Abraham Hicks teachings: the emotional guidance scale, the three steps and the criticism

Who are Abraham Hicks?

“Abraham Hicks” is the name given to the work of Esther Hicks and her late husband, Jerry Hicks. Esther was born Esther Weaver in 1948 in Coalville, Utah. Jerry, who was working as a successful Amway distributor when they met in 1976, died on November 18, 2011, at age 85. Together they co-wrote nine books, according to Wikipedia.

The “Abraham” part is a claim. Esther says she channels a non-physical collective consciousness that calls itself Abraham, and that this began in 1985 after she and Jerry read the Seth Material by Jane Roberts and consulted a channeler in Phoenix. At workshops she answers audience questions in the voice of Abraham, and the official site streams live Q&A sessions.

Where the material is published

The official site, abraham-hicks.com, describes the material as the “original source material” for the current law of attraction wave, also known as the Teachings of Abraham. It sells tickets to in-person workshops, streams live Q&A sessions, offers recordings and subscription audio programs, and hosts excerpts from the books. Two books are the usual starting points: Ask and It Is Given (Hay House, published in 2004) and The Law of Attraction (Hay House, October 2006). One note on sourcing: Wikipedia’s own text gives conflicting years for Ask and It Is Given (2004 and 2005), and I have used 2004, the date it states for publication and the one used by a book-summary site.

The core teachings in plain words

Abraham’s material is repetitive by design, with the same few ideas restated in different ways. Wikipedia lists the core principles as the Law of Attraction, the Science of Deliberate Creation and the Art of Allowing. Here is what that means in practice.

1. The law of attraction

The book describes a universe in which “that which is like unto itself is drawn.” Your dominant thoughts and feelings, in this view, work like a signal that draws matching circumstances. Our law of attraction page covers the broader tradition this comes from.

2. Deliberate creation

Instead of letting your thoughts wander, you direct your attention on purpose toward what you want and how you want to feel. This is the closest part to ordinary goal-setting.

3. Allowing

This is the most distinctive idea. Abraham teaches that wanting something is not the hard part, and that most of the work is releasing resistance: doubt, worry and the belief that you do not deserve it. The book frames suffering as resistance to a natural state of well-being, and treats feeling good as the goal and the method at the same time.

The three steps of manifestation

In Ask and It Is Given the process is laid out in three steps:

1. Ask. Desires arise naturally from your experience of life. Wanting something is the asking.
2. It is given. In Abraham’s account, the universe answers every desire the moment it is thought about, and the answer waits for you.
3. Allow. You receive what you asked for by getting into alignment with it, which means releasing resistance. The book treats this step as the hardest.

The emotional guidance scale

The emotional guidance scale is the tool most people associate with Abraham Hicks. It ranks 22 emotions from the most aligned to the least, and the idea is to treat your feelings as a fuel gauge. The official site describes the top of the scale as full alignment with what Abraham calls Source Energy and the bottom as the most resistance.

The scale, as listed on the official site

How the scale is meant to be used

You notice where you are, then reach for a thought that feels slightly better. The book is explicit that the move should be gradual, not a leap from despair to joy. Moving from anger to frustration, or from worry to hope, counts as progress. The scale is also meant to take away guilt: a low-ranking feeling is a signal, not a verdict on you.

Worked example: using the scale on a hard Tuesday

Here is a made-up example, to show how the idea works in practice. Say you want a better job, you have just had a rejection email, and you notice you feel disappointed, close to discouraged.

Notice that this works just as well if you set Abraham aside entirely. It is a structured way to reframe a hard moment without pretending it did not happen. The step that comes after, sending the next application, is where the actual job search happens. For more, see how to manifest a job.

The processes in Ask and It Is Given

The second half of Ask and It Is Given contains 22 processes, most tied to a place on the emotional guidance scale. According to a summary of the book, they are meant to be fun, repeatable and low-pressure, and they discourage forced positivity, self-criticism and doubt. I verified the names below from that summary; the one-line descriptions are my general understanding of each, not checked against the book, so treat them as approximate.

• The Magical Creation Box: as I understand it, a box you use to collect and set down your desires, a symbolic way of handing a request over without chasing it.
• The Prosperity Game: a playful exercise about imagining having plenty of money to spend.
• The Focus Wheel: a written exercise that builds a chain of thoughts around a desire, each aiming to feel a little better than the last.
• Segment Intending: setting a small intention for the next segment of the day.

The summary adds that the Focus Wheel and Segment Intending are more introspective and are often suggested for people who are lower on the scale. I have not checked the details of any other process, so I will not describe them here.

The vortex

The official site also offers vortex guided meditations. As I understand it, the vortex is Abraham’s name for a non-physical place where your desires are said to gather while you work on your alignment (the site itself does not define it on its homepage). It is a metaphor within the system, not a place anyone has measured, and it matters mainly as an image to relax into.

If you want to try a version of these ideas without buying any of the materials, the visualization and gratitude journal prompts pages describe similar exercises.

What the evidence does and does not support

Abraham’s explanation includes three kinds of claims, and they deserve different levels of trust.

Claims about emotions: partly supported

The idea that noticing and naming your feelings helps you manage them is consistent with a lot of psychology. Naming a feeling, reaching for a more useful thought and taking a break are all ordinary coping tools. The scale itself is a ranking invented by the teachers, not a validated psychological instrument.

Claims about attention and goals: mixed

Directing attention toward what you want can help you notice opportunities and keep you motivated. Experiments by Heather Kappes and Gabriele Oettingen found that people who indulged in positive fantasies about an idealized future felt less energized afterward. So dwelling on the feeling of having it, without a plan, may even reduce effort. Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran’s meta-analysis found that specific if-then plans help people act on goals, which is the part of goal-setting with solid support.

Claims about the universe: not supported

There is no scientific evidence that your emotional frequency attracts physical events, or that “it is given” the moment you desire something. Wikipedia describes the law of attraction as lacking a demonstrable scientific basis. The book summary I consulted also notes that no objective studies have confirmed the premise that Abraham is a distinct consciousness speaking through Esther.

Criticism of Abraham Hicks, fairly stated

A page that only explains the teachings would be doing you a disservice. These are the objections raised most often, and you can decide how much weight to give each.

The channeling claim cannot be verified

Nobody can check whether a non-physical group speaks through Esther. The material may be sincere, a creative persona or something else, and there is no test that tells them apart. Because the content is presented as coming from outside the author, it is also hard to correct. Treat the ideas on their merits and not on the basis of the source.

The ideas are older than Abraham

The law of attraction predates the Hickses by about a century. According to Wikipedia, William Walker Atkinson used the phrase “law of attraction” as early as 1906, and the page reports that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected an attempt to copyright the phrase on that basis. The historian Gordon Melton traces the beliefs to nineteenth-century Christian Science and calls them “prosperity consciousness.” Our page on the law of attraction covers that history. The Hickses have never been the only source of these ideas; what they added was a distinctive emotional scale and a particular voice.

Blaming yourself for bad outcomes

If your thoughts and feelings create your circumstances, then illness, job loss and grief look like personal failures. Critics of the wider movement make this point strongly, and it is a real risk with any teaching built on “you attract what you are.” Hardship is not evidence that you felt wrong.

Feeling good is not a reliable instruction

Telling people to feel better can slide into toxic positivity, where valid feelings like anger, fear or grief are treated as obstacles. Abraham’s own material says to move up gradually and not to force positivity, but listeners do not always hear that part. Our page on manifestation and toxic positivity explores this.

The money side

Workshops, recordings and subscriptions are sold through the official site. That is normal for a teacher, and you do not need to buy anything to try the ideas. If a practice leaves you spending money you do not have, stop and talk to a nonprofit credit counselor.

A research note: manifestation beliefs and financial risk

One 2023 study is worth knowing about if you are drawn to any teaching in this family. Lucas Dixon, Matthew Hornsey and Nicole Hartley, at the University of Queensland, published three studies in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin on belief in manifestation, with samples of 306, 348 and 375 Americans.

People who scored higher on the manifestation scale rated themselves as more successful and expected more future success, but in the first study they were no more successful in income or education. They were also more likely to endorse “get rich quick” beliefs, to own cryptocurrency and to report having been declared bankrupt. The authors noted that the study is correlational, success was self-reported, and the participants were all American, so it cannot show that manifesting causes bankruptcy. What it does suggest is that strong belief and good outcomes are different things.

How to use the useful parts without the metaphysics

You can keep what works and drop the rest. This short routine borrows the emotional check-in and removes the claims about frequencies and the universe.

A five-minute emotional check-in

1. Name the feeling. Use the scale above as a vocabulary list. “Overwhelm” and “frustration” are more precise than “bad.”
2. Rate it from 1 to 10. You are not diagnosing; you are noticing.
3. Reach one step. Write a thought that is slightly better and that you can honestly accept. Skip anything that makes you feel like you are lying.
4. Add a small action. Choose something under ten minutes: a short walk, a message, a task you have been avoiding.
5. Check again. If the feeling has shifted a little, stop. If not, that is useful information too.

Wording that fits this approach

For more wording ideas, the affirmations library is organized by theme, and the limiting belief reframer can help when a thought keeps getting in the way. The future self journaling page is another good way to practice reaching for a better-feeling thought.

Kaizen’s release ritual is built on a similar premise, minus the metaphysics. You name a limiting belief and drag it into a flame, which gives you a physical way to acknowledge a feeling and let it go. Writing a belief on paper and tearing it up does the same job.

Common mistakes and fixes

If this happens, try this

You cannot find a better-feeling thought. Go smaller: not “I’m happy,” but “I’m breathing, and this will pass.” Or skip thoughts and change something physical, like a walk or a glass of water.

The practice makes you feel worse. Stop for a few days. If low mood or anxiety is persistent, a doctor or therapist is the right next step. See manifestation not working for what else to check.

Abraham Hicks vs Neville Goddard vs The Secret

These three overlap and are often quoted together. The practical differences are worth knowing before you pick one.

Esther Hicks appeared in the original 2006 version of The Secret, but her footage was cut from the extended edition after a falling-out with the producer, Rhonda Byrne. Accounts of why differ. The official Abraham Hicks site still describes its material as the basis of the film.