My thoughts on "The Secret" and trying to manifest what you want

[Mistic]

In the simplest terms here is why I disagree with "The Secret" and manifesting reality in general.

1. Manifesting your reality is really a control freaks attempt to determine the outcome of their life. I have heard it said that not even God (if there is one) knows what is going to happen in life. If God did, then life would be just a dead mechanical process. If you were able to manifest the way you wanted your life to go, then there would be no element of surprise.

2. What you think is best for you may or may not actually be good for you. If you believe there is, and trust the intelligence of the universe, then why bother manifesting. The Christians call it Gods will, "Thy will be done." It is a way of admitting that you really dont understand much, so why try to be in control. When you try to use the Master Carpenters tools, you are bound to cut yourself.

3. Manifesting is a way of saying that life is not good enough as is. By attempting to manifest what you want, you are saying that you are discontent with your life, and you think you know how it could be better. The manifesters cup is already full, full of expectations and desires. How can you recieve anything if your cup is already full with your intentions.

I like to be surprised by life. When I try to manifest, I usually get something very different, or nothing at all. I feel the need for manifesting stems from a lack of true trust and freedom. We feel controlled on this planet, thus we feel the need to regain control, so we turn to manifesting.

Open for discussion

 

[Rollo Tomassi]

The "Secret", the "Law of Attraction", the "Think & Grow Rich" mentality, and even "Prosperity Theology" on the religious side are all all fantastic variations of the same scam - like physical manifestations (riches) can and will flow from like metaphysical sources. Proper mental, spiritual, attitude will produce an equivalent manifestation. Sounds great, particularly to people in environments where their conditions are desperate and they are predisposed to believe.

The way this has been perfected lies in the mechanics of the idea - there's simply no way to prove a negative. If you receive a blessing (or riches), then this is evidence of a proper mental/spiritual outlook. If you receive a curse (or poverty), you're not "positive" enough and/or you were negative and produced a negative manifestation; either way the "Law" is proven. If you're receiving neither (which is the ideal condition), then you need to keep at it more or better - thus reinforcing a good or bad result - either way the argument is still valid. In the meantime you can learn more about and encourage the same mentality with others. After a while anything even remotely positive or negative becomes constant validation of the dynamic.

Now market this with books, DVDs, seminars, "magic genie lamps" or other 'reminder' trinkets to reinforce the superstition and as a promoter/evangelist of the ideology your benefit further reinforces the dynamic. Perfection achieved.

Law 27: Play on People's Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following
People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking. Give your new disciples rituals to perform, ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf. In the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system will bring you untold power.

 

[Quiksilver]

I'm surprised you guys aren't able to see beyond the garbage in The Secret and take away what is important.

--

One man sees that what is discussed in The Secret is b.s. and gets hung up trying to prove so. Sees the negative.

Another man sees The Secret is b.s. and decides to glean the nuggets of gold from it. Sees the positive.

--

Two different mentalities, two different outcomes. While tearing down The Secret and calling it stupid, you've been suckered in to the exact trap that it talks about.

 

[WhitePimp]

I think any kind of hype needs to be taken with a grain of salt but I do personally believe (and I've never read The Secret) that when I have a positive outlook about my life then I am able to see more opportunities present themselves to me. When I'm negative, it seems like everyone's out to get me and that makes me even more sh!tty.

 

[Mistic]

You guys are making good points, but you are not really touching on the point I was getting at. Of course being positive or negative will attract likewise events in your life.

What I am debating is the act of trying to determine your life experiences. This to me, is a form of control. It is not trusting life to bring you what you need. How many hard lessons have we all gone through that were good for us. Would you ever consciously manifest getting in a car accident, and getting injured. This may seem "bad" when it happens, but down the line you might see how it was exactly what you needed.

I know a person who was paralyzed in a car accident, and now sees that it was exactly the experience he needed to have. He was stuck before. Now his body doesn't work but his mind is liberated.

My point here is that people only want to manifest good things, but it is usually through painful events that we learn and grow the fastest.

 

[FutureSpartan]

The problem with the whole "changing your mentality" self-help stuff is that people are too lazy to actually apply their newfound insights. Or they do, and find that its too hard, too much work involved, or does not go the way they envisioned and give up.

A thought process can only help you get set in the right direction to TAKE ACTIONS that may help you achieve whatever it is you are seeking.


With DJing women, for example, you could have the right mentality and inner game down to a pat, but if you can't willpower yourself to actually practice approaching women and learning to build sexual chemistry with them, then it does you no good.

Getting rejected or blown off by women is actually a good thing cause, like Mistic said, these bad experiences, however painful or frustrating, are showing you what you may be doing wrong in your interactions and how to avoid making the same mistake next time. No "feel-good" mentality can teach you that

Thinking the right way is just the foundation...the house still must be built.

 

[kickureface]

The "Secret", the "Law of Attraction", the "Think & Grow Rich" mentality, and even "Prosperity Theology" on the religious side are all all fantastic variations of the same scam - like physical manifestations (riches) can and will flow from like metaphysical sources. Proper mental, spiritual, attitude will produce an equivalent manifestation. Sounds great, particularly to people in environments where their conditions are desperate and they are predisposed to believe.

The way this has been perfected lies in the mechanics of the idea - there's simply no way to prove a negative. If you receive a blessing (or riches), then this is evidence of a proper mental/spiritual outlook. If you receive a curse (or poverty), you're not "positive" enough and/or you were negative and produced a negative manifestation; either way the "Law" is proven. If you're receiving neither (which is the ideal condition), then you need to keep at it more or better - thus reinforcing a good or bad result - either way the argument is still valid. In the meantime you can learn more about and encourage the same mentality with others. After a while anything even remotely positive or negative becomes constant validation of the dynamic.

Now market this with books, DVDs, seminars, "magic genie lamps" or other 'reminder' trinkets to reinforce the superstition and as a promoter/evangelist of the ideology your benefit further reinforces the dynamic. Perfection achieved.

Law 27: Play on People's Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following
People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking. Give your new disciples rituals to perform, ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf. In the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system will bring you untold power.

What did you think of Think and Grow Rich? I can't tell if you think it's a load of **** or not

 

[IKO69]

I agree with the original poster. No offense to anyone who is a fan of The Secret, but it's a bunch of ****. So you're telling me I can just sit on my ass drinking milk shakes and little debbie brownies and 'manifest' remaining thin without doing excercise....I don't think so. One thing the movie does mention is remaining positive. Being positive is good but you must take action...if you don't take action, then there is no way you can achieve your goals.

You can control how you feel in all kinds of circumstances, but you can't control the actions of others and what will or will not happen to you.

 

[Rollo Tomassi]

Two different mentalities, two different outcomes. While tearing down The Secret and calling it stupid, you've been suckered in to the exact trap that it talks about.

And all you're doing here is re-describing what I went into. You can say "you've been suckered into the negative" and I can say "you've been suckered by the positive", but there's no way to prove a negative - meaning the postulations are always going to be evidence of the outcome in spite of the results (i.e. manifestations).

20 people are on a sinking ship. They all pray really, really hard, and fervently believe they'll be spared from drowning (positive thinking) yet 10 live and 10 drown before they're rescued. Did the 10 who died deserve to live more than 10 lived? It doesn't matter because either case is proven by the Secret.

In the film a man is shown worrying about being late, and so he gets stuck in a traffic jam. Another man is shown locking up his bicycle, presumably because he is worried about it being stolen; he returns later to find it has been stolen. The absurdity of these examples should be obvious. Are we supposed to believe the traffic jam wouldn’t have happened if it were not for this one guy worrying about being late? And what about the other people in the traffic jam? Were they all thinking negative thoughts about being late? Were there no positive-minded people in the area, thinking about being on time? And if there were, doesn’t that debunk the “always works every time” mantra of the Secret? And what about the guy getting his bike stolen? Are we to assume that if another guy had left an identical unlocked bike at the same location, the bike thief would still have stolen the locked bike of the person worried about theft? Has anyone done a controlled study on this?

You can expect believers wil point out that being positive, confident etc. will make people react more positively towards you, will tend to make you more successful etc. And it will. But they are equivocating about a lesser version of The Secret – a lesser version that does not support the “thoughts become things” and “it always works every time” version. If things worked every time, in essence, there would be no need to learn from our mistakes, and thus we would have no impetus to move beyond what we already know would be successful. In other words, I can type in a cheat code to my favorite computer game, play in god mode, and win every time - have I learned anything? Am I a better player because of it? Would I win against another opponent in a game where I was forced to play the game according to the rules?

 

[Mistic]

Here's one I like:

"You tried to use the Secret to get a front row parking space, but the universe knew that your fat @ss needed a walk instead."

Or, what if two people in the same car are manifesting two different parking spots. Who will the secret cater to?

 

[Wonderbread166]

Neither, it doesn't exist.

 

[Quiksilver]

Wow.. I guess not.

20 people are on a sinking ship. They all pray really, really hard, and fervently believe they'll be spared from drowning (positive thinking) yet 10 live and 10 drown before they're rescued. Did the 10 who died deserve to live more than 10 lived? It doesn't matter because either case is proven by the Secret.

Now you're bringing blind faith and religion in to this discussion... Who said anything about prayer and "spared from drowning"?

Using your metaphor... Perhaps the people who really believed they would make it through, decided to put that positive thought to work and find a way to survive. Perhaps 7 of the people who lived used positive thought/action, while the other 3 were simply lucky. Meanwhile, of the other 10 who died, perhaps 7 had it coming because they truly believed they were going to die, and didn't bother to find a way to live, while the other 3 who died were positive thinkers who were unlucky.

Again I see you caught up in the silly nature of The Secret, and fail to read between the lines. Positive thinking = success? what a joke, right? Positive thinking = positive action = success? Hmm...

Could your odds of success drastically improve with positive thoughts? I don't know, ask yourself.

-----

'The Secret' is bogus by itself, but take a second to think about it.

It is saying Thought = Result.

In life, it's all but fact that the more you think about something, the more likely you are to see opportunities towards that "thing". You're also more likely to take action towards something that you think about often, its just the way it is.

So Thought = Action = Result.

In the film, they skipped the part where you have to put the work in to get what you want. The examples are silly and extremist, yet at the core of it is something that is very useful.

Find one thing that you really really want. Fix it in your mind, really think about it being yours. BELIEVE it can be yours.

Once you truly believe something can be yours, and you set your mind to having it, it is naturally going to occur that your actions follow suit. As I explained above, what you think about often becomes your actions.
So now not only have you fixed the image of HAVING something in your head, your actions each day have already started to manifest this desire. One day, likely you will have what you want. It's really all about Belief.

Picture a quarterback in football. He sees his receiver is open for a pass. First he has to believe he can make that pass. He fixes "Throw ball to receiver" in his mind. 3 seconds later, the ball is in the receivers hands and running down field. Your belief creates thought creates action, and actions create results.


-----

Or... or I could Believe that "The Secret" is a load of trash written by sleazy salesmen making a buck off people's need of faith, and dismiss anything useful it may offer, intentionally or not. Nothing gained, but at least I didn't have to open my mind right?

 

[azanon]

I didn't realize the fact that thinking positively will precipitate better results than thinking negatively - was such a big secret.

 

[ChrizZ]

It's bullsh!t.

Take a kid that is a really untalented and a bad soccer player. His biggest dream is to become the worlds best soccer player. He thinks about it non stop and plays soccer 24/7 and believes with every part of his body that he'll make it someday.

Reality is he won't even make it pro because he just doesn't have the talent and skills to become really good. It'll never happen no matter what he does even if he applies "the secret" and puts in as much effort as he can.

 

[TheHumanist]

I never watch The Secret or read those books, but after a little dusting off from Wikipedia from these posts. It comes down to this, if The Secret is the idea that just thinking positively will bring a good result, it's bullsh!t. If it The Secret is to have high expections... and well... RT already pointed it out and said better than I can so I'll just quote it to give better emphasis.

You can expect believers wil point out that being positive, confident etc. will make people react more positively towards you, will tend to make you more successful etc. And it will. But they are equivocating about a lesser version of The Secret – a lesser version that does not support the “thoughts become things” and “it always works every time” version. If things worked every time, in essence, there would be no need to learn from our mistakes, and thus we would have no impetus to move beyond what we already know would be successful. In other words, I can type in a cheat code to my favorite computer game, play in god mode, and win every time - have I learned anything? Am I a better player because of it? Would I win against another opponent in a game where I was forced to play the game according to the rules?

If The Secret is about just thinking and by some magic it will come true, it won't. If by thinking that it might lead to the unconscious actions that indirectly leads to the (some of the) desired result with some lessons and even some serendipity, then yeah. Didn't studies have already came out that pointed that optimists live longer and better? I remember a psychology magazine that reported a study that pointed that those who have some kind of belief is success brought on by any mentality (whatever believing in karma or just believing in oneself) trend to do better than have a negative mindset.

The one good thing of having a pessimistic mindset is you'll never be disappointed, but it seems having a optimistic mindset despite going through disappointments, the joy from pushing farther minus the disappointments outweights the joy by the path of avoidance of disappointments by being pessimitic boosted by being pleastantly surprised when it does goes well.

 

[Deep Dish]

As many know, I already exhaustively covered this subject ad infinitum, so I will remain brief.

In the movie Fight Club, the first rule of Project Mayhem was to not ask questions. In the film/book The Secret the first rule was to not ask questions. This is the same tactic used by Scientology: suggest critics must have personal problems.

In actuality, it's okay to hold negative thoughts. There is one argument I always feel uneasy presenting, because I'm a self-described positive guy, but a solid argument can be made people generally think too positively and thinking positively is delusional, whereas people who are clinically depressed have the most realistic outlooks on life. (See here).

 

[Desert Fox]

The "secret" is some pseudo-science bullsh1t that was created by some lady to make big bucks for herself by getting lazy fools to buy her book thinking they can sit on their ass and "think" their way to success.

THE END.

 

[MetalFortress]

People spend too much time reading, learning and attempting to manifest riches, and not enough time actually going out there and cutting their teeth on it and getting experience. Learning is good, but too much learning and not enough action just becomes an exercise in mental masturbation.

 

[Rollo Tomassi]

QUIK, the point is you cannot prove a physical argument with metaphysical premises, neither can you prove a metaphysical argument with physical premises. Whether it's a religious issue or a power of positive/negative thought debate, the premises are a self-fulfilling, self-perpetuating loop.

Understand, I'm all about the power of positive thinking and how psyching yourself up can influence yourself, others and your environment, but that's not what The Secret is. The Secret plays on the insecurity that you're not positive enough to magically influence your 'reality'. There's a world of difference between Norman Vincent Peale and Napoleon Hill.

 

[Being_the_Don]

I agree with the original poster. No offense to anyone who is a fan of The Secret, but it's a bunch of ****. So you're telling me I can just sit on my ass drinking milk shakes and little debbie brownies and 'manifest' remaining thin without doing excercise....I don't think so. One thing the movie does mention is remaining positive. Being positive is good but you must take action...if you don't take action, then there is no way you can achieve your goals.

You can control how you feel in all kinds of circumstances, but you can't control the actions of others and what will or will not happen to you.

I don't know about the Secret but I have read something about the Law of Attraction including from a variety of threads on this very site. From my understanding of it the Law of Attraction will not bring to you EAXACTLY what it is you want but rather bring about circumstances whereby you create the situation that you are thinking about or have the most powerful feelings for. By this I mean that IF you want to lose weight and get into shape- AND SERIOUSLY- desire to have this outcome then you will start to notice things that will encourage or reinforce your desire to lose weight. For example you might just see a commercial for an affordable gym membership or get a call from a family member or friend inviting you to meet at the park to play touch football or something. Now if you are in the mood or better to say have an intense desire to lose weight and get into shape you'll act on those feelings; when you read the gym ad you'll go down and get a membership or you'll take your friend up on the offer to meet at the park and play sports. You would not magically become fit you'd get what you really are focused on getting ie what you have invested the most mental and emotional energy in acquiring. Of a truth after reading some material on the Law of Attraction I do not agree with everything that is posited about the belief BUT something in it is indeed quite similar to Pook's statement: "As you believe so you shall become." If you believe that can have or do something then you will, if you don't believe then you won't.

What essentially is happening is that if you focus mental energy on the acquisition of a given thing or the avoidance of a given thing you will become more mentally aware of things in your environment which are of the focus of your attention. The bottom line is that when we are attuned to something we become more mentally aware and thereby are more sensitive to things. Thus we will be more apt to pay attention to objects, circumstances or whatever it is that we know will affect us on the acquisition or avoidance of that which we are focused on.