The Secret

I saw the movie and in a recent conversation when asked what I thought, this is what I shared.

Thumbs up, though I do recognize that it glosses over some important issues to the human experience as well. One major issue I had was in the implication that you can have whatever you want. In my experience, you allow a human being to have whatever they want, and like the spoiled child, they run amok and do themselves and others around them harm. I would have liked it to include the importance of our Oneness and Response-Ability to the Whole; that there are consequences to our actions and choices. Were that included, then the fuller instruction of Do No Harm would also be of great service to the message The Secret shares.

Best wishes, Lee

I am a professionally trained Coach committed to the awakening and development of the human spirit. In this capacity, and as a Spiritual Teacher or Guide, One Man Can wants to inspire and empower your life, your relationships, an

Funny thing you talk about this. Another friend of mine wondered the same thing -- he wondered if The Secret promotes what he calls a "new age narcissim". Where people ask for everything -- in fact demand it from the universe in a spoilt child sort of way. 

I realized after I wrote this that two things really grabbed me - one is the power of gratitude it's like the 3rd idea that The Secret presents, but arguably THE MOST important thing. If you can be grateful, that alone will have an enormous impact on your life. It's somethng I've always known, yet continually strive to put into practice. The other thing I found powerful is how they talk about how to correct one's internal dialogue / self talk. Correcting this is a chellenge because you often aren't even aware that you're thinking certain thoughts (mental dailogue) because they're so quick and ingrained and such a part of the way you are - you're no longer aware of thinking them. Being aware of your mental dialogue they say can happen by noticing how you feel. Emotions are a reflection of what we're thinking. If there's a negative commentary running in your mind, it will affect your mood by making you feel bad or grumpy or negative. They say that by thinking of things that bring you joy and happiness, you can change the way you feel. If you change the way you feel, you can change your internal dialogue; those very small fleeting thoughts that happen every second of the day. If you can feel good, you won't have as many negative thoughts flicker through your head. It's your thoughts (big and small) that bring about things in your life in a "self-fulfilling prophesy" sort of way.

Back to this gratitude thing -- I was talking about The Secret with a friend and she said she used to write down 5 things she was grateful for in the day each night before she went to slepp. A gratitude journal!!! Now, I cna have troubles sleeping - either going to sleep or waking up prematurely. I did this last night and slept through the night and had a good sleep. I've decided it's something I'm going to keep up. I want to write down 5 things from the day for which I'm grateful before I go to sleep each night.

Very true and the gratitude / gratitude journal is a great way to go.

Even so, life is not always meant to be easy. I've been having a lot of things show up around our emotional energies and the experience of our humanity. That experience often runs contrary to the "light and love" ideas that are permeating this kind of new age spiritualism. I'm not trying to rain on the ideals, nor do I want to make light of what they/we are about, and I certainly don't want to put everyone in the same bucket. So bear with it simply from an individual's challenge of wanting and the reality of their inner and outer experience.

With so much emphasis on the positive, it's like we are doing everything we can to avoid the negative. Yet, with a clear glimpse into our own history, we quickly see how much we've grown through many of the negative experiences. Exponentially even! So, yes, the power of positive thinking, the expression of gratitude, and so on are valuable. Yet here is the challenge: Will you express that gratitude for the conflict you had today with a coworker? Will you express that gratitude when a disease strikes you down and you're laying in the hospital 50lbs lighter, expecting to die? Will you express gratitude for the man who cheats you out of $500?

I chose personal examples here. Being human, my reaction in the midst of all this pain was to simply lament - to cry, to sorrow, to despair, and to give up. I didn't have an ounce of gratitude in me at that moment. And like the story of Job, people around me in their limited perspective and wisdom offered up jewels of insulting advice and perspective that belied their own discomfort with their own frailty, wanting desperately to distance themselves from any possibility that it could happen to them. Isn't that funny? We're afraid to face our own mortality.

Well, here's the good news! After 10 years of upheaval, struggle, successes, and failures, I have been given a profoundly rich experience. It has brought me to a place that understand the human condition, many mysteries, much insight to the manipulations that people engage in and are not even aware of (including our whole democratic, free enterprise system, and religions).

Pause, breathe... I could talk forever about so much of this, and it is out of gratitude, too, for the shine it has put upon my soul, for the love it has expressed in my spirit, and for the relationship to everything that I enjoy. And, I still get to be human and have a bad day.

I'd much rather equip people with the full set of tools from the toolbox, rather than just the shiny ones. It seems to me that this is what is happening with much of this talk around The Secret. I'm still glad for it, though I wonder how people's experience of it will leave many frustrated, confused, and even disillusioned? You touched on some key points, as I've elaborated here too, and those aspects of the human experience are every bit as important as the "good shiny stuff."

Best wishes, Lee

Hello,

I just wanted to share this with you so that you can share the secret with friends for free. This version does not have Ester Hicks which is too bad because she is wonderful. She has a great book at Banyon currently on sale!!! called The Law of Attraction. Highly recomended.

www.universallawstoday.com/secret.html   to watch the secret for free

  This site is fantastic ... it has tons of free books you can read

on line too!

You remind me of the day St. Peter was giving a gentleman by the name

of Tom a tour of heaven. Saint Peter whispers in Tom's ear, "Those

are the Buddhists over there." A little farther along he whispers,

"Those are the Muslims over there." A little ways more he whispers,

"There go the Christians over there." At this point, Tom asks, "St.

Peter, why are you whispering?" St. Peter replies, "They all think they are the only ones here!"

"Whatsoever things ye pray for, when ye pray, pray believing that ye

have received them...and ye shall receive them." ~Jesus the Christ

Isn't that what everybody was saying in the secret? I mean

EXACTLY? When you want something, get the FEELING of it already being

yours and you'll HAVE IT. We here at The Spiritual Posse call it

FEELINGIZATION. Visualizing with FEELING."Shhh...they all think

they're the only ones here!"

Thanks for the URL and great joke. It's sad though, really. The joke basically captures why so many people DIE over their religious faith. I was raised Catholic and did a double major in Psychology and Religious Studies. I'm so over religion. Your spirituality is what you make of it. Always has been, always will be. There are good Christians (please substitute any Religion in here) and their are totally righteous Christians (again, please substitute). By BAD, I mean people who use their book of faith and its teachings often quoting it literal ways to defend mean-spirited and perhaps immoral behaviour. I.e. Killing others, being bigoted, racist, etc., etc., etc..

If you're going to use stuff that I WROTE...you really should acknowledge where you got it. I appreciate your sharing my thoughts from Oprah's website but as Chairman of The Spiritual Posse I just have to say.....

JUST KIDDING. You're free to share anything I've shared in a public forum.

Peace 'n Forever Blessings to you...

Fletch Rainey
Chairman, The Spiritual Posse

Hi , thought you might be interested in my blog.

Click here to view my blog.

I would appreciate it if you would pass it along to others.

Blessings,

Daren

yay! ;)

Your funny Kate...lol. Good work on this site!!!

Thanks!
:)

Here is a quote from an interesting article called Oprah's ugly secret 

 "March 5, 2007 | Steve Martin used to do a routine that went like this: "You too can be a millionaire! It's easy: First, get a million dollars. Now..."
If you put that routine between hard covers, you'd have "The Secret," the self-help manifesto and bottle of minty-fresh snake oil currently topping the bestseller lists."

It made me laugh because I'm not a fan of The Secret because it reminds me of Scientology and it coveres a self-centered approach to things by claiming to be spiritual. Some concepts are true - like energy attracts like energies, but that's a simplistic approach to karma etceteras. A quote from the book (I took from the article) says, ""The only reason any person does not have enough money is because they are blocking money from coming to them with their thoughts." ".

The article is at www.salon.com (click on "Enter Salon" if you don't want to become a member)  http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/03/05/the_secret/

Hi, this conversation was really interesting. I haven't read the Secret, but I've heard about it (who hasn't). Hmmm, maybe I'll have to take a peek and see what all the kerfluffle's about. IN any event, you might want to take a look at my newest little art project, thankscards:
http://thankscards.blogspot.com
I've started it as a way to share gratitude, and so far, it's been really fun.
cheers!
mb