The Secret

I naively read it in early twenties and was gobsmacked at the logic. It's great that people want to think more positively but cosmic ordering and all that? Not for me. I've since read many a book on stoicism and am much happier with just being accepting of the good and bad in life. If I want money I earn it, if I want a decent fella I stop praying for a shitty one to become decent and actual consider the good ones. I agree with PP about the whole cancer thing. It must be awful for people who are trying to remain positive and beat it to be possibly told. Sorry not positive enough, or too late, you brought this on, you're out!

Once, as a teenager, I can remember willing my phone to ring. I'm not sure why, maybe I was lonely or bored.

I was looking at my phone, thinking "ring, ring!" and then I got a withheld prank call. No one spoke but it happened just as I was thinking it.

Very weird.

I like the idea of it, but I wonder how many of the posters on here have started out on an already privileged path, such as be intellectually bright, have a job with career opportunities, a supportive partner, etc. I dare say the person living in poverty, with a lack of education and who doesn’t have the skills needed to improve their lot, probably won’t find success.

If you like Derren Brown he also has spoken a lot about this, in one of his books.

He did an entire show on it - about making your own luck and whether there were "lucky" and "unlucky" people. Had a hilarious scene where an self-diagnosed "unlucky" person managed to miss a lorry with a billboard with his name on it drive past him which sort of proved the point.

They also invented a "tradition" to see if peoples belief in luck could actually make a difference.

amazingly it's available in full - someones lucky day !

It's confirmation bias, isn't it?

You think about green cupcakes or whatever and the next time you see a picture of them you think "Wow, amazing, I was just thinking about that and wow here they are on my screen".

But your brain doesn't register the 100,000 other pictures you've already seen which aren't green cupcakes.

I do like the positive outlook side of it, and I think there is a lot to be said for living as though your goals are certainties and making congruent decisions. However I agree with the pp who said it blames people for their own misfortune as well

Absolutely nobody is going to positive think themselves into being a millionaire

Why not? It either works or it doesn't. If I read the book and find out I can't resurrect the dead and create my zombie army, I'll be really disappointed.

Op I know you’re saying it’s just for fun but I really have seen this stuff destroy people’s lives, they become narcissistic, victim blamers and it’s really very unkind.

Come on... do you think the starving kids in Africa don’t want food enough?

Or do you think people who have constant obstacles to overcome like cancer and abuse have brought it on themselves with their negative thinking?

Clearly in the secrets eyes this would be the case and if you can’t accept the bad of something, don’t accept the good either.

So many contradictions.

And yeah, for the £10 note, its pure confirmation bias!
There's no magic powder, I can visualise a giant frog in a pink dress speaking russian in my living-room for hours, it will never happen.

The book itself is quite terrible and a bit too kinda religious for me.
But the deliberate visualisation (which is the same principle without the Universe BS) works very well for goal setting.

I'm also really interested in this. Did you just start by reading the book or is there other sources of information on it?

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/markmanson.net/the-secret/amp

If you like Derren Brown he also has spoken a lot about this, in one of his books.

Read the magic by the same
Author it’s changed my life x

If you think the secret works- please read about confirmation bias.

Oh yeah it works.
It's not some pure magic or whatever. Its just that when you put intention into something, that thing is way more likely to happen because you're gonna make baby steps for this to happen, you're gonna engaged the appropriate behaviours etc...

A year ago, I met a coach with work, I told him about my journal routine.
Told him that when I'm nervous or anxious about something, I write "I'm stressed about this but I know everything will be fine". And as a matter of fact, it's always fine.
Told him that I write that as a sort of wishful thinking, it relaxes me to write it.

Few months later, saw him again, and he gave me that book saying that my journal routine reminded him of it.

He also gave me a little exercise to do, a visualisation exercise, to imagine how I'd like my life to be in 6 to 12 months, how does it look like? How do I feel? Where am I?
Did the exercise for 30 minutes. Just lying down.

What I visualised was me, on a winter morning, before work, in a flat that would be mine, super relaxed, drinking my first coffee of the day, writing in my journal.

Well, since then, I bought my flat (waiting to exchange!) which is uncannily similar to the one I visualised. I was always convinced that I'd buy a purpose built, ended up in a conversion.
Whats happened is that having that making that visualisation exercise drove me somehow to take actions.
I became more focused and deliberate in my personal and professional life, saved money, got promoted, and worked towards that, almost unconsciously.

Recently, I did a similar exercise, more work focused. I was struggling a bit to find what were my career goals, so I took some time to visualise.
Now I have few goals, and somehow, I know that I will achieve most of them.

It's not magic, it's all in the intention.

(Sorry, long 😬)

I've never heard of this! Going to have a look through Google!!

It feels nice because it gives you confidence.

It’s delusional happiness, don’t do it.
It makes you VERY unhappy in the long term.

It effectively blames people’s cancer on their unhappiness to name a few , which is disgusting.

How will you ever be happy if you’re constantly asking and wanting for something?

Are people really that narcissistic they believe in this?

I believe in in too. The difficulty is changing your mindset. I suffer with depression from time to time and it is so difficult to drag yourself from one mental state to another.
But the times that I have practiced this it has happened. Not referring to only financial or materialistic stuff, but the times I've 'manifested' happiness then I truly felt a sense of peace.

I think there’s a lot tied up in believing something will happen helping to make it happen. It channels your focus and motivation into that thing and possibly allows you to consider opportunities or ideas you hadn’t before. It also pushes you to keep going with things rather than giving up because you don’t think it’s possible, and persistence is a huge aspect of success.

Absolutely nobody is going to positive think themselves into being a millionaire, but maybe their focus will allow them to clear debts and invest wisely or think about money differently.

I think most people are capable of more than they think they are.

It's worked for me before. I should look back into this.

I believe.
Whether it’s really works or a self fulfilling prophecy giving you confidence I don’t know. I have wished for a group of friends, move to a very specific location out of our price range, dream school for the kids and a very niche job for me all of which has happened:)

Totally love it, Worked for me!

Is this like the cosmic ordering thing Noel Edmonds was talking about a while ago?

I live my life this way. The book is good. Dh is currently rereading it.