The law of attraction is the New Thought spiritual belief that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person's life. The belief is based on the idea that people and their thoughts are made from "pure energy" and that like energy can attract like energy, thereby allowing people to improve their health, wealth, or personal relationships. There is no empirical scientific evidence supporting the law of attraction, and it is widely considered to be pseudoscience. Advocates generally combine cognitive reframing techniques with affirmations and creative visualization to replace limiting or self-destructive ("negative") thoughts with more empowered, adaptive ("positive") thoughts. A key component of the philosophy is the idea that in order to effectively change one's negative thinking patterns, one must also "feel" (through creative visualization) that the desired changes have already occurred. This combination of positive thought and positive emotion is believed to allow one to attract positive experiences and opportunities by achieving resonance with the proposed energetic law. Supporters of the law of attraction refer to scientific theories and use them as arguments in favor of it. However, it has no demonstrable scientific basis. A number of researchers have criticized the misuse of scientific concepts by its proponents. History The New Thought movement grew out of the teachings of Phineas Quimby in the early 19th century. Early in his life, Quimby was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Early 19th century medicine had no reliable cure for tuberculosis. Quimby took to horse riding and noted that intense excitement temporarily relieved him from his affliction. This method for relieving his pain and seemingly subsequent recovery prompted Phineas to pursue a study of "Mind over Body". Although he never used the words "Law of Attraction", he explained this in a statement that captured the concept in the field of health: In 1855, the term "Law of Attraction" appeared in The Great Harmonia, written by the American spiritualist Andrew Jackson Davis, in a context alluding to the human soul and spheres of the afterlife. The first articulator of the law of attraction as general principle was Prentice Mulford. Mulford, a pivotal figure in the development of New Thought thinking, discusses the law at length in his essay "The Law of Success", published 1886–1887. In this, Mulford was followed by other New Thought authors, such as Henry Wood (starting with his God's Image in Man, 1892), and Ralph Waldo Trine (starting with