What do you think of THE SECRET?

[ms.read]

The Secret....

What do you think of it?


If you're in the us or canada you can get it on pay per view.

It also comes in book form. I just picked it up. its by Rhonda Byrne

By the way this is not spam or an advert, I really want to know.

 

[Liar]

Meh. It's no secret.

But if a funky Da Vinci Code style package is what it takes for some people to stop moping about their lives and get off their asses to change it, then fine.

 

[jomar]

What Liar said. But also try books on positive psychology and optimism by Martin Seligman, or the new Happier, by Tal Ben-Shahar.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Not having read or seen it, I went to Amazon.com and read the reader's reviews(scroll about halfway down the page)-- lots of 'spoilers" there.

It sounds like Christian Science horseshit, to me-- Positive Thoughts and Perfect Faith Will Cure All Ills-- and if it doesn't, then your faith wasn't perfect enough, and your thoughts weren't positive enough.

 

[rgraham666]

It sounds like Christian Science horseshit, to me-- Positive Thoughts and Perfect Faith Will Cure All Ills-- and if it doesn't, then your faith wasn't perfect enough, and your thoughts weren't positive enough.

That seems to me a hypothesis easily disproved with a baseball bat or tire iron.

 

[Nirvanadragones]

They're all just a little too positive for me. It's like a happy drug/ delusional / pseudo - denial state of something.

There is some truth in some of it, perhaps. It's no secret, though.

 

[jomar]

They're all just a little too positive for me. It's like a happy drug/ delusional / pseudo - denial state of something.

Does that include Seligman's Learned Optimism?

 

[3113]

It's that "EST" sort of thing. Every 5-10 years someone comes up with a "full proof" way to happiness. And most who try it are happy, happy, happy for all of maybe 3-6 months, and then they're back to status quo and looking for the next magic cure.

Such "cures" never last for long.

 

[NoJo]

Why buy a book that preys on the weak and fearful, when bibles are free in most hotels?

 

[carsonshepherd]

"The Secret" - had to watch it for a class. Thought it was ridiculous and kept laughing at inappropriate times. I don't think anyone in the class, instructor included, thought it had any basis in reality. The author must have "attracted" the idea of THE SECRET itself by visualizing "How can I make a lot of money off of stupid, gullible people?"

 

[ms.read]

hmm sounds interesting.
I read it thoroughly.

The basic message was BE POSITIVE. okay so i did that. Just because your positve doesn't mean your problems Dissapear. Its no secret that people in general are 'attracted' to other happy and confident individuals. who wants to be around someone that is depressed all the time?

 

[john-the-author]

I strongly agree about Martin Seligman and learned optimism, which I recommend as a path to anyone. But the problem with many things a la EST and a lot of the other is that they all say "If you want something hard enough, you'll get it. If you didn't get it, you don't want it hard enough." The corollaries that start happening are of the blame-the-victim sort: "Whatever you get are the things you asked for" and "It's your fault your life isn't going the way you want it to."

I think that there's a lot to be said for learned optimism and making your own serendipity (a combination of audacity and sagacity and not just "luck"). But things will happen that weren't anything you wanted, that you wouldn't have asked for in a million years, and that weren't your fault and these should be allowed for without some person saying "And you did this to yourself, so fuck you." (Sounds like a Republican, don't it?) My ex-wife and I came up with an expression to fit this kind of person, by the way: "ESThole."

 

[JamesSD]

Bah

There is a certain positive message from The Secret, but it depends on how the reader interprets it.

If the recipient interprets the message as "You can make positive changes in your life" and "You're not trapped in your situation", then there's no problem.

However, the danger of the secret is that it can be interpreted as "The Universe will give me whatever I want if I just ask for it; no need to work." So far, that hasn't panned out for me wishing for a threesome with (insert two attractive actresses names here).

So, potentially dangerous, possibly helpful, mostly silly.

 

[jomar]

Why buy a book that preys on the weak and fearful, when bibles are free in most hotels?

You missed that thread. Quite a debate on if they were free to take with you.

 

[flavortang]

"The Secret". The book sounds like those 2am infomercials that praise a get-rich-quick method but the 'secret' about it is that every sap that falls for the hook makes only one person rich: the person selling the product in the infomercial.