The Manifestation Trap: OCD and the Law of Attraction

by Adrienne Hill
July 22, 2025

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When I ask people if they know what the Law of Attraction is, I would estimate that less than half know what it is. If I ask them if they know what The Secret is, most nod, gasp audibly, or groan. If I add in the power of positive thinking, everyone seems to know what I am talking about. These are a few examples of how the Law of Attraction keeps being renamed. The Secret and the Law of Attraction have been previously investigated on episode #96 of Skeptoid, which aired on April 15, 2008. Twenty years later, this movement is still thriving. And the idea that focusing our minds on what we want will bring it to us, whether it is health, wealth, or happiness, has been around longer than most people think.

In the 1850s, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby believed that our thoughts are what caused diseases, even cancer. All that was needed was a change in our mindset, and for a fee, he would help people achieve this. According to a pamphlet Quimby handed out in a variety of locations, he wrote about why discussing illness with medical doctors, whom he called quacks, was problematic. "This makes them nervous and creates in their minds a disease that otherwise would never have been thought of."

In 1866, Andrew Jackson Davis coined the term "Law of Attraction" in his book The Great Harmonia, which described the Law of Attraction quite differently from its modern use. His Law of Attraction was used to explain how souls become spheres in the afterlife.

The Law of Attraction eventually evolved into its modern manifestation during the spiritualist movement, as evidenced by William Walker Atkinson's 1906 publication, Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World and continued later with the 1938 book by Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich! and the 1952 book by Norman Vincent Peale called The Power of Positive Thinking. All of these books can still be purchased online and in bookstores.

Jumping to 2006, two competing books were published. The Law of Attraction: The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham, by Esther and Jerry Hicks and The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne. Esther claims to communicate with a group of entities named Abraham. Jerry would write down these entities' thoughts, which turned out to be the principles of the Law of Attraction. Esther, Jerry, and Rhonda collaborated on the video The Secret, with Esther serving as the narrator and the original inspiration for the so-called documentary. However, a dispute over intellectual rights led to Esther being removed and replaced as the narrator. The Hicks' claimed that the negative energy involved detracted from their teachings on the Law of Attraction

Although many may not be familiar with Abraham Hicks, the organization, now led solely by Esther Hicks, has a large following worldwide. Jerry is no longer part of the organization, at least not in a physical sense since, according to Esther:

In November 2011, Jerry made his transition into Non-Physical, and now Esther continues to conduct the Abraham workshops with the help of her physical friends and co-workers and, of course, with the Non-Physical help of Abraham and Jerry.

Yes, Esther Hicks speaks to her followers in the third person. The Abraham Hicks organization consistently sells out cruises and workshops, boasting 836,000 followers on Instagram and 855,000 subscribers on YouTube, with many of their videos garnering millions of views. However, she and Byrne are far from the only people promoting the Law of Attraction, often through rebranding with names such as Manifesting, Lucky Girl Syndrome, Lucky Boy Syndrome, and the Power of Quantum Thinking. People are watching TikTok and YouTube videos, as well as buying apps and books, in an attempt to gain greater control over their lives.

A sample of one of the numerous statements, (130 to be exact according to a Kindle search I did), regarding health in their 2013 book, The Law of Attraction Essentials, is:

It is usually easier to see these Laws at work when you look into others' experiences: You will notice that those who speak most of prosperity, have it. Those who speak most of health, have it. Those who speak most of sickness, have it. Those who speak most of poverty, have it. It is the Law. It can be no other way. The way you feel is your point of attraction, and so, the Law of Attraction is most understood when you see yourself as a magnet, getting more and more of the way you feel. When you feel lonely, you attract more loneliness. When you feel poor, you attract more poverty. When you feel unhappy, you attract more unhappiness. When you feel healthy and vital and alive and prosperous-you attract more of those things.

This type of thinking is often criticized as victim blaming. Whether it's the devastation of an earthquake, a tornado, a car accident, a cancer diagnosis, an assault, job loss, or other misfortune, the blame is placed on negative thoughts. It suggests that people bring these events upon themselves. Empathy towards others is lost. Clinical psychologist Jonathan Stea, wrote in his book Mind the Science: Saving Your Mental Health From the Wellness Industry:

The law, of course, is scientifically ridiculous and often explained by its proponents through misrepresentations of quantum physics and other science-sounding language such as 'sending frequencies out to the universe.'

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, is often misunderstood by people who frequently claim they are so OCD because they have a tidy desk or like things a certain way in their home. Most who say this will not have the disorder, and these types of statements diminish the seriousness and disability that people with the disorder experience. To be diagnosed, OCD symptoms must significantly interfere with daily life, taking up considerable time (more than an hour per day) or causing marked distress, significantly interfering with a person's normal functioning, and the symptoms cannot be attributed to substances or medical conditions.

Two main components characterize OCD. First are obsessions, which are recurrent, intrusive thoughts, urges, and images. These are generally unwanted and repetitive, range in type and severity, and are difficult to control. Envision thoughts crashing into your mind uncontrollably. Some level of unwanted thoughts is normal. These thoughts can have a huge range of possibilities, from being overly superstitious about lucky or unlucky numbers, to a fear of offending God, to a concern regarding harming a loved one with a knife or sexually.

These thoughts are like getting a song stuck in your head. But much, much worse. For example, we have all wondered if we remembered to lock the door after leaving the house. This is not unusual. What would be unusual is if that worry persisted to the point of preventing one from thinking about anything else.

These thoughts can lead to compulsions, which are repetitive behaviors or thoughts that are performed to alleviate the anxiety caused by the obsessions. For my example of worrying about locking the door, the person's compulsion might be to return home multiple times to check the lock, otherwise their mother would die, or to do something completely unrelated, such as flipping a light switch 30 times. Or they will have to count to 1000 by increments of 5. Unfortunately, the relief is usually short-lived. The thought returns, and the compulsion is repeated. The person suffering from OCD usually knows they are being irrational, so they will go to great lengths to hide their thoughts​ and compulsions.

Stea states that individuals diagnosed with OCD or anxiety disorders are more prone to something called thought-action fusion. This is the belief that having a thought makes it more likely to occur. For example, a person is driving to work and suddenly thinks, "I've never been in an accident before." They then witness or are in an accident a short time later, and they feel responsible.

The concept of manifesting through the Law of Attraction aligns closely with the distorted beliefs often associated with OCD. Many individuals with OCD believe that their thoughts directly influence the world around them, with negative thoughts leading to harmful outcomes. They also feel an intense pressure to control these thoughts. Research has shown that for those who are diagnosed with OCD, suppressing unwanted thoughts has the opposite intended effect. The thoughts become more intrusive the more they are pushed away. When things don't go as planned, they often blame themselves and fear the repercussions. For example, Stea shared a case of a patient who developed an intense fear that simply seeing or hearing the word "AIDS" could cause her to manifest the disease. This belief was triggered after reading Byrnes' The Secret.

Another example is when a 10-year-old had a nightmare about a flood that killed everyone she knew. A few days later, the 2004 tsunami hit Indonesia, killing more than 200,000 people. As a young girl, she was convinced that she had caused the event. Two years later, she read The Secret, which convinced her that a sexual assault that had occurred a few months prior was her fault due to her watching news reports and reading magazines that covered stories about sexual violence. She was finally diagnosed with OCD when she was 20 and was then able to seek proper treatment.

Stea and I are not saying that the Law of Attraction causes OCD, but that people with OCD can gravitate to the Law of Attraction. While therapy attempts to help individuals recognize that these types of thoughts are irrational, the Law of Attraction emphasizes the belief that these thoughts have an impact, leaving the person feeling ashamed and guilty when their dreams are not realized or when bad things happen to them or their loved ones.

Additionally, we are not suggesting that you shouldn't strive to be positive or that you shouldn't visualize yourself doing extraordinary things. However, our nighttime dreams, daydreams, or random thoughts that pop into our minds won't make them more likely to happen.

The bottom line is that people with OCD who gravitate to the Law of Attraction often do not seek the proper help they need, and the advice is detrimental to their mental health. The next time someone tells you to think positively and avoid negative energy, take a skeptical approach. While optimism and mindfulness can be helpful, they are not substitutes for science-backed mental health care.

By Adrienne Hill