Of all of The Secret teachers, James Arthur Ray is probably the one I agree with most. Yes, I have some points of differentiation when he gets into his pseudo-quantum stuff (just because we may all be made up of “energy” doesn’t mean we attract things on our own “vibrational” level), but I’m willing to overlook that. At least he’s trying. Continue Reading

by Esther and Jerry Hicks
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You can’t read about the Law of Attraction without Esther Hicks coming up. Esther calls herself the “translator of the vibration of Abraham.” That is, she is able to receive messages from entities she collectively calls “Abraham” who exist on a different level. She claims that she is “bridging the physical word, in which I am focused, with the Non-Physical world in which they are focused.” For the purpose of this review, I will suspend my disbelief that she is, in fact, channeling supernatural entities (I suppose we all have our muses) and focus on the message, which is living consciously. Continue Reading

by Ernest Holmes
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I mentioned in a previous article that the roots of The Secret lie in the New Thought Movement of the 19th century. Ernest Holmes (1887-1960) was the founder of the Science of Mind philosophy and movement, which grew out of the New Thought Movement.

Thoughts Are Things is a concise introduction to Holmes’ philosophy. After reading just the first few pages, you can see parallels to The Secret – especially in the belief that positive thinking can cure illness. Continue Reading

The New Thought Movement has a number of characteristics in common with today’s Law of Attraction movement. First, virtually all the New Thought movements believe in the ideology of “mind over matter” – or that we create our reality with our thoughts. Negative influences and limitations in our lives are caused by negative and limiting beliefs, so if you were to change your beliefs, you’d change your reality. Continue Reading

The New Thought Movement became a major philosophical movement in the 1870s in American and the major organizational body, the International New Thought Alliance (INTA) adopted the term “New Thought” by the 1890s. The term is applied to various groups and organizations that share common philosophies, though not all belong to the INTA. Continue Reading