If you’ve watched the movie, The Secret, you got a quick introduction to the law of attraction, but the movie doesn’t go into much detail about how to apply those principles in your life. Perhaps you believe, but need practical advice on how to apply the teachings in your life. Perhaps you are skeptical – can your thoughts really influence what manifests in your life?

If you are skeptical, that’s understandable. Much of the “science” behind The Secret seems hokey. I mean, how often do we “wish” for things that never manifest? As I write this, the Powerball lottery sits at about $190 million. I have yet to manifest that check into my life – though I keep trying.

While you might not be able to influence the Powerball numbers, let’s talk about things you do have control over.

1. Your thoughts – At its core, the law of attraction is about monitoring your thoughts and becoming aware of negativity, criticism and blame. When things don’t work to our advantage, our inner critic often berates us for not living up to our own standards. Often, we don’t give ourselves the same love and respect we give to other people. Instead, we focus on our weaknesses and can end up thinking in circles and this downward spiral of thoughts leads to self-sabotage.

   But what if we turned it around and loved ourselves? If we have a bad day, we comfort ourselves like we might comfort our friends and loved ones and tried to cheer them up? When we look at others’ lives, we can see that things usually aren’t as bad as our friend believes. It’s never the end of the world, and there is almost always a solution or workaround to whatever is causing the problem.

2. Your attitude – It’s easy to fall into a pattern of hopelessness and despair when things aren’t going your way. Maybe you don’t have enough money, or have relationship troubles, or aren’t happy with your career. Yet regardless of where you are in life, you can choose to see the glass as half empty or half full. What in your life are you grateful for? What are your strengths? What is positive in your life?

   It’s easy to fall into the pattern of thinking about what’s wrong – but how often do we reflect on what’s right with our lives? If you start and end each day by being appreciative of what you have, it’s amazing how your whole outlook can change.

3. Your behaviors – The truth is, we may not be able to control everything that happens to us. We can’t control how others behave or factors outside ourselves. The only thing we do have complete control over is our reaction to things. We can choose to worry, blame, take offense, or become defensive. Or we can see the bright side of things. You know the saying – every cloud has a silver lining.

   The next time something doesn’t go as planned, become aware of your own reaction. Do you get angry and curse? Or can you laugh it off as no big deal? If you are in the wrong, can you learn from your mistakes? Can you genuinely apologize if you’ve hurt someone? When you find yourself in an argument or dispute, can you take a step back and really listen to the concerns of the other person without becoming defensive? Can you view the other with compassion – and take their words to heart? Can you see the world from their perspective and empathize with their side of the story?

Action Step – Start a Gratitude Journal

In the movie, The Secret, they discuss writing down what you are thankful for each day. Journaling can be a great way to become aware of your own beliefs, explore your feelings and get to know yourself better. If something is bothering you, it is often helpful to clarify your thoughts by writing them down, rather than letting your mind run circles around the issue without resolution.

Often, when you see your own thoughts on paper, you will gain a new perspective and be able to approach the issue differently. It will also help you clear your mind – it’s now down on paper, so you don’t have to remember every last detail. You can write whatever you like and have your say, then read over it – is it a fair assessment of the situation? If it was a friend telling you about their problems, rather than your own writings, what advice would you give?

The law of attraction is about becoming extremely clear not only about what you want in your life, but about how you can overcome any perceived obstacles that are standing between you and your goals. When you focus on what you want, you can take small inspired action steps to achieve those goals. By tracking your daily process, you can see that you are making progress – or where you are stuck and need to make adjustments.

Remember, a goal is just a “wish” until you commit to achieving it.

The only ‘harm’ if any is when you approach the concept of The Secret with doubts in your mind. In that case you will only achieve negative results and become frustrated in the process (sic).

This gets into one of the more controversial aspects of The Secret – whether it’s based on faith or science.

If you watch The Secret, they try to beat you over the head that this is based in science. I’ve mentioned in a previous post how their interpretation of quantum physics differs from mainstream physicists. However, the point I want to make in this post is that science isn’t based in faith.

If you’ve ever taken a science course, you know that experiments must be based in the philosophy of the scientific method. That is, a researcher forms hypothesis – that is, her explanation of some natural phenomena. Then, she puts together an experiment to test that hypothesis, and painstakingly works to eliminate biases and outside forces that may effect her experiment’s outcome. If she gets the results she expects, great. If not, she theorizes why her results may have strayed from her hypothesis.

But her research alone doesn’t make something universally accepted. Next, other researchers try to replicate her results. If they get similar results, they will modify the experiment slightly and see if the results are also predicted. They will publish their findings in peer reviewed journals so that others may look at the experiment and point out biases they may have missed – or other possible explanations for the results they received.

As research around a subject builds, those ideas and hypotheses become theories, which in turn lead to more hypotheses and experiments. In other worlds, science does not just accept on faith that one researcher’s results are true. There is a healthy dose of skepticism and doubt in any findings that aren’t consistent with mainstream theories – those theories that have become accepted as “the best explanation we have so far” for natural phenomenon.

On the other hand, if you listen to Rhonda Byrne or you trace the principles of The Secret movement back, you’ll find it has its foundations in the New Thought Movement of the 19th century. That is, it’s based in faith and spirituality, not science. Faith, in this regard, is defined as “belief that is not based on proof.”

You must have faith that you can accomplish this or that. You must have faith that it works every time, no exceptions. You must have faith that the universe is a large catalog and all you need to do is pick out exactly what you want. You must have faith that if you ask and believe, you will receive.

Now, you might say, “it worked for me” or “it worked for Rhonda Byrne” – isn’t that proof enough? From a scientific perspective, no, it isn’t. Testimonials and first hand accounts can be misleading – just ask any trial lawyer who must interview several witnesses for his recent court case. Chances are slim that they will tell the exact same story.

Part of this is because our memories just aren’t as good as we think. As time passes, we tend to forget bits and pieces.

But much of it has to do with our upbringing and how we process information. Both you and I can attend the exact same event and walk away with completely different experiences.

Or take, for instance, this past year’s Superbowl where the Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago Bears. If you were a Colts fan, you’d experience the game completely differently than a Bears fan, who’d experience the game completely different form someone who disliked football.

Our perceptions, likes, dislikes, fears, and past experiences are all factors in how we interpret situations. Since no one has exactly the same perceptions, likes, dislikes, fears, and past experiences, it’s impossible for two people to have the exact same experience – they’d each interpret it differently.

The same holds true for the law of attraction. You may swear up and down that it’s working for you in a particular way, whereas I might observe your situation and conclude that you got what you wanted, not because of law of attraction, but simply the effect of an action you took last month. Or perhaps because you decided to focus solely on one thing – so you began noticing other opportunities and resources that could help you.

In other words, proof based on experience is subjective. It may be true for you – or even true for many people in a particular situation – but that doesn’t mean that it works every time, no exceptions.

For it to be proven scientifically, several researchers would have to do independent studies controlling for outside factors that may affect the experiment. They’d form a hypothesis, run the experiment to control for specific variables, observe the outcome and interpret the findings. Then, others would repeat the same experiment. If they continued to get the same results, then, they’d construct a theory and hammer out the specifics – when it works, when it doesn’t, why it works, why it doesn’t. They’d look at the math, chemistry, psychology, and every other factor that might play a role in the overarching explanation. They’d drill down to the core processes and explain this is how it is working. That’s science.

The contents of the guide are pretty light – it’s basically a pitch fest for the SGR Program – but what has made this thing so darn popular is that anyone can “rebrand” the guide with their own SGR affiliate link and give it away free.

I was curious about how easy this was to do – I figured it must be super easy since everyone and their brother seems to be promoting it – so I followed the steps, signed up, and now have giveaway rights… just like everyone else. I even set up a page where you can learn how to become an SGR affiliate for free and rebrand the guide for your own purposes.

If you do decide to promote this guide, please don’t be as annoying as the people who’ve posted to my site. It’s a pet peeve of mine that these internet marketing types post advertisements masquerading as blog comments and hope you won’t notice. They don’t even try to join the conversation or stay relevant to the article. The only thing they seem to care about is promoting their product and making as much money as possible.

It would be different if they tried to add something of value to the post, but instead, I get vague comments alluding to how The Secret changed their life or how wonderful Bob Proctor is for turning his life around. My thoughts are, yeah – so what?

I had a rather pleasant conversation yesterday at the bookstore where I was writing up some posts – a woman and I got to talking about The Secret and she told me story after story about how the law of attraction was working in her life – from changing careers in the last two month, to meeting a wealth of people who would be able to aid her in her new career, to bringing past acquaintances back into her life.

This woman was passionate about her experiences with the law of attraction. These kinds of stories and testimonials mean something – they’re genuine and passionate. And this woman was able to accomplish all she did without buying a $2000 program and pushing it on everyone who’d listen.

Now, I’m not knocking the SGR program. I’m sure many people will find it helpful. If it was cheaper, I’d probably purchase it as I have an extensive library of self improvement and personal development products – and read anything I can get my hands on. But there are a great number of things I’d rather spend $2000 on than a program where I’m not even certain what the contents contain or how it’s different from Bob Proctor’s other Science of Getting Rich program.

What annoys me is the shady “used car salesmen” techniques, the ridiculous hype surrounding it, and the way Bob Proctor and Jack Canfield have gotten an army of affiliates to market the product for them. It’s all so slick (and brilliant from a marketing standpoint) – and I’m sure it’s quite successful at convincing people who can’t afford it to buy. I wish they’d take more pride in their programs and market it with dignity rather than with the sleazy, hype-filled sales copy, but that’s what sells these days.

Anyway, because I’m offering the guide for download, I’m going to extend the invitation to anyone who has a copy of the guide. If you want to promote your “rebranded” report, post your link here. If you post it in any other thread, it will be deleted.

The only thing I ask is that if you do post your link, that you also share an experience about how you, personally, have used the law of attraction in your life. In other words, don’t regurgitate the hype – share your story.

I joined the webcast rather than the conference call and had a few access problems, so I didn’t quite catch the first few minutes. Luckily, the connection soon steadied and I was able to listen to the rest of the call without problems.

Rhonda came across as a very positive and loving woman who really does want to spread love and joy throughout the world. I’ve seen her on Oprah and in The Secret movie, but in this interview, she opened up to fellow Secret star and Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul author, Marci Shimoff. Perhaps that’s because she knew Marci wouldn’t be asking the difficult questions.

Rhonda started out with her story behind The Secret. Her biggest problem when doing The Secret movie was lack of money but she claims that she “just knew” how things would turn out and trusted in that outcome. As she tells it, the more she “had faith” in her vision of the outcome, the more the Universe delivered.

For instance, when she and her team were filming in Aspen, this was the only time they had two cameras. One team member suggested they set up the second camera to film profiles of each of the speakers, since they weren’t doing much with it. Later on, as they were editing, that footage became an integral part of the film. Rhonda chalks it up to moving towards her vision and having faith that things will work out when things seem uncertain.

That was a key point throughout her talk. Rhonda strongly believes that action is simply allowing yourself to receive. When asked to clarify, she stressed the importance of feelings over thoughts. You must believe and feel that you are receiving what you want right now and feel good about it today. She claims that if you go out and try to make things happen, it’s telling the Universe that you don’t actually have faith.

She explains that when she went to write The Secret book, she visualized the joy she wanted to share with the world. Only when she felt the emotions to the point where tears welled up in her eyes did she sit down and start writing. Instead of making a book happen, she received everything she was asking for and let the love flow from the Universe, through her, and into the book.

If you’ve read other Secret teachers’ books – like Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles or James Arthur Ray’s The Science of Success – you know that this is a departure from what they teach. They believe that action is required to get from point A to point B (and I agree.)

The Secret movie also seems to imply that you don’t need “faith” for things to happen. As long as you believe, you receive. It’s a “universal law” and scientific. Rhonda’s comments tend to blow that theory out of the water.

Instead, Rhonda speaks of the law of attraction as if it’s a supernatural force – that universal genie – that grants your wish as if by magic. I was amazed how many times she talked about “having faith” that you are creating your own reality – just by visualizing and feeling joy and believing it will become reality. Then, you sit around and wait until you are compelled by the Universe to take action (like she did with her book). When you take action without that inspiration, she claims it “makes the journey harder.”

Wow. If that’s the case, I should have won that Powerball jackpot numerous times. I certainly sat around visualizing myself receiving that big check and what my life would look like if I was a multi-millionaire. I’m certain I’m not the only one. Or all the times as a kid I wished it would snow enough for school to close… why didn’t we have more snow days?

Here’s a quick summary of some of the other points she covered:

• Pay attention whenever you say “I am”. That is usually an indication that you’re about to state something you believe. So if you state “I am broke” or “I am tired,” that’s what you’ll create in your life.
• Take full responsibility for your life. “You created it.” If something bad happens, don’t look at it as a challenge that’s separate from you. You can change it in a moment just by thinking something better. Look for the gift in the challenge.
• Give. Rhonda often stressed over money when creating The Secret. She claims that she felt best when she’d give it away to people on the street – even though she really needed it. She found that when she gave, she felt better about money.
• Visualize what you want before you go to bed each night. Think about how you want the day to unfold and how it could be the best day of your life.
• Decide to be happy now. Fill yourself with love and joy. You must fill yourself up in order to give.
• Feel gratitude every day. Gratitude is an expression of love.
• You have the freedom to choose what you want. No one else is the authority over you. It’s up to you to decide what you want.

Rhonda stayed mum on her new project. She couldn’t disclose the details due to a confidentiality agreement and couldn’t give us an idea of when to expect it. She did share that her intention is to bring joy to the world.

As I mentioned at the start, there wasn’t a lot that was new with this telecast. If you saw The Secret movie or read the book, you know the gist. I was somewhat disappointed that Marci didn’t press Rhonda on certain issues – like Oprah did with Esther Hicks on her radio show last week. I’m guessing that’s why Rhonda agreed to do this interview, since she’s been noticeably absent from the media since her last appearance on Oprah.

This interview was virtually all positive PR for Rhonda who has been accused of using The Secret to promote materialistic goods rather than eliminating the bad stuff (disease, violence, poverty) from the world. Rhonda played up her compassionate side – and for the most part, came across as genuinely compassionate and caring… though a bit naïve that “all you need is love” to cure the ailments of the world.

Though I’d agree that it’s somewhat deceptive or misleading in its attempts to claim science as its foundation, I don’t think it’s overtly harmful. Yes, the philosophy’s incomplete – and they haven’t spent much time hammering out the specifics – but if you simply take it for a “feel good” docu-drama, it’s not going to harm anyone. As long as you don’t think too deeply about the underlying principle of the law of attraction, the movie’s an inspirational piece to get you to sit up and take notice that you can control your thoughts and feelings.

It’s certainly true that as consumers in a capitalistic society, we’re exposed to so much marketing hype each day – by some reports, over 3000 messages a day. The amount of data on the Internet doubles each year. The US, alone, published 172,000 books in 2005. The UK beat us with 206,000. It’s impossible for us to give each of these things our full attention. We’d go nuts! So we filter out what isn’t relevant to us and focus on what is relevant. For instance, if you watched tv last night – do you actually remember which commercials you saw? Can you name the product or service they were promoting? Chances are, you may remember one or two that stood out but many people don’t remember any.

Those that do stand out are likely to either be entertaining in some way, or relevant to you – such as a character from the tv show you’re watching does a commercial spot, or you see an ad for TurboTax and think that wow, April 16 is just 10 days away – maybe you should get started on your taxes.

We also live in an attention deficit society where we can’t sit still for 5 minutes without an interruption. We’re a generation of multitaskers (though the NY Times reminds us that we’re not as good at multitasking as we may think we are. We’re always available with cell phones, email, pagers, and instant messengers. There’s a distraction around every corner.

So from a psychological perspective, it makes a lot of sense that we don’t notice something until we become aware of it and start to make it a priority. For instance, I only started watching 24 at Season Five. Before that, I was oblivious to Jack Bauer and CTU. Thanks to the constant updates from my family, who were avid fans, I finally caved, watched the season premiere and was hooked. Before this, 24 didn’t matter. After this, 24 became a priority – must watch tv (at least until Heroes came along!)

It’s easy to tell what people focus most on – just take a look at how they spend their days and what they spend their money on. As James Ray said last night on the teleseminar, when people tell you they “don’t have time”, they’re just making an excuse. We always find the time for things we consider a priority. And usually, we find the money.

Can Positive Thinking Cure Disease?

Where The Secret gets a bit esoteric is in its attempt to explain why bad things happen to good people. This certainly isn’t a new question. Countless philosophers and theologians have tried to understand the problem of evil for centuries – or at least as long as ethical monotheism has been around. To frame the question, how can evil exist in a world if there is an omnipotent, omnipresent God? Or, in the language of The Secret, if the universe is a large catalog and all you have to do is pick out what you want, why is it that some of us seem to choose bad things like cancer, rape, and natural disasters? Why is it that some of us never seem to lose weight, no matter how hard we try? Why can’t some of us get out of debt – or at least make enough to cover our monthly expenses?

The Secret claims it’s because we have all these negative beliefs that are poisoning our lives. As we focus on getting out of debt, we filter out all but “debt”. As we focus on curing ourselves from disease, we filter out all but “disease”. It’s these thoughts that are creating the problems in our lives.

Now I admit, from a purely philosophical point of view, this has a tiny bit of weight. If you’re having a bad day, each little annoyance is magnified. If you’re having a good day, a minor annoyance is just a drop in the bucket. It’s all relative. You don’t complain nearly as much about your $35 parking ticket if you just found out you won $10,000. But if you get a parking ticket and your air conditioner dies and you lose an important client account at work, things seem to go from bad to worse.

But from a physical standpoint, there is absolutely no evidence that we attract cancer into our lives – or that negative thinkers are more likely to get cancer than positive thinkers. Yes, positive thinkers tend to fight the disease a bit harder. They’re not ready to quit living just yet – whereas some people give in to the disease. But given the opportunity to have modern medical treatment, most people would choose that AND positive thinking instead of JUST positive thinking.

In other words, positive thinking alone won’t cure disease. Yes, they thought that might be the case in the 1800s. It’s a fundamental principle of the New Thought Movement (of which, Christian Science is a part). But we also know a lot more about medicine now than we do in the 1800s.

One of the biggest debates in medicine during the mid-1800s was how to recognize with certainty that someone was actually dead (so they wouldn’t bury them alive, which was a huge concern at the time). The stethoscope was only invented in 1819 and was extremely rudimentary to the sensitive devices we use today. In other words, medicine has come a long way since the 1800s.

So, in this regard, if people choose to believe in the Law of Attraction over say, getting appropriate medical help because they are certain their thoughts will heal them, then yes, this could be perceived as harmful. (And if you’re refusing medical attention for a child, that’s a legal offense – see Supreme Court ruling on mother who refused medical treatment for her 11 year old son who died because of it.)

What about the Poor and Unfortunate?

Another problem with The Secret is that because it claims we attract our circumstances. That means the people in Darfur attract the violence or that the New Orleans’ people attracted the levies to break.

Or because we want to lose weight, we should not focus on people who are overweight, but turn our thoughts to positive and healthy body images. It’s not food that’s causing our weight gain, it’s our thoughts. (Read Rhonda Byrne’s excerpt from The Secret for more on this.)

While thoughts may hold us back, virtually all physicians and dieticians will agree that if you want to lose weight – or just maintain a healthy weight – you must manage your diet and exercise regularly. Sure, you might know someone that “is thin and eats like a horse” as Rhonda says – but is this really the Universe answering this person’s wish, or simply that she has a high metabolism? I know I could eat all sorts of things as a teen and wouldn’t gain weight. Sadly, now I don’t have that ability – but then I’m also not nearly as active.

What bothers me is her quote

Make it your intention to look for, admire, and inwardly praise people with your idea of perfect-weight bodies. Seek them out and as you admire them and feel the feelings of that-you are summoning it to you. If you see people who are overweight, do not observe them, but immediately switch your mind to the picture of you in your perfect body and feel it.

There’s not a lot of compassion there. Don’t observe fat people. Look away, because it’s all about you. What other people are going through doesn’t matter. It’s all about you achieving your goals.

This touches on my second biggest problem with The Secret – the selfishness of it. Virtually everything in the movie was about attracting wealth and materialism to you. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, it’s all a bit selfish. There’s no desire to help out your fellow man, to give to the needy or help the sick or suffering because that’s not in your best interest and won’t get you that spiffy new car you’ve been dreaming of. There’s no real desire to genuinely connect with other human beings on a deeper level because how will that help you get that cool new mansion?

Now, I’m not about to get rid of my possessions any time soon – I’m a Taurus, and every astrology profile I’ve ever seen tells me how much I love physical possessions and cash. But money and possessions are not the end all, be all, which defines me and my personality. Yes, I want to be comfortably wealthy, but it’s also important to me to give back.

The Secret seems to ignore this. It seems to say that all you have to do is ask and “receive” – that is, take, take, take! There’s no giving involved.

On a different note, The Secret seems to imply that if we only believe hard enough and put out enough good vibes, we can control our lives. The philosophy is that here is no random chance or coincidence. Everything happens for a reason, so good people attract bad things into their lives.

So, does that mean that we shouldn’t help people because they have specifically brought these unfortunate circumstances? Worse, does that mean that they should be blamed and held accountable for their misfortunes?

I don’t buy that argument. You’d have to be a pretty cold person to tell a parent they were to blame for their child’s death or for their spouse’s cancer or hurricane Katrina.

So, taking all of this into consideration, is The Secret harmful? I guess, like just about everything out there, it could be. But in moderation and with a healthy dose of skepticism (meaning you’ll actually seek out medical treatment, help out a person in need, or take action rather than wishing for something to manifest into your lap), I’d place it squarely within the rest of the self-help/motivational materials out there. It has its good and bad points. And while it’s probably not overtly harmful, it’s not the sole answer or “the secret” to life.

Finally, let me address the concept of a universal law. In science, gravity is a universal law because it works every time, no matter what. We call this a law because we can explain it mathematically and we can test it. If you put a feather and a rock in a controlled environment (like a vacuum) on earth, they will both fall at a specific, calculable rate.

Wikipedia defines “universal law” as follows “In science, a physical law, scientific law, or a law of nature is a scientific generalization based on empirical observations of physical behavior. Such are the “laws” operant principles which appear applicable to the whole universe and are thus considered as the fundamental basis of nature and reality.”

The key here is that you need “empirical observations of physical behavior.” It’s not enough to have a handful of testimonials that declare “yes, this works.” You need scientific experimentation. That means, if you wanted to test the “ask… believe… receive” hypothesis, you’d have to put someone in a controlled environment and have them ask for something specific. (For instance, put Bob Proctor in solitary confinement and have him ask for and believe he will receive the necessary tools for survival like food and water.) Then, you’d have to repeat the experiment with others to see if you got the same results (ie, just by asking and believing, they “manifested” food and water). If enough people get the same results, then you have the basis for a scientific theory.

To summarize this three part series, the quantum physics of The Secret isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Yes, there are some things that are kosher – like positive thinking, changing one’s behavior and believing in one’s self – but the physics is really lacking.

read part 1 | read part 2

But what about the references to quantum theory and “science”? What about Fred Alan Wolf who claims that “Quantum physics really begins to point to this discovery. It says that you can’t have a Universe without mind entering into it, and that the mind is actually shaping the very thing that is being perceived.”

I’m not sure why Wolf believes you can’t have a Universe without mind entering into it. For most of the earth’s history, there were no humans to think up all sorts of creations. So, in that regard, it certainly seems like yes, you can have a Universe without mind…

In regard to the mind shaping what is being perceived, philosophically, neither you nor I can have the exact same experience. Even if we each undergo the exact same event, you will experience it differently based on all your past experiences up until now than I will – because of my own past experiences. But that doesn’t mean that because I am experiencing it one way that it changes the reality of what just happened.

In other words, we’re not talking about the questions Schrödinger was trying to address in his famous thought experiment. We’re talking about the answers he was trying to get.

If you’re not familiar with the experiment, here’s the quick summary from PhysicsWeb.org.

In his original thought experiment, Schrodinger imagined that a cat is locked in a box, along with a radioactive atom that is connected to a vial containing a deadly poison. If the atom decays, it causes the vial to smash and the cat to be killed. When the box is closed we do not know if the atom has decayed or not, which means that it can be in both the decayed state and the non-decayed state at the same time. Therefore, the cat is both dead and alive at the same time – which clearly does not happen in classical physics.

The problem with equating this to the real world is, as Skeptico explains, that:

Schrödinger’s Cat is a thought experiment only. Thought experiments can be useful to explain a complex idea, or to get people to question assumptions, but a thought experiment cannot by itself prove or disprove anything. To prove or disprove something, you have to perform a real experiment. Schrödinger’s Cat has never actually been performed as a real experiment, and in my view could never even in principle be performed as a real experiment. The reason should be obvious. Schrödinger’s Cat says the cat is both dead and alive until we look at it. But we cannot tell if the cat is dead or alive until we look at it. It’s Catch-22: to perform Schrödinger’s Cat we’d have to look at the experiment without looking at it. Clearly impossible. So it proves nothing.Of course, this also means that Schrödinger’s point wasn’t proven either: since we can’t say for sure that the cat isn’t both dead and alive, we can’t say if Copenhagen is right or wrong. The “consciousness is necessary” interpretation of QM is unfalsifiable.

But just because we can’t perform the experiment to test the claims doesn’t mean that by default, the people in The Secret must be right – or it is even a possibility. This isn’t an either/or argument. As Steve Hansen Smythe explains at eSkeptic

Furthermore, the leap from being able to influence an electron going through one of two slits to being able to influence an entire mail-order universe is unquantifiably vast. Surprising effects that work reliably well at the very small (such as electron tunneling, the foundation of semiconductors) utterly fail to work at the very large (such as BMW tunneling, in which a fully-formed BMW disappears from the factory and appears in your driveway, merely because you asserted that you wanted one).”

read part 1 | read part 3

So, let me start with what is The Secret?

According to Bob Proctor

“The Secret is the law of attraction!Everything that’s coming into your life you are attracting into your life. And it’s attracted to you by virtue of the images you’re holding in your mind. It’s what you’re thinking. Whatever is going on in your mind you are attracting to you.”

The book would lead you to believe that this Secret – the “law of attraction” was known yet suppressed by many of the famous people throughout history – even that it was recorded in stone in 3000 BC. (Sadly, there’s no source) The Secret and the Law of Attraction actually grew out of the New Thought Movement of the 19th century.

The book and movie claim that “The law of attraction says like attracts like, and so as you think a thought, you are also attracting like thoughts to you” or as Mike Dooley puts it “Thoughts become things.”

The Secret teachers would like you to believe that “Thoughts are magnetic, and thoughts have a frequency. As you think, those thoughts are sent out into the Universe, and they magnetically attract all like things that are on the same frequency. Everything sent out returns to the source. And that source is you.”

This wishful thinking is great to believe – if I only think about obtaining a million dollars, it will land in my lap in a few days. All I have to do is ask… believe… receive. Sadly, real life doesn’t work this way. eSkeptic author, Ingrid Hansen Smythe, explains the two conflicting ideologies that lie within the movie:

“The Secret relies heavily on fuzzy thinking, and nowhere is this fuzziness demonstrated better than by the fact that The Secret is actually proposing two completely different systems for achieving one’s goals and then blurring the line between those systems — in effect, selling the system that works on the back of the one that doesn’t. On the one hand, we are told that all that is required to get what we desire is to ask, believe, and receive. For example: A little boy wants a bike, he believes he will get a bike, he gets a bike (as dramatized in The Secret DVD). On the other hand, we are told that we can’t merely ask, believe, receive. “A lot of people watch The Secret and they say, ‘Well, I’m sitting around visualizing my millions coming into my lap.’ Well, they’ll come take your furniture away. And then how are you going to visualize [when you’re living] on the curb? You’ve got to act on it.” So, a little boy wants a bike, he gets a paper route to earn money to get a bike, he gets a bike. In the first scenario, the supernatural is required. In the second scenario, a paper-route is required. The second scenario is the one that most of us recognize as the only one that will actually work, in which a person has an “idea,” then acts on that idea, and then gets the desired results. The second system renders irrelevant the first system…

Perhaps the believer in The Law of Attraction imagines that to use both systems in conjunction is more powerful than using just the one. It seems to me that this is like a woman using some form of birth control and then lying back and affirming “I will not get pregnant! I will not get pregnant!” It seems obvious that it is the birth control, and not the positive thinking, that is getting the job done. Certainly affirmations alone do nothing to prevent pregnancy — any woman who believes otherwise is undoubtedly a mother.”

Or to summarize – do you think you received what you wanted because (1) you wished for it or (2) you worked for it?

read part 2 | read part 3

If you’ve never heard of Esther Hicks, she claims to channel spiritual entities called “Abraham” and then teaches Abraham’s messages to the public. I find it somewhat bizarre, but I suppose it fits within the New Age thought movement. I’ve read her Ask & It Is Given book, and it does have some useful teachings in it. That said, I’m a sceptic at heart, so I have a difficult time swallowing that her teachings are supernatural in origin…

Regardless, she answered by posting to her website (I couldn’t find it or I’d link):

As time went by, it became apparent that the television network that we had been told would air “The Secret” was not going to do it, at least not right now, and so the production company began seeking other ways of marketing their beautiful project to recoup their very large investment. While Jerry and I were uncomfortable with what felt to us like a rather aggressive marketing campaign (just not our style, nothing wrong with it) we stayed focused on our busy schedule and really had very little to do with what was happening with “The Secret.”Eventually we received an email from the producer of “The Secret” lovingly explaining (we never have received correspondence from her that was anything other than extremely loving) that the contract that we had all agreed upon and signed was no longer sufficient for their further distribution of the project in the areas they were now seeking to distribute the project, and that it would be necessary for us (Jerry and Esther) to relinquish our intellectual property rights in these areas forever and redo our contract or they would have to reluctantly edit us out. It was clear, from the lovingly written email that they did not want to edit us out, but after conferring with our publisher, and then our intellectual property rights attorney, and finally with Abraham, allowing them to edit us out was the path of least resistance. Abraham’s words were very clear and easy to understand: “Whenever you are given an ultimatum that says, ‘if you don’t do this, then we will have to do such and such,’ it is best that you just let it go and move on. Otherwise there is always another, and this, and this, and this?”

Later, the New York Times followed up with an article stating that Esther and her husband, Jerry, were receiving 10% of the profits of dvd sales. But they’re multimillionaires so the money thing doesn’t bother them.

What the Hickses say bothers them most about the second version of “The Secret” is that those who watch it are not receiving enough explanation of the law or being told that its discovery was made by “vibrationally accessing broader intelligence,” Ms. Hicks said.
Bringing forth the voice of Abraham as she sat on a buttery leather seat in her motor home, speaking of herself in the third person, she said, “Esther’s concern is that they will destroy this information because they do not really know it.”

Perhaps, but in today’s internet age, it’s virtually impossible to contain/supress the flow of ideas. And being on Oprah and covered in every major publication certainly doesn’t help.