One of the central claims in Buddhism and a variety of other religions is the   
   law of attraction: That the like attracts like. This claim does not pass the   
   muster of scrutiny.   
      
      
   The same person can attract completely different people in their lives. One   
   can attract great people and terrible people within a few days of one another.   
   I myself have attracted into my life both people who were inspirational and   
   people who were down    
   and out. That would not have been the case if the like attracts like.   
      
      
   Am I like the inspirational people and the down-and-out people at the same   
   time? Is a woman like both the man who batters her and the man who adores her?   
   Melanie had the attention of men who were horrible to her and men who loved   
   her. That would not have    
   been the case if the like attracted like.   
      
      
   Are we in control of what we attract? We can certainly do a lot to improve   
   what we attract; but we also have to be mindful of things over which we have   
   no control. We are not in control if a tsunami strikes us. If it does, it   
   doesn't happen because of    
   negativity in our consciousness. It happens because a tsunami has happened,   
   which is nobody's fault.   
      
      
   The law of attraction is obviously wrong. Am I both my Latin teacher and the   
   people who attacked me on the Internet? Is Melanie both the brutes that she   
   was with and the good people that she is with now? All this would point to   
   people being many self-   
   contradictory things at the same time. And that makes such beliefs outside the   
   province of reason.   
      
      
   I am not driven here by wanting to be a victim or anything of the sort. I am   
   driven here by simple rationality. If a person can attract people who are   
   nothing like one another, then that cannot be an outcome of what's in her   
   consciousness. People can    
   attract people for any number of reasons, some of which are compatible with   
   them and some of which are not.   
      
      
   So it is time that more people be skeptical of such sentiments. If I can   
   attract great people and terrible people in days of each other, then that   
   means that the mechanism is something besides my consciousness. Sometimes   
   people will make rightful choices;   
    sometimes they won't. The reason is not anything in their consciousness. The   
   reason is choice.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)