Abraham Hicks: The Teachings of Abraham and the Law of Attraction

Who Is Abraham Hicks?

Abraham Hicks is the name given to a body of teachings delivered through Esther Hicks, an American author and speaker who claims to channel a non-physical group consciousness that calls itself Abraham. Since 1986, Esther has conducted workshops, written books, and recorded thousands of hours of material in which she enters a trance-like state and speaks as Abraham.

The entity Abraham describes itself not as a single spirit or deceased person, but as a collective of non-physical teachers. In workshop settings, Abraham typically speaks through Esther in a distinctive voice, answering audience questions about relationships, money, health, purpose, and the mechanics of creating one's own reality. The central premise is that everything in physical experience is governed by the Law of Attraction, the principle that vibrational frequencies attract matching frequencies.

The Abraham Hicks body of work spans more than 700 publications, including books, audio recordings, DVDs, and workshop transcripts. Their most widely read book, Ask and It Is Given (2004), became a New York Times bestseller and introduced millions of readers to the concepts of vibrational alignment, the emotional guidance scale, and deliberate creation.

Whether Abraham represents a genuine non-physical intelligence, a product of Esther's subconscious mind, or a skillful performance is a matter each person must weigh for themselves. What is beyond dispute is the material's enormous cultural influence. The Abraham Hicks teachings helped popularize the Law of Attraction before The Secret made the concept a mainstream phenomenon in 2006.

Esther and Jerry Hicks: The Human Story

Esther Weaver was born on March 5, 1948, in Coalville, Utah. She grew up in a modest household and lived a conventional life before her path crossed with Jerome "Jerry" Hicks. Jerry was born in 1927 and led a remarkably varied life before entering the spiritual teaching world. In his early years, he performed as a circus acrobat in Cuba for two years. Beginning in 1948, he toured for two decades as a musician, master of ceremonies, and comedian.

Jerry eventually transitioned into business, becoming a top-level Amway distributor. He met Esther Weaver in 1976 at an Amway event. Despite a 21-year age gap, they formed a strong bond and married in 1980. Jerry was already deeply read in self-help and metaphysical literature. He had studied Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, Ernest Holmes' Science of Mind, and was particularly taken with the Seth Material channeled by Jane Roberts.

Jerry's prior exposure to these ideas proved formative. He brought a businessman's sensibility and a seeker's curiosity to the partnership. Esther brought a natural ease with language and public speaking. Together they would build Abraham-Hicks Publications into one of the most commercially successful spiritual teaching enterprises in North America.

Jerry Hicks died on November 18, 2011, at the age of 85, from complications related to leukemia. His death raised difficult questions among followers, given that the teachings emphasize personal creation of health through vibrational alignment. Esther has continued the work as a solo presenter since his passing, maintaining a busy schedule of workshops and cruises.

How the Channeling Began

The Abraham channeling traces its origin to 1985. At that time, Jerry and Esther attended a session with Sheila Gillette, a channeler who communicated with a group of archangels called THEO. Inspired by the experience, and by Jerry's longstanding interest in the Seth Material, the couple began a daily meditation practice.

During these early meditations, Esther reported experiencing involuntary physical movements. Her head would move, her hands would spell out letters, and she gradually began receiving clear verbal communications. The intelligence identified itself as Abraham, a group of non-physical teachers rather than any single historical or spiritual figure. By 1986, Esther was verbally channeling Abraham in full sentences.

Jerry, drawing on his background as a professional entertainer and Amway speaker, recognized the potential. He began asking Abraham structured questions and recording the sessions. In 1987, Esther started giving private readings. Public workshops followed in 1988, initially held in the San Antonio area before expanding nationwide. The couple travelled in a luxury motorhome, conducting workshops across the United States and eventually on international cruise ships.

The channeling process, as described by Esther, involves a shift in consciousness rather than a complete trance state. She remains aware during sessions but allows Abraham to direct her speech. Some observers note that Esther's vocabulary, cadence, and personality shift noticeably when speaking as Abraham, while skeptics point out that the speaking style has changed considerably over the decades, becoming more polished and commercially oriented.

The Three Universal Laws of Abraham

The Abraham teachings rest on three foundational laws that the entity presents as universal principles governing all of reality.

These three laws build on each other in a deliberate sequence. The Law of Attraction describes the mechanism. The Science of Deliberate Creation teaches you to use that mechanism consciously. The Art of Allowing removes the internal obstacles that prevent delivery.

Abraham teaches that most people live in a state of "default creation," meaning they react to conditions around them and perpetuate existing patterns. The shift to deliberate creation requires sustained attention to one's emotional state and a willingness to prioritize feeling good over being right, justified, or realistic.

The Emotional Guidance Scale: 22 Levels of Vibration

One of the most practical tools in the Abraham Hicks framework is the Emotional Guidance Scale, introduced in detail in Ask and It Is Given. The scale arranges 22 emotional states from the highest vibration to the lowest.

The scale's practical application is straightforward. First, identify your current emotional position honestly. Then, reach for thoughts that produce a slightly better feeling, moving up one or two positions at a time. Abraham specifically warns against trying to leap from depression (22) to joy (1) in a single step, calling such attempts counterproductive.

The scale provides a framework for emotional self-awareness that many practitioners find genuinely useful, regardless of whether they accept the broader metaphysical claims. Cognitive behavioural therapists have noted parallels between this approach and established therapeutic techniques for emotional regulation, though the vibrational causation model has no support in peer-reviewed psychology.

The Vortex and Vibrational Alignment

Among Abraham's most distinctive concepts is the Vortex. Introduced fully in the 2009 book The Vortex: Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships, this idea describes an energetic holding space where everything you have ever wanted already exists in vibrational form.

According to the teaching, every time you experience contrast (something you do not want), you automatically launch a "rocket of desire" toward what you do want. That desire immediately enters the Vortex, where it is held and maintained by Source Energy. Your only task is to align your vibration with the contents of your Vortex by reaching a state of positive emotion. When alignment occurs, physical manifestations begin appearing.

Being "in the Vortex" feels like joy, clarity, excitement, and flow. Being "out of the Vortex" feels like frustration, anxiety, doubt, and fatigue. Abraham teaches that your emotions are not random; they are precise guidance indicating whether you are moving toward or away from what you have asked for.

The Vortex concept reframes the relationship between desire and fulfillment. Rather than working hard to create results, you work on your emotional state and allow results to come. This is perhaps the most appealing and the most problematic element of the teaching, as it promises relief from struggle while potentially discouraging practical action.

Key Processes: Segment Intending, Focus Wheel, and Rampage of Appreciation

Ask and It Is Given presents 22 distinct processes for raising one's emotional vibration. Three of the most commonly practised are Segment Intending, the Focus Wheel, and the Rampage of Appreciation.

The Focus Wheel: When you feel negative about a subject, draw a large circle on paper. Write your desired feeling in the centre. Around the outside, write 12 statements that you genuinely believe and that point toward the centre feeling. Each statement should be slightly more positive than the last, building momentum until you feel genuine relief. This process is essentially a structured reframing exercise.

Rampage of Appreciation: Begin listing things you appreciate, starting with whatever comes easily. As you build momentum, the list naturally becomes more specific and emotional. The purpose is to generate a sustained vibrational state of gratitude, which Abraham identifies as one of the highest emotional frequencies. Many practitioners use this as a morning routine before engaging with daily responsibilities.

Other processes include the Placemat Process (writing what you will handle versus what you want the universe to handle), the Wallet Process (carrying a hundred-dollar bill and mentally spending it all day), and the Wouldn't It Be Nice If process (framing desires as casual, playful questions rather than desperate demands).

Key Books and Published Works

The Abraham Hicks library spans dozens of titles, but several core books define the teaching:

• Ask and It Is Given (2004): The foundational text. Introduces the Emotional Guidance Scale, 22 processes for alignment, and the core philosophy. Foreword by Wayne Dyer, whose endorsement significantly boosted its reach. Published by Hay House.
• The Law of Attraction: The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham (2006): A more focused treatment of the central law with practical applications. Includes a foreword by Neale Donald Walsch, author of Conversations with God.
• Money, and the Law of Attraction (2008): Applies the teachings specifically to financial abundance and physical well-being. Became a #1 New York Times bestseller.
• The Vortex: Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships (2009): Introduces the Vortex concept in full and applies the framework to relationships, including romantic partnerships, family dynamics, and business connections.
• The Astonishing Power of Emotions (2007): Presents paired scenarios showing "upstream" (resistant) and "downstream" (allowing) responses to common life situations.

Beyond published books, Abraham-Hicks Publications maintains a massive library of workshop recordings, YouTube clips, and subscription audio content. The workshops themselves, held in cities across the United States and on themed cruises, generate significant revenue and serve as the primary forum for live audience interaction with Abraham.

Abraham Hicks and The Secret

The relationship between Abraham Hicks and the 2006 film The Secret by Rhonda Byrne is a complicated chapter in the Law of Attraction's popular history. Esther Hicks, channeling Abraham, appeared prominently in the original version of the film. The Abraham material provided much of the conceptual backbone for The Secret's central thesis: that thoughts become things through the Law of Attraction.

However, disputes over contracts, intellectual property, and distribution rights led to a split. When The Secret moved from its original television format to broader distribution, Byrne sought new contractual terms that reportedly included relinquishing certain intellectual property rights "in perpetuity." Jerry and Esther declined. All Abraham-Hicks footage was subsequently edited out of the extended edition and later releases of the film.

Reports indicate that Esther received approximately $500,000 before the separation. The edited version replaced her segments with footage of other teachers, most notably Lisa Nichols. Despite being removed from the final product, the Abraham Hicks teachings remained a significant behind-the-scenes influence on the film's ideas.

The split ultimately benefited both parties commercially. The Secret became a global phenomenon, while Abraham Hicks retained independent control of their material and saw a surge of interest from viewers who learned that the original version contained an even deeper source. Many Law of Attraction students who started with The Secret went on to study Abraham directly.

New Thought Roots and Intellectual Lineage

The Abraham Hicks teachings did not appear in a vacuum. They sit squarely within a lineage of American metaphysical thought stretching back to the mid-1800s. Understanding this lineage is important for evaluating the material honestly.

The New Thought movement, which emerged in the late 19th century, proposed that the mind has direct causative power over physical reality. Key figures include Thomas Troward (1847-1916), a British judge who wrote extensively on mental science and the creative power of thought; Ernest Holmes (1887-1960), founder of the Science of Mind philosophy, who credited Troward as a primary influence; Charles Fillmore (1854-1948), co-founder of the Unity Church, who taught that thoughts shape material conditions; and William Walker Atkinson, who published Thought Vibration, or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World in 1906, using the specific phrase "Law of Attraction" over a century before the Abraham teachings.

Jerry Hicks acknowledged these influences openly. In the early Abraham-Hicks publications, he named Ernest Holmes and Napoleon Hill as formative mentors. Hill's The Law of Success (1928) and Think and Grow Rich (1937) discuss attraction, vibration, and mental causation in language that closely mirrors what Abraham would later teach.

This lineage raises legitimate questions about originality. Much of what Abraham presents as universal truth was already articulated by New Thought writers decades before Esther's first channeling session in 1985. The channeled framing gives the ideas an air of spiritual authority that the original authors, who presented them as philosophical observations, did not claim. Whether this repackaging adds genuine value or merely adds marketing appeal is a fair question. The ancient Hermetic principle "as above, so below," explored in depth in our article on Hermes Trismegistus and the Hermetic tradition, shares certain resonances with the idea of inner states reflecting outer conditions.

Comparison with Other Channeled Teachings

Abraham Hicks exists within a broader tradition of channeled spiritual material. Comparing it with other major channeled works helps clarify what the Abraham material emphasizes and what it leaves out.

The Seth Material, channeled by Jane Roberts from 1963 until her death in 1984, is widely considered the intellectual ancestor of the Abraham teachings. Seth's "you create your own reality" principle is the direct forerunner of Abraham's Law of Attraction. However, Seth presents a far more detailed and layered framework, exploring how beliefs (not just emotions) shape experience, how probable realities branch with every choice, and how the inner self participates in creating physical events through mechanisms far more complex than simple vibrational matching.

The Ra Material (The Law of One), channeled through Carla Rueckert from 1981 to 1984, offers a cosmological framework centred on unity, spiritual densities, and the polarity of service-to-others versus service-to-self. Ra's teachings are far more concerned with collective evolution and cosmic structure than with personal manifestation. Where Abraham says "you came here for joy," Ra says "you came here to choose how to serve."

A Course in Miracles, dictated through Helen Schucman between 1965 and 1972, takes the most radically different position. ACIM teaches that the entire physical world is an illusion, that the body is a hiding place constructed by guilt, and that forgiveness (not manifestation) is the path to peace. Where Abraham encourages you to ask for what you want, ACIM suggests you do not actually know what you want and should let the Holy Spirit choose for you.

Criticisms and Honest Assessment

Any fair treatment of the Abraham Hicks teachings must address the substantial criticisms the material has attracted from psychologists, skeptics, former followers, and cultural commentators.

Jerry Hicks' death from leukemia: Jerry Hicks died of leukaemia in 2011 after reportedly seeking conventional chemotherapy, which was initially described to followers as treatment for a spider bite. For a teaching that holds illness as a product of vibrational misalignment, Jerry's death after 25 years of daily Abraham channeling posed an obvious contradiction. Defenders argue that physical death is not a failure in the Abraham framework. Critics see it as a clear test case that the teaching failed.

No scientific support: The Law of Attraction as described by Abraham has no basis in physics, despite frequent references to "vibration" and "frequency." Quantum mechanics does not support the idea that human thoughts attract matching physical events. The vibrational language borrows scientific-sounding terminology without the actual science. No controlled study has demonstrated that positive thinking alone produces material results.

Commercial concerns: Abraham-Hicks Publications is a significant commercial operation. Workshop tickets, cruises, recordings, books, and subscription services generate substantial revenue. Some former followers report spending thousands of dollars over years while being told that their lack of results reflected insufficient alignment rather than any problem with the teaching itself.

Oversimplification of complex issues: Poverty, illness, and social injustice have systemic, biological, and structural causes that cannot be addressed by individual emotional management alone. Critics in psychology and sociology note that the teachings can discourage people from seeking medical treatment, leaving abusive situations, or engaging in collective action for change.

What the Material Offers and Where It Falls Short

Despite legitimate criticisms, the Abraham Hicks teachings contain elements that many people find genuinely useful when applied with discernment.

The most productive approach may be to treat the Abraham material as one voice among many, extracting the practical emotional awareness tools while maintaining critical thinking about the larger metaphysical claims. The Hermetic traditions, explored in our Hermetic Synthesis Course, offer complementary perspectives on the relationship between mind and matter that predate modern manifestation teachings by millennia.

A person who uses the Emotional Guidance Scale to become more aware of their feelings, practises segment intending to stay focused throughout the day, and maintains a gratitude practice may well see improvements in their quality of life. But attributing those improvements to vibrational attraction rather than to well-documented psychological mechanisms (attention training, cognitive reframing, positive affect) adds an unnecessary metaphysical layer that can become harmful when applied to serious illness, trauma, or structural injustice.

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