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Jan-Maat's Reviews > The Secret
The Secret
by
by
Jan-Maat's review
bookshelves: 21st-century, dishonourable-mention, fiction
Feb 12, 2015
bookshelves: 21st-century, dishonourable-mention, fiction
Reading for the 2nd time. Most recently started July 29, 2022.
In hindsight, I feel I was too kind with this book, it makes far more sense simply to describe it as evil.
It encourages victim blaming - since they only have themselves to blame for bringing their fates upon themselves for a lack of positiver thinking, and ultimately encourages the reader to blame themselves since when their wishes fail to become fishes there can only be one reason - the positive thinking wasn't quite positive enough, or didn't have quite the perfect tone of positivity to it. And in typical dreariness it discourages through its victim blaming an understanding of yourself or of the structural disadvantages that you may contribute towards in your society though acts of commission or omission that keep the less fortunate always on the back foot.
Perhaps the most worthwhile comment I can make about The Secret is that it is fascinating as a cultural document (view spoiler). It is a book that provides an insight to the preoccupations and fears of one of the wealthiest, healthiest and long-lived societies in human history. What it evidences is an obsession with gaining even more money, having even better health, and appearing eternally youthful (view spoiler). Dressed in the language of Quantum physics (view spoiler) there is an appeal to magical thinking. In The Secret God may or may not be dead, however the universe is benevolent, but stupid (view spoiler), and functions as an infinite catalogue for the pleasure and delight of all people who can order up whatever they want from existence by simply wishing for it. However there is a catch. You have to wish for things properly, by wishing only once and visualising (view spoiler) what you want precisely. If you haven't got anything back from the universe this is because you plainly haven't been wishing in the proper manner.
It would be strikingly ungenerous of me to say that there is nothing of value at all in The Secret, but making much of what value there may be would be rather like pulling out a cherry from a bowl full of cockroaches. It can be done, but you wouldn't want to eat the it even if you did. This is not then a book whose contents I endorse or advise any one to take personally (view spoiler).
The general idea is that you wish for something, visualise it. Then the frequency you emit at the quantum level (view spoiler) changes, the universe then responds to that frequency. If the frequency we emit is one of mega wealth, huge houses and soul mates then that's what we get from the universe. While if it is of sinking ships, world financial disasters or war then that is what we gets back.
Perhaps you feel doubtful about all this - but fear not for here come some celebrity endorsements! According to Byrne all these people taught the same message: poets such as William Shakespeare, Robert Browning, and William Blake delivered it in their poetry. Musicians such as Ludwig van Beethoven (view spoiler) expressed it through their music. Artists such as Leonardo da Vinci depicted it in their paintings (view spoiler) . Great thinkers including Socrates, Plato, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Pythagoras, Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Victor Hugo shared it in their writings and teachings... (p4). There's nothing like a celebrity endorsement. Particularly when the celebrity is too dead to take issue with it.
Later on we are told that Andrew Carneige, Abraham Lincoln and Henry Ford also all knew and practised The Secret (view spoiler). But I find the mention of Goethe particularly interesting since his Faust and what Byrne is presenting is a similar kind of fairy tale. Except that in the folk tale tradition the three wishes, the genie out of the bottle, or the pact with the Devil, all come with a sting in the tale. For Byrne the sting is ignored and instead we get a pure dose of wish fulfilment. Midias and his golden touch would be seen as something positive and not as frightening, alienating and eventually potentially fatal as it was.
Still, there is a sting. Firstly you have to be perpetually positive (view spoiler), then you have to not listen to anybody who is still than positive for fear of your thoughts being infected by theirs and thus attracting some negative outcome to yourself (view spoiler). Finally if you accept that you are in control of your fate and the nature of your existence by means of being able to change the world through your wish power, then it follows that all other people can do the same and have only themselves to blame for every way that their lives are less than perfect, and ultimately if you have debt, only a bare hovel to live in, are sick, or even age, then you only have yourself to blame.
This is a belief that embraces the alienating effect of modern life as its centre piece. You are alone, you can't help others, you should not even listen to them. Instead you are to focus intently on your own desires. There is no room in The Secret for collective organisation and action. No families, no joint partnerships, no professional organisations or unions to deal with the problems and difficulties that we experience in our lives. Instead there is only the atomised individual. In place of the concrete joys of conviviality and relationships with actual people there is an abstract relationship with the universe which as mentioned above has a limited understanding of language and functions purely as an unlimited catalogue.
I find the mention of events in history where masses of lives were lost a fascinating example of victim blaming - particularly in the context of Australian and American history. In the nineteenth century commentators took the view that aboriginal peoples would die out because of their inherent inferiority and ability to cope with the modern world (view spoiler). Now when their populations have been much reduced we can blame that on their inability to think happy positive thoughts. This is a book that works to re-enforce the existing status quo. Those who are successful can only be so for their ability to think positive thought and attract good things to themselves, while those who are not successful are the victims of their own inability to properly visualise what they want as opposed to having face some structural disadvantage in the way that society is ordered.
One can see here how this approach makes life easy in a way. One doesn't have to understand or appreciate the world and the circumstances of other's lives. One can straight away be judgemental: they brought it on themselves, whether it is cancer, war, contagious disease, or bad architecture. (view spoiler)
Victim blaming fits well with The Secret's role as a cultural document. Although it does seem to refine the concept. The good news is that if I punch you it is your fault. I am innocent, you attracted that punch to yourself through your lack of positive thoughts. Indeed it I seize you, carry you off to a offshore enclave, hold you in captivity for over ten years, torture you from time to time, without any legal process this is also something you attracted to yourself through negative thoughts and quite rightly I will be well paid for doing so because I think only positive, nice, thoughts and therefore attract as a modern Midas glittering palaces, big cars and multiple soul mates to myself (view spoiler).
It strikes me that The Secret will appeal to people who are intimidated by evidence of the world's complexity and feel out of control. The Secret says very firmly that you can, indeed should be, in control. However since sickness, old age and death exist wouldn't belief in this book give rise to anxiety (view spoiler)? Every time you have a cold or find a grey hair you are confronted with evidence of your own inability to think insufficiently positively!
You don't have to mad to live this life, but if you are...
In a newspaper article I read a journalist interviewed the psychologist who wrote the second report on Anders Brevik - the one which found him sane. In response to the journalist's question about how appropriate his finding was the psychologist responded that hundreds of people have written to Brevik in prison all praising him for his actions - are they all insane too, he asked rhetorically.
My response would be yes. But then perhaps to be sane in the world would be the most insane reaction one could have (view spoiler). We don't for the most part notice the amount of insanity around us because on the whole it doesn't cause that much friction. It's only in books like The Secret that the inner craziness of people's private lives gets laid out in public:
Still my favourite part of this book is a fine example of how irrational the rational world of business can be.
Oil production in Belize took off in late 2006, peaked in 2010 and remains in steady decline.
Probably not my final thoughts
If the idea of the universe as a complex place that requires understanding makes you uncomfortable, if the idea of bad things happening to good people is a problem for you, then books like The Secret hold the solution. It's offer is that life is simple. Everybody gets exactly what they are due to get, everything works fine just as it is, and you can be in control.
This could be a reassuring message for some, particularly since it relives you of the exhausting work of having to appreciate the world, all its interactions and how we are all implicated and bound up with one another - allowing you to get on with the business of being judgemental instead.
It doesn't work for me because it requires a pretty contorted view on existence as far as I can tell and its focus on material goods leaves me cold. It also doesn't just recommend ignoring a good chunk of the normal experience of human life but recommends vigorous self censorship to achieve a kind of cargo cult effect - only through the thorough imitation of the assumed thought habits of the rich and famous can one achieve the unlimited power to alter the geology of Belize.
I'm left with the odd feeling that the author read Foucault's Pendulum and thought that those guys were really on to something with "The Plan".
Is it is surprise that our society throws up a book like The Secret from time to time, and it is apt that it appeared on the eve of a financial crash, a clear and vigorous trumpet blast at odds with complex and shifting reality.
It encourages victim blaming - since they only have themselves to blame for bringing their fates upon themselves for a lack of positiver thinking, and ultimately encourages the reader to blame themselves since when their wishes fail to become fishes there can only be one reason - the positive thinking wasn't quite positive enough, or didn't have quite the perfect tone of positivity to it. And in typical dreariness it discourages through its victim blaming an understanding of yourself or of the structural disadvantages that you may contribute towards in your society though acts of commission or omission that keep the less fortunate always on the back foot.
Perhaps the most worthwhile comment I can make about The Secret is that it is fascinating as a cultural document (view spoiler). It is a book that provides an insight to the preoccupations and fears of one of the wealthiest, healthiest and long-lived societies in human history. What it evidences is an obsession with gaining even more money, having even better health, and appearing eternally youthful (view spoiler). Dressed in the language of Quantum physics (view spoiler) there is an appeal to magical thinking. In The Secret God may or may not be dead, however the universe is benevolent, but stupid (view spoiler), and functions as an infinite catalogue for the pleasure and delight of all people who can order up whatever they want from existence by simply wishing for it. However there is a catch. You have to wish for things properly, by wishing only once and visualising (view spoiler) what you want precisely. If you haven't got anything back from the universe this is because you plainly haven't been wishing in the proper manner.
It would be strikingly ungenerous of me to say that there is nothing of value at all in The Secret, but making much of what value there may be would be rather like pulling out a cherry from a bowl full of cockroaches. It can be done, but you wouldn't want to eat the it even if you did. This is not then a book whose contents I endorse or advise any one to take personally (view spoiler).
The general idea is that you wish for something, visualise it. Then the frequency you emit at the quantum level (view spoiler) changes, the universe then responds to that frequency. If the frequency we emit is one of mega wealth, huge houses and soul mates then that's what we get from the universe. While if it is of sinking ships, world financial disasters or war then that is what we gets back.
Perhaps you feel doubtful about all this - but fear not for here come some celebrity endorsements! According to Byrne all these people taught the same message: poets such as William Shakespeare, Robert Browning, and William Blake delivered it in their poetry. Musicians such as Ludwig van Beethoven (view spoiler) expressed it through their music. Artists such as Leonardo da Vinci depicted it in their paintings (view spoiler) . Great thinkers including Socrates, Plato, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Pythagoras, Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Victor Hugo shared it in their writings and teachings... (p4). There's nothing like a celebrity endorsement. Particularly when the celebrity is too dead to take issue with it.
Later on we are told that Andrew Carneige, Abraham Lincoln and Henry Ford also all knew and practised The Secret (view spoiler). But I find the mention of Goethe particularly interesting since his Faust and what Byrne is presenting is a similar kind of fairy tale. Except that in the folk tale tradition the three wishes, the genie out of the bottle, or the pact with the Devil, all come with a sting in the tale. For Byrne the sting is ignored and instead we get a pure dose of wish fulfilment. Midias and his golden touch would be seen as something positive and not as frightening, alienating and eventually potentially fatal as it was.
Still, there is a sting. Firstly you have to be perpetually positive (view spoiler), then you have to not listen to anybody who is still than positive for fear of your thoughts being infected by theirs and thus attracting some negative outcome to yourself (view spoiler). Finally if you accept that you are in control of your fate and the nature of your existence by means of being able to change the world through your wish power, then it follows that all other people can do the same and have only themselves to blame for every way that their lives are less than perfect, and ultimately if you have debt, only a bare hovel to live in, are sick, or even age, then you only have yourself to blame.
This is a belief that embraces the alienating effect of modern life as its centre piece. You are alone, you can't help others, you should not even listen to them. Instead you are to focus intently on your own desires. There is no room in The Secret for collective organisation and action. No families, no joint partnerships, no professional organisations or unions to deal with the problems and difficulties that we experience in our lives. Instead there is only the atomised individual. In place of the concrete joys of conviviality and relationships with actual people there is an abstract relationship with the universe which as mentioned above has a limited understanding of language and functions purely as an unlimited catalogue.
"Everything that surrounds you right now in your life, including the things you're complaining about, you've attracted"...
Often when people first hear this part of the Secret they recall events in history where masses of lives were lost, and they find it incomprehensible that so many people could have attracted themselves to the event (view spoiler). By the law of attraction, they had to be on the same frequency as the event. It doesn't necessarily mean they thought of that exact event, but the frequency of their thoughts matched the frequency of the event. If people believe they can be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they have no control over outside circumstances, those thoughts of fear, separation, and powerlessness, if persistent, can attract them to being in the wrong place at the wrong time
...You have a choice, and whatever you choose to think will become your life experience.
Nothing can come into your experience unless you summon it though persistent thoughts.
pp27-28
If you are complaining, the law of attraction will powerfully bring into your life more situations for you to complain about. If you are listening to some one else complain and focusing on that, sympathizing with them, agreeing with them, in that moment, you are attracting more situations to yourself to complain about p17
I find the mention of events in history where masses of lives were lost a fascinating example of victim blaming - particularly in the context of Australian and American history. In the nineteenth century commentators took the view that aboriginal peoples would die out because of their inherent inferiority and ability to cope with the modern world (view spoiler). Now when their populations have been much reduced we can blame that on their inability to think happy positive thoughts. This is a book that works to re-enforce the existing status quo. Those who are successful can only be so for their ability to think positive thought and attract good things to themselves, while those who are not successful are the victims of their own inability to properly visualise what they want as opposed to having face some structural disadvantage in the way that society is ordered.
One can see here how this approach makes life easy in a way. One doesn't have to understand or appreciate the world and the circumstances of other's lives. One can straight away be judgemental: they brought it on themselves, whether it is cancer, war, contagious disease, or bad architecture. (view spoiler)
Victim blaming fits well with The Secret's role as a cultural document. Although it does seem to refine the concept. The good news is that if I punch you it is your fault. I am innocent, you attracted that punch to yourself through your lack of positive thoughts. Indeed it I seize you, carry you off to a offshore enclave, hold you in captivity for over ten years, torture you from time to time, without any legal process this is also something you attracted to yourself through negative thoughts and quite rightly I will be well paid for doing so because I think only positive, nice, thoughts and therefore attract as a modern Midas glittering palaces, big cars and multiple soul mates to myself (view spoiler).
It strikes me that The Secret will appeal to people who are intimidated by evidence of the world's complexity and feel out of control. The Secret says very firmly that you can, indeed should be, in control. However since sickness, old age and death exist wouldn't belief in this book give rise to anxiety (view spoiler)? Every time you have a cold or find a grey hair you are confronted with evidence of your own inability to think insufficiently positively!
You don't have to mad to live this life, but if you are...
In a newspaper article I read a journalist interviewed the psychologist who wrote the second report on Anders Brevik - the one which found him sane. In response to the journalist's question about how appropriate his finding was the psychologist responded that hundreds of people have written to Brevik in prison all praising him for his actions - are they all insane too, he asked rhetorically.
My response would be yes. But then perhaps to be sane in the world would be the most insane reaction one could have (view spoiler). We don't for the most part notice the amount of insanity around us because on the whole it doesn't cause that much friction. It's only in books like The Secret that the inner craziness of people's private lives gets laid out in public:
The law of attraction states that what you focus on you will get, so I got a bank statement, I whited out the total, and I put a new total in there. I put exactly how much I wanted to see in the bank (p104)
A game I created that help shift my feelings about my pile of bills was to pretend that the bills were actually checks. I would jump for joy as I opened them and say, "more money for me! Thank you. Thank you." I took each bill, imagined it was a check, and then I added a zero to it in my mind to make it even more. I got a notepad and wrote at the top of each page "I have received," and then I would list all the amounts of the bills with an added zero. Next to each amount I would write "Thank you," and feel the feelings of gratitude for receiving it - to the point where I had tears in my eyes. Then I would take each bill, which looked very small compared to what I had received, and I would pay it with gratitude! (p105)
Still my favourite part of this book is a fine example of how irrational the rational world of business can be.
The true story of a Belize oil team is an inspiring example of the power of the human mind to bring forth resources (view spoiler) The directors of Belize Natural Energy Limited were trained by the eminent Dr. Tony Quinn, who specialises in Humanistic Physiology training. With Dr. Quinn's mind power training, the directors were confident that their mental picture of Belize being a successful oil producing country would be achieved...and in one short year their dream and vision became a reality. Belize Natural Energy Limited discovered oil of the highest quality, in abundant flows...Belize has become an oil-producing country because an extraordinary team of people believed in the unlimited power of their mind.
Nothing is unlimited-not resources or anything else. It is only limited in the human mind... (pp148-9)
Oil production in Belize took off in late 2006, peaked in 2010 and remains in steady decline.
Probably not my final thoughts
If the idea of the universe as a complex place that requires understanding makes you uncomfortable, if the idea of bad things happening to good people is a problem for you, then books like The Secret hold the solution. It's offer is that life is simple. Everybody gets exactly what they are due to get, everything works fine just as it is, and you can be in control.
This could be a reassuring message for some, particularly since it relives you of the exhausting work of having to appreciate the world, all its interactions and how we are all implicated and bound up with one another - allowing you to get on with the business of being judgemental instead.
It doesn't work for me because it requires a pretty contorted view on existence as far as I can tell and its focus on material goods leaves me cold. It also doesn't just recommend ignoring a good chunk of the normal experience of human life but recommends vigorous self censorship to achieve a kind of cargo cult effect - only through the thorough imitation of the assumed thought habits of the rich and famous can one achieve the unlimited power to alter the geology of Belize.
I'm left with the odd feeling that the author read Foucault's Pendulum and thought that those guys were really on to something with "The Plan".
Is it is surprise that our society throws up a book like The Secret from time to time, and it is apt that it appeared on the eve of a financial crash, a clear and vigorous trumpet blast at odds with complex and shifting reality.
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Reading Progress
February 12, 2015
– Shelved
February 19, 2015
–
Started Reading
February 19, 2015
–
2.53%
"the ripe aroma of horseshit rises to my nose as I read the first few pages of this"
page
5
February 20, 2015
–
19.19%
"The Secret: the universe of Barbie married to a lobotomised version of neuro-linguistic programming"
page
38
February 20, 2015
–
25.76%
"The author holds that the universe is like the Genie from the lamp that grants three wishes - except that there is no limit to number and extent of the wishes. Yet the entire point of those kinds of stories up to and including Faust is that there is a sting in the tail, a cost to wishing, it wasn't a good thing that all that Midas touched turned to gold - we learn that as children. If I was to offer up this book"
page
51
February 22, 2015
–
29.8%
""It is your thought that food is responsible for putting on weight that actually has food put on weight"
and to think all this time I thought that eating it was the issue..."
page
59
and to think all this time I thought that eating it was the issue..."
February 22, 2015
–
43.94%
""The first story is about a woman named Jeannie, who bought a DVD of the secret and was watching it at least once a day so that she would absorb the message right into the cells of her body"
can you parody something that parodies itself?"
page
87
can you parody something that parodies itself?"
February 22, 2015
–
50.0%
""The only reason any person does not have enough money is because they are blocking money from coming to them with their thoughts"
isn't good to know who is to blame for being poor"
page
99
isn't good to know who is to blame for being poor"
February 23, 2015
–
55.05%
""If you have been brought up to believe that being wealthy is not spiritual, then I highly recommend you read The Millionaires of the Bible series...In these glorious books you will discover that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Jesus were not only prosperity teachers, but also millionaires themselves, with more affluent lifestyles than many present-day millionaires could conceive of."do I laugh here or cry"
page
109
February 23, 2015
–
65.66%
""Illness cannot exist in a body that has harmonious thoughts...Imperfect thoughts are the cause of all humanity's ills, including disease, poverty and unhappiness"
= if you're poor, sick or sad its your own fault"
page
130
= if you're poor, sick or sad its your own fault"
February 23, 2015
–
66.16%
""Aging is limited thinking...You can think your way to the perfect state of health, the perfect body, the perfect weight, and eternal youth. You can bring it into being, through your consistent thinking of perfection"
excellent, so ageing is our own fault too and not simply part of the natural order of things"
page
131
excellent, so ageing is our own fault too and not simply part of the natural order of things"
February 23, 2015
–
66.16%
""Don't cover your cake with sixty candles, unless you want to summon aging to you. Unfortunately, Western society has become fixed on age, and in reality there is no such thing"
I like how this old page shows how she too is fixed on ageing, and yet it is still better than the alternative ;)"
page
131
I like how this old page shows how she too is fixed on ageing, and yet it is still better than the alternative ;)"
February 24, 2015
–
66.67%
""You cannot 'catch' anything unless you think you can, and thinking you can is inviting it to you with your thought. You are also inviting illness if you are listening to people talking about their illness"
so there you go - shun the sick too!"
page
132
so there you go - shun the sick too!"
February 24, 2015
–
73.23%
""When I discovered The Secret I made a decision that I would not watch the news or read newspapers anymore, because it did not make me feel good"
my impression is that this approach encourages brittleness and fragility. Her sense of happiness is precious yet continuously threatened by real things - sadness, loss, sicking, ageing. All of which she seeks to seal herself off from."
page
145
my impression is that this approach encourages brittleness and fragility. Her sense of happiness is precious yet continuously threatened by real things - sadness, loss, sicking, ageing. All of which she seeks to seal herself off from."
February 24, 2015
–
73.74%
""You are the master of your life, & the universe is answering your every command"
there's a sentence to appeal to those who are uneasy at being powerless in an apparently unresponsive universe."
page
146
there's a sentence to appeal to those who are uneasy at being powerless in an apparently unresponsive universe."
February 24, 2015
–
75.25%
""The true story of a Belize oil team is an inspiring example of the human mind to bring forth resources. The directors of Belize Natural Energy Ltd were trained by the eminent Dr Tony Quinn...with Dr. Quinn's mind power training, the directors were confident that their mental picture of Belize being a successful oil producing country would be achieved"
a case of mind over geology..."
page
149
a case of mind over geology..."
February 24, 2015
–
79.8%
""I don't care what city you're living in, you've got enough power in your body, potential power, to illuminate the whole city for nearly a week"
People pay to listen to this guy speak, & I don't mean the comedy circuit."
page
158
People pay to listen to this guy speak, & I don't mean the comedy circuit."
February 24, 2015
–
Finished Reading
July 29, 2022
–
Started Reading
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Jan-Maat
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Feb 20, 2015 01:02PM
as symptomatic of the society that plunged itself into the late financial crisis would I be guilty of taking it too seriously!?
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I agree with your view point here. James Allen's "As a Man thinketh" also left me feeling along the same lines. Doesn't work for me either. What is alarming however is that such books are taken as guides by many to live by.
if I punch you, in fact if I punch You to better demonstrate that this is written for You, it is Your fault. I am innocent, You attracted that punch to yourself. Indeed it I seize You, carry You off to a offshore enclave, hold you in captivity for over ten years, torture You from time to time, without any legal process this is also something You attracted to Yourself and quite rightly I will be well paid for doing so because I think only positive, nice, thoughts Sounds like a book that should be popular amongst employees at Guantanamo.
Miriam wrote: " Sounds like a book that should be popular amongst employees at Guantanamo. "that was my thought. This is a very sad book in several ways :(
Yes. It's widespread popularity depresses me.
Miriam wrote: "Yes. It's widespread popularity depresses me."Barbara Ehrenreich's book Smile or Die really goes into these prosperity churches in the USA and cults of positivity. I can't even believe that the secret makes anyone happy - so great is the emphasis on not even listening to negative thoughts or emotions for fear of contagion and so stressed is the idea that you only grow old , get sick or are poor because of your own insufficiently positive thoughts that adherents must be continually policing themselves if not self-hating
I bet many readers elide that part and focus on thinking 
My friends' ratings:2
**** 2
*** 10
** 1
* 8!
including one who has placed it on "the-shelf-in-hell". I suppose some would consider that a recommendation?
I am very much looking forward to your final review.
Ted wrote: "My friends' ratings:2
**** 2
*** 10
** 1
* 8!
including one who has placed it on "the-shelf-in-hell". I suppose some would consider that a recommendation?"
I'm surprised by the three star people. I would have thought that this is strictly a love it or hate it/ would rather that the nature of human interaction in society was such that people weren't attracted to this kind of thing deep sigh kind of book
Miriam wrote: "I bet many readers elide that part and focus on thinking greedy positive thought to attract desired outcomes. Also, I notice the people I know best who like this book demonstrate some combination o..."Yeah, I was thinking that it was interesting that the book doesn't discuss crime at all.
If I steal your handbag is that because you are scared of being robbed and attract the crime to you or is it because I am thinking really, really hard of growing wealthy and the universe helps me grow rich by means of stealing handbags?
ambyr wrote: "I am very much looking forward to your final review."me too, not such quite how I'll do it either!
Jan-Maat wrote: "it was interesting that the book doesn't discuss crime at all.If I steal your handbag is that because you are scared of being robbed and attract the crime to you or is it because I am thinking really, really hard of growing wealthy and the universe helps me grow rich by means of stealing handbags? "
Perhaps both? You are thinking positive,
Jan-Maat wrote: "Ted wrote: "My friends' ratings:2
**** 2
*** 10
** 1
* 8!
including one who has placed it on "the-shelf-in-hell". I suppose some would consider that a recommendation?"
I'm surprised by the ..."
The *** raters may be people who hate making decisions, or offending others. Or who simply didn't read it?
Ted wrote: "The *** raters may be people who hate making decisions, or offending others. Or who simply didn't read it? "Its probably that I'm considerably less generous than the three star raters are
Loved the spoilers, Jan-Maat!! This is part of the way that The Secret functions, a stepping stone with a familiar name leads to the bizarre conclusion that the universe is a giant, friendly, mail order catalogue.
Haha! Your thoughts echo with mine on the book. It did leave me feeling cold and uncomfortable. Very well expressed!
One of the most entertaining reviews I've read here! *Nods*, Jan-Maat.
Rakhi wrote: "Loved the spoilers, Jan-Maat!! This is part of the way that The Secret functions, a stepping stone with a familiar name leads to the bizarre conclusion that the universe is a giant, friendly, mai..."
ah, yes, uncomfortable...
Nicole~ wrote: "One of the most entertaining reviews I've read here! *Nods*, Jan-Maat."oh, thank you! There are many entertaining reviews here, mind you this is a particularly crazy book
Jan-Maat wrote: "Nicole~ wrote: "One of the most entertaining reviews I've read here! *Nods*, Jan-Maat."oh, thank you! There are many entertaining reviews here, mind you this is a particularly crazy book"
I've read it, no, more like skimmed it for all the time I could endure it, and I so agree with your criticisms.
In my experience, Magic and Wishing have a shockingly lower ratio to . Not surprisingly, this review confirms that anecdotal experience rather than overturns it. Fantastic work here--thanks for taking one for the team.
A wonderful review - I really admire you for being able to comment so thoughtfully on something so alien to your perspectives.What an utterly nauseating-sounding book though! I like Ted's friend who placed it on 'the-shelf-in-hell'. Oh yeah! :O)
It would be strikingly ungenerous of me to say that there is nothing of value at all in The Secret, but making much of what value there may be would be rather like pulling out a cherry from a bowl full of cockroaches. It can be done, but you wouldn't want to eat the it even if you did.This is an amazing metaphor.
ambyr wrote: "This is an amazing metaphor. "yes, I heartlessly stole it from another book! The original was something like 'an appetising bowl of cherries will be spoiled by the addition of a single cockroach but a single cherry will not make a bowl of cockroaches any more attractive'
Caroline wrote: "A wonderful review - I really admire you for being able to comment so thoughtfully on something so alien to your perspectives.What an utterly nauseating-sounding book though! I like Ted's frien..."
it is what it is, I suppose I feel less nausea and more that there is a sense of despair about it - like someone fixated on the belief that winning the lottery is the only way to make their life better.
Sean wrote: "In my experience, Magic and Wishing have a shockingly lower ratio to Perspiration than even Genius. Not surprisingly, this review confirms that anecdotal experience rather than overturns it. Fantas..."The clever thing about this book is how it works with the power of anecdote - in the world of The Secret my anecdotal evidence that I haven't got things just by wishing for them only serves to prove that my thinking isn't positive enough ;)
Jan-Maat wrote: "Sean wrote: "In my experience, Magic and Wishing have a shockingly lower ratio to Perspiration than even Genius. Not surprisingly, this review confirms that anecdotal experience rather than overtur..."Ha. So the author would claim I am too cynical for magic to work. I'm far too Han Solo to believe in the Force. Crap! Nothing so effective as an unassailable "you just don't believe enough".
Sean wrote: "Jan-Maat wrote: "Sean wrote: "In my experience, Magic and Wishing have a shockingly lower ratio to Perspiration than even Genius. Not surprisingly, this review confirms that anecdotal experience ra..."The author has made a very neat package of the whole idea.
In-cred-ible.Isn't the definition of a psychosis the inability to distinguish between the real world and fantasy? There's a definite disconnect here, I'd say, however she may be quite aware that this is all bullshit, but bullshit that provides a good way of making money out of the suckers who buy it.
I'm a little worried by your comment that our society throws up a book like this now and again - I hope you are not taking anything away from her personal responsibility.
·°²¹°ù±ð²Ô· wrote: "In-cred-ible.Isn't the definition of a psychosis the inability to distinguish between the real world and fantasy? There's a definite disconnect here, I'd say, however she may be quite aware that t..."
Byrne says that your fantasy is reality - that is the whole premise of the book. Perhaps one has to watch the DVD of the film version eight times a day so that your cells understand this, but that is what she says.
Who knows, maybe she's selling snakeoil, then again maybe she believes it herself?
Jan-Maat wrote: "·°²¹°ù±ð²Ô· wrote: "In-cred-ible.Isn't the definition of a psychosis the inability to distinguish between the real world and fantasy? There's a definite disconnect here, I'd say, however she may be qu..."
That's always the question that intrigues me, Jan. Does the author of this sort of book (or the commentator on Fox news, or the Senator from Oklahoma denying climate change, for that matter) really believe what they're saying? Or is it all a matter or ulterior motives prompting a cynical disregard of the truth?
Ted wrote: "That's always the question that intrigues me, Jan. Does the author of this sort of book (or the commentator on Fox news, or the Senator from Oklahoma denying climate change, for that matter) really believe what they're saying? Or is it all a matter or ulterior motives prompting a cynical disregard of the truth? "I seem to remember there has been some research that suggests that people come to believe what they say.
For this author why not believe? She writes the book, has it published, gets money for it - doesn't that prove to her that her wishes become reality?
In the case of climate change, I don't know, but denying climate change is I suspect the tip of the ideological iceberg - if you believe in "free markets", never ending expansionary capitalism, that the markets are always right, etc etc, then in a way you really can't believe in climate change.
Jan-Maat wrote: "Ted wrote: "That's always the question that intrigues me, Jan. Does the author of this sort of book (or the commentator on Fox news, or the Senator from Oklahoma denying climate change, for that ma..."Well, the suggestion that people can't believe in climate change does square with a finding a few years ago that the prime motivator for not believing was fear - in many forms, and fear of many different things, partly the stuff that you suggest.
As for authors selling BS - why not believe? surely plays a part, particularly for this book. I suppose it is sort of self-reinforcing. Ah well, life goes on, for now at least.
Ted wrote: "As for authors selling BS - why not believe? surely plays a part, particularly for this book. I suppose it is sort of self-reinforcing. Ah well, life goes on, for now at least. "Barbara Ehrenreich's book "Smile or Die" was very interesting about the whole phenomena of positive thinking (and Byrne is just an extreme example of that)
related article here:
and also a positive mindset is positive for the person rather than being a nattering Nabob of negativity ;)
Miriam wrote: "Think Scott has read the Secret?"
possibly. But then again the culture of positivity, to the point were even mentioning something negative is to be avoided is very strong in some quarters - it is there to some extent in something like Neuro-linguistic programming for instance. Then again I get the impression that in the USA the whole issue of the climate and sustainability is so politicised that a policy like that doesn't surprise me. It is very 1984 too, unmaking reality by changing the language you can use until it becomes impossible to express some ideas altogether!
Jan-Maat wrote: "Miriam wrote: "Think Scott has read the Secret?"
possibly. But then again the culture of positiv..."
Yes to your last sentence.
Spot on! You vocalize all the issues I have with books like this.
Maria wrote: "Spot on! You vocalize all the issues I have with books like this."thank you, I am very glad to be in agreement with you Maria
Hilarious and quality review that actually answers the question that begged me for years... What is this book actually about ? Bullshit, it appears.
Sophie wrote: "Hilarious and quality review that actually answers the question that begged me for years... What is this book actually about ? Bullshit, it appears."yes, but given time you can package and market your bullshit as well rotten manure, ideal for fertilising all gardens!
Jan-Maat wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Hilarious and quality review that actually answers the question that begged me for years... What is this book actually about ? Bullshit, it appears."yes, but given time you can pac..."
:'D :'D There's a true and deep life lesson in that
Sophie wrote: "Jan-Maat wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Hilarious and quality review that actually answers the question that begged me for years... What is this book actually about ? Bullshit, it appears."yes, but given..."
yes, when life shits on you, make fertiliser?
Jan-Maat wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Jan-Maat wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Hilarious and quality review that actually answers the question that begged me for years... What is this book actually about ? Bullshit, it appears."..."
Yes. From now on, I'll focus on being a worm.
Reading the subject book would be torture of the highest order, but your review is a gem. I can only hope that your analysis of yrne’s tomfoolery is widely read and heeded.
Thanks for your reference to O Alienista, I feel like giving it a shot! Incidentally, I couldn't agree more with your views on the thrice-holy law of attraction...
P.E. wrote: "Thanks for your reference to O Alienista, I feel like giving it a shot! Incidentally, I couldn't agree more with your views on the thrice-holy law of attraction..."oh it is a great story, a bit obvious maybe, but still a lot of fun (and quite true as well I feel)!
Sophie wrote: "Jan-Maat wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Jan-Maat wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Hilarious and quality review that actually answers the question that begged me for years... What is this book actually about ? Bullsh..."it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it
Carol wrote: "Reading the subject book would be torture of the highest order, but your review is a gem. I can only hope that your analysis of yrne’s tomfoolery is widely read and heeded."thank you, Carol, I suppose because of the potential damage to the reader's falling jaw, this book could be used as a form of torture ;)
Wow I just stumbled upon this review. I really like the way you write and I feel like this review was spot on and very entertaining! Noticed you were only the top 16th review on this site, I'm sure if you manifested you could be number 1 (I kid I kid, but honestly it's a great review and very insightful!).I have to check out your other recommendations, thanks so much sir/ma'am.
