Re:
As the likely "offender" who posted the very FIRST "The Secret" Thread here, I am offering my commentary. I still believe as I do. I am a confirmed Catholic, but rarely attend Church for various personal reasons. I have read and am re-reading the bible and other documents by Christian writers however, and also read various religious sources. I intend to read more material by Richards Dawkins, if anything, so that I'm not a slave to one path of thinking. I've never studied quantum physics, quantum mechanics, although I have interests in them. I doubt there's one guy with more than surface knowledge of that on here, and if they are...they're a lurker who hasn't mentioned their presensce.
Some beliefs of mine ( I don't say facts, because a fact is...we need oxygen to breathe, fish need water to live etc ).
1. The Secret and What the Bleep Do We Know summarized in neat packaging EVERYTHING all of the scholars since early man began writing. It's marketing fodder. It helped make the people truly responsible for this material famous. I have the book and original DVD ( the original link I posted a year ago ). True credit is owed to Esther Hicks, Napolean Hill, Robert Collier, Jim Rohn, etc, etc. Even the people in the videos and books got THEIR info from these people, so they weren't ORIGINAL thoughts by any means.
2. I didn't read much substance in the aforementioned article. It sounds like the same tripe written against Robert Kiyosaki by John T Reed...yet he can claim quite a few success stories.
3. People are always seeking the magic elixier, the "holy grail." Even on a site as small and unknown as this one, guys want the HOLY BIBLE of picking up chicks, and day in and day out, material is written trying to make YOU the alpha male, trying to make YOU the pimp. Without any form of BELIEF, no guy would be here. You'd either be natural or unnatural, and thereby unable to change your "stars."
4. If you want to dispute the basis of what they speak, such as "it has been confirmed scientificially that an affirmative thought is more powerful..." go for it. But there's more material backing Hill, Collier, Power of Concentration, etc, etc, than there is NOT backing it.
5. I could break many of their points apart in that article, as they seem foolish, and more of it was regurgitation of the actual Secret, than it was true information proving an alternate, and better strategy.
On to more pressing things...
1 I've spent 5 minutes give or take, NOT doing something that would get me closer to what I want. I've spent 5 minutes, getting dragged into someone else's reality. I chose to write in this thread, and therefore, let it into my reality, all with the understanding I might provide another perspective, whether it's accepted or rejected. How many minutes a day do we spend time wasting away on meaningless things that don't get us where we actually want to be?
I bet if anyone has goals...they burned up time that was better spent GETTING toward them. I mean...we could debate the veracity of The Secret...or prove it's own usefulness in your lives. Call it the Secret, call it positive thinking, call it LOA, call it whatever makes you feel good. There's no questioning as human king we have 24 hours a day, and each hour NOT spent on building something up, either maintaining our collective internal reality, OR, moving toward a goal, is moving AWAY from that goal and selling away our reality.
I've ready some pretty far out books, that require an open mind to read, and maybe my mind is open I've lost it, but rather I'd lose my mind, than cling to thoughts or things not my own. Espousing that "Skeptics" magazine is the best source of information against the Secret is ascribing oneself to only one doctrine. To only one thought form. It's like being Republican or Democrat and choosing the issue before you've heard it. In college, one source is useless for papers. In life, one source is useless (unless you're deeply religious, to which the Bible is the ONLY source), because you ASSUME to be that one thing. The mind will blow out EVERYTHING that doesn't fit that model of reality. The mind attaches meaning to things. As such, one source of info does the same thing. NLP backs that much up, and there's enough science there to waste away time til one's heart is content.
I applaud the differing perspective offered by Deep Dish, but it's only the other side of the coin. It's but one perspective, one source. I never drank from the Koolaid of the Secret, nor did I think it would get this large. I do believe it helped really boil down what alot of scholars who have been writing for over 100 years would say for guys who might not have gotten it or would even bother to take alot at. And more shocking are guys like STR8Up who have changed their reality, but naysay against even the slightest statements mentioned in the Secret. Other guys can attest to changing realities, and there are plenty of guys who've gone from geek to god, perhaps in their own mind, who have finally met women they like, jobs they want, friends they like, situations they like, etc, to refute the fact that we create reality. Do we not?
How do we not? Good or bad. We create it. I wake up. I chose to come to the office. I chose to log on here. I chose to post on here with whatever results I may get. I choose my friends. I choose picking up their phone calls that make them my friends. I choose HOW i interact with ALL people I meet everyday. I choose everything, on every level. And choice is driven by belief. And beliefs are driven by feelings and a whole slew of things woven in with that, such as past experiences, feelings, etc. If an experience is new to you, you may act as you THINK you should...and how that experience turns out COLORS all future experiences going forward from there.
I've never fully ascribed to one thing as religion, hence why I stated I'm not confirmed religious anything, as of yet. Maybe I've always seen the Secret to mean something different because I've read all the scholars presented in the video BEFORE the video was presented, but I don't see what the author of the article is driving at.
Has this author done more than just try to refute what the video says, Such as Research the authors through history that have written the material which provided the basis for the movie?
Has he gone to see who owns what books and materials, and how they lead their lives...or has he just made a blanket statement that it doesn't work? If he polled people who have read THINK AND GROW RICH, would they be better off than those who have never read it? Are guys here who have read it BETTER off for viewing the SECRET or reading Hill, et al?
I respect Deep Dish for offering alternate thought to the Koolaid drinkers. I've never been one to marry anyone topic or belief system. But this isn't CONFIRMED proof of anything, imo. It's one in probably a slew of various writers who will present THEIR reality, with what I consider to be very SKEPTICAL information, who has not tried to examine RESULTS. Results being...what has the writings of THOSE thinkers who provided the basis for the movie provided to people? Also, in what way is this writing actually helping people? Is it helping people save money? Is it helping people because some struggle and don't get what they want...?
In closing, I've had waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many situations that confirm something LIKE the Law of Attraction for me (not necessarily the Secret, b/c I've been reading material way before it came out) to believe differently.
To each his own.
This is my path.
A-Unit