Since its publication in 2006, The Secret or The Law of Attraction continues to make waves to people who have had encounters with the video or the book. If you are a stranger to it, you will find it in Youtube or in your favorite bookshop. Interestingly, the video has made its way in direct marketing and networking businesses with resoundingly warm reception which does not surprise me at all because the video was well created to appeal and persuade even the highly educated. It’s not my intent to ruin those who find encouragement with the material. In fact, if it’s something that pushes them to work hard, then by all means they should go on with it.
To me, The Secret is just a repackaged success material or a refurbished version of positive thinking we used to know in the days of Napoleon Hill, Og Mandino or Norman Vincent Peale. What makes it surprisingly different is the way they intersperse science into the scene to make it appear that The Secret is not just a kind of feel-good presentation but a validation of the author’s assertion that it’s not some kind of a horsefeather you use to know. But to me, it’s the really the same gibberish talk glazed with some generic opinion of paid professionals in physics, and unheard of authors, as well as scripted testimonials of people who claim to have been made rich by just visualizing money.
In itself, it appears harmless and rouses your confidence but it also creates false hopes because the methods employed have no real scientific backing. For example, the idea of visualization. According to the video, by visualizing what you want, you’re already halfway to getting it because some kind of cosmic force (Law of Attraction) will conspire with what you imagine or desire and will push you to work on it and achieve it. So how do I know that the Law of Attraction has already gotten into me say for example if I visualize myself becoming part of the next mission to the moon? What if I visualize the impossible? Or better yet, what if I want to beat Bill Gates in the software business and I don’t even know what binaries mean?
And for some reason, the video goes on to say that if you didn’t get what you imagined, you only have yourself to blame because you didn’t visualize hard enough or maybe you have second thoughts about what you think or maybe because you probably did something bad that the Law of Attraction did not like and all the litany of reasons that they can invent just to prove that you have done something wrong somewhere. It seems that, with the The Secret, it is easy to pass the blame on you for your failures but so quick of them to say that the Law of Attraction has worked for you when you succeed and yet not a single explanation is made as to the mechanics as to why you failed or how you made it to the top. Maybe they intended the book to be titled as The Secret because they can’t explain why people fall for this claptrap.
The success of many great men history whether leaders in their field or thinkers, was not really because they know how to hone the power of The Law of Attraction as the video or book claims. That law never existed before, and if it did, they would have been the first to know and explain what it means or to declare that it exists.
This “Law” that the book or video propounds is just merely an invention of their authors and producers to prey on those who find comfort in the thought that there is hope to their financial or physical condition. It’s such a pity that one can only be perpetually hopeful for their victorious moment to come because The Secret or the Law of Attraction that it touts, which they so ingeniously designed, is nothing but a myth dressed as a self-help guide to achieving your dreams in life.
Many dreams have come to life not because they believed in The Secret or have followed the Laws of Attraction. The realization of many dreams is because they just simply knew that they are realizable and workable. Many of these dreams have been made real because of what they know or understand not necessarily from out of just visualizing alone. Dreams are also lessons learned from out of the constant trial and error which taught them what works and what does not.
And yes, we don’t need to believe in the Law of Attraction or The Secret in order to be what we want to become. It is our burning desire, our cognitive abilities, and the will to pursue, make any human endeavor possible.