of the world to our positive thinking based on an assumed “law” of attraction. The success or failure of our manifestations may have little to do with the clarity of our images or the positivity of our thoughts, and not much to do with attraction either. It may have much more to do with how we connect and interact as part of a complex, dynamic whole system of life.
In the sections that follow, we look at some examples of Gaian thinking with respect to manifestation." David Spangler
Let's delve into these intriguing approaches to manifestation. Each method offers a distinct pathway to bringing one's desires and aspirations into reality, catering to different mindsets and beliefs.
1) Peter’s Approach: Visualization, Will, and Positive Thinking
Peter’s method is an active, assertive technique that involves three key elements:
Visualization: This is the process of creating a clear and detailed mental image of the desired outcome. It's like painting a picture in your mind of what you want to achieve or acquire.
Will: This involves the application of personal intent and determination. It's the inner strength and resolve to bring about the changes you visualize.
Positive Thinking: This element is rooted in the belief that maintaining an optimistic mindset will attract positive outcomes. It's about focusing on what can go right rather than what can go wrong.
Peter's approach is akin to using a magnet to draw in the experiences and items you desire. It's proactive and centers on the power of the individual's mind to influence the world around them.
2) David’s Approach: Embodying Qualities and Allowing Life to Flow
David's method, on the other hand, is more about internal alignment and harmony:
Inner Inspiration: This is about connecting to a deep sense of personal purpose or calling. It's the driving force or passion that motivates you.
Sense of Being: Rather than focusing solely on external goals, David's approach emphasizes cultivating the qualities within oneself that align with those goals. For example, if one wishes to have more peace in life, they focus on being peaceful in their daily actions.
Connectedness: David believes in being in tune with the environment and the people around him. This includes understanding that we are all part of a larger system and that our actions and being have a ripple effect.
David's approach is like being the boulder in the stream; life flows and arranges itself naturally around the presence he embodies. It's a more passive approach in terms of action but requires deep self-awareness and presence.
Which Approach Resonates More?
For someone who believes in the power of thought and personal agency, Peter’s approach may be more appealing. It’s hands-on and gives a sense of control over the direction of one’s life.
Conversely, for those who value harmony with the natural course of life and believe in the power of personal transformation to affect their circumstances, David’s approach may be more fitting. It’s about being grounded and centered and, from this inner state of being, watching life respond in kind.
Both approaches to manifestation have their merits and can be profoundly effective. They are not mutually exclusive, and they can even complement each other. One could use visualization and positive thinking to cultivate the inner qualities they wish to embody, thus combining Peter’s and David’s approaches for a more holistic manifestation practice.