Picked up 'The Secret' from the library

[arcadian]

Mostly because I wanted information about James Aurtur Ray, who is responsible for the deaths of 3 people on a spiritual retreat in Sedona. Guess they brought that one themselves according to the Laws of Attraction, ehh James? I have to say, The Secret is a con job. What are people like Oprah Winfrey doing promoting this hokum? This man, a con man, James Arthur Ray presents himself in 'The Secret' as a philosopher as does just about every other "expert" in the "documentary". I can't believe people actually swallow this tripe. It's like some mass produced loosely aligned cult. It plays on peoples base desire to be wealthy and completely plays them for suckers, yet people eat it up. As if Americans really needed something else to affirm their greed. Looking up the other experts involved in the The Secret, I see that a lot of them also have controversy surrounding them as well, mostly in the area of fraud. So all I have to do is think about what I want and it will magically appear? So I guess that means that people who have bad things happen to them deserve those bad things as well. Fuck you Rhonda Byrne author of 'The Secret', you greedy little subhuman Ferengi.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. H.L. Mencken said it best:

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

[ezgoingrl]

2. Recommended for the use of "ferengi".

:rofl:

[Javaman]

10. +1 LOL nt

[Hello_Kitty]

3. Total scam. I fucking hate woo woo and the people who push it.

The Secret is but one of a plethora of New Age-y "positive thinking" snake oils foisted on vulnerable people. And it's not just rooking gullible rich people. I personally know people who were already struggling financially when they got suckered into these cons. One woman was subjected to intense pressure to sign up for a $3500 "motivational weekend" at a ranch in CA. When she balked at it her "coach" told her she should sell her car if she had to! :wow:

[Shell Beau]

4. My aunt was all about that book for a while.

I thought if I heard "just put something positive in the universe and it will happen" one more time, I was going to hurt someone. She has moved on somewhat to some other hokey book now.

[peacetalksforall]

5. The comments sound just like comments 35 yrs ago about EST. They also won over a grand following of

celebrities.

[arcadian]

8. Prosperity gospel, Name it claim it.

it's all bullshit

[earth mom]

6. Oprah is the biggest example of the prosperity gospel that "The Secret" preaches.

It's ALL about praying to the god of greed.

:puke:

[wroberts189]

7. "I see that a lot of them also have controversy surrounding them as well" ....

Who else? Can you name some? I would like to look into this...

[arcadian]

12. First off, they are all "self-help" lecturers.

Which is a big alarm bell. They are all on this same little network which feeds off itself, they all endorse each other's products.

The other Australian who was involved in The Secret, David Schirmer has bee exposed as a confidence man:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Schirmer

Loral Langemeier:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/financial-services/live-out-loud-loral/live-out-loud-loral-langemeie-m9b67.htm

Bob Doyle:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/business-consultants/shelf-companies-bob/shelf-companies-bob-doyle-di-4mp36.htm

[wroberts189]

14. thx nt

[bikebloke]

9. Here's a serious doco showing just how real it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHg_t-EhFKI






:P

[librechik]

20. Chaser's rule! n/t

[Odin2005]

11. This shit is why schools should teach logic and critical reasoning from an early age.

[eShirl]

15. +1

[virgogal]

13. I got it a few months back,read about twnety pages,and returned it to the library.

[Quantess]

16. I borrowed the video from the library.

Their example was a little boy who cut out a picture of a bicycle from an ad, and shows him staring at the picture of the bike, imagining himself riding the bike, carrying the picture in his pocket.... And one day an older gentleman gives him a bicycle exactly like the one in the photo.

I think that's when I stopped watching.

[arcadian]

17. Oh it get's better

Some guy near the end says that if you want a politician to win root for his opponent. I'm not making that up. Oh and being anti-war is bad because it's negative.

[Quantess]

23. I've heard the notion that it's more effective to be pro-peace than anti-war.

Is that what they were saying? That argument is just semantics, IMO.

I approached it with an open mind, but, I found it just plain insulting to the intelligence.

The little boy who dreamed of the bike could have also dreamed up some ways to make money to buy the bike, instead of waiting for it to magically materialize. Anybody who magically wants something to materialize and doesn't take any steps to make it happen is going to be disappointed, and then probably blame themselves for not visualizing properly, or for not being positive enough.

That movie was really stupid, and I'm sure the book is also hokey.

[Lucy Goosey]

18. I can't help but find it kind of hilarious.

The Secret on how to lose weight:

"...food is not responsible for putting on weight. It is your thought that food is responsible for putting on weight that actually has food put on weight...if you see people who are overweight, do not observe them, but immediately switch your mind to the picture of you in your perfect body and feel it."

On biblical history:

"Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Jesus were not only prosperity teachers, but also millionaires themselves, with more affluent lifestyles than many present-day millionaires could conceive of."

On ignorance and electricity (with a side order of logical fallacy):

"When I discovered 'The Secret' I made a decision that I would not watch the news or read newspapers anymore, because it did not make me feel good...How does it work? Nobody knows. Just like nobody knows how electricity works. I don't, do you?"

On, uh, you:

"You are God in a physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing itself as You. You are a cosmic being. You are all power. You are all wisdom. You are all intelligence. You are perfection. You are magnificence. You are the creator, and you are creating the creation of You on this planet...The earth turns on its orbit for You. The oceans ebb and flow for You. The birds sing for You. The sun rises and it sets for You. The stars come out for You. Every beautiful thing you see, every wondrous thing you experience, is all there for You. Take a look around. None of it can exist, without You. No matter who you thought you were, now you know the Truth of Who You Really Are. You are the master of the Universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life."

Honestly, how can anyone take this crap seriously?

[CanSocDem]

19. snicker....

"Honestly, how can anyone take this crap seriously?"

I checked out some other belief systems that claimed to know 'why things happen'.....I couldn't find good answers; maybe you did.

Anyway, I kept looking and though I don't endorse this particular effort that skips the interesting history, the essential theory is at least as viable as luck.

.

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

21. The semantic value of these books will fit on a cocktail napkin.

[Hannah Bell]

22. "What are people like Oprah Winfrey doing promoting this hokum? "

She's a huckster.