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Welcome to the Christmas Edition of the Master Key Coaching Teleseminars in which we discussed Week 18 of The Master Key System — “The Law of Attraction.”

I hope that you had a very Merry Christmas and are looking forward to a bigger, better, and more exciting New Year. If you’ve been taking the time to study this philosophy of Charles F. Haanel and if you’ve made the effort to truly understand it, then you will absolutely have an awesome 2011 as you put this philosophy into action. I have no doubt about that. I see the results of this method of thought every day — with myself, with Master Key Coaching clients, and with people who make the news.

With effort and persistence, you too will do exciting things. You have (or are acquiring) the knowledge of your power; you have (or are acquiring) the courage to dare; the only thing for you to do is to allow yourself the faith the do.

In other words, just go for it!

Working Backwards

I approached our twenty-second episode of these Teleseminars a little differently than prior episodes.

I started with the exercise.

The exercise for Week 18 is very poignant. I would say it is one of the key things you should understand when you’re studying The Master Key System. It’s the thing that all successful people — be they business people, entrepreneurs, politicians, scientists, artists — understand.

As you know, the exercises of late in these deeper chapters of the book are more “ethereal” than the first ones. The exercises in the first third of the book are somewhat “mechanical.” Haanel instructed us to do something and we did it, be it sitting still or imagining something specific such as a friend or place or shape. These exercises were there to “till the soil,” so to speak. They were (and are!) methods to prepare our minds for what was to come.

What came was these “thought exercises.” Yes, we thought about or imagined specific things. These “things,” though, were concepts — ideas! — rather than things.

Peace. Harmony. Connection. Consciousness. These are ideas that mean different things to different people. These are ideas that have been discussed and debated for millennia. These are ideas for which there won’t be simple solutions as if they were simple math problems like “2 + 2 = ?”; rather they are complex problems for which there are a multitude of answers with even more ways at arriving at those answers, like a proof for the Pythagorean Theorem.

I often use as my example college. In your first and second year in school, the classes are primarily “breadth” classes — classes in which you mainly learn the facts about a subject. The tests reflect that, mostly being multiple choice and true-false tests. In your later years, as you get deeper into your major, the classes become more thought oriented, more idea oriented. The tests reflect that as well, being essay exams and papers, where your manipulation or understanding of the facts is important.

That’s where we are now — and have been for a few episodes — in The Master Key System.

The exercise for Week 18 implores us to understand that we — each and every one of us — are creative beings.

This week concentrate upon your power to create. Seek insight and perception. Try to find a logical basis for the faith which is in you. Let the thought dwell on the fact that the physical man lives and moves and has his being in the sustainer of all organic life air, that he must breathe to live. Then let the thought rest on the fact that the spiritual man also lives and moves and has his being in a similar but subtler energy upon which he must depend for life, and that as in the physical world no life assumes form until after a seed is sown, and no higher fruit than that of the parent stock can be produced; so in the spiritual world no effect can be produced until the seed is sown and the fruit will depend upon the nature of the seed, so that the results which you secure depend upon your perception of law in the mighty domain of causation, the highest evolution of human consciousness.

You may already “know” that you are a creative being, that you possess the power to create. Haanel wants you to go deeper, though.

“Try to find a logical basis for the faith which is in you.”

Empty faith is just that — empty. It has no foundation, thus you can’t really build on it. It has no legs, thus you can’t really run with it.

You need reasons. You need something to give your faith buoyancy.

Alexander the Great built the Macedonian Empire because he had a logical basis for his faith which began with his parents and only grew from there.

One of the concepts that built America was the “Protestant Work Ethic” — the belief that God rewards those who are industrious.

The idea of “Manifest Destiny” compelled early Americans to conquer a continent.

I use these examples (and there are many others) because they all contain in them something of which I want you to take note. That is that the “logical basis” does not have to be “strictly logical” in the sense that everything must be fact-based. You can, in essence, begin with a belief that is anything but and still arrive at a compelling conclusion — one that will drive you toward your goals.

In her book that will be published in 2011, I Believe, Therefore I Am, Claire McGee details how we do this every day and have been since we were born and how we can take advantage of that to become what we will to become.

These beliefs and the reasons behind them have built for us what we currently have. They can also be used to get us what we want.

They will also bring the Law of Attraction into operation.

Let’s see how that is done.

The Law of Attraction

By now you should be aware that the Law of Attraction as explained by Haanel is nothing like what has been presented in recent years in sundry books and movies.

Haanel writes in the Letter of Transmittal for Week 18, “In order to grow we must obtain what is necessary for our growth. This is brought about through the law of attraction.”

He elucidates in the next paragraph.

Think for a moment. What would a man be if he were not a husband, a father, or a brother; if he were not interested in the social, economical, political, or religious world? He would be nothing but an abstract theoretical ego. He exists, therefore, only in his relation to the whole, in his relation to other men, in his relation to society. This relation constitutes his environment. He exists therefore in his relation to his environment and in no other way.

It is evident, therefore, that the individual is simply the differentiation of the one Universal Mind “which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” and his so-called individuality or personality consists of nothing but the manner in which he relates with the whole.

This we call his environment and is brought about by the law of attraction.

Each of us is shaped by the world around us. We are as we are only in relation to the whole. What we need for our growth, what feeds our “demands,” is the law of attraction.

Think about that for a moment or two.

We attract what we need in relation to our environment. As we change ourselves, we change our environment and we attract new things to ourselves. It comes about by our thoughts, our work, our effort.

Haanel writes in point #10:

10. It is the recognition of Natural Laws that has enabled us to annihilate time and space, to soar in the air, and to make iron float, and the greater the degree of intelligence the greater will be our recognition of these Natural Laws and the greater will be the power we can possess.

As we recognize these “natural laws” in operation, then we can use them for our benefit.

Haanel is not merely discussing the law of attraction here; he means every “law” that man has grokked — the laws of aerodynamics, of thermodynamics, of the quantum world. These laws have created for us a world of convenience and luxury.

It is important to point out — and perhaps reiterate — that we don’t have to do anything “special” to make these laws work. They just do. It’s how the world works. We can, though, adapt ourselves to these laws and therefore use them to get what we want.

And that’s just how the law of attraction works.

Beliefs of Value to Us

In points #16 – 20, Haanel emphasizes that beliefs in and of themselves are of no use. Rather, we must prove our beliefs so that they become “Truth.”

Keep in mind that this view of beliefs is slightly different than the one espoused earlier in this essay. The beliefs discussed here are those that have a proof-point — a point at which something can be said to be definitively true or false. Some beliefs such as the afterlife, God, spirits, don’t have a proof point. They are open-ended questions. Some of our personal beliefs are like that as well.

Many beliefs do have a point at which we can certainly say they are true. Is the Sun the center of the Solar System? Can a person fly by flapping his arms? Or does he need an apparatus?

In other words, there is a difference between science and philosophy.

16. The Understanding which is usually developed is about as valuable as a telephone box without wires or a central station; in fact, it is usually nothing more than a “belief” which means nothing at all. The Indians believe something and so do the savages of the Cannibal Islands, but that proves nothing.

17. The only belief which is of any value to any one is a belief that has been put to a test and demonstrated to be a fact; it is then no longer a belief, but has become a living Faith or the Truth.

18. And this Truth has been put to the test by hundreds of thousands of people and has been found to be the Truth exactly in proportion to the usefulness of the apparatus which they used.

19. A man would not expect to locate stars hundreds of millions of miles away without a sufficiently strong telescope, and for this reason Science is continually engaged in building larger and more powerful telescopes and is continually rewarded by additional knowledge of the heavenly bodies.

20. So with understanding: Men are continually making progress in the methods which they use to come into communication with the Universal Mind and its infinite possibilities.

Some may ask, Isn’t Haanel’s use of the “Universal Mind” an unprovable?

For that, remember that the Universal Mind can be a term that means what you want it to mean, to one degree or another. It just refers to everything. Whether that is God (or “god”) to you or just the physical universe, it does not really matter. The fact is that we are a part of the whole and as far as we can tell, there are infinite possibilities within that whole. We are at this point in history just scratching the surface of what is there.

To get deeper, though, we cannot just rely on “belief.” We must put our beliefs to the test.

The same is true in the life that we live. An irrational belief can have a devastating effect on our life and can lead to great misfortune or worse.

Rational beliefs, those put to the test, can — and usual do — lead to a life of success.

Growth and Creation

Haanel writes

24. In order to grow we must obtain what is essential for our growth, but as we are at all times a complete thought entity, this completeness makes it possible for us to receive only as we give. Growth is therefore conditioned on reciprocal action, and we find that on the mental plane like attracts like, that mental vibrations respond only to the extent of their vibratory harmony.

25. It is clear, therefore, that thoughts of abundance will respond only to similar thoughts; the wealth of the individual is seen to be what he inherently is. Affluence within is found to be the secret of attraction for affluence without. The ability to produce is found to be the real source of wealth of the individual. It is for this reason that he who has his heart in his work is certain to meet with unbounded success. He will give and continually give, and the more he gives the more he will receive.

26. What do the great financiers of Wall Street, the captains of industry, the statesmen, the great corporation attorneys, the inventors, the physicians, the authors— what do each of these contribute to the sum of human happiness but the power of their thought?

27. Thought is the energy by which the law of attraction is brought into operation, which eventually manifests in abundance.

Here we see what The Master Key System in its entirety is building within us.

We think and we create.

An animal is but a slave to his environment. If there is no food in an area, he must move to another or starve. If the weather changes, he must move of die. If stronger animals invade his territory, he must flee or be killed.

Not so with man.

We have created  a world of thought. We can live where we want — because we adapt the territory to us. We do that with our thoughts and our ideas.

Out thoughts have created a world in which we play and work. We are but thoughts relating to other thoughts, ideas meeting ideas, each influencing the other and judged on their usefulness and efficacy.

No longer is the brute the ruler of the roost for he must acknowledge the laws under which we all live, which we have created to allow the mind to flourish.

Ideas are now what make people rich rather than looting and wars.

This is the environment that we — as a whole — have attracted.

And this is what we are creating.

We all have the power to take part in it. We all have something to add.

Think.

Create.

Then reap the rewards of your efforts.

Until next time when we have our New Years Edition of the Master Key Coaching Teleseminars, I wish you the best of everything.