Influencing others’ actions – part 1

The Thoughts I Think Determine the Relationship I Attract… You are the thinking, Vibrating attractor of your experience; and the thoughts you think determine everything about the life that you live. As you turn your attention toward the positive aspects of the personalities and behaviors of others with whom you share your planet, you will train your point of attraction in the direction of only what you desire. Not only does the power of your thought determine which people make their way into your life, but the power of your thought determines how they behave once they get there.

— Abraham

Excerpted from Abraham’s newest book, The Vortex, Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships
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For me, the big sentence in that quote is the very last one; “Not only does the power of your thought determine which people make their way into your life, but the power of your thought determines how they behave once they get there.”

I started looking at that sentence to decide just what sections, or what words, to highlight in order to help make my point, but I ended up wanting to highlight virtually everything!

Let’s look at the first part.  The idea that how you think can affect what people come into your life is huge.  HUGE! On the other hand, if you buy into the perspective of “The Power of Positive Thinking”, “Think and Grow Rich”, “Positive Mental Attitude”, etc., it’s not much of a leap to accept this statement.  After all, how else are things going to change for you if the right kinds of people don’t come into your life?

IMHO, what’s at issue is the concept of making that happen via thought.  Those who don’t understand how Law of Attraction works will likely reject the idea out of hand.  They’ll say that if you want new people in your life, you just have to go out and meet new people.  And they’re not wrong.  Except that the catalyst for doing that is a thought – “I think I’ll go to _______ tonight.”

What’s different is going to be the destination.  Go to the same places you always go, and you’ll meet the same kinds of people you always meet.  It’s the idea (thought) to go to a different kind of place that makes the difference in the outcome.

OK, now let’s look at the second half of the statement: “the power of your thought determines how they behave once they get there.”  Put that in your pipe and smoke it!  Abraham is saying that you could attract someone into your life who is normally obnoxious with other people, but they would treat you with respect.  Of course, it works the other way too, so be careful.

You might ask, “How in the world can what I think determine how someone else acts around me?”  It’s a fair question.  In fact, if you don’t already understand the answer, it’s a question you’d be a fool not to ask.  I can’t answer for Abraham, so I’ll give you my perspective.

–edit–
I began writing this post several days ago.  At that time, I thought I knew where I was going to go with it; what I was going to say.  And, up to the above paragraph, it’s pretty much what I had in mind.

However, I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the last 3 days trying to answer that last question.  At first, I thought I had a handle on it; your change in thinking causes you to act differently, which causes others to respond differently, etc.

Except that when I re-read Abraham’s statement, I found that they aren’t just saying you could influence someone else’s actions.  They are flat out claiming that you and I have the power to determine – to decide – how another person acts.  Here’s something I wrote in my struggle with this post:

“First of all, even though there is very little ambiguity in the statement, I don’t believe that Abraham is claiming that you could draw a mentally deranged sociopath into your life, and then have them act with love and kindness toward you and yours.”

But, that is exactly what they’re saying!  So, where do I go from here?  What’s my spin on that claim?  I’m going to agree with them!  But, it’s a long story, and you’ll have to wait for my next post to read it.

Tim