Chapter One
BRAIN-DEADBelief: Keep Your Mind Engaged
Stan Lee of Marvel Comics has a wonderful phrase he uses about the
art and craft of writing superhero comics, and of being a fan of
them. He says we have to "suspend disbelief." Actually, with many
forms of fiction, the watchword is to "suspend belief"-it's those
times we are asked to go a step further, mentally, emotionally,
rationally. True to form, The Secret requires that we suspend
disbelief. Its ideas are abstract, its evidence is vague, its
promises are grand, and it arouses suspicion in the most casual
reader's mind.
In its first months, The Secret's DVD and book versions sold
millions of copies-of course, the word spread, even though its
propositions sounded too good to be true. Once The Secret got out,
many news programs, comedy shows, and pop commentators-the type of
people in today's culture who normally fall over each other to
endorse the latest feel-good or self-help fad-instead criticized or
ridiculed the book. Yet it continued on its whirlwind course, with
reports of bookstores unable to stock copies, of additional DVDs in
production, even of a high-ticket marketing scheme based on The
Secret, and more. So it finds an audience of fans.
Up-front, we must acknowledge we are not among them. You might ask
then, if we think The Secret's ideas far-fetched and implausible,
why do we bother countering them? Why should we consider them worth
discussing? More so, some fellow skeptics will protest that any
effort to deal with this philosophy will backfire, giving further
publicity for The Secret.
Our first answer to questions about whether The Secret is even worth
answering is this: there are many claims by author Rhonda Byrne and
her team, from unsupported varieties of dream therapy to "history"
built on paranoid fantasies, and it's important for some of these
matters that the record be set straight.
THE FLAW OF ATTRACTION
The Law of Attraction is a recently coined phrase, but its ideas are
hardly new. Easily it can be seen in the Bible's account of the
Garden, where the serpent issued the temptation "You will be like
God" (Gen 3:5). That is the clear (and stated) thesis of The Secret.This book will review history's other philosophies, heresies, and
doctrines similar to the Law of Attraction. Gnosticism is a belief
that has persisted for centuries. We will review others in
succeeding chapters, but here are comments on gnosticism.
Gnostics believed that God is good and the world is evil. Since God
is good, He could not have created the world. There was an emphasis
on knowledge (gnosis is Greek for "knowledge"). This knowledge,
which led to salvation, was secret, reserved for the elite. "The
Gnostic movement posed as the bearer of a secret tradition stemming
from Christ, or from the apostles." J. Guitton, Great Heresies and
Church Councils (New York: Harper & Row, 1965).
"Gnostics claimed to have a secret knowledge which was the key to
salvation." David Christie-Murray, A History of Heresy (London and
New York: Oxford University Press, 1976).
"The Gnostic position asserts that over and above the simple Gospel
... there is a secret, higher knowledge reserved for an elite."
Harold O. J. Brown, Heresies: The Image of Christ in the Mirror of
Heresy and Orthodoxy from the Apostles to the Present (New York:
Doubleday & Company, 1984).
We might grant that if the threat amounted to no more than a group
of people being invited to a presentation or seminar where they are
offered this collection of "facts," it would perhaps amount to no
more than an unfortunate waste of an evening. But in fact The Secret
has become a craze that has swept the nation, affected peoples'
behavior, and taken their money. Such a phenomenon demands further
examination.
But second, we believe The Secret represents something unfortunate,
even dangerous, in contemporary life. Because it is packaged in the
language of happiness, wealth, and feeling good, it masquerades as a
harmless prescription for ... well, everything unfortunate, even
harmful, in contemporary life.
What's ironic is that there is a materialistic aspect to The Secret:
a me-oriented, wealth-obsessed selfishness that flies in the face of
most religions, philosophies, and value-systems through all history,
all over the world.
Even the more contemporary schools of thought tending toward
materialism pay at least minimal lip service to charity and service.
Yet The Secret actually ridicules the concept of sacrifice. Even ifThe Secret's popularity is due to the fact that such ideas strike a
chord in present-day America, we consider that alone a reason to
raise an alarm, and not passively accept some sort of planetary
convergence of new morals.
Our third reason for "answering" The Secret is no less important:
hurting people are seeking answers from Rhonda Byrne to life's
toughest questions.
Many readers of our book are already familiar with The Secret. Some
will merely know of the controversy Rhonda Byrne's book has stirred;
some have a curiosity engendered by a magazine cover or a Nightline
report on television; some might have even reacted to a
word-of-mouth recommendation of our book. Maybe some have bought
the book itself, maybe the video, maybe some attended seminars or
bought into The Secret's new multilevel marketing scheme. Others
have been persuaded by its presentation; indeed many are
enthusiastic recruits. To a large extent, we address these readers.
We firmly believe others will benefit from the reading of our book:
in fact, we have designed The Secret Revealed to inform anyone, even
those (if there are any such left in the world) who have not heard
of The Secret.
But it's especially to those who have reached out for the answersThe Secret offers-it's with these audiences we need to identify. And
we do empathize. There are billions of people in the world, all
different in countless ways, yet among the few common
characteristics of everyone on earth are the need to be loved, a
desire for security, and a feeling of self-worth. We see that. We
all share these fundamental human characteristics. It is clear whyThe Secret can appeal to people on its surface.
But the desire for security shouldn't have to lead to a value system
that excludes caring. A feeling of self-worth should not morph into
an ethic of selfishness. Did The Secret intrigue you because of what
it promised? That's not to say your needs are inappropriate, but we
will unpack together some more lucid ways to confront whatever hurts
or fears, confusion or desires you might have.
THE LAW OF ATTRACTION IS IN THE CLASSROOM
Have you ever wondered why:
teachers in your local government-run public school cannot speak
of God or Jesus, our Lord, and Savior, and even having a Bible on
school grounds could be cause for disciplinary action, but the
same prohibition on "religion" does not exist for Islam, Hinduism,
or Buddhism?
children study the spirituality of the Native American Indians;
their spiritual wheels and animal spirits, shamans, dream
catchers, and the like, are [acceptable] topics and art projects
for the classroom, but speaking of God or coloring a picture of
Christ is taboo?
children cannot wear clothing proclaiming their belief in God to
school, but clothing depicting Satan, the peace symbol, or the
yin/yang symbol do not receive the same censorship?
children cannot pray to God in the classroom, but they can go on
guided fantasies and guided visualizations to meet spirit guides
(demons) in the classroom?
Do you get the impression the only discrimination going on, in the
realm of religion in the government-run public schools, is against
Christianity? If you do, you are absolutely correct. Why is that?
Very simple: "systems theory"-that which provides the foundation
upon which the transformation of America from a constitutional
republic to a participatory democracy is built-cannot tolerate the
individual; and true Christianity teaches we are all individuals.
Enter the New Age movement, one of the precepts of which is that we
are one with one another, one with God, in communion with God 24/7:
"as above, so below." (Lynn Stuter's commentary on the Law of
Attraction's infection of America's classrooms is from:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Stuter/stuter96.htm.)
Along the way we will also expose some of the more outlandish
arguments we have seen in The Secret. We will hear real wisdom from
genuine sages from throughout history. We will offer the authentic,
not the theoretical.
Up-front, we'll tell you: we hold no secrets, we allege no secrets,
we reveal no secrets. But we will tell you the truth, and we will
speak of the great Mystery. If you've read The Secret or seen its
DVD, you know it walks a tightrope of apparent inconsistencies.
We're asked to believe that mighty men possessed the Secret and kept
it secret for millennia, yet today here it is for all to see. It was
guarded, yet at the same time it was published in a number of books
a century ago. The Christian church even is supposed to have hidden
the Secret, but likewise the church passed it along.
Prominent people are likewise supposed to have held the Secret.
Beethoven, although we are not told what he did with it, evidently
failed to realize he should have been able to wish away his cruel
deafness in the manner outlined in the Secret. Andrew Carnegie
blessed mankind with millions of dollars given in charity and was a
great benefactor of peace to societies and the arts. Yet we are to
believe it simply didn't occur to him to share the Secret with any
of his fellow souls.
We will invent no nonsense nor pass along fabricated history. Real
history is more interesting. To those who might say, "Look where
history has got us," we reply with George Santayana that those who
do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We will share
some ancient truths, not secrets, and try to present them in a new
way, just as every generation has had to discover them anew.
We harbor no secrets ... promise.
But we do know of mysteries, beautiful mysteries. Mysteries that
flood our souls. Mysteries we will visit by the end of this book,
that are more fulfilling to behold than the Secret. We will even
point you to all the claims of The Secret's road map for life. Like
certain life forms, we believe the claims cannot stand the exposure
of the light. In short, we have a better way to show you.
(Continues...)
