The Cult of "The Secret"
Last night, while working in my home office, my wife was watching a Tivo'd recording of Oprah's special on "The Secret". I soon found my attention drifting from the boring piece of code I was trying to fix, to the TV's soundtrack. As I did I found myself getting angrier and angrier.
Forewarned is forearmed, I am not an expert on "The Secret"; my only real exposure was the soundtrack to Oprah's show. Let me also declare the issues I have with Oprah. Don't get me wrong, I think she has done some good things for America (principally among them, getting people reading) but the messages she sends are so mixed. One show will be how America has to get out of debt and the next one will have a segment on how you have to spoil yourself and spend $800 on bed sheets to really live. One show will be on how we should live simpler, less cluttered lives followed the next day by a show where she gives each audience member thousands of dollars worth of sponsored stuff. And don't get me started on the over-stimulated, screaming congregation that bray at her feet, live in the studio every day.
But I'm getting side-tracked, back to "The Secret". From what I picked up "The Secret" promises a incomparably better life just by watching a DVD - it's kind of the ying to the yang of the VHS tape in the movie Ringu. OK, to be honest, there's more; "The Secret" is that you can change what you don't like about your life by "the law of attraction". This "law" seems to state that habitual, positive visualizations in the area of your life you want to change will result in that change manifesting itself for real. So far I don't have a problem; I believe that taking the time to work out what you real want (rather than what you don't want) and even writing down and regularly revisiting those thoughts and ideas can help you to retain focus and effort and to more easily see and be prepared to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves that can help you attain that goal.
No, what bothers me is the pusedo-science that is part of The Secret Sauce namely, by sending out positive thoughts and visualizations out into the universe, the universe will respond in kind by sending to you what you want. It's dressed up in metaphysics - something to do with like energy attracting like - but basically The Secret cult believe the universe is little more than a magic Genie; just ask and you will receive.
The Secret is sold like some real-life "De Vinci Code" but the key word here is "sold". "The Secret" is a cooperative of motivational speakers and writers who personally benefit from each video, download, personal appearance ticket, Oprah special and book SOLD. Perhaps they really believe in this snake-oil, but if their motives are really altruistic then why not give "The Secret" away for the benefit of all mankind?
There is an element of truth behind The Secret which makes it dangerous - if you truly know what you want and why then you will be focused and in a better position to achieve it. But "The Secret" being sold (at all good retailers near you) is much more seductive than that. The universe isn't a huge, blue, wisecracking Robin Williams just waiting to give you what you ask for otherwise I would be sitting on my heated, gold toilet right now rather than plain, cold porcelain. The Secret is that there is no secret and there's no substitute for focus, drive and hard work
Comments
yeah i saw this show the other day and it creeped me out.
i think whatever might be in the dvd, the idea that by buying a dvd we will get the "the secret" to living is messed up..."good" message or not.
still. i guess it all fits in with oprah's mumbo jumbo.
if people better themselves because of the things they learn in "the bible" or "the secret" or any other book... so be it.
Peter Birkenhead's article "Oprah'sUgly Secret" (http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/03/05/the_secret/index.html) elloquently explains why, just because one or two might better themselves by taking all, or part of The Secret to heart, that doesn't make The Secret Cult or positive (or even beguine) thing:
"It would be stupidly dangerous to dismiss Oprah and "The Secret" as silly, or ultimately meaningless. ... If you reach more people than Bill O'Reilly, if you have better name recognition than Nelson Mandela, if the books you endorse sell more than Stephen King's, you should take some responsibility for your effect on the culture. The most powerful woman in the world is taking advantage of people who are desperate for meaning, by passionately championing a product that mocks the very idea of a meaningful life."
until you've read the book, i think it's not your place to make remarks on it.
and Oprah does an amazing amount of great things for the world.
obviously we wont agree on any of this, but what Negative affect will this book have on the culture. She's not taking advantage of anyone, she's merely incouraging them to be more than what they are right now.
Negative effects include the statements that you make yourself sick, fat or ill simply through your own negative thoughts. That if you wish hard enough you can fix your own eye site or cancer or weight. The flip side of this is that, if you don't cure your own cancer or eye site, if you get aids, or live in poverty, or get sent to a concentration camp, or get mugged, if you can't remain 120lbs and eat anything you want, you alone are responsible for your own downfall.
Negative effects include the fact that success, according to The Secret, is almost completely measured by the size of your bank account. That no emphasis is put on working for, or earning what you want - you just have to visualize that new car, not work for it.
That negative thoughts must be avoided to the extent that followers should not keep informed and watch, listen or read the news for fear that negative images of what is going on in the world might influence their own happiness:
"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,"
I guess it is OK to not to deal with what is going on in the world if you believe that wars, natural disasters, famines, all things negative are self-inflicted. Those peoples suffering in the world just aren't trying hard enough to think positive thoughts.
The Secret is not harmless because of these messages.
However, like some posters above, I have a small problem with the "Law of attraction". Again, there is some element of truth in this "law", but it dangerously hovers near being a cultic message.
At the risk of offending some people, I equally consider Scientology as a cult. I have however read the book on Dianetics by Ron Hubbard, and while I am no pyschologist etc.. I think Hubbard did have a point in some way. The problem is in emphasizing and building on only one aspect of his beliefs to an extent that the original "revelation" becomes harmfully distorted. Cultic. I see the secret heading this dangerous way.
Life is simple, easy. There is no secret to life. All that one can be has already been hard-wired by mother nature (or God) in all of us. And it takes no "secret" to bring it out.