'The Secret,' a phenomenon, is no mystery to many
Many say the book and DVD contain the key to unlimited happiness, health, money, and relationships. Others call the message misleading.
By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the March 28, 2007 edition
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The book is small, like a diary or personal journal, with a cover that evokes parchment and a brilliant red seal. Just the kind of thing that might hold secrets or treasured thoughts.
In this case, though, it's not just someone's secrets, but something presented as "the" secret – "passed down through the ages ... stolen and bought for vast sums of money ... understood by some of the most prominent people in history." The book jacket proclaims: "Now The Secret is being revealed to the world."
Bookstores have sold out of it, and customers must wait for the next mammoth printing – or buy the DVD on the Internet instead. (Some 3.75 million copies of the book are now in print; 2 million DVDs have been sold.)
"They're marketing it the way 'The Celestine Prophecy' was marketed a decade ago – all of a sudden, someone's found this great 'secret,' " says Douglas Cowan, assistant professor of religion at Canada's University of Waterloo. "It's just the next coming of the same old New Age cavalry."
The publishing world has another phenomenon on its hands, helped along by Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah, who recently touted "The Secret" on their television shows. This time, the phenomenon is not fiction but a prescription for how to live one's life. It is presented as the key to unlimited happiness, health, money, relationships – whatever you most want.
Yet along with the spiraling sales has come significant criticism for what some say is simply a cleverly repackaged message – and one that is misleading in its claims.
The creation of Rhonda Byrne, an Australian TV producer, the book (and the DVD, which came first, a year ago) promises to deliver ancient wisdom known only to historical elites, along with the knowledge of modern "living masters" who have used it in their lives. Some two dozen "visionaries" (entrepreneurs, authors, human-potential speakers, pastors, and corporate trainers) unravel the secret during the 90-minute DVD (www.thesecret.tv).
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