Wildo1966

My wife is driving me nuts this week...She heard about this book that is out called The Secret...The Today show had a story about this book and every since then people are going nuts for this book....Does anyone know what The Secret is? All the bookstores in this area are completely sold out and even Borders told me this week they have a waiting list for the book and they don't know when they will get more in...What am I missing here?

djmont

It's a New Agey, self-help, feel good rehash of positivism with some Law of Attraction mysticism thrown in:

To succeed, you need to see yourself succeeding. If you want something bad enough, and really focus on it, it will want you in return, and the universe will deliver it.

Ask. Believe. Receive.

That'll be $24.95, please.

gfoots

Please don't spend any money supporting these charlatans. The movie is filled with a bunch of self help authors, life coaches, mediums, "visionaries," and other assholes trying to convince the world that there is a vast conspiracy to keep the world divided into the upper and lower classes. That secret is "The Law of Attraction," a pseudoscientific concept about how the world works. If every thing in the world is made of energy (not really totally true) and brainwaves are energy (also not really true) then a person can use his brain to alter reality (definitely not true.)

A lot of people come away from the video thinking it is about the power of positive thinking, a feel-good concept that isn't totally bullshit, even though it is certainly not a provable one. The presenters however are not content to suggest that having a good attitude will help you see the world as a better place and indirectly lead you to a happier life. They don't use "The Law of Attraction" as a metaphor. They claim the waves generated by the brain actually, not metaphorically, change the world to fit the thinker's expectations. If you want a new bike, you just think about it hard enough and you’ll get it. Don’t like getting bills in the mail? Stop expecting them, expect checks instead, you’ll soon be rich. Why spend money on expensive radiation and chemotherapy treatment? Just imagine yourself healthy and all traces of your cancer will disappear. These are all actual examples from the movie.

Like "What the Bleep Do We Know?" the Secret Crew back these claims up with a bastardization of Quantum Physics and a collection of bold scientific mistruths, such as, "It has been proven scientifically now that an affirmative thought is hundreds of times more powerful than a negative thought." Unlike "What the Bleep." these people don't seem to be deluded wackos, but shroud business people deliberately misrepresenting truth and science in order to make millions off the backs of the gullible and desperate.

http://top5daily.blogspot.com/2007/02/236-secret.html

Wildo1966

Ok, so I buy the book....Then I wish to rid myself of ALL my bills and wish for a million dollars and it will be mine? Damn, no wonder this book is sold out everywhere! People are becoming millionaires with this book! WOW

djmont

I think gfoots is exactly right. The group behind this nonsense is one of the savviest I've seen. They are ace marketers (and charlatans).

GatorDeb

Is it a movie or a book or both? The third post makes mention of a movie over and over again.

djmont

It was a DVD, then a book.

gfoots

It is a slickly designed and edited movie (downloadable for only $4.95!) made mostly as a way to advertise the many many books written by its participants. It also is a sort of unofficial MLM scheme in which the initiated are encouraged to sell copies of the DVD to their friends (quantity discounts when purchasing 50 or more!)

wergo

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/03/05/the_secret/

Brian Jones

I was getting ready to mention I first heard about this book on Oprah. I didn't quite get what their new take on achieving happiness was about. My first thought was that they seemed to be saying you can have anything you want if you want it hard enough. I had no idea (I wasn't watching it with a lot of interest) they actually took it as far as saying that was all you needed to do. I thought they would take it in the direction of using that strong desire for whatever and using it as motivation for setting the plans in motion to achieve your goal.

But willing away disease? Wishing for riches and expecting the skies to rain green? Holy zombie Jesus!

CinemaNut

Its the secularists/New Agers answer to the televangelists "prosperity Gospel" claptrap that is being shilled on tv.

GatorDeb

Actually, I believe in this stuff (I borrowed the book and movie from a friend... I've seen most of the DVD and plan to start on the book soon... I wouldn't buy this just because I don't buy books or movies, I rent them and check them out from the library).

Yes, you CAN will away disease. Happens all the time. Cancer goes into remission all of a sudden with no explanation. People who were told they would never walk away again, walk. Can EVERYbody do it? Who knows? Does EVERYone do it? No. Does it hurt to try? Of course not.

They don't say that money will magically fall from the sky. They say that if you expect positive all the time, you are more likely to get it than if you expect negative all the time. That you tend to attract what you put out. And you know what? This is absolutely true. If you set out vibes that you love yourself, you put out something that others imperceptibly catch and you tend to attract people who will be attracted (not necessarily romantically, could be for friendship) to you. You put out that you are a disgusting loser, others will probably treat you the same. So you DO attract what you put out. That's pretty much what the video says.

I love to watch the video because it's pretty much just a pep talk to love yourself and think positive

Rogue588

Yeah, but it's a lot easier to love yourself with the $29.95 in your pocket instead of theirs...

Fincher Fan

Groucho

I know somebody with cancer who tried this approach.

We buried her last Saturday.

CinemaNut

Sounds like something Tom Cruise can promote for Scientology..meds arent needed for mental imbalances, just vitamins.. LOL!

wergo

So, how is it that babies and animals (and even plants!) get diseases? Surely they're not thinking negative thoughts? Heck, people (and animals) were dying from cancer long before anyone even knew what it what it was.

It hurts because it feeds into the "blame the victim" mentality. If people are sick or poor or unhappy, it's their own fault for not thinking positively (or praying) hard enough. That those with good luck somehow deserve it and those with bad luck also deserve that. It hurts because, instead of dealing with the practical aspects of life, it offers the illusion of control. Effects need to be traced to causes; causes can't just be assumed: "his cancer went into remission; praying must have worked!"

AGuyNamedMike

A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything. Give you an example; show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness.

wergo

That 'What The [Bleep] Do We Know?' was a pretty fumny movie, wasn't it? I loved at the end when Marilee Matlin flew off into space in a rented Winnebago with Charlie Sheen. Intense!

Wildo1966

Well my wife got the book, I read it first and now I KNOW THE SECRET!! Watch what happens to me now! A millionaire? No....Not enough! I want to be a Billionaire!

IMRICKJAMES

This has got to be the biggest load ever

What a crock

Now Oprahs even sucked into it, which only intensifies the scam a hundred fold

Yeah right, like if you could really just wish for things and they would come true just because in your mind you believe they would come true wouldn't everyone have millions of dollars, be dating movie stars, and live in big mansions.

Michael T Hudson

Saw this on CNN today.

I had not heard about it before this.

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- The woman with long, dark hair looks yearningly at the gold necklace in the window of a jewelry store. She fixates on the bling. There's some kind of disruption in the atmosphere. And then, the necklace is draped around her neck.

The scenes unfold in "The Secret," a 90-minute-long DVD advocating the power of positive thinking that has sold 2 million copies. More than 5.2 million copies of the book of the same name are in print.

While "The Secret" has become a pop culture phenomenon, it also has drawn critics who are not quiet about labeling the movement a fad, embarrassingly materialistic or the latest example of an American propensity of wanting something for nothing.

Some medical professionals suggest it could even lead to a blame-the-victim mentality and actually be dangerous to those suffering from serious illness or mental disorders.

"It's a triumph of marketing and magic," said John Norcross, a psychologist and professor at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania who conducts research on self-help books. He believes some are very useful when backed by science and focused on specific problems, such as depression.

" 'The Secret' has earned my antipathy for its outrageous, unproven assertions that I believe go beyond the ordinary overpromises of most self-help books into a danger realm," he said.

The book's mantra of "ask, believe, receive," he said, easily transforms into a blame the victim mentality.

"Cancer victims. Sexual assault victims. Holocaust victims. They're responsible?" Norcross said. "The book is riddled with these destructive falsehoods."

"The Secret" is the work of Rhonda Byrne, an Australian television and film producer. Her central claim is that the "law of attraction" governs our universe.

"The law of attraction says that like attracts like, and when you think and feel what you want to attract on the inside, the law will use people, circumstances and events to magnetize what you want to you, and magnetize you to it," Byrne said in an e-mail in response to several questions posed by The Associated Press.

She said she was struggling personally and professionally several years ago when she was given a nearly 100-year-old book called "The Science of Getting Rich," by Wallace D. Wattles. In it, readers are guaranteed to become wealthy if they learn and follow "certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches."

Inspired to do further research, Byrne said, she resolved to create a film to spread the word about what she felt she had learned about the "law of attraction."

The DVD, also available as a Web-based, pay-per-view video, was released in March 2006. It resembles a videotaped seminar, featuring commentators with titles such as "quantum physicist," "philosopher" and "visionary" -- many of whom had already written their own books. Its trailer has cloak-and-dagger images, yellowed scrolls and mystical music evoking another massive publishing hit, "The Da Vinci Code."

The book, which followed last November, features images of wax seals and paper that mimics parchment. It's currently the No. 1 nonfiction book on lists of best sellers, including Publishers Weekly, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and is No. 1 on The New York Times' hardcover advice list.

As with many publishing hits, the "Oprah Effect" played a role. Winfrey devoted two shows in February to "The Secret," and Larry King and Ellen DeGeneres also featured it on their shows. It was spoofed on "Saturday Night Live" when a man portraying a refugee in the Darfur region of Sudan was blamed for having negative thoughts.

However, the fear that "The Secret" will lead to a blame-the-victim mentality is a serious claim of critics.

For example, the book dismisses conditions such as a genetic predisposition to being overweight or a slow thyroid as "disguises for thinking 'fat thoughts.' " And during times in which massive number of lives were lost, the book says, the "frequency of their thoughts matched the frequency of the event."

Psychotherapist and lifestyle coach Stacy Kaiser said that after reading "The Secret," several patients have worried that it was their fault they were abused, or laid off from their jobs. Others seem to expect everything in their lives to change overnight, she said.

The Los Angeles-based Kaiser joined several other therapists who praised the positive thinking espoused in "The Secret," but who question its failure to discuss action.

"People start to think that they don't have to use their free will, that they don't have to have power anymore, that they don't have to make choices," Kaiser said. "They don't realize they have to do the work. And that's the conversation I keep having to have with people."

Dr. Gail Saltz, an author and psychiatrist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, pointed out that cognitive behavioral therapy seeks to modify harmful thoughts as a way to improve patients' feelings.

She said that among people who are ill, those who remain hopeful and have a positive attitude tend to do better. But she was especially upset about a portion of Byrne's DVD in which a woman claims her breast cancer was cured without radiation or chemotherapy; the woman watched funny movies and had faith that she had already been healed.

Saltz received hundreds of angry e-mails after she talked about her concerns on the "Today" show. She thinks that some fans of "The Secret" take it figuratively -- they don't think they'll get a necklace just by thinking about it, but feel improving their thoughts improves their life. But from the e-mails she received, she said some people do believe it is based in scientific reality.

"Living is difficult. ... People want ... a solution and an answer. If it were an easy one, like 'think it' -- that would be even better, right?" she said. "I understand. It's a wish fulfillment. I really do understand that."

'The book is one of the tools'
Dr. Maria Padro, a psychiatrist at St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan in New York City, believes that Americans turn to self-help books because contemporary society is stressful and there is still sometimes a stigma connected to visiting a therapist.

She read "The Secret" to see what the "jibber jabber" was about. She jokes that she keeps the book in her bedroom, out of the view of visitors. Still, she sees value in its positive outlook.

"I think the secret is that everyone has their own secret, and everyone has their own dream," she said. "And the book is one of the tools we can use to get it, but I don't think that it's a little magic wand."

Even one of the participants in "The Secret" DVD and book laments the lack of action. James Arthur Ray is billed as "a philosopher," although he says in a telephone interview that he is five hours shy of a college degree in behavioral science.

He speaks to groups on his own philosophy of success, and he maintains that the "law of attraction" is just one of seven "laws" people must use to improve their lives. He felt "The Secret" was "a good way to introduce people to a new way of philosophical thinking and looking at their world." But Ray said during the creation of the DVD, much of his talk about taking action ended up on the cutting room floor.

"You can watch 'The Secret' and come away with the illusion that you can sit around in your living room and visualize your millions dumping into your lap, and that's just not going to happen," he said.

Byrne counters that the type of action her critics discuss isn't required by the "law of attraction."

"It is impersonal, exact and precise. Become that which you want on the inside, and you shall receive it in the outside world," she said in her e-mail. "The most important action to take is the work within you. When that is done, you will be moved in the outside world to receive what you asked for."

As for the woman with breast cancer, Byrne said "The Secret" fully supports all forms of healing, and feels "enormous gratitude" for what traditional medicine has accomplished.

"The Secret" owes its life as a book to an Oregon dinner party where the president and publisher of Portland-based Beyond Words Publishing met one of the DVD's commentators, who prompted them to watch "The Secret." Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, has a co-publishing agreement with Beyond Words. Judith Curr, Atria's executive vice president, said when she watched the movie, she immediately envisioned a book.

She was especially confident because of the success of the "teachers" featured on the DVD. The contributors, including Jack Canfield of the "Chicken Soup" series, had sold roughly 400 million copies of their own books, she estimated.

"I told everybody here when I still just had a DVD that we were going to sell a million copies," she said. "They all, of course, thought I was smoking something."

Now "The Secret" is being published in 35 foreign languages and is the fastest-selling self-help book in Simon & Schuster history.

"It's great to be involved in something that can help change people's lives in a positive way," Curr said.

Amanda Jacobellis, 25, believes her life has changed for the better since she watched "The Secret."

Earlier this year, she was trying to turn a building in West Hollywood, California, into a makeup salon specializing in eyelash extensions and evoking the glamour of Old Hollywood. Her renovation was only half done, her credit card bills were coming due and her banker couldn't explain why the money for a $50,000 approved loan hadn't arrived in her account.

Sensing her despair, a friend suggested she watch Winfrey's upcoming show on "The Secret." Jacobellis did, and bought the DVD as well.

She spent a night diagramming what she wanted in her life, using a piece of paper and a Sharpie pen: happiness, security, freedom; good relationships with her friends and family; fitness and health goals; less stress -- and in one corner, she wrote that she wanted her $50,000 loan by the next day at 3 p.m. She made a call to her banker the next morning: no news. But by 3 o'clock, the mail arrived, containing a letter saying she could call to get the funds transferred into her account.

Jacobellis now sells the DVD in her Makeup Mandy salon.

"I think where people are mistaken when they watch it is they think all they have to do is wish and it's going to happen," she said. "That wasn't exactly the case. This is something I had put a lot of energy and time into.

"What I take from it is not that you just have to wish or hope or think something's going to happen. ... There's a way it's going to happen. ... When you're more positive, I think new ideas come to you and you're able to kind of get through hurdles or over obstacles."

Dr. Mantle

I'm going to focus my thoughts REALLY hard and ask that everyone who believes this slop falls down a mine shaft.

Here I go. . .

Wildo1966

OMG, everyone now seems to know the Secret? What have I created here? Now everyone is going to be rich! My wife bought the book in March when I first started this threat. I am living breathing proof that it's all true! We are wealthy beyond belief, we have 100% complete happiness, perfect health and everything else! If you believe the Secret then I've got some news for you....

The Antipodean

I know the Secret, but first you need to send $30 to my paypal account. Trust me, it's worth it.