Washington Post slams "The Secret"

[Cactus Wren]

Self-Help's Slimy "Secret"

(You might need to register. If you'd rather not and still want to read the article, PM me.)

In the book, investment trainer David Schirmer describes his own experience. He used to receive bills every day. "So I got a bank statement, I whited out the total, and I put a new total in there," he says. "I thought, 'What if I just visualized a bunch of checks coming in the mail'? Within just one month, things started to change. It is amazing; today I just get checks in the mail. I get a few bills, but I get more checks than bills."

You'd think an investment expert might be wary of sharing a secret like that. But you can even print out a check from "The Bank of the Universe" off "The Secret's" Web site. Write in the amount you want. Imagine spending it. Then sit back and watch the cash roll in.

Yet none of the how-the-Secret-changed-my-life stories on "Oprah" mentioned the dark side of the book's pie-in-the-sky pitch. In February, Los Angeles Times editorial writer Karin Klein reported that local therapists were seeing "clients who are headed for real trouble, immersing themselves in a dream world in which good things just come." Klein told me in an e-mail that she had heard from readers who were worried about friends who "suddenly start buying things, certain that the money to pay for them will just show up."

One recent weekend, [Saturday Night Live] featured a skit about a man in Darfur being interviewed by Winfrey and [Secret author Rhonda] Byrne. They scolded him when he lamented that his people were starving, saying it was all the result of his lousy attitude. That was played for laughs, but later that week I watched Bob Proctor, author of "You Were Born Rich" and one of the "gurus" Byrne quotes most often, being asked on "Nightline" whether the starving children of Darfur had "manifested" -- that is, visualized -- their own misery. In utter seriousness, he replied, "I think the country probably has."

 

[Ladewig]

There is nonsense, arrant nonsense, and damnable nonsense. Bob Proctor's reply to the Dafur question is damnable nonsense.

 

[Moochie]

There is nonsense, arrant nonsense, and damnable nonsense. Bob Proctor's reply to the Dafur question is damnable nonsense.

What a complete and utter a-hole this Proctor is.

M.

 

[zombiebex]

Good article, thanks for sharing!

 

[Miss Anthrope]

Oh, the Darfur thing really makes my blood boil.

 

[Moochie]

Oh, the Darfur thing really makes my blood boil.

Looks like you only have to register if you want to comment.

The comments are a mixture of sanity and rampant insanity. Jaw-dropping stuff.

M.

 

[LostAngeles]

I have no words. (That will not net me a Rule 8 violation.)

Poverty? "The only reason any person does not have enough money is because they are blocking money from coming to them with their thoughts."

Illness? "You cannot 'catch' anything unless you think you can. . . . You are also inviting illness if you are listening to people talking about their illness." So . . . got any sick friends who need a shoulder to cry on? Tell 'em to bug off! As for Elizabeth Edwards -- how selfish is she? By making people think about her cancer, she's basically giving them the disease.

 

[rjh01]

This is a duplicate thread. See the washington post tag for the other one.

 

[CFLarsen]

I have no words. (That will not net me a Rule 8 violation.)

So, why help the poor? Why cure the sick?

◊◊◊◊'em, they only have themselves and their negative thinking to blame. Right?







....tell me again, what is so attractive about NewAge?

 

[ond_magiker]

One recent weekend, [Saturday Night Live] featured a skit about a man in Darfur being interviewed by Winfrey and [Secret author Rhonda] Byrne. They scolded him when he lamented that his people were starving, saying it was all the result of his lousy attitude. That was played for laughs, but later that week I watched Bob Proctor, author of "You Were Born Rich" and one of the "gurus" Byrne quotes most often, being asked on "Nightline" whether the starving children of Darfur had "manifested" -- that is, visualized -- their own misery. In utter seriousness, he replied, "I think the country probably has."

Quick! Someone get these starving children to a self-help seminar!

 

[hgc]

You know, the Darfur problem within defending this claptrap could be avoided if "The Secret" was slightly less ambitious in scope, i.e., not all-encompassing. If it was presented so that it wasn't powerful enough to overcome big external factors such as a genocidal campaign, then he wouldn't be caught making these disgusting claims.

But then it's hard for the purveyers of woo to avoid all-encompassing claims. Afterall, even the slightest details have no basis in fact. So why not shoot the moon?

 

[parrotslave]

During the ABC interview of Proctor they visited a book store where they ran across a woman who was buying the book. Proctor gave her a free ticket to his Secret seminar and the woman and reporter gushed about how it was an example of using the Secret to get what you want. What they didn't show was at the "free" seminar the woman would be pressured to spend $1995 to join Proctor's pyramid scheme.