Self-Help's Slimy 'Secret'.... (Oooopha serves up yet another....

[Aviation Pro]

...steamy pile of dung)....

Self-Help's Slimy 'Secret'

By Tim Watkin
Sunday, April 8, 2007; B01



It's the publishing phenomenon of the year so far, a small book with a parchment-brown cover engraved with the image of a red wax seal.

"The Secret," its title proclaims matter-of-factly, as if the slim volume held the answer to life's deepest mysteries. Which is precisely what it purports to do. Written by an Australian television producer, this latest contribution to the bursting shelves of New Age self-helpiana has come out of nowhere to sell more than 1.3 million copies in the United States alone.

Yet as bookstores nationwide have sold out of it again and again, controversy has begun to swirl around "the secret." Working in a bookstore recently and discussing the book with customers lured by the promise of instant success, I finally delved into its message myself. And where the buyers I talked to hoped to find the path to a better life, I found a disturbing little book of blame.

The secret of "The Secret" is, very simply, the "law of attraction." Despite claims on the book's Web site that it is revealing hidden wisdom "for the first time in history," the idea dates back nearly 3,000 years to early Hindu teachings that "like attracts like." But author Rhonda Byrne takes it to a new level. She told Australia's Herald Sun newspaper in January that she stumbled upon "the secret" while mourning the death of her father in 2004, via a 1910 book called "The Science of Getting Rich," by one Wallace D. Wattles.

The revelation that inspired her? "Everything that's coming into your life you are attracting into your life," Byrne writes. "You are the most powerful magnet in the universe . . . so as you think a thought, you are also attracting like thoughts to you."

Despite the rather inexact science -- when it comes to magnets, it's opposites that attract -- Byrne asserts that this secret is a natural law as "precise" as gravity. It was the power, she argues, behind geniuses such as Plato, Newton, Beethoven and Einstein. Of course, none of these gents is alive to vouch for the accuracy of her claims, so Byrne has rallied support from a Who's Who of the self-help industry, including John Gray, author of "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus," and Jack Canfield, who wrote "Chicken Soup for the Soul." Oprah Winfrey had Byrne on her show and raved about "The Secret."

Full article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/AR2007040601819_pf.html

[Connie_Corleone]

1. I heard they were coming out with another book.

The next one is supposed tell people how to put the "law of attraction" to work. Of course, they could've just put it in one book and saved people money. But, that wouldn't be profitable for the self-help gurus, now would it?

Like the saying goes, no one ever said life would be easy.

[AndyTiedye]

10. Putting Out All These Books IS The "Secret" of their Success

...well that and giving BJs to the right media moguls so they will hype your books for free.

[sasha031]

2. This philosophy is as old as time

The sad thing these days it's all about attracting wealth, instead of saving the planet from self destruction.

How about attracting a little bit of world peace.

You have the religious pundits saying the same things,

[sam sarrha]

3. as a scientist in a clairvoyant family i did some research on Affirmations, i got pretty consistent

results.. it takes about 12 to 16 days for results.. for the 'reflection' to return. there are about 5 big variables that distort the reflection..or contaminate it and change it from what we want.

the fact that this is still around 3000+ years later speaks for itself.

i am not saying it is a good thing it works, the Bu$hitCo Fascists get us to repeat their affirmations for them by the millions, breeding negativity weakening our own powers to stop them.. turbo charging 'their, ..the dark sides effect'. even Jesus used this, '...when more than 2 or 3 of you gather in my name..'

we need to start to use this ourselves against them.. we are in a spiritual war against the darkness openly professed by Cheney and his minions

[ret5hd]

4. I'll bite...what are the 5 big variables?

[sam sarrha]

11. my info-mercial will be on QVC soon.. $19.99 plus a free magnetic book mark..AND for calling in in

next 90 seconds totally free a 30 day subscription to my mothers 'internatonal' prayer chain, auto renewable at $39.99 monthly

[gaspee]

5. hunh?

N/T

[Rock_Garden]

6. I'd be very interested in hearing you elaborate on this, if you like. n't

[sam sarrha]

12. i took several subjects and attached unusual variables.. did affirmations, written and verbal at

specific times of the day and evening.. i did visualizations and expressed gratitude and thanks and looked at these things as tho i already owned them.. and they showed up a little more than 2 weeks later.. some longer some later.

one guy told me this story.. he needed several thousand dollars.. so he did his affirmations and visualized himself counting out the prescribed amount of money in $100 dollar bills.. a couple of weeks later he got a new good job.. at a bank, and it wasn't till he was counting out $100 dollar bills for a costumer that he realized he had missed on something for his affirmation..

you scoff, i can hear it now... but look at SGI, it is a whole religious* cult based on the same thing, millions of cult members cant be ALL wrong.


*religious for lack of a better polite term.. no offense to people involved in it who are good people with good intension's.. but it is the same thing with a system for not polluting the affirmation.. i have worked with similar group and it works for them, i saw it all the time. but we are working with 'Subspace' here and there can be serious consequences. this is magic, and i have done some of that too..it can be dangerous or unintentionally hurtful, maybe if you meditated for 30 years and had your mind really trained.. maybe not.

the Buddha said all suffering is caused by desire../grasping/aversion/anger. careful what you want

i prefer the concept of Emptiness, you dont always get what you want but you seem to get what you need.

[Rock_Garden]

13. Thanks, Sam.

I get some of my philosophy from the Rolling Stones, too (just kidding)!

[crikkett]

8. HEY publish your own book of 5 variables

and be fabulously rich!!

rich I tell you!!!1! This could be HUGH!!!11!!

I'm series.

:hi:

(I'm not serious, I'm having a little fun with self-help ambition and common FR misspellings.)

I'm curious too!

[Rock_Garden]

14. You're a very funny crikkett; you know that? n/t

[murray hill farm]

7. If everyone in the world could get whatever they wanted

by just hooking into their "intention", it would be a very freaky world that did not follow any of the rules that we depend on now for even the tiny sense of stabililty or predictability. The "Secret" is just another scheme to exploit the basic need of every human being to find meaning and have some control over their individual lives...and it worked, apparently...it will die out by the very "secret" they profess to hold...and they will attract into their lives just what they deserve..will just take a little time...they have taken an age old belief...called it a secret..and proceeded to make as much money as they possibly can by exploiting as many people as they can. They should actually understand the principal of karma, to know what will come back to them in kind.

[ret5hd]

9. Some call it "magical thinking"...

We all engage in it sometimes...some more than others, children more than adults.

"If I act REAL good, mom and dad won't get a divorce."
"If I wear my lucky socks, I'll pass my math quiz."

[raccoon]

17. Exactly, and the people who believe it works remember the times

it "worked" for them, but don't choose to focus on the times they tried it and it didn't "work" for them.

Same as the way some people believe prayer works. It "worked" for them when they got what they prayed for.

[yurbud]

15. will Oprah's next hype be Tony Robbins or Benny Hinn?

[Mushroom]

16. Hey Timmy

Just ring up the damn book and mind your own business.