12/1/2020
Episode 7: Abraham Hicks & The Law of Attraction, staples of new age thinking and victim blamingFor our last episode of the season (meet you here again for season 2 in February, 2021!), we decided to take on a staple of New Age thinking and victim blaming: Abraham Hicks and The Law of Attraction, thanks in part to our listeners on Instagram and Facebook who encouraged us to talk about it. If you've ever met a new ager or spiritual person in these COVID times who refuses to wear a mask, or believes they are spiritually superior and/or immune to a deadly virus because they "don't live in fear," chances are they are followers of Esther Hicks and her channelings of Abraham Hicks, an entity who "teaches" about The Law of Attraction (LoA). The LoA is a gigantic New Age staple that is based in understanding how one's intentions or thoughts "travel" and manifest energy. This concept has been understood for centuries by intuitives and is nothing new, but has been bastardized by books like "The Secret" to sell the idea that one can "manifest" whatever they want, including money, a perfect life, body, or partner. It has a language of its own (the "Vortex", etc.) and perpetuates beliefs that one "creates their own reality" through their thoughts, which also implies that any negative or traumatic experiences in your life were caused by your thought patterns. As ex-new agers ourselves, we have seen or experienced first hand how much victim blaming, gaslighting and spiritual bypassing goes into this kind of black/white belief. Here's the episode rundown:
Credits: Edited and Produced by Mimi Bonhomme Recorded on Nov. 3, 2020 Condensed from a 90-minute conversation for clarity. All music used with copyright permission References on Just World Theory from Dr. Lana Holmes Furnham, A. (2003). Belief in a just world: Research progress over the past decade. Personality and Individual Differences, 34(5), 795-817. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(02)00072-7 Hafer, C. L., & Bègue, L. (2005). Experimental research on just-world theory: Problems, developments, and future challenges. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 128–167. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.131.1.128 Hafer, C.L., & Sutton, R. (2016). Belief in a just world. In C. Sabbagh & M. Schmitt (Eds.), Handbook of social justice theory and research (pp. 145-155). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3216-0_8 |
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March 2022
CategoriesAll Abraham Hicks Appropriation Astrology Black Lives Matter Conspiracies Conspirituality Divine Feminine Divine Masculine Empaths Gaslighting Gender Neutral Language HSP Jules Evans Manifestation Mediums Native Culture Neurodivergent Neurodiversity Non Binary Prophecy Psychics Psychology Racism Smudging Social Media Spirit Guides Spiritual Bullies Spiritual Bypassing Tarot The Law Of Attraction Victim Blaming |