"The Secret" is a movie, book and cottage industry that teaches the Law of Attraction which states that our thoughts and expectations have the power to attract to us what we focus upon. It's common sense that if you truly expect to graduate from school, you will study hard, persevere through obstacles and therefore, be more likely to graduate than someone who doubts they will ever succeed. Of course, our positive expectations influence our own behavior and determination.

It's quite a different question whether I can attract external events that are beyond my direct control into my experience simply because I expect or focus on them. There is a great debate about the "Law of Attraction" teachings of (the channeled teacher) Abraham-Hicks, and the teachers in "The Secret": 1) Does positive intention influence objective life events? 2) Must one include constructive actions to further those positive intentions?

As a practicing psychologist, I always encouraged a process that culminated in setting goals, thinking positively, and most definitely,in taking ongoing action steps (of a suitable size) in the direction of one's goals. As a child I had been told that "the Lord helps those who help themselves" and that seemed to apply to psychology too; clients who were motivated to take action to get what they wanted seemed to get more out of therapy.

However, my personal experience had challenged this: in 1979 a friend sent me an audio tape with a long passage from some book she was recommending without mentioning the author in advance. She did that because I had refused to read the Seth books that Jane Roberts was channeling from the invisible realms. I was then completing a double Ph.D. in psychology and social work and the concept of channeling a discarnate being seemed far too weird to even consider. After hearing a long passage on audio tape which I found to be profound and deeply insightful, and which felt true to me, my friend mentioned she was reading it from one of the Seth books! My prejudices had been outsmarted once again.

Always willing to listen to the truth wherever I found it, I purchased my first Seth book (of the many I would read), put it on my night table and ignored it for at least a month; until it awoke me with a loud bang in the middle of the night! I still have no idea how it "leaped?" or "fell" to the floor but the experience sure got my attention and I started reading it the next day.

I was genuinely intrigued by the concept (now popular but then, unheard of), that: We create our own reality. When I came to the section in the Seth books about manifesting objects in the outer world merely by focusing attention and making a request, my scientific mind had great reservations. Of course, I had heard: "Ask and ye shall receive," but I was definitely not convinced. Since I was in training to be a research scientist I decided to test the concept.

As a graduate student, what I most needed was money so requesting that money appear in my life simply as a result of my requesting it, would give the Seth concept a stringent test (which I fully expected to fail!) and be to my benefit if it succeeded. I took an afternoon nap while making a request and focusing on money coming to me. As I dropped down into sleep (in the hypnogogic stage), my mind involuntarily thought, maybe one could attract money simply by requesting or expecting it, but shouldn't one create some sort of vehicle to invite it? Perhaps I should run a small ad in the paper or put up a sign with something for sale or ask for donations for some worthy project. The last thought I heard before sleep was "I can't just expect to find the money lying the gutter."

I was awakened about an hour later by the ringing of my phone. My friend John was calling to apologetically tell me that he finally had the $20 he had borrowed from me several months earlier and was ready to drop it by if I was going to be home. I agreed and as I hung up the phone I remembered the money-attraction experiment I was engaged in and realized that this could possibly be related, when the phone startled me by ringing while my hand was still on it. Ed was calling to say he wanted to buy one of my books that I had told him was for sale and we agreed on a price on the phone. When I hung up I sat on my bed feeling amazed at how immediately two small sums of money had just appeared in my life.

A few minutes later I heard the unmistakable roar of John's noisy Chevy pulling up in front of my second story apartment. As I glanced out at his car I got the shock of my life and ran wildly down the stairs and across the street. He assumed I was running over to greet him, but right in front of his bumper I bent down to pick from among the golden Ann Arbor leaves, yes, right there in the gutter, a one dollar bill. This third and smallest sum was by far the most convincing evidence of all. I have never forgotten that first experiment in manifesting with the power of thought--alone--using the Law of Attraction.

After I completed my doctorates at the University of Michigan, I studied for many years with psychics and shamans and mystics where I learned more about how truly powerful our thoughts and expectations can be. I am now amused by my former attachment to seeing only the visible side of the reality coin and how playfully--and undeniably--my first "experiment" jolted me into a larger world view.

Now I agree with the Abraham-Hicks channeled suggestion about how very important it can be to monitor the thoughts we entertain due to their attraction power: "You are picky about the car you drive. You are picky about what you wear. You're picky about what you put in your mouth. We want you to be pickier about what you think."