We live in increasingly unstable, uncertain times. People are unsure of their own future. The wealth gap between rich and poor grows exponentially each day. The American Dream, it seems, is slowly withering away. This depends on who you ask, of course, some people would argue it's been dead for some time. Others might interject here with credulity, exasperated by the bigots who simply don’t want to see the world progress. This sort of social conflicted climate, coupled with the utility of the internet, and the new dynamics of social interaction that have been introduced by social media as a result of the internet, has produced an environment flush with deception and fraud. This happens any time hard times fall upon a people. It creates desperation which leads to poor decision making ability, and fraudsters take advantage of this at every conceivable opportunity.

A big market for these scammers is the “guru” business. From spiritual gurus to business gurus, and everything in between. The cryptocurrency markets are another sector ripe with fraud. I would argue that a huge majority of the new alt-coins (and NFTs) being introduced through these ICO’s (A cryptocurrency form of an Initial Public Offering) are in fact designed from the ground up as scams. This topic divides opinion pretty starkly, and I have been on both sides of it now. Whether or not crypto, or self-help gurus actually help isn’t the point though. The blockchain itself, I believe, holds enormous potential value. NFT’s and alt-coins just aren’t it.

What I really want to high-light, though, is this new-age spiritualist idea of “love and light,” and positivity at all costs. It’s found in many scammer “markets.”  In my opinion, it’s just a device to help gain confidence, which helps the con-man. My most recent exposure to this type of pitch has been in viewing a prominent YouTuber, Coffeezilla (recommend watching if you’re interested in investigative entertainment), where almost every scam he covers has tinges of this mentality in them. If you fail, the hodlers will tell you, it’s because you suffered from FUD.. That's fear, uncertainty, and doubt. You can’t have paper hands in the crypto game. Hodl to the moon. What ends up happening far more often than not is the fans of these celebrities end up holding the bag after the creators and their crew of influencers cash out on the value added, by the fans investment, to the coins market cap. They’ll never land on the moon, and it is all their fault. They just weren’t positive enough.

The influencers and celebrities pushing these advertisements on social media are usually paid, and usually sell their coin early, all the while complaining of “irresponsible whales” selling out, shifting the blame of a drop in price to anonymous culprits, when they’re the ones who caused it.. Amazingly, these scammers will lie as if they’re unaware of how the blockchain even works, and perhaps they are. All transactions are public, and permanent. There is no hiding the flow of cash. The actual dynamics of these different grifts aren’t particularly important, though. I think what is important is pulling out the nuggets of potential wisdom from perhaps the most absurd and irrational market to have ever existed.

Why is it that people buy into the idea that all you have to do to achieve success is think positively? Personally, I think there is a piece of us that wants to believe this, because in a certain sense, there is real truth to it. What the grifters are not going to tell you though, is that it takes an extraordinary amount of work to develop a truly functional, positive state of mind. These people all sell get rich quick schemes, hard work is not part of the package. People do not typically want to work very hard, certainly not any harder than they think they have to, so this little fact of the process is conveniently left out entirely. Another issue is that success is sold as financial wealth, when in fact money oftentimes only compounds problems for people. A million dollars won’t help you enjoy a better life if you’re always depressed and anxious, and money is not an antidepressant..  Success, in my opinion, is living a complete, fulfilled life. If you can reach the end of your life with minimal regrets, and maximum gratitude, I think that is the ultimate sign of success. Of course we all need money to survive, but a fundamental aspect of the “Law of Attraction” (really it is more a principle than a law) is the modulation and programming of intentions and motivations. For example, instead of using the desire for money as a primary motivation for achievement, we can begin to motivate ourselves by becoming a universal benefit to mankind. Sounds a bit grandiose, but it is really rather simple. All you need to do is help people out, be constructive rather than destructive. Change your motivations through an effort of focus and will, so that when you wake up and go to work and make your dollar, the dollar is a side effect of a larger intention. Align your own desires with the benefit of others, and you’ll find that the reciprocation fructifies your entire life and cultivates a steady stream of opportunity. People will want to work with you, when they see that you help everyone around you, all the while achieving your own goals as well.

You’ll still make the money, but you’ll create a far more satisfactory emotional experience for yourself by making this small adjustment. Again, it is not easy. It never will be. Furthermore, while the underlying mechanics are universal, each individual has to figure out for themselves, within their own imagination, how to work this intention into their life, and how they will understand it within a larger philosophical or metaphysical world-view. This means that fundamentally, there is no such thing as a guru course that can possibly teach you this stuff. You can read the books and get a grasp; after sifting through the spiritual woo, but figuring out a practical way to apply any of it is going to be entirely individual to you, and you’ll need to figure out how it works yourself through experimentation.

One aspect of the hard work associated with developing a successful, positive state of mind, lies in the fact that we can’t simply ignore negative things in our lives. It isn’t going to do us any good, remaining positive and strong, if we do so while ignoring the practical limitations of the situation. It is unrealistic and counter-productive. Along similar lines, you can’t simply force negative emotions out of your life. In  fact, the solution is quite counter-intuitive, and it’s not sold as part of the guru’s product. The trick here is not to force negative emotions out of your life at all. In  fact, you should embrace them. Many people do not understand or realize that their anxiety, while perhaps being associated with some underlying problem, is all produced in their own mind. We ruminate without shining any awareness on the thoughts taking place. If they’re unpleasant, we resist out of instinct. Millions of years of evolution have imbued us with survival instincts, and the resistance to negative emotions is an aspect of this evolution. By resisting, we never become conscious of the images in our minds associated with the anxiety, we never allow ourselves to process it, so it becomes bottled up, catalyzing the creation of more of itself. If we slow down and practice a bit of mindfulness, we can “see” the images in our mind causing anxiety, and if we put just a little more distance between us and the feeling, through mindful observation and non-resistance, we can see that these images are illusions of what the future may hold. Anxiety, and worry, is a down payment on a problem you’ll probably never have. 

Passive non-resistance towards emotional energy is one of the most valuable skills anyone can develop. Addressing emotions this way allows them to pass through your consciousness, as quickly as they arise, they will dissolve. Acceptance here is a key. Of course, this does not mean you should ignore the information here, either. If your physical circumstances are terrible and they’re in turn causing negative emotions, then the solution here would be to first do everything within your power to change your physical situation, and once you’ve done what you can, apply acceptance and non resistance. Don’t toss out logic, rationality, and planning.

Along similar lines with the positive thinking motif is active visualization and manifestation. Again, the typical sales pitch and marketing of this method leaves absent some critical ingredients to the recipe. The massive trove of literature spanning back to some of the earliest written texts we know of regarding this method of manifestation is also absent. Some of the ingredients, in no particular order, are: A logical understanding of what you want, a complete internal visualization that can be held for long periods, complete self-confidence and absence of doubt, non-attachment to the object of your desire, such that you’d be equally happy whether you received it or not, and a couple others that aren’t worth mentioning here. A teacher or guru may be able to tell you what all the ingredients are and how you’re supposed to put them together, but since the work is entirely internal, it is up to the individual to figure out the exact ratio of each, when they’re supposed to be added, and how much heat (effort) to cook with. 

Do these methods work? Yes, absolutely. They can be radically life changing. It is possible to transform your entire experience of life by changing how your mind perceives, creates, and applies meaning to your inner and outer worlds. But only if you’re willing to make it a priority to continue growing, and only after a lot of hard work, perhaps even many years worth. Daily effort is pretty much necessary to make any real headway as well. Your routines and habits developed for the purpose of improving quality of life, elevating awareness, and expanding consciousness, must become ritualized in daily repetition. So the next time you’re tempted to buy into a financial guru, remember that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. And the same applies to spiritual gurus.

If you are interested in learning more about what people call the law of attraction, and just living a more fulfilled life, the good news is that you already possess the latent potential to discover anything you want for yourself. You only need to develop the tools. What any individual will need to contemplate and research is going to be unique to them, but there are some universal practices that will carry you the distance. First, you need to set aside a time each and every day to meditate. Begin with simple mindfulness meditation. All you’re doing is trying to be present, remain in the moment, and observe thoughts and feelings as they pass through you. It is not easy at first, but know that any true effort is indeed performing the work necessary, even if it does not seem like it. You’re also going to want to take notes, as detailed as possible. When training your senses through meditation, it is important to pay close attention to details of our internal life. How we are feeling, what thoughts we have, and what type of meditation we are actually doing. Here is where, over time, you will begin to notice patterns in the results of your meditation corresponding to the starting conditions, which is most basically your mood when you’re going into it. Over time you will develop an understanding of how your mental life relates to your external experiences, and you will gain the practice necessary to think a certain way, to produce specific desired results. 

Once you get a handle on mindfulness meditation and staying present, it is time to add complexity to your routine. Just remember to start small, most importantly, make a daily effort. You have to fight through the resistance, the feeling that you simply do not want to do your meditation today. You have to. This practice develops the willpower that you will need later on when more difficult challenges arise. It is not unlike difficult physical training, where the results on your mood are quite positive after heavy physical exertion. We all have the potential to live enlightened, beneficial, fulfilled lives. In the same vein, we are all individually responsible for our own happiness. There is no utopian government that will ever take care of you. There is no one who will come to save you from yourself. In a certain sense, we are all in this alone, our salvation is in our own hands. Fill your cup first, then you may pour into others, and trust the process, trust yourself, your intuition, your soul.