Law of Attraction 1: History of the Law of Attraction
History of the Law of Attraction
In modern writings, the law of attraction first appeared the New Thought Movement and theosophy. However, the law was also discussed by some 19th and 20th century occult writers like Israel Regardie. And it was also discussed by the self-help great Napoleon Hill in his book The Laws of Success, but it was mysteriously absent in his later and more successful book, Think and Grow Rich. (Though, many people, particularly those that teach law of attraction say that the idea is inherent in Think and Grow Rich, in fact, they argue that law of attraction is the secret that Hill wanted to teach you.)
But, it€¬€s actually a really old idea€¬¦ Empedocles discussed the four elements€¬‚¬earth, air, fire, water way back in Ancient Greece! And in his philosophic writings, he argued that the elements related to each other by philia, love or attraction, and neikos, hate or repulsion--because hate/repulsion and love/attraction are the two most basic principles of the universe. For him, everything, even humans, are made of the four elements, which must interact with each other and as such either attract each other as fire and fire do or they repel each other as fire and water or air and earth do. (And in case it's confusing, only one element repels: water repels fire--it puts it out--but air and earth are necessary for fire to exist...) Plato picks this up and declares, €¬…€likes tend toward likes€¬ a little while in the future.
In the 1700s, Isaac Newton suggested that chemical affinities were due to forces which acted in similar ways to the laws of planetary motion described earlier. From this work, '‚¬°tienne Geoffroy created a table of chemical affinities. And in a certain sense, James Maxwell€¬€s ground breaking work on electromagnetism can be seen as a continuation of this concept. And in modern physics as well, this idea has been replaced with field particle exchange€¬¦
But never, do we lose the original idea: attraction and repulsion. Some things are attracted, some things repelled. So, it seems clearly apparent that in order to change something, one must repel what they don't want and attract what they do want... Which is exactly why people spend so much time studying the law of attraction.
Though we just scratched the surface, I hope you have seen that there are many overlapping and interrelated ideas surrounding the law of attraction. And I also hope that you continue to study this fruitful and life altering concept...
In modern writings, the law of attraction first appeared the New Thought Movement and theosophy. However, the law was also discussed by some 19th and 20th century occult writers like Israel Regardie. And it was also discussed by the self-help great Napoleon Hill in his book The Laws of Success, but it was mysteriously absent in his later and more successful book, Think and Grow Rich. (Though, many people, particularly those that teach law of attraction say that the idea is inherent in Think and Grow Rich, in fact, they argue that law of attraction is the secret that Hill wanted to teach you.)
But, it€¬€s actually a really old idea€¬¦ Empedocles discussed the four elements€¬‚¬earth, air, fire, water way back in Ancient Greece! And in his philosophic writings, he argued that the elements related to each other by philia, love or attraction, and neikos, hate or repulsion--because hate/repulsion and love/attraction are the two most basic principles of the universe. For him, everything, even humans, are made of the four elements, which must interact with each other and as such either attract each other as fire and fire do or they repel each other as fire and water or air and earth do. (And in case it's confusing, only one element repels: water repels fire--it puts it out--but air and earth are necessary for fire to exist...) Plato picks this up and declares, €¬…€likes tend toward likes€¬ a little while in the future.
In the 1700s, Isaac Newton suggested that chemical affinities were due to forces which acted in similar ways to the laws of planetary motion described earlier. From this work, '‚¬°tienne Geoffroy created a table of chemical affinities. And in a certain sense, James Maxwell€¬€s ground breaking work on electromagnetism can be seen as a continuation of this concept. And in modern physics as well, this idea has been replaced with field particle exchange€¬¦
But never, do we lose the original idea: attraction and repulsion. Some things are attracted, some things repelled. So, it seems clearly apparent that in order to change something, one must repel what they don't want and attract what they do want... Which is exactly why people spend so much time studying the law of attraction.
Though we just scratched the surface, I hope you have seen that there are many overlapping and interrelated ideas surrounding the law of attraction. And I also hope that you continue to study this fruitful and life altering concept...