The Secret that s no secret
Have you heard about the phenomenal book “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne and its accompanying DVD?
According to Newsweek’s Jerry Adler, it “could be the fastest-selling book of its kind in the history of publishing with 1.75 million copies projected to be in print by March 2, just over three months since it came out, plus 1.5 million DVDs sold.”
Several friends passed on to me copies of the DVD a few weeks ago. Only recently did I receive the book from Annie Rañola, a young businesswoman and graduate of my courses. I didn’t know the book was already in local bookstores.
Intriguing
My curiosity was aroused because of the very enticing and intriguing promo write-up on the jacket of the DVD:
“The Secret,” it says, “has existed throughout the history of humankind. It has been discovered, coveted, suppressed, hidden, lost and recovered. It has been hunted down, stolen and bought for vast sums of money. Now, for the first time in history, ‘The Secret’ is being revealed to the world.
“A number of exceptional men and women discovered ‘The Secret,’ and went on to become known as the greatest people who ever lived. Among them: Plato, Leonardo, Galileo, Napoleon, Hugo, Beethoven, Lincoln, Edison, Einstein and Carnegie, to name a few.
“‘The Secret’ reveals how to apply this powerful knowledge to your life in every area from health to wealth, to success in relationships. ‘The Secret’ is everything you have dreamed of and is beyond your wildest dreams.”
Irresistible
Wow! With that kind of a buildup, who wouldn’t want to grab the DVD or book? It seems too good to resist!
As Newsweek pointed out, ‘The Secret’ “was a stroke of marketing genius.” Adds Donavin Bennes, a buyer who specializes in metaphysics for Borders Books: “We all want to be in on a secret. But to present it as the secret, that was brilliant.”
Who is Byrne? “A divorced mother who had hit a rocky patch in her business and personal life. In that moment of despair when she wept and wept (as she recounted to Oprah on the first of two broadcasts devoted to her work), she discovered a long-neglected book dating from 1910 called ‘The Science of Getting Rich.’ In it she found how to let your thoughts and feelings get you everything you want and [was] determined to share it with the world. She called it ‘The Secret.’”
And what is ‘The Secret’ all about? It is the Law of Attraction that holds that you create your own reality through your thoughts.
Age-old principle
So what’s the big secret about that? Actually, nothing. This law or principle has been known for thousands of years. Buddha taught that the world as we know it is nothing more than our own mental creation. In my “Inner Mind” seminars, which I have been conducting regularly for the last 20 years, I mention the law of attraction as one of the four hidden laws of nature that says “like attracts like.”
If you think positive thoughts, positive things happen to you. If negative, then negative things happen.
There is, therefore, nothing new about “The Secret.” In fairness to Byrne, she never claimed that what she discovered was new. What is new is the way she promoted and marketed the book and the film. After arousing the curiosity of the Australian and American public, it is now sweeping the middle and upper-class segments of Philippine society.
The idea that if you visualize strongly enough something you really want, say, a particular car or camera, that object will physically appear before you sooner or later, is still not accepted by mainstream scientists.
“That’s preposterous, on a scientific level,” they would say. But a few quantum physicists claim to have experimental evidence that “thoughts can influence physical objects.”
Dr. Robert Jahn, an engineer, and psychologist Brenda Dunne of Princeton University have been conducting telekinesis experiments under scientifically controlled conditions to show the influence of thought on the fall of a roulette dice (See their book “Margins of Reality”).
Untapped powers
Although the law of attraction is really no secret at all, I would give credit to Byrne for calling attention to one of the hidden laws of nature and to the largely untapped powers of the human mind, which this writer has been teaching and espousing for the last two decades.
By the way, the other three related hidden laws of nature not in ‘The Secret’ are: The Law of Affirmation (what you affirm becomes a reality); the Law of Compensation (whatever you do comes back to you, otherwise known as the law of karma); and the Law of Causality (everything has a cause; nothing happens by accident).
If you want to learn how to apply these hidden laws of nature in your life, attend my next seminar on “Inner Mind Development,” “Basic ESP and Intuition Development,” and “Soulmates, Karma and Reincarnation.” Call Inner Mind Development Institute at 8107245, 8926806 or 0906-3561799. There’s one scheduled in Davao, March 24-25. Call 0917-8313649 or 0917-7120253.
http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view_article.php?article_id=55787
According to Newsweek’s Jerry Adler, it “could be the fastest-selling book of its kind in the history of publishing with 1.75 million copies projected to be in print by March 2, just over three months since it came out, plus 1.5 million DVDs sold.”
Several friends passed on to me copies of the DVD a few weeks ago. Only recently did I receive the book from Annie Rañola, a young businesswoman and graduate of my courses. I didn’t know the book was already in local bookstores.
Intriguing
My curiosity was aroused because of the very enticing and intriguing promo write-up on the jacket of the DVD:
“The Secret,” it says, “has existed throughout the history of humankind. It has been discovered, coveted, suppressed, hidden, lost and recovered. It has been hunted down, stolen and bought for vast sums of money. Now, for the first time in history, ‘The Secret’ is being revealed to the world.
“A number of exceptional men and women discovered ‘The Secret,’ and went on to become known as the greatest people who ever lived. Among them: Plato, Leonardo, Galileo, Napoleon, Hugo, Beethoven, Lincoln, Edison, Einstein and Carnegie, to name a few.
“‘The Secret’ reveals how to apply this powerful knowledge to your life in every area from health to wealth, to success in relationships. ‘The Secret’ is everything you have dreamed of and is beyond your wildest dreams.”
Irresistible
Wow! With that kind of a buildup, who wouldn’t want to grab the DVD or book? It seems too good to resist!
As Newsweek pointed out, ‘The Secret’ “was a stroke of marketing genius.” Adds Donavin Bennes, a buyer who specializes in metaphysics for Borders Books: “We all want to be in on a secret. But to present it as the secret, that was brilliant.”
Who is Byrne? “A divorced mother who had hit a rocky patch in her business and personal life. In that moment of despair when she wept and wept (as she recounted to Oprah on the first of two broadcasts devoted to her work), she discovered a long-neglected book dating from 1910 called ‘The Science of Getting Rich.’ In it she found how to let your thoughts and feelings get you everything you want and [was] determined to share it with the world. She called it ‘The Secret.’”
And what is ‘The Secret’ all about? It is the Law of Attraction that holds that you create your own reality through your thoughts.
Age-old principle
So what’s the big secret about that? Actually, nothing. This law or principle has been known for thousands of years. Buddha taught that the world as we know it is nothing more than our own mental creation. In my “Inner Mind” seminars, which I have been conducting regularly for the last 20 years, I mention the law of attraction as one of the four hidden laws of nature that says “like attracts like.”
If you think positive thoughts, positive things happen to you. If negative, then negative things happen.
There is, therefore, nothing new about “The Secret.” In fairness to Byrne, she never claimed that what she discovered was new. What is new is the way she promoted and marketed the book and the film. After arousing the curiosity of the Australian and American public, it is now sweeping the middle and upper-class segments of Philippine society.
The idea that if you visualize strongly enough something you really want, say, a particular car or camera, that object will physically appear before you sooner or later, is still not accepted by mainstream scientists.
“That’s preposterous, on a scientific level,” they would say. But a few quantum physicists claim to have experimental evidence that “thoughts can influence physical objects.”
Dr. Robert Jahn, an engineer, and psychologist Brenda Dunne of Princeton University have been conducting telekinesis experiments under scientifically controlled conditions to show the influence of thought on the fall of a roulette dice (See their book “Margins of Reality”).
Untapped powers
Although the law of attraction is really no secret at all, I would give credit to Byrne for calling attention to one of the hidden laws of nature and to the largely untapped powers of the human mind, which this writer has been teaching and espousing for the last two decades.
By the way, the other three related hidden laws of nature not in ‘The Secret’ are: The Law of Affirmation (what you affirm becomes a reality); the Law of Compensation (whatever you do comes back to you, otherwise known as the law of karma); and the Law of Causality (everything has a cause; nothing happens by accident).
If you want to learn how to apply these hidden laws of nature in your life, attend my next seminar on “Inner Mind Development,” “Basic ESP and Intuition Development,” and “Soulmates, Karma and Reincarnation.” Call Inner Mind Development Institute at 8107245, 8926806 or 0906-3561799. There’s one scheduled in Davao, March 24-25. Call 0917-8313649 or 0917-7120253.
http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view_article.php?article_id=55787
posted by Misteryo Philippines Network (MPN) at 10:41 PM
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