New Support for the Law of Attraction

Many of us are familiar with the Law of Attraction, the idea that our minds can guide us toward a goal and attract situations and people to us in order to achieve that goal. There are many stories and successes from people who have used the "Law" but there is little if any hard scientific research to support it. For example, a recent Medline search on Law of Attraction turned up empty handed.

Despite the paucity of scientific evidence the "Law" continues to gain in popularity with books like "The Secret." Those of us who believe in it sometimes have a difficult time explaining it to others who rely a bit more heavily on logic. Some of us walk that thin line between science and metaphysics sometimes veering off to one side or the other.

Science does have some theories about how our unconscious minds help us to move toward a goal. However you may be surprised to discover that until recently science understood that the unconscious mind has a very limited if any role in achieving goals. In other words, your unconscious mind cannot help you to learn a new skill or achieve a goal, it can only work on what already is learned.

Now, some new research from Hebrew University psychologists, Baruch Eitam, Ran Hassin and Yaacov Schul overturns the idea that the unconscious mind plays no role in achieving goals.

The researchers studied the performance of two groups of subjects in performing a computer simulation of running a sugar factory and learning a sequence of circles appearing on a computer screen. The first group was unconsciously motivated by completing a word search task that exposed them to a number of motivating words. The second group performed the same word search with a neutral selection of words.

The results showed that the group exposed to the motivating words performed better than the non-motivated group. This means that the unconscious mind does indeed help in learning new skills.

So how would this help to explain the Law of Attraction? The "Law" works at least in part by fulfilling people's needs. For example let's say a number of people are unconsciously looking to solve a problem for which you have the solution. Your unconscious mind is looking to provide a solution while they are looking to get a solution. Both your mind and theirs work together to fulfill the need. Since we exist in a complex network of people, events and things, it only takes making some connections in order to link up with what is needed to achieve a goal. In a sense people and events are attracted to you.

Reference:

Association for Psychological Science (2008, March 8). Profound Impact Of Our Unconscious On Reaching Goals Revealed.