The Secret - a review
"It is about manipulation and going after people who are drawn by the narcissism of the messages and methods who then go on to feed on vulnerable people looking for help. It is also about inability to use critical thinking skills when very vulnerable, and techniques that deliberately turn off critical thinking, and manipulating outcomes of programs and products based on what is known about human nature.
The difference is in the delivery (covert and even overt manipulation, emotional abuse, mis-use of hypnosis, NLP, etc. vs a trained person who knows how to guide a client using sound methods, respect, and then not berating them for not "getting it", not wanting to get it because they don't want to do the preposterous, not being coachable, etc.) and the ability of the person doing the delivery - one who is professional with credentials, skill, empathy, accountability, who is not on a power trip, to not allow a dissociation crisis, which is the biggest complaint to psychologists, when it comes to LGATs like Landmark.
On the surface, on their websites and literature, phrases like running a racket, reacting to our engrams, all seem benign and just a different way of stating the familiar. With Landmark, they are not saying you are a product of your experience, but rather, you are an idiot for being affected by your experiences. If you have had a great life, and many people have, they still tell you you are an idiot because you just don't see how you could be even better (with their help) and that you are running a racket by being happy. These organizations are driven by deceit (proven science!), making a huge profit, and not in guiding people along a path to improvement but rather to conforming with their agenda. Organizations like Landmark, and those that produce and sell media like The Secret and What the bleep... are using the same tactics any abusers use - love-bombing, berating whether implied or overt, breaking down of broundaries quickly, especially in LGATs like Landmark to force depersonalization and at the very least, dissociation, so that they can save you with more of their products. There is very circular reasoning, which is intentional - it throws the client off guard and balance so that they believe they are not understanding. Throwing around science, and the quantum physics they are using is quite complex and has nothing to do with thoughts, sounds authoritative, state of the art, and yet it isn't. There is no science proving any part of anything in The Secret or What the Bleep...
They do use real science in their delivery. Many of the exercises, descriptions, re-phrasing, thought-stopping comments, knowledge of normal critical thinking so diffuse it, pace of the program, room set up, use of shills (even Oprah did this to market The Secret because it doesn't sell itself) and the itinerary, do affect parts of the brain, so as to temporarily replace beliefs with ideas that seem like something new has been learned, so as to manipulate emotions (everyone leaves on a high after Landmark Forum whether you were very skeptical or not, didn't participate in the sharing, didn't really believe the material), or after the Secret. Centerpointe Awakening\HoloSync uses techniques to get different brain waves active and then tells the client that they are experiencing healing. When the highs wear off and the LOA hasn't attracted what you want, what does that mean?
One doesn't need to spend $375 for a weekend at Landmark Forum (the first class in many), or $30 on The Secret (which has no secret and can be viewed for free online) to learn they have issues. And that is not what they are selling. some of the most positive, smart, funny, intelligent people on the planet. If this was all that was needed, and it worked, everyone here would have fixed their relationships and called up their abusers and told them they were running a racket ON THEM and would have APOLOGIZED TO THEIR ABUSERS. According to, at least Landmark, once you do that, the relationship magically changes. According to The Secret, your thoughts, based on quantum physics, that you are in an abusive relationship are vibrations that are just the same vibrations as abusive relationships, but if you re-think you are not in an abusive relationship, then you get the other vibrations that don't involve abuse. It is mind-boggling to have heard so many Secretons explain this to me when I asked why is the power of positive thinking a secret.
In A's case, her racket\payoff is claiming her children keep her in her marriage. Since those circumstances make A unhappy (her marriage doesn't feel good), the remedy would be for A to leave, despite the safety and wellbeing of her and her children. A's payoff is suffering, though having been through Landmark and landmarkian therapy and having spent time studying their techniques, these organizations would authoriatively interpret A's reason as suspect - like getting satisfaction out of making her H miserable by staying and using the kids as an excuse. The Secret would say that A is attracting suffering because of her thought vibrations, and if she changes her thoughts, her situation fixes itself. A person in a Secret discussion group, when pressed about child abuse, for instance, someone molesting an infant, had a very difficult time explaining in terms of LOA, but then went into a convoluted explanation of bad karma and then how others attracted that for the infant. My God! Think about that one and how it applies to you.
All these products have in common, not freedom from codependence or doing what makes you happy, but mostly in self-indulgence even at the expense of others. In the book, The Secret, Byrne's mantra is If It Feels Good, It Is Good. When you apply that to, say, a pedophile, how does that feel? That makes me a bit uncomfortable, but here is where The Secret|LGATs keeps going. I have chosen the discomfort vibration (Secret). I have given pedophilia meaning (I think it is bad) by choice when it is neither. I'm giving it meaning, either by LGAT criteria. Your suffering is not bad nor good - you are making it up that you are suffering (your racket and\or choosing the suffering vibrations instead of ones that are not). Their abuse of you is neither bad nor good because there is no meaning other than what we give it. Oh, and there are no victims based on all this. Even 9-11 victims blasted out of their office seats. One Secreton said it was because they were working in the towers of materialism. Another said America's global policies brought it on. So much for science.
I've been to a couple of Secret discussion groups and have contacted some of the people that worked on these projects. One guy believes his recent bout with major computer problems and appendicitis came not because he was attracting these directly but because he wanted to provide an example for everyone who wanted to know if people who produced the Secret get sick and why. He claimed his suffering came so he could overcome them.
That means people get what others attract .... (9-11, Holocaust, Secret writer's appendicitis). This is the kind of crap that lies beneath the surface of what many people believe is a message about positive thinking. It has nothing to do with working towards a goal, but rather regressive, childlike, magical thinking, bewitched
The people who open up shop as spiritual advisors and who run large group awareness trainings know damn well that their products seem to work only as long as you are buying and\or attending. They don't want and actually dissuade critical thinking.
Multi-level marketing comes to mind, with much wealth at the top, struggling followers below, new and improved products to follow."
The Secret of Positive Thinking .....
As in abusive relationships, control is a critical issue. When one party starts regulating the behaviour of another, there is a real danger.
I consider it a great concern, for those whose inability to use critical thinking skills when they are vulnerable, regarding the techniques that deliberately turn off critical thinking, by the use of manipulating outcomes of programs and products based on what is known about human nature.
What do you mean by Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking can be seen as having two components:
1) a set of information and belief generating and processing skills,
and 2) the habit, based on intellectual commitment, of using those skills to guide behavior.
...... It is thus to be contrasted with:
1) the mere acquisition and retention of information alone, because it involves a particular way in which information is sought and treated;
2) the mere possession of a set of skills, because it involves the continual use of them;
and 3) the mere use of those skills ("as an exercise") without acceptance of their results.
What about thinking positively?
I believe in thinking positively, but, not to the exclusion of critical thinking in the first instance.
