I'm going to admit, I'm pretty skeptical about all those new-agey, The Secret-toting ideologies. I read about three pages of The Secret and thought, this is just what everyone's parents have been telling them for years about the power of positive thinking. Unless someone I know can vouch for something like that, I'm not going to believe it. So, in order to get rid of my inner skeptic, I'm going to try to work out if these theories can actually be applied to my life. Let us proceed with
The "law of attraction" hoopla
The theory: Thoughts attract like thoughts. If you think happy thoughts, happy things will happen. If you're negative, negative things happen. You get the idea.
Practicalities: We actually developed this theory when I was fifteen about one of the girls in my group, who was just really depressing and whingey and horrible. We called it a "vortex of doom", that when she was upset everyone else got sucked in to feeling upset as well. Which maybe is a different theory about associating yourself with people. I digress. Generally, I haven't had this apply to actual events, but I think tangible things.
First example: Capers. I used to work at a splendid little Italian cafe, and the exported Italian staff would cook for us. One of the baristas made risotto with capers one night, and I had no idea what they were. Then I saw them in the supermaket. Then they were in another dish I had when I went out. It was like, as soon as I had capers, they were EVERYWHERE.
The same thing happened with Vampire Weekend, although over a longer period of time. The first time I went out on the town, in May last year, one of the "eight great songs they played at Amps" (more on this later) was A-Punk by Vampire Weekend. Of course, after half a bottle of wine with dinner, I couldn't remember the song the next day. Although I did remember the other seven.
ANYWAY - I got to Reading Festival in August, and Alice dragged us to Vampire Weekend amidst protests that we didn't even know who they were. Of course, they played A-Punk, and I realised - THIS WAS THE EIGHTH GREAT SONG! Then, recovering at the house two days later with a cold, it was on the advertisment for 500 Days of Summer. And The Inbetweeners, I believe. Once I knew what the song was, it was everywhere.
Practicalities: We actually developed this theory when I was fifteen about one of the girls in my group, who was just really depressing and whingey and horrible. We called it a "vortex of doom", that when she was upset everyone else got sucked in to feeling upset as well. Which maybe is a different theory about associating yourself with people. I digress. Generally, I haven't had this apply to actual events, but I think tangible things.
First example: Capers. I used to work at a splendid little Italian cafe, and the exported Italian staff would cook for us. One of the baristas made risotto with capers one night, and I had no idea what they were. Then I saw them in the supermaket. Then they were in another dish I had when I went out. It was like, as soon as I had capers, they were EVERYWHERE.
The same thing happened with Vampire Weekend, although over a longer period of time. The first time I went out on the town, in May last year, one of the "eight great songs they played at Amps" (more on this later) was A-Punk by Vampire Weekend. Of course, after half a bottle of wine with dinner, I couldn't remember the song the next day. Although I did remember the other seven.
ANYWAY - I got to Reading Festival in August, and Alice dragged us to Vampire Weekend amidst protests that we didn't even know who they were. Of course, they played A-Punk, and I realised - THIS WAS THE EIGHTH GREAT SONG! Then, recovering at the house two days later with a cold, it was on the advertisment for 500 Days of Summer. And The Inbetweeners, I believe. Once I knew what the song was, it was everywhere.
I was there! I saw him in that shirt!
Verdict: The jury's still out. I'm not sure if its just that when you're positive, you see the positives in everything whereas when you're negative, you ignore other possibilities. And my Vampire Weekend capers (See what I did there?!) could just be coincidence.
What do you think, fellas? Exponents of the theory? Or think its a load of hogwash?
What do you think, fellas? Exponents of the theory? Or think its a load of hogwash?
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