The Law Of Attraction And Karma: The Missing Link

These days just about everybody is familiar with the Law of Attraction teachings; these teachings are not new, but are actually very ancient, and were taught by advanced spiritual individuals thousands of years ago. There is some evidence that Jesus taught the Law of Attraction and this can be found in several Biblical quotes from the New Testament. We read there of “Reaping what you sow,” “As a man thinks, so is he,” and “Whatsoever you ask for, you shall receive.”

Teachers and teachings on the Law of Attraction are in great abundance these days, and many of these teachings are via ‘channelled’ information, of particular note via the instrumentation of Esther Hicks.

I am a great fan of the Abraham teachings on the Law of Attraction, and I think that their publication Ask and it is Given is the best explanation that I have ever read, outlining how Law of Attraction actually works.

However, having listened to many of the excellent audio teachings on this subject, channelled through Esther Hicks, I do find that the responses to questions regarding Karma and its associations with the Law of Attraction, seem to be lacking in giving a full explanation of how Law of Attraction marries up with the concept of paying Karmic debts.

I am myself a channel, and work professionally as a clairvoyant medium. I have been involved in this kind of work for over 40 years, and have, over that time, gleaned my own sources of information, via channellings through my own personal mediumship as well as that of others with similar abilities, plus reading a host of spiritual literature on these subjects. With this background in mind, I hope that I can speak with some authority on this subject.

The Karmic connection

Firstly, we must not think of Karma and the Law of Attraction as necessarily being two separate subjects, or separate spiritual laws. They are really interchangeable, though representative perhaps of certain defined aspects of the same universal law which governs human conduct in the physical world. The one affects the other. That Universal Law is the Law of Cause and Effect.

Let’s first try and shed some light upon the subject of Karma, as seen over several lifetimes. (If we are talking about Karma, we must also include the concept of Reincarnation or it will not make any sense.)

The soul, that individual spark of life that outlives the physical body, is imperishable, and has, over countless lifetimes, inhabited Earthly bodies and ‘died’ and passed back into the worlds of Spirit. Now, this may have occurred many thousands of times over countless millennia. Such living and ‘dying’ in the Earth world has, of course, meant that the soul will have made many mistakes, has committed so-called ‘sins’ and has then passed back to the world of Spirit. There is an accumulated residue of Karma, both the negative kind and the positive kind, which the soul carries with it as part of the ‘record’ of the soul’s experience in the Earthly life.

The question of why some people are born blind or deformed, or any other host of diseases and sufferings that individuals experience, is never clearly answered by Abraham. So this leaves certain questions regarding our life experiences unanswered.

We cannot say that a newly born baby has been entertaining negative thoughts and therefore has attracted blindness into its life, which under the Law of Attraction might apply to an adult perhaps, but dubious concerning a baby who has not yet (in the current life) began to truly ‘think’ for itself. This must, therefore, suggest a pre-birth Karmic connection.

Our life is very much like yin and yang, composed of both light and dark, good and bad, and the sum of one may outweigh the other, depending on where our thoughts, words, desires and deeds predominate. Yet in the yin-yang symbol, we can see that the light side contains a spot of the dark and the dark side contains a spot of the light. We are all trying to constantly balance these pairs of opposites. Our Karma emerges from the struggle between these forces of light and darkness, positive and negative.

We are not going to go into the idea that everything that happens to people is just bad luck and that we are conditioned by chance events, because that would require a different subject altogether. What I am focussed on in this article, is that if the Law of Attraction holds true, then we cannot account for experiences such as being born blind unless we include Karmic causation as the law behind such a condition.

Edgar Cayce, the ‘Sleeping Prophet’ had much to say concerning Karma and its repercussions. His books are well-worth the read.

A slice of the pie

To answer this subject, we must see how Karma and Law of Attraction interact, and are basically, two interpretations of one basic Law of Cause and Effect. An example is that of a person who passes into Spirit, having lived a selfish life. In Spirit, he learns the error of his ways and he wants to return to Earth in another lifetime and make amends. However, he may not be able to handle paying off all of his debts in one lifetime, and may only pay back some of the debt.

If Karma were a pie, the individual might only be able to handle paying off just a portion of his debt, meaning that he may only cut out a slice of the pie (as much as he feels fit to experience) and complete that Karmic experience in any one lifetime. He returns to Spirit, having reduced his Karmic debt somewhat, rather like a person who repays money owed to the bank. Perhaps he has paid back a quarter or even one half of the ‘Karmic pie.’ He has thus achieved a goal for that particular lifetime. However, another incarnation or two must come to repay the rest of the debt in full.

Now, when we see that the soul, through countless lifetimes has accumulated Karmic debt, through its thoughts, words, desires and actions, and then carries those burdens over with him into the next world, it must be so that the soul brings back those very thoughts, words, desires and deeds as Karmic repercussions, under the Law of Attraction, the very same Cause and Effect which set Karma into motion in the first place!

The Law of Attraction, you see, is the very same Law of Karma, operating as the cumulative energy that each soul builds in each and every incarnation. It is a continuum from lifetime to lifetime, to lifetime, the same Law of Attraction at work, reaping Karmic rewards and paying off Karmic debt, over and over again, countless times, ad-infinitum, until the cycle of incarnations is completed, and the soul has advanced to the degree where Karma no longer exists.

The Law of Attraction is really the action of creating Karma, and future Karma, in the process of being created, is dependent on the current Law of Attraction that is operating in the person’s life; i.e. what they are continually focussing on, in thoughts, words, desires and deeds will be the determinant factor in that future Karma. Karma, per se, becomes the result of all those accumulated thoughts, words, desires and deeds, and the result of past Karma is the old, accumulated aspects of how we have used the Law of Attraction in this current incarnation and in previous lifetimes.

This is how the Law of Attraction and Karma interact continually, from lifetime to lifetime. We are either creating positive Karmic results or negative Karmic results, depending on where we focus our thoughts, words, desires and deeds on a daily and moment-by-moment basis.

This is one way to comprehend why it is that no matter what some people do they can never get that thing that they desire, or achieve that which they want, or perhaps they suffer from a host of physical diseases, or die violently or too young, and on and on it goes. It is also the very reason why some people seem to live a charmed life, and opportunities just land in their lap. We call them ‘lucky’ but that is not the sum of the experience; there is a direct causation, connected to their Karma, inherited from past lives. It explains the why this and the why that, which everyone is asking.

Under the Law of Attraction we all know that the individual must practice positivity in all its forms, but there are other aspects of peoples lives which clearly do not explain what happens and does not happen to people unless we include the concept of Karmic repercussions.

The Law of Grace

Now, given that the Law of Attraction operates so fundamentally in everyone’s lives (whether they subscribe to the belief in this law or not) what happens if the individual’s Karmic debt is quite heavy and difficult to eradicate?

There is a spiritual law called the Law of Grace; this is one that you may not hear much about, although it may be found occasionally amongst Christian literature of the more esoteric and gnostic kind. The deeper mysteries of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross are tied into this law, but this requires another article to explain that in detail at another time. However, in his book, Autobiography of a Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda explains how a spiritual guru can help a disciple by bearing away some of his ‘sins.’

Basically, when someone is truly ‘repentant’ and sorry for their past wrongs that they earnestly want to make amends for those wrongs, (and perhaps, through good deeds and other demonstrative ways of helping others, the person expresses that sorrow in service) then the Law of Grace can operate by the creation of good Karmic rewards which have a nullifying effect on previous negative actions, thus freeing the individual from past ‘sins’. The individual may, by their good thoughts, words, desires and deeds, eliminate large slices of that ponderous Karmic pie.

What happens when we pass over?

As a medium, who, through thousands of sessions with individuals who have come to me seeking contact with those who have passed on to Spirit, I find myself disagreeing with some of the statements that the Abraham teachings have made, and also those made by Neal Donald Walsch of the famed Conversations with God books.

Don’t misunderstand me, I do also find much in these books that rings true, but both Abraham and the Conversations books state that at death the soul enters into a blissful state without comparison. This is only partly true, and is certainly not always the case for everyone who passes to Spirit. The actual detaching of the spiritual entity from the physical body may, in fact, feel like a tremendous release and even be a liberating and beautiful experience, but not for all and everyone, as is claimed. Neale Donald Walsch goes so far to claim that even Adolf Hitler (who committed suicide as well as mass genocide) went straight to Heaven!

My personal understanding of the death experience is that the average, decent human being, who held good values, expressed love, and despite perhaps many little faults and failings, will indeed experience a release and a relief to shed the old body and pass into the next plane of being. Most souls go to a very beautified realm incomparable to anything on Earth.

Compassion rules the Universe

According to Abraham’s teachings, everyone passes into the next world in a state of bliss. However, the circumstances leading up to death are not taken into account at all.

During my mediumship sessions, I find that in the case of suicide, I often have to perform a sort of ‘rescue’ operation during my session to help the soul who has passed to realise that they have indeed passed on. Suicides are often in a very unhappy state of consciousness, and it can take some of them a long time to come out of that condition. These souls are often highly sensitive individuals and have reached the end of their tether with the Earth life, and yearn to escape from it. Even if the individual does not hold a belief in life after death, the inner spirit may desire to ‘return home.’

I want to make it absolutely clear, however, that these poor souls who have suffered so much in their Earth life as to commit suicide, are helped by compassionate spirits on the Other Side. A great deal of love and compassionate help comes their way and often they are in a kind of ‘resting’ state in order to recover from the trauma of their Earthly experience. The same applies to anyone who has undergone any form of trauma prior to passing over, such as in warfare, for example.

The soul, at death, passes to that plane of consciousness which corresponds exactly with the state of being that was held in their thoughts, words, desires and deeds as expressed in the lifetime. If this were not so, then the Law of Attraction and the Law of Karma would not be absolute in their operation. It would also be unjust. Only when the soul realises the error of its ways can it arise and enter into that supernal light of which the masters speak.

It is not the same as the concept of a judgemental God sitting on high dishing out punishment; it is we ourselves who create our own reality, under the pre-existing laws of the Universe. The Law of Attraction, the Law of Karma, the Law of Cause and Effect, essentially amounting to aspects of one overall law which governs all, without judgement or condemnation. It simply is. Our job is to get ourselves into alignment with these laws, by changing the way we think and how we relate to others and the world around us.

Would Hitler or Goebbels with all their evil thoughts and intentions, let alone their wicked deeds, enter into the blissful realms after what they did on Earth? No. They would go to that realm of darkness which corresponds to the darkness or absence of light in their hearts. That does not mean that they could never get out of a dark realm, because the Law of Attraction carries on right into the after-life. With effort, they could re-kindle the light that is buried deep inside of their soul and arise again, paying off any Karmic debts in other lifetimes and ascending back on the path to the Godhead.

If everyone passed into the next world to a state of bliss, then it would not make sense concerning the well-documented accounts of hauntings and Earth-bound souls, or accounts of soldiers killed in battle, still in the action of fighting, having not realised that they have ‘died.’ Countless other cases might be put forth to disparage the concept that everyone who passed over goes straight into a blissful state or directly to ‘heaven.’

The soul, at death, passes to that plane of consciousness which corresponds exactly with the state of being that was held in their thoughts, words, desires and deeds as expressed in the lifetime.

Again, I do want to make it very clear that souls passing to Spirit in any kind of distressed state, (such as suicide, violent death or severe and painful illness, including mental and emotional distress) receive help from altruistic souls who come and assist them into the light. There are even organisations that for want of better expression, may be understood as ‘healing hospitals’ where such souls can receive the appropriate ‘treatment’ to aid them in their recovery and gain more measure of that light which exists in all beings.

We must not hold onto the concept of the traditional Christian version of Heaven and Hell. There are higher realms of being and there are lower realms, but all are creations of the thoughts, words, desires and deeds of those who dwell in such places, and those in the lower planes can rise higher as soon as they change their thoughts, words, desires and deeds into ones of love, kindness and goodwill. No state is permanent.

In order for the Law of Attraction and the Law of Karma to operate, we have to realise that these laws cover all dimensions, not just the physical dimension. Everything is based on Cause and Effect, and it is only our own thoughts, words, desires and deeds that shape our reality, wherever we find ourselves.