Secret

02007-03-14 | Uncategorized | 9 comments

Great review of The Secret by Stuart Davis:

+kenwilber.com – blog
The Secret. It’s all the rage. The book and movie have garnered the enthusiasm of millions. Everyone from Oprah to Montel is extolling Rhonda Byrne’s spiritual juggernaut. The premise of The Secret is simple; The Power of Attraction. Like attracts like. What we think, what we feel, acts as a magnetic signal, attracting its correlate from the Universe.

You really should click here to continue, because Stuart did a great job with this review.

What do I think about the movie? I haven’t watched it, but I did see 20 minutes of it on YouTube. I think that the view you choose changes the content – always. The frame defines the view. The brain arranges the facts according to your beliefs. Two people watching the same event – this is especially true for religion and politics – will extract entirely different meaning from the same data.

I also know that my view cannot change or re-arrange matter, to enable me to be a musician if I don’t practice, for example. It’s a bit similar to what I wrote about faith before. Faith is the motivator, but it depends on you to follow through with practice or it will remain just that – a belief.

Let’s take music as an example: let’s say I have faith that I can learn to play guitar. If all I do is fantasize about playing guitar and performing on a stage or in a studio, it will remain just that, a fantasy, regardless of how strong my faith is. If, on the other hand, I practice for hours every day and work at it… I might get somewhere. Then the fantasizing about stage and studio might actually motivate the practicing, might inspire the work that is necessary.

The other day somebody said to me: Prayers must have legs. I think that’s it in a nutshell. Four words that say it all. Visualize the ball coming towards you and then swing the bat and knock it out of the park. But, what do I know I have never played baseball in my life.

9 Comments

  1. Will

    Pure Garbage….Sorry but there is a reason Oprah is buying into this and probably 98% of America. I do admit the mind is a powerful thing, but this is just a book playing off of America’s need for approval of their self-centered lifestyle. You really want to make some money write a book titled “Living Beyond Your Means: It’s Alright Everyone Does It” or “Use Moral Bankruptcy to Make Millions”. It is too bad everyone wants to fix their life but they use a band-aid as a cure.

    Reply
  2. Carol

    We can do a whole lot with a positive attitude to make it a happy world for ourselves and for everyone… to a point, and we are responsible for a lotof the messes we get into, but it’s a terrible thing to even hint that we can change everything that happens with our minds or worse, that we cause those things in the first place with our egos. The author likely never had a young son die in her arms. It’s a shame people are falling for that. A sentence or so right can’t make up for all that yes, as Will says…garbage.

    Reply
  3. marijose

    I checked The Secret website first (before reading the review) and thought it was an early April Fool’s joke. Hadn’t heard of it before. I like the pseudo DaVinci Code/Harry Potter/Pirates theme, very entertaining. :D

    Reply
  4. Manuel Rangel

    Ottmar, I would love to hear your opinion about this Movie before I watch it.

    Reply
  5. Manuel Rangel

    I just watched the movie and have to say there is some truth about our thoughts and how they influence our behaviours.

    This is a good idea, being able to view the movie online without the option to download it. Your comments are very true about practising. I always hear it from people saying you either have talent or you don’t, or you hear that you are either born with it, gifted or just don’t have talent.

    One guy even said that depending on the person you can learn to play the guitar in just one day if you have the talent, to me that is utter rubbish.

    Reply
  6. Will

    I think you got it right…

    Reply
  7. llindaskaye

    Ottmar, very nice interpretationes…fantasy, reality….what is talent…!? imagininge and experienceinge…happy st pat’s because it’s magic…amore amigoeas, llindaskaye e.p. *******

    Reply
  8. Victor

    Stuart certainly hit it from all directions and then some!

    I had seen the video several months ago. The premise is that the universe works according to attraction, like a magic genie fulfilling your every desire. If you take this premise to its logical conclusion then you’d have to agree that everyone already has exactly what they desire. So then what’s the problem? Are most of us too thick headed to realize that we’ve already got everything we wanted?

    Well, I’ll admit to being thick headed but I’m not so sure about their premise of the universe working on attraction. I think the universe has a reflective nature. Like if I place my happiness out on some object then in appearance it becomes necessary for me to acquire (attract) that object in order to be happy.

    So, “The Secret” is supposedly to hold the object of your desire (i.e. your displaced happiness) steadily out in front of you until you get that object. On the other hand, if you want to be happy RIGHT NOW then why not just feel what’s already in your heart?!

    Reply
  9. Carol

    Let’s see the universe is all receding now isn’t it. That’s kind of a gloomy thought. Maybe it will turn around and begin to attract…but not too much togetherness please.

    Reply

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