The Law Of Attraction And Science

A lot of people don’t understand the Law of Attraction, or disagree with it, because it states that ‘like attracts like.’ The immediate response you get is, “Wait a minute, opposites attract, what are you talking about?”

How do we reconcile the notion of ‘like attracts like’ with the idea that opposites attract?

This is a very good question. Opposites do attract, but when we look a little deeper into the matter, we can see that it is the underlying similarities that cause opposites to come together. Take a battery, for instance. You have a positive pole and a negative pole. At the positive pole is just a dearth of electrons and at the negative pole is a surplus of electrons. The electrons at the negative end want to party with their friends at the positive end, so the flow is from minus to plus. What is really happening is that the system is trying to find balance. The common denominator in the system is the electron, and how it flows from one pole to the other. Electrons, in other words, exist at both poles. Like attracts like!

In science, positive and negative are arbitrary symbolic assignments that help us to understand how the system works. In a magnet, for example, the magnetic lines of flux common to both align and the magnets attract. When they do not, they repel. The assignment of plus and minus, and north and south, are arbitrary.
Let’s say you’re at a flea market and there’s a seller and a buyer. Now, those are sort of opposites, but if you look at it closely, the buyer and the seller come together like a key fitting into a lock. And what is the common denominator? What the seller is selling! Both buyer and seller are aligned on the thing the seller is selling. Underlying the opposites is fundamental agreement. So like attracts like.

An engineer who appreciates fine wines and classical music doesn’t hang around with a beer drinking construction worker who is into Mettalica. That is because these two people have sets of preferences that are too divergent.

“All right,” you say, “but what about relationships? My best friend is an introvert and his wife is a total extrovert. They have different tastes in music, dress, and practically everything else.”

The answer is that underlying these differences is a fundamental similarity. In any successful relationship, there must be affinity and agreement on the most important things that matter to each person. The two people above might have strong and concurrent views on family and children, even though their preferences may differ on many other things. In my contracting work, I have observed many relationships which thrive in just this manner, even when husband and wife are not ‘in love’ anymore.

I have observed that even in a long–standing relationship in which the partners are constantly fighting, there is a powerful bond. I once asked an older couple who just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary why they constantly sniped at each other. The old woman just grinned and pointed to her husband. “I love that old coot even when he makes me angry.” He grinned back at her, and then they continue their bickering. Hey, you know the old saying: ‘different strokes for different folks.’ There’s no telling what people will like!

It is often impossible to understand why two people choose to live with each other despite their differences, but whatever the reason, it is always that the similarities are more powerful than the differences. Otherwise, they would be apart!

And so ‘like attracts like’ is the quintessential law not only within the material universe, but in relationships as well.

I encourage you to test this principle in life. Observe your own life and the lives of others. Do not settle for superficial explanations, but ask questions and probe deeper into the matter. When you do, you will discover that the Law of Attraction works every time.