Many of you I'm sure have heard of this book and DVD. Oprah Winfrey gave it a boost, from what I hear, and many swear by it. I've not read it, as it seems to be another version of "create your own reality," or a secularized version of "A Course in Miracles." It's interesting to read the reviews on Amazon.com.
Has anyone read or viewed this? Thoughts/reactions? I have several spiritual directees who've asked me for feedback, so I guess I'd better do my homework on it. I'm about as excited to do so as I was for The Da Vinci Code, which actually was a fun story if you ignored all the b.s. about the early Church and its supposed beliefs.
lol! Sure... My focus isn't creating my reality, but surrendering to the Holy Spirit, so to me it was merely entertainment. But on a more serious note, I found it very unbalanced. If one wanted to pursue this I would recommend Wayne Dyer's book "The Power of Intention." imho
Love, dhyana
Posts: 30 | Location: Maine, USA | Registered: 10 December 2006
Hi Phil, I have not read the book or watched the dvd, but I did watch both Oprah shows on it this year. Seems like they take biblical principles and apply them for their own means. For example you reap what you sow, the power of forgiveness, what you focus on is what you make room for (law of attraction)... etc. I would really like to hear yours, or others, thoughts on this movement and how we as followers of Jesus should respond. It seems very popular as people are getting the short term results they are seeking.
Hi Phil - I did not see Oprah's "real" show and what I know of her, I bet it was spot on. Here is what Fr. Richard Rohr said about The Secret in February:
"The Secret" which is now gaining popularity in the USA, is probably a classic example of something that is partially true, and even good, being made into the only lens through which you read reality, and then it becomes untrue. Heresy could be defined as when we absolutize a partial truth, and I believe that is what is happening here. But I would also love for Christians to learn the partial truth, and that is why we teach the contemplative mind here.
Contemplation is also saying how you see is what you will see, and we must clean our own lens of seeing. I call it knowing by "connaturality" (Aquinas), or knowing by affinity or kinship, it is the participative knowing by which the Indwelling Spirit in us knows God, Love, Truth, and Eternity. LIKE KNOWS LIKE, and that is very important to know. There definitely is a communion between the seer and the seen, the knower and the known Hatred cannot nor will not know God, fear cannot nor will not recognize love. Because this deep contemplative wisdom has not been taught in recent Catholic centuries, and hardly at all among Protestants, it is a great big lack and absence in our God given ability to "know spiritual things spiritually", as Paul would say (1 Cor.2:13). I can see why people respond so enthusiastically, as Oprah and others are doing, as if it really were the whole Gospel. I guess it is indeed a "secret"! Most Christians have been allowed to operate for centuries out of dualistic, judgmental, and negative minds--which cannot see or know God.
BUT, it is also a first world luxury to think this way! Suffering people, poor people, oppressed people know very clearly that "your thinking does not make it so"! It will help their ability to love and survive within this painful and sad world, and that is indeed wonderful; but to make it into an entire metaphysical principle is just not true. Reality has plenty of reality to it before my mind comes onto the scene.
Left to itself, it would be the continual recurring heresy of Gnosticism, which asserts that spiritual reality is the only reality, whereas all orthodox Christianity (not sure how much is out there!) would believe in Incarnationalism. This would say that matter and spirit never have been separate nor ever will be, and we come to one through the other. They need one another, and that is why for us the CHRIST is the symbol of that unity. Our faith is in the particular, concrete, physical incarnations of reality as the portals to the Divine, even very sad and painful ones (the common word for "what is" for ordinary people is ''the will of God").
"The Secret" will actually do a disservice to many people when their mind cannot control the death of their innocent child, or make them a million dollars, or make their former husband forgive them, etc. It will also keep people from that much more honest, humble--and REALISTIC--position of Incarnational Christianity. God comes to us disguised as our life, not as a Platonic world of ideas, even positive and good ideas.
We are still not in control, I am afraid; but we can control and mature our responses, and that is the good part of "The Secret".
--when I was in my twenties I competed in triathalons and used positive visualization and mental rehearsal to prepare for the races. This indeed helped my performance. AND I realize now that the success or power this gave me was disconnected and disintegrated from a more holistically informed way of being. In fact when I began my recovery I identified exercise as an addiction that kept me from my real unfelt feelings of grief and loss and thus was a "program for happiness" that could never work. Of course exercise is appropriate and good for our incarnational selves and movement will help move negative stuck pain (i.e. depression, anxiety, etc.) At best exercise is a simple need that is best to be part of a natural rythym in daily life. That is a more appropriate SECRET!
I don't want to completely dismiss the point of the book. It is true that "where your treasure is, there is your heart," and so we are drawn to certain people and circumstances (and vice versa) depending on our attitude and motives. There's also the factor Jung called synchronicity -- that convergences of circumstances can fall into line with our motives/attention.
That said, these powers and tendencies are by no means absolute. It takes more than positive thinking to redress deep injustices that have roots in more than the mental and spiritual levels (economic, physical, historical, etc.). "The Secret" seems a kind of naive (Spiral Dynamics) Orange "can-do" approach, which is fine, but limited in its efficacies.
Oh, I don't see anything unscriptural about it. I didn't read the book, but watched part of the DVD, and also one of the Oprah shows. I don't think it's anything new.. not really such a secret. I have tons of books saying pretty much the same thing. However, as the Bible says, we should seek first the kingdom of God.
