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

[nima]

It is time to confront with reality.The truth is this ONLY WISDOM is the essencial law of success.
Being possitive is helpful but 'courage' and 'not being satisfied' are much more important.
I hope humanity see the power of wisdom again and don`t put his/her faith on such mindless statements.
( besides I was secrect believer for one year.but nothing happened by the secret . )

[troy D.]

I jsut recntly saw the sequel to the secret The Opus. I loved it. It far exceeded my expectations and far surpasses the Secret in everyway. The infromation was far more useful and I was able to even that same night implement some of the tools that the film shared. If you go to film expected another new age lesson, think again. This film is real. And there's nothing really new age about it. See it and prepare to experience greater power in your life.

[Mags]

I think like with anything, we're still figuring out the exact "recipe" to make things like visualizations and affirmations work. But sports coaches discovered long ago that leading their athletes through a series of visualizations (imagining playing perfectly, scoring lots of goals, etc.) improves their performance. It's like the body copies what the mind is prepared for. And to get the results we want we have to rehearse until we have it down.

Also not everybody apparently does affirmations correctly. It's easy to build things into your affirmations that actually delay results. For instance, focusing on your goals as if it has already happened has been proven to be more powerful than affirming "I want this to happen" or "I need this to happen."

I like a book this one woman wrote that goes into her exact way of using affirmations - and she outlines specific cases of how she works with students and helps them tweak their affirmations until they manifest what they want. For me the main value in her book is the real life case histories she shares.

For anybody interested, it's called Why Most Affirmations Fail and the Four Building Blocks of Successful Affirmations:

http://www.free-daily-affirmation.com

Enjoyed the comments here! Keep bringing them on!

Mags

[Glenda Rodgers]

I saw the trailer for The Opus and loved it. I don't really know Douglas Vermeeren but I have heard him speak. I really enjoyed his presentation a lot. I think he is a great teacher and very sincere. Afterwards he stayed for a long time and shook hands with everyone. I was impressed at how interested he was in people. I think he is the right person to put together the sequel to the secret. I also met rhonda byrne and although she was also very kind, she seemed far more distant than mr. Vermeeren. Maybe she is more business oriented. Does anyone know are the two of them working together on this film?

[Cal]

There is people who do not believe in God; and those who do.
Who is to say what is real for someone else.
All that I know is once I got the attitude of gratitude things became everything that I wanted.
Two years ago we had a small income and never thought we would be able to buy a house in the country or retire.
Six months ago I just shut down the business and stopped working.
Although We now own two houses and the one what we are living in is in the country.
The other one is rented and the one that we live in is a 2200 ft house with a large basement, and has an apt up stairs that we use as a place to entertain and play pool.
We got it for 50k with no income to show the bank, and we got it for 50k. with no $ of our own down.

The house could be sold for 120k easy.
All that I do is my own yard work; some house repairs, and sit in front of the fireplace.
If I don’t want to do something I don’t.
What a life; do what you want; when you want and always have money in your pocket..
I myself have $400 every month just for me to play, everything else is covered.
You figure it out, how many people have $400 to play and everything else is covered.
I pay nothing out of that money for anything, even my car repairs and the beer and whisky is paid too.

[Tim H]

Have you seen the movie trailer for The Opus. This is the film that most people are saying is either the sequel to the Secret or the film that will answer the questions left behind by the Secret. Please share your thoughts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rIaykldvKM

I actually liked it, but it is very different than what the secret was.

[Daniel]

Watched The Secret last night and lay in bed all night visualising great wealth and health.
This morning I discovered I have been inadvertently paying my ex wifes broadband bill for a couple of years without noticing! Funny how the Universe had kept the "Secret" all this time!

Bouyed up with such new found wealth I intend to avoid looking at fat people, (although I would in fact like to put on weight), overly thin people, politicians, poor and miserable people, speeding tickets and bills that arrive in the mail, barking dogs, the patch of eczema on my elbow and my son's morning nappy.

Life is going to be sweet.

[Joe]

Please check on SCAM alert re Doug Vermeeren of the Opus at http://www.aactionauditions.com/phpBB2/post-5650.html&sid=0140073c752a7549b0e3c398c493e174

[Joe]

Please check on SCAM alert re Doug Vermeeren of the Opus at http://www.aactionauditions.com/phpBB2/post-5650.html&sid=0140073c752a7549b0e3c398c493e174

[Ernest]

Its funny a person ridiculing the secret without even reading it...

and the book doesnt mention anything about not seeing obese people... it simply tells you to imagine yourself as being thin and be happy about it rather than complaining about being fat... As simple as it sounds, it just brings positivity to your mindset and thats good (even if the book never existed).

[Caine Dean]

This website was talking about how to change the mindset, I had gone through it and this website provided great information.
http://www.google-buzz.com/successmindsetsecrets/
Check this out for more information
http://www.google-buzz.com/mindpowersecrets/

[Zoe]

Is the secret real? Check out a similar article I read at dailycents.com, the direct link is http://blogs.dailycents.com/?p=782

[Barry]

Interesting stats you pointed out about overweight people. Like the book or now, there is some truths to the law of attraction.

[Alf]

My English is very bad and it it is hard for me to explain you that this "secret" actually work. If anybody speak serbo-croatian languge here I will post on my language and you can translate it. Is it ok?

[sean]

I have been following a variety of post on the film that many are callign the follow up to The Secret. The Opus features many of the same cast including Jack canfield, dr. John Demartini, Morris Goodman, Bob doyle, Marci shimoff and others. The film is being produced by achievement expert Douglas Vermeeren. The blogs I have read state that this film will teach you how to take your vision and turn it into a reality. That the film picks up where the law of attraction left off. I am curious to know everyones opinion on this film.

It is slated for a March 2008 release. www.TheOpusMovie.com

[Full Of Secrets]

this kind of book sells a million copies before anyone realizes it is full of balony. read some reviews of the book before buying it.

[Fifi]

I just read 41 pages of the book and I actually BELIEVE in it.

"Everything you want is yours if you want it enough"

that's it.

[Sophia]

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[Brian]

It works, it really does gentlemen. At the same time, there is alot of opposition to it from uneducated outsiders, heck even many that have been exposed to it still just don't get it and are still thinking with their old ways.

The Law of Attraction is something everybody uses regardless of if they are aware of it. You think negatively about your situation, your problems, etc. and that is what manifests, you say I "don't" want this, and here it is. The universe doesn't look at the word "don't" it only senses the vibrations, patterns, thought process you are projecting.

In a nutshell, if you stop thinking of reality as being static and that you have no control over it, and start thinking of it more like the matrix, and you are in full control over it all, you'll see what I mean.

[Framil]

Ill say the same thing i say to ppl that says mcdonalds hamburgers meat is made outta worns. I dont care all i care is that it works hahahaha... if it has worns then i gotta say it taste good... If the secret is fake well it has helped me...

[Alex]

Hey, I just realized that the "Secret people" are probably correct! The establishment IS trying to supress this secret, Ben Bernanke most of all! For example, 1.5M people have bought the DVD and are presumeably wishing their way to wealth as we speak. All these new millionaires are bound to increase the US money supply - hence causing a spike in inflation and a weak dollar. Sure enough, dollar has been nose-diving since this book / DVD were published - a clear proof of how effective it is!!! Problem: one way for EVERYBODY to be a millionaire is for a Zimbabwe-like inflation to happen here - can somebody start visualizing ASAP, so this does not happen, please?!?

[Jean LaFromboise]

Get real! The one thing I didn't like about the book for the "believer" is there are just too many people that think happy people are weak. People do take kindness for weakness, and everyone gets angry. Suppessed anger can lead to unhappiness. Sure, we can act like nothing bothers us--we can lie to ourselves and get walked on. Real life is not like merry 1960's television. It wasn't always merry in the 1960's! Those who cling to the secret are outnumbered by people with a chip on their shoulder. Also, as far as finding a mate is concerned, the world ins't as abundant as the book may suggest. There are people fighting over the same mate all of the time. Try to find a decent mate when they are too busy happy-meditating over someone that they have no real chance with. Maybe the real secret is you can make a quick raise in America selling books about nothing. That's not a secret--that's very clever. Wow! Someone slapped a label on an emotion and cashed in on it. Someone went there. To make matters worse--more Americans probably saw the movie. Who reads anymore?! Knowledge is not intelligence. Who can we trust these days?

[hoorah]

I, personally, am not a big fan of the whole "Secret" craze, I watched the film but never bothered to read the book. One key contradiction that I noticed is that though the "power" of the secret is apparently unlimited it is still suggested that you concentrate only on that which would be attainable for you, which to me makes zero sense as this would signify a limitation of power.
Though I am not a believer I do believe in what I would call the better, or more reasonable part of the secret. By this I mean, be positive, visualize etc. i have found a source that I believe truly highlights the best parts of the secret in a rather odd source, this source is a golf book by Jonathan Fine called "Golf is a very simple game" which I originally bought for the obvious reason of improving my golf game but, upon reading found to have some very legitimate life lessons buried within and which I highly recommend for anyone who found some of the concepts of the secret interesting but disliked the packaging

[Dayna Jury]

I watched the dvd.

This is how I have been living my life in some ways, and wondering why life was so good to me. I was the 3rd and replacement child to my brother Carl which of course I never met. My parents considered me special in that way. I lived a good new zealand life. I am 30 and have just started to grapple why my life is why it is.

How you think at the time of opportunity is the outcome of that situation.

So if you are thinking down. You will only see the down things in the situation. Its obvious isn't it? You can forget the mistical feelings and ideas and your left with this fact. If you are thinking good and positive you will get the best out of the opportunity. Yes it is true!

I only see the realisation of what 'the secret' has backed up in my life. That my thoughts the way they have been determined the outcome in all of my situations. The way I felt each moment effected the outcome. Yes it is true!

Now materializing objects isn't what they are saying. But by focusing on something you want enough will cause you to action. If you sit at home on the couch you will only get what you putting into the situation duh! Homer simpson fact on that one!

I don't believe in getting things without effort. 'the secret' is not saying that is it?

I noted someone else having similar life than me wondering what it was about life, I could see relations between work/money. When I got right down on my bank ballance I changed my thought structure and so I went about life differently (evey action is first thought) increasing my work and income. Then I would slack off in my mind about that I don't need money. Then work would follow the same path, as I wasn't 'searching' for jobs.

Everything requires input. If you stand for 10 minutes everyday thinking of a bike at your front door it is not going to appear magically. But if you think of it enought you might go do something about getting the bike ya!!! man, that wasn't that hard an explanation?

So if you think of things enough your thoughts will come up with the answers to move forward and find ways of having it. To think of something well you need detail.

Basically apply 'the secret' to your life, but you must do action and not be Homer Simpson. But then again even he seems to follow life as he sees it....

[Donna]

PS I am a Oops! Funny, I WAS a 200 pound 5'4" lady, now I am 180LBS and loosing. Seeing is not believing, BELIEVING IS SEEING..What a man sees, what a man thinks, a man becomes. I was becoming mentally ill, because I kept thinking and feeling that I was. Then I found "The SECRET".

Don't hesitate, don't second guess me. Run, don't walk. BUY IT !!!!!!!!!!