Since the 1970s "new age" thinking has espoused that we are responsible for creating our individual reality. Most recently this message has emerged as the "Law of Attraction," via a video called "The Secret." It bears many of the same attendant problems of who is the "Who" that is responsible. The concept of "creating our own reality" is usually interpreted simplistically and literally. This reveals a mode of thinking that demands that all things be controllable, quantifiable, and measurable. It cannot contain paradox; it is an orientation that insists that truth is this or that, not both. It defies the connections and interdependence that the ancients knew and science today proves to be the fabric of our universe. It causes disillusionment and pain as individuals pit themselves against realities beyond the power of their individual egos to change.

Within the Paradigm of Connection, being 100 percent responsible for creating our reality is seen as a useful working concept, but one that belies the larger picture. For many years we have noticed that many recent converts to this way of thinking (most recently the many people flocking to the Law of Attraction material) tend to interpret it simplistically and subsequently use it in ways that can be harmful both to themselves and those around them, through failing to see the larger "I."

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