Attraction
Working with the Law: Powerful Principles for Abundant Living
By Raymond Holliwell
Chapter 3: The Law of Attraction
“To desire is to expect, to expect is to achieve.”
The underlying law that regulates supply in the world of effects has two important phases: one is “desire” and the other “expectation.” These mental attitudes represent lines of attractive force, the former being the positive phase of the law and the latter the negative phase, while phases must be complied with to obtain the best and greatest results.
The first phase of “desire” embraces a positive process of attraction; that is, when an individual earnestly desires a thing he sets up a line of force that connects him with the invisible side of the good desired. Should he weaken or change in his desire, that particular line of force is disconnected or misses its goal; but if he remains constant in his desire or ambition the good demanded is sooner or later realized in part or in entirety. The principle involved is that you cannot long or yearn for anything unless it already exists, if not in form, then in substance; and “desire” is the motive power for calling it forth into visible appearance or physical effect.
It is no use to desire a thing unless you expect to get it, either in part or in full. Desire without expectation is idle wishing or dreaming. You simply waste much valuable mental energy in doing this. Desire will put you in touch with the inner world of causes and connect you by invisible means with the substance of the thing desired; then, continuous expectation is necessary to bring it into a reality in your life. Much like the pull of gravitation in the physical realm, “expectation” is a drawing force of the mind which acts in the invisible realm.
We all know that many persons desire good things which they never expect nor make any real effort to grasp. They start out well and may get halfway, but not any further. When they learn to comply with the other half of the process involved and learn to expect what they desire, most of their dreams or wishes will steadily materialize. Again, we meet people who expect things they do not want, but which often come.
This proves that expectation is a powerful attractive force. Never expect a thing you do not want, and never desire a thing you do not expect. When you expect something you do not want, you attract the undesirable, and when you desire a thing that is not expected, you simply dissipate valuable mental force. On the other hand, when you constantly expect that which you persistently desire, your ability to attract becomes irresistible. Desire connects you with the thing desired and expectation draws it into your life. This is the Law.
Should you be oppressed by poverty, hardship, limitation, or lack of any kind, begin now to operate this Law of mind and gradually command more and more of the Good in the form of better things and improved conditions. It is your right to be happy and free. We should seek, therefore, to learn more of the unseen laws of mental creation and the marvelous possibilities dormant within our beings. Nature does not deprive us of any good and desirable thing, but has provided us with the mental equipment and inner power to acquire and enjoy all the essential good to insure a happy and worthwhile existence.
Application is the test of adequacy, as knowledge is of little or no value unless it can be used to practical ends. Here is a simple method in the beginning for using the power of mind to increase the amount of good in our lives in conformity with the Law. Form a clear and well-defined mental picture of what you want.
Do not specify its particular form or how it shall come, but simply desire firmly and gently the greatest amount of good in that direction. Avoid a tensed state of mind or any condition of strain or anxiety. It is better to do your mind-picturing in odd moments when in quiet and restful conditions. Let the idea or plan of good unfold into a vivid mental picture, much the same as though it were a moving picture upon a screen. Do not force the thought, as pressure causes congestion and confusion. The calmer and more peaceful you are, the better the results.
The main thing is to hold the thought. Then proceed to nourish your desire or want with a calm, confident conviction that what you seek will come. As you persist in this state of mind, the good desired will tend to gravitate towards you. It may come almost at once as in respect to little things of less consequence, like an invitation, a book, or meeting a friend on the street, or it may come by degrees over a period of time, according to the clearness and strength of your demand and the particular form of good desired.
In the meantime, be reasonable and practical and do what you can to promote its coming. I have little confidence in the Lord answering the one who rocks in an easy chair and waits for the desired thing to be placed on his lap.
Somewhere it says the Lord helps them that help themselves. Yes, action spells results. This supplements your mental creative process and provides the channel for its expression. Then leave the results to the Law. As you do your part, the Law will do the rest. How well or how accurately you cooperate with the Law determines the duration of time apparently required to bring forth your supply. Time is a period created by man; Nature knows no time and always responds in the present, in the now.
In some instances, results that seem almost magical will appear. Often where there has been a deep, longing desire for a particular good with no expectation of its realization, the addition of “action” will finish the process with the happiest results. In fact, you are always on the right side of the Law when you combine the two essentials of “desire” and “expectation.”
You operate a hidden intelligence that puts you in touch with the actual ways and means of materializing your desires. The principle underlying this process of attraction is as sound and as demonstrable as any principle in the science of mathematics. We all employ it every day, more or less, but usually unconsciously, and therefore imperfectly.
Finally, do not desire or demand what rightfully belongs to another, in the sense that such a one would suffer by deprivation. Only desire that which will round out your life to make it fuller and happier, and also that which will enable you to help others into better and happier conditions.
Aim to be normal in your demands, and use the intelligence with which God has endowed you in discriminating between rational and irrational demands. The innate desire of your being is for Harmony, Satisfaction, and Plenty. These conditions will be obtained more and more in your life as you live in accordance with the Law, and constantly expect a continuous increase of Good as an evidence of your growing faith in the wisdom and all-sufficiency of the great Source of All Good.
The mind is a magnet and attracts whatever corresponds to its ruling state. Whatever we image in mind, whatever we expect and think about, will tend to bring into our lives the things and conditions that are in harmony therewith. Science has convincingly proven the existence and constant operation of the Law of mental attraction. For this reason everyone should be doubly careful about how and what he thinks. Our predominant mental attitude is the primary cause of most everything that comes into our lives, and the sooner we realize this truth, the sooner we shall begin to improve our lives and progress.
We must seek to become imbued with the desire to advance, and give the Law a chance to help us. Everything will then work toward our aid. Obstacles will strengthen our resolve to win. Discouragement from others will only serve to strengthen and to arouse us to a stronger activity. We will see more clearly and understand more fully that every difficulty is an opportunity to advance, every stumbling block is a stepping stone to success. Our so-called burdens will lose their heaviness because the Spirit within us is unconquerable, and when invoked by desire and aspiration will unfailingly come forth in greater power and richer intelligence. This will guide our thoughts and actions into those pathways that lead to the heights of conquest.
The Law of mental attraction acts along the same lines as the law of gravity; it is as definite and as accurate. You have heard the Law expressed in such statements as “Birds of a feather flock together” or “Like attracts like” or, “Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other.” The thoughts and the actions of people draw to them people of their own type and kind. It is difficult to tell one just where he may fail to attract his needs, as no two people think alike and therefore no two people make the same mistakes. However, I shall name and explain the three steps one can use to build up realities.
By following closely these suggestions, he can note where he may have failed: INTEREST—The first step to take is called INTEREST.
Interest is paying special attention to some object or thing. It is being definitely concerned about someone or something. Interest is tending to see in the outer world what is already existent in one’s mind. Things you think of that give you joy, pleasure, wisdom and satisfaction are interests. I recall one woman telling me that she invariably could see cripples in a crowd quicker than anyone else. They seemed to draw her attention to them and excite her sympathy. It was because she had once been injured and was wheeled about for several months packed in a cast, and the memory of the experience was fresh in her mind and created the interest.
Our interests are largely individual because we do not think alike; one person may find interest in some things that another would fail to see. Recently my wife and I went out exploring along a dried up river bed on the desert. She was especially interested in collecting bright stones containing gold, silver, copper, and iron that are commonly found in this country. I, in turn, was looking for gourds that I knew would grow wild where there had been moisture. I was interested in gathering the kind that the native Indians used in their hogans, and particularly the kind they selected for their ceremonial dances.
There we were together, she walking about picking up these rare stones, and I looking around for the vines that held the gourds. I didn’t even see the stones, and I am sure she didn’t see many of the gourds. Both walking together, yet we were seeing differently, because we were looking for different things. We see in life that which interests us the most and pass blindly by that which is of little or no interest. It is here in this simple practice that many of us may be making our mistakes. We may be so interested in things that are not prosperous, joyful, and healthy that we pass by the very things we desire most and overlook the means of our health and prosperity. With our interest so engrossed in seeing the lesser, either through habit or ignorance, we fail to attract the greater things that are all around us.
A young man came to me one day asking what he could do to increase his income - he was dissatisfied with a meager earning. I learned that he was an electrician. His work occupied several hours a day. He liked his home, enjoyed his garden, his newspapers, and occasionally stepped out socially. I thought he was getting well paid for his efforts and told him so. I added that if he wanted more earnings he would need to stimulate his interests and be deserving of it. God feeds the birds and supplies an abundance of food, but He does not put the worms into the bird’s mouth. The bird must at least go out and search for the food. So it is with all of us, we must do something about it more than wishing or praying.
He decided then that he would increase his capacity as an electrician, so he went to a class at night school and laid aside his newspapers for books and other material. He became interested in radio and was enthusiastic about its possibilities. This interest drew him into new circles and landed him a position with a growing radio company. In a very short time he had found a new pleasure and tripled his meager earnings. No one is to be blamed for the dissatisfied life but the man himself, because he failed to expand his interests with his desires.
It is so easy for people to allow themselves to get into a rut, and it is always a mental rut before it becomes a material one. People drift along unknowingly, unconsciously, and aimlessly into unhappiness and blindness. A very lovely person came to me with a problem, the like of which has caused many a woman to give up and lose the very thing she wants most.
This woman had a nice home, a well-providing husband, many servants, and two fine sons to be proud of. But, with all that, she was most unhappy. When her boys were growing up she devoted all her time to their training and care. Now they had married and were making their own homes. While she was so tied at home her husband was becoming a successful man, and this took him out to his clubs and made new friends of other women as well as men. He was quite occupied with his interests; he came home at nights, but most of his weekends were spent elsewhere. Here she was with a big house and servants, plenty of money, but no love or happiness. She realized the breach was widening, and knowing that soon her husband would want a divorce, she was forced to seek a way out.
After a lengthy analysis, I learned that she had a spark of interest left in art and literature, so recommended that she take a trip abroad for the summer to see new sights and to plan a busy winter with new studies. She returned feeling refreshed and anxious to begin the work. She joined a literary club and liked it. Gradually she worked into some small dramatic parts until one day her interest burst out into a flaming desire to go further with the work. Home, servants, loneliness, all receded with the new ambition. In short, she advanced into radio work and has been very successful. Her sons are proud of her achievement, her husband has become almost jealous with his attentions, and her happiness is supreme.
You see, one must keep up some interest. One must keep his mind active and keen in order to avoid losing one’s attractiveness and satisfaction. Our highest interests should govern our thoughts and not the material things. The material things are only the means through which we express our interests. A strong magnetic power is founded upon a strong idea or principle. This idea or principle directs our interests, and this in turn develops an inner power of attractiveness.
A young woman, whom I know very well and shall always prize as a friend, is not a beautiful girl as far as beauty goes, but she is most attractive. She has a wide circle of friends and verily charms them wherever she goes. When asked one time what it was she possessed that seemed to cast a spell over her admirers, she said, “I can’t accredit it to my physique, nor to my brand of cosmetics, but I believe it is because I love frankness, truth and a pure mind.” Innumerable examples can be told of men and women who have attained success and fame because they have loved and lived some principle of good. To live such a principle and to follow it with interest will, according to the LAW, always attract good.
ATTENTION—To have a high interest is not enough. We must inject this interest into our daily labors. Our attention must portray our interest, and the keener our interest, the more intense will be our attention. It is our interested attention that draws from the outside world such facts as are formed in the mind. As we direct our attention to our interest, this magnetizes our power of attraction which draws to us much of the same type as our thought. When much of our interest is taken up with our full attention we shall find that most of our petty and selfish leanings will be absorbed by our higher interests and we will steadily progress.
I recall years ago when I was yet a student at the University that I would often pass through the terminal of Williamsport where a certain man had his offices and was then a junior supervisor for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Often it would be after working hours when I passed the building, and frequently it would be late in the evening, yet I would see his office lighted and find that he was busily engaged in finishing up some important work. It seemed that he lost himself in his interest for his work, and all his attention was drawn to benefit his employer. Years passed and the day came when I met that man and knew then why he had been steadily promoted from one position to a better one.
Today, he is next to vice-president of the largest railroad in the world. Whatever he did, he did it with all his might and main and his attention never waned from a job until he thought it well done. I learned from him that he did not wonder when he would get his next raise in payor change in position. He just worked, he said, and the advancement came without worrying about it. I believe another young man expressed this Law in action years ago when they thought it was impractical idealism.
He said: “For whosoever will save his life will lose it. Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.” Whosoever will find himself great must render great service. Whosoever will find himself at the top must lose himself at the bottom. The big salaries are paid to those who travel the undemanded extra mile. The man whose attention becomes lost in his interests will grow to worthwhile accomplishments. Emerson said: “See how the mass of men worry themselves into nameless graves, while here and there a great unselfish soul forgets himself into immortality.”
Yes, you say, I know of men who have had such advantages and opportunities to forge ahead, but they didn’t succeed as your friend. They had influence and money and brains, but somehow they did not reach the top. Granted that they had all the material and physical advantages that any average man might need to skyrocket to the pinnacle of success, yet they lacked something within themselves. The source and cause of all successes lies hidden deep within the mind, and one must give one’s attention and interest first to principle and then to fact. What do I mean?
If you believe in honesty, then you support the principle of honesty with all your attention. You direct this attention to do and think all things in an honest manner. If you should have an opportunity to cheat or steal from another you adhere to your principle and refuse to take advantage of what may seem a trivial thing. They always seem trivial in the beginning, but that is only the beginning. Such trivials grow with a cancerous rapidity. You rarely see the surface record for remaining loyal to your standard, but in time you will not only see but feel its satisfaction. As you watch closely your dealings and force every issue to comply with your principle, you are charging your mind with honesty and it becomes magnetic to attract honest endeavor and permanent success.
Next, take truth and follow it along until you have worked it the same way. There are so many ways that truth may be challenged that you need not expect to accomplish your work in a week or two. It becomes a growth. After a time you will find your interest and attention so taken up with truth in all its forms that you will no longer attract deceit or dishonesty to you or in your affairs. I remember a statement I heard when I was young in this work. The owner of a store spoke of a little lady who often came in to buy cards and gifts for her family. It had been suggested that she pass off some inferior articles on the little lady, but the woman replied, “Oh, no, she is too honest to be cheated.” I wondered then why she had made the remark, but I understand it now. Such can be said of all of us when we earn what that little lady had earned.
A President of an eastern college came into our Chapel one day while Mrs. Holliwell was at the book cases. He said he had read a few of the books that were on display in the window and was especially impressed by one book called “The Game of Life and How to Play It,” by Florence Shinn. He thought the title very attractive and of interest to anyone. “Do you know,” he said, “I learned to look upon life as a game, and I started out as a poor boy with few advantages, but I played the game. I did not have the help that so many of these books may offer. I succeeded, and now I am telling thousands of boys and girls how I played the game. I built my success on three common principles - Truth, Honesty and Sobriety. I measured my living with these standards, and I have won a happy life.”
Set up a standard or a measurement for yourself if you have not already done so. Take one thing or one thought at a time and build upon it. As you strive to give your attention to some constructive interest, you will cease giving so much attention to a lesser one. You do not have to work over the things as some folks may do. They go about treating against dishonesty and the like when they should adjust their minds to be free from thinking and fearing dishonesty.
The Law requires us to make the correction within ourselves, and if we do our work there, it will proceed to work for us outwardly. It is our thought which stimulates interest and directs our attention; therefore, let us not wander away from the source and cause of attracting the things we do not want.
EXPECTATION—The last step we take is expectation. This is an active form of attention; it is attention with intensity. It may be likened to the actions of a cat that waits patiently at the mouse hole. The cat expects to catch its prize at any moment; he expects to get the mouse because he believes he will get it eventually. If the cat did not believe and expect to catch the mouse, his interest and attention would lack that intensity which is now present. His energies would not be so actively called forth.
When you believe in the probability of success in your undertaking, you experience the keenest interest in your work. This interest is intensified with expectation and anticipation. Through this you will draw to you the success you are working for. Your expectation must be built up with your interest and attention.
When the widow came to Elisha and asked his help to meet a problem of finance that meant the freedom or slavery of her two sons who were to be held for her husband’s debt, Elisha promptly asked her what she had that could be converted into money. She had nothing more than a pot of oil, but that was something, so Elisha told the widow to collect other vessels from her friends and go into her home and there pour out what oil she had. She poured the oil until all the borrowed vessels were filled, and when she had filled the last one, the oil stayed. There was not a drop left over.
They followed the routine of our lesson, and as she reached the last vessel and the end of her expectation, she found, the supply shut off. She was able to receive only as much oil as she had expected, and her expectation was measured by the number of vessels she had collected. Elisha had set the Law to work, but she had determined how far it would go by her thought of expectancy. She might have hoped for much more, but she got only what was expected.
If you are working for success, health, or happiness, you may wish for a lot, but you will only enjoy as much as you are able to expect. If in your heart you doubt or fear that your need will be met only in part or not at all, you can know that you will receive that much and no more. When you pray for one thing and then fear and doubt that you will receive it, you diffuse your mental forces and can attract only what the lesser thoughts believe and expect.
A prominent doctor was asked why it was that he was able at times to reach cases that others had failed to reach. He said: “I never expect a patient to be too far gone not to survive. I fish around in my mind for some idea of what to treat, and sometimes those ideas are very simple or strange, but the moment something inside me clicks, I accept it and use it.” He said he had never failed to help a patient when he firmly expected his recovery.
When we charge our thoughts so firmly with the idea that there are no failures, then we expect success. Our mind becomes strengthened with our conviction and, like a magnet, draws to us through the principle upheld whatever desire is uppermost at the time. To desire is to expect, and to expect is to achieve.