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Maureen Dowd has shot holes in this tripe better than anyone else I know...

Here's what she had to say:

A Giant Doom Magnet
February 17, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By MAUREEN DOWD

So I was sitting around watching “Oprah” yesterday afternoon when I realized how I could stop W. and Crazy Dick from blowing up any more stuff.

All I needed to do was Unleash my Unfathomable Magnetic Power into the Universe!

Energy flows where intention goes. Or maybe it’s the other way around.

Anyhow, Oprah taught me how to stop abusing myself and learn The Secret. I finally get it: because the Law of Attraction dictates that like attracts like, my negativity toward the president and vice president is attracting their negativity and multiplying the negative vibrations in the cosmos, creating some sort of giant doom magnet.

I need to examine my unforgiving stance toward them and use my power of visualization to let them know that in my consciousness and awareness, they cannot determine my destiny. I am severing those emotional and vibratory tonalities that keep me tied to their toxic energy, causing me to repeat the same old pattern of bemoaning in the newspaper their same old pattern of blundering in the Middle East.

Oprah did her second show in eight days on “The Secret,” the self-help book (and DVD) by Rhonda Byrne, an Australian reality-TV producer. The book hit No. 1 on the USA Today best-seller list this week.

At first glance, “The Secret” might seem like inane piffle, a psychobabble cross between Dr. Phil and “The Da Vinci Code,” a new-age spin on Norman Vincent Peale’s 1952 classic, “The Power of Positive Thinking” and the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations.” But that’s a negative way of thinking.

James Arthur Ray, a teacher of The Secret method, who talked to Oprah, says it’s “very, very scientific.”

“If you think you’re this meat suit running around, you know, you have to think again,” he said. “You’re a field of energy in a larger field of energy.”

Oprah enthused that The Secret “really is touching a nerve around the world” because “so many people are hungry for guidance and meaning.” Ms. Byrne claims it improved her eyesight; others say it works on everything from weight loss to panic attacks to getting rich to snagging the mate of your dreams or a good parking space.

“We create our own circumstances by the choices that we make, and the choices that we make are fueled by our thoughts,” Oprah explained in her first show. “So our thoughts are the most powerful thing that we have here on earth. And based upon what we think — and [what] we think determines who we are — we attract who we are into our lives.”

Or as the book so eloquently puts it, “You must feel good about You.”

If it works on eyesight, can’t it work on foresight? Can’t we use The Secret on the secretive Bush White House to prevent a calamity in Iran?

According to the Sacred Principles set out by the Law of Attraction Specialists, the universe responds to your thoughts. So if I want certified chuckleheads to stop mucking up American foreign policy, all I have to do is let the universe know. I forgive the president for being a goose and the vice president for being a snake, and I start thinking about the sort of amazing, or even mildly competent, leaders I deserve to have in my life.

Maybe W. should read the book. He likes things biblical, and “The Secret” says it takes its Creative Process from the New Testament.

He would learn, as Mr. Ray said, that “trying is failing with honor,” adding: “Take the word ‘try’ out of your vocabulary. You either do it or you don’t.”

W. could have applied that to Iraq, where he has always done only enough to fail, including with the Surge.

A main tenet of The Secret is learning to avoid the chain reaction of churlishness, which begins with a single thought: “The one bad thought attracted more bad thoughts, the frequency locked in, and eventually something went wrong. Then as you reacted to that one thing going wrong, you attracted more things going wrong.”

It’s an apt description of Iraq policy. A bad thought that led to more bad thoughts, and the negative frequency is now locked in on Iran, which is responding with its own negative frequency.

With The Secret, W. will realize that all he needs to do to change his current reality is admit that it’s fake. (Similar to the wisdom of Dorothy clicking her shoes three times.)

Once he stops his chain reaction of negative thought, I can stop my chain reaction of negative thought. And then there will be peace on earth and parking spaces for everyone.

Sort of like the movie about quantum physics, "What the bleep do we know?"

Any good witch worth her salt knows that old trick.

I was forced to watch that thing a few months back. It was agonizingly long and I couldn't get through it. What a load of hooey! It's like the third or fourth of the Deepok Chopra's 7 Spiritual Laws of Success dragged out for 2 hours.

As I'm typing this, Scooter Libbey's guilty verdict has been announced. We've all been attracting that!

I forgot to type my name

I have to admit to thinking there is something to what they are all saying, despite my rigid, logical, scientific background.

That said, it is nice to see people analyzing it in the context of the real world. The question I'd like to hear the proponents of The Secret answer is: "How did small children dying of hunger, being abused by the adults in their lives, or having their homes bombed in Iraq attract that energy?" I'm also concerned that it allows us to completely forgo social responsibility by saying that the homeless vet on the street attracted that reality, that the workers in sweatshops in Asia (and LA) attracted that reality with their negative thoughts.

I return over and over to one of my favorite proverbs: "Trust Allah (or God or whoever you choose) but tie your camel to a tree."

Megumi and I watched DaVinci Code, The Bleep, The Secret and The Celestine Prophecy this winter. All VERY educational for someone from Japan where individuality and self-discovery and self-evolution has been largely 'wrung-out' of the animist-shinto-buddhist-consumer 'status-nihon'.

The videos are of course all very American sexist, materialistic, abusive and violent ... yet a step or two or three forward for those of the most insulated Western 'provincialities'.

The Bleep attracts testosterone-head adolescents, DaVinci Code the sick and violent, the Secret the materialist-wannabee, and the Celestine Prophecy the New Age aspiring Christian ...

Re: the positive hither-to unheralded messages: Bleep, physicality is actually spirituality; DaVinci, the Return of the Divine Feminine is upon us; Secret, every wish is yours; Celestine; You are the Magick, the Creator.

See them all. The Celestine Prophecy in particular is wondrous rainforest and cultural inspiration -- shot in the Peruvian Amazon!

Millennium

It's no secret that there is no secret to The Secret!

A fragment of a broader teaching. Useless at best, frustrating and damaging at worst. Get a broader (than this) perspective, before you put too many eggs in this basket.

The Secret made it to Larry King this evening and will make it to The Learning Annex Real Estate and Wealth Expo in LA this weekend. I think the secret has something to do with Larry King's suspenders and Donald Trump's hair.

I saw the Larry King episode last night about the Secret, with several guests. Larry ask one of them, if Jesica Lundsford was responsible for attracting the disgusting/horrific actions by that poor excuse of a human being. I waited for him to say something like, 'our children are innocent, with time and maturity they become empowered'. No. That's not even close. He said that She attracted all those despicable actions, and sorry as he was, that's the way it is. Then continued on with his sales pitch.

I believe in positive thinking and that we attract things, but not by cosmic forces, but by faith, by action, by how we treat those around us, and by many other attributes one would associate with a positive life style/choice.

Just as strongly, I believe we have to protect ourselves from those who would exploit us, those who would steal from us, and those who bare false witness against us, in gossip to promote their agenda.

Dana and Alyeska,

Philadelphia, PA

re: focus on the positive, collective, healing of the Earth, self-evolution, refinement of global consciousness ...

we watched the 1960s "Finian's Rainbow" DVD two nights ago ... the (song-filled!) message of land- and wish- and community-fulfillment there seemed very appropriate for this new time, 2007 going on 2012, of our 'great turning' ...

Really? Seriously?

One of the people promoting "The Secret" said that a 9 year old girl abducted, raped, and buried alive by a 47 year old man somehow attracted that to herself? Disgusting.

Wow. I've been wondering for awhile what "The Secret" people would have to save about situations like that.

I'd like to know which one of them said this...I'll go look for the transcript.

Looks like several other people on the panel tried to wiggle out of the law of attraction when asked about it in relation to September 11th, Hurricane Katrina, etc. Joe Vitale disagreed. Here is the exchange in question:

KING: But do you attract -- the young girl who was killed in Florida, her killer was found guilty yesterday, did she attract that?

VITALE: We are attracting everything to ourselves. There is no exception. I hear previous people talking about there is luck, there is some exceptions here. No. We attract everything. But we're doing it on unconscious level, Larry. That's what is going on. We have to awaken to our own conscious power.

That's why this book, this DVD, my work, all of John's work, the other people on the panel that are coming here today is so important. We are realizing that we can wake up and create the reality we want.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0703/08/lkl.01.html):

i haven't seen The Secret, but i think i get the point. for balance, i notice that religion in general often plays the same game: "everything is god's will" followed by "oh really? death and war and famine and horrendous accidents are god's will for his beloved children?" followed by "life is a test, we have free will, those tragedies are meant to teach us something...blablabla".

so, i dont see The Secret as a necessarily new or revolutionary idea. the contradiction has been around for a good long while. that's likely to piss some religious folks off, but know that i'm speaking from my own experience and with an awareness of the generalities of my statements. clearly not all religions and not all religious people operate like that.

but some do. enough do.

Thanks Tanya for getting the actual transcript. I didn't know how to go about it, to post along with my comment.

That exchange gave me chills.

?If one really believes this concept in it's entirety,what else might they be capable of?

Alyeska is my 12 year old daughter.The most precious person in my life. Usually people engage her right away.But I'm there to intervene, protect and steer her away from certain people and situations.As a parent, that is my duty,but hardly a burden I feel.

(I could write a book about our father/daughter experiences.)

Before anyone says that I'm over protective, there have been times I let my girl 'crash and burn', (figuratively speaking) over her choices that I knew were not in her best interest.

But you don't always do that,it is too risky to not to be involved. I walk her to her friend's house around the corner,she is to call me when it's time to return.Her friend's mother isn't so inclined/able-so I walk her daughter to and fro.

It's our responsibility. I'm not going to leave it to the Cosmic Forces: The Well Being of My Daughter.

That's not to say I don't have a faith, rather I accept/recognize my responsibilities.I chose to be responsible.There is nothing heroic in living up to your responsibilities as a parent.I don't always measure up to the task.If you're wondering about yourself,take heart, we all fall short at times.

The Secret is to be open,to be willing,to be helpful to others and to be steadfast in your purpose.

I hope I didn't attract too much negative Carma.

?What do think?

Missing our home town-Ojai

Dana and Alyeska

"The Secret", as described by Oprah's guests, is to use your intelligence system in the way it was designed to be used (envision a goal, think about it, but some behavioral energy behind it -- its how we humans make anything happen) and do it for the greater good (thereby getting the support of others in the social world). No magical fantasy quantum consciousness required . . .

Magick, the spirit, definitely required! What else is there? Yes, the heartmind, aka mindedness, requiring the whole of the body, inclusive of nervous system.

The whole of cultural perspective, nurtured by nature, the divine wilderness, the all life of all time.

Another great video, on the ethics of choice, of moving forward the paradigm of herstory, viz the musical Camelot. [We watched it again two nites ago.]

Like the Secret, stuck in a shallow Christian well of linear duality ... yet seeking to transcend that through awakening to multi-culture and nature and universal compassion ...

Millennium

I just can't fathom why our species trivializes the profound and vice versa. I saw this in a recent Newsweek: "Perhaps we can airlift copies of 'The Secret' to people in Darfur and they can imagine they aren't being slaughtered. What nonsense."
We can do better than The Secret. We have to.

The Secret
Great for those who have been able to make it work.
Let me know when you run into one.