LOA Book Review -- E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality

I don't remember how I first heard about Pam Grout, but once I discovered her site and got acquainted with her friendly, down to earth written voice, I knew I would have to get her book. E-Squared has a mouthful of a sub-title for a book that's a fairly quick read, but it pretty much sums up the subject matter. If you're new to the law of attraction and want to see for yourself how it can begin working immediately or you have lost your faith in it, then this is the book for you. In fact it makes a good companion read to The Secret since it fills in one area that book was lacking in, namely step-by-step techniques on how to actually attract something into your life. 

This is a really fun book, and you don't have to perform all of the experiments, or in the order Grout lists them. You can pick and choose as you please, although I do recommend reading the whole book from start to finish to absorb all of the teachings. 

I didn't perform all nine experiments in the book, but I can tell you that I tried most of them, and there was only one that didn't work for me -- although I'm willing to try it again for a longer period of time to see if it delivers results. 

Like most LOA authors, Pam Grout talks a bit about her life, how she discovered the law of attraction, and how her life was affected by it. She gives examples about how it worked for her, and other people, and the techniques that they used. 

Probably the best part of E-Squared is The Dude Abides chapter/experiment #1. She discusses the ways in which most people grow up thinking about God, or a higher power, and the myths that they've been led to believe, usually as children. Namely, that God is out to punish people and is like a scary parent that keeps you on the straight and narrow if you don't attend church and pray. Grout explains a bit about why we need to toss these outdated beliefs out the window, and what she thinks God's role in our society is instead (and thankfully, it's not to make people's lives miserable.)

I'll run through a few of the experiments that I tried and the results that I got:

Experiment #1 - The Dude Abides
Grout instructs you to ask the Universe...aka God...for a gift with the intention that it will show up within 48 hours. Both my mother and I tried this experiment. She came home from the supermarket with two cuts of meat (one of them filet mignon) that she did not pick or end up paying for...she believes it was left over from the previous shopper and got tossed into her groceries by the bagger. 

I got a gift in the mail from the company I do freelance marketing for; one of the flasks that they make. (I'll never use it...but nonetheless it was an unexpected gift.)

Experiment #2 - The Volkswagen Jetta
In this experiment you are to think of a car color or model that you wish to see when driving. This one freaked me out a little -- I was leaving work that day when I decided I wanted to see orange vehicles, because it is a rather uncommon color. I saw the first one less than five minutes later -- a male coworker's brand new Dodge Challenger in a screaming orange color sitting there in the parking lot, not far from my car. He had picked it up a day or two earlier but this was the first time I saw it. 

And on the way home, I saw about 3-4 other orange vehicles, all when I was least expecting them. 

Experiment #3 - The Alby Einstein
For this one, you unravel two wire hangers, shape them into Ls, and loosely hold them like guiding rods so that they can swing back and forth in your hand. Whatever you focus on in the room you're standing in is where they'll point to -- proof that our bodies are full of energy.

This one freaked me out, too. I honestly did not expect it to work -- but amazingly, whatever I focused my gaze on in my bedroom is where the "rods" swung to and stayed on. Kind of creepy, but cool, too. 

Experiment #7 - The Jenny Craig
This was how I first found out that water is affected by the energy we give out. Jumping off of that principle, Grout instructs you to give thanks for the food and water that you drink, affirm that the water has cleansing properties, and in a couple of days (without exercising or changing your diet) you're supposed to experience a weight loss by a pound or two. 

This was the one that didn't work for me (I stayed at the same weight) -- but on the other hand, I'm already at a healthy weight so it wasn't that much of a letdown. I will, however, give it a try again at some point. 

The only caveat to this book is that the experiments are used to attract "small" things, not necessarily "big", life changing goodies like a new job or romantic partner. However, Grout stresses that the principles to attracting the "bigger" things are the same -- it's just that we tend to make up excuses or our lifelong beliefs ("the economy is in the crapper; there's no good jobs out there" or "all of the good ones are taken") start kicking in and sabotage us. 

The one thing about Grout's teachings that I didn't like was the idea of attaching deadlines to so many of her experiments. I have found that there is such a thing as divine timing, and that all of the commanding in the world to make something show up won't work if you don't truly believe that it can happen for you. 

But the downsides of this read are minor. Last year Grout published a sequel to this book, called E-Cubed. It contains nine more experiments that prove the law of attraction. I haven't read it yet, but based on what I enjoyed about E-Squared I definitely plan on reading it soon. When I do, I'll report back here on what I manifested!