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Getting to Know The Secret
By Elena Shoval
Is The Secret a good one?
"The Secret relies heavily on fuzzy thinking", says Ingrid Hansen Smyth on skeptic.com website. "The Secret is actually proposing two completely different systems for achieving one’s goals, and then blurring the line between those systems". How so? "On the one hand we are told that all that is required to get what we desire is to ask, believe, and receive. For example: A little boy wants a bike, he believes he will get a bike, he gets a bike… On the other hand, we are told that we can’t merely ask, believe, receive… We have to act on it…"
The answer for this can be easily found in Wattles' words: Of course closing your eyes, and dreaming about having whatever you want is not going to bring it to you, but believing you deserve it and acting upon it will.
"The Secret's ideas are nothing more than common sense" says Tony Riazzi, columnist for the Dayton Daily News . "Ignore the vague prose and you get the message that thinking positively serves you better than thinking negatively".
"Thought is the creative power or the impelling force which causes the creative power to act", writes Wattles in his book. "Thinking in a certain way will bring riches to you, but you must not rely upon thought alone, paying no attention to personal action. This is the rock upon which many otherwise scientific metaphysical thinkers meet shipwreck - the failure to connect thought with personal action".
Another argument against the film is that The Secret makes people believe they are responsible for the way their life works or doesn't work, while too many who experience bad luck and poverty are actually the victims of cruelty, ignorance, exploitation and greed. "The film is a moronic hymn to greed and selfishness", claims Catherine Bennett of the London based Guardian . "It is nastily suggests that victims of catastrophe are the authors of their misfortunes". According to The Secret there are no accidents or coincidences in life, adds Ingrid Hansen Smythe in skeptic.com, "We are all at all times getting exactly what we deserve, and what we have attracted".
This criticism is based on the false notion that responsibility for our circumstances is the same as guilt and blame. But being responsible has nothing to do with blame. It only means being responsible for your own actions and choices that brought you there, and more important - choosing your next step not as a victim but as a master of your universe, even in the gloomiest of circumstances.
Unfortunately most people blame others, or their circumstances in life, and than take no action, because they believe this is somebody else's responsibility. The Secret says each one of us is responsible for his or her fate, because we can always make choices. Therefore, even if we grew up in poverty, we can always choose to act in ways that will lead us to richness.
"The working class may become the master class whenever they will begin to do things in a certain way", says Wattles. The law of wealth is the same for them as it is for all others… and they will remain where they are as long as they continue to do as they do". This doesn't mean they should take blame for it. It only means they can choose to act differently, but right now they prefer to remain where they are.
Other critics say there is nothing new in The Secret. "I can show you books written 100 years ago that say the exact same thing," says Beryl Satter, a professor of history at Rutgers. Long before there was a "New Age," Satter says, there was "New Thought- a self-help movement that drew on 19th-century Americans' suspicion of elites and on the Protestant tradition of looking for the "inner light."
This may be so, but so what? There are countless creations in the history of mankind, true masterpieces based on former writers, painters, philosophers, and such. Byrne herself is the first to acknowledge using The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace D. Wattles as her main source for creating The Secret. So our main question should not be whether The Secret is a completely new creation, but whether it works?
According to thousands of people, it does work, no matter what the critics say. Some people say it changed their life. Others say it made a difference in a part of their life. We each get out of it exactly what we wants and desire.
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By Elena Shoval
Is The Secret a good one?
"The Secret relies heavily on fuzzy thinking", says Ingrid Hansen Smyth on skeptic.com website. "The Secret is actually proposing two completely different systems for achieving one’s goals, and then blurring the line between those systems". How so? "On the one hand we are told that all that is required to get what we desire is to ask, believe, and receive. For example: A little boy wants a bike, he believes he will get a bike, he gets a bike… On the other hand, we are told that we can’t merely ask, believe, receive… We have to act on it…"
The answer for this can be easily found in Wattles' words: Of course closing your eyes, and dreaming about having whatever you want is not going to bring it to you, but believing you deserve it and acting upon it will.
"The Secret's ideas are nothing more than common sense" says Tony Riazzi, columnist for the Dayton Daily News . "Ignore the vague prose and you get the message that thinking positively serves you better than thinking negatively".
"Thought is the creative power or the impelling force which causes the creative power to act", writes Wattles in his book. "Thinking in a certain way will bring riches to you, but you must not rely upon thought alone, paying no attention to personal action. This is the rock upon which many otherwise scientific metaphysical thinkers meet shipwreck - the failure to connect thought with personal action".
Another argument against the film is that The Secret makes people believe they are responsible for the way their life works or doesn't work, while too many who experience bad luck and poverty are actually the victims of cruelty, ignorance, exploitation and greed. "The film is a moronic hymn to greed and selfishness", claims Catherine Bennett of the London based Guardian . "It is nastily suggests that victims of catastrophe are the authors of their misfortunes". According to The Secret there are no accidents or coincidences in life, adds Ingrid Hansen Smythe in skeptic.com, "We are all at all times getting exactly what we deserve, and what we have attracted".
This criticism is based on the false notion that responsibility for our circumstances is the same as guilt and blame. But being responsible has nothing to do with blame. It only means being responsible for your own actions and choices that brought you there, and more important - choosing your next step not as a victim but as a master of your universe, even in the gloomiest of circumstances.
Unfortunately most people blame others, or their circumstances in life, and than take no action, because they believe this is somebody else's responsibility. The Secret says each one of us is responsible for his or her fate, because we can always make choices. Therefore, even if we grew up in poverty, we can always choose to act in ways that will lead us to richness.
"The working class may become the master class whenever they will begin to do things in a certain way", says Wattles. The law of wealth is the same for them as it is for all others… and they will remain where they are as long as they continue to do as they do". This doesn't mean they should take blame for it. It only means they can choose to act differently, but right now they prefer to remain where they are.
Other critics say there is nothing new in The Secret. "I can show you books written 100 years ago that say the exact same thing," says Beryl Satter, a professor of history at Rutgers. Long before there was a "New Age," Satter says, there was "New Thought- a self-help movement that drew on 19th-century Americans' suspicion of elites and on the Protestant tradition of looking for the "inner light."
This may be so, but so what? There are countless creations in the history of mankind, true masterpieces based on former writers, painters, philosophers, and such. Byrne herself is the first to acknowledge using The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace D. Wattles as her main source for creating The Secret. So our main question should not be whether The Secret is a completely new creation, but whether it works?
According to thousands of people, it does work, no matter what the critics say. Some people say it changed their life. Others say it made a difference in a part of their life. We each get out of it exactly what we wants and desire.
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