You’ve Gotta See This Spoof Of The Secret!

If you love, or hate, The Secret (or anything in between) this short spoof of the movie will have you laughing till your sides ache!  Check it out!

http://www.guruyou-u.com/

The Secret – Does Anyone Care Anymore?

Well, the media hype surrounding “The Secret” seems to have finally died down, and are life is going on as usual. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before a sequel is released…and the fire is fueled again.

Meanwhile, I wish I could conduct a poll of how many audience members:

1) Thought the movie would affect them in a lasting way, but now is simply buried in the back of their mind with all the other nice thoughts and interesting information.

2) Applied the prinicples of the secret in a balanced way and lives were truly affected in a positive, long lasting way by the movie.

3) Applied the principles of the secret and nothing seemed to happen…

4) Went overboard, devoted their whole exisitence to practicing the principals, (including distancing themselves from loved ones who were ‘negative’ in any sort of way) of the movie and where they are now.

Now wouldn’t that be an interesting poll….?

I can’t wait to see a sequel when it comes out. It will be interesting to see how they backtrack, if at all, from anything in the first movie (perhaps they will focus less on material wealth and more on what individuals can do for humanity) and what new information or ‘spin’ they have on creating success in your life…

As Joe Vitale said on Larry King Live “The movie only talked about one of the secrets of the universe…there are others…”

Can’t wait to hear ’em Joe. I only hope they’ll be a bit more realistic and a bit less ‘hype-y’ next time!

The Secret Vs. Think And Grow Rich

Here’s an interesting comparison of the two by Kevin Hogan from his “Questions Of The Week…” 

“My Question Is….How can you love Think and Grow Rich and dislike The Secret so much? They are the same thing!

The Secret is a scam and a fraud. It uses blatant fraud in it’s advertising. It misquotes dignified people from history and makes them look like ignorant fools to sell a destructive idea…. The entire notion is so poorly put together that it has to use circular reasoning to communicate with anyone who really embraces this strange philosophy of “hope until you fail then you have guilt, a counterintention and have to manifest ‘the right way'”….blah blah…it’s utterly and totally bogus. No exception. It does not work. I’ve personally offered to do studies. I’ve challenged people to participate in experiments. They all say, “no,” but they claim it’s science. ALL scientists test, experiment and attempt to prove what they believe/think WRONG. That’s what science is all about. Creating research that gives a good chance to show that something being tested doesn’t work. The Secret? …….forget it. They’ll never do it. I promise. No one involved will submit to participating in experiments or studies. They’ve scammed a lot of people. They will continue to do so until people demand to see studies. And of course because most people don’t understand what science is, they’ll continue to be duped until they’ve been hurt badly.

Think and Grow Rich on the other hand is a distillation of the philosophy of dozens of successful American men from the early 1900’s. The book is written with research behind it. The book doesn’t purport to “always work.” Hill doesn’t make insane claims. He gives a thorough and (in the Law of Success) a detailed and workable philosophy on how to achieve. Is everything he wrote, “true?”

Of course not. We’ve learned a lot in the last 75 years. But he had a solid foundation that had a start to finish philosophy and that’s all you can ask in a philosophy. And, it’s all testable.

The book, The Secret can be summed up as “think about what you want, get a good feeling about it, be grateful for it,” end of story, Or, you can even add “take action.”

“The Law of Success and Think and Grow Rich are closer to blueprints for success that were as good as they had back in the 1920’s. Things have changed a bit since then, but the culmination of interviews with Ford, Edison, Carnegie, Roosevelt, et al, is really still an impressive testament to Napoleon Hill’s spirit of persistence to present as complete a philosophy for success as possible.

Nowhere does Hill make horrifying claims that raped children and victims of genocide have brought such things upon themselves. Only The Secret does that. (not even RELIGION teaches stuff like that and religion causes a lot of guilt because of programmed beliefs like “original sin!”

Because Hill didn’t come up with any of this on his own, because he interviewed people who were incredibly successful, he got their opinions on WHY they were so successful. He was able to examine their motives and their actions. Obviously people really are poor at evaluating why they are good or bad at anything. But when you talk with a LOT of successful people and collect all of that information, patterns do begin to emerge. It’s a good bet many of them will be close maps of reality.”

As you know, I think there are many redeeming qualities of the movie “The Secret” but I also agree with much of the critisim against the movie. Kevin’s harsh words struck a cord with me, which is why I’m sharing them here. I think he’s largely right, but still don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We’ve got to watch this stuff with our brains turned on.

Will the real Churchill quote please stand up (to scruitny?)

If you haven’t yet heard it there is a great, free recording of a call with Dr. Kevin Hogan, Dave Lakhani, Blair Warren and Pastor Dr. Bob Beverly called “The Truth is the Secret.” If you want to hear an intelligent and heartfelt summary of every criticism of the movie (and a few I had never heard before) I do recommend it. It will certainly get you thinking. You can get it at http://www.thetruthisthesecret.com

One thing they pointed out, that I had assumed when I watched the movie, is that many of the quotes from famous people who supposedly knew The Secret and kept it hidden were taken entirely out of context. One blatant example of this kind of misuse of quotes is the quote from Winston Churchill.

The Quote in the movie is:

“You create your own universe as you go along”

The REAL Quote is:

“Some of my cousins who had the great advantage of University education used to tease me with arguments to prove that nothing has
any existence except what we think of it. The whole creation is but a
dream; all phenomena are imaginary. You create your own universe
as you go along. The stronger your imagination, the more variegated
your universe. When you leave off dreaming, the universe ceases to
exist. These amusing mental acrobatics are all right to play with.
They are perfectly harmless and perfectly useless. I warn my younger readers only to treat them as a game. The metaphysicians will have the last word and defy you to disprove their absurd propositions.” (Emphasis added by me. See how this last part negates the quote they used in the movie? Churchill used that phrase as an example of what he DID NOT believe in!)

How sad that they felt the need to quote Churchill, and others, out of context. Was it really so necessary to create this aura of mystery around The Secret? Did it really lend so much credibility? Do people really believe that Gandhi used The Secret and kept it hidden from the world?

Of course, there is a kernel of truth in everything. The Secret, or Law of Attraction was not widely taught, but I do not think it was actively suppressed either. They just created this conspiracy theory to set themseleves up as ‘our liberators.’ Now they are going to share The Secret so we can share the wealth! Don’t you feel emancipated?

NOT.

***

Do you know of any quotes from famous people that were taken out of context in The Secret? Post them here by leaving a comment.

The Secret, Minus The Hocus-Pocus, = This Year I Will

As you may know by now, I see the steps that are discussed in The Secret as some practical techniques that you can use to create your own success, but I think there’s a world of difference between actively ‘creating your own success’ and passively attracting things to you via your vibrations and the ‘power’ of the universe.

If you tend to agree with me, then I’ve got a great book for you!

This Year I Will…: How to Finally Change a Habit, Keep a Resolution, or Make a Dream Come True by M.J. Ryan is a great tool to teach you how to change your habits & reach your goals. M.J. delves into everything which will help you succeed including: brain science, motivational research, practical techniques and yes, even a tiny bit of Secret-Style hocus-pocus as well, but the book is firmly planted in reality without resorting to unprovable “laws of the universe”!

If you’re a hopeful skeptic like me, who wants to take an active part in creating new positive habits & creating your own successes — read this book!

What about authentic emotion?

One thing that concerns me about The Secret is that after seeing the movie & reading the book people may be tempted to rid themselves and their lives absolutely everything negative in order to ‘tap into the power of the universe’ to bring them health, wealth and happiness.

On the surface that may seem terrific. A whole bunch of extremely positive people running around, however, I think it could be quite dangerous for them as well as others.

Negative emotions are part of us for a reason. Our fear warns us of danger. Our depression can be a signal that something has to change in our lives. Our anger can help show us when someone is infringing on our dignity.

I would not want to ‘live in’ these emotions, but trying to get rid of them all together is not healthy either.

I’ve never read anything by Deepak Chopra, but I did happen to catch him on Bill Maher talking about The Secret and he said something really insightful:

“Postive Thinking is the most stressful thing you can do. Have you ever met someone who is totally positive and exasperatingly positive? I think the mistake of some of these people make is that there is nothing more natural than being a human being who radiates a simple, unaffected humanity. A person who is able to express their anger when they get angry, but they don’t get hostile; that is able to get in touch with their emotions and to ask themselves ‘What am I thinking and feeling, what’s the need, how can I fufill that need?’ There is a great confusion today between spirituality – which is insight and intuition and creativity and inspiration — and [so-called] Positive thinking.”

So I urge people who want to tap into the power of The Secret – don’t lose touch with your basic humanity. Don’t deny or try to “pivot” out of your negative emotions — feel them, own them — then you can do your best to reframe the situation in a positive light.

Process your emotions – don’t try to pivot out of them prematurely!

Here is “The Secret Recapped and Reviewed By A Hopeful Skeptic”

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably heard that I created a cool little report called “The Secret Recapped & Reviewed By A Hopeful Skeptic.”

The report is so cool because it contains an organized summary of the key points of the movie. The movie moves so quickly, it can be hard to grasp the details, so this report can help you really get clear about what the movie is saying.

The report also includes my thoughts and insights about the movie. They are clearly labeled in italics so as not be confused with the summarized content of the movie, but I do think that you will find some of the extra analogies and examples I give helpful in expanding on the concepts in The Secret.

I call myself a “hopeful skeptic” because while I would love to believe whole-heartedly in everything the movie discusses, I just can’t. There is some scathing criticism in my report along with the supportive examples. I think you’ll find I have a very balanced perspective on the movie. I refuse to “throw the baby out with the bathwater” and wholeheartedly bash a beautiful work of art and inspiration which I think has the potential be a very positive influence in the world, as long as the ideas in it are not taken too seriously, taken to an extreme and made in to a religion or worse, a cult.

I really believe it’s everyone’s responsibility to watch The Secret with their brain TURNED ON. I hope this report will help Secret lovers and skeptics to “turn their brain on” and decide what is right for them.
You can get the report by clicking here.