This 'Secret' isn't worth keeping
'The Secret' is tempting because it offers power, money, and human divinity. But this self-indulgence can't quench our real spiritual thirst.
By Peter Jonesfrom the April 10, 2007 edition
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Escondido, Calif. - Esoteric (that is, inner, hidden) spirituality is going public. The official website of "The Secret" announces "a new era for humankind," kick-started by the sale of millions of copies of the DVD and book version, both of which were released last year. "The Secret" is now available on Amazon.com, but the core teachings behind it – a so-called law of attraction that turns your thoughts into things – are as old as ancient Babylon. So what explains the current rush?
Is it money? Author Rhonda Byrne claims her awakening began when she read a 1910 book by New Thought author Wallace Wattles called "The Science of Getting Rich." That influence shines in Ms. Byrne's work, which tantalizes us with the allure of wealth: "We can have whatever it is that we choose. I don't care how big it is.... Do you want to be a millionaire?" "The Secret" stands as the latest in a long line of promises to make us all spiritual and material millionaires. But there is more than money involved.
Is it a major change of spirituality? "The Secret" is the power of positive thinking on spiritual steroids. It is a new hybrid religion that joins the self-indulgent materialism of the West with the Hindu/Buddhist spirituality of the East. It takes principles and quotations from all religions and claims that guilt is passé, that the "law of attraction" is neither good nor evil, and that you deserve whatever you desire and attract to yourself. Such "revelation" arrives on the scene at the right time.
Sociologists tell us that modern society has turned away from the understanding of life as having established roles and a given order of things. What it's turned to is a perspective that makes the inner self the norm of behavior and gives high priority to subjective well-being. It turns out that material and spiritual well-being is just what the modern gurus also ordered.
Is it a choice of world- view? "The Secret" is not just a fluke commercial success or merely the latest version of the ever-popular human potential movement. It is one more proof that the "Christian" theistic West has, since the 1960s, adopted the old beliefs of pagan, pantheistic monism. Perennial philosophy – the belief that mystical metaphysics forms the core of all religious teachings – is now served up to the masses. Consider these "Secret" claims: "We are the creators of the Universe"; "You are God in a physical body."
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