Law of Attraction Arguments, Part 10: “Blame Yourself”

How hard-hitting is Farber’s ‘Blame Yourself’ argument against Law of Attraction? Is the Law of Attraction now proven false?

Note: This article is part of a series on arguments against the Law of Attraction. All articles in this series are available from the overview page called “Law of Attraction: Is It Real?“

This article on Neil Farber’s arguments against Law of Attraction (as presented in “The Truth About the Law of Attraction“) deals with the “Blame Yourself” argument.

Previously I have published nine other articles that address other arguments that he has brought up (of which my latest one was the “Mindless” argument).

Today’s exercise is to continue this series of investigations, and to try to find out exactly how good, or bad, this “Blame Yourself” argument is. And to do that I am going to proceed in two steps.

My first step is to try to make sense of the argument, in terms of its logic. For that reason, I am going to reconstruct his argument so that it it becomes more structured and easy to understand.

And once that’s done, I’ll go through all the premises one after one, to see if we really have a valid and sound argument.

What will we find?

PART 1: THE ARGUMENT

Here are Farber’s closing sentences in his own presentation of the “Blame Yourself” argument:

So here we have some reasoning that seems to say that Law of Attraction is working in such a way that the practitioner, somehow or other, “hypnotizes” its surroundings so that those surrounding can “behave” in a way that is pleasing to the practitioner.

When we look at the rest of his argument, there are two more things that he is saying. First of all, that since the Law of Attraction is supposed to be “perfect” law, then positivity should always attract more positivity.

And the second thing he says is that it would then follow, from the idea that positivity should always attract more positivity, that the practitioner is completely responsible for any goal that was not reached, regardless of how “unrealistic” it was.

The difficulty now is this. How do these three ideas connect? What is it that he is trying to say? That is the question. So we really need a reconstruction of the whole thing. Let’s go!

Argument 10: “Blame Yourself”

Here is how I have reconstructed Farber’s “Blame Yourself” argument (Argument 10):

PART 2: MY RESPONSE

As you can see above, this argument is quite complex. But since there is one conclusion in the middle of it, it gets a little easier to make sense of.

In any case, I am here in Part 2 doing my ordinary evaluation of the argument, to see if it works. To do that I will, for each of the 10 propositions, see if the statement is true or not. But if we were to discover that one of the premises is false or irrelevant, then Argument 10 may be in trouble. Let us see how good (or bad) this argument really is.

Proposition P1: Law of Attraction Is a Perfect Law

So let’s first start with proposition P1:

In my opinion, this is a rather good proposition. For this sounds much like the authorized teachings of the Law of Attraction.

But it is important point out that the Law of Attraction is about vibration and energy, and not about positivity. For the word “positivity” is sometimes used as a label to describe people who are uttering positive-sounding sentences and expressions (for example affirmations), without feeling very good.

So such people may, in an attempt to avoid sounding negative, say “I feel very positive about my future”, even though they very well, deep down, may be negative and afraid of what the future will bring.

But if the word “positivity” is understood as “a genuine emotional feeling” (as opposed to merely some “positive-sounding words”), then P1 is quite all right. So we can consider P1 to be true.

Proposition P2: Students Should Be Able to Manifest Positivity

Here is how proposition P2 is formulated:

Proposition P2 is also reasonably good, in a sense. It is quite true that the student of Law of Attraction mostly will attract more positivity if he or she actively engages in the typical positivity-building exercises.

However, no authorized account of the Law of Attraction claims that the student will only attract positive things. That is not possible. This is because there will never come a time when the student is entirely resistance free. So there will always be new obstacles popping up now and then along the journey.

Thus, even if the student belongs to the top ten manifestors on this planet, he or she will still experience non-positive manifestations.

This means that proposition P2 is not true. And because of this, the first conclusion (C1) cannot be considered true, since it is dependent on P2.

Proposition P3: But LoA Students Don’t Control Others

Here is proposition P3 in Argument 10:

Proposition P3 is rather good. It is correct that students of the Law of Attraction, in normal circumstances, only can control their own thoughts and actions, not other people’s thoughts and attraction.

So the idea that such students do not control others that way is correct. Therefore, proposition P3 may be considered true.

Proposition P4: And LoA Will Not Make Others Positive

Proposition P4 in Argument 10 goes like this:

According the authorized accounts of the Law of Attraction, every individual is responsible for their own management of thoughts and emotions and positivity. And that positivity will not change just because others are more happy.

However, it may change if others are more happy, and you notice that they are more happy. For if you notice it, then it may affect your own vibration. But as long as you don’t notice it, or think about it, their increased positivity will not affect you in the slightest.

All in all, proposition P4 is quite good. So we can consider it to be true.

Proposition P5: So LoA Will Not Always Deliver Positive Things

Here is proposition P5 in Argument 10:

Proposition P5 is more or less correct. Sometimes even advanced students of the Law of Attraction will be experiencing manifestations that are not desirable (either because they are negative manifestations or because they are “re-manifestations” that are more or less identical to what one previously has).

But this is only to be expected. In the case of a negative manifestation, this is the result of one’s negative resistance (cf. discussion in P2 above,). In the case of a “re-manifestation” this is also natural, because the universe will only deliver it to you when you are ready. So if you do not tend to your vibration in the right way, it may take you years to move away from your current situation to a another one where you manifest those new things you desire.

In other words, there is nothing “easy” or “simple” with getting the Law of Attraction to work, especially when it comes to those things that you really, really want, but have waited for many years to manifest.

Thus, we must consider proposition P5 true.

Proposition C1: Hence Law of Attraction Is False

This is the first conclusion in Argument 10:

The biggest problem for C1 is that it requires proposition P2 to be true. But because P2 is not true, C1 is also not true.

Here’s how it works. The assumption in P2 is that students should be able to always, without exception, attract positivity. But since no student is ever 100% positive, there is always room for some negativity to be manifested.

Therefore, the fact that there may be negative manifestations in the lives of advanced students of the Law of Attraction does not disprove the theory of the Law of Attraction. Such negative manifestations are always expected now and then.

Hence, proposition C1 is not proven true. Law of Attraction could still be a perfectly valid natural law.

Proposition P6: No Problem for Ordinary People

Here I am discussing proposition P6 in Argument 10, which goes like this:

This is correct. For if someone does not believe in the Law of Attraction anyway, they would not blame the Law of Attraction for any negative manifestations (as seen in P5 above).

Therefore, we must conclude that proposition P6 is true.

Proposition P7: But LoA Students May Blame Themselves

Proposition P7 in Argument 10 is formulated like this:

Some students of the Law of Attraction may very well act this way and be disappointed and perhaps blame themselves (or blame the authors of the Law of Attraction, or blame the universe, etc.). For some may be under the impression that the Law of Attraction always should deliver nice results (but it will not, as seen in P5).

But this may simply be because they have not taken part of the authorized accounts of the Law of Attraction. Maybe they have only seen some simplified amateur book on the Law of Attraction that promises that anyone can be a gazillionaire in 21 days.

Another possibility is that they did find an authorized account, but they still don’t follow all the rules and guidelines (and there are many such rules and guidelines!).

In short, proposition P7 is true.

Proposition P8: So LoA Students May Become More Unhappy

Here is proposition P8 in Argument 10:

Well, this is, of course, dependent on each student. There may be certain students that become very unhappy about their inability to manifest things. Sure. But what does their unhappiness prove?

The only thing it really proves is that they are human, and that their expectations are too high. [note 1] This may have to do with the fact that many students are following non-authorized accounts of the Law of Attraction that don’t tell them the whole story.

In any case, if their expectations had been more realistic, as the authorized account of Law of Attraction would have taught them, then they may have avoided their unhappiness early on.

Summing up: Proposition P8 is true.

Proposition C2: So Again, Law of Attraction Is False

Here is the second conclusion in Argument 10:

Well, since we already found the first conclusion (C1) to be false, C2 is not really reaffirming an already proven thing. At the most, it would be proving it for the first time, if it at all were true.

Proposition C2 is built on the assumption that P8 is true. And the idea is that if P8 is true, then C2 would also be true.

But that, of course, does not automatically follow. For there may be thousands of reasons for why people fail in accomplishing their goals.

First, one must naturally use an authorized account of Law of Attraction that tells the whole story, as it really is (few students do this). Not having the whole story will be detrimental to one’s progress and one’s results.

Second, one must then also do the many rules and recommendations and processes as prescribed (few students do this). In other words, most students are too sloppy and too non-strict with their practices to achieve optimal results, or any results at all.

A third factor is impatience. Instead of thinking of the Law of Attraction as a long-term plan of getting happy, they think of it as a shortcut to get a couple of super-nice manifestations, perhaps so that they can impress on their friends and family, or get ahead in the rat race.

And because of this general attitude of many students (not using the authorized version, not following the recommendations so strictly, but still expecting fast results), it is no wonder that some will be disappointed.

But that, of course, is nothing exclusive to the students of the Law of Attraction. There are people failing to reach their goals every day, in all areas of life, all around the planet, whether they are into the Law of Attraction or not. And many of them consequently engage in various complaint activities, either internally or externally. [notes 2 and 3]

Such people are typically not failing because the law of gravitation is false, or because the second law of thermodynamics is false. [note 4] Rather, they are typically failing because of other circumstances: their own attitude, their physical appearance, their low energy levels, their lack of intelligence, their lack of motivation, their lack of creativity, their lack of cooperation, their envy or hate of other people, etc.

Therefore, C2 cannot be considered true.

CONCLUSION

Farber’s “Blame Yourself” argument (Argument 10) is not a sound one. Although we may consider many of the propositions true, it still does not help. For since P2 is not true, the first conclusion is also not true (C1).

And even though P6, P7, and P8 all may be considered true, the second conclusion (C2) is too ambitious. That conclusion simply does not automatically follow from any of the above propositions.

Consequently, none of the two conclusions (C1, C2) are found true. So we find once again that Farber’s argument is a no-go. And thus Law of Attraction can still be 100% real. And it certainly is.

For those of you who want to discover the power of Law of Attraction, you are most welcome to my “Master the Law of Attraction” article, which is a detailed overview of what this philosophy has to offer. Perhaps this might inspire you to a happier and more successful life?

Chris Bocay

NOTES

1. Self-blame is often practiced in situations when high expectations are not met. Thus Schwartz and Ward say: “Unrealistically high expectations coupled with a tendency to take intense personal responsibility for failure make a lethal combination” (2004, p. 98).
2. It is interesting to note Seligman’s take on blame. Some people blame themselves (“internalization”) and other people blame others (“externalization”). Those people are different, according to Seligman: “People who blame external events do not lose self-esteem when bad events strike. On the whole, they like themselves better than people who blame themselves do” (1998, p. 49). This is compatible with the authentic versions of the Law of Attraction: a person who blames others and who seeks revenge (N2, “medium negativity”) is less self-blaming than a person who is in depression and hopelessness (N3, “strong negativity”). Nevertheless, people who are actually students of the Law of Attraction are typically on the positive half of the NP spectrum, and are not blaming anything or anyone, including themselves. For they know that they create their own reality.
3. It seems as if it is very common that people with chronic diseases are developing theories about how those diseases have developed. And according to Taylor, it is common that self-blame is applied in such situations (2010, pp. 709b-710a).
4. For more on the theory of gravitation, see Guinn 2004, pp. 1866a-1869b. For more on the second law of thermodynamics, see Mintzer 2004, pp. 4014a-4020b.

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