I only purchased “The Secret” out of curiosity. No wonder I had such a difficult time swallowing what I was reading in this book!
With every page I turned I felt as if I was being brainwashed. I do believe in the concept of positive thinking. It is, after all, much better than negative thinking. However, I do not buy that you can have anything your little heart desires simply by wishing for it, or by writing down on a piece of paper what you want.
They give an example in this article of a woman waiting to hear about her $50,000 loan and how allegedly she wrote down on a piece of paper that she wanted it by the next day, etc. And presto! She had it the next day. Yeah, but she had already APPLIED for the loan (uh-duh!) and was waiting to hear about it (hm…think it’s just a coincidence that the money you were expecting anyway just happened to arrive after you were thinking of it? I do!). Actually, a similar thing happens to me sometimes with a friend I have. I will think of her and say “gee, it’s been a while since I’ve heard from her” and then she’ll call me or I’ll get a letter from her. I believe in “divine intervention”–whether you believe it’s from God, Buddha, a guardian angel, etc. I don’t believe you can get what you want from reading a book.
Anyone or any book that tries to tell you that you are in the situation you are in because you “made it happen” to yourself is full of shit. The same thing goes for anyone or any book that tries to make you believe that if you wish for something badly enough you can have it. Not without working for it, you can’t. Things aren’t just HANDED to you; not things worth your while, anyway. Do you think Bill Gates was handed his fortune? Of course not. He worked for it. He didn’t read some so-called “motivational law of attraction” book, close his eyes and wish for a software dynasty and a gazillion dollars.
The author of “The Secret” hints at her success and how she was down and out, etc., etc., and found herself in this age old philosophical book which inspired her to create “The Secret” DVD and then the book. Well, it doesn’t take brains to figure out that the only success this woman has achieved is solely by creating a DVD and a book that a lot of people who are searching for answers in their lives are going to purchase. Shit, if Oprah hadn’t promoted it nobody would even know it exists!
We should take all the motivational talking heads out there, the Wayne Dyers, the Chopras, the Robbins and anyone else who decides to jump on the motivational bandwagon and lock them in a room and let them battle it out with their “secrets” and “laws of attraction” and “powerful brigades”, etc., etc. to see which “motivational” speaker wins.
The biggest blow to any of these people would be if people stopped listening to them and stopped buying their books. After a while you realize they’re all the same anyway…just a bunch of motivational words typed on a page. Shit, I could do that…hm…maybe I will…:)
bunchesofos