Remember the fad book "The Secret"? - How's that working out for people?

[El Pinko]

You know, "The Law of Attraction"?

Seems like about a million people attracted themselves a foreclosure, more and more people are not attracting jobs or decent pay...

I thought that if you visualized yourself having all this great stuff that it would magically gravitate to you...




Is it only a coincidence that America's economy went in the shitter so soon after this magical-thinking bullshit book hit the bestseller list?

[Angela Shelley]

1. The economic problems in the US are nothing new.

[havocmom]

2. Prolly worked out OK for the hucksters selling that drivel

My daughter's boss gave her a copy of the DVD, gushing about how wonderful it was. Daughter watched a few minutes and IMMEDIATELY understood why the company was crashing & burning.

[suziedemocrat]

36. The Chaser's War on Everything - The Secret

Too Funny!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usbNJMUZSwo&NR=1

[Caretha]

65. I couldn't stop laughing!

Thanks for the link.

[Zorra]

90. The promise of riches is the best bait to use to catch suckers.

[Vickers]

97. "YOU WERE NOT VISUALIZING A CAR SPACE!!!"

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[terrya]

3. I read it. Gave up on it.

There is no "Genie of the Universe" that will grant you everything you desire. Plus, I had a difficult time wrapping my thoughts around that "you bring all of the bad stuff in your life on yourselves" mentality you have to accept before you start. As a blanket concept, it sucks, quite frankly.

Sorry, but "The Secret" is a lot of hooey. And just because billionaire Oprah Winfrey embraces it, doesn't mean it actually works.

[raccoon]

85. Sounds like "A Course in Miracles."

And I have the same problem with that, that you mentioned with "The Secret."

[lildreamer316]

4. Actually, it helped me a lot, and is still helping me.

I am not trying to attract a lot of material things,but it has certainly helped my life flow a lot better. I *did* get a 'new' (used) car, and got a great financing deal on it, with gap insurance included. We were suprised to get financed at all considering our credit history. Yes, I had been putting that request out to the universe a la the methods in The Secret.
It is but one step on my path, and has been a helpful one.
Just my experience.

Some of those people attracted what was best for them..NOT having payments they could not afford.
I don't wish homlessness on anyone. I hope the situation will serve as a learning experience for the banks and unscrupulous lenders. We'll see if they choose to take the lesson for what it is.

[emilyg]

23. Helpful to me, too

in everyday licing. Listen to the tape quite often in the car. If nothing else, has a very calming effect on me.

[trotsky]

5. The "secret" is actually finding a whole bunch of people to buy your worthless book.

Do that, and you'll make plenty of money off the dupes.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. Someone gave me the DVD.

Told me it was the greatest thing since sliced yogurt. Of course, this is a person who literally isolates over and loses sleep over "Planet X". Really.

I could not watch the whole thing. It was a slickly-produced cookie jerk, except everyone gets to eat the cookie. I was measurably dumber for the experience.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Everyone is a billionaire now.

Thanks for asking.

[bbgrunt]

8. you might say that the whole religious revival is

a reaction to increasing pressures that are out of individual control. Increased stress and uncertainty breed radicalism. The secret is just one form of this trend that blames the victim for their plight.

Ultimately, however, what matters is not victimization, but how one responds to the situation. I would rather see people trying to plumb the depths of their own consciousness than taking up arms and randomly shooting people in malls.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. "The gods laugh at those who pray for money."

-- Buddhist aphorism.

[mondo joe]

10. Alas, there will always be a market for trash like tat. Barnum was right, and it never

seems to change.

[Warpy]

11. These stupid books appear about once a decade

Remember "The Power of Positive Thinking?" Remember Dale Carnegie? They're all working the same scam as the preachers talking about how prayer will move mountains.

I've never seen a mountain budge unless an earthquake was happening, and even then it didn't really go anyplace new.

Face it, people are doing the best they can with the limited amount of choices they've been presented with combined with their own limitations. Telling them they're not successful because they don't believe something enough is cruel.

Magical thinking just doesn't work on any level.

[annabanana]

12. "Telling them they're not successful because they don't believe something enough is cruel."

PLUS.. It has the added benefit of keeping people from looking for the real reasons they can't seem to get traction!

[DBoon]

17. And

it disguises the truth behind those who really do have wealth and power - that the source of these is often injustice and oppression.

Making all of life's outcomes a consequence of one's beliefs is a way to magically make class distinctions and raw political power magically vanish.

[Mr Rabble]

64. You are absolutely correct. And I believe that is the point.

My guess is that these sort of books are in fact designed to do exactly that. It will not surprise me in the least when we get to see the documents 30 years from now which describe CIANSADIA involvement in these books as a psyop used against the US population.

[raccoon]

86. How's that again-- CIANSADIA? nt

[havocmom]

84. BINGO! annabanana shoots and scores! The crowd goes wild!

:applause:

Crap like this book is just like televangelists telling people they didn't get their prayers answered because they didn't pray hard enough... and need to send more money in.

Blame the victims of social/economic injustice for their predicaments and avoid having them closely examine how the game is rigged.

[Beregond2]

13. Secret

The book was just a rehash of the New Age garbage that was going around in the eighties. "Visualization" and all that crap. I couldn't believe anyone thought it was something new.

[Patchuli]

41. While I agree with some of your points,

I must disagree with your statement regarding prayer. Prayer is neither a "scam" or "magical." It is real to me. That is strictly spoken from experience as a person of faith who prays and has received solutions and resolutions. Sometimes I just pray for personal peace and I get that as well. It's all in what your personal belief system is. As far as positive thought goes, that is always the wisest way to live.

[Mythsaje]

51. Have you READ Dale Carnegie?

I have to ask this because I have. And it's not bullshit. It's a pretty simple premise. If you treat people like they matter, like they're worthy of basic respect, the vast majority return the favor. It's been a bible for sales people for years and years because it works. Of course, there are those who bleed insincerity who can't swing it, but if you're sincere, and deal with people fairly and with basic human decency, you usually gain from the exchange.

Lumping THIS in with this whole New Age "ask the universe for shit" stuff doesn't fly. It's not anywhere near the same thing.

[Frank Cannon]

61. I agree. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Dale Carnegie.

Or Norman Vincent Peale, for that matter.

I, for one, don't have a problem with the "positive thinking" thing. It has been my experience that thinking positively and treating people like I would like to be treated (which is what Carnegie's stuff boils down to) DOES net me a lot more in the long run than being a miserable dick, for many reasons. So as hard as it is sometimes to keep a positive attitude and be nice to be people, I always try.

On the other hand, I do have a problem with the "you attract your own fortune/misfortune" thing, for all the reasons cited in this thread. But I don't think that people like Carnegie or Peale should be lumped in with "The Secret".

[Warpy]

77. Old Dale missed one salient point

and that is that there are people out there who, no matter how nicely you treat them, will insist on being assholes.

Had he come up with strategies to deal with them, he might have a little more of my respect for taking a couple of hundred pages to say what you summed up in one sentence.

[Mythsaje]

92. Well, there is that side of it.

The best way to deal with people like that is simply to avoid them whenever possible. So far it's the only strategy that seems to work.

And, yes, I can sum it all up in a sentence or two, just as I can sum up most religious sentiments in a couple sentences as well. Or, better yet, in just four words. "Don't be an asshole." I could write such a book and I've actually considered it. People will almost always buy these "self-help" titles, and people have gotten insanely wealthy by stating the obvious.

This is MY version of stating the obvious. "A person's quality of life depends far more on the relationships he or she cultivates with the people around him or her than it does on the approval or disapproval of some allegedly transcendent deity."

Or, more to the point, "God doesn't matter. People do."

Or "Take care of your fellow humans and let God take care of himself."

The fact is that choices do matter. And so many of us sleepwalk through existence, not examining possible outcomes of our various decisions before we make them. There's a benefit to living willfully, trying to grasp the elements of cause and effect that spread from each and every one of our actions. By being a dick, a person can cultivate a veritable army of folks who would screw him or her over at the first opportunity. By being the opposite, by considering the effects one's decisions might have not only on one's on life, but on the lives of others, and acting accordingly, one can cultivate a veritable army of people all too happy to assist one when one needs it the most.

"Thinking positive," by itself, is pretty much worthless. Thinking and ACTING positively, not only for one's own benefit, but for the benefit of others, can lead to some remarkable opportunities. And, in some ways, it can be its own reward.

In the end, it's about people. Turning it into some metaphysical mumbo-jumbo may earn a fortune, but the fact is that it's basic psychology. People are better disposed towards people who treat them like they matter, and make decisions that benefit them as well as themselves. And this can create a chain reaction that "lifts all boats," so to speak. "Paying it forward" is, in the end, paying oneself ahead of time.

"What comes around goes around."

I like to believe that's really what being a liberal is about, and strongly recommend "living willfully" in order to help oneself make the choices that will, in the end, improve things for everyone, to grasp at least a portion of the matrix of causality that surrounds our every decision. "What might happen if I do this?" One choice opens the door to other choices, which do the same, and so on.

My wife and I occasionally debate the existence of karma. The more I see, the less I buy into it. I've seen truly horrible people succeed beyond their wildest dreams, and truly decent people get hit with tragedy after tragedy.

I think the key to success and happiness lies in one's own perception of things. If one goes through life always expecting more than one seems to be getting, happiness will remain forever out of reach. If one truly learns to appreciate the "little things" happiness isn't all that hard to attain.

But now I'm starting to ramble. The last percocet I took is starting to kick in.

I think you get my point here, though.

[Hestia]

94. Excellent analysis Mythsaje and I'd like to add a word or two

As to the hokum regarding the message, it's actually quite ancient "The Hermeticum" states the same message as The Secret does - that you really do create your own reality. "Milk for children, Meat for Adults." It's in how you apply the teachings.

I'd like to give my DH & mine example. We had to move out of state at the exact moment this whole housing debacle (which has been manufactured by TPTB) and boy did we have a lot of bills there for awhile - $1600 that had to be paid by Nov or the interest would kick in (I'm a deadbeat - hardly ever pay interest), plus $1400 mortgage, $710 rent, plus two sets of utilities, plus a new car because the engine in the 87k miles Peace Pony (Mustang) decided to crap out (after servicing the car every 3k miles like a religious experience, so much for that, eh?).

Sheesh - so, we came up with a game plan (because the Universe will NOT take you seriously if you are not putting any effort in whatsoever, you just can't sit back and receive, you have to put your individual attention to what is at hand). It is YOUR life, you have to take care of it, plus you really need to know what it is that you want - short term & long term.

Well, in a couple of months we rented the house, paid the bills, had a semi-Christmas, plus have saved over $2k, all since Dec 12th. We've had a couple of rewards, like overpaying some earlier bills and we were reimbursed, which we then put into savings or paid on the current bills. I don't make that much since I do not have a degree, so it is not like we are super rich or anything. We make alot together here in our rural demographic, but in the larger scheme of things, not so much.

We could have bitched and moaned like whiny titty babies, or we sat down and really came up with a game plan (not that we ever really over spend or anything - it's all this at once that really blew us away), set up some online accounts and they are paid first each pay period, then rent, then utilities, then the bills. It is because we decided not to let this overwhelm us and looked at it calmly (this too shall pass), that we climbed out of in just a few months. The Universe takes you as seriously as you take yourself.

It's using the tools to change your life to the better, but you cannot sit around and wait for it to happen. You really do have to be proactive.

The authors of The Secret are coming out with a new DVD that addresses this. Some of the commentators have been really pissed that Rhonda...(forgot her last name) left out the crucial steps that actually show people how to change their lives for the better. Or find a Hermetic teacher or join a Lodge (not necessarily Masonic) that teaches this ancient messages. Either way, you'll eventually come to the same point - purposefully change your life to how you'd like your story to go.

[Chovexani]

101. Thank you for bringing up Hermeticism

One of my biggest problems with "The Secret" is that it's once again fluffy bunny New Agers attempting to water down an ancient and valid metaphysical concept to the point where it's meaningless, in order to cash in on gullible folks who wouldn't be caught dead casting spells because that's "evil".

"The Secret" is not a secret at all, the basic idea has been floating around this planet for approximately several thousand years, now. If people are getting stuff out of it, that's awesome and good for them, but any results from it are in spite of the way it's presented and packaged.

[Hestia]

102. Excellent post Chovexani - watering down is exactly what it is

but I must the admit when members of the Lodge that I way outside student of, even they like the movie, but we were looking at through different eyes than most people. We discussed the Laws that were covered in the moving (especially the symbology) all the major 7 are there. I too personally think that this is an abundant Universe and there really is enough for everyone, but then you have the other sides screaming Socialism at the top of their lungs, quelling any discussion of fairness. If any of you are even remotely curious, read the Kybalion. You can get if free online. It was written sometime in the 1920s during the New Thought era and it written in that style. Also, it tells you on the first page of Chapter 1 that most people simply will not get it. Personally, I was likely finally, getting to the good stuff ;)

[Chovexani]

103. I've got a copy of the Kybalion kicking around somewhere

Fascinating stuff. I'm not a hardcore ceremonialist by any stretch, but the underlying theories are interesting to me, and I'm of a mind that whether ceremonial magick is your bag or not, being familiar with it can only help your practice.

The thing that was funny to me about the movie (I Netflixed it a while back just to see what the fuss was about) is the way people went ape over it like it was something new. Aside from the, uh, interesting history lesson, I kinda sat there thinking, "hey, I learned this in my Wicca 101 class like 10 years ago. And it was free." I couldn't actually get through the whole thing, I confess.

I'm not trying to knock it, because it's clearly helped a lot of people, but one of my huge peeves in life is how New Agers latch on to an ancient and venerable idea, re-package it so it's palatable to the masses, and then act like they were the first ones to discover it. It's second only to the cultural imperialism that goes on in terms of Things That Bug Chovexani (but that's a whole other post :)).

[Warpy]

100. Well, not only that, but there is another reward for altruism

If we are disposed to it, non psychopaths, our brains will give us a little squirt of endorphins to the pleasure centers. Not only do we manage to give somebody else a lift, we get one ourselves.

The farther we get into the study of brain chemistry, the more it seems a lot of things are hard wired, like the predisposition toward altruism as a survival mechanism.

It's not percocet, but it'll do.

[treestar]

71. "Think and Grow Rich"

We're not rich because we haven't thought it through. :sarcasm:

[Warpy]

78. I thought it was because we were too lazy

to get up and go pick it off the tree in the back yard.

[WinkyDink]

14. Oprah recommended it, among other recommendations. Heh.

http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200702/tows_past_20070208.jhtml

[chimpymustgo]

24. Oprah's got a new Secret for us. A real Savior. Heh.

[Hannah Bell]

29. lol. n/t

[unc70]

27. Oprah already had a lot to answer for. Dr Phil!!!!!!!!!!

It's your own fault for letting him bully, browbeat, and abuse you.

Some days I start comparing Oprah to the Clearwater Clams.


For extra credit, compare and contrast Mt. Xenu and Mt. Xinu.

[lumberjack_jeff]

70. She brought us Dr Phil too. n/t

[Canuckistanian]

15. It's a modern Cargo Cult

Wiki says it best:

From time to time, the term "cargo cult" is invoked as an English language idiom, to mean any group of people who imitate the superficial exterior of a process or system without having any understanding of the underlying substance. The error of logic made by the islanders consisted of mistaking a necessary condition (i.e. building airstrips, control towers etc.) for cargo to come flying in, for a sufficient condition for cargo to come flying in, thereby reversing the causation. On a lower level, they repeated the same error by e.g. mistaking the necessary condition (i.e. build something that looks like a control tower) for building a control tower, for a sufficient condition for building a control tower.

[lildreamer316]

20. But what if you DO have an understanding of the underlying substance?

That's why it was valuable to me....I saw a deeper message.
What I focus on, expands...and I try to make good choices about what to focus on. Mostly positive stuff. I don't really see why that's such a problem for other people? It's just my life.:shrug:
I'm certainly happier, and calmer, and I feel 'in the flow'.
Seems some people on this thread could use a bit of that.

[Angela Shelley]

21. Hi lildreamer316,

I´m happy for you that you have found "a deeper message" in the book, and I´m glad that you have explained the benefits in your personal life.

It´s always refreshing to read a message from someone who has realized that he/she is responsible for his/her choices.

More power to you! :-)

[lildreamer316]

22. ....

..thanks.
:hi:

[latebloomer]

25. Agreed!

I have used visualization for many years to attract positive events and people into my life, especially in the areas of love and career. It has worked for me. Perhaps you could just say I was open to such things and put effort into them. But I do believe that our thoughts carry great power.

Having said that, I do admit that something in the tone of "The Secret" seems huckster-ish and kinda turns me off.

[PetraPooh]

33. But you did MORE than what the book says to do...

The book/DVD or whatever format, suggest that JUST by thinking and visualizing you can get what you want like it makes a magnet out of you. You have realized that by focusing on what you want, you are more likely to exercise your time and energy to finding the solutions that will get you what you want. You could've come to that decision/recognition reading any number of self-help books. It is YOU that made more of the book than it truly offers. You should be giving yourself 100% of the credit for your success, not a sham book.

[blondie58]

43. yeah, that is so true

how you choose to look at what life presents you has a lot to do with your inner peace. I for one, am a big believer in the power of positive thinking. I enjoyed the movie after seeing it with some girlfriends and we were all touched by it- in our own ways.

[Zhade]

56. There's no underlying substance about which you can have an understanding.

There is no evidence for it. It's all in your mind.

[Forrest Greene]

59. Then You Found Something

...that worked for you.

Maybe you could even accept that you found a trigger that would allow you access to what you -- like everyone else -- already had?

Maybe what worked for you might not work for someone else. Maybe they'd need Buddhism, Catholicism, the Elks Club, climbing Mt Everest, playing the piccolo.

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle," says Philo of Alexandria.

[BadgerLaw2010]

75. What underlying substance? Realty warping via placebo?

[Hannah Bell]

28. That's an interesting comparison.

Cargo cult, ghost dance, & similar phenomena appear when one group is invaded/defeated by another by overwhelming power/technological difference.

Interesting comparison for our times.

[hyphenate]

16. A MUCH better book to read in terms of turmoil

is Who Moved My Cheese? It was a litte mindnumbing at times, but if you can get the right message, it helps you stay a little more focused. No magical thinking, but behavior modification.

[DBoon]

18. I prefer this book for insights into social turmoil

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/419PRQMV8JL._AA242_PIkin-dp-500,BottomRight,-28,38_AA280_SH20_OU01_.jpg

By someone who understood the sources of turmoil in indutrialized societies

BTW, I'm not endorsing the nostrums peddled by Marxist parties over the last 150 years - I'm pointing out that Marx had some excellent insights into how industrial capitalism works.

[diddlysquat]

32. Who moved my cheese????

I was forced to read this book when my school district forced it down everyone's throat. I thought it was ridiculous. The real message from the district was "we/re about to screw you over again, now get used to it."

[eridani]

60. My alternative ending--

--So all the people got together in an intensive hunt for the haves and have mores who used to think they had the divine right to control everybody's cheese. Then we put them up against the wall and shot them.

[Blue_Tires]

88. creeped the hell out of me

i was in a big auditorium when it was read aloud...and since i was up all night the previous night, i was dancing the line between asleep and awake....all i know is i had these horrible horrible visions of being stuck in a maze, and i remember a profound, tear-wrenching sadness in hoping the mice would get OUT of the maze...

yeah, i know...i was far from being in my right mind on that morning...:crazy: :scared: :puke:

[jlake]

19. Yeah - another "Gem" brought to us by Oprah that turned out to be less than promised.

[JackRiddler]

26. It's not a coincidence, but you may be confusing cause and effect...

much like the believers in the book. A society already in delusion creates these kinds of fads, not the other way around.

By the way, where would "The Secret" be without Oprah? Is belief in Obama's rhetoric an extension of the same practice of self-delusion?

[Lilith Velkor]

99. I think so

That would account for the insane vitriol aimed at unbelievers.

[Generic Brad]

30. I can't tell you how it is working out for me...

...because it's a secret.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

31. LOL, a tenuous link but really funny nonetheless.

I haven't read it, but it's not for lack of friends and coworkers singing the book's praises, at least a while back. I'm not hearing that as much now.

I like the way your mind works, El Pinko...:rofl: :rofl:

[OnionPatch]

34. There is some truth behind the concept

that your thoughts help form your reality. In fact this concept can be found in many, if not all of the major ancient belief systems in some form or other so in this way, it is not really a fad.

And what does that have to do with anything, anyway? Does this mean everything that people get excited and inspired about is a fad? What a depressing and boring world view. Glad I don't have it.

[Quantess]

37. You're absolutely right, however, I'm gleefully enjoying the cynicism of this thread.

I confess I'm the one who gave it rec #5 :evilgrin:

But you are right, and it's not even a "secret" that focusing your thoughts a certain direction will impact your life.

I think the problem is when people dream of the money and forget to think about how they're going to get it. That's the foolish part. You have to think about the first steps before you can expect the dream to come true.

[Mythsaje]

52. Right...all the goal setting and visualizing in the world

isn't going to get you anywhere if you spend all day sitting in your underwear and not making the choices that will lead you where you want to go.

[mondo joe]

39. If you mean being focused modifies your behavior which has outcomes, yeah.

I don't think there's any arguing that.

But otherwise, the magic thinking is far from shown to be true.

[Mythsaje]

53. Well, the opposite is certainly obvious...

If you don't expect to accomplish anything, and imagine your life's a toilet, and don't do anything to change it...it will become your reality. Nothing magical about it.

[Quantess]

57. Hi Mythsaje. I have an issue about this too, in my personal life.

I personally believe that your reality begins in your own surroundings. Brighten your own corners, if you will.

Edit: for wording

[Mythsaje]

95. I think the real key to success and happiness

is trying to understand what I call the "causality matrix." Each choice with which we're faced leads to more choices, different choices, and by mentally exploring them in turn before making any decision, we can affect our lives and the lives of those around us by knowing what we're choosing before we do it.

People get stuck reacting rather than acting, choosing particular directions because they're forced into them rather than because they are seeking certain outcomes which can only be gained by making specific choices.

That's one of the reasons I fight for more people to have more choices in life. Because CHOICE is the thing that opens up opportunity for change in a person's life. The more choices he or she has, the better the chance of happiness and/or success.

[mwb970]

66. This is the most sensible comment in this thread so far.

I too find it sad that when something comes along that excites and inspires people, wet-blanket types always emerge to call it a "fad" and a "cult." (Obama, anyone?)

One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons shows a packed theater, seen from near the back row. The entire audience is laughing hysterically at the onstage action, holding their sides, throwing hats in the air, etc., except for one sour, frowning, elderly couple seen in the foreground, glowering at the stage. The man says to the woman, "Some sort of 'in' joke, I assume."

Or maybe it's a "fad."

[treestar]

72. No, but that's just a black and white view

This kind of thing has its limits.

Bush is a shining example. It depends on what the person's dream is. And not all dreams come true just because we want them to. Then some people, like Bush, have dreams we don't want.

You still have a reality base to impose it on, or it's not going to work. And during the Depression, for example, it would hardly work. Certain underlying conditions have to be there first.

There was so much of it going around in the 80s, all baby boomers would be rich if it really worked. There's a lot of luck involved, too. The spectacularly successful have also been lucky. They choose to believe their personal virtues were the only thing at work, but it's just not so.

[Delphinus]

81. Actually,

even scientists are finding that what they expect when doing their research impacts what they find. If I can find the story from a few days ago, I'll come back and link it.

[originalpckelly]

35. The secret is attracting people's money into your hands by telling them bullshit.

It almost always works, because there are a ton of suckers in this world.

[Ravy]

38. Since reading the Secret, I have amassed a small fortune in the stock market.

Unfortunately, I started with a large fortune.

:-(

[Speck Tater]

42. Drove to Las Vegas in a $10,000 car, came back in a $250,000.00

Greyhound Bus.

[graywarrior]

40. Amazing that someone can take info that everyone already knows and make a killing

telling us it's NEW. Course in Miracles is the same bullshit. I guess some people just need structure and a cult to follow.

[Lorien]

45. It's really nothing more than clever marketing of common sense

The fine print in "the secret" states that merely expecting good things to happen is not enough; one must take advantage of every opportunity given them and WORK towards achieving their goals in order to attain them. Most of us would see that as just plain ol' common sense, but I think that a lot of people don't catch that part of the message and therefore they put a lot of stock in "magical thinking", which alone doesn't produce jack shit.

I've known a few people who were truly caught up in "the cult" and missed the fine print completely. I guess that it's comforting for them to believe that every negative event in each and every person's life was something that they actually wished for :eyes:. They can't accept the fact that sometimes shit just happens. It would make the world too uncertain for them, just as many world religions believe that God wills every event to happen for a reason. I won't discount the fact that our beliefs profoundly effect our lives. My mother told me that I was a mistake from a young age on, and that because I "wasn't part of God's plan" I would never find love or even have any true friends. Those ideas were certainly hammered into me from the beginning; the former is true, but the latter is not. Even though I grew up believing with complete certainty that I would never have love or friendship, I still found a few friends anyway. Proof that our realities don't always conform to our beliefs.

[earth mom]

44. I have a huge problem with that book because there are too many that are suffering

through no choice of their own. People who've lost everything even though they have health care, people who are homeless, people who are being killed in Iraq for a lie!

To me it's just another feel good book that has nothing to do with reality. I think that book started my increasing disgust with Oprah. Her support of Obama sealed it.

[Riley133]

46. My coworker lives by that book - lost her raise this year due to performance issues. As for me,

I'm still waiting for the magical mystery tour to come and take me away. :)

[Dudley_DUright]

47. As it happens, I just got back from a Society of Physics Students conference

where the keynote speaker used this book (and the even more ridiculous DVD) as a perfect example of pseudoscience. It was hilarious and had undergrad students and us physics faculty alike rolling in the aisles. :rofl:

[cali]

98. My brother lives by that book. Drives me nuts

you can't have a conversation without his bringing it up. On the other hand this is a guy who made his first million before he was 35. And in the decade and a half since then, he's only multiplied his $$$. He's a strangely American sort, brim full of optimism and can do attitude. On the other hand he's a die hard liberal always charging off to support Heifer International or some other worthy organization.

[Helga Scow Stern]

48. Oprah brought us The Secret...

and the Obama.

[Quantess]

49. It's like--you won't get a good vocabulary by sleeping on a dictionary.

And you won't get a new BMW just by imagining your hands around the leather steering wheel.

Yes, it's good to be open to success, and it's good to believe that success is possible. But it's not that simple. You start by visualizing working hard, and then actually doing the work!

The dream of riches is just an incentive to keep you motivated.

[Akoto]

50. I don't believe in the Secret, but I do believe positive thinking matters.

It has certainly helped me to deal with the chronic pain I've had for years! :)

[Th1onein]

54. I never read the book, but I understand the principle

and I practice it in my business every day. Which, by the way, continues to grow and grow and grow.

[question everything]

55. But... but... didn't Oprah recommend it?

and whatever Oprah says is the absolute truth, of course.

[gulliver]

58. You're in the universe with the people who don't believe.

The people who are doing it right are all happy and have everything they ever wanted. They are just in diffent universes than you. Since you don't believe, you are in the bad universe. I just dropped in to torment you non-Secret losers. Now its back to Coronas with lime on the beach with a Sports Illustrated model.

Bye, skeptics! Enjoy the bad universe! No Bush in the one I'm in. Gore won. Bin Laden's terrorists were caught before 9/11. It was in the newspaper for about a day. Economy is doing just fine. America still leads the world. Saddam Hussein just died of prostate cancer and the Shiites took over Iraq after a week of civil war. You missed it!

[Perry Logan]

62. We all remember how well "Visualize world peace" did.

[KG]

63. my drunken, lying, cheating psycho ex-gf tried to lay this shit on me

said all i needed to know about it.

[workinclasszero]

67. The person who wrote the book visualized many gullible

people giving her money.

Seems to have worked out well for her, lol.

[Jack 4 Ohio]

73. I think so too nt

[reprehensor]

68. Dude.

A co-worker lent me the audio book, I listened to it during a road trip from Texas to Wisconsin.

I thought, what the hell! Let's try this positive thinking thang!

A couple days later I came down with a physical illness that I had never experienced before, and had me rushing to an emergency ward in a strange town. Plus, I must have brushed some Poison Oak in our backyard in Texas, because I broke out in a rash that seemed to migrate all over my damned body. (The Dr. assured me that there was no connection between the two illnesses.)

The job that my wife moved up here for turned out to be a bust, and we nearly lost our healthcare coverage.

I blame the damned evil "Secret".

[TalkingDog]

69. I was wondering a similar thing yesterday when I saw a rear window sticker that said:

"Forgiven"

I thought: How do they know?

I mean, when you pray you don't get the things you ask for like money, food, health, jobs, safety. So how do they imagine that they are given forgiveness?

I could imagine asking to be granted some measure of grace. Not give me grace, put me in a state of grace, but allow me to recognise the emotional space to feel grace and peace.

There is no guarantee clause in the bible that forgiveness is a forgone conclusion. It says a lot of things about prayer and forgiveness, but nothing about absolute guarantees.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9).

Here it says God is faithful and just to forgive confessed sins, not that he guarantees it.

Anyway not intending to threadjack, but wanting to draw parallels with all kinds of wishful "unthinkingness"

[Chemical Bill]

74. Living within your means is not new age bullshit.

"The Secret" is working fine for me, thank you for asking. Have you read it, or watched the video?

Part of the message I saw in "The Secret" is that we have choices in any situation. We can sit and complain about our situation, or we can do everything in our power to improve it. "The Secret" doesn't say stay home and wish for wealth, it says grab at whatever opportunity you can, and believe in yourself. It also says to be happy with what you have, but don't limit yourself by thinking that is all you can get or do.

I don't blame people when they get laid off, just like I didn't blame myself those (several) times when I lost my job. I just lived as cheaply as I could, hustled to find whatever work I could, and resolved to look on the bright side. Do the people who signed up for the mortgages they couldn't afford have any responsibility for doing so in your eyes? Sure the mortgage companies have been predators, but they have used no guns to force people to sign. Do you think that people wouldn't have signed up for those mortgages if they hadn't had watched "The Secret"?

I, at least, place blame where it belongs. I don't think that "The Secret" caused the economy to tank, I think corporate America did, and the repukes in DC. Of course, the Democrats could have done more to help us working stiffs, like not pushing NAFTA. What's up with you that you think a DVD caused the economy to tank?

Bill

[peace_on_earth]

76. Does the Law of Attraction work? ABSOLUTELY.

I'm sorry to see so many misconceptions here in this thread about the Law of Attraction (LOA). But I would put most - if not all - of the blame for that onto The Secret itself, as well as the way some of the "Secret teachers" have composed themselves since the film came out.

The movie did a good job of introducing the basic concepts to the mainstream. But not enough emphasis was put on the fact that you have to take action to get what you want, not just sit on the couch eating bon-bons and have your brand new Porsche plop down in front of you. (Action was briefly mentioned...but many people simply missed it.)

Having used the LOA, and taught it to thousands of others for nearly three years now (before The Secret even came out), I can assure you that there is so much more to it than the movie and book described. For me, it's a lot more about inner peace and happiness (as one poster has said) than about amassing wealth, fancy cars, and mansions. I personally don't care about that stuff, and I have plenty to lead the life I desire. There's nothing wrong with wanting material things, it's just not for me. Unfortunately, The Secret emphasized the wealth aspect, and insinuates that the wealth will bring you happiness.

In truth, it's the other way around.

Does it work? I would suggest that more than 160 manifesting success stories posted in our discussion forum to date (as well as hundreds of testimonials we've received) should give doubters pause for thought. (Some are tiny weird successes, others are in the major manifestation category - like the woman who manifested a multimillionaire husband in less than six months - but each are important. And the weirder they are, the more people know that THEY played a part in attracting them, which helps build their trust in the process.)

http://www.universeofpower.com/Forum/viewforum.php?f=37

What is the underlying basis for this?

-- World religions have been teaching this for millenia, although churches have done their best to misinterpret the original teachings. Remember "Ask and it is given"? It is now known that even Jesus learned about these principles from the Essenes. (Gary B., feel free to pipe in here if you want.)

-- Science now proves that we are all just energy, as is everything in the universe. Like attracts like, and like energy attracts like energy. So that which you focus on, you will attract, as you become energetically aligned with what you think about most.

-- Science has proven that the observer of an experiment can affect its outcome. That "observer" is you, so this means that you can affect your own "outcome."

These are overly simplistic, of course. But we could discuss this for days, because there is so much more to this than just what you saw in The Secret.

For those of you who are debunking it, may I ask, have you even tried it? Or perhaps you tried it based solely on what you learned in The Secret, then discovered "it didn't work for you," so you gave up? That right there is the tragedy, if I may say so. So many people tossed the whole concept out simply because they thought The Secret was the whole story, then labelled it as "fad," "scam," "snake oil," or whatever.

For those of us who are using it, it's definitely working. And it doesn't matter WHY it works, really. Most of us don't know how electricity works either...yet we use it to our benefit every day. Same with gravity or TV. And it works in everyone's life, whether they like it or not.

Do you believe in intuition? If so, the "magic" of the Law of Attraction is that your intuition guides you to what is the right action to take next, that will help you more easily achieve your goal. (We call this "inspired action.") You start noticing and fostering more of the synchronicities (what you may call "coincidence") that surround you, and all of us, all the time. You see opportunities that perhaps you didn't notice before, just like you notice yellow VW bugs everywhere, once you've bought one yourself. They become an almost daily event, and lots of fun to notice!

Then everything lines up for your benefit. The right people come to you with just the right information or help. Events occur at precisely the time you need them, and there is mutual benefit for all parties involved. Phone calls and emails come out of nowhere to help you. And so on. That is the "magic" people talk about. And it makes life flow much easier, makes work feel like play, and makes your "actions" far more effective than the typical way of working like a rat on a treadmill and often getting nowhere. Usually unhappily, I might add.

This all being said, I'm not trying to convert anyone here. Each of us has our own preferences, beliefs, and paths. I'm only trying to clear up some misconceptions, and share a little about my own experience and what I know, since the OP asked the question. It works for me, and it works for every single person I know of who has tried it.

So I for one will continue consciously using it in my life. After all, why on earth would I ever choose to go back to my old way of being, when nothing worked and I was miserable? :D

Peace, all.

[readmoreoften]

79. Wow, you should go to the Third World, then. I mean, if that's all that's holding people back.

I think Darfur definitely needs that book. Also, the women in Indonesian factories who make our clothes and computers. Hmmm. The folks in Jakarta who live on the railroad tracks. I mean--literally--on the tracks--sometimes less than two feet from oncoming trains. Someone should pass that book on to them. They couldn't buy it because, well, the paperback edition would be about three months' salary, but maybe we could pass it along.

Here I thought it was pernicious global capitalism, but in reality, they just didn't know The Secret.

[peace_on_earth]

80. You're right. As a matter of fact...

This is one of my long term goals, to share this information with people around the world (yes, for free).

[lupinella]

83. Thank you!

What I loathe about 'The Secret' is not the pap message it delivers, how it is similar to many other derivative philosophies or that people fall for it as a quick fix solution. I am offended by the dark underlying message that someone who suffers because of something beyond their control are to some degree responsible because they are not putting their energy in a positive place. Some religions use this as a way to blame illnesses on the sin of the victim. Even though this is not stated as the message of the book, it is an easy inference.

[peace_on_earth]

82. Actually, since you mentioned "coincidence" when you said

"Is it only a coincidence that America's economy went in the shitter so soon after this magical-thinking bullshit book hit the bestseller list?"

I would say not. I may get flamed for this, but as I see it the entire planet is undergoing a huge change. The Secret played a part by waking up millions of people to their true potential.

The GOOD news for DU'ers is that this means all the old power structures are falling apart. Think about it...over the last 50 years or so, we've seen the crumbling of all the institutions that had power over the last thousand or more years: the church, royalty, military, corporations, and even government. (Yes, I'm including corporations in here because I believe their time has come.)

What's emerging is a new heart-based way of being, where we start caring about each other and not just me, me, me. The environmental crisis is also contributing, forcing us to take a fresh look at how we are all connected, both to each other and to everything else on the planet. We're all in it together, so we may as well play nice and help each other out. By helping each other, we help ourselves.

If you look at it this way, during the last millenium the question was, "Who has the power?" In each of these organizations, the ones with the "power" played a role (perceived or otherwise) in protecting the average citizen. Now, you can't rely on ANY of these institutions to protect you.

So now, I think we're realizing (and being forced to realize, in many cases) that WE are the ones who have the power.

Perhaps this is being played out in the Obamamania phenomenon.

These are just my thoughts and observations. But to me it's good news, and gives reason for lots of hope, even if things get a little rough for a while in the meantime.

[GoneOffShore]

104. Can I have the name of your dealer, please?

Gotta get some of that whacky weed you're smoking!

Because you're really peddling some shit there.

I guess having found out "The Secret" you're living on a completely different astral plane than the rest of us poor schlubs.

[stanwyck]

87. Probably about as well as "The Rules"

relationships are working out for people. Don't be honest with the opposite sex. Play games. Act like it's the 1950's and you're a man-hungry female from a Doris Day movie. Be deceptive, coy, and kittenish and maybe you'll attract a man. Probably a real catch, too.
So. How's that working out, "Rules Girls"? (not so great for one of the authors. She got divorced. Maybe she's now being direct and open in her relationships. Let's hope.)

[Dukkha]

89. The secret is the author got rich off people's desperation

I believe the 9th circle of Hell is reserved for people like her.

[Beaverhausen]

91. Working out for me just fine, thank you very much

:hi:

[varkam]

93. It Works Great!!!!*

*So long as you're neither brown nor black and you live in a first world country

[Karenina]

96. . .

:rofl: