One thing I could say for the team behind Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret”: they employ one kick-ass marketing strategy. The book speaks in absolutes and certainties, drags so many famous names along, that one could not help but be impressed by its boldness. At the onset, contributor John DeMartini makes this claim: “that this [book/DVD] is the great secret to life” (page 2). It promises wealth, health, emotional healing, relationships—actually anything you could ever want from the world.
A friend endorsed this book to me enthusiastically and lent me her DVD copy. When she first explained to me the basic premise of the The Secret, my initial impression was that it may be worth the PhP 600 price tag. But as I read the book and watched the movie, something in me began to seriously rebel. The book’s claim that it is Christian (p.4), employing Creative Processes lifted straight from the New Testament Bible (p.47), is just plain outrageous! And even from the point of view of a secular psychologist, I would caution readers to discern carefully before accepting its ideology.
St. Paul tells us to test everything and hold on to the good. We are not mere passive recievers of data; we are called to look at world views in lieu of the deposit of faith entrusted upon us. This is a guideline that should hold true in all areas of our lives.
First off, what is the “secret”? The Secret, according to Byrne’s assembly of gurus, is the Law of Attraction. The book explains this law this way:
Everything that is coming into your life you are attracting into your life. And it’s attracted to you by virtue of the images that you are holding in your mind. It’s what you’re thinking. Whatever that is going on in your mind you are attracting to you.
page 4, italics in the original
The book argues that the universe is like a Genie; all you need to do is ask from it what you want in this life, and the universe will re-arrange itself to give you what you want. This will hold true whether you percieve your request as good or bad (page 13). If you focus your thoughts on what you want, and if you consciously choose the positive feeling of already having recieved, then like a magnet, you will attract the positive energy of the universe. The video puts in picture what a thousand words can not: a girl looks at the store window staring at a pretty necklace she wants, and in the next scene she gets that very necklace from her boyfriend. The universe has “obeyed” her.
WHAT I FEEL CHRISTIANS OUGHT REMEMBER:
It is worth mentioning, though I will refrain from discussing it as this requires a theological expertise I do not possess, that we here on earth are always on spiritual warfare; there is no such thing as a morally neutral universe that would obey you for good or for bad.
That said, what is my greatest beef against this book? Not that it gives hope to people that they can have anything that they desire. Rather, its because Jesus Christ has already laid down His own Law of Attraction. How do you attract the things you want? Matthew 6:33, a very famous Biblical verse, tells us:
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33 was preceeded by Christ’s chastisement of worriers’ lack of faith:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
While The Secret has it right, that worry is useless and is in fact defeating, the focus on whom to trust is misplaced. Yes, ask and you shall recieve is Biblical— but in this book, whom do you ask? The Secret tells you that the power to recieving good lies either in (1)yourself : “just think it, and it will fall in your hands” or (2)in the obedient universe: “the universe will give you what you want.”
This philosphy negates Divine Providence—for what is the use of prayer if the universe can be manipulated in any which way you want? When you think about it, the Secret asks of us more work than what Christ asks of us: the Secret tells us that we have to consciously monitor our thoughts and shift our feelings accordingly, while the Bible simply tells us not to think at all, God already knows what we need!
Notice on the focus on God knowing what we need and not us knowing what we want. What we want and what God percieves we need may be two entirely different things—and the discerning Christian must know, accept and trust this difference.
The Secret is unashamedly materialistic. Do you want your dream house? Do you want more money? But seek ye first the Kingdom of God asks us to invest not on material good but spiritual good. Righteousness, not positive thinking attracts good. And true trust in God’s providence includes the hope that even if “all these things” are not added to us in this life, like many of our Fathers before us, we are sure to recieve them in the next.
If a Christian could be free to define what the Secret to life is, it should be nothing more than Christ crucified. You are not a Christian if you define the Secret to life in any other way. (And because of the grand commission, this is not really a secret!) We have life because of Christ’s suffering for our sake and apart from this nothing else should matter. Life is not about material abundance— its about a personal relationship with Christ, a relationship that changes your view of everythig else so that even if there is poverty, there is always blessedness (and indeed blessed are the poor…)
DANGEROUS PSYCHOLOGY
I do consider myself level-headed, in fact I do not agree with fundamentalists who drop anything psychological because it doesn’t have Christ in it. There is some merit to The Secret. For instance, there is the clear premium on Belief and Gratitude. The Secret promotes unwavering faith that what we ask will come about and a thankful disposition for everything that comes our way. These, indeed, are powerful processes. The Secret also concedes (although not substantially so in my opinion) that all outer trappings do not create happiness, and that internal happiness is still is a pre-requisite.
I agree that a good, positive disposition do attract blessings— though not because of the quantum physics of the universe. Positive thoughts and feelings increases efficacy, the confidence that one can achieve a goal, and efficacy does indeed mediate between goal setting and goal achieving. If you beleive that you can succeed, your awareness of the world sharpens so much so that you are capable of recognizing opportunities around that you disregard before and you and more likely try and persist despite odds. This in itself increases your likelihood for success.
I also beleive that happy people attracts happiness in others, you elicit love and care if you are a loving and caring person. This works even for babies: notice how babies with a happier disposition gets more hugs and a cholic baby tends to have stressed out parents? There is no magic to it. And indeed happy serene Christians evangelize better than stuck-up ones.
A positive disposition also increases your tendency to look for self-verification, making you feel more blessed.
But I say it promotes a dangerous psychology because the Secret promotes the illusion of total control. Sound psychology advocates realistic control: there are things in life that you can influence and there are things that you just cannot. A two year old knows this— life has limits. Life therefore involves accepting the premise that bad things can happen to good people and vice-versa.
What comes to mind immediately is a sexually-abused child. Do we say that this is something that is not their fault or do we follow the Secret’s argument that you get harassed because you “attracted” the harassment by the very things you have in your head? In fact, Bill Harris, one of the contributor’s of The Secret, made an illustration of a homosexual who kept getting harassed by homophobic people, arguing that he had “attracted” these harassments, along with other negativity, because he focused on the things he doesn’t want. This implications of this logic for me is frankly appaling. An unrealistic, overblown sense of control, can lead to many a hard positions, including not accepting when life says “no.”
Besides, if happy obsession is the key to life, then dang I will just think about Brad Pitt all day.
Other Christian reviews of THE SECRET
Culture Watch
Answers in Action
Biblegram
