The Secret

"One day Sasquatch find book in Ranger outhouse. Book called The Secret. Owl say book is self help book. Book say only you can help you. Book say to visualize what you want to achieve it. Me hungry and cold so me try. Sasquatch close eyes and think of warm fire which is warm from sticks. Me open eyes there no warm fire which is warm from sticks. Sasquatch close eyes and think of fat, slow raccoon that is easy catch. Me open eyes there no fat, slow raccoon.

This make Sasquatch give up. Me eat flesh of book which not taste like raccoon."
~ Written on 2008-07-16

"The point of this book is what it can do for you. And even though it might seem ridiculous, you will never know until you actually try it. There is no harm in that. Obviously I've applied the ideas in the book and everything I've wanted has just appeared- I know it sounds impossible, but if I really described my personal situation, you would see that the way the secret works is very simple and logical. It just makes sense and it works! I feel bad for people that don't believe in it...they are missing out!"
~ Written on 2008-07-15

"It is amazing to me how a "law of attraction" book can be so polarizing to its readers. Whether it is The Secret, or Think and Grow Rich, or The Science of Getting Rich, et al; readers either love the law of attraction and embrace its principles or loathe it as being pseudo-science new agey nonsense.

A friend of mine introduced me to The Secret and I was quite skeptical. She relayed several stories of how the law of attraction had been working in her own life (since even before her reading The Secret; she has been a student of the metaphysical for some time) and it seemed interesting but not compelling enough for me to look into it. I frankly thought she was just *lucky*.

Then for my birthday she gave me the book and The Secret Gratitude Journal. I read the book over the span of a week and began using the journal a few days later. Encouraged by a few small positive changes (and unusual, um, coincidences) that took place, I borrowed the DVD. The three tools together were very powerful! I have put the principles into practice, and they are indeed working for me. Others have explained their situations eloquently and articulately, so I won't go into detail. But just quickly: my husband took me on an unexpected vacation just weeks after we came back from a planned trip, I sold my car for more than I asked for, I bought my new car and was able to effortlessly negotiate a ridiculously low rate for my auto loan - just to name a few...all in the space of the two months since I read the book and started using the mindset expressed within it.

The Secret is not the be-all and end-all of law of attraction studies; I have been now reading Wallace Wattles and Deepak Chopra among others and finding complementary principles with which to work. No, I do not think the universe revolves around me nor do I think that we attract everything to us. (For example, in the case of mass murders, etc., I think the opposing forces strongly attracted the event and the victims were caught in it. That's my "short" answer for purposes of the review. This isn't a message board so I will not elaborate here.) But I do think that how we think about ourselves and our circumstances does have a major affect on what plays out for us.

If you at all open to new ideas (or, in this case, old ideas in a new package) then you owe it to yourself to at least have a look at The Secret your local library. Take what you can, leave the rest. If you can be grateful for what you have, it makes it that much easier for good things to come your way. Just don't take the book so literally that you sit and waste your life daydreaming. Visualization without action is simply wishful thinking. Read the book, read other books on the same subject, and then DO SOMETHING. If you act from the heart, I think you will be as pleasantly surprised as I have been."
~ Written on 2008-07-14

"The book The Secret is mindless drivel which I wasted $15 on. You've read it all before. It's all repackaged nonsense. Don't waste your money."
~ Written on 2008-07-14

"Without doubt, this series does not have ill intent. However, I personally feel that there are things in here that can actually be harmful. It is definitely true that ruminating on negative thoughts is very harmful, and ultimately creates a self fulfilling prophecy. But here's the main problem, as I see it: Everyone has positive and negative parts to themselves, like it or not. While stopping the rumination is very good, forcing yourself to think only positive thoughts does not get rid of the negativity within. Without getting to the root of the negativity, I don't believe that real changes can be made. By ignoring the negative, it is allowed to continue, instead of being dealt with. This type of thought control creates a distortedly positive view of self, and likely leads to an exaggerated sense of self importance. Ignoring problems does not make them go away, facing them does.

The Secret seems to pander to our immaturities, our childishness. One of the first messages it sends is that I can have anything I want. REALLY???? I want to rule the world... I want to fly by flapping my arms... I want to have 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 dollars. Not happening, and we all know it. Those things are not going to make me more happy anyway. Things of value, I believe, have to be worked for, and our thoughts are the beginning of that process.

Which brings me to my next point... the things people are shown wanting to have, are almost always materialistic. I can't remember any depictions of someone getting over a major illness, or finding love or friends, ect. All depictions seemed to be of people gaining status, wealth or something from the store.

The popularity of this series says much about current American culture, and I definitely do not feel reassured. "
~ Written on 2008-07-14