It's no Secret, it's utter Shite!

Dumb logo, meant to inspire an "old world" Renaissance wisdom

I watched The Secret with my roomy the other night. Her friend had downloaded it off the net. His skepticism not wanting to pay for it proved valid as the video played. It was about as useful as a fortune cookie. But it proved to be an interesting study in manipulation and spin.

At the time I didn't know what it was, and I hadn't yet heard and seen all the hype surrounding it. Here it is, in a gist. The hype. From their web page.

• "The Secret is released to the world! This ground-breaking feature length movie presentation reveals The Great Secret of the universe. It has been passed throughout the ages, traveling through centuries... to reach you and humankind.
  
  This is The Secret to everything - the secret to unlimited joy, health, money, relationships, love, youth: everything you have ever wanted.
  
  In this astonishing program are ALL the resources you will ever need to understand and live The Secret. For the first time in history, the world's leading scientists, authors, and philosophers will reveal The Secret that utterly transformed the lives of every person who ever knew it... Plato, Newton, Carnegie, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Einstein.
  
  Now YOU will know The Secret. And it could change your life forever."

Yeah, OK. so.... What is the secret? Well, after watching the video, I can reveal it to you- so you don't have to watch it. It's basically the power of positive thinking. How if you dream it, you can achieve it... how the universe will give you everything you want. Well, more specifically, you will ATTRACT it. Even physical stuff like cars and homes.

I think it's bullshit and I'll tell you why later. The other sub-point they made was that by being grateful for what we have, and not focusing on the negative, we can alter how things unfold for ourselves. This i do agree with, but only because our moods affect how we act which affects those around us, and ultimately, everything we get, at the end of the day, comes from other humans. But why the focus on what we get?

The video was clearly geared towards the average to sub-average American. It repeated over and over the same concept, and had dumb testimonial after dumb testimonial from people who were "very successful in their fields" reinforcing the concept. It even had really poorly written anecdotes a la an after school special meant to manipulate us into feeling like we were a part of something. Like the touching story about a single father who dreamed of living in a mansion... who took a picture out of a magazine as motivation, hung it on his wall, only to move into that mansion- not knowing it was the one he picked out of a magazine five years earlier. Yeah, sure. OK dokies.

They didn't give any hard ideas as to what we can do, and should do, to improve our lives, beyond how we think. They just said over and over again that you should get rid of negative energy, like "I want to get out of debt" and instead think "I want to make a lot of money." And they used the anecdotes as "proof" that this way of thinking was the reason that these people found success, that it "worked." And who could argue? If you didn't find success, well, you weren't thinking hard enough, positive enough. IT is a fail proof theory. At least one you couldn't disprove in court.

BULLSHIT

They also had the audacity to say how people like Gandhi and Mother Theresa knew "the secret" and attributed their success to it!!? Sadly they couldn't get any testimonials from either of them. More on this later.

The makers of this DVD tried to anticipate people like me, who would be out to debunk their claims, and they took some steps in their DVD to beat me to the punch. I am sure this brought millions of people down form the fence, after all, it appeared now as if "they had nothing to hide."

They anticipated my questions. Like... If everyone uses the "secret" how could the universe supply everyone with big houses and cars and such? It's impossible. They just said that the universe has an infinite amount of resources for us and it is untapped. That we don't yet know the capacity of it. This is clearly a cop out. They call it a "law of attraction". Well, no economic universe would support this law, just the basics of supply and demand would trump it, and in nature, well, there are other laws. Like survival of the fittest... even the average American watching Olympic Ice Skating understands that not everyone can win, that their will always be a Russian Judge or worse...

Tonya's visions of a knee injury trumped Nancy's visions of Gold

Another criticism they anticipated was people claiming that "they were just out to make a buck". They said how they already "have been widely successful and they just wanted to share the secret with everyone". (Some secret!) In other words, they painted themselves as giving kind people and the world bought it. Literally. That DVD is selling like hot cakes, and why?

Because people are always on the look out for the easy way out, they also want to believe in powers bigger then themselves, so that they don't have to hold themselves accountable.

Well, this is what I have to say.

It is an outright disservice to mankind to peddle this kind of shite. For one thing, the universe is not here for US, it does not exist solely for US. Last time I checked we shared it with many many creatures. Creatures who themselves have a conscious, who can dream, and play. The whole premise of this DVD excludes them, and it is just more fuel to the fire, for people to think we are the chosen ones, that GOD made all this for US. The universe does not care if we have real Louis Vuitton or fake, it doesn't care if we have no home or three. That is just dumb. But this plays right into the hands of all those people who believe in Karma too. This cavalier "law of attraction" i.e. "gimme gimme" attitude can not serve humankind or any other kind well. I am sure Gandhi and Mother Theresa would agree.

• "Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat."

Mother Teresa

• "Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth."

Mohandas Gandhi

What kind of person would wake up everyday and say, with visualizations, "I want a nice house. I want a bigger car" ??!! This Secret is a clear endorsement of selfishness. Something most people already have in abundance, no?

Karma itself doesn't exist, but belief in it does, and that is what counts. "Treat others as you would treat yourself" It works out, amongst humans, and possibly, animals as well. Inside all of us, is a track record of hits and misses, of trials and errors, and an acute list of who has done us wrong or right, or those around us. IT is ourselves, people, who can make or break each others dreams. And sadly, we can make or break it for the animals amongst us as well. A burden most people don't want to acknowledge. It is not the universe's job to give to us.

Does positive thinking help us? Of course it does, because it ATTRACTS other positive people. But sadly there is no shortage of people who believe this "law" due to their disenchantment with life as it is now, so far the dream hasn't come to fruition, thusly this dumb idea has been well received. Maybe they should question what they want in the first place!! And not why they haven't gotten it yet. Hmmm, am I preaching the Secret, am i a hypocrite? The only part I agree with, is about being grateful.

What these clever scammers did was take a common religious ritual, prayer, and made it into an action towards a goal or object. There is no shortage of spiritual leaders out there who would re-inforce the power of positive thinking and prayer. But that thinking is meant to be giving in nature, or grateful, a daily reminder that we are alive and well. Not focused on acquiring things!! We are here to give, not take. We will find happiness being grateful for what we have and giving to others. THAT is the secret which Mother Theresa and Gandhi, for example, understood!!

• The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
  Mohandas Gandhi

Here's another problem I have with this Shite-if all you need to do is visualize, in a positive way.( Meaning, don't focus on being broke, focus on being rich etc... )
How come there are so many starving people in the world, who do nothing day and night, but visualize food!?!

Starvin' Marvin looks proactive to me,
where is his burger though?

Are they not praying hard enough? Are they focusing on their hunger, and not "attracting" food with their positive visualizations?? Can you think of any other new age shit that could be more offensive to these people, and all starving and homeless and war torn people? Are they not starving because millions and millions of people are not worried or concerned about them, because people are too busy visualizing that boat they want? It is mankind's fault they are hungry, period. Not God's, not theirs. pssssssh! It's just shite.

A big whole hearted fuck you to the makers of this video for their obvious manipulative new age spin, for profit, on an old classic religious ritual. Fuck you for having the audacity to use Gandhi and Mother Theresa in your video, or Shakespeare for that matter, as examples of people who understood the "secret". And fuck you for insulting the public with you blatantly patronizing contrivities that only serve to steer us further into a society of Me, Myself, and I by making it OK for people to wake up every day and seek out THEIR wants and "needs" instead of living harmoniously and contently with everyone and everything else.

Fuck your secret.
It's positively shite.
And you are all tacky bastards.