TruthBook Religious News Blog

Are we finally discovering the truth that's been hidden from us for centuries, or is this new phenomenon just taking advantage of us?

February 23, 2007

BY MAUREEN JENKINS Staff Reporter

Imagine this scenario: Your bills are all paid, with unexpected dollars showing up everywhere you turn. Your career is flying high, with accolades and promotions coming fast and furious. You're madly in love; your kids are wonderfully behaved and earning top grades. Your body's in great shape and now that you think of it, you've never felt better.

If only life were that easy.

But it should be, insists Rhonda Byrne, creator of the controversial yet top-selling The Secret.
She says it's all about harnessing the "laws of attraction," which through the power of positive thinking woo health, wealth, great relationships and other earthly joys into your life. She believes it's this law that governs the universe and everything in it -- and that you've got the innate power to imagine, and then create, the fabulous life you want. And the Universe longs to give it to you.

This 91-minute DVD (which came out last March) and the companion book (released in November) have grown into pop-culture phenomenons, spreading first through word-of-mouth and gathering steam thanks to appearances on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "Larry King Live" last fall and blowing up big time after being featured on "Oprah."

But just what nerve is The Secret touching in American culture right now? Why are folks hosting The Secret parties and passing the books and DVDs from friend to friend, encouraging each other to check out the wisdom spouted by Byrne and two dozen "Teachers"? And is this "law of attraction" talk really new, or a slick, mystically repackaged form of self-help?

New wisdom or smart marketing?

"This book and DVD is a little capsule of hope and enthusiasm," says Dr. Joe Siegler, a life and executive coach and president and founder of Chicago-based Full Life Centers. "This is another example of a cathartic weekend or a Sunday sermon. Even if you know 90 percent of it, it's good to hear it again."

While Siegler loves "The Secret's" emphasis on positive thinking's effect on feelings, he says the tenets of the book and DVD are nothing new. Religious books such as Rick Warren's best-selling The Purpose-Driven Life and fellow megachurch pastor Joel Osteen's Your Best Life Now -- as well as secular tomes such as Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People -- trade in everything from abundant life to reaching one's potential.

Still, people "need to be reprimed, like an espresso maker. If it's not fresh in your mind, you need a priming. We use television, we use books, we use Oprah, we use friends to inspire ourselves."

And besides, says Indiana State's Johnson, we're buying into the mystery behind this so-called hidden wisdom. In fact, he calls The Secret "sort of like The DaVinci Code meets The Power of Positive Thinking."

Byrne says she conceived the idea after being given and reading 1910's The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles. She felt she'd discovered wisdom that had been long-hidden from ordinary Joes and Janes, and translated that into the video "The Secret."

'Simple' philosophy too basic?

Most of the "secrets" in this book and DVD are common sense. You don't have to be a scientist to prove that if you're sick and focus solely on how badly you feel, you're likely to feel worse. If you're in debt and constantly obsess about it, you're likely to stay broke. In fact, "The Secret" includes a quantum physicist and doctor who share how thoughts affect our bodies' chemistry.
"It's a very simple philosophy, and for some people too simple, so they don't believe it," says Black. "It's basically a shift in perception, and it's not hard."

But sometimes it is hard, says Johnson. He fears that folks practicing "The Secret" may rely "too much on the law of attraction or giving off positive thoughts. If you're focusing all your attention on thinking about something, you may not get around to doing it."

He wishes the concept offered more concrete steps and strategies on changing one's life. "They tell you to act, but don't tell you how," he says. "What's being left out is the incremental work done over time and measuring outcomes."

'Universal values' without invoking religion

But what "The Secret" does well, says Siegler, is expressing the ubiquitous nature of humanity's hopes and dreams.

"My clients are longing for universal values. People see themselves as less different than others," he says.

Although Borders shelves "The Secret" DVD under "religious video," publisher Cynthia Black insists it takes a "nondenominational approach to spirituality." But some critics charge that "The Secret's" vagueness and constant references to "the Universe" goes against traditional beliefs held by Christians and some others.

The religious language "is enough that it could sort of remind you of your own faith traditions," says Johnson, "but not enough that it's going to pull you away from it. It also makes it hard to pin down."

But Lisa Nichols, a Redondo Beach, Calif.-based life coach who's a Teacher in "The Secret," disagrees.

Telling people they can create their own reality does not exclude God, says Nichols, a Chicken Soup for the African American Soul co-author whose teachings come out of a Christian context. Someteachers on the DVD practice New Thought-Ancient Wisdom; others embrace metaphysics.

Nichols says the Teachers didn't even discuss their various spiritual backgrounds with each other. "What I found in that project is no matter what language was used, God's agenda was on the forefront. We all were paying homage to a higher power," says Nichols, who has received 6,500 e-mails since appearing on "Oprah."

"We have been so programmed [to think] the solution is outside of us -- get a doctor, get a pill -- and when people go out to all those false solutions, they become hopeless," says Nichols. "The Secret" "gave people the knowledge that you are in the driver's seat."

It's all about positive focus

Just what is The Secret, anyway?

It's a book atop the major best-seller lists, and a DVD that got its initial fame from word-of-mouth marketing. Both contain tenets designed to "bring joy to every aspect of your life." It's all based on the "law of attraction," the notion that you bring into your life what you think about most, whether positive or negative.

Among some other main principles:

• Your current life is a reflection of your past thoughts. Thoughts become things.

• People don't possess what they want in life because they focus more on what they don't want rather than what they want to attract.

• Shift your own reality by mastering your mind and summoning what you want through persistent thoughts.

• Whatever your circumstances right now, that is only your current reality.

• Shift your attitude to one of gratitude, which then will attract more positive things to be grateful for.

• Create "pictures in your mind of yourself enjoying what you want. The law of attraction then returns that reality to you" as you imagined it.

• The "Creative Process," which Byrne says is drawn from the Bible's New Testament, requires three steps for fulfillment: Ask, Believe, Receive. Ask the Universe for what you want. Believe that you'll get it. Receive this positive thing through "inspired action," which is effortless because you are "acting to receive."