The Law of Attraction 🌟 and Victim Blaming?


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Being someone who was never part of a large spiritual community, I had never heard of the Law of Attraction until a few years ago. Now, I will admit that part of it rubs me the wrong way but I think that’s because I don’t know too much about it. I thought I would share my research and learning with you!

So, what is it?

According to The Law of Attraction website, the Law of Attraction is simply the ability to manifest that which we focus on.

It is the Law of Attraction which uses the power of the mind to translate whatever is in our thoughts and materialize them into reality. In basic terms, all thoughts turn into things eventually . If you focus on negative doom and gloom you will remain under that cloud. If you focus on positive thoughts and have goals that you aim to achieve you will find a way to achieve them with massive action. (1)

If you do a quick YouTube search on Law of Attraction, you get a lot of searches that say things like The Law Of Attraction - How It Really Works & How To Use It and Law of Attraction: How to Get Anything You Want. I will be upfront with you. I haven’t watched these videos, but it’s very clear that the Law of Attraction is a popular subject among those who are looking into spirituality.

So, in plain terms, the Law of Attraction is a supposed law of the Universe that says whatever you focus on - be it happiness, joy, or despair - will manifest in your life in one way or another.

Those who use the Law of Attraction use it to manifest their happiness or even things that they want.

Are there downsides? And what about the idea of victim-blaming?

So one of my biggest cringes with the Law of Attraction is that it sounds very victim-blamey to me. The Law of Attraction says that everything in your life happens because you’ve manifested it - or that’s how I have come to understand it. Since I believe strongly against this, I decided to dig into where the Law of Attraction stands on things like poverty, assault, and the like.

anything that you experience in life comes to you because you are in alignment with it (2)

This is a question that always comes up, especially when a person has had had a tragedy of some sort in their life that they don’t feel like they ‘attracted’ into their life. (3)

There are those that believe the Law of Attraction is the work of your own state of being but also the work of Karma, or the Universe putting you in a position for something better.

Consider someone like Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf and had every reason to be bitter and angry; but she used her life and how she overcame her personal obstacles as an opportunity to bring healing and inspiration to millions. (3)

Now, they may have a point there with Helen Keller, but did she really have to suffer as she did with all of the hardships she was faced with? Wasn’t there a better way to inspire millions of people? You might say yes. You might say no. Hear me out - was that her Karma or was it just bad genetics? Was it the Law of Attraction that made her deaf and blind while still in the womb?


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I realize I might be sounding like a Debbie-Downer, but there’s a point to this I suppose. I believe that the Law of Attraction can work for a lot of people, but I feel that many who use or preach about the Law of Attraction are also taking part in something called Spiritual Bypass. Spiritual Bypass is essentially only focusing on the positive aspects of life while bypassing, or ignoring, anything negative that may happen. From a psychological perspective, that’s just not healthy.

Can I still use the Law of Attraction?

Absolutely! I think the Law of Attraction can be a powerful tool in your arsenal of magickal education. However, I think we must be careful when speaking to others about the Law of Attraction. I am someone who has suffered trauma. I have been through things that no one should have to experience, and I fully believe that my five-year-old self did not manifest the atrocities that I experienced. When we start to tell people that what they are experiencing or have experienced is their own fault, we really move into a gray area of psychological issues and magickal issues.

There are also those who, like myself, have experienced trauma in some form and use the Law of Attraction for healing. One example is that of Jamila Kani of the Black Femme Witches Brew website. She describes her experiences with trauma as a child and how she used the Law of Attraction to help her heal those wounds and move on with her life.

Once I became aware of my core beliefs and the energy I was putting out that kept me in a toxic cycle, I was then able to go deeper into my healing work. For me, that is when the real work began, the work of reprogramming myself on a mental, cellular, and energetic level. (4)


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How do you use the Law of Attraction?

I want to make it clear that I am not opposed to the use of the Law of Attraction in general . I am opposed to the use of the Law of Attraction to blame people for anything bad that has happened in their life. Sometimes it is a situation that can’t be controlled on their part. Sometimes it’s their Gods. Sometimes it’s just crappy luck.

However, I found some information about using the Law of Attraction that I wanted to share with you. Many methods of using the Law of Attraction use positive affirmations and visualizations.

Life is a blank canvas of possibility; you are in control of what the finished picture could look like. The Law of Attraction really is that simple. No catches. All laws of nature are completely perfect and the Law of Attraction is no exception. No matter what you are looking to have or achieve or be in life, if you can hold onto an idea and see it for yourself in the mind’s eye, you can make it yours to have… with some effort on your part. (1)

Mind, Body, Green lists nine things that you can do to start manifesting and activating that positive energy into your life.

  1. Note what you focus on.
  2. Keep a worry list.
  3. Practice diaphragmatic breathing.
  4. Quiet the monkey mind with meditation.
  5. Move your body in whatever way feels good to you.
  6. Keep a gratitude journal.
  7. Write down your goals and connect to your “why.”
  8. Visualize what it will look like when you achieve your dreams.
  9. Feel like you already have what you want.

I would really like to know what your thoughts are on the Law of Attraction and if you use it or not. I know I am a more pessimistic person and I always have been. But I am trying to implement more positivity into my life. I think the Law of Attraction could be something I could use if I can get myself to move past the large red-flag of it being possibly victim-blaming.

What do you think?

Sources and Reading

(1) What is the Law of Attraction?

(2) Bullying and the Law of Attraction

(3)Q&A: Does the Law of Attraction blame the victim?

(4) On the Law of Attraction and Victim Blaming

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Since words and thoughts are the generators of power, we get what we think about. Have you ever bought say a white car and all of a sudden everywhere you go is a white car? People who think the whole world is bad and people are all bad, will normally bring bad people into their lives. The Universe just says Oh he thinks about bad people so must like them and want more. One must be careful of their words and thoughts, they go right out and will start to work.

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I don’t necessary completely believe that what you’re saying is wholly true. Like how you said that everything in your life happens because you wished it so. I believe that life just happens and the Universe flows, but the things that you will to happen happen.

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I agree with you @jayson, I think you can bring good things and bad things into your life with the Law of Attraction. And that doesn’t mean that everything that happens to you is because you wanted it or because you were looking for it.

Some things happen with no reason why and we can’t prevent them. But I agree with @MeganB that it’s a solid principle for getting out of bad situations.

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That’s pretty much my thoughts on it, too. Law of Attraction runs into a gray area with some of the things they say, but I believe the premise of it - you attract what you will - can be true.

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Thanks for this post, and there are definitely good points here that I fully agree with. I think of the law of attraction as a tool to have a better life and move past childhood trauma and bad experiences in life. I also think of it as a way to “reprogram” the mind into being positive rather than negative.

I also disagree with the fact that whatever horrible things happen to us are things we “manifested” because it’s just not fair. For example, I was born to a horrible narcissistic mother and I sure didn’t wish for that!

I like to think of LOA as a way to heal and strengthen my beliefs in myself and my abilities. And also to attract positive energies/things that I focus on.

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