In general, their teachings are true and effective. Reality works exactly as the 'law of attraction' suggest it does. However, how do we account for most people NOT getting what they intend, want, or desire?

The answer is in what they do not mention or at least do not emphasize: karma, or unconscious conflicts.

Karma is a word with many possible meanings. I will use the word to refer to largely unresolved sub-conscious conflicts.

All people have unresolved conflicts. Some of these conflicts get in the way of getting what we want, others do not. Most of our conflicts are unconscious. We are unaware of them. The only way to resolve these unconscious conflicts that interfere with our desires is to become more self-aware and then to do some very difficult self-healing.

When we set our intentions and then get what we intended, we are elated and want the process to work on everything. Usually we find out it does not work on everything and so the question is, again, why?

Even if every human being was completely free of all unconscious conflicts, we would still not get all that we desired.

Why?

While it is true that reality is a response to our intentions (including unconscious intentions, the purpose of reality is not simply to manifest all that we desire. Reality will manifest our desires, but only secondary to a much larger and impersonal purpose: the continuation of life.

Our purpose in life is to serve life, to promote and enhance the well-being of life and all of creation by extension. Secondary to that is experiencing whatever we want to experience in life.

When our unconscious conflicts interfere with our intentions, what we tend to experience is not our intention but the conflicts we need to heal or resolve.

When our unconscious conflicts interfere with the well-being of life more generally, what we experience is, again, a conflict with life that needs to be healed. So, again, you do not experience what you intend.

Life is not about experiencing what you want. It is about experiencing what you are, even at levels of being about which you are unaware.

If you engage the healing work needed to resolve unconscious conflicts and are completely successful, you still may not experience what you want, but you will always experience what you are: the goodness and wholeness of life, the peace and wonder of life, the power and freedom of life, the ability to experience your desires when your desires are free of inner conflicts and do not conflict with the well-being of life as a whole."