How do your thoughts, expectations and attention shape your experience? The Law of Attraction explores this question through the teachings of Abraham, as presented by Esther and Jerry Hicks.

The book introduces three central ideas: the Law of Attraction, the Science of Deliberate Creation and the Art of Allowing. Together, they form Abraham’s approach to focusing on what you want and becoming more aware of the thoughts you practise each day.

The selection below introduces these three principles and explains how they relate to one another. It offers a starting point for exploring the ideas that appear throughout Abraham’s teachings.

Read more about The Law of Attraction.

You are an Eternal Personality, Focusing in the Now

Your world, present and future, is directly and specifically affected by the signal that you are now transmitting. The personality that is You is really an eternal personality, but who you are right now, and what you are thinking right now, is causing a focusing of Energy that is very powerful. This Energy that you are focusing is the same Energy that creates worlds. And it is, in this very moment, creating your world.

You have a built-in easy to understand guidance system within you, with indicators that help you understand the strength or power of your signal, as well as the direction of your focus.

And, most important, it is this very same guidance system that helps you understand the alignment of your chosen thought with the Energy Stream itself.

Read more about Ask and It Is Given.

Attracting Money and Manifesting Abundance

While money is not absolutely essential to your experience, to most people money and freedom are synonymous. And since an intense awareness of your right to be free is at the very core of that which you are, it follows, therefore, that your relationship with money is one of the most important subjects of your life experience. And so, it is no wonder you have such strong feelings about the subject of money.

Although some people have discovered the freedom of allowing large amounts of money to flow through their experiences, it is more often the case that because you are experiencing far less money than you need or desire, most of you are not feeling free. It is our intention, here, to clearly explain why this financial disparity exists so that you can begin to allow the abundance that you want and deserve into your experience. For, as you read these words and as you begin to resonate with these Law-based truths, you will align your desire with the abundance of your world, and the evidence of your newfound alignment will soon become apparent to you and to others who observe you.

Whether you are one who has been working to achieve financial abundance for many years or you are a youngster just starting down that path, the journey to financial Well-Being does not have to be a long one from where you are. And it does not require large amounts of time or physical effort, for we are going to explain to you in simple and easy-to-understand terms how to utilize the leverage of Energy that is available to you. We want to show you the absolute correlation between the thoughts you have been thinking about money, the way you feel when you think those thoughts - and the money that flows into your experience. When you are able to consciously make that correlation, and you decide to deliberately direct your thoughts accordingly, you will access the power of the Universe and you will then see how time and physical effort are rather irrelevant to your financial success.

So we begin with the simple premise of your Universe and of your world: You get what you think about. Often people say to us, "That can't be true, because I have wanted and thought about more money for as long as I can remember, but I continue to struggle with not enough money." And what we then tell them is the most important thing for you to understand if you want to improve your financial situation: The subject of money is really two subjects: (1) money, plenty of money, the feeling of freedom and ease that plenty of money can provide; and (2) absence of money, not nearly enough money, the feeling of fear and disappointment that the thought of absence of money induces.

Often people assume that because they are speaking the words "I want more money," they are speaking positively about money. But when you are speaking of money (or anything) and you are feeling fear or discomfort as you speak, you are not speaking of the subject of money, but instead you are speaking of the subject of not enough money. And the difference is very important, because the first statement brings money and the second holds it away.

It is of value for you to become aware of how you are really thinking and, more importantly, feeling about money. If you are thinking or saying things like: "Oh, that is a very beautiful thing - but I cannot afford it," you are not in a vibrational position to allow in the abundance you desire. The feeling of disappointment that is present as you acknowledge that you cannot afford it is your indicator that the balance of your thought is pointed more toward the lack of your desire than toward the desire itself. The negative emotion that you feel as you acknowledge that you cannot afford something that you want is one way of understanding the balance of your thoughts, and the amount of abundance that you are actually experiencing is another way of knowing.

Many people continue to perpetuate the experience of "not enough" in their lives simply because they do not think beyond the reality of what they are actually experiencing. In other words, if they are experiencing the shortage of money and are aware of it and speak of it often, they hold themselves in that chronic position. And so, many people protest when we explain to them the power of telling the story of their finances as they want it to be rather than as it is, because they believe that they should be factual about what is happening.

But we want you to understand that if you continue to look at what-is and speak of what-is, you will not find the improvement that you desire. You may see a parade of changing faces and places, but your life experience will essentially show no improvement. If you want to effect substantial change in your life experience, you have to offer substantially different vibrations, which means you must think thoughts that feel different as you think them.

As with all of Esther Hicks books there's added bonuses. Not only is there information on attracting money and manifesting abundance, there's also sections on manifesting physical well-being, perspectives on health and weight, and careers as profitable sources of pleasure.

Read more about Money and the Law of Attraction.

Just Let Go of the Oars

Most people continually try to calculate the distance from where they are to where they want to be. "How much farther do I have to travel? How much more do I need to do? How much more weight do I need to lose? How much more money do I need?" And this is primarily because, in your physical format, you tend to be action oriented.

We would like you to understand, however, that as you begin to approach your world in terms of vibration rather than action, and in terms of thought rather than in terms of time and space and distance, your ability to close the gap between where you are and where you want to be will be much more efficient.

Sometimes, even when we are offering analogies such as this one about you in your canoe in the Stream, you want to apply your usual action-oriented tendencies. In other words, often our physical friends accept our premise that what they want is downstream, so they want to get pointed in that right direction and then they want to hurry downstream: "How can I get downstream to the things that I desire faster? I'll focus better. I'll try harder. I will work longer." But we want you to understand that those determined attitudes only cause you to again turn upstream. It is not necessary for you to put a motor on your boat in an attempt to make it go faster once you are pointed downstream in this Current of Life. The Current will carry you...just let go of the oars.

When you are no longer paddling against the Current - when you release your oars and relax into your own natural Well-Being - the Current, which is ever moving in the direction of that which you have become and all that you want, will carry you toward your desires.

The belief that there is something to overcome automatically points you upstream. Understanding that all you desire is easily attainable by you, automatically points you downstream. And once you understand that, you are practicing the Art of Allowing your natural Well-Being to flow to you, and you to it...and that is the Art of Allowing yourself to be the You that life has caused you to become.

Read more about The Astonishing Power of Emotions.

Why Does the Media Broadcast Pain, but Censor Pleasure?

Jerry: I also notice that in our culture it seems perfectly appropriate for television and movies to depict the maiming of people, and destruction and gore - anything horrible as far as destroying the human body - while it seems inappropriate to show human sexuality and pleasure. I've never understood why our culture has come to the place where it can stand hate and anger and pain, but doesn't want to see pleasure.

Abraham: It is not a matter of their wanting to see hate, anger, and pain, and not wanting to see pleasure. In fact, the opposite of that is true: people really do want to feel good, and they want to see things that are successful and beautiful and pleasurable.

Many people are attracting to themselves unwanted things by virtue of their attention to those unwanted things. A misunderstanding of the Laws of the Universe is at the heart of this conversation as the people of your society wage wars against the things they do not want: war against terror, war against AIDS, war against teenage pregnancy, war against violence, war against cancer - and every one of those things is getting bigger because attention to unwanted creates more unwanted.

Your moviemakers, whether they understand the Law of Attraction or not, understand that people do gravitate more toward viewing unwanted things than wanted. And we submit that the reason that is true is because there are strong active Vibrations in most people about what they do not want. If you were to engage the average person in conversation about what is going on with his life, you would find him much more articulate in expressing the things that are not working well - things that are unjust and things that need to be changed - than he would be able to express the beauty of his life and world.

Also, once you have decided that the world is leaning toward anger and hate, you are no longer a Vibrational Match to the beauty of the world - and the world, as you attract, then leans in the direction of your belief. Anyone who begins to make lists of the positive aspects of the world around them will train their Vibration and therefore their own point of attraction to more of that. Meanwhile, the people who make movies will continue to make the movies that people are attracting from them.

We would like to help you remember that if you are waiting around for your society to get straightened out before you have a happy life experience, you will have a very long wait. If you are waiting for anybody else in your experience to get straightened out before you have a happy experience, you will have a very long wait.

You are not here to discover that which is perfect. You are here to create or to attract that which is perfect. As the contrast of your life, and even of what you are calling unpleasant movies, helps you know what you do not want, you also understand more clearly what you do want. Focus upon what you do want, become a Vibrational Match to what you do want, train your point of attraction to what you do want - and watch your personal world become that.

Read more about The Vortex.

Freedom or Lack of Such, As Perceptual

When you consider the extent of emotions that range from the good-feeling ones such as joy, love, and appreciation...all the way down to depression, despair, fear, and grief, can you feel how empowering those good-feeling emotions are, and how disempowering those bad-feeling emotions are? Can you not sense the feeling of freedom on one end of the scale, and the lack of freedom on the other?

The good-feeling end of the Emotional Guidance Scale matches the vibration of perceived freedom. The bad-feeling end of the Emotional Guidance Scale matches the vibration of perceived lack of freedom. Freedom or lack of freedom is truly perceptual because - whether you understand it or not - you are absolutely free, for not one can get inside of you and offer your vibration for you, for it is only your own vibrational offering that affects your personal life experience. And so it is of tremendous value for you to acknowledge, from your own point of view, the feeling of absolute freedom or empowerment that some emotions signal and the feelings of utter bondage or disempowerment that are pointed out by others.

Your Inner Being, or Source, understands that you are free, under all conditions, to create what you desire, but when you perceive that you are not free, those negative emotions, which ensue from depression, despair, or fear, point out your misalignment. Your Inner Being, or Source, understands that you are free, under all conditions, to create what you desire; so when you perceive that you are free, you feel those confirming, matching, aligning feels of positive emotion that indicate your alignment with your Source.

Now, when you conclude that nothing is more important than that you feel good, you have come to the most important realization of all, for you have now decided to deliberately manage the vibrational relationship between you and your Source. You have decided to use the Guidance System that you were born with to monitor and control the vibrational relativity between your current focus, and subsequent vibration, and that of your Inner Being. You have decided to tend to your Connection with your Source. You have decided to thrive rather than pinch off your Connection. You have chosen clarity, vitality, eagerness, abundance of all things you consider to be good - and joy.

Read more about The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent.

Read the introduction by Abraham from the book and CD.

Meditation: General Well-Being

Be easy about your life, and feel our appreciation for who-you-are as you allow wonderful things to flow naturally to you. As you relax into the Law-based premise of our words, any resistance you have found along your physical path will be released.

That which is your Source is fully aware of you right now, and feels unspeakable appreciation for who-you-are. Your life is supposed to feel good to you, and you are meant to feel happiness in your life - and you are meant to satisfy your dreams.

Meditation: Financial Abundance

The fastest way to get to an improved financial condition is to look for pleasing things that you already have, for in the seeking and finding of that which is working, more success will come - and it will come quickly.

Financial abundance does not occur in one's life because of hard work or good luck or favoritism - financial abundance is simply the Universe's response to consistent thoughts and feelings of abundance.

Meditation: Physical Well-Being

By releasing resistance a little more every day, you will feel the power that creates worlds flowing through you...just breathing and listening, not to make something happen, but for the pleasure and comfort of alignment.

Your physical body will respond very quickly to the absence of resistance that you are feeling while you breathe, for there is no physical body, no matter what the condition, that cannot return to its natural state of well-being.

Meditation: Relationships

Sometimes it seems like others have the power to negatively affect your experience, but that is never true; only your response to them has the power to pinch you off from the naturally good-feeling person you are.

When others lash out at you in anger, with words or action, their battle is not with you but with themselves; and if you do not take their behavior personally - understanding it is their personal battle - in time they will leave you out of it.

Learn more about Getting Into the Vortex.

Number 66

Those who are mostly observers thrive in good times but suffer in bad times because what they are observing is already vibrating, and as they observe it, they include it in their vibrational countenance; and as they include it, the Universe accepts that as their point of attraction - and gives them more of the essence of it. So, for an observer, the better it gets, the better it gets; or the worse it gets, the worse it gets. However, one who is a visionary, thrives in all times.

Number 78

Once you understand that the way you feel indicates your level of allowing or resisting, you now hold the key to creating anything that you desire. It is not possible for you to consistently feel positive emotion about something and have it turn out badly, just as it is not possible for you to consistently feel bad about something and have it turn out well - and the way you feel will tell you if you are allowing your natural Well-Being or not.

Number 87

Anything that you give your attention to will become your "truth." The Law of Attraction says that it must. Your life, and everyone else's too, is but a reflection of the predominance of your thoughts. There is no exception to this.

Number 139

When you remember that everyone who asks is given, then how wonderful and appropriate it is for you to make the choices for you - for the Universe operates much more efficiently without a middleman interceding on your behalf. No one else knows what is appropriate for you - but you do. You always know, in the moment, what is best for you.

Number 140

When you know that you want something and you notice that you do not have it, you assume that there is something outside of yourself that is keeping it from you, but that is never true. The only thing that ever prevents your receiving something that you desire is that your habit of thought is different from your desire.

Number 180

You now remember that there is nothing that you cannot be, do, or have; and you remember that if your dominant intention is to feel good - and that if you try to make the best of where you are - you must reach your natural state of joy.

Number 183

You now remember that the Law of Attraction is always fair, and there is no injustice. For whatever is coming to you is doing so in response to the vibrations that you are offering due to the thoughts that you are thinking.

Number 262

When you dream about something, it is always a match to the thoughts you have been thinking, and so - since each of your dreams is, in fact, your creation - it is not possible for you to dream about anything that you have not created through your thoughts. The fact that it has now manifested in your dream state means that you have given it a significant amount of thought.

Number 310

Seemingly magical things will begin to occur as soon as you achieve that wonderful feeling of financial abundance. The money you are currently earning will seem to go further. Unexpected amounts of money in various increments will begin to show up in your experience.

Number 351

The question that often arises is: "Well what about the little ones? What about the unhealthy babies?" And we say that they have been exposed to vibration, even in the womb, which caused them to disallow the Well-Being that would have been there otherwise. But once they are born, no matter what their disability, if they could be encouraged to thoughts that would allow the Well-Being, then even after the body is fully formed, it could be regenerated into something that is well.

Number 357

Every death is brought about by the culmination of the vibration of the Being. There is not an exception to that. No one, beast or human, makes their transition into the Non-Physical without it being the vibrational consensus that is within them - so every death is a suicide because every death is self-imposed.

Read more about Manifest Your Desires.

"Wow! Sara pondered. That's amazing. I can actually see that the way I feel has only to do with what I'm giving my attention to. The conditions didn't change, but my attention did!"

Read more about Sara Book 1.

"Hi, Solomon."

I see you have met Seth.

"You know Seth?" Sara blurted, and then she smiled as she remembered that Solomon knows about everything.

Oh yes, Sara, I have been aware of Seth for quite some time now. I was pleased about the two of you meeting even before the two of you actually met.

"You knew that we would meet?"

Seth's life experiences have produced many intensely focused questions. I could feel him making his way into my experience, and so, of course, it is logical that he would also make his way into your experience, Sara. We are all birds of a feather, you know.

Read more about Sara Book 2.

Taken from the Introduction by Jerry Hicks

The following passage is an excerpt of Solomon's words to Sara, words that summarize the simplicity and clarity of this thrilling adventure into the discovery of how joyous and fulfilling our lives are meant to be:

Sara, what about making your happiness your main issue? Nothing is more important than that you feel good...

People often believe that things have to be a certain way before they can feel good. And then, when they discover that they don't have the power or the votes or the strength to make things be the way they want, they resign themselves to unhappy, powerless lives.

Understand that your power lies in your ability to see things in a way that keeps you feeling good, and when you are able to do that - you have the power to achieve anything that you desire.

Everything that you desire is trying to make its way to you, but you must find the way to let it in - and only in feeling good can you let in those things you desire.

You live in a big world, Sara, with many other people who may want things to be different than you want them to be. You cannot convince or coerce them all to agree with you; you cannot destroy all of them who do not agree with you. Your only path to a joyous, powerful life experience is to decide, once and for all, that no matter what, you intend to feel good. And as you practice turning your thoughts to things that do feel good - now you have discovered the secret to life...

Read more about Sara Book 3.