The Secret

You’ve probably heard about, and perhaps read, a book phenomenon called The Secret. I haven’t read the book, but I’ve seen lots of negative reviews about its new age mumbo jumbo.

As I understand it, the central concept is something the book calls the Law of Attraction. Essentially, you focus on positive things and the universe will attract those things to you.

One skeptical reviewer picked the most outrageous sounding example in the book to point out how ridiculous it is. Apparently the book claims, without science to support it, that if you want to be thin, you should avoid overweight people, even to the extent of avoiding looking at them.

Clearly, that’s mumbo jumbo.

Today I read in the news that researchers have discovered weight to be “socially contagious.” Your chances of becoming obese are 57% higher if you have ONE friend who is obese.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/25/health/webmd/main3097001.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3097001

It’s probably premature to declare this a fact. The media isn’t good at getting this sort of thing right. But I’d be surprised if it’s wrong. After all, humans conform to their friends’ habits in every other realm, from clothing, to music, to choice of words. It can’t be too surprising to learn that they start eating the same.

Friends influence friends. That’s obvious. But can you also become overweight just by looking at overweight people? My guess is that you can. Humans are natural copiers. Your choice of clothing, for example, is influenced just as much by what you see on strangers as on friends. And your notion of what is acceptable and normal is probably more determined by strangers than by your one or two close friends.

How about success? Can the universe provide success just by focusing on it and avoiding thinking about failure? I’ve seen no research on that topic, but wouldn’t you be surprised if success isn’t socially contagious too?

Stanford University creates an enormous number of entrepreneurs and other successful people. I’ve often hypothesized that half of Stanford’s success is because the students are brilliant, well taught, and screened for high potential, and half is because the environment breeds success contagion. I imagine it would be difficult to graduate from Stanford and settle for an ordinary life. The impulse to copy the other go-getters would be mighty strong.

I’ve often written about my own experiences with affirmations, the practice of writing your goals 15 times a day. It seems to work much of the time, at least in my experience, but presumably not because of any magic. At least one probable explanation for its perceived effectiveness is that focusing on goals changes the person who is doing the focusing.

In a book called The Luck Factor, the author and researcher, Richard Wiseman (Google it), discovered that people who expect luck will notice opportunities in their environment more readily than those who don’t. And he learned that you can train people to expect luck, and cause an improvement in their ability to spot opportunities, that look like luck, when they pop up. I can imagine affirmations tuning a person in the same way, until it seems that extra luck is being provided by the universe, but all that’s happening is that it’s more easily recognized.

Affirmations probably also increases a person’s natural level of optimism, especially if you believe it works. I can imagine optimism working to harden people against the inevitable setbacks and obstacles along the way to success. To the extent that affirmations might increase a person’s stick-to-itiveness, his perception might be that the universe is removing barriers.

To be fair, there’s also some selective memory at play. I’m sure people who use affirmations, or The Secret, tend to remember the successes and forget the failures. I recall about six ridiculously unlikely successes of my own with affirmations, and one quasi-failure that I still think will pan out. (There’s the optimism thing.) Realistically, I might be forgetting some failures. And I have no way of knowing whether I would have had the successes without affirmation.

As I said, I haven’t read The Secret. I don’t endorse it. But if you think the concept has no value because it’s not backed by science, don’t be surprised if that changes.

Comments

[TL Estrogen]

Concerning the fat issue: Let's look at what weight does to a person's self-image. Let's say you're a 5ft 4 inch female weighing over 200lbs. You look in the mirror everyday hating yourself. You try shopping for clothes but even that is a chore as choices are limited and using a fitting room is no longer a joy. Your emotions helped you grow large as you used food to mask your stress and self-image issues. You look at the ground when out in public because you're tired of the sneers and glares you get from so-called loving citizens acting as if they're better than you. And it just continues getting worse. You try diet after diet but you're so focused on losing weight that it either doesnt' come off or it comes off and you gain it right back.

The only people you feel comfortable around are other large people. They don't intimidate you--they love you as you are. Can you see here how this woman's negative thoughts about herself draw negative circumstances and like people to her? This is the type of attraction the Secret talks about. If this woman wants to be healthy and change her weight she needs to change her image of herself first and stop worrying about the intolerant and shallow among us.

[Why do fatties hate the secret]

It's amazing how everyone focuses on the fat issue. This makes me wonder how many fat people were loving this book until they read this passage and decided that the universe was against them and needed a twinky. Commercialism sells, that's why they call it that. How do you sell a book target the people who can afford a paperback not those who own a porche or are already doing something to improve their life. People with plans are successful. This means that the philosophy works. To make a plan you must have an end goal. Then the how will manifest itself. Useally through a lot of hard work but it's work you wouldn't do if you hadn't asked for what you wanted. I once new a successful business owner that didn't have the mental capacity of a 6 year old. I always attributed his success to being to stupid to realize he could fail. The secret actually proves that this is correct. People who invent the most incredible new technology often start with the solution before working out the problem. This also follows the let the universe guide you theory. The inventors who say "oh well I don't know how we could create something to achieve that" rarely invent anything. If explorers didn't picture themselves reaching the new world they would have never left the shoreline. I'm not saying that the packaging of this philosophy is right nor is the science of the Secret, science. It's just what we've always known. You're fat because instead of picturing yourself thin, happy and beautiful you lie to yourself and say that big is beautiful. Instead of taking responsibility for your obesity you bitch about beautiful people and curse people for celebrating them. If you don't want to be like the discusting pig scarfing down a big mac hating life, don't picture yourself as the same as they are.

[Siyabonga]

It is quite obvious that people believe what suites them.Fact of the matter is, scientists discover problems more than solutions, and therefore one cannot rely on scientific opinion.It is rather amusing at the amount of critisism people are prepared to exert when ignorrant of matters.I believe true genius is the art of simplifying matters to its simplest form.The reason we suffer is because we do not utilise our immediate surroundings.Imagine a continent like afrika with its poverty when there is an abundance of natural resources.Bottom line is that the biggest failure in life is the failure to think positively.If you can start by identifying the best of everything then you are on your way.

[ill divo]

someone ever heard about mlm seminars, they sound yust the same. they boost you up with positive energy. you've payed to get in!! you want mere of that pleasant feeling? you pay more!! haha..(endorphin dealers!!) psst wanna buy some endorphin?? (btw that was the first thing i could think of watching the free part of the movie!!)

btw, "whatever you want you've got it?" erhm.. I can think of some eerie sitiations in which I hope this concept does not apply to..

[recovering fundamentalist]

Doesn't it bother anyone that this is all geared toward consumerism? Get what you want...that's the constant phrase. The universe is a now a cosmic vending machine.

There are some great concepts in here that are unfortunately packaged in a mass-marketed, consumerism religion.

And the guy who visualizes the parking space reminds me of people who pray for parking spaces. And people are going hungry around the world. But I have a parking space and they should just visualize food. YIKES!

[Matt]

I think that the new age twist thats been put on the Secret has people shying away from its principles, people always shy away from ideas that don't immediatley present logical explanations to back themselves. However, ignoring the fact that the secret is a bit fantastic and mystical, one can easily see the truth behind its principles. Positive thinking and visualization help you get what you want. Also, if you are fat, and your friends are fat, then obviously it would be unwise to be further engaged with those friends in their daily activities as it was those habits that made you fat in the first place. If a child is born into poverty, or into a third world country, he certainly had no control over his being born there, but once he reaches a cognizant age, his ability to determine his future is directly affected by the way he envisions it. If he envisions himself wallowing in poverty for the rest of his life, then his ability to escape his current situation or otherwise alter the course of his future is severly stunted. Whereas, if he envisions himself living in a respectable condition in the future, he will act in a manner that will be condusive to his goal, and will recognize opportunities that would have quickly passed him by had he not been looking for them, "asking" for them. The power of "the Secret", of self empowerment, is never absolute, as the people who created the Secret would have you believe. At least I don't think it is; I feel like life is too unpredictable for ones will to ever be absolute, but the good thing about the secret is that practicing it (no matter how shrouded in mystical implications it may be) can never hurt, only help. The only person inhibiting you is yourself.

[Jen]

I've been living my life like this since my teens (41 now), I just never knew how to describe it and I definitely didn't know it was a secret. I kept it to myself because I'm not one of those preachy kind of people, but if anyone asked what my philosophy of life was "the secret" would have been my answer, just not with all the experts coming out of the corners to back me up. lol.

[cattykitty]

I watched the movie a few nights ago and i thought why not give it a try? Maybe i wouldn't do something like "visualizing myself with 1 million $" but can start with thinking positive, i think it's the message and intention of the producer, not the getting quick rich thing.

Btw i dont believe that if you hang out with fat people you will become one. My bf is a huge guy, he's like 200 lbs while i'm very slim. We were living together for 1 year and i didn't gain any weight. So that theory is just an assumption.

[Rico]

i think we should not be skeptic about "the secret" theory.
it's true, and i believe it is. then it's proven in my life.
i'm not telling you that you have to believe the mumbo jumbo stuff, if you think it is.
but my life is getting better and happier by thinking positive.
the rest is up to yourself.

[ill divo]

by the way i watched the twenty minute trailer, well I must say nice teaser!! ( new harry potter movie coming up? )
it's fiction, a best seller!! ;)

[ill divo]

oh heck.. in order to not get any fatter (I'm average looking), i should avoid looking at fat people ahem (that includes fat chicks!!)...well darned, what about my love life then? I don't like skinny chicks, I dig bbw's!! what a dillema.. I think I'm going to start eating yust to compensate my emotions about this topic..

BY THE WAY, i'm a dike, STOP READING THIS MESSAGE YOU MIGHT TURN GAY!!!

lol

[not a test]

:-) Or is it...?

[not a test]

:-) Not a secret, really...

[Maija]

Thanks for summing up the end of God's Debris (plus additional outside nonsense).
This world is vague and we can find any meaning or path that we wish to find- open your eyes to the threads that will culminate in your rope. Will it be a noose or a ladder?

[Starlite]

I find The Secret very scary.

I'm sure it's quite effective on many people, but I don't like the reasons why. I've read bits of it from curiosity, but right from the introduction, a few things emerge very clearly.

First, the book uses brain-washing techniques. For example, many short sentences presenting (and repeating) supposed facts that build one upon the other; supposed evidence that is not actually supported (eg: "people have known the secret since Babylonian times"); and other credibility enhancers.

Second, the book presents a very simplistic mish-mash of cognitive techniques that are known to work, such as affirmations and creative visualisation. To my mind, there are better ways to use these techniques than brainwashing yourself to believe them.

It seems like a very In-duh-vidual approach to self-improvement.

[chuck]

The only mumbo jumbo here is the lack of accuracy in reporting about The Secret. It's not about money, it's not about success, it's about being happy ALL THE TIME - and THAT brings success over time. Thanks to The Secret and Jerry & Esther Hicks CDs I have made a total transformation from a world of anger and depression to a state of continuous bliss and success. I have managed to rid my mind of most negative thought and now I exist on the 'luck plane' (my own words). I don't need scientific evidence to explain the results of my new improved life. It speaks for itself.

[chuck]

The only mumbo jumbo here is the lack of accuracy in reporting about The Secret. It's not about money, it's not about success, it's about being happy ALL THE TIME - and THAT brings success over time. Thanks to The Secret and Jerry & Esther Hicks CDs I have made a total transformation from a world of anger and depression to a state of continuous bliss and success. I have managed to rid my mind of most negative thought and now I exist on the 'luck plane' (my own words). I don't need scientific evidence to explain the results of my new improved life. It speaks for itself.

[Dirk Ventura]

Too much to read to catch up, all good so far.

I have a friend who, whenever I start to loose weight, brings home more "fat pills" from the bakery where he works. He seems to smirk whenever I succumb to the temptation. Did I mention he is 40#s heavier than I?

[Ashe]

The Secret is a good idea gone way wrong. For an interesting blog article and corresponding hilarious internet episode about it see: http://www.stuartdavis.com/blog?page=9 "The Secret: The Spirituality of Narcissism" The Secret unfortunately takes out some of the most important parts of the "success" equation - ACTION, RESPONSIBILITY, SELF AWARENESS.

[Dalebert]

Someone's prolly already said this by now but, but if being friends with just one overweight person is a problem for staying thin, and you're overweight and want to be thin, then aren't you going to infect your thin friends? Does that mean that once you're already overweight, it's hopeless?

[Ikey Benney, On The Secret Book by Rhonda Bryne]

Hello:

Your comments about this book is a little off color, especially since you admitted that you have NOT read it.

I have read it and I am familiar with the territory it covers.

It is not entirely mumbo jumbo. If you say it was over-hyped, then you may be speaking the truth.

But it contains a few words of wisdom here and there and I recommend it to anyone who is not already familiar with prosperity authors like Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, Ben Sweetland, US Anderson, Norman Vincent Pearl, David Schwartz and many others.

Ikey Benney

[Jon]

I've seen it work for me quite often. I believe that it works and am not sure if there is an exact science. "What the Bleep...." I guess tried to explain it in those terms.

If nothing else thinking positively is a away to alleviate the excess stress in our lives. That has to be a good thing.

Does that mean I accept the suffering in Africa? No. But it does mean that it can all begin with us WANTING things to change.

Gandhi said "Be the change you want to see in the world".

So many of us get up, go to work and come home and watch TV. I'm not knocking that but there is so much WE can do to make a difference.

[Jon]

I've seen it work for me quite often. I believe that it works and am not sure if there is an exact science. "What the Bleep...." I guess tried to explain it in those terms.

If nothing else thinking positively is a away to alleviate the excess stress in our lives. That has to be a good thing.

Does that mean I accept the suffering in Africa? No. But it does mean that it can all begin with us WANTING things to change.

Gandhi said "Be the change you want to see in the world".

So many of us get up, go to work and come home and watch TV. I'm not knocking that but there is so much WE can do to make a difference.

[Allen]

I have a big problem with stuff like The Secret. If all we need to be successful is the power of positive thinking, so to speak, then the implication is that all the starving children in places like Darfur are the way they are because of negative thinking. Or, all they have to do is think positive, and all the bad stuff will go away.

Puh-leeze.

[Stephen Gallagher]

"Essentially, you focus on positive things and the universe will attract those things to you."

That's just magical thinking under another name. Which in turn is like saying that laughing at the TV will make FRAZIER come on sooner.