I was trying to find something earlier by Googling it, and one of the pages contained a link to an Abraham-Hicks reference. It took me to a forum page of evangelical Christians who were slamming multi-level marketing, AmWay in particular, and someone posted that Jerry Hicks is a former AmWay salesman. The writer then proceeded to talk all about Jerry’s newest scam being the Abraham-Hicks “empire”. That led me to more and more forums of people who had complaints about people they’ve known that they’ve lost to the “cult of Abraham-Hicks.” Then I had a realization. Most of the ones who criticize the work do not have personal experience of it. You can tell by the meanings they assign to the words and phrases they use. It looked like they went to Google “Abraham-Hicks” and the first choice that came up was “Abraham-Hicks scam” and they did all their studying at those sites, rather than reading at the Abraham-Hicks website itself. That explained a lot to me.
Having listened to the Abraham-Hicks cds monthly and experienced them in person many times in the past dozen years, I get their message clearly. But I had read many books for many years before that, books that had prepared me for the ideas that my thoughts have power and that I attract in accordance what I most expect and believe. I would be surprised if someone who had not read a variety of topics, who was deeply entrenched in any Bible based faith would be as receptive to the ideas, nor would I expect them to easily understand them. For them, more easily understandable is the language found at these forums. That’s where their expectation and belief has them resonating right now.
What does surprise me is when friends – who are smart and well read and understand complex concepts about matters I can’t begin to fathom – friends who could benefit by the information, when these friends don’t understand the Abraham-Hicks work and actively criticize it. And now, having discovered the above forums, and seen what first choice Google suggests if you want to search the name “Abraham-Hicks,” now I recognize that these friends have read at these forums and took as gospel these posters knew what they were talking about.
In the forum language, the slammers also refer to the Hickses and that there are Two Versions of The Secret movie. Then they go on to confuse the second (edited) Secret movie with the Abraham work and it sounded nutty indeed. That’s because when Abraham-Hicks was edited OUT of the original the Secret movie, they edited the actual “secret” out of the movie, so to the knowing, it is very apparent it is missing. But in the forums, they confuse the message of the second movie with the Abraham work, so the concepts are incomplete and the examples they give are contrary to how it all works. Simply misinformation.
I mean, this is years later I have heard the arguments of these friends and did not know until just now that this is where they got their information. This is why their situations never changed and why they never wanted to discuss any of the ideas in the cds or the articles. They hadn’t read or listened. I know that now because of the language they use and the examples they give.
If the information those writers post about were true, I would believe the same thing they do. But I rely on my personal experience. One post said the Hickses built their empire by heavily marketing themselves. This has never been true. I don’t believe they have ever advertised anywhere, even in the beginning. They have a lot of products at their website now, almost 20 years later, sure. They have built a body of work that people have been asking for. Their website is free and has many, many free resources. Their cd of the month, which I get, is just $15 a month and the price hasn’t changed through the years. Their works are more affordable than most.
Hearing someone else’s words are like a gift, you either like it or you don’t – but everyone is allowed to speak what they think. Most think they’re doing people a service by “letting others know about scam artists to beware of.” But the fact is they don’t really know for themselves. They want to help and be of value, but they don’t know they are spreading a mis-truth or they would not do it. I have done it in the past myself.
I’ve even seen it in some of the Abraham forums themselves, someone trying to paraphrase Abraham’s words, meaning well, but making some very inaccurate statements. In one, someone wrote in saying they were 2 months pregnant and the heartbeat could not be detected and wondered what Abraham thought they should do in the week they waited for a second test to see if it was a viable pregnancy. An Abraham fan wrote to try “soothing thoughts like, “wouldn’t it be nice if a heartbeat can be heard next time?”
WTF? And these are people who are trying to help and but they’re simply spreading misinformation. Thankfully other Abraham fans wrote in with more practical suggestions for better feeling thoughts. You could tell by their words they understood how law of attraction actually works. Otherwise it’s just the blind leading the blind and everyone hopes the one next to them will have the answer, so they don’t have to find it themself. That’s how we start to rely on blind leaders and well, you can see how easy it is for misinformation to spread. The answer is simply to experience something yourself before you talk about it.
Don’t look for “how can I tear apart this message this friend thinks I’m so stupid I need” but rather look for “what does Andrea find so compelling and practical and helpful about this body of work?”
Because we always find what we are looking for.
What would Jesus do?