GM gave me a copy of a DVD called The Secret. She asked if I had heard about it. Should I? Isn't it supposed to be a secret! (Ba-dum - shhh.) According to the official website for The Secret, the DVD is a companion to the book by the same name. The video has been "seen by millions" and there are over 6 million copies of the book in print. I am not being cynical about it; but if this is a secret, it is one of the worst kept.
Rhonda Byrne is the author of the book, the force behind the DVD, and the one attributed with "discovering" the secret. The website makes no modest claim about it: "The Secret reveals the most powerful law in the universe. The knowledge of this law has run like a golden thread through the lives and the teachings of all the prophets, seers, sages and saviors in the world's history, and through the lives of all truly great men and women. All that they have ever accomplished or attained has been done in full accordance with this most powerful law."
So what is it? Here's my executive summary: The secret is based on the law of attraction, the principle that our thoughts are like magnets attracting what we think about. Think bad and you will attract bad outcomes. Think good (like money, power, and success) and you will attract good outcomes. The universe is like a powerful genie (although not a person) that will bring into your life what you think about.
On the surface, this may seem like just another refrain of the song, "Don't worry, be happy!" But there is something deeper and deeply disturbing going on here. I have compiled a series of quotes from the DVD that you should find illuminating. One of those quotes well captures my concern: "You are eternal life; you're source energy; you are God manifested in human form, made to perfection." Where have I heard something like this before - oh yes, the Garden of Eden!
The serpent said to Eve, "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:5). Satan drank the Koolaid and believes he can be like God, and here we find him at the dawn of human history trying to sell Eve on the juice. At its heart, the Secret is anything but. It is a lie as old as time - We can be the controllers of our destiny; we can determine what life will give us.
I have more things to say, but I would like you to do a little homework first. Download the series of quotes from the DVD. Then fix Satan's mantra in your mind: "You will be like God." Now read the quotes and see if they don't sound alike. If they do, here's what ought to give you pause. When Satan first introduced his philosophy, he called it a secret. "God has been holding out on you, Eve. But, I am here to dispel his repression by telling you THE SECRET - YOU CAN BE LIKE GOD."
Hey, he's back!! I'm guessing that means you are feeling better, for which I am glad.
So it sounds like from this description (though I haven't read the quotes yet...) that this is some sort of New Age-like Pantheism. Would you say that's a good assessment of it?
My other question is this: would you say that we really have absolutely no control over our destiny? Or maybe phrased better, what is the extent that you think we have any control over our lives?
Posted by: Alex Marshall | February 28, 2008 at 07:51 PM
They sell this DVD at Costco.
Posted by: mcw | March 04, 2008 at 11:03 AM
Please consider another perspective of The Secret: www.thesecretantidote.com. Thanks. Thom Rutledge
Posted by: Thom | March 15, 2008 at 06:08 PM