Abraham Hicks Sells Used Thought

Esther and Jerry Hicks

In Part 3 of Oprah's XM interview with Esther Hicks, Esther claims that she'd never heard of the "Law of Attraction" till her interaction with Abraham. Similarly, her husband Jerry says in The Law of Attraction (a New York Times best-selling title that reworks 1988 recordings with Abraham), that he had never heard the words "Law of Attraction" prior to he and Esther's Abraham experience. In their 2006 attempt to trademark the phrase, they even included a statement from the Project Coordinator of Abraham-Hicks Publications, who writes that Esther and Jerry “arbitrarily” created the term.

Despite their alleged ignorance of the so-called “Law of Attraction,” their version of the “law” bares a remarkable resemblance to the same “Law of Attraction” discussed during the early 1900s New Thought movement, pioneered by authors such as Thomas Troward, William Walker Atkinson, Ernest Holmes, Charles Fillmore, William Juvenal Colville, and Elizabeth Towne. In Glints of Wisdom by William Juvenal Colville, Colville explains the New Thought “Law of Attraction” by stating, “Everything is a link to attract that which is like itself.” In John Benjamin Anderson’s analysis of the New Thought movement, New Thought: Its Lights and Shadows, he summarizes various authors’ definitions, saying, “It [thought force] draws to itself or to its thinker…that which is like unto itself.” Esther and Jerry’s definition--“That which is like unto itself is drawn”--is incredibly similar to Anderson and Colville's. In fact, the major difference between theirs and Anderson's definition is that “like unto itself” and a different tense of “draw” are rearranged. Anderson's book also discusses popular New Thought examples that were used to illustrate the metaphysical law. For instance, New Thought authors used the phrase "birds of a feather flock together" and described thoughts as being like magnets. Esther and Jerry's materials use these same examples.

(left to right) Fillmore, Atkinson, Hill

More interesting than these similarities, though, is Jerry’s self-admitted exposure to New Thought authors, such as Ernest Holmes and Charles Fillmore, whom Jerry praises as his early mentors in he and Esther’s first book, A New Beginning I. Holmes and Fillmore were highly influential figures in the New Thought movement, and both discussed the “Law of Attraction.” Unity: Volume 108, Issue 1, an early Fillmore publication, says, "We attract to ourselves that to which we give our attention." A Synopsis of the Teachings of Abraham, on Abraham-Hicks' website, more-than-similarly says, "you are attracting the essence of whatever you are choosing to give your attention to." Esther and Jerry's book The Law of Attraction restates this as, "That which you give your attention to...is that which you draw into your experience." Jerry also praises the work of Napoleon Hill, who authored The Law of Success—a book that discusses the “Law of Attraction” by name and in detail. Through these authors alone, Jerry had easy access to materials on the New Thought “law."

These authors are not the only way Jerry could have been exposed to the “Law of Attraction,” however. He was also a top Amway distributor. Amway distributors are known for their promotion and marketing of motivational, New Thought concepts from authors like Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, and Charles F. Haanel (all of whom discussed the “Law of Attraction”). Robert Fitzpatrick and Joyce K. Reynold’s book, False Profits, discusses the importance of New Thought concepts to Amway's motivational materials, and in Barbara Ehrenreich’s condemnation of the current positive thinking movement, Bright Sided, she writes that "in the early 1980s" (Jerry was still with Amway then) distributors were even “expected to buy a book a month” from authors who promoted and perpetuated New Thought teachings. Jerry, having been a top distributor, would have been subjected to this same New Thought literature—much of which discusses the “Law of Attraction.”

With Jerry’s Amway past and his self-admitted study of various New Thought authors, it’s easy to see how he could have encountered the New Thought concept “Law of Attraction” prior to he and Esther’s experience with Abraham. It's also likely that he would have been exposed to other New Thought ideas. In Richard Weiss’ 1988 book, The American Myth of Success, Weiss writes, "New Thought further encouraged a “take-it-easy" approach to life with its principle of non-resistance.” Weiss says that the “Law of Attraction” and the principle of non-resistance (sometimes referred to as the "Law of Non-resistance") were usually taught in conjunction with one another. He explains that the principle of non-resistance was about not forcing things to happen. “Receptivity rather than struggle,” he writes. In William Walker Atkinson's 1911 book, Practical New Thought, he gives the analogy of life being like a stream. He explains that rather than rowing upstream and struggling against the current, people should let the current carry them--or even row with it. Esther and Jerry use this same analogy to discuss their version of the "Law of Non-resistance," which they call the "Law of Allowing." Like the "Law of Non-resistance," the "Law of Allowing" encourages Weiss’ statement about “receptivity rather than struggle.” Florence Scovel Shinn, a very successful advocate of New Thought ideas in the early 1900s, said in her book The Secret Door to Success, “the law of non-resistance is an art.” Coincidentally, Jerry and Esther’s "Law of Allowing" is sometimes referred to as the “Art of Allowing.” This concept of the principle (or law) of non-resistance is also discussed by one Jerry’s mentors, Ernest Holmes.

Jerry and Esther claim that they had never heard of the “Law of Attraction” pre-Abraham, but it is clear that Jerry had easy exposure to these words via his favorite authors--Ernest Holmes, Napoleon Hill, and Charles Fillmore--and his past with Amway, a major proponent of New Thought materials. He and Esther’s (or Abraham's) “Law of Attraction” and “Art of Allowing” are indiscernible from the New Thought ideas of “Law of Attraction” and the "Law of Non-resistance." Their materials also incorporate popular examples and analogies from the New Thought movement. However, they continue to claim these ideas were inspired via some means other than the authors who made them famous nearly a hundred years before Jerry and Esther were even around. If Esther has received this wisdom from the nonphysical perspective known as Abraham, it is interesting that they are regurgitating (and seemingly plagiarizing) the very old ideas of the New Thought movement.

References

Anderson, John Benjamin. New Thought, Its Lights and Shadows; an Appreciation and a Criticism. Boston: Sherman, French &, 1911. 42.

Atkinson, William Walker. Practical New Thought; Several Things That Have Helped People ... Chicago: A.C. McClurg &, 1911.

Colville, W. J. Glints of Wisdom, Or, Helpful Sayings for Busy Moments: Being Abstract from Lectures with Reflections, Statements, Meditations, and Mottoes. New York, U. S. A.: Macoy and Masonic Supply, 1910.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. New York: Metropolitan, 2009.

Fitzpatrick, Robert L., and Joyce K. Reynolds. False Profits: Seeking Financial and Spiritual Deliverance in Multi-level Marketing and Pyramid Schemes. Charlotte, NC: Herald, 1997.

Hicks, Esther, and Jerry Hicks. "About Jerry and Esther Hicks and the Law of Attraction." Home of Abraham-Hicks Law of Attraction -- It All Started Here! Web. 23 Mar. 2011. <http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/about_hicks.php>.

Hicks, Esther, and Jerry Hicks. Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2004.

Hicks, Esther, and Jerry Hicks. The Law of Attraction: The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2006. 133, 137.

Hicks, Jerry, and Esther Hicks. A New Beginning I: Handbook for Joyous Survival. San Antonio, Texas: Abraham-Hicks Publications, 1996.

Hill, Napoleon. The Law of Success. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2008.

Shinn, Florence Scovel. The Secret Door to Success. Radford, VA: Wilder Publications, 2007.

Weiss, Richard. The American Myth of Success; from Horatio Alger to Norman Vincent Peale. New York: Basic, 1969.