The word “meme” was coined by scientist Richard Dawkins to mean a unit of cultural information, roughly equivalent to the biological gene. Since then the word has taken on a life of its own – maybe we could just say “meme” memes – and I doubt Dawkins approves of many of the ways it is used now. But such is the life of words and cultural phenomena.
What can be considered the abundance meme can be seen with the popularity of books and movies such as The Secret, What We Know, and Esther and Jerry Hicks’s Abraham books, such as Ask and Give. Of course, there were many others who preceded them. This movement dates back to at least the early 20th century and even the 19th century, with authors such as Ernest Holmes, author of The Science of Mind, and religions such as Unity and Christian Science.
However, until relatively recently, these ideas were mostly segregated in certain religious sects, as well as in the new age and potential human movements. That is, there was a significant, but still small, minority of people who followed a belief system that the majority were largely unaware of. That is why I think we can speak of a “meme of abundance” that began to spread a few years ago and that has only been gathering momentum.
Unsurprisingly, there has been a backlash to this movement and from several fronts. Scientifically minded people claim that there is no evidence for the Law of Attraction, positive thinking, or abundance awareness. Others believe that these ideas are “new age” and contradict orthodox religious teachings (although many examples can also be found from the Bible and other spiritual books that support these ideas). Finally, some socially minded people find the idea that we create our own reality really offensive, seeing it as an implicit blame on the poor, sick, or politically oppressed for their condition.
I do not have space in this article to address such complex questions in detail. In summary, I will present the idea that the Law of Attraction is not something that can be proven by the criteria of conventional science. It is something you have to experience personally. Even if you started practicing that thinking and won the lottery the following week, a “rational” person could say it was just a coincidence and you couldn’t prove them wrong. Really matters?
As for “blaming” the victims for their circumstances, this is not the point. I think people who are offended by this philosophy are, on some level, buying into the notion of scarcity; that somehow, as we become more abundant, we leave the less fortunate further behind. I think the opposite is closer to the truth. The more abundant we are, the more we can help others and the more we will be a living example of the principle.
I believe that those of us in the “community of abundance”, informal as it may be, should focus some of our attention on the “unlucky”, whatever our beliefs about the cause of their plight. Our focus should not be on pity, but rather use the principles we believe in to help bridge the gap from whatever your problem (eg, poverty, illness, addiction, homelessness) to a more fortunate state. I think this is necessary, not only in terms of doing “good deeds”, but also to fulfill the larger goal of spreading the abundance meme globally.
Ideally, the abundance meme should be a kind of benevolent virus that infects every corner of the world and every aspect of our lives. It is true that this article does not offer many specific solutions for anything; It’s basically an invitation for us to delve into the notion that we can help accelerate the spread of this virus / movement / meme. Abstract and theoretical solutions are needed: philosophy, metaphysics, psychology, etc. We also need solutions in the practical fields of economics, politics, environmentalism, etc.
All of these fields can be transformed if viewed through the lens of abundance consciousness.