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The Secret’s Not a Secret Anymore

A few weeks ago, my wife and I caught one of Oprah Winfrey’s reruns on Portuguese television.  The program being aired was “Discovering The Secret”.  We sat mesmerized as several secret teachers discussed Rhonda Byrne’s new book and affirmed that the circumstances of one’s life result from patterns of thought.  Wealth or poverty, health or sickness, good- or ill-fortune is attracted from images held in the mind.

Available on DVD and in print, The Secret has become a publishing phenomenon.  Promoted skillfully or fortunately on Larry King Live, CBS Eye to Eye with Katie Couric, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Nightline with Cynthia McFadden, and The Today Show with Matt Lauer, and in other widely-read media, The Secret DVD as of June 30 had sold 2m copies and the book 5.2m.  It is already being translated into 35 languages and can be purchased on bookshelves in Portugal.

The phenomenal success of The Secret is no doubt due to quick fixes smartly presented in the cloak of medieval secrecy to a public mired in economic and personal difficulties.  Itspromise of life-changing outcomes through the application of a few simple techniques has wide appeal.  Attracting whatever one wants is merely a matter of asking, believing and receiving.  Simply write down what you want, see yourself in possession of it, and feel good about receiving it.  Follow these steps and you will surely manifest your desire.  

The Secret mentors preach that thoughts are magnetic.  You attract whatever is in harmony with the thought frequency you send out.  For desired outcomes to manifest, intention and repetition are therefore required to avoid undesirable consequences.  So in the mind’s eye, it helps to visualize, for example, bills as checks, accounts as inflated, fat as thin, cancer as healed, or relationships as complete.  To be more effective, such mental exercises can be reinforced with something tangible such as a dummy check made payable for some obscene amount, a bank account statement altered to a larger balance, a photo of some travel destination, or a cartoon drawing of pacmen eating cancer cells.  But no amount of mental or tangible focusing can achieve success without the process of asking, believing and receiving inspiring conviction.  A nondescript person struggling to make ends meet on a limited salary would have difficulty seeing himself receiving a hefty check.  And everyone occasionally experiences emotional setbacks.    

This manifesting scenario reminded me that many years ago Star Trek’s Captain Kirk and some of the crew of the Enterprise landed on a wish-fulfilling planet.  Each crew member soon discovered that whatever fear or desire he held in the mind was promptly manifested.  Depending on the person, the results were either exotic or harrowing.  In the end, their survival meant fleeing that planet since no one could perfectly control his thoughts.   

This writer decided to look beyond the televised hype to see what people were saying about this latest packaging of New Thought philosophy.  Many were excited, sharing how their lives had changed after they clarified and focused on their desires.  A real estate agent claimed she sold several two month old listings in three days by mentally picturing them sold.  A lonely man found his bride almost overnight after seeing her in his mind’s eye.  And a woman boasted how she had lowered her tax liability for 2006 by visualizing lower taxes.  Assuming the veracity of these and other similar experiences being collected (see the Secret Forum at www.thesecret.tv), converts would agree that they are no longer victims of uncontrollable forces but rather rugged individualists in control of their own destinies.