"The Secret" is BS!

[Lovinglife]

I just watched the video on Youtube, and its so messed up its depressing.

They actually say that if you get hit by a car, you caused it yourself. I believe in positive thinking, but they take it WAAAY too far.

Actually, it's pretty funny.

[garg]

The nature of reality is still under much discussion by philosophers and scientists. Can our perceptions be trusted? Can we prove that reality is not just a simulation? Can we provide with out any doubt that the people around us are not just our own creations? Can we believe in anything for certain? Not really.

While I can offer no proof for the validity of LOA/The Secret, I can also provide nothing that refutes it completely. I guess I am agnostic about this as well.

[Dani]

Well if you do get hit by a car,

You chose to leave the house that morning.

You chose to cross the road at that moment and probably chose not to pay enough attention to your surroundings...

So yeah, you did cause it LOA or not.

A problem with peoples understanding and acceptance of the secret is that they want the power to 'intend' good things into their life, wthout accepting that already intended all the bad things they have now or will get in the future.

You can't choose to apply LOA to part of your life e.g. good finances and then attempt to remove it from other areas so you can blame other people e.g. the car accident.

I can tell you from my own experiences it is far, far, far from bs.

Unfortunately for you, it is working all the time whether you believe it or not. So if you start thinking about getting hit by a car a lot I would be extra careful near roads if I was you.

[Savage]

The movie's ability to polarize people into either loving it or hating it is certainly great PR -- it just makes more people want to see it, if for no other reason than sheer curiosity.

[The David]

Kind of like The Passion...

I've been wondering (which means I need to actual watch The Secret, instead of speculating), does The Secret teach subjective reality? Or just IM? I know they overlap, but some IM sources don't teach subjective reality, at least not in the Pavlinic sense.

If it does teach SR, and you criticize it, the joke is on you.

[ticktockclok]

It doesn't teach subjective reality, at least not the one on youtube.

[Narz]

BS sells.

People want to feel powerful. They want to feel in control. They want to feel they can have anything without doing much of anything, without competing, without risking. It's a nice idea. I can see what it is so popular.

[Akashic_Librarian]

You think using the LoA is easy? Its a lot of hard work. Its about earning what you want. Its not about sitting on your arse all day thinknig yourself rich. Its abotu getting out there. Working hard and achieveing what you really want. Fearless and in total control.

[ElizaJ]

I have been a recipient of a lot of negative energy sent my way and have had to claw my way out of it. So, no, good people don't intend bad things to happen to them; but bad things will happen to good people when bad people work tirelessly against them; and that has been my unmitigated experience.

[escapee]

I believe LOA works under the framework of universal law ( the law of biology, physics, probability and etc ) . If you are trying to manifest a reality that trans fat would be healthy for everyone, it's just not going to happen.

Me thing a car accident can be explained by the combined factors of collective LOA ( the thought of the people involved ), The law of probabiltiy ( how many cars on the road - influenced by collective LOA - this explains why festive season has more fatal accidents than normal), experience and skill of the drivers. I was actually feeling a little strange to see that the video blames everything (eg: car accident) solely on "subjective" LOA. Most PPL love quick fix on the problem. The video should sell well due to its controversy.

Next we are going to see a video entitled " LOA , its use and misuse "

The above is just my personal opinion.

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by escapee

I was actually feeling a little strange to see that the video blames everything (eg: car accident) solely on "subjective" LOA. Most PPL love quick fix on the problem. The video should sell well due to its controversy. .

Wait, taking responsibility for your life and everything that happens in it is a "quick fix"? I don't agree with you, the quick fix is to blame someone else, or circumstances "beyond" your control. It takes a big shift in thinking to "buy into" LoA and IM, which is why most people write it off, because paradigm shifting is not something most people want to undertake, especially a big one.

[Dave Kaminski]

Originally Posted by Lucas

Wait, taking responsibility for your life and everything that happens in it is a "quick fix"? I don't agree with you, the quick fix is to blame someone else, or circumstances "beyond" your control. It takes a big shift in thinking to "buy into" LoA and IM, which is why most people write it off, because paradigm shifting is not something most people want to undertake, especially a big one.

Agreed.

Joe Vitale knows what kind of reaction he's going to get when he says what he says.

I don't think I could get hit by a car, I'm just too aware of my surroundings. That's why I'll never get hit by a car.

It's more your subconscious thoughts and beliefs about yourself and the reality you live in. That's literally what life is to you. That's why I believe in subjective reality and the Secret. It's the only thing that really makes sense in terms of ideas & beliefs

[WanderingOak]

My main problem with the LOA is that it can be used in an attempt to manifest 'dangerous' fantasies. Look at the current political situation regarding Iraq: "Mission Accomplished", "Slam-Dunk", and "God told me we are going to win in Iraq". It sounds to me as if somebody was attempting to manifest a victory in Iraq. What's worse is that it's not working, so people are dying needlessly because of this fantasy, unless of course you believe that we are actually winning and being fed lies by the liberal media. Actually, I think that particular spin is another attempt to manifest victory.

Unfortunately, other people have tried the same thing before. Anybody ever see 'Triumph of the Will'? To me, that sounds a lot like an attempt at manifestation. Those people were convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had a god-given right to take over the world. Of course they failed miserably, and you can't even mention their name in polite company anymore. Heck, water crystals freak out at the mere mention of the name of their leader.

It could be that I don't have enough of an understanding of the LOA to see why it can't be used to manifest the egregious examples that I mentioned above. Then again, this could just show that there is a 'dark side' to the LOA as well.

[Dave Kaminski]

Originally Posted by WanderingOak

My main problem with the LOA is that it can be used in an attempt to manifest 'dangerous' fantasies. Look at the current political situation regarding Iraq: "Mission Accomplished", "Slam-Dunk", and "God told me we are going to win in Iraq". It sounds to me as if somebody was attempting to manifest a victory in Iraq. What's worse is that it's not working, so people are dying needlessly because of this fantasy, unless of course you believe that we are actually winning and being fed lies by the liberal media. Actually, I think that particular spin is another attempt to manifest victory.

Unfortunately, other people have tried the same thing before. Anybody ever see 'Triumph of the Will?'. To me, that sounds a lot like an attempt at manifestation. Those people were convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had a god-given right to take over the world. Of course they failed miserably, and you can't even mention their name in polite company anymore. Heck, water crystals freak out at the mere mention of the name of their leader.

It could be that I don't have enough of an understanding of the LOA to see why it can't be used to manifest the egregious examples that I mentioned above. Then again, this could just show that there is a 'dark side' to the LOA as well.

I'm no expert, however I've done quite a bit of research.

I think people are focusing too strongly on the literal content of the words and not enough on the feeling and belief that is inherent to those. If you think gun you think negative and you send negative. This can be different for different people, but if people think "take over the world" they don't think of it as an open arms loving kind of thing.

To win a war takes a lot of death and destruction. The loving and pure energy that is what things are created out of will act in vain and work hard against the manifestation of this because it's not adding to the positive growth of the world or the actual energy itself.

[The Animus]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

The movie's ability to polarize people into either loving it or hating it is certainly great PR -- it just makes more people want to see it, if for no other reason than sheer curiosity.

So what is this movie about, selling copies or sharing valid metaphysical teachings with the world?

The motive certainly says a lot about the message.

I would also be very careful of any messages that need to be polarized in order to be transmitted. Very often, the essence of the message is distorted, in order to make it ad captandum. It may be sensational when it hits, but it's long term legitimacy is weakened for the quick sell.

[dor]

Originally Posted by WanderingOak

My main problem with the LOA is that it can be used in an attempt to manifest 'dangerous' fantasies. Look at the current political situation regarding Iraq: "Mission Accomplished", "Slam-Dunk", and "God told me we are going to win in Iraq". It sounds to me as if somebody was attempting to manifest a victory in Iraq. What's worse is that it's not working, so people are dying needlessly because of this fantasy, unless of course you believe that we are actually winning and being fed lies by the liberal media. Actually, I think that particular spin is another attempt to manifest victory.

Unfortunately, other people have tried the same thing before. Anybody ever see 'Triumph of the Will'? To me, that sounds a lot like an attempt at manifestation. Those people were convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had a god-given right to take over the world. Of course they failed miserably, and you can't even mention their name in polite company anymore. Heck, water crystals freak out at the mere mention of the name of their leader.

It could be that I don't have enough of an understanding of the LOA to see why it can't be used to manifest the egregious examples that I mentioned above. Then again, this could just show that there is a 'dark side' to the LOA as well.

Funny I was going to say something similar - particularly about Bush - he does seem to try to 'manifest' by avoiding reality in Iraq and it took a long time for him to finally face reality - though some people say he hasn't even done that thus the attempts at a 'surge'
In the book think and grow rich, I think napolean hill kind of touched on this - with henry ford - you have to be single minded and driven to succeed- that's what made ford produce autos for $500.00 when eveyone else was charging $3000-5000.00 but there came a point where his doggedness caused Ford Motor to fall behind. I forgot what Hill said about it - I am going to look it up today.

Regarding LOA:
The alternative to not accepting that you are responsible for your circusmstances, is not accepting them. and if you don't then why would you be truly, deeply motivated to do anything, if a deus ex machina can come down in ActIII?

[escapee]

Wait, taking responsibility for your life and everything that happens in it is a "quick fix"? I don't agree with you, the quick fix is to blame someone else, or circumstances "beyond" your control. It takes a big shift in thinking to "buy into" LoA and IM, which is why most people write it off, because paradigm shifting is not something most people want to undertake, especially a big one.

Wait. I'm not writting off LOA, It has been part of my life since the introduction of "The secret". I was just giving a little criticism of how the video "oversells" the power of LOA ( Nevertheless, I still think it's a great movie ). I believe subjective LOA is only part of the success/failure formula, it's not all.

It would be unfair to blame only the Katrina/disaster victims for attracting the disaster to themselves.

[Athena]

Originally Posted by dor

Regarding LOA:
The alternative to not accepting that you are responsible for your circusmstances, is not accepting them. and if you don't then why would you be truly, deeply motivated to do anything, if a deus ex machina can come down in ActIII?

I think the right path is in the balance- reality is both objective and subjective, AND our paths in this life on earth are shaped by both internal and external forces. There are layers of reality, like the earth and the atmosphere, hard objective and flexible subjective.

We are not entirely responsible for our reality while in our physical bodies- we are still subjected to natural scientific laws, (perhaps we chose to agree to those parts of reality when we became human, but they bind us while in the physical world nonetheless), but we can control and shape the flexible parts of reality while we're here.

I thin LoA and other similar teachings in the new age movement are powerful in that they show that individuals have the power to shape their destiny, whereas previous religious teachings gave this power primarily to a separate God force.
Books like The Secret and the Law of Attraction take this individual power to an extreme, and say that the individual is responsible for ALL. I think the individual is responsible for more than he previously thought, but still shares responsibility for his path with some external forces.

So, there is a balance of responsibility, between the individual, and God/universe/external forces.

[escapee]

Athena, Well said.

[srkmish]

What a great way to make people afraid by telling such stupid things as car accidents are caused by you only,well the courageous person out there will not worry about this crap.,the problem with guys who think too much about crap such as loa is that they become cowards.An intellectual analytical person is never brave,and a brave person does not think,he takes the jump into danger whatsoever the risk,whatsoever the danger.Do you think people who climb everest not worry about death,death is continuously going on in thier minds,but do to the risk of death,the quest becomes an adventure.One should live life dangerously,surrounded by death cuz that is the only way to be alive

[ElizaJ]

Having lived for many years trying to manifest things in my life via affirmations and intentions and then finding out that I was the recipient of much negative energy from many people, I had to learn to protect myself. So, yes, LOA probably works rapidly when no one is tampering with you, but if there are a lot of misshaps in your life, then you had best start looking at those around you who might be wishing you ill and working against you.

BTW, this forum may attract negative people, so everyone needs to protect themselves from anyone they don't know on this forum.

[Akashic_Librarian]

Bah you people don't seem to have any clue about what you are talking about. You are all looking at a fragmented version of the LoA. You are all so wrapped up in your own little worlds you fail to see the forest for the trees.

Of course you manifested the car accident. Because you believe that Car accidents happen. You believe that it CAN happen. So it does. You manifest it so your beliefs correspond with the world.

"Rich get richer, poor get poorer"

If you believe life is hard, guess what. IT WILL BE.

If you believe earning money is hard. It will be.

If you believe you will never get married, you won't.

HOWEVER if you believe that money comes easily and frequently, a whole world of financial abundance will show itself. It won't throw itself into your bank account. But it will be there and you have to take action and grab what you manifest.
The hardest thing to get is that we are totally responsible. We are. There is no denying it. No arguing with it. You are who you are because of yourself and nothing else. Don't moan about Negativity and how you battled through. I don't care. Stop identifying yourself with this hard-done-to person who can't achieve anything. GROW UP. Have the courage to lay your beliefs aside and just give it a go. HAVE FUN.

I pity you if you can't just feel good for a moment. If you truly believe life is hard and you have to struggle to survive you fighting a losing battle. You really are. You have to look to the light and feel good. Feel abundant. Feel gratitude vibrate on every level and feel the love man. FEEL IT.

If you don't believe me, fine.

But your a fool if you don't think about it.

[Beautiful Future]

I think that if you treat everything that the presenters of 'The Secret' say as truth, then you are not creating your reality at all, but adopting theirs. Just because, in their reality, people are fully responsible for being hit by cars, tidal waves or whatever, it doesn't have to be so in yours, any more than anything else has to be.

So... the film spouted the odd bit of tripe in places. It doesn't necessarily mean that the rest of it was BS, just as the presence of a Coffee Creme in a box of chocolates doesn't have to mean that the others will taste revolting too.

Just use what works for you.

[ElizaJ]

I was involved in 3 car accidents last year when I had been in 2 accidents in the previous 20 years. Why? Because I finally woke up, looked, realised, and saw that I had all these energy vampires attached to me and they were sucking my life energy out of me. I was carefully detaching them and one of the ways they thought of to reattach themselves to me was by bumping into my car.

People need to wake up to the fact that there are a lot of energy vampires everywhere. Even here on this board, and they need to take precautions against them. So, did I do something to attract these jerks? No, they were attracted to me because of all the energy I can garner. So, people beware, stay alert, and always protect yourselves!

Ciao!

[Praxislife]

One of the quotes from the movie, (I believe it was Henry Ford), " Whether you believe you can or you can't, you are correct" I feel like this is the key to life. OK maybe I'm a little overboard on that statement, however, the point I would like to make is that we create our own reality via perception. My perception of my life IS my reality. So as I stroll through life, whatever comes in front of me isn't my reality until I give it meaning to my life. (ie. what this current event means to me)

Our perceptions are the culmination of our learning from birth (or before) until right now. This is why I believe that some people are more "fortunate" than others. Is a street person any less intelligent than than a lottery winner or corporate CEO? (I mean intelligent, not educated) I believe everyone is born with the capability to be and do whatever they choose. I can say this because my son, at one point was "diagnosed" with "learning disabilities" by several supposed "experts". I did not accept this. I found that with the proper support and direction, he is able to succeed and even excel in whatever direction he wants to go. The problem, in my opinion, was a series of teachers treating him as though he couldn't accomplish what they set in front of him. He started to believe it and, therefore, fulfilled the belief.

To me LOA is a whole lot deeper than a pie in the sky belief. It takes action as well. I can believe that I will not get hit by a bus right up until the moment I decide to step in front of one. The Secret is about a concept that takes belief coupled with action integreted with perception. If any one of those are left out, the results will probably be hit-or-miss or inconsistent a best. There was a whole program that Rhonda Byrne completed to get to the point of the movie which was the basis behind the movie.

I am not an expert in LOA nor to I claim to have all of the answers. I am still practicing as well. I do have some pretty phenomenal results. This is from a man who lived on the street 17 years ago.

Another point of view for LOA ins a book by Lynn Grabhorn called "Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting; The Astonishing Power of Feelings" (By the way, there is also a workbook based on the book, ya know, the "action" part)

I love seeing all of the different points of view on here, that's waht makes the world keep spinning. Thank you all!!

[dingybobstuart]

I personally dont like how the secret is essentially geared towards making money and obtaining material items.
Of course its the selling point of the film and while a good state of mind can attract good things (wealth included) i feel that it gives people a false "easy way out"... i dont think it explains well enough that you need to be pro-active about getting the things you want in life, and that visualising etc is only a part of the bigger picture and that visualising and thinking and this and that wont get you far unless you are willing to get out there and do something.

However, I certainly agree with the secrets underlying message of being happy and positive and how doing that will attract good things into your life...

[escapee]

If LOA is not subject to the law of universe (biology, evolution, probability, physics and etc ), external force and objectivitsm as Athena mentioned. Then the world would be in constant chaos because what you have just thought manifested instantly. Money would constantly fall from sky, people would be killed/saved/revived instantly with thought, everyone a lottery winner and pig flies. A scary world indeed .

[Acting Like Godot]

People keep forgetting that a thing is different from its description. And that a thing could have many descriptions.

What I'm trying to say is that there is this thing which, for convenience, we call the "LOA", and then there is this movie called "The Secret". That's one description.

Originally Posted by dingybobstuart

I personally dont like how the secret is essentially geared towards making money and obtaining material items.

In fact, Esther Hicks (the Abraham-Hicks woman) apparently refused to be associated with "The Secret" precisely because of the above point.

visualising etc is only a part of the bigger picture and that visualising and thinking and this and that wont get you far unless you are willing to get out there and do something.

From my personal experience, if you are really doing your visualisation properly, you CANNOT possibly not proceed to do something about it, if there is something you can personally do about it.

In other words, say for instance you are visualising a fit & healthy body. If you have indeed been really visualising, you will find that your behaviour automatically changes. You will lose your desire for unhealthy foods; you will feel like eating healthier foods; you will feel excited by the idea of going to exercise (and so you will) etc .....

Thus I believe that no one who is actually doing any proper IM will then just sit around and doing nothing. If you are using IM to achieve your goals, you WILL end up taking action to achieve your goals.

After all, thoughts are reality, and you are part of reality.

The thing to bear in mind is that with IM, the rest of reality will also cooperate in fulfilling your intentions.

[Athena]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

In other words, say for instance you are visualising a fit & healthy body. If you have indeed been really visualising, you will find that your behaviour automatically changes. You will lose your desire for unhealthy foods; you will feel like eating healthier foods; you will feel excited by the idea of going to exercise (and so you will) etc .....

This is where subjective reality/IM intersects with objective reality in the physical world. If the world were totally subjective, and IM could change all, then simply visualizing would allow you to have a fit and healthy body. But while we're on earth, it looks like we're subjected to the laws of physics-- besides visualizing optimal health, you have act in accordance with the laws of calories, energy expenditure, exercise, optimal nutrients, etc.

I believe that IM would work instantly in the ethereal world, where there may be no physical laws, but I think on earth, if you intend to manifest physical and external things, IM has to be paired with physical action in the objective realm.

[AmandaP]

Akashic Librarian THANKYOU!!!
My mind was once full of negative thoughts, how bad my life was, how hard my life was bah bah bah. I was recently introduced to LOA and I'm loving my life now.
I know that life is for having fun and spending time with my kids. I know that positive thought patterns are helping me to achieve my goals.
By visualizing the things I want in life, I am finding myself setting plans and achieving!!
My life is in my hands, I decide how to feel everyday, I decide how to react to things. My life is full of happiness, wealth and success.
I am not a coward because I choose to live my life this way (srkmish) nor am I not brave. I am brave because everyday I stretch just that little bit more, I take one more step outside my comfort zone and I continue to learn with an open mind.