So last night I watched The Secret. I do believe the basic premise of the Law of Attraction makes sense... and I have seen prayer work in the same basic way (you are grateful for what you have, you ask for what you'd like and have faith that it will come to you in the universe's own way, and if it is the best for you). What I don't understand about the Law of Attraction is that it doesn't really matter whether or not what you are manifesting is good for you or not: you'll get it. Well actually, that part does make sense to me. But the gurus promoting Law of Attraction via The Secret seem to think that having Porsches and millions of dollars are the most important things to attract, whether or not they are good or necessary, and that is what I DON'T understand. If you are attracting what you want, then the Law of Attraction is working. But... does it matter whether or not it is working if what you want is not good for you or for the rest of the world? (read more past the photo)

        If you attract $100,000, as one man in the film did, and then ask, as he also did, "Would this work for a million?" then will you ever really be satisfied? I think when people approach abundance in this way they are attracting greed. One of the points made in the film was that 1% of the people in the world hold the majority of the wealth because they have mastered the Law of Attraction. Well, perhaps they have... they have attracted greed. They will continue to manifest greed in themselves and in the people around them. They attract sycophants and lawsuits aimed at getting some of their money. They attract the very things they fear.  I read on a friend's wall recently the idea that part of the problem of being poor is that you must always worry about money when you are poor. But rich people worry about money just as much. Warren Buffett worries about money to the extent that he disowned one of his granddaughters because he thought her interview in a documentary questioning mass wealth might threaten his own wealth in some small way.
        There's a trend right now among new-age people to say that it's wrong to think that one must be in poverty in order to be enlightened. I agree that poverty is not necessary (or even beneficial) to achieving enlightenment. The mythology of the Buddha also supports this idea. We have been given a world of material abundance, and part of our blessing is to be able to get to the point that we can enjoy, immensely, the abundance given to us. But just as we shouldn't think we need to be in poverty to be spiritually evolved, it is also wrong to think that if someone is successful at manifesting hoards of money that they are enlightened for doing so. Is it possible to really be in a state of gratitude when enough is never enough?
        I think the Law of Attraction can be, and often is, used in universally supportive and healthy ways, but the way it is promoted by many shows that many people have an EXTREMELY narrow consciousness in regards to what they might wish to manifest. I see nothing wrong with enjoying the material world, but the more awakened a person is, surely the less likely they are to give material accumulation the entire attention of their spiritual/metaphysical practice. If the big "Secret" is that we can create the world in any way we imagine... can't we push our minds beyond their socially conditioned base desires for wealth and consumption to get at something that is an even greater blessing? Enlightenment? Peace? Serenity?