The Law of Attraction Summary and key ideas

The Law of Attraction, by Esther and Jerry Hicks.

The Hickses introduce Abraham’s teachings through their own history: Jerry’s search for practical answers, Esther’s changing response to the Seth books, and the meditation practice they say led to communication with Abraham. The Preface dates the teachings’ first revelation to 1986, in response to Jerry’s questions. It also says this book draws on five CDs, transcribed and slightly edited for readability, with additions for clarity and continuity. The personal narrative recounts Esther’s first powerful contact during meditation and later dates the nose-spelling episode to shortly before Thanksgiving 1985, after about nine months of regular meditation. It says the nose-spelling answers continued for about two months. The account does not explain how these narrative milestones relate to the Preface’s 1986 date.

Jerry describes a long search for religious and philosophical certainty, shaped by a childhood spent moving between places. He became dissatisfied with groups that each claimed to be right while rejecting other beliefs. In 1959, after friends used a Ouija board, he asked how to become truly good. The board directed him to Albert Schweitzer’s books. He says they broadened his view but did not answer his many questions. He also tried the board with hundreds of people; only three had success, and the conversations he heard offered little he wanted to use or teach.

Another step came through Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. Jerry says the book challenged his assumptions about wealthy people and led him to take thoughts more seriously. He reports that following Hill’s suggestions helped him build a multinational business and teach those principles. Yet many of his students did not improve as dramatically as he had, and he still wanted more specific answers. His search, then, included experiences he valued as well as approaches that seemed incomplete.

Jerry found the Seth books by Jane Roberts stimulating and hoped they might address his questions. Roberts was described as entering a trance and allowing Seth, a nonphysical personality, to speak through her. Esther at first felt strong aversion to the books and discomfort with the idea of contact with a nonphysical being. Jerry did not press her. He read privately, then introduced ideas gradually. As Esther’s fear eased, she judged the material by her own response to it. Eventually they read together in the mornings.

After learning that Roberts had died, the couple felt they had missed their chance to meet her, Robert, or Seth. Friends then introduced them to a recording of Sheila channeling Theo. Esther and Jerry thought the process resembled how the Seth books had been produced, so they arranged a visit. They recall it as comfortable and exciting. Jerry brought his long-standing questions, and Esther became interested enough to want to return with questions of her own.

When Esther asked Theo how they could move faster toward their goals, Theo recommended affirmations and meditation. The meditation instructions were simple: sit for fifteen minutes in a quiet room, wear comfortable clothing, focus on breathing, and gently return attention to the breath when thoughts wandered. Esther had thought of meditation as strange, while Jerry associated it with enduring hardship. Theo’s ordinary breathing exercise made the practice seem less unfamiliar. After their first session, they decided to meditate together each day.

Esther describes a pleasant numbness and detachment, followed by a feeling of being breathed by a powerful, loving presence. She later identified that experience as her first contact with Abraham. After about nine months of regular meditation, she says her head began moving gently and her nose seemed to spell letters. She understood the letters as conveying Abraham’s name, its identity as her spiritual guide, and its wish to work with her. For about two months, Jerry asked questions and Esther says Abraham answered through the spelled words, which Jerry recorded. The communication later shifted to involuntary typing and then speech; they recount conversations first with friends and later in public.

Jerry and Esther say applying the teachings brought them a joyful life and that everyday experience convinced them the teachings worked. Those claims, like Esther’s account of channeling, are the authors’ testimony rather than independent verification. The Preface’s date, the recorded source material, and the personal narrative together establish how the Hickses present the teachings’ origins before the book turns to their substance.