I do take it one step further than you. I recently went through a change of bosses after my department was decimated. The people who were cut from my department were, by and large, very negative people. My new boss is very negative and only numbers oriented. Even though I work at a college, she would prefer that there were no people involved.

I asked myself, out loud, “Why is it that I attract such negative people.” I did not make these people negative. I did not create the decimation of my department, though I did not take steps to prevent it.

I believe that if I take “responsibility” for negativity around me, I might do something to change it. If I consider myself a victim of negative people, I will never change.

I probably agree with you more than I don’t. What I call being responsible, you may call “facilitating”. I can accept that.

As far as the tsunami – I can ask, “What have I done to help people get out of poverty and have strong houses?” Or I could ask, “What have I done to help Indonesia become a prosperous country that could have had a tsunami warning system? Or have I only bought clothing from their sweatshops without caring about the Indonesian economy?”

Am I at fault? No. Can I learn something from it to improve, even if it had nothing to do with me? Yes.

I appreciate the differences between Attracting and Creating.

Thank you for making the distinctions between Self and self in the discussions of the Laws…those distinctions make sense!

“The only thing you can truly control is your mind. How you act, react and the decisions that you make are always your choice

“You have total control of your thoughts, actions, reactions and attitude. To further prove your level of control, you may give it up any time you wish.”
http://www.HowToTakeNo.com

So, responsibility, making your own reality? We have total responsibility or our actions and reactions. Every move we make is either reactive or proactive.

Manipulation happens when we are motivated to react in a certain way without thinking about it.

Those who allow themselves to be hypnotized by their own weaknesses, prejudices or fears can be awakened by the stunning realization of their lack of consciousness.

“The Secret” is motivating, but it’s not complete with an action plan. We can remove those areas that don’t fit us and follow the concept of personal action/reaction/responsibility without creating, as Barry & Heather write, extra arms or legs.

Tom Justin

[Heather's REPLY]:

Hi Tom,

I remember discussing your book when I interviewed you several years ago, and I love some of your simple techniques for dealing with the creation of our own reality — or, as we like to call it, our “tree reality”.

But of course, you’re still not talking about creating our “forest reality” — the big picture things that happen on a global (or Universal) scale.

As for The Secret, you’re certainly not the first person to say that it’s incomplete because there’s no “action plan”, and we actually created http://MastersOfTheSecret.com in 2006/2007 to fill that void (for people who watched but were still unable to change their lives).

But whatever can be said about The Secret’s strengths and weaknesses, I do have to disagree with the common assertion that “it doesn’t tell you to take action,” as so many people say.

First of all, “action” is not PART of the Law of Attraction, per se. It’s something that you need to do AFTER the LOA has done its job. And The Secret never claimed to be about anything more than simply the LOA.

Secondly, several teachers in The Secret (Joe Vitale and Jack Canfield come to mind immediately) did say point-blank that you do have to take action (or specifically, “inspired action”) if you want to complete the process of manifesting what you’re attracting.

So for people who wanted an “action plan” laid out in the movie, and aren’t able to take action without one, they’re likely the same people who believe that “manifestation” means snapping your fingers and creating things out of thin air.

But they’re probably NOT members of our community, who for the most part are pretty sophisticated and knowledgeable, even if they might have trouble manifesting certain things (and our aim is to give them the tools and techniques to do so).

cheers
Heather