Impermanence and Laws of Attraction

 There have been a surfeit of books in recent years which describe the idea of "Laws of Attraction". This refers to the idea in psychology going back to William James, who described how people can attract things in their life by cultivating aspirations to have them. Conversely, fear drives things away--including the fear of losing something, ironically. The explanation for this phenomenon relates to the power of beliefs. For example, if a person believes that they are capable of attracting the best job, due to their special qualities and strong self-esteem, then their behaviors will exhibit positive characteristics that naturally attract them to that job. For instance, if you believe that you have a strong ability to land a job, chances are, you will practice some preparations that fall in with that belief. In the very least, you will have a determination to "prove" this belief to be true, by doing all the things that are congruent with that belief. On the other hand, if you are unable to see yourself as capable of doing anything worthwhile, you will probably exude little effort, or might make very anxious efforts which lead to mistakes or rushing. In other words, beliefs shape future actions by giving the person a mental picture that guides their future.
   I agree with much of what this philosophy entails, because it pragmatically makes sense that beliefs relate reciprocally to actions. However, I don't ascribe to the idea of attraction as a "law", as one would think of a natural force as a law. The reason is that there are many causes and conditions that come together to shape particular outcomes. To use the simple example of taking a test: one surely will have greater chances of doing well on a test if they spend more time and effort preparing, as well as believe that they are capable of doing well. This belief is an element in strong self-esteem and love. But, on the other hand, if we knew ahead of time what questions will be on the test and simply memorized the answers, we would be neither learning nor mimicking real-life situations. There are many contingencies that determine success or failure in a goal, and without those contingencies, there would hardly be any true learning. So, to say that there is a natural law that states we can have what we want if we believe in ourselves, is a bit oversimplified. It also distorts James' original pragmatism by suggesting that there is a "Universe" out there that contains inexorable laws of cause and effect. In fact, so many conditions shape results that it is impossible to tell the outcomes to an exact degree.