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Wendi's Reviews > The Secret
The Secret (The Secret, #1)
by Rhonda Byrne
by Rhonda Byrne
The reason I dislike this book so much is not because of the writing, it's the idea behind The Secret that bothers me so much. Basically The Secret is that whatever you put out into the universe is what comes to you. So if you're a positive happy go lucky person you'll get all this wonderful stuff - be it more friends or cars or more money. If you're a negative person and you put out negativity you'll only get negative things back - like continuing to be in debt, never losing weight. The book says that every single person on this planet is in charge of what they get. It's all about what you can get. Cars, more wealth, love, and weight loss. Better health is secondary.
What pisses me off is how flippant the contributors to the book are about this. They say that while no one deserves cancer or other illnesses (and they never actually come out and say that these people got sick because of their negativity) you could cure yourself from the illness just by being positive. 1) Based on what they have written these people DID in fact make themselves sick with these awful diseases. I don't believe that, but that's what hte authors are saying - if you're a negative person you're going to get all that negativity back. 2) I believe that positive thoughts, prayer, etc can make a person well, but I also believe that we each have a day and time that we will pass away and you can't just blatantly say, "hey, be positive and you'll be fine!"
The other thing I dont' like about the principle is that it's all about entitlement. One of the contributors actually says that the universe is a big catalog and you can go through it and pick out anything you want. So if you want a new car all you have to do is visualize that car, then convince yourself it's already yours and you'll get it.
Um...yeah. Okay. Why should you do that? Just because you can get something doesn't mean you should. We are not all entitled to have everything we could ever want. It's ridiculous to think so.
Also, I don't like the idea that the universe is just this giant Santa Claus type of thing. Another contributor says that God is the universe and that since we're all made inthe likeness of God we're all gods too and so we should be able to do anythin He does and get anything we want.
WHOA! Big WHOA!!! I do not believe I am a god. I don't believe I am godlike. I'm human. My ultimate goal is to be like Christ, but I never will be Christ.
This book is truly a commentary on our society at the moment. Everyone thinks they deserve respect (I hate listen to kids on MTV yelling at each other about how no one respects them, why should we?) and at least 15 minutes of fame. What happened to just wanting to be happy, have a bunch of friend that you love and they love you in return? To be healthy and whole? To be good to our neighbors and the people who aren't as blessed as we are? What happened to these things?
The Secret and other books and movies and TV shows like it. It's all about the individual now and this book just proves it.
What pisses me off is how flippant the contributors to the book are about this. They say that while no one deserves cancer or other illnesses (and they never actually come out and say that these people got sick because of their negativity) you could cure yourself from the illness just by being positive. 1) Based on what they have written these people DID in fact make themselves sick with these awful diseases. I don't believe that, but that's what hte authors are saying - if you're a negative person you're going to get all that negativity back. 2) I believe that positive thoughts, prayer, etc can make a person well, but I also believe that we each have a day and time that we will pass away and you can't just blatantly say, "hey, be positive and you'll be fine!"
The other thing I dont' like about the principle is that it's all about entitlement. One of the contributors actually says that the universe is a big catalog and you can go through it and pick out anything you want. So if you want a new car all you have to do is visualize that car, then convince yourself it's already yours and you'll get it.
Um...yeah. Okay. Why should you do that? Just because you can get something doesn't mean you should. We are not all entitled to have everything we could ever want. It's ridiculous to think so.
Also, I don't like the idea that the universe is just this giant Santa Claus type of thing. Another contributor says that God is the universe and that since we're all made inthe likeness of God we're all gods too and so we should be able to do anythin He does and get anything we want.
WHOA! Big WHOA!!! I do not believe I am a god. I don't believe I am godlike. I'm human. My ultimate goal is to be like Christ, but I never will be Christ.
This book is truly a commentary on our society at the moment. Everyone thinks they deserve respect (I hate listen to kids on MTV yelling at each other about how no one respects them, why should we?) and at least 15 minutes of fame. What happened to just wanting to be happy, have a bunch of friend that you love and they love you in return? To be healthy and whole? To be good to our neighbors and the people who aren't as blessed as we are? What happened to these things?
The Secret and other books and movies and TV shows like it. It's all about the individual now and this book just proves it.
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Exactly! I'm so sick of seeing the Kanye's and the Paris Hiltons and the MTV kids all thinking that they are just absolutely entitled to everything.Mike says that the worst thing about his job at UF doing admissions is that the kids who apply, regardless of their GPA, all believe they are entitled to come here. Forget having to work hard to get in, forget having to go above and beyond the mandatory volunteer work. The kids who get into UF are amazing people who have worked hard, struggled through some tough times and seriously thought about how they can better their lives and the lives of the people around them. But he still gets angry phone calls every day from parents and kids who think they just deserve to come to UF because they're big fans of the football team or daddy's an alumni. Booo!
I believe in visualization and guided imagery. I know that it works. When I would feel some anxiety start to creep up on me I would often visualize a really heavy wood door - something right out of Lord of the Rings - and I would push this door tight against that anxiety. And sure enough the anxiety would dwindle away.
I believe in positive thinking - that there is a complete connection between the mind and body. That when the body is overladen with negativity and depresison we can make ourselves sick - but not with cancer or some other horrible disease. Flu most likely. I know that negativity attracks negativity. What's that saying from Steel Magnolias? If you don't have anything nice to say, come sit over here with me. And I've seen how negative people literally propel others away from them while happy positive people attrack peopel to them like moths to a flame.
But this book...this book is a sham. It takes these wonderful fundamental things and then says, "You can have it all! And while you're at it, let's make you a god too!" Bullshit. Bullshit. It's absolutely ridiculous.
Another contributor says that God is the universe and that since we're all made inthe likeness of God we're all gods too and so we should be able to do anythin He does and get anything we want. --> the book said this??? really?? (O_o)
that's odd.. i'm thinking about whether i should read this book and it leads me into thinking that the book's content is probably just too over-the-top.. i'm not so sure about reading it now.. xD
The other problem I had with this bool was the idea that we can make ourselves have cancer. Our unhappiness, our negativity can kill us. Maybe, but none of the contributors to the book have gone to Africa and told the women being raped and contracting AIDS is their own fault because they aren't demanding that the universe give them a better life.I recently read an article about Oprah and how her Midas touch often comes with a price. She got a lot of slack from supporting this book because of its insensitivities. You can't tell a five year old child who is starving that its his fault that he was born to a crack whore mother and dead beat dad because he isn't envisioning a better life for himself.
I believe we can change our lives based on our thoughts and actions. But the ills of the world are not going to be solved because I'm not asking the universe hard enough to feed the hungry and heal the sick.
Read it out of interest. Just don't buy the book and give any more money to the greedy people that have written the book.
Wendi wrote: "The other problem I had with this bool was the idea that we can make ourselves have cancer. Our unhappiness, our negativity can kill us. Maybe, but none of the contributors to the book have gone to..."I agree completely.. i do believe that positive thoughts can cause us positive things, but not EVERYTHING is up to us.. that's just odd. if we can control pretty much anything and everything in our lives, then i don't see any purpose of us living nor why God created us. this book makes us sound like some sort of superheroes, it's too day-dreamy to me.
Vizualization can help you focus, true. But I believe you gotta work to earn your fruits, and sometimes the work is in not thinking/focusing/pursuing things that are not helpful. (Oh, what a long list that could be.)
Love to see someone making a thoughtful critique of this trendy idea. Rock on.