No, there need not be a metaphysical explanation, because all that you wrote is true. The law of attraction works the same for me (who meditates and visualizes) as it does for my neighbor who pretty much believes in nothing other than himself and what he can see. He and I approach it differently; that is all.

Yes, it does require a metaphysical explanation. I realize this may go against the grain of people involved with inward quest subjects who want to appear level headed and realistic - but I think it is the truth.

While what you mention in the physical explanation are all certainly true and can contribute - and are typically involved, they do not tell the whole story.

Personally, where I can help it - I do not tell others about my plans or desires...or indeed problems in my life. I have always been rather private with those things (I would rather had gone to school feeling awfully sick than whinge to my parents or go to a doctors when I was younger!) If anything, I try and keep others from knowing. Yet, I have had many manifestations in my life so far.

As an example, that comes to mind simply because it is right beside my laptop. A few years ago, my then cell phone was playing up in numerous ways. I didn't tell anyone, and still managed to use it despite the annoyances. Within a week, I had a new blackberry pearl, that was given to me entirely out of the blue by someone close - who had been given it by someone else as a gift. At that time (and still now) it is a well known and good quality cell phone. I did not go out of my way to get this in anyway. There are numerous other examples in my life, both deliberate creations and 'coincidental' ones.

In addition, because I am interested in science - I will go further than these 'subjective fluffy experiences' as some might tote. There has been plenty of research done on phenomena that aren't explained through physical means. (going with the knowledge that physical forces weaken over both time and distance) A better source would be Dean Radin's The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena which is primarily a comprehensive meta-analysis of past research. He also has an interesting blog I just discovered that may be of interest here: http://deanradin.blogspot.com/

You may also find the lists of research (most from journals) that have been opened to the public here: http://anson.ucdavis.edu/~utts/psipapers.html and here: http://dbem.ws/online_pubs.html#psi of interest.

EDIT: I have in the past had some argue with me that if we do accept the above as true (and frankly, we have little reason to not) that it's still possible there is some unknown "physical force" people manifest that does not abide by all other known forces rules (i.e. the space and time differences) While I can admit science doesn't have all the answers - that explanation is simply someone trying to fit the facts into their reality - instead of matching their reality to the facts. It is not in alignment with Ocaam's Razor.

To sum it up in general for you all though, since I realize many may not have the time to read through all the information - or even find much meaning from it. The research tends to look at statistical evidence showing that when individuals for example, focused on a random number generator and focused on it creating "1's" they had a statistically significant (sometimes to an almost mind blowing extent) amount of 1's than when compared to another without the intent. Regardless of the distance between the machine and intendors. (think I just made up a word?)

This was also done with similar results on machines which ran in the past! Participants managed to create significant differences on machines that had already run...provided they, the researcher etc had no idea about the results beforehand. This suggests that time is also no issue - and we can influence the past from the present. My mind still boggles at this conclusion (thankfully or not, it apparently doesn't work when we already are aware of something, go figure). Keep in mind, these were typically from people with no practical experience in deliberate reality creation. I hypothesize results would be even more dramatic for those inclined to its study

I could say more, but this has gone on far too long. Another rambling post from me, I'm afraid! :)