Ross Blocher's Reviews > The Secret

Oof, this book. The "secret" of The Secret is the so-called Law of Attraction: what you think becomes real. If you can just manage to focus on the positive, ask for the things you want, and believe you will have them, you will receive wealth, health, love and success beyond (or at least in proportion to) your wildest dreams. The problem? A) That's wrong. B) That's selfish. C) That makes you the focus of blame when things don't magically go your way.

The book is a tidy, pretty (and surprisingly heavy!) little package. It's made to look like old-time parchment, with titles scrawled in ink pen and everything sealed up with a wax stamp. The pages are permeated with inspiring little quotes to get you pumping positive energy and intention into the universe. Its ten chapters are broken into simple concepts, summarized neatly at the end. Each concept is reinforced ad nauseam with quotes pulled from a stable of featured speakers who are considered modern holders of "The Secret". Each speaker (29 are listed in the biography, not including author Rhonda Byrne) has a little icon of a mirror or key or light bulb that appears next to their quote, along with a ghosted copy of his or her signature.

All this slick presentation might be an attempt to distract from the glibness of the text. None of these ideas hold up to a moment's reflection. For example, why is this a secret? Presumably someone has conspired to keep this hidden from humanity, but we're never given an explanation of who that is, or what their motivation might be. The film version of The Secret dramatically depicts soldiers hunting down mages who keep the arcane scrolls hidden. And yet, the book teaches that the secret is written into every religious text, and is found in the works of Plato, Shakespeare, da Vinci, Newton, Emerson and Einstein (all, of course, co-opted as keepers of The Secret). We're also taught that it is not a zero-sum principle: there's enough prosperity to go around. Further, one of the effects of The Secret is wanting to share it with others. So, again... why is this even A Secret? The film and book came out in 2006, to much fanfare. Where are all the nouveau riche millionaires with their massive houses, three dates a week, great bodies, ageless beauty, BMWs and prime parking spaces? (Yes, those are all things we are taught to ask for.) Speaking of beauty, we learn that aging itself is only in the mind, and that you can choose to remain eternally youthful. A search for the people saying this reveals them to be as subject to the march of time as everyone else.

Science is appealed to frequently, with explanations given a gloss of energy, quantum physics, magnetism, frequency and vibration. The assumption is that no one reading this knows anything about these phenomena or their roles in the physical world. This sciency language is given the imprimatur of a selectively quoted Einstein, as well as a couple featured speakers who are credited as renowned physicists. Dr. John Hagelin did in fact receive a quality education in physics, but then he ran off to do his own metaphysical thing with the Transcendental Meditation movement. Fred Alan Wolf also has genuine bona fides as a physicist, but his fringe ideas on topics such as consciousness are in no way representative of the scientific community.

The other speakers are an eclectic mix of motivational figures, from Jack Canfield (of Chicken Soup for the Soul) to Michael Beckwith (Agape International) to John Gray (Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus). There's a "metaphysician" and a "feng shui expert". Most of these speakers have gotten their wealth from presentations about how to get wealth. An interesting racket, but hardly one that scales. Whatever their qualifications, it's a self-selected group, and we're not supposed to think about the much larger mass of people who have tried positive thinking and failed. Which is precisely the problem with the Law of Attraction. Many people, with all the best intentions and positive thinking, do not magically win the lotto, get famous, have their dream business take off, or receive healing from terminal illness. What does the Law of Attraction have to offer when reality inevitably comes crashing down? A command to be more positive, and an implication that you didn't think positively enough and brought the plight upon yourself. The Secret gets to take credit for all the successes while ignoring and re-categorizing failures.

If you manage to ignore all of these problems, it's an inspiring little book. There's a lot to be said for focusing on the positive, expressing gratitude, and visualizing your goals. Those are all great things to do, and hopefully you're in a position to practice them. But why add a layer of nonsense on top of that? It's unfortunate that this book (and the film, which came first and has all the exact same ideas and talking heads) has gotten so much traction. The Secret encourages detachment from reality, and inspires a lack of curiosity about how things actually work. Luck and randomness are always going to play a role in our lives, but having a firm grasp on reality puts us in the best position to influence the things we do have some control over. And that's... no secret.