The Secret

Has anyone read this book or seen the film? I've nearly completed the book and I must say, I'm not impressed.

A little about it - The Secret is a self-help book that goes on about the concept of positive thinking. But, they wrap it in something called the Law of Attraction. The idea is simple - think about what you want, ask the Universe* for it, feel as though you have already attained what was asked for in question and, through positive thought and feeling, you will get what you ask for. Doesn't matter how big or small, what you ask for is what you will receive from the Universe*.

First thing's first, I believe in positive thought. I have used it many times and it has successfully transformed into reality. However, I am not sure The Secret's message is entirely up to par.

See, there's no such thing as the Law of Attraction. At least, there's no scientific backing of it. According to the entry in Wikipedia on Scientific Law:

A scientific law, is a law-like statement that generalizes across a set of conditions. To be accorded law-like status a wide variety of these conditions should be known, i.e. the law has a well documented history of successful replication and extension to new conditions. Ideally boundary conditions, where the law fails, should also be known.

A scientific law concerns the physical or social world, it therefore must have empirical content and therefore be capable of testing and potentially Analytic statements that are true or false by logic alone are not scientific laws, though may feature as part of scientific theories.

The concept of a scientific law is closely related to the concept of a scientific theory. A scientific law attempts to describe an observation in nature while a scientific theory attempts to explain it.

Sure, there maybe some anecdotal evidence of the Law of Attraction, but nothing scientific.

But what's the difference between positive thinking and this Law of Attraction, you ask? Simple, I think. Positive thinking is the act of thinking positively (duh?). You think about something you want to do, you imagine the outcome of that activity and do what needs to be done to see the outcome. Let's apply it to weight loss. You are fat. You first need to want to lose the weight. Then, you imagine yourself at the target weight. You use affirmations like, "I can do it," or "it's within my grasp," or "it's possible." You next take the steps to lose the weight like exercise, diet modification and lifestyle changes. Over time, you lose the weight. No need to ask the Universe* to give it to you.

If you have a negative attitude, of course it won't work. Or, it's just a lot harder to achieve.

Asking the Universe* to give you something seems to be a little far-fetched as well. I mean, it's the UNIVERSE. Now, you'll notice that I've placed asteriks next to the word Universe. Why? I think it is simply a term used in place for the concept of God. We're asking GOD for something. And, instead of asking, try placing the word PRAY in there. We're PRAYING to GOD for something we want. I don't believe in a god and there have been studies indicating that prayer is useless. I cite a three-year Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP). It studied the affects of prayer on heart surgery patients (1800 of them) and there was no significant affect. In fact, those that knew they were being prayed for had higher complications of heart arrhythmias. It is suggested that this was due to negative thinking. Just to point out, the study did say that prayer may be more affective when it's loved ones who pray for you. But this is inconclusive (this would also be a sign of positive thought). I would also like to point you to this blog that showed studies of the affects of prayer that say they worked, but really didn't (it's a personal blog, but I found the info interesting):

http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2005/07/prayer_still_us.html

So, if prayer doesn't work, does asking the Universe to grant us want we want work? I don't think so. And what about all of those poor, unfortunate people in the world? I mean, if asking the Universe is so easy, why aren't they being helped? Why are the millions of starving people in the world still starving? Why are there millions of people in the world still unnecessarily dying? Why do I not have a fucking job yet?? Can't we just ask the Universe, feel as though we already got it and then receive? I don't think so. Think of it this way - even if the Universe was a living being, how would it be aware of you? We are but atoms to the Universe. Are we aware of single atoms in our body? If an atom asked us to do something for it, would we know?

I may be being a little negative. The Secret does impart the message of thinking positively. And I've lost focus on the concept. I've set my mind to things and they've come to fruition, I know it works. But I don't think that asking the Universe for something is going to get it. And I don't think that just thinking about something will achieve it.

We have to believe in ourselves. Believe in what we can do. And believe that anything within reason is attainable. Once the ball is rolling with thought, take action. Always be aware that your actions help or hinder you. Take actions that will help you. Try to stay away from actions that hinder you. Simple advice, yes. Do people follow that advice? No, including myself.

Life is so simple. But we complicate it so much, no wonder why we think it's so hard. But what do I know? I'm entirely too negative to begin with. Of course, I'm trying to change this.

Eh.. I'll keep my mind open on this one... I'm currently reading the transcripts to a Larry King show that had proponents to positive thinking on. Some of them were even featured in The Secret.