The main idea of "The Secret" is that people need only visualize what they want in order to get it -- and the book certainly has created instant wealth, at least for Rhonda Byrne and her partners-in-con. And the marketing idea behind it -- the enlisting of that dream team, in what is essentially a massive, cross-promotional pyramid scheme -- is brilliant.
I remember trying to explain to someone how the whole idea is just one more form of magical thinking. And they just couldn't understand it. How the authors explain the idea (and yes I know because I watched the first part of the movie, I suffer for you my readers) is that you can have Anything you can imagine, as long as you keep positive thoughts and keep thinking about what you want. And then they go on to talk about how you can get money and happiness.
Really?
That's it?
That's all you can imagine?
I don't know about you, but if I got what I could imagine, Jessica Alba and Kiera Knightly would be my courtesans, and I would rule the world with an iron fist. Maybe that is why they don't realize the idea if hogwash, their imaginations are just too small.
Okay, I know I am just latching onto their terrible wording, so what is the Secret really?
"you get what you think about; your thoughts determine your destiny"
On the surface it doesn't seem that harmful, if you think good thoughts, good things will happen to you. There is nothing wrong with positive thinking. The problem is it isn't true at all. No amount of positive thinking will reduce your debt. Paying your debt will reduce it.
The real problem with thinking like that is further extension of the argument. If bad things happen to you, then it is because you are dwelling on the negative... and you deserve it. Yeah.
Of course, even presented in the second form, it still falls apart. I think about Kiera Knightly often, in very positive ways, and yet, I still don't have her. Perhaps I am just not positive enough?
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