The Law of Attraction

Yesterday, I read the Law of Attraction By Esther and Jerry Hicks. Actually, it's not written by anyone, it is presented as a conversation between Jerry and Abraham, the nonphysical being that his wife Esther channels through meditation. Abraham presents to Jerry (under the auspices of spreading that message to as many people as possible, thus improving their existence) the laws of the universe of which we have heretofore been unaware but govern us none the less. It is Abraham's belief that everything in our experience is created by our thoughts, that we are the creators of our own reality and therefore having everything we want is only some focused thought away.
There are some real jewels of wisdom in this book, particularly in regards to taking personal responsibility over your own experience. If you wake up having a bad day, everything is going to seem to go wrong because the attitude and energy that you are bringing to individual situations is that of negativity, victimization, ect... So Abraham tells us: Think about something that makes you feel good, then you will be in line with what your inner being really wants, which of course is what you wanted before this society conditioned you. He says we are just physical manifestations of our nonphysical selves, who decided to become physical to experience the pleasure of creating their own reality.
I feel a lot of value in the setting of intentions. By saying "this is what I want and this is why I want it" you start out on a positive path. To say "this is what I want and these are the reasons I don't have it yet" is to move in a negative direction. Jerry calls this focusing on the lack of what you want rather than what you want, and anything that we give attention to is attracted into our world. He suggests the exercise of workshopping your dreams: sitting 15 minutes a day thinking about things that make you feel good, thus continuing the path of intention and attraction and bringing you all that you've ever wanted.
But of course there is the other side of the coin, which is that this book is full of quintessential, new age,  other worldly and totally dualistic crap. First of all, if there really was a higher being communicating to the Hicks' for the purpose of educating as many people to the right way of living as possible, why do they charge for the right to read these words? Shouldn't it be mass distributed to anyone who wishes to read it? Or is Esther Hicks' spirit guide equally interested in making sure they couple has all the material wealth they desire? And perhaps that is the case, since most of these good spiritual practices are being wielded for the purpose of material comfort. Want a new red car? Want a fancy house? Want unlimited financial resources? Just think about them a lot and expect yourself to get them!
Another point of contention for me is the idea of a society of nonphysical beings. If such a society exists and is on a higher plane of consciousness, it seems that the Buddhist idea of a nondual, unified existence is crushed under the new information. If there is no good, no bad, only what is, then it wouldn't matter if you got a new car or hit by a bus, all of reality simply is without the need for labels. But the Hicks are telling us that there IS a right and wrong way to go about life and the nonphysical world is there rooting us on.
I'm not buying it, though I do plan on using intentionality to start really asking for and going after things that I want.

On a side note, Allie, Jessie and maybe David, good luck in the void.