Many if not most people operate under the assumption that human beings generally have a limited amount of control over the universe. In other words, there's only so much a person can do before certain laws kick in and erect limitations through which no one can pass. Most of us in fact accept without question that humans are limited, and that humans are essentially at the mercy of the larger world. This isn't to say that a person can't change the course of their life at all, because they certainly can; but it's essentially accepted that there's really only so much that one can do.

Ways of thinking that contradict the belief that humans are limited are often viewed with a skeptical eye. The Law Of Attraction, for instance, advocates that people can and do make their worlds what they are simply through thoughts. So then people are where they are and are what they are because they've thought a certain way. And this approach isn't figurative: Law Of Attraction states that people attract material things simply by thinking of them. It's probably no surprise that Law Of Attraction and its belief system of thoughts creating one's world has many critics among the general public.

A belief system that also advocates humans as active creators of their own reality is ho'oponopono. Ho'oponopono, unlike Law Of Attraction, does not advocate the idea of people being able to attract whatever they choose by thought alone; ho'oponopono instead states that people can change their lives for the better through submitting a proposal of sorts to a higher power and asking for positive change. This may give the impression that ho'oponopono is a religious form, but this isn't so, not in the way religion is generally considered at least. Ho'oponopono does believe in a higher form of existence, sometimes referred to as God and sometimes referred to as something else; but there isn't any belief system within ho'oponopono that embraces an idea of sinful behavior and resulting punitive consequences.

The most vital question for most people would be whether ho'oponopono as a form actually results in a better existence. Evidence is certainly available that ho'oponopono gives one an improved outlook and a greater sense of optimism, so in that sense it could be said that ho'oponopono does indeed work. This evidence likely wouldn't be absolutely enough for some of the people who question the claims ho'oponopono makes, but ho'oponopono does have its ardent supporters and their numbers grow as more people learn about the ho'oponopono process.