Episode 7: Abraham Hicks & The Law of Attraction, staples of new age thinking and victim blaming

For 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:

• It's our last show of the season! 
• Lana and Mimi briefly explain who and what is Esther Hicks, Abraham Hicks and the "Vortex"
• Mimi offers an explanation as to why so many new agers that follow the LoA seem inauthentic
• How and why "The Vortex" ideal encourages self-blame and victim blaming
• Mimi shares some of our listeners' experiences with the LoA and spiritual practitioners 
• Lana talks about a study called the Just World Hypothesis/Theory and why people tend to believe "good things happen to good people" and "bad things happen to bad people"
• Our personal experiences, as ex-new agers, with Abraham Hicks teachings
• Abraham Hicks on COVID-19: spread the "virus of positivity," stay immunized through the Vortex, the virus will be the best thing to ever happen to you, COVID happened because we "wanted it," and other irresponsible, dangerous nonsense
• Lana shares her thoughts on "The Secret" and a particular segment that seemed to blame a gay man for experiencing homophobia 
• Why discourse and dialogue is a better option to solve problems rather than looking to spiritual "Truths" 

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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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