I read ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne back in 2008 and, after reading a few pages, threw the book across the room. It’s what we in call Britain ‘absolute bollocks’.
The whole secret was branded around the idea that a so-called super law helps to attract anything we want solely from the power of positive thought. Like some magical magnetic force that manifests desire. Talk about the granddaddy of all placebo effects.
And if that’s not bad enough, the author attaches the law of attraction to some of the biggest movers and shakers in history, including Plato, Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, Hugo Boss, Beethoven, Lincoln, Emerson, Edison, and good old Albert Einstein.
The book is filled with a bunch of unknown self-help gurus pretending to be experts on the law of attraction. The reader is bombarded with the most ridiculous exercises like write out a cheque for millions, visualising empty car park spaces and not forgetting those goofy vision boards.
The book is based around several theorist and philosophers that have had their words twisted to bend the truth. Thinkers such as Charles Haanel, the Buddha, Wallace Wattles, Ralf Waldo Emerson, and William Clement Stone, to name a few.
Like attracts like seems to be the central message to show that positive people always attract other positive people and circumstances. It sort of makes the reader feel guilty to attempt a negative thought without feeling a sense of fear that something terrible will happen. In summary, the author goes on to say bad events happen because of your thinking. DANGEROUS advice.
The book influences the notion of desire and how to use that desire which is ultimately about being greedy. Especially when it comes to wanting power, money or feeling a sense of entitlement that everything should be given instead of earned. The book states that your life can be transformed by your thoughts alone. What a load of sh*t!
The book encourages shortcuts for faster results by implementing emotion into thought. 80% of the reader would remember the ‘ask, believe and receive’ principle and how we should take inspired action. I don’t really know what that means, maybe I should invent a time machine with my thoughts and wait until the inspiration hits.
Harsh truth, the inspiration never comes as you must take some form of action to get started towards your goals. Don’t wait for the magic of the universe.
Emphasis is placed on the reader that they can get anything they want from the combination of desire and expectation. That is the primary way for the law of attraction to work at it’s best. Desire and expectation are probably the main reasons why most people suffer from this cult because people will focus on unrealistic needs and wants beyond their reach. It gives the reader a false sense of hope outside their capability.
The Good turned Bad
After going through the entire book and making sure that no stone was left unturned. I had finally found one concept that I actually liked: gratitude, that we should appreciate what we have in life. Probably the only decent advice in the whole book. Unfortunately, the author manipulates the idea that we can get more if we are grateful, summarised by ‘what we are grateful for now only grows’. Gratitude isn’t about gaining. It’s more about being appreciative for what you have in a given circumstance. The book totally misinterprets the meaning to be thankful.
The most powerful practice known in the book is something called ‘visualisation’. Holding a desired picture in the mind until you become bad shit crazy and totally numb. The ancient stoics first introduced this idea as ‘negative visualisation’, designed as a problem-solving tool from great philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and Zeno. The stoics wanted people to anticipate challenges or hardships beforehand so that they were better equipped in life.
It seems the book has flipped the idea to focus on wishful thinking instead. It states that inventors like Thomas Edison (light bulb inventor) and Alexander Graham Bell (telephone inventor) used wishful thinking to achieve success. Now that really does seem too good to be true.
Money, Money, Money
There is a whole chapter dedicated to making lots of money and focuses on fancy words like ‘abundance’ and ‘prosperity’. Using buzz words to make you hear what you want with the use of positive affirmation, but in reality, there is no accurate financial advice that helps pay the bills.
In terms of relationships, the author states that your thoughts will change other people. Here’s a reality check,even if you are as bright as Einstein and can telepathically turn on a light bulb with your mind, you still will never be able to change a toxic person.
Conclusion
The Secret book can be read whilst sitting on the toilet whilst doing your business. It has become a global franchise expanding to documentary films and developed into a series of books. Unfortunately, many pyramid scammers, marketing networkers and fraudsters use these concepts to target the vulnerable. So that they can too pocket money and validate to themselves as being successful in the eyes of society. Yes, I know it sounds like some Wolf Of Wall Street rubbish. But it’s true, and many fall victim.
In a nutshell, the book is about living under a rock and surrounding yourself with positive thoughts. It’s about being self-centred and showing that desire will eventually lead to greed and all other vices. Its gift wrapped with a shiny ribbon and presented to you with a slogan such as ‘you can be, have or do whatever you want, but in small print, it is really saying, ‘expect greed, lust and desire’. It sounds like pandora’s box, so it’s best not to open it.
It doesn’t work like that in the real world as we are faced with everyday problems, challenges, adversity. However, it’s more about being responsible enough to be solution orientated than having some magic law to solve your problems. It appears this book is all airy-fairy, woo-hoo for people who love fantasy.
As I end this blog, I say in my Morpheus voice (The Matrix), ‘welcome reader to the real world’.
Peace out People.