Mother and the Law of Attraction

The ‘Law of attraction’ has become quite popular these days. However, it has ancient roots as far back as the time of Buddha when he said, ‘All that we are is a result of what we have thought.’ This is the general idea of the law of attraction, i.e. our thoughts create our reality. It is believed to be a universal law by which ‘like always attracts like.’ So, for example, the more you focus on health and prosperity, the healthier and more prosperous you become. And similarly, the more you focus on sickness, negativity, and poverty, the more sick, unhealthy and poor you become.

This idea of the power of thought started getting recognition in Europe and America in the 1800s with authors such as Blavatsky, Troward, Atkinson and others such as Coue ́ who taught autosuggestion of positive thinking to improve one’s health. It became further noticed in the 1980s with Esther Hicks and recently, with the movie ‘The Secret’ in 2006, the law of attraction has become an even more widespread idea in society. Like these thinkers, Mother also taught to the students at the Ashram that thought has a power to attract things in your life

“… one is surrounded by what one thinks about. You understand quite well what this means? Every time you think of something, it is as though you had a magnet in your hand and were attracting that thing towards yourself – you understand."1

Mother’s method for this thought mastery was similar to what was common in the thinking of her time, i.e. that we should focus on better, helpful thoughts rather than negative ones. The following quote illustrates this.

“Now, there are people who have a very, very bad habit of always thinking about all possible catastrophes, and are in a sort of constant apprehension about some calamity befalling them the next moment. I know many like that, there are some here. And so, those people have as though a magnet in their hands to attract calamities, not only upon themselves but upon others also. That lays a big responsibility upon them. And if one can’t stop all the time from thinking about something — some have a head that runs on and they haven’t found a way of stopping it — well, why not make it run on the right lines instead of letting it run on the others! Once your head begins to run, let it run on all the good things that can happen. If it is obliged to turn round and round, well, turn then to the good side! That is, if somebody is ill, instead of saying: “What is going to happen, perhaps this is going to be very serious, and if it is that disease... and a calamity comes so quickly”, instead of all that, if one thinks: “Oh! that is nothing, illnesses are outer illusions translating some deeper vibrations which are not seen, that is why one doesn’t speak about them, but that’s how it is. And these deeper vibrations may come and set in order what has been disturbed. And this imbalance, this illness or bad thing that has come, well, it will be absorbed by the Grace and will disappear, no trace of it will remain, except that of things agreeable and pleasant.” One may continue to think in this way uninterruptedly… 

People always need to make their mind run, run, run, but then make it run on the right lines, you will see that it has an effect. For instance, let it go like this: that I shall learn better and better, shall know better and better, become healthier and healthier, and all difficulties will vanish, and wicked people will become sweet and good, and ill people will be cured, and houses which should be built will be built, and those things which should disappear will disappear, but giving place to better things, and the world will move in a constant progress, and at the end of that progress there will be a total harmony, and so on, and continue thus… You can go on endlessly. But then you will have around you and around your head all kinds of pretty things. Those who perceive the atmosphere see certain inky stains, like an octopus there, yes, like that, with its tentacles to try and upset your mind — instead of that, one will see happy formations, formations of light or rays of sunlight or perhaps beautiful pictures, all that. One will see beautiful things — there are painters who do that and they always capture the thoughts.”2 

Mother may have been influenced by the teachings of the French psychologist Émile Coué's and his method "Conscious Autosuggestion". She cited this to students on one occasion.

“… Say you have the slightest thing that is not getting on quite well; if you think of your body, it is always that something unpleasant is going to happen to it — because when everything goes well, you don’t think about it! You will notice this: that you act, you do all that you have to do, without having a single thought about your body, and when all of a sudden you wonder whether there isn’t anything that’s going wrong, whether there is some uneasiness or a difficulty, something, then you begin to think of your body and you think about it with anxiety and begin to make your disastrous constructions. Whereas Coue ́ recommended… It was in this way that he cured his patients; he was a doctor, he told them, “You are going to repeat to yourself: ‘I am being cured, gradually I am getting cured’ and again, you see, ‘I am strong, I am quite healthy and I can do this, I can do that’.”3 

It is interesting to note that in the modern idea of law of attraction there is not much mention about actually what goes on. How does thought attract like vibrations to itself? This is generally not well known. There is some understanding that thoughts are like entities that attract to themselves that which is similar to themselves. But it doesn’t go further than that and is more speculation. However, the process of thought and its power to attract was very clear to Mother. She often described the occult, hidden workings and mechanics of thought. This is clear from this conversation she had with a student.

“In the mental world human thought is constantly creating forms. Human thought is very creative in the mental world. All the time when you are thinking, you are creating forms and you send them out in the atmosphere and they go and do their work. Constantly you are surrounded by a heap of small formations. Naturally, there are people who can’t even think clearly. So they form nothing at all except faint eddies. But people who think clearly are surrounded by a heap of little forms which, sometimes, go out to do some work in others; and when one thinks of them again, they return. 

But, you see, in a smaller measure and less perfectly one is making formations all the time. When, for instance, one thinks of somebody quite powerfully, there is a small emanation of mental substance which, instantaneously, goes to this person, you understand, a vibration of your thought which goes and touches his; and if he is receptive, he sees you. He sees you and tells you, “You came last night to see me!”. That’s because you made a small formation and this formation went and did its work, which was to put you into contact with this person or else to carry a message if you had something special to tell him; and that was done. This happens constantly, but as it is quite a constant and spontaneous phenomenon and done in ignorance, one is not even aware that one does this, one does it automatically.”4 

We see thus that long before it became popular in society, Mother was already teaching this idea of law of attraction, without calling it that. For her, it was about learning to master one’s thinking. Attracting to oneself favourable living conditions could be a side benefit, but the main importance for her was making our mind an instrument at the service of the Divine’s consciousness. This approach to the law of attraction takes it out of just an isolated focus on personal wellness, wealth and weal and raises it into a training of the mind that forms part of an integral program of self-development.

                                                                                                                                        - Paul Sawh (Canada)

1 Collected Works of The Mother, vol.5

2 Ibid. vol.9

3 Ibid. vol.5

4 Ibid. vol.6