The Secret

At the prompting of both my brothers and father, I ordered The Secret. It’s available in both book and DVD form. Since my time is short these days, I chose the DVD version.

What is it? Well, essentially, it’s a self-help approach not dissimilar to that which a lot of self-help/inspirational/ success gurus preach. It is presented as a message discovered thousands of years ago, buried, re-discovered, used by many of the great achievers of history from Albert Einstein, to Winston Churchill, to Henry Ford, to many others. Then it's now here, being presented in this DVD in different ways by a number of experts. Some of the experts are people like Bob Proctor, who I have seen give motivational seminars for years. Other experts are nuclear particle physicists, physicians, philosophers, authors, etc. The author of Chicken Soup For the Soul is there. Wealthy people who have been successful.

“The Secret” is something they call “the power of attraction”. The fundamental concept is that when you want something and think about it and visualize it, you attract it to you. In fact, whether it’s good or bad for you – whatever you think about, you attract to you. So you must be careful how you focus your thoughts. Be sure to focus on GOOD things. Things you want. Then ignore and surrender your fears to the darkness. It is very similar to “The Power of Positive Thinking”, and “The Power of Intention”, and it is exactly the same thing as the “10th insight into life” in the Celestine Prophesies. Has this ground been covered before? Yes. Does that make this worthless? No.

This is a good refresher on the concept, and I found that when I started the DVD I was tired and already in bed ready to go to sleep. But after I’d watched it, I felt energized and could stay up several more hours and do more things. It’s exciting to think this may be true on the level that they say it is.

They say that when you deliberately say you want something specific, and you visualize clearly yourself getting that thing, your brain sends out an “order” into the universe, and the universe will fill the order. If you are always thinking bad, negative things, then those bad negative things will happen to you. If you think good, positive things, then that is what will happen to you. What you think, you become. Your thoughts manifest themselves into reality. That is exactly the same as the 10th insight.

I interpret this on two levels. The Twilight Zone level, and the pragmatic level. On the pragmatic level, I can certainly see how this works, simply because when you envision a particular goal long enough and hard enough, it shapes your thinking, and that directs your actions to happen in the exact right steps to achieve that goal. In other words, we end up where we steer ourselves. And if we are keeping our eye on a specific target, then we are likely to make all the little decisions to get us there. If the goal is to lose 50 lbs of body weight, for instance, then by living that vision every day, you might subconsciously start to act in a way that is consistent with being 50 lbs lighter, such as exercising more and eating less, and eating less fattening foods. When you think of yourself as thin, you might carry subliminal messages in your brain that tell you, “A thin person like me doesn’t like to eat hamburgers and french fries. We like to eat salads and vegetables. And we are not hungry all the time, like fat people. We are satisfied with smaller portions” This enhanced mental self-image would eventually manifest itself in reality.

But The Secret takes it a step further. They actually propose and present the “Twilight Zone” level explanation. And that is that it is our brainwaves themselves that actually alter the reality around us to make it what we ask for. This theory is based upon the premise that the whole universe is made of patterns of energy. This is, in fact, true. We are a pool of energy literally swimming in a sea of energy around us. And when we think, we actually produce energy, and that thought energy goes out into the universe of energy around us and effectively changes the environment.

At first thought, this seems very unlikely, because we don’t understand the mechanism. It doesn’t seem logical according to the cause and effect relationships we are familiar with. But I think we have to allow and examine the empirical evidence that supports the theory. It does seem to work. People have claimed this for centuries. I have known people for whom this has worked. So, somehow, we are left with a predictable result but an unknown mechanism. As Bob Proctor says, most of us don’t really understand how electricity works – but that doesn’t stop us from using it every day.

I am excited at the prospect of it working, but I'm also skeptical. There are logical non-sequiturs here. What if two men want the same woman? What if two women want the same man? Here's a bizarre notion - What if there is a woman reading this who suddenly decides that she wants me ? What happens? Do I suddenly wonder why I'm driving to the airport for no obvious reason and booking myself a flight to some city that I had no reason to be in? How does that work? What about when one person wants something from another person? Do they always get it regardless of what the other person wants?? Or even with things, inanimate objects - what if two people want the same house? What if EVERYBODY wants to be rich? Is there enough for EVERYBODY to get all they want? The authors say yes. The assure us that the universe is filled with effortless abundance.

In the end, I am left with the logical conclusion that it doesn’t hurt to try. The potential gains are so huge, and the downside is so small – why not? So I will do it. And I will not limit myself to only one single goal. I have several. They are all part of a vision for my life.

There are several techniques to allow you to fine tune your process and avoid some pitfalls, it would be worth it for you to go ahead and buy the DVD or the book. Use it. Learn it. I plan to go back and watch mine again once in a while when I need a booster shot.