The Secret

Hey there…

By now most of you have probably heard about, seen, or read The Secret, right? It has been all over the place. In addition to many people, like me, writing about it, emailing people about it, and talking about it for the past year since it was released, it has now become a “phenomenon.” Featured on Oprah twice, Larry King Live three times, Ellen, the Today Show, CBS This Morning, on the cover of Newsweek, and many others, The Secret is being talked about and shared all over the world. This is very exciting on so many levels.

For those of you who are not familiar with The Secret, it is a documentary film and a book with information from many speakers, teachers, authors, and philosophers all about the universal Law of Attraction. Simply put, the law of attraction states that “like attracts like.” And, in this case, it has to do with our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Essentially, The Secret asserts that what we think about, focus on, feel, and believe will manifest everything into our lives – good and bad. I agree with this completely and have seen it work this way throughout my life. My wife Michelle and I have been practicing the law of attraction – through the teachings of Abraham-Hicks, Lynn Grabhorn, and others – for the past 5 years. We have seen incredible things happen in our lives and in the lives of so many around us…again, both “positive” and “negative.”

All of this being said, there is some controversy surfacing about The Secret and a few concerns I personally have with both the movie itself and the resulting controversy. The critiques of The Secret I’ve heard are 1) It focuses too much on material things (money, cars, houses, etc.) and is therefore simply part of American middle-to-upper class greed. 2) There is not enough focus on action, it seems like people are being encouraged to just sit on the couch, think about what they want, and that these things will magically appear. 3) The notion that only “positive feelings” are important seems to be short sighted, unhealthy, and unrealistic. We are all human and we have the total range of emotions – light and dark – and if we try to deny the dark ones we can create more harm than good. 4) The creators of The Secret have just re-packaged age-old wisdom and are now benefiting from lots of “suckers.” 5) This is all new-age, woo-woo, BS. 6) It is insensitive and harmful to teach people that they attract everything into their lives…even the bad stuff. 7) It is not true that people can have anything and everything they want, the world does not work that way.

The list of critiques goes on, but these are the main ones I continue to hear. While I love The Secret, agree with the principles of the law of attraction, and think this movie and book are doing an enormous amount of good in the world, I think some of these critiques are valid and require us to take a deeper look not only at this movie, but at the law of attraction itself and the way we interpret it.

First of all, it is important to remember that The Secret is not the TRUTH. It, like so many other wonderful things in life, is just one interpretation of how things work and how we can be empowered in our lives. As one of the people on Larry King Live said the other night about it, if it works for you, great, use it. If not, don’t. I agree with this. We have a tendency to think in a black and white way with stuff like this. It either has to be all “true” or all “false.” Well, as we know and if we are honest, life is much more complex than that, especially as it relates to things like this. There is truth in The Secret and it is valuable, in my opinion. However, it is not the TRUTH or the ANSWER…just an approach that gives many people access to power in a new way. If you don’t agree with it or believe it, that is fine, you don’t have to. I also think it is important to remember that we are so complex as human beings that no matter how aware, educated, or evolved we are, we will never come close to understanding how life works and the mysteries of the universe. People have been thinking, talking, feeling, writing, reading, teaching, learning, and asking these questions for generations. We will continue to do this until the end of time and this is an essential aspect of being alive.

I do believe that we create 100% of our reality and that we attract everything to us…even the bad stuff, even the baby who dies after a week of life, even the people who were in the World Trade Center on 9/11. I think it is a choice at some deep, unconscious level. I am nervous to say this because I think it may be insensitive or untrue. At some selfish level, I don’t want to admit this for fear of people thinking I am insensitive. I cannot “prove” it, it just resonates with me and if I do believe that I create my own reality and manifest things into my life (which I do), I can’t imagine that it works sometimes and not others. And, I think that we will never fully understand how and why the things that happen in life happen. The best we can do is to understand them more deeply and become more conscious about them all the time. As is discussed in The Secret, most of the time we are manifesting unconsciously.

The Secret is something that allows us to engage in this discovery. I think the problem with The Secret is that people are focusing too much on it as an entity and phenomenon, and not enough on what it is teaching us. It is something that is taking new age, meta-physical concepts and putting them into a mainstream culture that may not know what to do with them. The law of attraction is not a quick sound bite or even a shallow “concept,” it is a deep understanding and awareness of how reality is created. We all have different understandings and interpretations of this. And, this dialogue and inquiry address the root of many of our core values and beliefs about how life works, why we are here, and our role in the Universe. For many people, myself included, who agree with and resonate with the teachings of The Secret, it is important that we not either use it as some kind of evolutionary ego trip (i.e. thinking that we are better than other people because of it) and also not assume that we can just “think good thoughts” and that everything will turn out in our lives. This is both damaging and incredible shallow.

I think it is awesome that The Secret is out there and that people are both benefiting from it and getting activated by it. I recommend that you check it out and see for yourself what you think. https://www.thesecret.tv

Ah…to be human, arrogant, confused, powerful, critical, and wanting to make sense of it all. I love it. Check out The Secret and see if it helps you and your life. If so, watch it or read it often and share it with others. If not, forget about it.

With Love and Truth,

Mike