Hey Oprah, What's the Secret?

A recent Oprah Winfrey show caused quite a stir when she presented
several practitioners of The Secret, a neo-new age belief system based on
the book by Rhonda Byrnes. Promising everything from improved health and
enhanced relationships, to a financial windfall, the book, and its subsequent
DVD, are climbing to the top of search engines and making for water cooler
chitchat around the country. So what exactly is this Secret?
According to Byrnes’ book, and of course Oprah - who knows a lot about the
universe, the secret is this: the universe has everything you want, it a big
catalog from which you can order anything you want, and it’s all there for the
asking. Cool.
Both the Oprah show and “The Secret” DVD supply a plethora of successful
folks, many of whose success predates the book, testifying that it was by
utilizing the practices described in this program that they became successful.
Though the majority of those proselytizing for The Secret are pop-psych
authors and spiritualists, there are also a couple of psychologists and even a
quantum physicist thrown in for legitimacy’s sake. Two of the better known
names barking for The Secret are author John Gray, whose Men Are From
Mars, Women are From Venus, which should have been met with a collective
“Duh” from anyone who has ever met a member of the opposite sex, but
instead sold millions, and also Jack Canfield, co-creator of the Chicken Soup
for the Soul series.
Unfortunately, presenting these theories are also too many of those get-rich-
quickers who’ve made a lot of money by telling you how to make a lot of
money; this adds an air of late-night infomercial to the program. It risks
reducing the program’s believability to a level of having Ms. Cleo explain
physics and universal intention to you. But let’s play along and see where it
takes us.
The basic tenets of The Secret are based on the universal laws of attraction:
that is to say that the universe returns to you that which you send to it. For
example, if you are constantly putting out negative information about your
weight, love life, career, it will send back to you negativity in respect to your
weight, love life, and career. Better to simply ask for an improved version of
those things. Do not say, “I hate my job, I don’t want to be fat, I need to get
laid”, instead envision having things the way that you want them: “I have a
rewarding career, my body looks great, I am getting laid like a $5 crack
whore” and the universe will return in kind, it will naturally supply you with
what you believe to be true. The universe is like a magic genie, according to
The Secret, your wish is its command.
The process involves three steps: deciding what you want, envisioning these
things in your life, then acting on attaining them, this time with the universe
on your side. Proponents of this system recommend writing out your needs
and wants in a journal, put to paper the things that you want the universe to
bring you. This helps not only to clarify exactly what it is that you want out of
life, cutting through all the static in our brains, but also reduces the
vagueness of those who aimlessly whine that they just want something more.
Of course, this is always a good idea, it has been said that insightful
journaling is the basis for all modern psychotherapy. Besides, this is pretty
easy to do, particularly if it leads to a total reinventing of your life.
Once decided on your future life, the next process, envisioning, is pretty
easy too. You can meditate on your life being the way you want it, see it in
your mind, picture that house, that job, that mate. Picture it and believe it to
be so and it will be, so they say. If you’re the type that usually falls asleep
during meditation, (which probably wouldn’t be such a bad thing as, I guess,
you would still be communicating with the universe) there are other ways of
envisioning your new life. One suggestion is to keep a corkboard, pin to it
pictures, or some representation, of your new life. Keep it always within your
view; let it serve as a reminder of the way your life will be from now on. See it,
believe it, and become it.
The last process is the one that I have an issue with: act on your desires. I’m
not used to actual work being involved in these types of self-help programs. I
mean, Dr. Wayne Dyer says that I am just supposed to relate to universal
intention, you know, just kind of drop it a line now and then and keep in
touch. But to actually go out and work for change, if I was the kind to do that,
I probably wouldn’t need a self-help book in the first place. Of course, it does
make sense to go out and act on attaining your goals, I’m just not sure I need
a bunch of guru’s to tell me that, and believe me, I’ve tried them all.
As a teen I read Dr. Norman Vincent Peele’s The Power of Positive Thinking
and walked around smiling at every asshole that I met; in the 70’s I tried fixing
all my erroneous zones, and by the 90’s I returned to love with Marianne
Williamson’s take on A Course in Miracles. They all had their moments, at
least until something new came along. The idea of commanding the universe
to do my bidding is at least new; besides, it kind of makes one feel pretty
powerful, sort of like being the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.
The program is filled a multitude of rich platitudes, quoting every one from
Henry Ford to Jesus Christ. So when Henry Ford tells you, “Whether you
think you can or you can’t, you are right”, you kind of figure he must know
something about success. When they reinterpret the biblical belief that God
dwells within you to you are dwelling within God, it can feel like a new and
more inclusive construct. Another noble aspect of the program is that, aside
from how it is being marketed, it is not about getting only financially rich; the
wealth it speaks of is as much about wealth of relationships, emotional
wealth, spiritual wealth, and physical health, as it is about money. This is
where the quantum physicist comes in.
A brief lesson in the quantum theory and we learn that we are all made of
energy; we are not just a bunch of meat suits running around at the mercy of
our temperamental cells. Furthermore, that it is our energy that commands
these cells; our bodies are the very expression of our energy. Change you
attitude and change your body, it is your inner self that constructs the outer
self. Though this is a promising premise, I worry if my inner self also has the
beginnings of a potbelly and a receding hairline.
The program is interesting, and even inspirational at points, but it takes
several leaps of faith, not the least of which being the belief in the universal
laws of attraction. Not trusting my vague memories from Earth Science 11, I
researched it on the net, and while there is a plethora of information about
these laws, they seem only to exist in the world of self-help. There is little
more than an agreement among gurus that they exist. That’s okay, the same
is true of phen shui and that at least got me to clean my rugs. I’m going to
give it a try, follow The Secret’s teachers’ advice: the universe is a catalog;
just ask it for what you want, and it will arrive in your life. I just hope it has
faster delivery than Overstock.com