The Dark Side of 'The Secret'

[Anders]

Where I live, 'The Secret' is the latest fad and I happen to know many people, who think I should watch it. Fortunately I have been immunised and see it as the latest New Age cargocult, a term which I have defined in this other thread on the subject: The New Age ‘Enlightenment Business’ – Western style Cargo cults

"The Secret" appears also very similar to a movement called 'Avatar', that was the craze in some of the circles that I was around 10 years ago. It was an expensive program, that promised to make you an avatar, so that you could create your own reality and be whatever you wanted to be.
The key was belief. Create the beliefs that would create your reality and 'discreate' the beliefs that was hindering you getting it. After people had done the initial course and without results then, they could go on to the next and so on. Each time forking out Megadollars.

This system was built on the pyramid selling scheme like Amway, so that everyone would share the booty of the money of a newcomer in proportion to their position on the hierarchical ladder. The url to this scam is here http:(doubleslash)www(dot)avatarepc.com/html/whatis.html
A perfect example of a STS feeding hierarchy.

Anders

 

[Renaissance]

Well, I have read each of the posts here and being new to the site, haven't read any of the past discussions on the 'The Secret'. I just wanted to share my story. I had always been skeptical and even outspoken against New Age religions and Eastern Mysticism since my upbringing taught me these ways of faith were opposite of what the 'Holy Bible' has taught.

It’s not clear if you think the forum members here are skeptical or outspoken against New Age dogma because of our ‘beliefs.’ From your post, it seems as though that’s what your saying. There is a big difference between someone being outspoken against another’s belief because it conflicts with their own beliefs and between speaking against such because of knowledge. Most members here are speaking about knowledge. In changing from Evangelical Christianity to New Age, you’ve changed the things you believe in - from what you’ve written, I have to wonder if anything internal has changed at all. The two lifestyles really aren't that different. Here we work for knowing, not believing. Knowing takes work, and through such many have gained an understanding of why ‘The Secret’ and ‘believing’ are destructive.

A few years ago I would have turned and ran screaming 'get back, Devil', but I was so ready and open for this new way of thinking that I can only express gratitude to my sister-in-law (and the universe) for guiding me.

It is not a new way of thinking. It's not thinking at all. It's believing. Only those who 'believe' would want to turn and run screaming ‘get back, Devil’ - those who want to know face whatever it is to understand it. And only those who 'believe' would feel gratitude for someone else guiding them. Those who want knowledge work to guide themselves.

She had not yet watched 'The Secret', but a friend gave her a copy of the movie and we watched it together. It was my first exposure to the Law of Attraction as it was presented in the DVD. What made the difference for me is that we also watched 'What the Bleep Do We Know' and it all seemed to fall together for me. Now, I agree with those who say that the Law of Attraction is misused when it preaches more money, wealth, fame for the asker, but I cannot deny that this Law has been working hard to bring me into an awareness of my Spirit Being.

It may indeed be strengthening your ‘Spirit Being’ but a good question to ask would be is "what nature is this ‘Spirit Being’?" Even if we leave out using ‘the law of attraction’ for money, wealth, fame etc, it is a completely self centered and lazy ideology. There is no effort - only what you want, and everyone believing that what they want is best for the world. Honestly, this sick stuff makes me want to vomit. So yeah, it may be strengthening your ‘Spirit Being’ but all while it feels all warm and fuzzy your missing the truth of reality: this ‘Spirit Being’ is actually ‘Spirit Non-Being’. I don’t expect you to accept everything I say and I sure hope you don’t believe me. If you're really interested in what that feeling of emptiness is, it can never be truly satisfied with beliefs - only with knowledge. And for that you’ve got a lot of reading to do. A good starting place might be with the Wave or Adventure series which you can find on the site map.

 

[Alana]

I would recommend to those who haven't to read SOTT's excellent expose: Spiritual Predator: Prem Rawat AKA Maharaji because it touches on many issues raised in this thread, and it makes a good distinction between what Real Work consists of compared to all the fake promotions out there.

 

[Anders]

Another recommended thing to read is the Adventure series. In chapter 17 Laura speaks about this specific thing of positive thinking.

http://www.cassiopaea.com/cassiopaea/adventures124.htm

And so we have a few more clues. We have some idea that our reality is something of a stage upon which the dramas of 4th density are projected. In short, it seems evident that the energies of Creation emanate "downward," and our individuality as human beings is merely an expression of these Theological Dramas. To attempt to exert our will or to make our voice travel "upward," against Creation results only in the strengthening of the forces that violate Free Will, because it is, in essence, an attempt to violate the Free Will of Creation. This is why praying, rituals designed to "change" reality, "positive thinking" with the "intent" to change something "up there," in order to receive the benefits "down here," is always doomed to produce more strife, misery and suffering.

 

[Ruth]

actually , my point was to inspire you a bit towards spirituality , and sadly i failed.

Gee.... "spirituality = imagination and wishful thinking". Where have I heard THAT before? :D

 

[JGeropoulas]

Another recommended thing to read is the Adventure series. In chapter 17 Laura speaks about this specific thing of positive thinking.

http://www.cassiopaea.com/cassiopaea/adventures124.htm

And so we have a few more clues. We have some idea that our reality is something of a stage upon which the dramas of 4th density are projected. In short, it seems evident that the energies of Creation emanate "downward," and our individuality as human beings is merely an expression of these Theological Dramas. To attempt to exert our will or to make our voice travel "upward," against Creation results only in the strengthening of the forces that violate Free Will, because it is, in essence, an attempt to violate the Free Will of Creation. This is why praying, rituals designed to "change" reality, "positive thinking" with the "intent" to change something "up there," in order to receive the benefits "down here," is always doomed to produce more strife, misery and suffering.

Thanks for quoting this. I remembered it recently while reflecting on the "The Secret" and had just begun trying to locate it. Since originally reading it a year ago, I've read "Power Vs. Force" by David Hawkins (which I found extremely congruent with the C's ideas).

That "up there...down here" discussion in the above quote reminds me of one of Hawkins' central ideas in "Power Vs. Force." He writes that "Power" lifts [i.e. STO], while "Force" pushes [i.e. STS]; power emanates from within, while force acts from the outside; power is an "infinite, immoveable field," (e.g. gravity), while force is "a limited, temporary action" (e.g. dropping a ball) within that field; power expands, while force constricts.

 

[Rhansen]

Wow, two threads on this book. I just came across it today as my dad is currently reading it. I skimmed through it and came to the conclusion that it was a bunch of YCYOR nonsense. I'll wait until dad is done reading it to ask him what he thinks of the material, hopefully he isn't duped by it.

 

[name]

@ Adam:
- what is "positive thinking" ?
- what are "negative thoughts" ?

could you please explain both concepts in more detail ?

 

[Bo]

@ Adam:
- what is "positive thinking" ?
- what are "negative thoughts" ?

could you please explain both concepts in more detail ?

This thread was 3 months old, I already found out that the secret was an illusion when I read the article which Joe posted, the problem with the secret is , that it is like a virus which is spreading so fast and infecting so many people who are trying to search for ''something'' .

If someone tells you ''hey you are an idiot! a loser!'' then one person will get negative thought about himself, but the problem is that the invidual is not thinking about the fact where those feelings are coming from, and is feeding the STS forces like that, but when you just stay yourself and be happy with who you are, instead of wasting your energy to negative thoughts all the time, but one must also never forget the pain which earth is going trough and all the innocent people.

Positive thinking is most often an illusion aswell it is the same as lying to yourself, for example telling yourself ''í dont have to worry about anything , it will all work out'' but if you change the positive thinking into faith for your goal then you are, I think walking in the right direction in trying to become your trueself, but who knows there are possibilities within possibilities.

but the bottomline is that this is all part of the 3D we live in , we are not here to change the world but to understand the lessons of it, maybe change to some extend, but most important to understand the lessons of it

 

[Z...]

-This thread was 3 months old, I already found out that the secret was an illusion when I read the article which Joe posted, the problem with the secret is , that it is like a virus which is spreading so fast and infecting so many people who are trying to search for ''something'' .

well the Secret has made it to my island and local new age freaks are already heavily promoting it,
I was invited to the friend's house week a ago were we were supposed to watch this movie.
It was an amusing experience - at times hilarious.
I dont know where to begin, from the speakers (especially reverend Feelgood or the Feng-Shui practitioner ) or maybe the Da Vincci Code style in which "The Secret" was presented.
The bigest red flag was the premise that you will make problems go away by ignoring them, cuz supposedly you give them energy if by focusing on them.
IMO very dangerous logic

 

[Bholanath]

Received this a couple years ago, couldn't resist. Please, no offence.


Personal Growth

I was having an out-of-body experience and almost astral-traveled away yesterday, so I grounded myself and got centered with the help of my spirit guides and then the phone rang, and sensing the negative vibrations, I threw the I-Ching and checked my numerology chart, nearly having a primal, but my energy was too blocked.

So I did some bioenergetics and self-parenting, took some flower essences and ate an organic oat bran ginseng muffin, but my inner child wasn't feeling nurtured yet. To fix this, I had a Rice Dream Frozen Pie, which, of course, made me hyper, so I did the relaxation response technique I had just learned at the Self Healing Angst Tree Defoliating Center while listening to my subliminal tapes.

But that left me feeling depersonalized, so I did some polarity work, foot reflexology and past life regression, then rebirthed myself and called Moon Beam, my body worker, to make an appointment for a Shiatsu/ Reike/ Rolfing/Feldenkreis/ Swedish/ Japanese deep tissue massage. Unfortunately, she flaked out and never returned my call, so I decided to energize my aura and do some positive imagery because all my visualization techniques and affirmations made my space feel invaded.

So to get empowered, I got a psychic reading from Mother Heart Love around the issue of my assertiveness so I could feel my radiance and have some energy for my psycho calisthenics and inversion swing before my harmonic brain wave synergy session. This made me more focused for my actualization seminar, holistic healing class and dream workshop, which in turn, made me clearer for my Gestalt behavioral cognitive transpersonal Rechian- Jungian-Freudian- Ericksonian session at the hot springs, but my aura was too weak for my trance channeling group, so I fasted until noon to recharge my chakras.

At that point, I sensed my intuition was high and my cycle was focused, so I turned on my ion generator to open up for my Neural Linguistic Programming session. But I needed to have my pyramid recharged before my guided synchronicity meditation, so I got some craniosacral therapy, which aligned me for the fire walk between my tarot card reading and my sensory deprivation tank appointment.

But even after all that, I felt what I truly needed was a meaningful relationship to mirror myself, so I went to my personal shaman, and then to my guru, but they were no help, so instead I went to the Intensive Whole Life Earth Rebirth Cosmic Expo Symposium Workshop to find someone who really knew what was going on.

That didn't help either, so I locked myself in a calcium-coated Orgone Box and meditated until 9 p.m..

None of it really worked for me, so I rolled me a big fat doobie, got baked and drank a six pack of Young's Chocolate Stout -- and dude, did I feel right with the world!


_____________________________________________________________
We live in a Foolish paradox, for while we have forever, we don't have much time. - old Fool

 

[PopHistorian]

Here is a book that is yet another, similar twist on the secrets of "successful" people, called The Power of Ritual Prayer. I find it interesting that the advertisement starts off by claiming that it is the secret of powerful groups of evil people, then segues into how you can use it for yourself "to obtain protection and favors."

_http://www.republicbroadcasting.org/index.php?cmd=sec&pg=prp

(This text is also an audio commercial running on, at least, RBN radio.)

It is through the use of ritual that evil gets power. What do you think those people do at the Bohemian Grove? It is ritual. They gather and perform ritual with evil intent. The More vile the ritual the greater the evil that comes from it. This is done to spread their evil influence and control over our lives. Legend has it that the Knights Templar found the Holy Grail and it was this that made them so powerful. Can we really believe that they found the Holy Grail in their dig at the Temple of Solomon? What they most likely found was the occult knowledge of the greatest magician of all, Solomon. This is what turned the Templars from monks into masons. We, ordinary people can use these same principals and empower ourselves to obtain protection and favors. The Bible is loaded with examples of how ritual was used by prophet and angel. Ritual prayer is an effective way of getting results. We can use it to bring positive results to one's family, community and even nation.

For more information and ordering on the book “The Power of Ritual Prayer”, call [...]

I find it astounding that the author's name, John Mullaney, plus the book title turn up zero hits on every search engine tried. I did get a hit for an RBN radio show on which this guy was a guest talking about "ritual prayer" and "what exactly is done to promote goodness to those who deserve it." _http://arc.republicbroadcasting.org/Adams/07/08/Adams_081407_210000.MP3

 

[Laura]

No hits? That must mean he's a brand new agent! And he got his start on RBN!!!

 

[OzRich]

You can decide what you want and what you don't want, correct? there is actually a lot of true stuff in this story, I hope you will watch it and try it for yourself, because positive thinking brings a lot of happiness in your life.

Just a quote from someone who has done LOTS of thinking:

There is a danger. One has to beware of it. The danger of a happy life.

 

[Renaissance]

You can decide what you want and what you don't want, correct? there is actually a lot of true stuff in this story, I hope you will watch it and try it for yourself, because positive thinking brings a lot of happiness in your life.

Just a quote from someone who has done LOTS of thinking:

There is a danger. One has to beware of it. The danger of a happy life.

FWIW, Adam has been able to see why his quote you brought isn't really thinking (or positive for that matter). Later on in the thread he wrote:

Wow thanks a lot for the help and the article , it really opened my eyes about that matter... and it also makes me very angry that they spread such lies