Section One: Like Attracts Like, page 7

The Law of Attraction says that like attracts like. The book, The Secret talks about it by using the analogy of us as magnets. The Lord talks about it by using the analogy of us as vessels. (Matt 23:25-26) We have a choice as to which way we turn and therefore what we attract to us and what we fill ourselves with. The Writings also talk about associate spirits. (AC 4417) When you think positively you attract good spirits. When you think negatively you attract evil spirits.

“Those who are given to the improper and obscene pleasures of scortatory love attract to themselves similar people from hell; but those who are given to the proper and chaste pleasures of conjugial love are associated by the Lord with similar angels from heaven.” (CL 431)

“Hell and heaven are near to people, even in people. Hell is in an evil person and heaven in a good person. After death everyone comes into that hell or into that heaven with which he had been associated while in the world.”
Arcana Coelestia 8918 Emanuel Swedenborg

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You become what you think about the most... or perhaps we could say, the way you think determines the person you become. So think good thoughts. This is the path of regeneration. Try to think, speak, and act like an angel, and you will eventually become one!

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Author Mike Dooley said: “Thoughts become things.” We as Christians know this to be true. The Bible opens with God thinking and speaking the Universe into existence. And we are created in His image, so is it any wonder that we would operate in a similar way? The Writings talk about how in the spiritual world thoughts literally become things. Here on earth, it usually takes a good deal of time for thoughts to become manifest as things. But if we are patient, and trust in the Lord, it happens here too. And it’s good practice for Heaven!

“The individual ideas of anyone - whether an angel or one of us - can be presented visually in heaven’s light when it so pleases the Lord.” (HH 240)

“In the world of spirits countless representatives manifest themselves almost constantly. They are visible forms of spiritual and celestial things, not unlike the forms that occur in the world. The origin of them I have been given to know through daily association with spirits and angels. Representatives in the world of spirits flow in from heaven, and from the ideas and the discussions of the angels there. Indeed when angels' ideas and their discussions resulting from those ideas come down to spirits, they present themselves in a variety of ways as representatives.” (AC 3213)

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Perhaps one way to really grasp the power of the Secret, is to delve into the relationship between the spiritual world and the natural world. Traditionally Heaven is thought of as existing “above” us, while Hell exists “below” us. This idea very conveniently separates us from them and unfortunately allows our minds to become apathetic to their influence over us. But the Writings talk about how there is no spatial realtionship between the natural and spiritual worlds, to use a sci-fi phrase, it’s simply a different dimension. It’s important for us to remember that the spiritual world is (for all intents and purposes) HERE, not THERE. In many ways this is the most powerful point in the Secret. The spiritual world exisits in our minds, but in a more real way than does even the natural world.
“The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21)
Therefore, we can’t allow ourselves to think that our thoughts and attitudes will go unnoticed by the spirits in the other world. They are real and they have an effect, just like our actions have an effect here in the natural world. Jesus even said, “You have heard that the law of Moses says, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust in his eyes has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt 5:27-28)

As Charles Haanel (1866-1949) says in the Secret, “The mental attitude will invariably attract such conditions as correspond to its nature.”

The Writings also talk about how thought brings presence in the spiritual world.
“In heaven thinking about a place leads to being present in that place.” (AC 8985)

The book the Secret uses the word “frequency” to talk about the nature of our thoughts. We might replace it with words like attitude, orientation, sphere or aura.

“Everyone is surrounded by a spiritual aura, an aura that flows out in waves from the life of our affections and their thoughts. Further, since this kind of aura flows out from every individual, it also flows out from every heavenly community and every hellish community, therefore from everyone at once, or from all heaven and all hell.” (HH 591)

“Man is not aware that he is encompassed with a certain spiritual sphere that is in accordance with the life of his affections, and that to the angels, this sphere is more perceptible than odor to the finest sense on earth.”
Arcana Coelestia 4424 Emanuel Swedenborg

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We are spiritual beings, and our thoughts impact the spiritual world (as well as the natrural world). We are known by our works (our transmissions) that’s what makes us who we are. “You will know them by their fruits.” (Matt 7:16)

“If you want to change anything in your life, change the channel and change the frequency by changing your thoughts.” This is the final step of repentance. (TCR 528)

New Church pastor Ethan McCardell says in his book “If you were to distill the message of the Word of God into two words, it would be LIFE CHANGE.” - Ethan McCardell (from his book “Be of Good Cheer; The Redeeming Quality of Struggle” page 154)

“Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. Stop criticizing others, or it will all come back on you. If you forgive others, you will be forgiven. If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving - large or small - it will be used to measure what is given back to you.” (Luke 6:37-38)