The exact origins of the “Law of Attraction” (LOA) are varied. Some accounts set 1877 as the date the term was first used in print, by Russian occultist Helena Blavatsky, but others say it was in 1906 that author and publisher William Walker Atkinson wrote about it in his book, “Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World.”

No matter how you slice it, the term is definitely not new. Although, calling something “new” can most certainly shift its meaning and, in some cases, its outcome and profitability.

LOA dovetails perfectly with the gig economy—freelancers or project-based jobs (up 15% over the past 10 years), as well as, multi-level marketing companies (MLMs).

In order to make LOA work, Anirban Kar suggests, in his article “Here’s Why the “Law of Attraction” Gurus Are So Rich & You Are Not!,” that we “forget their teachings” and “focus on their business model.”

Of course, there are a myriad of other ways of framing life, however, the allure of manifesting, using “the universe” as a cosmic cash machine/genie lamp, offers some distance from the disillusionment caused by the crumbling bootstrap theory. Those who witnessed loved ones who invested their lives and livelihoods in companies who, then, pulled the plug on pensions and left many workers to fend for themselves, are looking for a little hope, if not salvation.

However, these methodologies and mindsets are completely harmless, in and of themselves. What’s the harm in wishing and hoping and moreover, if those wishes and hopes are positively focused, what could possibly be wrong with framing one’s life like this? Absolutely nothing.

But…

With each one of these methodologies, there’s a recipe or a laundry list of “to-do” items, before which, the manifestations can be manifested. It’s a slippery slope to an abysmal rabbit hole if one is not fastidiously careful.

Trouble is, framing one’s life like this appears utterly harmless and an exercise in free will. However, and there’s a big H in that word, when large groups of people begin to impress their judgments based on these frames, they become toxic and potentially abusive.

After an intensely challenging year of practicing LOA, Anirban Kar felt depleted and dejected and sought answers from LOA gurus who, essentially, said: “It was all on me. According to them, it had to be one of these things:

1. I did not believe hard enough.
2. I tried so hard, it created a resistance.

 

Again, absolutely nothing wrong with putting your dreams and hopes into action to manifest a positive outcome. Trouble comes, when the aforementioned manifestation doesn’t immediately show up. Doubt enters in the form of questioning oneself and perhaps even the methodology. Again, doubt is not a problem either, but the mindset around moving through the doubt can create a frame that is looping, treacherous and toxic.

For example, a goal is set, a wish is desired and through one of these chosen methodologies, a list of actions is created. Subsequently, the list of actions is completed, and each step has been done while thinking only good thoughts and having superbly positive intentions. Inevitably, after a period of doubt, the question is asked: “Were you specific?” If you were looking for money to come into your bank account, were you specific about the amount? If you’re desiring a relationship, did you mention a detailed description of exactly the type of person you are looking for, i.e. hair color, belief system, shoe size?

Soon self-doubt, self-blaming, and shaming creep in and if one is not careful, a looping cycle of toxic positivity ensues. Begging the question: What outcome was sought, to begin with?

The easiest path isn’t always the straightest one.

But, exercise caution when looking for your next “go-to” resolution. No matter the outcome, be kind to yourself.

The Mathematical Association of America says, “The measurement of time began with the invention of sundials in Ancient Egypt sometime prior to 1500 B.C. However, the time the Egyptians measured was not the same as the time today’s clocks measure. For the Egyptians, and indeed for a further three millennia, the basic unit of time was the period of daylight.”

However, Industrialization and the invention of the lightbulb were just two events that shaped, or maybe warped, our sense of time.

So, here we are. Biding, racing, scanning, making, marking, healing…

Suppose, that while we are doing all those things, a moment of measurement could stretch out or take a detour. For one almost imperceptible, blink-of-an-eye moment, imagine that time does something unexpected and we are able to hop to another timeline or visit our past self, skip ahead—minutes, hours or millennia—or even stand outside ourselves and look at the present with a new perspective.

What if these very words that you are reading, right now, were created 1,000 years from now and are being channeled from the future self of this writer?

The title, words chosen, intention behind the article—what if the research was gathered in the past, filtered by the present, then, finally written through a future connection.

Of course, that is just this writer’s story. Yours could involve any number of people, locations, or scenarios. How about you travel into the future? It is more science and less fiction than you might think. The trouble isn’t fast-forwarding in time, it’s the return travel that’s an issue, but, more on that later.

A video on the Science Channel, How to Time Travel (Kind Of) | How the Universe Works, offers some expert advice about exactly how one might go about traveling into the future.

To begin, we must start by reframing our understanding and definition of time.

“So, instead of thinking of our universe as a 3 dimensional place that just changes over time,” explains Physicist, Max Tegmark. “We should think of reality as a 4 dimensional place known as space-time.”

More specifically, we can think of the space-time continuum where motion through space is linked to motion through time. To break it down: “Because space consists of 3 dimensions, and time is 1-dimensional, space-time must, therefore, be a 4-dimensional object. It is believed to be a ‘continuum’ because so far as we know, there are no missing points in space or instants in time, and both can be subdivided without any apparent limit in size or duration,” says an article “Special & General Relativity Questions and Answers,” So, physicists now routinely consider our world to be embedded in this 4-dimensional Space-Time continuum, and all events, places, moments in history, actions and so on are described in terms of their location in Space-Time.”

The scientists interviewed for the Science Channel segment agreed that you’d have to rocket into space and orbit the earth at almost the speed of light. It’s hard to imagine how fast that might be.

“To put it in perspective, just how fast that is,” says Astrophysicist, Hakeem Oluseyi, “The fastest human-piloted vehicle in history was Apollo 10, and it went 25,000 mph. You would need to go more than 25,000 times faster than that. That’s pretty fast.”

Although physics might make time travel possible at some point, there are no vehicles equipped to handle the energy required for the speed necessary to travel at the speed of light. Not only that but once you get there, there is no way to go back in time. So, you’d be stuck in the future.

There is nothing to stop anyone from imaging the possibilities. In fact, Albert Einstein, the father of modern physics, said, “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”

Perhaps our imagining could be the next step to conquering a new space-time frontier. Who knows, this article could play a pivotal role in someone’s theoretical physics epiphany. Cheers to our future selves!