Mitt Romney's "Secret"

[PopHistorian]

Cited a bunch of times in the press now, Mitt Romney grew up on Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, a Secret-like self-help book from 1937 that cites the power of the magnetic forces of thought, and all the usual stuff.

It's cited in a bunch of places: _http://thiscanadian.typepad.com/this_canadian/2007/07/the-life-of-rom.html

...in those days, his [Romney's] favorite book was a 1937 self-help guide called Think and Grow Rich! ...

_http://blogs.forbes.com/digitalrules/2007/10/the-american-dr.html

According to McBride, one of the most important reading assignments Romney had as a missionary was the 1937 best-seller “Think and Grow Rich,” by Napoleon Hill. Hill, the Stephen Covey of his era, essentially invented the personal-success genre, and his advice about the importance of persistence and organized planning would have been particularly useful to an American Mormon trying to convert French Catholics. During a visit to Romney’s mission, Howard W. Hunter, a member of the Church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles and later the president of the Church, advised Romney and his colleagues to study Hill’s book.

The book itself is here: _http://www.directyourmind.com/tgr/ThinkAndGrowRich.pdf

- harness the awesome mental magic of your mind and transform your dreams into reality. [...]
− stimulate your mind to create and attract success to you.
− access “Infinite Intelligence” to help you make better decisions.
− realize that there are no limitations to what you can accomplish.

[...]

THOUGHTS WHICH ARE MIXED WITH ANY OF THE FEELINGS OF EMOTIONS, CONSTITUTE A "MAGNETIC" FORCE WHICH ATTRACTS, FROM THE VIBRATIONS OF THE ETHER, OTHER SIMILAR, OR RELATED THOUGHTS. A thought thus "magnetized" with emotion may be compared to a seed which, when planted in fertile soil, germinates, grows, and multiplies itself over and over again, until that which was originally one small seed, becomes countless millions of seeds of the SAME BRAND!

The ether is a great cosmic mass of eternal forces of vibration. It is made up of both destructive vibrations and constructive vibrations. [...]

From the great storehouse of the ether, the human mind is constantly attracting vibrations which harmonize with that which DOMINATES the human mind.

[...]

TRULY, "thoughts are things," and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a BURNING DESIRE for their translation into riches, or other material objects.

_http://www.sacred-texts.com/nth/tgr/index.htm

Towards the end of the book he steps off a precipice and ventures into some very esoteric territory. He discusses harnessing Kundalini energy, manifesting psychic powers such as telepathy, tapping into higher consciousness, and getting in touch with the great minds of history, although, again, he is not too specific about how to accomplish these feats.

The book uses business tycoons as examples, like Henry Ford and Charles Schwab. I think Romney's ruthless behavior and promotion of violence proves that mere knowledge of esoteric principles doesn't make one a "better" person.

 

[Nawd]

This book's idea reminds me much of a quote I heard one of those 'The Secret' people said, perhaps in the movie itself, or one of the people promoting it. It was something to the effect of; 'this secret is something that successful/wealthy people have always internally known, so they find it strange that everyone else doesn't know 'it.' '
I wish I had a link to show for this quote, I will try to find it. I think it was on television however.

That has to mean something. If someone grows up in conditions that they don't like and they set forth to get all of that extra stuff that they think they 'need,' then they draw it towards themselves?

I'm not sure what to make of it all. It's never clicked with me as something 'good.' Just some idea that particular people share or set forth to, at an early age, without regard to the hows and more importantly, the whys.

It's very 'temptation of the Christ' to me.

It seems in my personal corner of the world, that things that I actually NEEDED in my life, food wise, shelter wise, knowledge wise, came about because of my needs. But 'wants' have always been something separate. Something that wasn't to be added to the list of survival needs. Perhaps some of these people are almost tricking the force of something-or-another, from NEED to want by adding emotion. Just a theory.

That in my opinion is utter true STS in action.

 

[Nawd]

Tried to make a context edit and quoted my previous quote. Opps.

 

[PopHistorian]

Interesting, Nawd. Indeed, it is the "whys" that matter -- the intent and motivation behind the use of any will or power.