Back around 2010 I was introduced to the Secret & Law of Attraction, which eventually led to watching videos of Abraham Hicks which is supposedly some nonphysical being that is channeled by Esther Hicks, with her husband by her side Jerry Hicks, whom unfortunately passed in 2011.
Esther however is still traveling the world doing workshops, cruises & seminars.
Did the teaching material really help?
Today I do live a pretty awesome life, I work from home, make 6 figure income from my internet business & I have awesome friends & relationship in my life. I wake up happier than I’ve ever been in my life.
But it wasn’t always like this.
Did Abraham Hicks teachings in anyway contribute to my success 8 years later?
Here is my testimony.
In 2010 I was going to college at the time, & I was first getting introduced to this whole genre of personal development by first discovering the movie the Secret.
Immediately I was so enthralled with this idea that you can manifest whatever you wanted in life, I began devouring any Law of Attraction material I could get my hands on.
In hindsight, It was almost like I was a crack junkie for a little while because the feel-good videos will give me a dose of dopamine & pretty soon I became addicted to watching them any chance I could get.
I would watch the videos, read the books & spend many hours visualizing about things I wanted in life.
Determined to manifest the type of reality I wanted.
Abraham Hicks teaches a concept of getting into your vortex or being in alignment with source & once you’re there all the things you’ve ever dreamed of & more would start rushing in your life & you don’t even need to know how it will happen!
Sounds rad right?
So I would try very hard to control my negative thinking, & try to think positively all the time.
So did it work?
Well here’s my story at least 8 years after I first heard the concept of Law of Attraction.
Did Abraham Hicks Teachings Really Work?
At the time, I was in college and I wanted to get better with women.
I also visualized for success with money.
Now 8 years removed & looking back in hindsight, the law of attraction stuff only helped to a degree.
But more alarming than that I began to notice some negative consequences from being so deep into the LoA dogma.
As time went on I was simply not getting the type of results that I wanted.
& then I would struggle with blaming my thinking as the reason for not getting the results.
I didn’t know this at the time, but thinking positively was only part of the equation when it comes to real success in any area in life.
What I needed were skills.
Watch this video by a millionaire mentor Dan Lok
https://youtu.be/kvGG3XQRFrw
I do believe in the importance of becoming aware of your thoughts.
& having a general positive outlook on life is important but I don’t think you have to constantly visualize things for good things to happen to you in life.
I’m not doing any visualization anymore & its been like that for years & my life is better than its ever been.
I found becoming aware & present is more important.
Because how many times have you heard of successful people that don’t talk about these concepts and they still reached enormous success in some area in life?
True successful people don’t talk like Abraham Hicks.
They call this the New Age movement for a reason.
Do you think my parents or anyone before this movement were constantly worrying about their alignment with source?
Yet there are countless people that achieved great things in life without this new age thinking?
What you will all find in common with successful people though are they have some sort of skills that they have worked hard at cultivating & mastering that is at the root cause of their success.
Yes motivation & having that self-belief that you can achieve your goals are critical.
But if you ain’t got no skills you will not reach the pinnacle.
Life was not meant to be easy. but IMO that’s what also makes life so thrilling.
When you overcome challenges by developing your skills, there is no better feeling than that.
I’m afraid some of Abraham Hicks teachings breed the mentality of just wanting everything to be easy peasy.
If everything was easy, there would be no growth. Think about it.
The Good & The Bad of Abraham Hicks Teachings
To a certain point I believe their teachings do serve a meaningful purpose.
Now that I have some years of experience on this material, I can look at their videos more objectively & with a level head.
Back then I had what you call confirmation bias.
This phenomenon that we as humans are doing constantly, where we want something to be true (we have some preconceived bias towards something) that we ignore any information that speaks to the contrary and cherry pick the information that confirms our desired viewpoints.
I definitely went through that phase with Abraham Hicks & the Law of Attraction teachings.
Now years later, I can see that it did have some positive impact while some of it were negative also.
Some of their message I can still dig, but some clearly don’t sit right with me anymore.
This is coming from someone that’s got a way better life than I did when I first got into this material & I’ve grown a lot more, so it’s not coming from a place of bitterness but rather more mature perspective on life through personal introspection.
Here’s my top pros & cons of Abraham Hicks teachings.
The Good
- Provides Inspiration & Motivation
- There is true power & tangible benefit with the Gratitude mindset, many successful people will also confirm
- It can serve as a gateway to other teachers & mentors
- leads to becoming more self-aware *this is the real benefit for me & I see it as a key foundation to success in all areas of life*
The Bad
- it can breed arrogance (Looking back when I was really into this stuff, I was acting like such an asshole at times, thinking I knew it all & I had it all figured out, at times telling others how they should live life)
- that arrogance sometimes lead to becoming more distant from family & friends (I am grateful that I was aware enough to see this negative impact on myself & others to catch myself & really self-examine my assholeness & rectify it eventually)
- the idea that our thinking is at fault when bad things happen to us, & so we should control our thinking. From my experience, controlling our thinking leads to suppression & denial, which imo causes more issues in the mind
Abraham Hicks teachings did lead me to spiritual teachings & learning about the subconscious mind which I do believe had much more impact in my personal evolution.
My journey has led me to teachings that suggest that the mind is not at the causal point of our experience.
Its our emotional body, more specifically the imprinting on our emotional body that has a profound impact on our lives.
Deep programming that comes from the emotional landscape of our parents, their relationship to each other & what happened to us in our early childhood.
Such as deep trauma that goes unresolved & stuck within our bodies & unconscious mind, that keeps affecting us throughout life until its resolved through some type of trauma work.
That to me I resonate with more & I feel like a more functional working model to which we can view challenging psychological issues in life & actually impact real changes.
Just merely thinking positive thoughts I’ve found did not get at these deeper issues.
Its when I started to face the negative aspects within myself head on and begin to process them did I really feel like something was changing.
The key for me was to simply allow negative thoughts & feelings to be there as they arised, but instead of ignoring or supressing them, to consciously feel them & watch them.
Hold it with our loving awareness like a newborn child.
This is often called inner child work.
So I went through a phase of exploring different trauma healing modalities, & Its still part of what I do from day to day
My favorite releasing techniques & methodologies:
- Presence Process by Michael Brown
- Ho’oponopono
- Eliza Mada Dalian
- Scott Kiloby
I find Scott Kiloby to be really fascinating.
Addicted to drugs, gambling & everything in between. He was able to use the power of his consciousness through non-attached awareness what some call nonduality to break free from his addictions and save himself, now he facilitates & runs a drug alcohol recovery center in California getting people off of drugs & resolving the underlying addiction through presence or awareness.
When you see real profound results like this, to me it truly validates that our power lies beyond our thinking mind.
Your Bag of Marbles: The Latest in Abraham-Hicks Philosophy
What is the Bag of Marbles Analogy by Abraham-Hicks About?
The "bag of marbles" analogy compares human thoughts and beliefs to marbles in a bag. Each thought we have is like adding a marble to this bag. This philosophy pushes the idea that when we think a thought often, we're making that specific marble more valuable in our bag. The bag holds all our thoughts, both those we are currently focused on (active) and those we aren't thinking about much anymore (inactive). The main idea in this philosophy is that every thought we've ever had is still in our bag, but how much it affects us depends on how active it is in our mind.
How Does the Bag of Marbles Analogy Apply to Life?
The "bag of marbles" analogy shows how much power we have over our thoughts and how they shape our life experiences. By choosing which thoughts (or marbles) to focus on or ignore, we can change our outlook in life.
For example, if we remember something from the past, it can bring back old thoughts and affect how we feel and act in the present. This idea also points out that everyone has both good and bad thoughts together in their bag. These thoughts influence how we interact with the people around us.
Key Lessons to Learn from the Bag of Marbles Analogy
Awareness and Self-Control: Individuals have control over which thoughts (marbles) they activate or keep dominant in their lives. By consciously choosing thoughts, one can positively influence their life experiences.
Coexistence of Thoughts: The analogy illustrates that a mix of positive and negative thoughts (colored and black marbles) coexists in everyone.
Attraction and Reaction: The thoughts a person keeps active in their bag dictate their vibrational point of attraction. Their choice affects how they interact with others and the experiences they attract to their lives.
What's new with Abraham-Hicks? The company now offers a ten-night Carribean cruise (from March 11 to 21, 2024) and in-person workshops aside from its regular live online broadcasts.
After the Self Development Phase...
So there was a time in my life where I spent a lot of time with these spiritual teachings & deep introspections.
Eventually these spiritual practices became part of me almost, like automatic.
So in hindsight this was the phase that Dan Lok talked about, improving our mentality.
Getting our head screwed on right.
I began to identify parts of my life I didn't like and I started tackling them headon.
One was the fact that I was working a 9 to 5 Job that I didn't like and only making $35K per year.
I started searching online about different businesses that I could run & stumbled upon a mentor that was teaching people how to make money online by generating lead for local businesses.
Something about it really made sense to me and I hopped on the call with my mentor Dan.
He was making $35K per month with his lead generation business and just everything about what he was saying made so much sense so I went full-in.
Learned very powerful skills inside the program, at the time I didn't know how Dan was equipping me with high-income skills & helping me build a scalable business around it.
My mindset was good. I was driven, disciplined & very eager.
Now I had the high-income skills to go along with it.
Skills that allows me to bring tremendous value to the marketplace.
I then went on to make my first dollar online, a day I will never forget.
Fast track, 7 months into the program, I was now making $8K per month and I was able to quit my 9 to 5.
Life changing experience to say the least.
Now I had financial confidence, this knowing that with this skillset, the sky is the limit for my income earning potential.
I've been blazing a journey of entrepreneurship ever since.
Today I'm making $50,000 per month with my lead generation business.
My friends are all stunned at how much I've transformed my life.
Self-employed, my own boss, & cash flow coming in that's upgraded my lifestyle in a major way.
Just like Dan Lok said, I know now what most people are missing with self-development, its real skills that can bring value to the marketplace.
& when you look at the Abraham teachings with more objective wholistic view, some of it really doesn't make sense.
When bad things happen, what if there was a greater purpose to that event that's divinely orchestrated. We call that "blessing in disguise", our thinking mind couldn't possibly have thought to create that, when these events happen we initially resist the hell out of it, then its only much later time we see what positive impact the seemingly "negative" event had on us. So how can Abraham say that it was a mistake to create that negative experience or it was being misaligned with source or whatever.
Look, clearly part of life is about going through all of the dualities of life, the positive & the negative. Its the negative experience that leads to massive growth. This is where I cannot agree with Abraham's message of needing everything to be perfect & positive all the time. I feel it is better to grow comfortable with negative situations & embrace them without resisting them or thinking something is wrong.
Also...
What if everyone could manifest whatever they wanted in avalanches with such ease, don't you think millionaires would be popping up everywhere by now religiously professing about the magical thinking that granted them everything?
Instead what does all of these millionaires attribute their success too?
- Its usually words like hard work, dedication, working on your craft/skill for years & years, work ethic, determination -trying over & over again & never giving up
Of course, they all say having a positive attitude is important but I think that's obvious for everyone.
But I think where most people drop the ball with LoA is this desire to want everything to be easy all the time.
Shit anything worth tremendous value should be hard to attain or else it won't be that special anymore, would it?
It should take time & hard work to achieve because it'll feel that much better when you do finally achieve it.
I am a living example of why mindset & positive thinking alone is not enough.
You need a strategy.
You need skills.
The fastest route?
Go get a mentor.
Click here if you want to learn more about this lead generation business. We're coaching others how to do the same.
I listened to Abraham-Hicks and numerous Abraham tapes 16 years ago. I learned how to “channel” (for lack of a better word) from them very quickly. Within days of learning to channel, negative voices and catastrophic experiences came through. Over the next several months I became extremely ill, partially paralyzed, and eventually lost my job of 17 years. I think it was just massive negative energy that entered when I started to channel, and for some reason would not leave. I am a positive person; I look for the good in all, and for some reason, everything I asked for came in as the opposite. Now, 16 years later, I wake up every single day to this horrible negativity. This is not an exaggeration. I’ve tried everything to undo the problems that were caused by channeling, but to no avail. I’ve even tried to contact Esther Hicks by phone and email on numerous occasions, thinking she might have an answer as to how to stop this negative energy and the voices. Beware of what they are teaching because ultimately, they blame anything negative on the recipient. Example below:
In regard to the Holocaust-When asked about the Holocaust, Esther/Abraham stated that the murdered Jews were responsible for attracting violence upon them themselves.
No pure “Source” would teach this. There is Good out there. It’s just not in the form of Abraham-Hicks. They are basically a cult.
Im so glad to hear someone else feels like something is off about Abraham’s teachings. I really like listening to her, and she does help me to get motivated, but ignoring your negative thoughts isn’t healthy….this helped me. Thank you.
Interesting article, thank you.
Abraham Hicks is a demonic entity designed to lure people to the dark side under the guise that we must experience pure bliss. If it feels good then it is right…wrong. Trust your gut, there is a lot wrong with Abraham Hick’s teachings. Just read, “Blissfully Brainwashed, the Cult of Abraham Hicks on Medium.com
Couldn’t agree more. There’s a certain toxicity in the positive thinking movement that does not hold space for ‘low negative emotions’ . I think this will only lead to fear, denial or suppression of the emotions. I’ve met people who literally cut others off just because they are not in a high vibe all the time.
That’s why it’s always necessary to integrate the shadow to become whole.
If you are in a high vibration it’s hard to notice when others are not. No reason to cut anyone off unless they are super toxic.
It is impossible to be arrogant, if you are truly on a high vibration, so there is something essential you did not understand about these teachings. We are all one, so you can bot have negative feelings and allow positive at the same moment. We need negative feelings to show us, what we do not want, but suffering is always unnecessary.
And if you just get material and social success and a lot of money, but you are not happy, you are actually not successful at all. Because happiness is success, every happy moment of your life.
The purpose of life is happiness. Without happiness everything you receive is meaningless.
Thank i also feel the and notice the law of attraction promises too much but delivers too little. It also relieves me to finally accept that.
Law of Attraction promises NOTHING. It’s just the way the universe works.
Going through a phase in which something you heard resonated with you deeply and lead you down a path that eventually created greater clarity about how you prefer to live your life is NORMAL.
Suggesting something was wrong with a past relationship because one is in a great relationship now misses the point of life: live it the best way you know how.
Not everyone is into basing their idea of success or happiness on how much they make in the marketplace; that is a very unreliable indicator of how well someone is really doing in life.
And MANY people who are incredibly skilled, talented and hardworking do not realize their dreams.
Abraham Hicks is not for everyone and THANK GOD. What a boring, limited world that would be. More power to those who subscribe to the idea of working their tail off to accumulate wealth/attain status; who think that their physical efforts are ultimately what determine their achievements.
Abraham Hicks is sooo ridiculous. She gives non-answers and parrots the same crap over and over again. I prefer much more down to earth LOA coaches like Amy Westmoreland or Amanda from CreateYourFuture.co
I can’t get behind all the woo woo crap. It just sounds insane.
I am definitely interested in learning more.
Wow, I enjoyed reading that…
My story is successful to some extent, yet I feel a plateau.
I went searching for reviews on Abraham Hicks and came across this. I agree wholeheartedly and while listening to her was trying to figure out some clear thoughts to my awkward understanding of her leadership style. You hit the nail on the head.
Thanks
Dear Ippei, congrats on your success! I just felt compelled to respond to your post about Abraham, who i too follow.
I’m really surprised that Abraham’s teachings caused you to be more arrogant. Abraham’s teachings have helped me to be more compassionate and understanding than i’ve ever been. Abraham doesn’t ever suggest cutting ties from family, spouse, friends either, and says that if we become distant, it doesn’t matter because wherever we go, there we are. Instead, they talk about working on one’s vibration so that we can be more aligned when we are around those people. When we are aligned, then any action we take will be right action. But more than anything, I think Abraham teachings stop people from cutting ties from others and getting divorces.
I do agree though that we can’t always control our thinking. Sometimes there’s just too much resistance. In this case, Abraham suggests going general, and the most general we can go is to meditate. However, i agree with you in that when i need to meditate, i often need to feel. I tend to go toward felt perception and that in itself is a meditation. I think felt perception is one thing Abraham doesn’t emphasize, but perhaps it’s because it happens in meditation. But i think it should be emphasized because it is powerful. But at other times, the shifting of thoughts helps, probably because there is not as much resistance (only some), and just by thinking of something else that feels better, something actually shifts inside of me. So, there is no one answer, but i just wanted to point out that most of the aspects of Abraham’s teachings that you say are flawed, are not at all flawed. It seems you may have misinterpreted them..
Abraham inspires us to get into alignment..where there is no arrogance, no creating distance from others, and most importantly, no looking down on oneself. I dont think i’ve ever practiced more compassion for myself. You could call all this confirmation bias, but it feels like clarity to me.
In regards to bad things happening, I’ve never heard Abraham refer to that as a “mistake.” When something happens that we dont like, Abe calls it contrast and talks about why contrast is a good thing. You mentioned that Abraham’s teachings showed you that your thinking (when something bad happens) is at fault, and that thinking needs to be suppressed. What i got from their teachings is not that at all, but that our thinking comes from old patterns (that start from childhood), and an old momentum that is sometimes strong. So we train ourselves into a new thinking, by shifting our focus to better thoughts. We practice. we get better and better at it. We practice reaching for better thoughts, when it works. We practice felt perception, when that is needed. It all works.. and there are many ways on the path. But Abraham never suggests suppressing one’s thoughts because that would only mean it would grow stronger. There really is no way of suppressing thoughts.. and shifting one’s focus to a different thought is not suppressing. It’s something that will either work (when there is less resistance), or it wont work, in which case going general helps. In all cases, Abraham’s message is to be easy on yourself, and think of what source is saying to you, who adores you always.
And finally, i want to address your point about working hard. When Abraham challenges the belief that we must work hard to get what we want, etc.. I think what they are doing is saying that when we’re in alignment, things come to us.. the right people, the right opportunities, the right mentors, etc. We know it because of how we feel. And yes we do need to take action to accomplish anything, but Abraham says first get into alignment. Then the action we take is easy.. and not ‘efforting.’ There is an ease and flow in everything when we’re in alignment. So you really can’t go wrong with Abraham’s teachings. Their teachings do not cause the issues you had of arrogance and distance., but it just seems you may have not have been easy on yourself, and you may have gone astray from the message. But then you found something that did work for you so that is wonderful. I just didn’t want your message to mislead anyone about Abraham because while certain aspects of it caused you problems, it may work very well for another, depending on where they are at. And they could achieve their dreams in a way that does feel easy and fun.
I just stumbled across your comment and it's from years ago! But I just want to say how beautifully you described the teachings which resonate exactly the same way with me. Negative thoughts provide contrast to show us what we don't want thus helping us to clarify what we do want and then when we get into alignment, the universe delivers these things. And ever since I've studied Abraham, my relationship with my parents which was basically non-existent in the past has become so warm, genuine and beautiful. Because now I see them and love them unconditionally. I had an anxiety disorder for which I was medicated for 10 years and last year stopped taking my meds and to this day haven't come close to any kind of panic attack. I'm so grateful I was drawn to your comment because that's clarity for me on where I'm at with this. So, thank you! ❤️
Thank you.
Wow…. Just wow, good luck with your life
I see You missed the point of what Abraham says. They never say don’t get skills. They never say to just think positive.
If that is what someone gets from Abraham then that’s them picking and choosing from thousands of recordings what they want to hear or maybe only ready to hear based on their vibration.
I used to think that way as well when first introduced into metaphysics. I was told I was wrong luckily by people who understand how it works.
I do agree that trauma work is important and some people also get stuck reliving the trauma of that is all they do.
Success is not just material- if that is the goal then ok. Abraham said alignment is the goal and alignment is not meant to be constant. We are meant to keep growing and when we have something we don’t like happening this is a great opportunity to grow and see where we are perceiving the negative. We can still want a different situation and get into action but if we wait for the outside to change before we feel better then we are always chasing happiness out there.
Anything can be addictive in that way.