The Law of Attraction: The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham

by Esther Hicks

No other creates in your experience. You are doing it all; you get all of the credit.

If you focus upon whatever you want, you will attract whatever you want. If you focus upon the lack of whatever you want, you will attract more of the lack. (Every subject is really two subjects: what you want and the lack, or absence, of what you want.) If you are paying attention to the way you are feeling, you will always know whether you are focused upon what you want or upon the lack of it—for when you are thinking of what you want, you are feeling good, and when you are thinking of the lack of what you want, you are feeling bad.

As you say, “I want money to support my lifestyle,” you are attracting the money, but as you focus upon the things that you want that you do not have, noticing the lack—you are pushing your abundance away.

Take three separate pieces of paper, and at the top of each page write one thing that you want. Now take the first page, and beneath the subject of what you have written, write: “These are the reasons that I want this. .. .” Write whatever comes to your mind—write whatever flows forth naturally; do not try to force it. And when nothing more comes, you are complete for now. Now, turn your paper over and write at the top of the second side of the page: “These are the reasons that I believe that I will have this.. . .”

Today, no matter what I’m doing and no matter whom I’m doing it with, it is my dominant intention to look for things that I like.

Although every thought has creative potential, the thoughts that do not bring great emotion with them are not bringing the subject of your thought into your experience with any sort of speed. When it comes to thoughts that you feel strong emotion about—whether it is positive emotion or negative emotion—the essence of those thoughts is being quickly manifested into your physical experience. And that emotion that you are feeling is communication from your Inner Being, letting you know that you are now accessing the power of the Universe.

Giving thought, on the one hand, and expecting or believing, on the other hand, is the balance that brings to you that which you receive.

Negative emotion exists only when you are miscreating. And so, when you recognize that you are feeling negative emotion—no matter why, no matter how it got there, no matter what the situation is—stop doing whatever it is that you are doing and focus your thoughts on something that feels better.

Practice the Deliberate Creating Process for 15 or 20 minutes every day by sitting quietly, undisturbed and undistracted by that which is around you, daydreaming about your life, seeing yourself as you want to be, and envisioning yourself surrounded by that which pleases you.

The way you feel is caused by the thoughts that you are thinking. So the way you feel about yourself is your strong and powerful magnetic point of attraction. When you feel poor, you cannot attract prosperity. When you feel fat, you cannot attract thin. When you feel lonely, you cannot attract companionship—it defies the Law. Many around you want to point out “reality” to you. They say, “Face the facts. Look at what-is. ” And we say to you, if you are able to see only what-is—then, by the Law of Attraction, you will create only more of what-is. . . . You must be able to put your thoughts beyond what-is in order to attract something different or something more.

Much of what you are now living, you want to continue, so keep giving your attention to those things, and you will continue to hold those things in your experience. But anything that you do not want, you must take your attention from.

when you say, “I’m not going to think about that subject anymore,” in that moment you are still thinking about that subject. So the key is to think about something else—something that you do want. With practice you will be able to tell by the way you feel if you are thinking about something wanted or unwanted.

There must be a beginning place for all things. In other words, many who are interacting with us say, “Abraham, I hear what you’re saying, but I don’t know what I want.” And so we say, begin by stating: I want to know what I want. For in setting forth that statement, you will become a magnet that will attract all sorts of data from which you can make your decisions. Begin somewhere, and let the Law of Attraction deliver unto you examples and choices; and then the more you think about those choices, the more passionate you will be.

You cannot create in the experience of another because you cannot offer their vibration—which is their point of attraction—for them.

You are negatively influenced by two major hindrances: One is the influence of others; the other is the influence of your own old habits. . . .

offering your vibration of thought in your present, and it is this present-thought vibration that the Law of Attraction is always responding to; therefore, your power to create is now.

All things—whether you determine that they are good or bad—are just the next logical steps from where you are currently standing.

Nothing ever manifests from your first, subtle attention to it. It takes time and attention to a subject to draw enough power to it to cause its manifestation. That is why all kinds of things, both wanted and unwanted, increase. In other words, diseases increase and become more plentiful as humans focus more and more upon diseases.

Truly, the perfect role model for you, regarding any subject, does not exist—you are the creator of that.

If you have been purely visualizing your intention, then it must come, and come quickly. The purity of the visualization is the key, and by that we mean purely offering thoughts only in the direction of what you want. When you say, “I want it, but . . .” as you add your but, you cancel it or defeat it at birth. Often you are offering as many or more thoughts about the absence of your desire as you are about the presence of your desire. If something you want is slow to come to you, it can be for only one reason: You are spending more time focused upon its absence than you are about its presence.

Get your eyes, words, and thoughts off of what-is, and put them purely on what you now want. The more you think and speak of what you want, the faster what you want will be yours.

Quantum leaps are not achieved by enhancing the belief part or the allowing part of the equation. Quantum leaps are achieved by enhancing the wanting part.

There is not a need to prove anything to anyone with your words. Let that which you are—that which you are living—be your clear example to uplift others.

It was by the power of your desire, and by the power of your allowing—indeed, by your application of the very Laws that we are discussing here—that you have emerged into this time-space reality. And so, your physical existence here is proof of your worthiness, or deservedness, to be, do, or have whatever you desire, you see.

When you are in the mode of justifying, you are in a negative mode, for you are not focused upon what you want. Instead, you are trying to convince others that it is all right for you to desire, and you need not do this. It is all right.

You did not come into this environment to create through action. Instead, your action is meant to be a way in which you enjoy what you have created through thought.

Action that is inspired from aligned thought is joyful action. Action that is offered from a place of contradicted thought is hard work that is not satisfying and does not yield good results. When

You are mostly physical-action Beings at this time because you do not yet understand the power of your thought. When you are better at applying your deliberate thought, there will not be so much action for you to tend to.

The subjects of your thoughts are prepaving your future experiences.

We give our undivided attention to continually evolving desires. Your physical world, Earth, is a nice environment for fine-tuning your knowledge, for here your thoughts do not translate into an instant equivalent—you have a buffer of time. As you set forth your thoughts of what you want, you must become very clear (clear enough that emotion comes forth) before you begin the attracting process. And even then, you must allow it and expect it into your experience before it manifests. That buffer of time provides you with much opportunity to be very clear about how desirable the thought feels to you. If you were in a dimension where you were instantly manifesting, you would be spending more of your time trying to get rid of your mistakes (as many of you are now doing anyway) than you would in creating the things you want.

Most are creating almost everything in their lives by default because they do not understand the rules of the game. They do not yet understand the Laws.

The simple key to knowing whether you are not specific enough or too specific is by the way you feel. In other words, as you are in your Workshop, the specifics of your thought will bring forth the enthusiasm, or the positive emotion; but if you become too specific before you’ve collected enough data, then you will feel doubtful or worried. And so, recognizing the balance of your intentions is a matter of paying attention to the way you feel. . . . Be specific enough that you feel positive emotion, but not so specific that you begin feeling negative emotion. When you speak of what you want and why you want it, you usually feel better. However, when you speak of what you want and how it will come to you, if you do not right now see a way that it will unfold, then that specific thought will feel worse. If you speak of who will help it to come, when it will come, or where it will come from, and you don’t have any of those answers, then those specifics are hindering more than they are helping. It really is a matter of being as specific as you can be, while still continuing to feel good.

The question is not about whether you should be specific or general. The question is about the direction of the thought. What you are reaching for are good-feeling thoughts. So reach for good-feeling thoughts, and realize that you will usually find them faster as you stay general in your approach; but then from that place of feeling good, continue to gently add more and more good-feeling specifics to them until you can easily be very specific and feel good at the same time. This is the best way to create.

Would we be better off to just envision the essence of the end result and let the specific details take care of themselves completely? Abraham: That is a good way of going about it. Fast-forward to the happy end results that you are seeking. Imagine already having achieved whatever it is that you desire. And from that place of feeling good, you will attract the specific thoughts, people, circumstances, and events to bring all of that about.

Rather than trying so hard to erase the past, focus on the present. Give thought to what you now want.

In extremely negative situations, we would suggest distraction rather than trying to change the thought. In other words, go to sleep or go to a movie; listen to music; pet your cat . . . do something that will change your thought.

You can replace a fast-moving “downward spiral” with a fast-moving “upward spiral” just by directing your thoughts to more and more things that you do want.

In this unlimited Universe, there need be no competition for resources, for the resources are unlimited. You may deprive yourself of receiving them, and therefore perceive a shortage, but it is really of your own making.

Individually, you hold enough power to create anything that you can imagine. Therefore, you do not need to come together with others. It can, however, be fun!

What we mean by the Art of Allowing is: I am that which I am, and I am pleased with it, joyful in it. And you are that which you are, and while it is different perhaps from that which I am, it is also good. . . .Because I am able to focus upon that which I want, even if there are those differences between us that are dramatic, I do not suffer negative emotion because I am wise enough not to focus upon that which brings me discomfort. I have come to understand, as I am one who is applying the Art of Allowing, that I have not come forth into this physical world to get everyone to follow the “truth” that I think is the truth. I have not come forth to encourage conformity or sameness—for I am wise enough to understand that in sameness, in conformity, there is not the diversity that stimulates creativity. In focusing upon bringing about conformity, I am pointed toward an ending rather than to a continuing of creation.

You, from your physical perspective, may not be allowing your own expansion, and when you do not, you feel rotten. And when you do not allow another, you feel rotten.

Until the first two Laws are understood and applied, the Art of Allowing cannot be understood or applied, for it is not possible for you to be willing to allow others until you understand that what they do and what they say need not affect you. Because your feeling—one that comes from the very core of your Being—is so very powerful that, because you want to preserve your own self, you cannot and will not allow one who threatens that.

These Laws that we are presenting to you are Eternal, which means that they are forever. These Laws are Universal, which means that they are everywhere. They are Absolute, whether you know that they are or not; they exist, whether you accept that they exist or not—and they influence your life, whether you know that they do or not.

The most powerful Law in the Universe—the Law of Attraction— simply says that that which is like unto itself is drawn. You may have noticed that when bad things begin to happen in your life, it seems that everything starts to go wrong. But when you wake up in the morning feeling good, you have a happier day. However, when you begin the day with a fight with someone, you find that the rest of your day is negative in many regards—that is your awareness of the Law of Attraction. And, indeed, everything that you are experiencing—from the most obvious to the most subtle—is influenced by this powerful Law. . . . When you think about something that pleases you, by the Law of Attraction, other thoughts that are similar to it will begin to come forth.

the Law of Deliberate Creation is described in this way: That which I give thought to, I begin to attract. That which I give thought to that brings forth strong emotion, I attract more quickly. And once I have launched it powerfully by giving thought that evokes emotion, then, as I expect that which I have thought about—I get it.

Your thoughts are powerful, attractive magnets—attracting one to another. Thoughts attract to themselves, and you attract thoughts by giving your attention to them.

You will notice that those who speak most of prosperity, have it. Those who speak most of health, have it. Those who speak most of sickness, have it. Those who speak most of poverty, have it. It is Law. It can be no other way. The way you feel is your point of attraction, and so, the Law of Attraction is most understood when you see yourself as a magnet, getting more and more of the way you feel.

Words do not teach. It is life experience that brings you your knowing.

when you begin to notice that you are getting what you are thinking about, then, and only then, will you want to pay attention to (in fact, to deliberately control) your thoughts.

once you have recognized that thinking of what you do not want only attracts more of what you do not want into your experience, controlling your thoughts will not be a difficult thing, because your desire to do so will be very strong.