We've all heard about it but I decided to keep an open mind and check out The Secret.
I was pleasantly surprised The Secret wasn't that secret after all, despite the conspiracy of the "leaders in the past who had the secret wanted to keep the power and not share the power. So they kept people ignorant of the secret. People went to work, did their job and came home. They were on a treadmill with no power because the secret was kept with the few." (Denis Waitley Psychologist, The Secret).
Great to know that while overweight men smoking cigars in back-rooms are holding the masses down there are few good philosophers, visionaries, feng shui experts, metaphysians, entrepreneurs, authors, therapists, quantum physicists, doctors and investment trainers, left to fight the good fight.
The Secret as described on it's official site :-
The Secret is released to the world! This ground-breaking feature length movie presentation reveals The Great Secret of the universe. It has been passed throughout the ages, traveling through centuries... to reach you and humankind.
This is The Secret to everything - the secret to unlimited joy, health, money, relationships, love, youth: everything you have ever wanted.
I could stop this post right here.
The right to a belief should be universal. If I want to believe in the Christian god, Zeus or atheism, that's my right. It is and it is your right too.
You can believe The Secret and here's the shock, there is one section in the program (small section) that I believe. I'll defend your right to believe whatever as I expect the same from you.
But belief is not fact and believing is not proof that something is true.
I guess I'm a nominal Catholic. I believe in many wacky ideas (and I have big problems with the bible too) but I'll never state that my beliefs are fact, only that I believe.
If you can't understand this difference, then stop now and go read something else.The Gofugyourself girls are always fun!
So why bother reviewing The Secret?
The simple answer is that it positions itself as fact and a mighty big fact it claims to be.
This IS The Secret to EVERYTHING - the secret to UNLIMITED joy, health, money, relationships, love, youth: everything you have ever WANTED. (my emphasis added)
or straight from the program...
"You know this secret gives you everything you want, happiness, health and wealth." (Bob Proctor, Philosopher, The Secret)
So what's The Secret?
Basically a theory called Law of Attraction which holds that thinking negative thoughts sends out negative energy that attracts negative outcomes. Positive thoughts send out positive energy that attracts positive outcomes.
"The simplest way for me to look at the Law of Attraction is if I think of myself as a magnet and I know that a magnet will attract to it. Our jobs as humans is to hold onto the thoughts of what we want. Make it absolutely clear in our minds what we want from that we start to invoke one of the greatest laws in the universe, that is the law of attraction. You become what you think about most but you also attract what you think about most." (John Assaraf,, The Secret)
"Three simple words...thoughts become things." (Mike Dooley, Author, The Secret)
"Thoughts are sending out that magnetic signal that is drawing the parallel back to you. See your self living in abundance and you will attract it. It always works, it works every time and with every person." (Dr Joe Vitale, Metaphysist, The Secret)
It would be persnickety of me to point out that magnets do not work in the method they describe but frack it, I remember learning about magnets in Grade Four. Try holding the positive end of magnet against the positive end of another magnet. They repel each other - postive attracts negative. Not the best analogy but I understand what they are trying to say.
OK, so The Secret is like positive thinking and the effects of attitude.
On this part I actually agree with the program.
Attitude can have an influence on your life. It's effects have been widely analysed, tested and subjected to peer review and double blind studies. The results however are widely varied due to circumstances and other factors outside of your control.
Jack Canfield, Author of Chicken Soup for the Soul gives a nice story about his own life in the program but veers off the standard talking points of the other teachers.
He talks about ideas, actions and results.
When you have an inspired thought, you have to trust it and you have to act on it. (Jack Canfield, Author, The Secret)
Stay with me people. What is the main verb in his quote?
ACT
Do something.
Sending out positive vibrations to the universes catalog of cool stuff does not count as action. All the other Teachers of The Secret stop at "have a nice thought.
That's it.
The universe will do the rest.
I'm more than willing to state clearly that I hardly know anything. There is so much knowledge that we simply do not know.
We can all think of cases of miracles. An outcome that has no rational explanation. A cancer that is not treated but goes away or unexpected windfalls but exceptions do not prove scientific laws and that is what The Secret is stating it is.
An infallible universal scientific law.
"What you think and what you feel and what manifests is always a match. Every single time with no exception." (Esther Hick - The Teachings of Abraham, The Secret)
Unfortunately Jack is only one voice amongst the others who step into dangerous territory. I note that he did not appear in the interview section on health during The Secret.
"We have a thousand different diagnoses and diseases out there and they are just the weak link. They are all the result of one thing, stress. If you put enough strain on the system, if you put enough stress, then one of the links break." ( Dr Ben Johnson, Doctor, The Secret)
"Our physiology creates disease to give us feedback, to let us know we have an unbalanced perspective and we are not loving and we are not grateful. So the body's signs and symptoms are not something terrible." (Dr John F. Demartini Philosopher, The Secret)
"The question is frequently asked is when a person has manifested a disease in the body temple or some kind of discomfort in their life, can the power of right thinking, can it be turned around? The answer is absolutely yes." (Rev Dr Michael Beckwith, Visionary, The Secret)
"We come with a basic program it's called self healing. You get a wound and it grows back together. You get a bacterial infection and the immune system comes and takes care of those bacteria and heals it up. The immune system is made to heal itself." (Ben Jonson, The Secret)
"Disease can not live in a body that is in a healthy emotional state. Your body is casting off millions of cells every second and every second it is creating millions of new cells." (Bob Proctor, The Secret)
"Literally parts of our body are replaced every day. Other parts take a few months and other parts take a few years but within a few years we have a brand new physical body." (Dr John Haglin, Quantum Physicist, The Secret)
I'll forgo asking Ben Jonson to explain how the immune system heals itself from the HIV/AIDS virus and instead ask Dr John Haglin why his hair hasn't regenerated.
Suffering from male pattern baldness myself, I really, really want to know. Damn you bad thoughts!
If you want to look further into The Secret, here are some pro and con websites that I found.
Pro Websites
Dr Joe Vitalie's blog
Marie Diamond's website
Dr John Haglin's website
Both Sides of the Argument Site
Newsweek website
Con Websites
Salon website (Oprah's Ugly Secret)
ESkeptic website
But I don't.
