The Secret

[Stackys]

AIBU to give “the secret” any thought?

I toyed with it years ago. Asked “the universe” for a £10 note. Walking through York the night after, found a wet soggy £10 note on the floor in a graveyard.

Played with it again a few weeks later. Asked the universe for a red balloon. Immediately afterwards I put YouTube on to listen to some music and the first recommended video was a song called something like “10 red balloons”. I’d never heard of the song before.

When I was a child, before I knew of “the secret” we were moving house and I desperately wanted a garden with steps in it. That would have been highly unusual in this area but I kept on thinking about it obsessively. The house we moved to had steps in the garden (the only house in the whole street that did).

My friend goes on about the secret all the time, I put all my “successes” down to coincidence as the alternative sounds batshit but some people truly believe it works, intelligent people!!

I watched the movie yesterday and I’ve decided I want £50k in my bank by New Year’s Eve 😂 ironically DH said to me this morning “we have nearly x amount in bank! The most we’ve ever had!” (Nowhere near £50k) ... maybe it’s already working lol

This is of course lighthearted but I’d be interested to hear other people’s experiences of it?! Please don’t turn it into a “you’re a fucking imbecile OP” type thread, it’s just for fun.

I was replying to UnaCorda

At least one of the ‘teachers’ involved in the original The Secret doc, James Arthur Ray, was imprisoned due to negligent homicide of 3 of his followers. Other cases came to light where participants in his seminars were badly injured and one committed suicide. There’s a good podcast about it called Guru: The Dark Side of Enlightenment. Safe to say, I think he was full of shit and only in it for the money...

If it worked Trump would not be president. And if Trump gets to be president again, you can be damned sure it doesn't work

Well if Trump wanted to be President and manoeuvred himself into a position where he could be President then what is to say it didn’t work

I have only ever used cosmic ordering on finding a parking space.
It could all be coincidence. When we go somewhere and know it is busy then we cosmic order a parking space close to where we need to be on the way and one is always waiting for us in the exact spot we want to be.

We drove into Gibraltar and wanted to park up to go on the Cable cars. We drove around the town and parking area by the cable cars a few times. Then I suddenly remembered about cosmic ordering.

We cosmic ordered a parking spot in the parking area and then drove there and one had just become free. As we drove in a guy drove out.

It could be all coincidence but when we haven’t used it we have taken an hour sometimes to get a spot to park but when we have used it then the parking spot has been waiting for us

An American friend who loves self help books bought me this when I was diagnosed with cancer ten years ago. I thought it was BS.

ZaraW Blimey, what an insensitive friend.

@BottomOfMyPencilCase

True But what if the £10 was always lying there but they only noticed it after they put it on their wish list

It's still a coincidence that it was lying somewhere they happened to pass, and that they had "asked the universe" (please imagine my massive eyeroll at this point) for a tenner before going wherever it was.

Someone said that the universe doesn't care about you. Spiritual teachers say that the human brain and consciousness is the universe manifesting consciousness of itself. We are the universe looking at itself. Sound very woo, I know.

I said the universe can't care about what we think, as in it doesn't have the capacity to do so, and even by this definition, the universe can't care separately from the individual.

By our current estimates, 70% of the universe is 'dark energy' which might interact with 'normal' baryonic matter by accelerating the expansion of the universe but we're not entirely sure, about 25% is 'dark matter' which doesn't interact with normal matter but might have a gravitational pull, and the rest is the matter/energy we know. So, yeah, we cynics can argue with the theory that the universe is all just vibrational energy, it would be lovely if normal energy was the simple, never mind the rest of it, but it's a lot more complicated than that. At least in the ongoing science on the topic which recently has involved some scientists thinking dark energy/matter is an out of date and inaccurate term, but there is little consensus on an alternative.

@unacorda yes

WinterIsGone I know. She thought I would love it. I was too polite to say otherwise. As far as I remember it said something about you won't get cancer if you think positive thoughts (not 100% sure if it was that book as I was going through chemo and my memory was bad) but I'm one of life's cynics and I hated it. Nearly as bad as Eat, Love , Pray which another friend thought I would like. They were wrong.

I keep trying to manifest a dead person (who is reported to be dead anyway). Occasionally he pops up top of an Instagram post or I pass his portrait in the front window of an art gallery in town. But I think the illusion is probably better than the reality anyway. I even had a dream about him a few weeks ago. I am married by the way and my fantasizing has caused rows and arguments.

@Jellybeansincognito

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?

This. It's utter woo and a tool used by cults to brainwash the minions. No amount of dreaming makes something happen; I'm still waiting on a life changing lottery win.

Positive thinking is one thing, but The Secret is narcissistic cow excrement.

I'm one of life's cynics and I hated it

@ZaraW, you really don;t have to be 'one of life's cynics' to find a violently offensive book that specifically says you caused your own cancer and if you don't heal yourself it's because of lack of targeted positive thinking. It's a sign you're a normal, rational human being with an average amount of human empathy.

I want to bring something in to my life so I started reading my copy again yesterday, I am taking this thread as affirmation that I am on the right track. Thank you 😊

Off topic but wow who are you trying to resurrect @lonelyfemale?

I think it 'works' - up to a point: where you understand you get what you need rather than what you want. As long as those two things are in sync, that's dandy. But if they're not, then there can often be a conflict between desire and reality.

@Jellybeansincognito

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

exactly. I know two people who read this book and followed it to the letter.

didn't really work. one of them whom I was on holiday made a slight idiot of herself by asking out a total player bar/waiter guy, because based on The Secret etc rules...

@Therollickingrogue. Prince.

I can't believe so many people fall for this BS.

As one review states

In my opinion, this whole premise is misguided. It’s an anesthetic for one’s pain, not a remedy. Books like The Secret are like McDonald’s for the mind. They’re easy and make you feel good, but they also make you mentally fat and lazy, and emotionally, you die a much more painful death.

SaintofBats thank you.

"This reminds me of all that younique law of attraction stuff -"

Younique!! Love it!!

@lonelyfemale

I keep trying to manifest a dead person (who is reported to be dead anyway). Occasionally he pops up top of an Instagram post or I pass his portrait in the front window of an art gallery in town. But I think the illusion is probably better than the reality anyway. I even had a dream about him a few weeks ago. I am married by the way and my fantasizing has caused rows and arguments.

What? You're trying to bring a dead person back to life by using positive thinking?

@ZaraW. I think it works by bringing people minds back a bit to what is actually in the world; the opportunities, resources, etc that are in front of us. I think when we are unhappy or depressed we stop seeing these things or the little steps that lead us to them. The book taps into that sense of panic we have and reassured us that we can let go and trust. We let go but it’s the panic and fear and frustration we are letting go of and we can see what has always been there. It’s psychology and it works to a degree on simpler things but as people have pointed out how does that explain death and illness particularly of a child? It appeals due to its simplicity it I think the truth is more complex and as someone mentioned involves stoicism and other more substantial qualities.

I have read the book op and do believe in it in the sense that it focuses your mind to make those things happen. But I couldn't watch the documentary film thing bored the hell out of me, too woo and they all just kept repeating the same stuff.

I would say it worked, a few years ago I could never save anything but now I have healthy savings and it is ongoing with set goals for each one. I am now studying what I wanted to study, went from no qualifications to studying at university. These things I did but it all took baby steps to achieve and some hick ups to realise them.

The book taps into the fact that there is one born every bloody minute!

Isn't this known as 'priviledge'?

Accompanied by 'luck'?

When I look through mine and DH's family tree, whats most interesting is how the opportunities and lifestyle of the family changes (usually for several generations) following a single incident of misfortune. Like a husband dying early, leaving the wife in poverty.

Yes, there's that word. Poverty.