The Secret

One of the recent publishing phenomenons has been a book, printed with pages designed to look like faded vellum and enigmatically titled The Secret. In the foreward, the author promises to reveal "The Great Secret - The Secret to life" claiming that it was known to Plato, Shakespeare, Newton, Beethoven, Lincoln, Edison and Einstein (among others).

Far from these great thinkers, inventors and composers, the author does liberally sprinkle her novels with quotes - from a plethora of self-help gurus both past and present. But I get ahead of myself. I had borrowed The Secret from a friend, thinking it a work of fiction, on which point I was sorely mistaken. I begin with this disclaimer: I am not a fan of self help books. In fact, I consider the entire genre to be rather disingenuously named - after all if you truly wanted to help yourself, you would not be seeking the valued advice of all these other writers on everything from how to get yourself hitched to how to make more money.

I decided to read the book, mainly due to curiousity about what made it so popular. However, what grated immediately was the author adopting a style of writing that I must, somewhat tongue in cheek, term the "British person overseas" style. A British person overseas, faced with a foreigner who, somewhat bafflingly, cannot speak English, has a tendency to repeat himself, usually speaking slower and louder, until comprehension is achieved. So too, the author of The Secret shows a faith in the idea that by repeating her key point, often with minimal variation, supported with quotations from various self help gurus basically saying the same thing, would lead the reader to acceptance rather than annoyance.

However, this rather simplifies my task in summarizing the ideas behind The Secret (which are anyhow contained in the handy end of chapter summaries - no point reading the rest of it, really). Basically, the Secret it founded on the Law of Attraction - we attract what we think back to ourselves. What we think about will come back to us. Our thoughts become things. I am sure you get the point by now.

So, if we think negative things, we attract negative things to us. If we feel bad, we attract bad things. So how do we use the law of attraction? We only have to ask, believe and then we will receive. To believe, we must think as if we already have received what we are asking for. If we do so, we will receive it. So, if you want to "lose weight" don't think about having to lose 20kg. Instead, just tell yourself "I am 52kg" (even if you are really 72kg). Once you feel that you are your perfect weight you will become it. Visualising what you want, and feeling a constant gratitude for what you already have will speed up the process, apparently.

The author then helpfully outlines how you can apply the Secret to Money, Relationships, Health and the World. Stop now, and read through the summary above and try for yourself how to apply this to any of the above categories. Let me use money as an example. Wait a minute, you might say, so growing rich just involves focusing on wealth (remember: you should never focus on bills or debt as you will just attract more of that negative stuff), imagining that you already have the money that you want, visualising the money (or any idea that you have that will make you all that moolah), and of course giving money away and feeling gratitude and generosity in doing so, as it will catalyze the process. Isn't that all a bit easy? But of course, that is the point! The Secret is amazingly simple and easy!

In fact, you can join the many people who have already utilised the Secret to find wealth, happiness in relationships and good health. It really is that easy! The author liberally cites examples ranging from a person visualising herself owning a copy of a DVD copy of The Secret (and then winning it in a special online contest) to the members of Belize Natural Exploration Limited who used the method in combination with a determination to find oil and natural gas (against the advice of trained geologists) and struck it rich. The Secret is after all quite versatile since the law of attraction permeates everything. You can use The Secret to attain everything from a dream house, a perfect life partner or a parking space.

Given the obvious cynicism I have employed in writing about the book thus far, you would think that I found it a complete waste of time. That isn't necessarily the case. It does suggest that there is merit in thinking positively, rather than negatively. In fact, thinking positively might just change your life. That is a self-help staple and a piece of age old wisdom that you don't need to spend another $30 to learn. As Bobby McFerrin sang, "Don't Worry, Be Happy".