An introduction to 'The Secret'

An introduction to 'The Secret'

Marla Hardee Milling

Do you know The Secret? Chances are you've heard of it by now -- in mid February 2007, "The Secret" was the top-selling DVD on Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com, while its companion book hit the number one spot on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. For a movie that was independently released and sold only online, it's received a great deal of media hype, having been featured on Oprah, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Larry King Live and in countless other media outlets.

For those wondering what the big "Secret" is, let us clue you in: It's essentially the Law of Attraction, a universal law that says "like attracts like." More specifically, it's based on thoughts and emotions: What we focus on is what we create in our lives.

But The Secret producer Rhonda Byrne is hardly the first to embrace this ideology.
Some of the greatest minds of our time have understood it.

"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." - Albert Einstein

"Whether you think you can or you can't, either way you are right." - Henry Ford

"You create your own universe as you go along." - Winston Churchill

"All we have is a result of what we have thought." - Buddha

As The Secret points out, throughout history the greatest thinkers and achievers knew how to apply the Law of Attraction in their lives. In addition to those quoted above, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Ralph Waldo Emerson -- to name just a few -- were said to have implemented this credo into their everyday lives.
That doesn't necessarily mean they knew how it worked, though. As Alexander Graham Bell said, "What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists."

Everything is made of energy. That's not a metaphysical philosophy -- it is scientific fact. At the atomic level, you can see it. On a soul level, that's all we are.

You can create wealth, harmonious relationships, strong health, and anything else your heart desires. But here's the tricky part. This is not some "get rich quick" scheme, or some type of cult that brainwashes people into "feeling good." The Secret is not an organization or a charity -- it's simply the vehicle Byrne uses to present the universal Law of Attraction to a larger audience.

When Rhonda Byrne discovered the Law of Attraction, she found the teachers she was seeking to present this ancient principle to the world in the members of the Transformational Leadership Council founded by Chicken Soup for the Soul author Jack Canfield.

While many of people featured on the movie The Secret have strong spiritual beliefs, the Law of Attraction is not religion-based. In simplest terms, it's about believing in yourself and aligning your thoughts and beliefs with your greatest desires. However, the Law of Attraction is complementary to a wide range of religious beliefs. As Michael Beckwith pointed out on Oprah, Jesus said, 'Pray believing that ye have that ye may receive.' Says Beckwith, "That's 'The Secret' in a nutshell."

James Ray agrees. He says The Secret is about supporting the great spiritual traditions in a more modern form. "It really is just putting Christianity, Judaism, all the great teachings into a current vernacular," says Ray.

Along with Beckwith and Ray, other teachers featured in the movie include Jack Canfield, Lisa Nichols, Bob Proctor, and John Assaraf. (Esther Hicks appeared in the first edition of the movie, it is now a collector's item.)

Oprah said on her program that she's been living "The Secret" for years, but she didn't know it was a secret. In fact, all of us are living "The Secret," whether we're aware of it or not. By the Law of Attraction, we are constantly drawing into our lives good experiences or bad experiences, based on what we are focusing our attention on.

Everything is energy, as proven by Quantum Physics. Our bodies, our cars, our possessions -- everything is vibrating on a certain frequency. Likewise, as practitioners of The Secret point out, our thoughts are also things that carry an energetic frequency. Our thoughts become like magnets, drawing back into our experience those things that vibrate at the same frequency.

The Law of Attraction is based on what you are thinking and what your beliefs are. It's as real as the Law of Gravity. We know if we throw an apple into the air, it's going to come down. Likewise, if we concentrate on negative thoughts, we're going to draw negative circumstances into our lives. Transform your thoughts and you'll transform your world.

It's not necessarily easy, though, to replace thoughts that have been ingrained in our minds – some since childhood. There's some hard individual work ahead -- you have to identify those negative thought patterns that have been building throughout your life and work to replace them with more positive patterns.

Lisa Braun Dubbels, who told of her success with the Law of Attraction on Oprah's follow-up show on The Secret, which aired Friday, February 16, 2007, told us recently, "It's not an overnight process.

"I read hundreds of books," she continues. "I was trying to get into a place where I was emotionally healthy again. At first I was pretty skeptical. But I was in a situation where I was struggling in every area of my life. The more you struggle, the harder it gets for you. When I allowed myself to believe it could work, that's when it became easy to me."

Dubbels said at the time she began searching for a way to turn her life around, everything that bottomed out. She'd left her job, which she considered her identity, and no longer knew who she was. She faced incredible debt, the lack of a relationship, and was told by doctors that she had an incompetent cervix and most likely would never have children. But she says she did a lot of inner work and focused on changing her negative beliefs.

"A lot of good things happened when I put the Law of Attraction into place," she explains. "I put in a lot of work on myself so I could be grateful for what I received. You can manifest change, but you have to be prepared to do the action to see it through. Every day I'm so grateful for the life I have. I have financial freedom, an amazing husband and two wonderful children, and a house I love."

Here are some ways to reprogram your mind:

• Decide what you really want – Many people aren't satisfied with the current state of their lives, but they often have a hard time pinpointing what they really want. It's easy to say what you don't want. "I don't want all this debt." "I don't want to be lonely anymore." "I don't want to be overweight." But thinking in the negative – or concentrating on what you don't want, actually creates more of what you don't want. What we put our attention on grows. When you are thinking "debt" or "overweight," that's what you are concentrating on and what you are actually creating more of.
  It's important to stop thinking about what you don't want.
  

  Here's a profound example to further illustrate this point:
  

  Mother Theresa was once asked why she never participated in anti-war demonstrations. She replied, "I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there." She clearly understood the power of intention and attention. She recognized that an anti-war demonstration with hundreds or thousands of people focusing their energy on ending the war would still be focused on the war. And that focused energy would contribute to the continuation of the war. - from Evolving Times
  

  
  

  
  

• Shift your inner dialogue: Go ahead and make a list of all those things that you don't want, or you feel are lacking in your life. Now, turn the phrase around to what you DO want. Instead of thinking, "I'm drowning in debt," think "I am creating financial success for myself." Instead of dwelling on being overweight, think "I am taking care of my body, eating right, exercising and attaining my desired weight." Develop specific affirmations to reinforce what you want in your life.
  

  
  

• Visualization – Spend some time each day picturing exactly what you want in your mind's eye. In his book, The Success Principles, Jack Canfield says, "The process of visualizing for success is really quite simple. All you have to do is close your eyes
  and see your goals as already complete. If one of your objectives is to own a nice house on the lake, then close your eyes and see yourself walking through the exact house you would like to own. Fill in all of the details...
  This goes for any goal you make – whether it's in the area of work, play, family, personal finances, relationships or philanthropy. Write down each of your goals and objectives, then review them, affirm them, and visualize them every day.
  

  
  

• Let your emotions guide you: If a certain thought makes you feel bad in any way, then you're not on track. You must become aware of thoughts that make you feel bad, and work to shift those thoughts so that you can feel good. When your thoughts make you feel happy or excited or joyful, you are in alignment to receive the good things you are looking for.

In their book, The Law of Attraction, Esther and Jerry Hicks write, "Rather than trying to monitor your thoughts, we encourage you to simply pay attention to how you
are feeling. For if you should choose a thought that is not in harmony with the way the broader, older, wiser, loving Inner Being part of you sees it, you will feel the discord and then you can easily redirect your thought to something that feels better and which therefore serves you better."

They go on to say, "It is a natural process that when you look at what you want, you will feel powerful, positive emotion. So it is a matter of holding your thoughts upon what you want... As you are feeling good, all things that (by your estimation) are good will begin coming into your experience."

• Focus on gratitude: Expressing gratitude is a critical part of the Law of Attraction. When you focus on what's working in your life, and you are grateful for it, you create more experiences to be grateful for.
  As Canfield writes, "No matter what your situation, there are always things to be grateful for."
  

  
  

• Take action: Visualizing your goals, reciting affirmations and expressing gratitude are all important tools for creating the life of your dreams. But there's one other component that must take place in order to move forward in your life. You must take action. What are some steps you can take today to achieve your goal? If you're trying to lose weight, it may be that you exercise five minutes longer today, or even begin a 10 minute routine.

As wild and wonderful as this all seems, there's no magic here. If you want to achieve your dreams, you have to be willing to believe that you can have them, and be willing to take the necessary steps to get there.

Along with obvious action, such as applying to law school if you want to be a lawyer, Canfield identifies what he calls "inspired actions." He says, "Once you begin [doing the things described in this article], the universe will start responding by sending people, resources and opportunities you need to manifest your desired result. You are going to find that you have inspired ideas; you must act on them. You must follow those gentle proddings from the universe. Often these intuitive impulses will have no seeming connection to achieving your goal, but if you follow them, they will lead you down a path of wonderful fulfillment."

About the author: Marla Hardee Milling is a freelance writer in Asheville, North Carolina. Her articles have appeared in Cooking Smart, LowCarb Energy, Healthgate, Pinnacle Living, Blue Ridge Country, Charleston Magazine, Smart Computing's PC Today, The Christian Science Monitor and various pregnancy and health/fitness publications, among others.

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