The second belief I chose to investigate is the spiritual phenomenon “Abraham Hicks”. It’s not so much one belief as a set of core beliefs. It all came about when a women named Esther Hicks began meditation and supposedly began to be possessed by a spirit known as Abraham Hicks. With her husband dictating what the spirit said, Abraham Hicks began to speak on the wonders of the universe and their main laws. The first law, and arguably the most popular, is the Law of Attraction. According to this law, simply how you are feeling or thinking most strongly is what you attract. For example, if you worry that you will get sick and you put majority of your energy in this fear, you will attract sickness. The second law is this Science of Deliberate Creation, in which what you give thought to be what you believe and therefore should expect to show up in your life. Similar to the first law, it says that every person can deliberately alter their lives by their wishes with enough gusto of mind. The third law is the Art of Allowing, in which the saying “I am that which I am, and I am willing to allow all others to be that which they are” comes into play. It seems this law would lead someone to treat others fairly and without competition, because it is the belief that everyone is entitled to be allowed to do as they wish.
Esther Hicks has wrote a series of books in her time since channeling this interdimensional angelic entity known as Abraham Hicks. Their first book, “Ask and It Is Given”, was first published in 2004. This is a relatively new phenomenon then by other’s standards, but nevertheless these ideas have picked up momentum in these two decades. One effort that brought this book into a larger audience was through the documentary “The Secret” that came out in 2006. Esther Hicks appeared in it channeling Abraham and discussed how to manifest material abundance via their principles. This spiritual phenomenon has definitely gained access to mainstream platforms, such as celebrities sharing its views on their social media pages or interviews. Abraham Hicks is extraordinary on multiple levels – first, one would need to believe that Esther is in fact channeling an interdimensional spiritual entity and if that’s the case then one would need to believe in other planes of existence, followed finally by the extraordinary beliefs that one can wholly create their reality through their mind.
Honestly, the only evidence that the Abraham Hicks phenomenon is real is the supports who testify that following its principles did alter their lives. A surprising personal account of this would be Jim Carrey. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, he stated that when he was still a broke comedian, he wrote out a check for a million dollars and put it in his wallet. He then from that day onward used it as part of a visualization technique to manifest for those million dollars in his real life. He would drive by the homes of Beverly Hills, imaging that one day he will catch his break by a movie producer. He dated the check for 5 years and supposedly it took that amount of years for him to land his first movie deal for… you guessed it … a million dollars (and then some)!
The most obvious evidence against these beliefs is that it all could just be the power of the placebo effect. These people want to believe that their lives will improve and so, through self-fulfilling prophecy, they set out to do just that. Or if not, then they accredit it with not believing hard enough. A core component of the Abraham Hicks ideology is that one can never be in a bad mood, for that frets with their creative energies to improve their present. But, according to a study mentioned on skepdic.com’s entry on Abraham Hicks, workers in a ‘negative mood’ tended to work harder and longer than their happier counterparts.
As I previously mentioned, it could be said that those who believe that Abraham Hicks’ laws improved their lives were actually just subject to their own made up self-fulfilling prophecies. So, in this sense, they did create their futures through their beliefs. But, it wasn’t because of a spiritual force doing the work but rather themselves. There is power in positive thinking, to a certain extent (lest we forgot about gambling.) Because there is no scientific process for them to go off of, I don’t think it’s possible for these believes to be misinterpreting any evidence or misinformation. These people reject materialism for their solipsism.
These laws came at a perfect time when New Age Thought was continuing to progress and gain followers since its inception at the end of the 19th century. The New Age Thought Movement is all about how love conquers all and through the acts of positive thinking one can manifest the reality they want. It is not that there is this wrathful, singular Supreme Being in the sky known as God that is looking downcast on its sufferers. Rather, New Age takes the view that we are all coconspirators with God on our life path. Another social influence I think has sustained these followers belief in Abraham Hicks is the celebrities that support it and how other areas of spirituality, such as yoga and meditation, can be infused with these beliefs. Yoga has maintained if not increased its popularity within the last decade and I don’t see it slowing down any time soon. I say yoga and meditation are related to Abraham Hicks beliefs because it does appear that those who believe in New Age thoughts tend to practice more eastern spiritual methods.
In conclusion, there is no substantial evidence to support Abraham Hicks beyond the numerous testimonies set forth by their followers throughout the world – famous and not. Abraham Hicks is an interdimensional being channeled through an ordinary woman, Esther Hicks that has spoken about three core laws in the universe that controls everyone’s reality. The first is the Law of Attraction, followed by the Science of Deliberate Creation and then the Art of Allowing. Through the dedicated following of these rules, anyone can manifest a better reality for themselves. And if they don’t, well, it’s their fault.
Sources Cited
“‘Abraham’ (Esther and Jerry Hicks).” Abraham-Hicks,
Esther Hicks – The Skeptic’s Dictionary –
Skepdic.com, skepdic.com/hicks.html.
Really cool post, I’ve never heard of it! I found the first law, the law of attraction, to be particularly interesting. While I’m not sure how much credibility there is to attracting positivity, but I personally feel there is a little credibility towards the opposite end, like attracting sickness. In another psych class we learned that people who live with high amounts of stress are actually more likely to get sick and are more likely to face health issues down the road. I don’t think this is necessarily what the law of attraction is trying to say, just an interesting connection I noticed.
Hello!
I really enjoyed reading this blog post! I have heard of the power of attraction and that what you think and manifest comes true in your life. I know some people who make boards with the things they want to accomplish in life and things they want to become, in hopes to manifest these things. I am a total believer in it! I think if you are constantly thinking about something, your making the effort and actions to make things happen. Additionally you attitude can bring in positive things based on what you want. I think our minds are more powerful than we know!!
I always see like inspirational quotes following these rules, although they aren’t following Abraham a lot of people of have these beliefs. Although, it seems that people who have these beliefs don’t realize that life is circumstantial and has a lot of variables into account. I do believe that sometimes law of attraction works especially with your attitude. If your in a bad mood its mostly likely going to be most noticeable when bad things happen hence bad being attracted to you. I think its funny that no one questioned the fact that Esther and the spirit had the same last name. Did no one see this as suspicious?
To address Elsa Alvarado’s comment: the author of this article incorrectly used the name Abraham-Hicks. To clarify, Abraham is the name used by a group of entities that Esther Hicks channels or speaks for. And because the ideas communicated by Abraham are translated into speech by Esther Hicks, the body of work that comes out of this partnership is attributed to both of them, hence: Abraham-Hicks. Feel free to check out http://www.abraham-hicks.com for more info or to check my explanation. thank you.
Cool. I believe everyone’s inner world is different. If you believe in such beliefs, whatever caused by placebo effect or not,you actually change your life. The image of your life is created by yourself!
This is very interesting to me and I never heard of them before. Even though I don’t think theres any science behind these laws, a lot of it seems to be mind tricks. For example, I believe that if you feel that you will do better, than you will do better. We can sike ourselves out and put negative energies in to something before it happens. The second law seems to be the saying where you can achieve anything you set you mind to.
The first law of Abraham Hicks vaguely reminds me of the idea of how like cures like in homeopathic medicine. So, according to Hick’s first law, “if you worry that you will get sick and you put majority of your energy in this fear, you will attract sickness.” In the case of homeopathy, if you have a rash, then you would cure it with the poison of ivy (a cause of rashes). In both laws, the outcome is fully derived from the cause where the cause and outcome are almost the same.
I had heard of the law of attraction in many contexts but had no idea it was attributed to this extraordinary belief. I do think that some elements are true, the self-fufilling prophecy has been effective for many people, but not for any supernatural reasons. In fact, I have used that sort of motivation in school and work many times, little did I know!
Loved this post! I’d never really heard of this before now but I’m intrigued. I think it’s interesting how there isn’t really an explicit, or honestly implicit, science involved but that it’s become a school or doctrine kind of thought with laws and rules. Great work!
Having positive thoughts would make someone work harder for something when they spend so much energy thinking about it. I personally wouldn’t give my successes in life to a women who speaks for a spiritual being or sometime of god. It’s crazy how so many people believe in this woman. It is impossible to make things happen by simply willing it to happen, its like a different type of ESP.
I learned the Law of Attraction several years before, and I remember there’s a part of the documentary about the Secret is how a patience use the whole positive thinking rituals to cure his cancer. It’s really attractive to believe that people really are able to change their fate just by imaging what they desired everyday. However, although there’s a lot of examples showing the effectiveness of this kind of theory, I still don’t think it is scientifically true. Because there’s not a specific number of people who actually have practiced this method, the only thing we know is only samples that already succeeded.
There definitely seems to be an element of trendiness to these kinds of beliefs, particularly with respect to celebrities who endorse them. For example, Jenny McCarthy endorsing the anti-vaccination movement really created a boon in recruitment for them. If we do not have access or, for some reason never heard of, what celebrities, politicians, athletes, and other important figures believed, I wonder how much influence they would really have, if any. do you think this is more an effect of the media oh, or of the individual celebrities?
This post was super interesting, as I have never heard this conspiracy theory before! I find it perplexing that because Esther’s body was inhabited by a ‘spirit’ who appeared to be knowledgeable and lucrative, none of her believers appeared to find fault with bodily possession? It’s interesting that this type of possession would only seem to raise red flags if Abraham Hicks were of some demonic energy–then this entire tale would be turned on its head.