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'The Secret' conspiracy
Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008 (CDT) by Isis
 Unless you know about The Secret, you are among the billions of people who have been kept in the dark by the greatest and most complete conspiracy since the beginning of time. "The leaders in the past who had The Secret wanted to keep the power and not share the power," writes Dr. Denis Waitley, a psychologist and "trainer in the field of mind potential," in the introduction to the bestselling book. "They kept people ignorant of The Secret. People went to work and did their job, they came home. They were on a treadmill with no power, because The Secret was kept to a few."
According to Waitley and the other peddlers of The Secret, great leaders throughout history have had knowledge of a certain mind-set that enabled them to achieve whatever they wanted. This secret was locked away for years -- but now it's out in the open again, available to anyone who buys the book or the DVD, or hey, why not both?
"People have used The Secret to manifest their perfect homes, life partners, cars, jobs, and promotions, with many accounts of businesses being transformed within days of applying The Secret," writes Rhonda Byrne in the book's foreword. "There have been heart-warming stories of stressed relationships involving children being restored to harmony. Some of the most magnificent stories we have received have come from children using The Secret to attract what they want, including high grades and friends."
Contributor
Bob Proctor elaborates on how deep the conspiracy runs: "Why do you
think that 1 percent of the population earns around 96 percent of all
the money that's being earned? Do you think that's an accident? It's
designed that way. They understand something. They understand The
Secret, and now you are being introduced to The Secret."
According to the teachings
of The Secret, great leaders, including Plato, Shakespeare, Newton,
Lincoln, Edison and Einstein, all knew of The Secret -- but it took
Rhonda Byrne, Bob Proctor, Denis Waitley, and a host of other life
coaches and motivational speakers and self-help authors to finally
unlock the keys to The Secret and share them with us, the unenlightened
masses. (I guess that means Byrne et al. are greater humanitarians than
those selfish historical icons who kept The Secret to themselves all
these years. I always knew Lincoln was overrated as a humanitarian.)
I read The Secret, and I
have to admit it was very effective on one level: It gave me a decent
workout because I had to keep getting up and retrieving the book after
hurtling it across the room in disgust.
Rhonda Byrne and her army
of associates and disciples would have you believe there's a conspiracy
of smart, enlightened people in the world who have long held access to
the great solution of success in life -- and you, too, can possess this
"inside knowledge" if you just buy the crap she's peddling.
What's amazing to me is
that Ellen DeGeneres, Larry King, Oprah, Montel Williams and other
opinion shapers have embraced this book when they should be denouncing
it as immoral, unethical, and spiritually bankrupt.
Byrne's entire philosophy
is based on "the law of attraction," which states that if you fully
dedicate your thoughts and dreams and wishes to achieving something,
the universe will act in accordance with your thoughts and make these
things happen.
Here's how Byrne described it in an e-mail to the Associated Press:
"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.
Hence the term chick magnet.
Like a lot of people who
have made it, Byrne falls into the trap of believing she made it
primarily because she had big dreams and more than anything she wanted
those dreams to come true. You get this every year at Oscar time, when
some genetically gifted, talented and extremely fortunate person says,
"This proves that if you want something bad enough and you never let
your dream die, you can make it all the way to the top! If you don't
stop dreaming, it will happen to you!"
Maybe. Probably not. There
are millions upon millions of people who work hard and wish hard and
dream hard -- just as hard as the superstars of the world -- and never
become rich or famous or even financially comfortable and respected by
their peers. Winners of the life lottery often make the mistake of
thinking they tapped into a special kind of belief system that made
their dreams come true, when in reality it was probably a mix of hard
work, God-given talent, and being in the right place at the right time.
• • • •
According to the author and
"personal empowerment advocate" Lisa Nichols, one of the inside secrets
of The Secret is understanding that "the law of attraction doesn't
compute 'don't' or 'not' or 'no,' or any other words of negation."
As you speak words of negation, this is what the law of attraction is receiving:
"I don't want to spill something on this outfit."
"I want to spill something on this outfit and I want to spill more things."
"I don't want a bad haircut."
"I want bad haircuts."
"I don't want to be delayed."
"I want delays."
"I don't want to catch the flu."
"I want to catch the flu and to catch more things."
So on one level the law of
attraction can grant you every wish -- but on another level, the law of
attraction is apparently dumber than a puppy. You have to spell things
in a specific, nonnegative way, or the universe won't respond.
Here's an idea. Most people
who say, "I don't want a bad haircut" actually don't want a bad
haircut, unless they were in certain 1980s power metal bands.
• • • •
Byrne's load of horses--- includes the claim that overweight people need only to think the right thoughts and they'll be thin.
"The first thing to know is
that if you focus on losing weight, you will attract back having to
lose more weight, so get 'having to lose weight' out of your mind,"
writes Byrne. If that makes sense to you, I'll bet you can also bend
spoons at will.
"The condition of being
overweight was created through your thought to it," she writes. "To put
it in the most basic terms, if someone is overweight, it came from
thinking 'fat thoughts,' whether that person was aware of it or not. A
person cannot think 'thin' thoughts and be fat. It completely defies
the law of attraction."
OK, let's put aside the
slippery notion that you might have been thinking "fat thoughts" even
though you didn't know you were thinking those thoughts, which is a
great way for Byrne to cover her ass. How about the loopy idea that
thinking "thin thoughts" makes it impossible for you to be overweight?
Really? Even if you're suffering from a medical condition that causes
you to be overweight, or your body type is predisposed to being a
little heavier? You can overcome that by thinking "thin thoughts"?
That's right, says Byrne.
"Whether people have been
told they have a slow thyroid, a slow metabolism or their body size is
hereditary, these are all disguises for thinking 'fat thoughts.' If you
accept any of these conditions as applicable to you . . . you will
continue to [be] overweight."
So tell the doctor to screw off, get your mind right, and feel free to hit the drive-through window at McDonald's!
• • • •
Byrne: "The most common
thought that people hold, and I held it too, is that food was
responsible for my weight gain. That is a belief that does not serve
you, and in my mind now it is complete balderdash! Food is not
responsible for putting on weight. It is your thought that food is
responsible for putting on weight that actually has food put on weight.
. . . Food cannot cause you to put on weight unless you think it can."
After "beefing up" to "a
hefty 143 pounds," the small-framed Byrne says that she now maintains
"my perfect weight of 116 pounds and I can eat whatever I want."
In that case, I have a
challenge for Byrne: Let's see her eat whatever she wants for a month,
as long as that menu includes three big meals a day, plus snacks, plus
desserts At the end of the month, if she hasn't gained a pound, I'll
eat page 62 of my copy of The Secret.
Byrne even advises shunning overweight people:
"If you see people who are
overweight, do not observe them, but immediately switch your mind to
the picture of you in your perfect body and feel it."
That might be a bit hard if
the overweight people in your life include your mom or your spouse or
your best friend or your boss -- but hey, you're trying to think "thin
thoughts," so those relationships might have to suffer for the time
being, what with you not even observing these folks.
• • • •
According to The Secret,
you can manipulate the universe to get things you want. The DVD version
shows a woman ogling a necklace in a store window. She thinks and
wishes real hard -- and presto! She's wearing the necklace. (I believe
that trick was first performed on the third season of "Bewitched." Or
was it "I Dream of Jeannie"?)
"A ten-year-old boy named
Colin . . . had seen and loved 'The Secret,' " begins one story in the
book. "Colin's family made a weeklong visit to Disney World, and on
their first day, they experienced long lines at the park. So that
night, just before Colin fell asleep, he thought, 'Tomorrow, I'd love
to go on all the big rides and never have to wait in line.' "
Hey, wait a minute -- he
was doing it wrong! You're not supposed to have negative thoughts about
"never" having to do anything. It's all about the positive. The Secret
isn't even consistent in its own examples.
According to the book, the
law of attraction worked anyway. The next day Colin's family was chosen
as Epcot's First Family of the Day, which meant they'd be escorted
around the park by a staff member and given VIP passes entitling them
to instant access to all rides -- no waiting in lines.
But what if six other kids
at Disney that day had watched The Secret on DVD and had wished with
equal fervor for all-access treatment? Why did Colin "win"? Not to
mention the fact that a 10-year-old is being taught to harbor selfish
wishes. Wouldn't it be nice if he wished that some other kid -- maybe a
sick kid going through some rough times -- would get to "go on all the
big rides and never have to wait in line"?
One of the big keys to The Secret seems to be getting yourself into an extremely selfish mindset, 24/7.
Even more insidious than
the just-wish-for-it mentality is the explicitly stated belief that if
bad things happen to you, it's your own damned fault. According to the
teachers of The Secret, if you're broke, it's because you have too many
negative thoughts keeping money from reaching you, and if you're sick,
it's because you believed you could become sick. Without exception,
everyone deserves what he or she gets.
This is a stunningly odious
philosophy. Are we truly to believe that children born with
life-shortening illnesses, that victims of terrorism and genocide, that
starving families in Africa should blame themselves for their
godforsaken bad fortune? Tell the widow of 9/11 victim or the mother of
a child with cancer or the father who has just buried his
seven-year-old son who was struck and killed by a car that if only
those victims had believed in the law of attraction, they would have
been just fine. Go ahead, tell them.
"You cannot 'catch'
anything unless you think you can, and thinking you can is inviting it
to you with your thought," says The Secret.
And: "Disease cannot live in a body that's in a healthy emotional state."
And: "You don't have to
fight to get rid of disease. Just the simple process of letting go of
negative thoughts will allow your natural state of health to emerge
within you. And your body will heal itself."
Seabiscuit's stall never
contained so much horses---. You can be the all-time master of positive
thought -- and you still might get cancer or have a stroke or suffer a
heart attack. Every positive thinker and great leader in the history of
the world has eventually died from something. How could that happen if
they were acting as magnets of positive energy?
• • • •
Not only does The Secret
tell you that you can achieve wealth, success, and even love through
positive thoughts -- it also says you shouldn't dwell on the negative,
even if you're trying to change the negative, because that will just
add more energy to that downer of a situation.
According to the book,
protesting a war "creates even more war." If you're angry about human
suffering, you're contributing to that suffering by adding extra energy
to it.
"The anti-drug movement has
actually created more drugs," claims the book. "Because we're focusing
on what we don't want -- drugs!"
This is the book Oprah has
blessed with two full shows. A book that tells you if you want
something or someone, all you have to do is visualize it happening, and
it will happen. A book that tells you not to observe fat people, lest
their overweightness invade your thoughts. A book that says we should
blame the victim -- that if something sh---- and tragic happens to you,
you had it coming. A book that says you shouldn't get involved in
fighting injustice because it only adds to the injustice.
I believe there's nothing
wrong with a little positive thinking. Hell, there's nothing wrong with
a lot of positive thinking. If you dwell on the negative all the time,
if you walk around with a spiritual black cloud over your head, of
course you're going to make your own life and the lives of others more
difficult.
But I don't know how anyone
can keep a straight face while selling The Secret. The world is filled
with positive people who never got out from under a lifetime of pain
and disappointment -- and miserable bastards who catch one lucky break
after another.
There really is a
conspiracy at work here. It's not a conspiracy of enlightened leaders
who know the secret of the universe is the law of attraction; it's the
conspiracy of self-help hucksters to sell all these cheap, warmed-over
ideas to people who are so desperate to believe in quick-fix, New Age
"solutions" that they'll believe all this bulls---.
Copyright: Chicago Sun-Times
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Re: 'The Secret' conspiracy
by frater_volen on Friday, August 01, 2008 (CDT)
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) | | The Secret boils down to this; get off your frakking ass and do what it is that you said you would do. |
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