posted
Has anyone heard of this? It's a book and a movie that claims to have the secret to Life, the Universe and Everything. Naturally, I was screaming "42!" from the moment the credits came on.
Anyway, my friend got the book for graduation last week and I randomly found the DVD in my brothers laptop that I'm trying to fix. So I watched the DVD and the beginning sounds like a cult. They keep talking about "the secret" and how it will save your life, but they don't say what it is. I was waiting for them to tell me where to send the check so I could turn it off and dismiss it. But they never did. They actually say what they think "the secret" is: the Law of Attraction.
Then they go into long explanations by "experts" and "leading" writers, philoshipers and scientists about how it works. Now it all sounds like a bunch of claptrap to me, but I can't help but think about it. It makes sense that you'd be happier if you thought about happy stuff more often. But their claiming that you can actually change the universe to fit your wim by adjusting your thoughts and feelings. And they claim to back it up with science.
I just don't know. It seems wacky as all get out, but then, yesterday I was concentrating on how good it would feel to not be late getting home and to have a smooth and happy drive, and I got green lights all the way home (which is really saying something) and no annoying drivers going too slow in front of me. I'm not gonna say this is because of "the secret," but still, it was odd and I can't stop thinking about it.
Someone save me and show me how and why I should completely dismiss this. I'm ready to start thinking somewhat sanely again.
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
I kind of get the sense that The Secret plagiarizes Earl Nightingale's The Strangest Secret. But I don't know, maybe these ideas are too old to be really "owned" by anyone. Anyway. I've posted elsewhere that I think people realizing their ambitions will probably cause them more suffering. But I don't know. That's easy to say when I have adequate food, shelter and all that kind of stuff.
P.S. I guess my standard of living does actually entail a tragic environmental impact, that causes me angst.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Vonk, you shouldn't completely dismiss it because your attitude does affect a lot of your life. I saw this stuff too and it helped me reaffirm that a positive attitude will usually bring about positive results. A friend of mine recently completed her first half-marathon and she is now training for her first marathon and she used "the secret" to help her achieve her goals. I know some of the secret seems way too farfetched but for me there is something to the power of positive thinking. I'd rather be positive and looking forward to my day than be negative and sad about my life. I always ask people who would you rather be around, a positive person or a negative person?
Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
1. It is not a secret. It's been discussed many, many, many times before.
2. We do that - filter the world according to what we want to see. Just as people can get into dangerous and destructive thought loops, people can get into positive thought loops. Yay!
3. The only reality we know is the reality we perceive. If we change our perception, it is as if we have changed reality. There is nothing metaphysical or supernatural going on. There doesn't need to be. Our brains are cool enough as it is.
4. An annoying driver is one who annoys you. If you are feeling more positive about the world in general and more generous, what you would have noticed when you were ready to get mad will completely pass you by and/or seem perfectly acceptable when you are feeling charitable.
The world has not changed. Your perception of it has. That's no small thing - be grateful for it.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Pooka, yea, I do recognize the irony of my screen name and my positive attitude. I could go on and on about my thoughts about The Dark Knight (Batman if you didn't know) but is a topic for another thread Katharina, I liked your last line, I think I am going to borrow that one
Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I find the concept of groups meeting to apply "The Secret" in their lives kind of creepy. But it's a free country.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
That's the part I'm having trouble with. A postive outlood makes a happy, positive person. Things are how we percieve them to be. These things seem like basic enough philosophies, and I generally accept them to be true. But this movie is trying to tell me that if I want a car, all I have to do is really really believe that I will get a car, and experience the feeling of having a car in my mind, in order to attract the reality of having a car. It says that the universe is analogous to a Aladin's genie, and that you can ask for anything.
The part that bothers me is that they approach it as scientific fact. That quatum physics shows that the mind creates the universe, so we can ask of it what we will.
I'm all for creating my reality with my perception. But if I can perfect the double-think and convince myself of all kinds of great things (as I'm honestly trying to do) it only effects what is in my mind, my perception, and my reality. It doesn't effect anyone else's, right? So a car, even if I really believe it exists and ride it all the time in my mind, won't really show up in my driveway. The Secret seems to claim that it will.
What am I missing? Is this more than just a positive outlook to cultivate a positive lifestyle?
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
You must already have a positive outlook to be living in the richest nation on earth and not dead from some terrible disease earlier in life.
Though I guess part of what they are saying with the quantum physics goes along with something I was saying about the parts of War and Peace that generally get removed in abridgments. Tolstoy goes on a bit about Freedom and Necessity, put another way, free will vs. fate. When we unite our free will with fate, then we can be like Napoleon, until that Russian winter kicks our butts.
I guess the thing is most people are twirling around in eddies, wanting conflicting things. I know I'm in that boat. If you get on this cosmic fast track, I don't know, doesn't that seem a little frightening? It should.
P.S. I keep adding. so I'll make this another post
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Vonk, if I remember correctly the secret is not totally passive. I don't think it works that you wish for a car and one shows up. I think that your belief in getting a car opens up the possibility of getting a car and thus leads you to a car. You still have to act.
Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Like I want to be attractive, but I also want to be comfortable, so I eat too much. I mean, I could look like the Tea Leoni character in Spanglish, but apart from putting in the work to get there, would I really want to be like her? Can I look like her without being crazy like she was? I don't mean to say that you can tell from looking at someone that they are compulsive and have a fragile ego, I'm just speculating on what would be involved if I went from being me to being more like that. What does it mean to have my appearance be the foremost desire of my heart? Or a nicer car?
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
My former boss was REALLY into "The Secret" and had me watch it. I agree with all of the things that have been said about positive outlooks and altering perceptions. But the things about quantum physics mentioned there were NOT scientific. They found like two people who happened to have fancy titles and also believe in the secret come on and essentially say "it's scientific." There was no scientific backing to it.
Some bits of it encouraged unhealthy spending. They said not to think about getting out of debt because all the universe will hear is "debt", but instead to focus on getting unexpected checks in the mail. And that if you think you can't afford something, all the universe will hear is "can't afford." I thought it was ridiculous and a bit scary that so many people are buying into it.
Positive perspectives are great. But a nice healthy dose of reality is important as well.
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote:I think that your belief in getting a car opens up the possibility of getting a car and thus leads you to a car. You still have to act.
Well, the proponents of "The Secret" feel that thinking positive thoughts is an act. When they were on Oprah, the need to act was discussed (primarily by Oprah), but that was not a theme of the DVD.
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Also, I didn't get that reference, kat. A little help?
Oh, I had these crazy relatives who were out to erase "help" and "need" and, I think "done" from their vocabularies. It was amusing and frightening at the same time.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
The video seemed to be kinda wishy washy on the necessity of action. One guy was talking about how he always got a good parking space, because he believed it was going to be there. Another talked about getting an internal push and acting on it right away, without reservation. Which generally seems like a bad idea to me: acting without thinking.
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah, the dept part of the movie was ridiculous. If you stop thinking about your debt, you won't be in debt? They kept showing the guy thinking about debt and then getting bills in the mail and he was so angry and they said it was because he should have focused on getting a check. I was thinking "no, he needs to pay his bills."
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
In regards to how far the author seems to take the concept, it reminds me a lot of 'What the Bleep do we Know?', which while interesting and contained some good things to think about, was endlessly infuriating and was mostly a load of B.S., particularly the scientific backing for their ideas.
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
In the first chapter of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is forced to go to church with the Widow Douglas. After hearing a lot about prayer and how he can have anything he prayed for, he prays for new fishhooks. After a day, nothing happened, so he gives up on prayer completely.
To be clear, I am NOT equating this "secret" to prayer, and I do NOT think there is something supernatural going on with this Oprah thing, but I do think there is with prayer. My actual personal opinion about prayer is that it is about having a relationship with God, but that relationship isn't one of Santa Claus and 3-year-old.
I suspect that praying for things might tap into the same results of positive thinking that this is supposed to. I also think that's fine - the exhortations for us to pray are meant to benefit us, and prayer does - it doesn't have to be supernatural.
But I am feeling a bit like Huck at the moment, and that's amusing to me.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Eh, I try to forget about my debt all the time, and the result is late fees and overlimit fees. Though I guess it depends. Some people worry incessantly, and that isn't helpful. What is needed is clarity and balance.
I do think this discussion has helped me solve a problem I've been struggling over for about a year. But it wasn't the Secret itself. It was realizing how I've had my heart set on something that was not as obviously shallow as a nicer car. Though I have been struggling with coveting nicer cars lately. It's almost like I wish my car would get smashed so I could have a new car. Hence my comparison of the Secret to the Monkey's Paw that I made on Sakeriver. I think God knows I don't really want to be in be in a car accident, or to be on the safe side, that I wish to be a competent and safe driver. Apart from speeding just enough to keep up.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Law of Attraction is an attractive concept, but it does a lot to not look true.
Can it overcome environmental conditioning? Not, probably, nearly as potently as claimed. I'm sure a vet with PTSD would love to will away flashbacks, and I'd love to will myself to be way less of a procrastinator, but ...
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think it's very related to prayer, though in the same way that marriage is related to sex. Prayer is using our creativity in an ordained way, but that creativity can be channeled how ever people want, sometimes with similar results to prayer.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by pooka: So why does the Universe hear "avoid debt" as "debt" but doesn't hear "can't afford" as "afford?" That's horse manure.
Apparently the real secret is figuring out the tricks to the universe's selective hearing.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hey, I heard about this guy who was really into this "Think good things and good things come your way. Say good things and good things come your way."
So he said things like, "Mission Accomplished" when, well, it really wasn't, and "Good Job Brownie" when Brownie really didn't do a good job. He kept saying "Stay the Course" when the course wasn't going to good and "He's a great lawyer." when he doesn't seem to be.
He believed, deep in his heart, that his Buddy Rumsfeld would never resign, his buddy Wolfowitz would clean up the World Bank, and his buddy Ken Lay actually knew what was best not for the energy companies, but for the country.
I mean its not like positive thinking and even positive spin could have any negative affects, like ending up in an unnecessary war.
My question is, does believing your enemy has WMD, and saying it out loud, what we would consider Positive Thinking?
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Secret I want to know is how to write a book filled with complete BS and suddenly have millions of people eating each other's children to get a copy.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by MightyCow: The Secret I want to know is how to write a book filled with complete BS and suddenly have millions of people eating each other's children to get a copy.
Easy. You make extravagant promises that everyone can get whatever they wish for without really working for it, and you make them believe you by citing so-called scientific fact, which is, after all, the new omni-religion of the world.
Posts: 1099 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah, the beginning of the movie had me really convinced it was a cult. Every one's dreamily talking about "the secret" that changed their lives and made all their dreams come true and brought them great riches and made their hoo-hoos bigger, like some magic bean or something.
But I've decided that I can't and won't dismiss The Secret entirely. Some of what they say has a lot of truth in it, about feeling good, and projecting those feelings on to people you meet, and taking control of your thoughts. The parts I can't take seriously are the one's that promise you new cars or lovers or money.
That's interesting that some people associate it with prayer. When I was watching, The Secret seemed to dismiss religion, and be almost sacrilegious, in that you don't need the higher power to get what you want, you control your own universe. But I suppose if a higher power is incorporated into the philosophy at the beginning, the practice wouldn't be all that different. It does seem like it would have a different focal point.
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Reliance on the power of one's self is actually something not all religions stamp out. It's part of one way in which people see Mormons as not Christian, because it's not apparent that we trust in the Lord, but rather seem to believe we can directly emulate him, that he unlocked the gates of death and hell but it's up to us to walk through them. Another analogy is that he built a bridge and it's up to us to cross it.
I prefer the analogy where we are soil, and the seed and the rain and the sunlight and all else come from God. Now there is a problem with my view from the Mormon perspective because it implies that humans are essentially different types of beings from God. But I think that was the whole point of Jesus Christ being made flesh, to unite the disparate natures of God and humans. Well, it continues to be confusing, and touches on varied questions like why it wouldn't be better for Adam and Eve to have never fallen (which is heresy for a Mormon).
Maybe it has to do with how soil is made from fallen and decayed plant matter. Sometimes I think I go too far with analogies, but Muhammed is always saying "Surely there is a sign in this thing for those who honor Allah."
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
On the subject of controlling your thoughts, as a religious type of person I struggled with compulsive obscene thoughts most of my life, and then after I realized they could kill me, I let them go. I accepted they were something I couldn't control. They still go whizzing by sometimes, but it's like being in a field watching the train pass, rather than standing on the track trying to stop it like I'm Mr. Incredible.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
It finally makes sense. The Secret explains why Pedro was able to promise the students that all of their wildest dreams would come true.
Posts: 684 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
