Finding Spiritual Truth

“The Law of Attraction” & “Radical Nonduality” Are Powerful Opposite Truths

Each perspective has a sliver of the truth. The whole, complete, or absolute truth contains all of those slivers.

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The Law of Attraction and Radical Nonduality are an example of two common New Age (or New Thought) spiritual beliefs that are the opposite of one another. The major differences are:

Law of Attraction — assumes there is a doer (an ego) who has free will to manifest or create their own reality. We manifest by positive thinking and changing our beliefs.

Radical Nonduality — assumes there is no doer (no ego), no free will, and reality just happens without purpose. The seeming appearance of a doer, free will, manifesting, and purpose are all illusions.

That is about as opposite as anything I can think of.

Here, I explain my understanding of the differences between these two belief systems. I also suggest a way of seeing how they connect with one another.

The Law of Attraction

If you believe you can manifest (or create) something in your life by simply wishing or praying for it, then you believe in the truth of the Law of Attraction.

Many New Age spiritualists see the Law of Attraction as an “absolute truth”. It is true for everyone in the universe and all realms or dimensions of reality. Belief in this “law” seems to be rapidly growing on the planet these days.

The basic “law” is that we attract or “manifest” what we put our focus on. Our conscious thoughts and beliefs create our reality. So, if we think and believe we are happy and rich, we will be happy and rich. Manifestation is the key element here. Abraham (channeled by Esther Hicks) is the best-known proponent of this belief/truth.

We find the Law of Attraction interesting because it is a way to manifest (or create) wealth and health in our lives. But we still have a hard time doing it because we usually have conflicting beliefs. A common conflicting belief is that we need to work hard to be happy and rich. And even then, we may not deserve such rewards because of things we have done in the past.

Deep conflicting beliefs are often those that were conditioned in us in childhood. They are mostly subconscious, making them hard to see and change.

An alternative to the Law of Attraction is the Law of Mirroring. It says that our entire physical reality is a mirror of our thoughts and beliefs. To know our conscious and subconscious self (or mind), all we need to do is look at our world. While not as common as the Law of Attraction, many spiritual teachers prefer this description of reality.

Psychology has concept concepts related to those above. The Law of Attractions is similar in many respects to Positive Psychology, which emphasizes happiness, well-being, and a positive outlook to improve one’s life.

The Law of Mirroring is somewhat similar to what psychologists call the Law of Mirror (or The Mirror Principle or The Reflection Effect). That approach focuses on how our relationships with other people are a mirror of our beliefs. It does not say that our entire physical reality is a mirror of our inner reality (or self). But it might say that what we believe about our physical reality is such a mirror.

Neuroscience makes similar mirror-like claims when it says all we ever know is our brain’s interpretation of the sensory input it receives. The difference from New Age spirituality is significant. Neuroscience sees our senses as re-creating the outer world inside of us, and we have no free will in that automatic process. New Age “create your own reality” spirituality sees our senses as actually creating the physical world outside us from our inner beliefs, which we have free will to choose. (See the Seth quote below.)

Differences between the Law of Attraction and the Law of Mirroring are subtle. The latter shifts the focus from manifesting our ego’s desires (attraction) to inner and subconscious understandings of our ego (mirroring). The Law of Attraction does not emphasize inner exploration, although it would not deny its importance.

The Law of Mirroring is the full reality, the entire universe, that we directly experience. Some see it as a better absolute truth. But many more have never heard of it.

Both the Law of Attraction and the Law of Mirroring are interpretations of another absolute truth: “We Create Our Own Reality.” That New Age spiritual truth was popularized in the 1960s and 70s by Seth (channeled by Jane Roberts, whose writings inspired Esther Hicks to channel Abraham).

Realize that your physical experience and environment is the materialization of your beliefs. If you find great exuberance, health, effective work, abundance, smiles on the faces of those you meet, then take it for granted that your beliefs are beneficial. If you see a world that is good, people that like you, take it for granted, again, that your beliefs are beneficial. But if you find poor health, a lack of meaningful work, a lack of abundance, a world of sorrow and evil, then assume that your beliefs are faulty and begin examining them. — Seth/Jane Roberts, The Nature of Personal Reality, Session 615, September 20, 1972

The Matrix & Radical Nonduality

In the East, Hinduism (the Advaita Vedanta or “nonduality” tradition) and Buddhism (the concept of “no self” or anatta) hold a truth opposite to the Law of Attraction. They see reality as an illusion and a play that we have little or no control over. We are simply actors in a play, living out our role (dharma). We cannot manifest anything. Trying to or thinking we can is an illusion of the ego.

That truth shows up in two ways in modern-day New Age spirituality: The Matrix and Nonduality. (Note that “nonduality” seems to be a more contemporary spelling, while “non-duality” (with a dash) is an older spelling.)

The Matrix is a group of beliefs that essentially say our Earth reality is like a computer simulation in which somebody or something controls everything we experience. That is often a dystopian view based on “The Matrix” movie series. Super intelligent but evil beings (humans, aliens, or both) created the simulation to enhance their power and greed by limiting our free will. (Matrix-type beliefs are also behind different political conspiracy theories on both the left and right.)

A smaller group agrees the matrix exists in some form, but that it is a good thing rather than a bad one. Seth/Jane Roberts described a giant spreadsheet created before each of our incarnations that maps out the consequences of every alternative decision we might make in life. Similarly, Matias De Stefano describes the Akashic Records as the Matrix that holds all information about everything in the universe — past, present, and future.

In both views, the Matrix is not something that limits us in a bad way. Instead, it is like a guidebook in which we have free will to choose our path from an infinite number of options. (Remember, our universe is infinite.) But no matter what we choose, we will eventually return to Source.

For more on the Matrix, see:

Nonduality comes from the Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism and shares much with Buddhism and Chinese Taoism (especially the concept of wu-wei). Ramana Maharishi (1879–1950) is probably the best-known recent teacher from that tradition in India. He and his teachings are probably more popular today than ever.

“Advaita” roughly translates to “nonduality”. Nonduality is the “absolute truth” that we are all one. We are all aspects of God seeing God (ourselves) from distinct points of view so that God (we) can better know itself (ourself). “Neo-Advaita” refers to nonduality teachings that have removed references to Hindu scriptures. Eckhart Tolle is an example of that.

“Radical Nondualism” refers to teachings that treat everything in phenomenal (experiential) existence as an illusion. There is no such thing as “I”, “you”, “God”, or “world”. There is no “awakening” or “enlightenment”. Everything we associate with those words is simply the contraction and expansion of energy.

Tony Parsons is the best-known proponent of Radical Nonduality, although there are many other radical nondualists these days. (See, for example, Nothing Media on YouTube.)

Here is my attempt to explain radical non-duality.

There is no one to manifest or create anything. There is no one to experience anything. Apparent manifestations, creations, and experiences simply happen. There is an awareness of them happening. But that awareness can never know why they happen.

The best explanation to understand this is that everything is the universal wave of energy vibrating and changing form. There is an awareness of the changing form, but there is no “I” that is aware. What we think of as “I” is also the comings and goings (contractions & expansions, or peaks & troughs) of a wave of energy.

Radical nondualists often point to neuroscience to support their view. As implied above, we never directly experience our world (including other people in it). We only experience energy sensations picked up by our senses and interpreted by our brain and mind (or ego). Without ego interpretations, the sensations have no meaning or purpose.

Radical nondualists and neuroscientists also say that we have no free will. For the neuroscientist, what we think of as free will is a conditioned response (like Pavlov’s dog) based mostly on our early childhood experiences.

For nondualists, it is because there is no “I” to have free will. There is only energy bouncing around and responding to other energies. “I” is just an illusion, temporarily pieced together from different sensory inputs and energies in motion.

Furthermore, we can never know if there is a God and a purpose for life. Again, because “we” do not exist. The best we can do is allow the universe to unfold in an apparent succession of events and experiences. Those who have fully internalized that truth say it is the most awe-inspiring way to exist (without “existing”, of course).

Strangely, that kind of brings us full circle back to the Matrix movies.

For more on radical nonduality, see:

For more on the spiritual energy, see:

Unity in Diversity

So, do we manifest or not? Do we have free will or not? Is the world real or not? Are we real or not? Well…

New Age spiritual teachings encompass both the Law of Attraction and Radical Nonduality. That is because New Age spirituality is not a religion. It accepts diverse experiences, beliefs, and truths. People still argue about their own experiences, beliefs, and truths. And some will deny the same to another person.

There is an underlying belief that we each have our own truth (or path), and none of us holds the complete truth. That is because each of us is a point of Source consciousness.

That is true (I believe) for every entity in existence. And each of those points is viewing what Source has created from a unique, one-of-a-kind perspective.

Each perspective has a sliver of the truth. The whole, complete, or absolute truth contains all of those slivers.

Although they are opposite, both truths are true. One is the Path of the Creator, the other is the Path of Oneness. And from an absolute sense, the Oneness is the Creator — they are inseparable.

That is what we call Unity Consciousness, which is when we understand everything as God/Source/The Absolute, and of equal divinity. From that state of consciousness, we can actually see the universe from the perspective of other entities.

Mahayana Buddhism has the concept of The 2 Truths. Buddhist teachings that address practices and experiences in the relative world of experience are one truth. Teachings that come from the perspective the absolute reality of “no self” and “emptiness” are another truth. The absolute truth is more true than the relative truth, but not everyone can understand the absolute from the start.

Shaivite Hinduism makes a similar distinction between the god Shiva (absolute emptiness) and his wife, Shakti (universal energy). For example,

In the Shaivite tradition, Shiva is the Supreme Lord who creates, protects and transforms the universe. In the goddess-oriented Shakta tradition, the Supreme Goddess (Devi) is regarded as the energy and creative power (Shakti) and the equal complementary partner of Shiva. (Wikipedia)

The goal in that school of Hinduism is to fully unite and integrate Shiva (emptiness/nothingness) and Shakti (fullness/everythingness).

In the same way, the Law of Attraction is one truth/path, and Radical Nonduality is another truth/path. And, of course, there are many other truths/paths. In fact, every single point of consciousness has its own truth/path.

And the number of truths and spiritual paths is infinite, although we can group similar ones together. But even those groupings are arbitrary and not fixed — they are temporary illusions for teaching only.

We like to argue because it helps us better understand our own truth. Arguing itself is a recognition of the limits of all truths. But the interaction of an argument is a movement toward unity and creating something new that expands us and the universe.

So the more diversity, the better. The more we question our truth, the better. The more we accept the truth of others, the better. That is how we expand our consciousness and our planet from the 3rd Dimension to a higher dimensional reality.

In the end, there is only one path, one reality, and one truth that contains all paths, realities, and truths.

Related Articles

• I wrote this ⬇️ poem in September 2020, when I was new to Medium, and I was very much embedded in a Law of Attraction spiritual perspective. I have shifted since then, and my more recent writings are more in a Nonduality perspective.

• For more on conflicting spiritual teachings, see these 2 articles…

• For more Spiritual Explainer Articles, see this collection. Note that the articles in this collection are behind the Medium paywall. For paywall-free access to my articles, go to www.AlanLew.com, linked below.

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