Many years ago when I was still a client of the counselor that introduced me to the world of energy, I found Esther and Jerry Hicks talking about The Law of Attraction. I was immediately captivated and listened to them regularly for several years. I found their explanations helpful and saw the patterns they talked at length about. I would summarize it as “where attention goes, energy flows.” Good or bad, what you give your attention and energy to is what you get back from the universe.
I watched several friends falling into mental traps. Blaming themselves harshly for a stray negative thought; feeling betrayed by the universe when they didn’t get the thing they wanted, or worse blaming themselves.
It wasn’t until I was talking with a friend who was struggling with manifesting her dream that I realized what was happening. She (and most of the avid listeners/followers of Law of Attraction) didn’t understand that the Law of Attraction is one of 12 known laws of the universe.
Manifesting isn’t ruled exclusively by the Law of Attraction because the other 11 laws affect and influence manifesting.
The Hicks’ served up Law of Attraction as the only thing people needed to focus on in the Universe. I never heard them discuss other aspects of the Universe like spirits, guides, angels, or the other 11 laws of the universe.
The absence of a more complete belief system had never occurred to me because I had a fuller understanding of how things world, and now with their help a much better grasp of the law of attraction.
Why the Full Picture is Important
We need to understand all the laws that affect our actions because those other laws can interfere with the manifestation you are working to create.
For example, the Law of Relativity says that everything happens in relationship to everything else, therefore, it stands to reason that something you are trying to manifest might be affected by something else in the world that you aren’t thinking about.
You don’t even realize the sheer number of things could prevent your manifestation under the right circumstances. Maybe it isn’t time for that thing to happen, maybe something else you are pursuing or have already manifested can’t exist together with the new thing. And possibilities are literally endless.
The universe is a complex place. Patterns organize it very well but it isn’t designed for one person or species, it weighs all life equally. Man is the only species that behaves as if it is the most important thing on the planet and in the Universe. But this simply isn’t the case.
Humans aren’t here on the planet to get everything we want, Life isn’t intended to be easy and for everything to work out in our favor all the time. We have the best luck when we can detach from outcomes, follow our intuition, and focus on what makes us feel good.
How The Law of Attraction Led to Spiritual Bypassing
Law of Attraction was all the rage for about 5 years because it was seen as a way to hack the system to get what you want. It was used like capitalism but wrapped in pseudo-spirituality. I am sure I am not the only one who cringes when someone suggests Law of Attraction techniques as a solution to a more successful business, finding the love of your life, or curing your chronic illness.
The way people were selling Law of Attraction was the problem because it promoted everything awful about our society including, get rich quick schemes, victim blaming, and a cover for not doing the deep personal work of awakening, healing, integration, and finding peace and connection within.
The set up for the law of attraction is this, “when we control our thoughts and focus on what we want to have happen instead of what could happen that we don’t want, we can indeed manifest what we do want.”
The Problem with Control
The key word to pay attention to here is “control”. It is a problematic word. As anyone with ADHD knows, controlling your thoughts is a lot harder than it seems. The concept of ‘control your thoughts’ implies that if you fail to achieve your desired outcome, “it is because you failed to control your thoughts.”
According to this premise and the culture of our society; you are the failure, who is not worthy of your desired outcome. The process isn’t to blame because it is a law, it will work, so if it didn’t work, that’s on you.
Toxic Positivity
Another critical flaw in this approach is the requirement to constantly steer our thoughts toward positive outcomes—often described simply as maintaining “good thoughts.” In practice, this turns us into our own internal thought police: whenever we go through a difficult day or need to process low moods and negative feelings, we later attribute any unfulfilled desires entirely to those bad thoughts or off days.
The phrase ‘toxic positivity’ came out of this trend. It isn’t normal or healthy to think only good thoughts. Replacing negative thoughts with positive ones without ever allowing a negative thought to the surface is Spiritual Bypassing.
The Real Application for Law of Attraction
There is a difference between chronic negative thinking and having a negative thought or a bad day. When you plan for your own defeat and never believe good things will happen, bad things will indeed happen. This law is explaining to us that energy is attracted to like-energy; good or bad.
So it isn’t all garbage, if you are someone who plans for every catastrophe and won’t get your hopes up for fear of jinxing the outcome, the law of attraction is for you. Lean into that gratitude journal, start planning for success or at least allowing yourself to imagine it, and if you need to; learn how to manage your feelings of disappointment, anxiety, and joy. It is how you change the tide and align with your desires.
All 12 Laws of the Universe
The laws of the universe are describing patterns of energy, metaphysics, and spiritual concepts. Understanding how the universe works helps us understand how and why things happen. It can take the sting out of disappointing events and relax the ego when things go exactly according to your plan. The universe was not made for humans, humans are a very small element in an enormous universe. Learning these laws gives us perspective and appreciation for however things turn out.
Here are brief definitions of all 12 laws of the universe. Choose one this week and look for it out in the world.
The Law of Divine Oneness
At the center of everything is a simple truth that many empaths don’t just believe, they feel it in their bodies: we’re connected. Everything belongs to one whole, and none of us are as separate as we imagine.
The Law of Vibration
For highly sensitive people, this one can feel like a first language. Everything is energy, and energy is always in motion, always vibrating. Nothing is truly still, not our bodies, not our thoughts, not even the feelings we never say out loud. All energy is constantly in motion and carries a specific frequency.
The Law of Correspondence
Often captured in the phrase “As above, so below,” this law points to patterns repeating across different levels of existence. What happens inside us tends to echo outward, and what we’re living on the outside often mirrors our inner world.
The Law of Action
This law says results require movement. You might get guidance, nudges, and clear “breadcrumbs,” but you still have to take the real-world steps that bring the change to life.
The Law of Cause and Effect
Many people recognize this as karma. In plain terms, every cause creates an effect, and every action has a response. The energetic choices we make don’t disappear, they travel outward, and in time, they come back.
The Law of Compensation
Closely linked with cause and effect, this principle holds that what you give is what you receive. Your effort, your care, your love, your energetic contributions, they aren’t lost. There is a return.
The Law of Attraction
The best-known of the twelve teaches that like draws in like. What you consistently focus on is what you tend to pull closer. Attention directs energy, and the universe reflects that vibration back.
The Law of Perpetual Transmutation of Energy
If you’re an empath who gets weighed down by the heaviness in the world, this law can be grounding. Energy is never stuck in one shape forever, it shifts and changes form. No emotional or energetic state is permanent, and we can transform dense, chaotic energy into something lighter.
The Law of Relativity
Nothing exists in isolation. This law reminds us that experience is comparative and connected, and that perspective matters. When we measure our pain against someone else’s, we can lose our footing. Each challenge is relative, and each one is tuned to the growth of a particular soul.
The Law of Polarity
Everything has an opposite, and those opposites aren’t mistakes, they’re part of balance. Light and shadow, joy and grief, rest and action, you understand one more fully because the other exists.
The Law of Rhythm
Life doesn’t unfold in a straight line. It moves in cycles, repeating patterns, rises and falls, like seasons. When you recognize that rhythm, you stop trying to force constant progress and start trusting the natural ebb and flow of healing.
The Law of Giving and Receiving (sometimes called Law of Gender)
This final law says creation relies on both giving and receiving. Our culture often refers to masculine and feminine energies but I (and many others) do not believe energy has gender or that giving is inherently male and receiving is inherently female. Both energies matter, and both live within all of us. Bringing them into balance supports a life that feels integrated, whole, and truly your own.
