I read ur thread right after you posted it but since I had no idea what you are talking about I had to go dig a bit into this....
First of all, it will be necessary for the nature of the subject to identify what would be the goal of our argument. New Age theories, LOA among them, usually have something in common. They happen to be (or maybe were designed to be) immune to scientific and critical testing that can yield results validating or disproving them. That said, New age theories' and similar theories' course of action is to be as appealing as possible to the masses by offering transcendental and exceptional results. The role of the critic of such theory, and since he can't prove it wrong, is to show that it is somehow contradictory, inconsistent and highly improbable to be true. When he succeeds in doing this and his argument convinces the masses, the theory dies out without being proven wrong (just of lack of public interest in it).
Secondly,you often hear the words "energy", "force","halo","spirit","field"....and many others in the New Age theories. All these phrases were hijacked from Religion,Science, and Psychology then stripped of their original meaning and never redefined. This reliance on undefined words( words that are basic components of each theory) made New Age theories more of an incoherent babble than well-explained theories.
Thirdly, our thoughts "shape" or "affect" the material world so that to match or validate them(the thoughts). That is the essence of this theory. The first question that I thought of was, Do the proponents of this theory believe that the material world exists outside our mind? After researching, it happens that they never agreed on how to answer this question. Second question, Can my thoughts shape the material world in a way that would shape or effect the thoughts of others? Third Question, if two or more people think of goals that contradict and they all think positively of them,what happens? Is there a "war of mental energy" of which the winner gets to shape the material world? The list of such questions is endless, and as mentioned all over the web, the theory is hugely criticized by many New Age experts, let alone many philosophers and scientists outside the New Age movement.
Optimism and Pessimism are self-fulfilling prophecies but not in the direct way the LOA tries to "explain". An optimist would be more motivated and confident while pursuing his goal because he has a firm instinct or belief that he will reach it. A pessimist would be,involuntary, waiting for something to go wrong which usually causes stress and stress disrupts the perfection of work to reach the goal we are talking about.
The theory either bluntly or indirectly blames the victim for the crimes of perpetrator, the hungry for the exploitations of overfed, and the poor for the inequalities applied by the rich. How does it say that? If africans thought that tomorrow they will have enough food and money, they will have it. Shifting the blame to the weaker part of any confrontation is never a virtue and never sounds appealing.
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So we all have questions... y r we here? What's the meanin' of life? What/who is "God"? How do we know if ______ is right or wrong? What exists beyond Earth n furthermore beyond that? What makes us who we r? y do I always _______?(athegan gets mad when he reads such questions:P)
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these are the questions I debate all the time, the questions that motivate me the most to read and pursue more knowledge in this field...anyway this is kinda irrelevant and the post is TOO long already that I doubt anyone would read it all (even Sheriff Justin
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