Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

I'm a bit surprised that this hasn't been discussed much yet on the forum, so I'll bring it up.

"The Secret" is a video released first on the Internet, and then on DVD, in 2006. It's about this, well, secret, that allows you to get anything you want in life. This secret is what's known in New Thought as the "Law of Attraction".

The Law of Attraction, according to the film, says that your thoughts attract the things around you. If you dwell on bad things--debt, sadness, etc.--then you will attract them; conversely, if you think about good things, you will attract good things--money, happiness, friendship, popularity, etc. Just think good thoughts and good things will happen to you.

Now, I'm all for thinking positively--who isn't?--but this isn't positive thinking, and it's not "Ask and you shall receive". Prof. John Stackhouse makes many excellent points on his blog, such as the fact that the Secret says, "It's all about me and all up to me."

Nope. Christianity says that it's about God, me, and the world, and it's up to God, me, and the world. I depend the help of God and the people and things in the world to keep me alive--not on my thoughts. The Secret also says that every religion has a basic spiritual essence; it doesn't matter which religion you follow, because they're basically the same. Again, no. That insults the covenant between God and the Jews, the Eightfold Path, and the unique word of the Quran.

The Secret basically says, in a nutshell, that you are the source for all your problems and that your plan for your life depends entirely on you. Well, that's uplifting. Look at the victims in Darfur or the Jews during the Holocaust, or rape victims in big cities. Is is their fault? I think not.

"Ask and you shall receive", says John 16:24. On the surface this means that asking God, or just asking, will get you what you want. However, if we look at the rest of the verse:

We can see that asking in God's name would give us what we want. But what we want isn't what God wants. That's why I don't buy into The Secret. A lot of the stories in the film involve people who had diseases healed, thousands of dollars paid off, houses, cars...the whole "American Dream". Does God want us to live in wealth & abundance? Not in this world. In fact, Jerry Adler of Newsweek mentions that the rest of humanity is in "a very distant sixth" when it comes to the concerns of Secret followers.

So The Secret, as I see it, is nothing but selfish, wishful thinking for people who want to be "spiritual but not religious." I don't buy it because it's incompatible with nearly everything I know about the Bible. I'll keep my good ol' faith & love.

_________________

i honestly need to go to class and didn't have time to read the entire post or see the movie but i would like to officially say that it sounds like pure new-age hippie bullcrap.

It would seem so.

_________________

I heard about this. It's advertising is perpetuated by those scam artists and empty-promises self-help gurus like John Alexander, Robert G. Allen, Robert Kiyosaki (all "big names" [read: rich off of their books but don't give you any specific information that's ever actually accurate and useful] in the world of real estate investing), and other such idiots who claim they're millionaires from some sort of investing process...but really become millionaires off of the books and tapes they sell telling their phony stories and giving little more than "you can do it!" attitudes.

"The Secret" is no different than LSD or cocaine--you shell out too much money and all you get is a temporary euphoria based on misleading and empty processes, nothing more....except that self-help videos and books are actually legal.

_________________
The meaning of life is 'bucket.'

FOR PONY!!!

Yeah, I'm a complete pessimist usually, but good things are always happening to me.


I broke the theory.

_________________

And I'm more or less a total cynic with a deep distrust of humanity in general, and yet I have this huge circle of friends. TAKE THAT, STUPID THEORY THINGY!

_________________

I think their reasoning behind it is very stupid. If you dwell on something long enough, you'll notice it happening more than you would if you weren't thinking about it. If you think about something long enough, you'll find it everywhere. This is something people should understand.

_________________

I don't believe it's always going to work - it's nowhere near a sure thing - but it makes some sense. If you're positive, it will make others positive. Eventually it'll loop back around and good things will happen. Conversely, if you're negative, others will be negative, and bad things will happen. it can't affect chance, like winning the lottery, but it can affect social things. I don't believe we have as much power over it as Ian says the movie says, though.

Quantum physics (I thin) seems to disagree, though... (Light is a wave until you look at it, when it suddenly changes)

Total malarky. Thinking positive won't give incredible results. There's a thing in there called "Work your butt off" they forgot to mention. Of course, nobody these days wants that, so that working thing was excluded to gain popularity and stuff.

THEORY THINGY = VERY BROKEN

_________________

Yeah, this is complete crap. Unless they can account for an as-of-yet undiscovered law of physics that states that "positive" thoughts alter probability, there's nothing to this.

I think this is Grade A bullflop for most things.

When it comes to social type stuff (and things where your performance can affect the outcome*), it does seem to be true that being positive makes you more confident, which can help you achieve a positive outcome. It's not a 1:1 correlation by any means, though, and that's not what they're talking about.

You can hope all you want, but it's not going to alter the odds of the lottery, get you a job with your mail-order PhD or make you president.

*A man far wiser in the ways of motivation once said something to the extent of "If you are prepared to accept defeat, you've already lost." If these people were to say "If you think positively, you give yourself a better chance of doing the things you want.", then I would probably give them some credit. As it is, it just seems like a repackaged version of some kinda "60's hippie crap".

_________________
If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

God helps those who help themselves! I guess it has some truth to it, but really some things are always gonna be going wrong for you.

Yes, and that's why we need Jesus in our lives.

_________________

Still some things will always be going wrong!

Well, yeah.

When you think positive things do seem better.

They do, but the world doesn't change based on those thoughts.

_________________

Exactly. I can think the best thoughts in the world, but that doesn't mean I'm going to win the lottery anytime soon. Trust me, I try to keep the most positive thoughts in my head, but my life is far from easy, I'll tell you that.

_________________

Don't think that! That's not positive!( just so you know I was joking right here).

I know but it makes life seem better. I usually keep the "Whatever as long as I can sleep tonight" attitude during the months of school. That keeps me through the day.

ZOMG! I thought about bad things all day and had a really lousy day! IT MUST BE TRUE.

Your thoughts influence you. Not your surroundings. If you think positive thoughts all the time, you're going to have good days and enjoy yourself. But, if you're like me and often think in negatives and dwell on things far too long, you're going to have a lot of bad days.

Basically, the same thing a lot of people have already said in this thread.

_________________

Well, I'm partial on this. I believe that if you have positive thoughts, more positive will come, but if you want something big to come from this "Law of Attraction", its going to take a little more "umph" and personal dedication to get that. Its true, but like everything, nothing is easy.

_________________

Before I ever heard of the "Secret", I read a book called "Get Over Yourself: How to Drop the Drama and Get What you Deserve" by Tonya Pinkins. At first, I was a converted believer. She basically outlines similar principles. I still think that the book (I won't speak for "The Secret" since I haven't read it) has some good ideas in it. The thing I liked was that I DIDN'T think it went against Christian principles. It spoke of the power of the universe but I decided to let that mean the power of God for me, esp. since the author frequently quoted the Bible. But let me just recount some of my experiences.

-The book did help me let go of some REALLY negative feelings I'd been having, about myself and particularly about persons in my past that I'd felt wronged me. So that's a plus.

-The book basically says "Ask, and ye shall receive". It says, to LITERALLY ask aloud (when alone) for exactly what you want. So, since I'm a single gal, I asked for a new man in my life. I got very specific too; I decided I didn't want to date another actor, so I asked for someone who had a regular job, but appreciated the arts, I asked for a slighty older man (figured he'd be more likely to settle down), I asked for someone intelligent, funny, good looking and kind. And lo and behold, LITERALLY days later, I met a man who fit every one of those qualities. And then he turned out to be a womanizing, selfish jerk. So there's one for the minus category.

-The book has given me new confidence in my career. My career may have not taken many outward strides, but inside, my mindset has changed for the better and I know if I keep working for my goals, it's just a matter of time before I achieve them. So there's another plus.

-The book tells you several ways to make money, and they are legit - but you have to HAVE money in order to do them first. Since my funding is limited, that's a minus.

All in all, I think both these books CAN be helpful - positive thinking IS a good thing and can change your life. As someone brought up, I don't think victims of horrible crime and circumstance would agree, but I do believe, in my case at least, that you get out of life what you put in to it. Should you sell your house and spend the family fortune? If you REEEEEEEALLY think it's going to be right for you, I guess...but I know that's not right for me!

_________________

Pfft, some "secret". I've known about this idea for years, under the name of "karma". I didn't believe in it then and I don't now.

_________________

You forgot L. Ron Hubbard

_________________
(USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)

OOOOH SNAP!

_________________

If that theory were true, and with my having OCD, I'd have died from eating beef by now.

PWNT

I thought Karma was the belief that if you did good things than good things would happen for you, and the same is true for bad things. This is more like replacing "doing good things" with "thinking good things".

_________________

I thought you couldn't bash peoples religions here. Hrmm...

_________________

We generally don't like religion bashing here, yes. Roco was more trying to do it in jest though.

_________________

are you kiddng? religion bashing is what we do best!
those lutherans are stupid.
and didy's the stupidest of them all!