The law of attraction:
physical gravity, mental gravity
MAY 7, 2023
Table of contents
Understanding the dynamics of the Law of Attraction means going beyond the superficial use of positive thinking or repeating mantras. While these practices may be useful, they are far from sufficient to explain how this law works, nor do they guarantee its correct use. To be effective, i.e. to enable us to attract what we want – although it’s debatable whether we should attract what we want rather than what’s good for us… – we need to combine several factors, starting with determining what we want. We don’t all want the same thing, however positive it may be.
And when it comes to the Law of Attraction, the question of belief is never far away. This question is indeed important… but not necessarily in the way we think! In fact, it’s just as appropriate to ask ourself whether we believe in the Law of Attraction as it is to ask ourself whether we believe in the Law of Gravitation. Both laws work whether we believe in them or not.
However, as immediate as it may be to feel the effects of gravity – a hammer accidentally dropped on our foot will do the trick! – it’s possible to go through life completely unaware that the Law of Attraction governs the way events manifest themselves in our experience. That’s why it’s doubtful whether it’s been active since, at least, our birth… for better or for worse.
The aim of this article and the one that follows is to understand the dynamics of the Law of Attraction, so that we can increase our level of belief in its validity and use it to our advantage. Let’s get started!
What is the Law of Attraction based on?
Metaphysics and Hermetic principles
I’ve already mentioned the Law of Attraction in the articles on hermetic principles. Here, I’ll try to synthesize and expand on that information. By the way, do you know the difference between a principle and a law?
A principle is inescapable, and applies everywhere, in all cases. It’s a fundamental notion that underpins a science or technique. A law, on the other hand, models the order of the physical world. So, while it may seem hopeless to escape a principle, we could be tempted to become outlaws… Is this possible? Well, it all depends on the origin of the law!
In this case, the Law of Attraction results from the combination of the 7 Hermetic Principles. These are metaphysical principles, each of which explains a facet of this law, which is a physical law. Perhaps that’s why it’s not strictly speaking part of Hermetic teaching. The authors of the Kybalion speak sibylline of “the energy of attraction”, and only refer to the law of the same name as an aspect of the principle of cause and effect. And here, things couldn’t be clearer: “There are many planes of causality, but nothing escapes the Law” [1].
Just as nothing in the universe escapes the law of gravitation… [2] This law gives rise to physical gravity, which we’ll deal with first, as it’s directly accessible to us through experience. After that, we’ll explore mental gravity, as Hermetists teach us first and foremost that the universe is mental. This will provide fertile ground for understanding the dynamics of the Law of Attraction, which will be dealt with in its own right in the next article.
Cosmology and gravity
Theories of gravitation
The Law of Gravitation – or the Law of Universal Mass Attraction – published by Newton in 1687, states that two masses attract each other. The greater the mass of a body, the greater the force of attraction it exerts. Similarly, the closer bodies are to each other, the greater the force of attraction between them. Newton’s law can be used to calculate the force between two masses.
Gravity – the force that holds us down on Earth – is a consequence of this law. It is therefore linked to mass, which, simply put, is a quantity of matter [3]. The attraction between two bodies is exerted by the gravitational field they have created around themselves due to their own mass, and is locally equivalent to acceleration [4].
The theory of general relativity, published by Einstein in 1915, is also a theory of gravitation. It helps us to understand some of the effects left unexplained by Newton’s Law [5]. According to Einstein, the gravitational attraction observed between masses results not from a force exerted by these masses on each other, but from a distortion of space and time caused by these masses.
For example, planets do not revolve around the sun, but “fall” towards it in a space that is locally curved by its gravitational field. A non-massive body like light, on the other hand, will see its trajectory deformed in the vicinity of a mass. In short, everything seems to happen as if an attractive force were at work, while masses simply adapt to the deformation of space-time that they themselves generate. Einstein also teaches us that mass equals energy (E=mc²).
It’s worth noting that, while Newton and Einstein both describe gravity, neither really explains it or why it interacts [6].
Mass
The most massive objects in the universe are black holes. Proportional to their mass, they generate a gravitational field so strong that nothing can escape [7]. They are said to bend space and time to a gravitational singularity where all physical measurements become infinite.
According to Nassim Haramein, the universe is made up entirely of black holes, although he has redefined the concept somewhat [8]. To calculate their mass, he uses a holographic solution – i.e. one based on information – and finds the same result in Einstein’s equations as the standard solution. For infinitely large black holes, at least. For infinitely small black holes like the proton, the difference is enormous. Why is this? Because standard physics doesn’t consider the proton to be a black hole!
However, holographic mass implies that proton and black hole are one and the same, and that the proton contains – in terms of information – the mass of the universe. Or, to put it another way, the information of all the protons in the universe is contained in one black-hole proton.
Explanation in pictures:
Holographic mass tells us that the whole (the universe) is in the part (the proton) and the part in the whole. Unlike standard mass, it illustrates the hermetic principle of correspondence, implying an exchange of information between all the black holes in the universe.
What does this have to do with the Law of Attraction? Thanks to a different approach to mass, we’re going to understand this law, which is none other than the law of gravitation whose synonymous name – the universal law of mass attraction – has been contracted…
So far, we’ve seen that mass is a quantity of matter (Newton), an energy (Einstein) and an exchange of information (Haramein). Now let’s explore a new avenue…
Quantum physics, mass and vibration
In 1923, French physicist Louis de Broglie established an equivalence between the two energy formulas:
On the one hand, Einstein’s formula (E = mc²),
which establishes a link between mass and energy
And on the other, Planck’s formula (E = hν),
which relates frequency to energy [9].
So, mc² = hν, or m = νh/c²
(m is the mass, c the speed of light,
h is Planck’s constant and ν (nu) is the frequency).
According to this physicist, a mass must therefore possess a vibration. From there, one of his former students, Joël Sternheimer, a doctor in theoretical physics and a musician, set about translating particle masses into musical frequencies. He found that they were distributed at regular intervals like the notes of music in the tempered scale [10]. In other words, masses are coherent.
The tempered scale also has the property of being transposable to all scales. By analogy, mass coherence is found from the infinitely small to the infinitely large thanks to scale waves, a concept introduced by Sternheimer and based on the vibrations so dear to the Hermetists [11].
How better to explain this coherence than by Nassim Haramein’s formula for holographic mass? It applies to black holes as well as to particles, since in his theory all particles are black holes. And not only are all particles black holes, but the universe is made up of nothing but black holes on different scales!
Mass, matter, energy, information, frequency… all these notions are equivalent. And now we’re going to see that it’s possible to add thoughts to this list.
Mental gravity
Hermetists teach that “the Whole is Spirit, the Universe is Mental” [12]. In other words, the Whole cannot create other than mentally. The principle of correspondence authorizes us to say that man creates mental images by an identical process to that by which the Whole mentally creates the universe [13].
Thus, from the absolute point of view of the Whole, only the Whole is real, and the universe is an illusion. But from our point of view – human, mortal and relative – the universe is real, true, and must be considered as such. It is subject to laws inherent in its existence. Although these laws are mental in nature, they are no less implacable, compelling us to act as if constantly changing things were real and substantial [14]. Thus, for example, we are subject to the law of gravitation.
The question is, how does the universe move from a mental to a tangible state? Or, again by virtue of the principle of correspondence, how do our thoughts create our reality? Before answering this question, let’s get a little clearer about what we mean by reality…
A composite perception
The brain comprises no fewer than 52 areas, known as Brodmann areas, each with its own function. Our perception of reality is the result of communication between neurons specialized in one function or another [15]. They pool their skills to produce what I would call a composite of reality.
A composite material is an assembly of several components whose properties complement each other. As a result of the synergistic effect, the new material formed will possess new properties, more advantageous than those belonging to the components taken separately. The composite reality we perceive is created from a multitude of elements that are not necessarily synchronized with each other.
We take the result for granted, without even realizing the role of gravity in this story. In fact, gravity acts as an aggregator, combining elements such as energy, light, time, space and consciousness into a beautiful, creative image. A bit like creating a painting on canvas. From there, the mental creates a story – and God knows it’s good at that…! – because, depending on the quality and quantity of the information it receives and interprets, it is quite able of making misinterpretations [16].
Gravity thus holds the composite of our reality in place… until we’re ready to release it. The trigger for this process is awareness, and I’ll come back to this in the next article. In the meantime, let’s continue with the role of gravity.
Observation and focusing of consciousness
Gravity is produced when consciousness sets energy in motion. The dimension of the gravitational field then generated in space-time depends on the focus of consciousness on this or that composite. It is linked to observation. In a nutshell: “What I don’t observe doesn’t exist in my reality. When I observe something, it takes up more space in the gravitational field of my consciousness, which shapes my reality. The longer and more intense the observation, the more my reality crystallizes around this or that aspect”.
We generate thoughts and interpretations from our observations… without realizing that our thoughts have a very small amount of mass. Albert Einstein said that “thoughts are things” [17]. So one thought attracts a similar thought, just as one mass attracts another. Our gravitational field holds many thoughts, beliefs, fears, emotions… so tightly bound by our mental gravity that we sometimes feel we can’t free ourselves from them. All the more so as they may also be linked to our “past” lives [18]. They gravitate around us.
In short, the brain is like a magnet with a very strong gravitational force. The consciousness running through it may be more or less mature. But even if a gravitational field is generated by an immature consciousness, it can endure if enough observers support it. So, if enough observers say the same thing about a given event, its gravitational imprint will be greater (and generally, the weight given to their opinion, legitimacy, authenticity, veracity…) [19].
A reality under influence
The "I's" and the "Me"
On the mental level, Hermetists speak of a dual aspect of Spirit in each individual: the “I”, which corresponds to the Masculine principle, and the “Me”, which corresponds to the Feminine principle. “No physical, mental or spiritual creation is possible without [the gender principle]” [20] they teach. The purpose of the gender principle is to give birth, on any plane of phenomenal life.
The “I” has the ability to project a current of vibratory energy towards the “Me” in order to initiate a particular mental creation. In this way, the Feminine principle constantly tends to receive the impressions that the Masculine principle relentlessly sends its way. The “I” is also able of remaining a spectator of the mental creations and generations of the “I”, which “appears to consciousness as endowed with the latent power of creating and engendering mental offspring of any kind” [21].
It is thanks to the energy it receives from the “I” that the “I” is able of materially realizing its mental creations. But if the “I” receives energy from the “I” that shares the same mind as it, it also receives energy from other “I ‘s” outside itself [22].
Induction phenomenon
Indeed, if we don’t know about the existence of the gender principle and make good use of it, we will tend, without even realizing it, to make our own the thoughts and ideas sent to our “I” by the “I” of other individuals… These ideas thus lodged in our mental will develop and end up being considered as our true mental thread. We speak of mental induction, a natural phenomenon based on the electromagnetic field generated by the mental.
Unless we’ve reached the state of awakening, we’re all potentially influenced by induction. All the more so if we are unaware of the existence of this phenomenon. And even more so if ill-intentioned people know about it, use and abuse it… In any case, the best way to protect yourself from negative influences is to create and maintain the highest possible vibration. After all, a higher vibration always wins out over a lower one.
This is achieved through mental transmutation. It is described by Hermetists as the practical application of the principle of vibration. According to them, as human beings, we can not only produce vibrations at will on the mental plane, but also polarize our mind and make it reach the desired degree of vibration [23].
Moral: the key to all this is vibration, or mass frequency. But how can we use the Law of Attraction to our advantage? That’s what we’ll explore in the rest of this article (coming soon).
Key points
- The law of gravitation, also known as the Law of Universal Mass Attraction, applies to all objects with mass.
- Thoughts possess a small amount of mass. This is why the law of gravitation also applies at the mental level.
- Similar thoughts attract each other, due to the resonance of their own masses, energies or frequencies.
- “Pay attention to your thoughts, for they will become words. Pay attention to your words, for they will become deeds. Pay attention to your actions, for they will become habits. Pay attention to your habits, for they will become your character. Pay attention to your character, for it is your destiny.” (The Talmud)
Notes & references
What is the Law of Attraction based on ?
[1] The Kybalion
[2] Even if there is a higher law – the law of elevation – that allows birds and airplanes to fly, it only exists in relation to the law of gravitation.
[3] Not to be confused with weight, which is the force that gravity applies to this mass.
[4] See Einstein’s equivalence principle.
[5] Such as minor anomalies in the orbits of certain planets.
[6] Nassim Haramein has his own ideas on the subject, see the article on quantum gravity.
[7] The region from which light and matter cannot escape is called the event horizon. It’s also known as the “surface” of the black hole, although it’s not a solid or gaseous surface. It’s a region of no return: once the event horizon has been crossed, theoretically nothing can escape. However, the holographic principle tells us that the information contained in the volume of a black hole is stored on its surface.
[8] According to him, black holes absorb AND give back information. They are linked by a fractal law. See the dedicated section in the article on the fractal and holographic universe.
[9] This formula expresses that each photon (light particle) carries a quantum of energy proportional to the frequency of the electromagnetic wave in question.
[10] This scale divides the octave (the interval between two notes of the same name) into 12 equal parts.
[11] To find out more, read our article on the principle of vibration.
Mental gravity
[12] See the article on the principle of mentalism.
[13] I deliberately use the present tense to emphasize that the universe was not created “once and for all”, but is in perpetual creation, its dynamics based on feedback. See our article on the fractal and holographic universe.
[14] Hermetists speak of divine paradox.
[15] On this subject, see Idriss Aberkane’s lecture Le Cerveau excellent [The excellent brain].
[16] On this subject, see the article How to get out of the mental.
[17] This phrase is sometimes attributed to Edgar Cayce.
[18] Which are not really over – or even finished – otherwise they would no longer have any influence.…
[19] This reasoning can be likened to what happens with chaotic systems: if you feed a system with enough energy (in this case, enough observations pointing in the same direction), it can’t help but manifest it. Another way of putting it: the resonance of a very large number of small causes produces large effects. See the article on chaotic systems for more details.
[20] The Kybalion, op.cit.
[21] Ibid.
[22] To find out more, see our article on the gender principle.
[23] See article on the principle of vibration.
On the same theme
