DVD "The Secret" and the Law of Attraction

A DVD "The Secret" became hugely popular. The creator of the DVD featured on Times Magazine as one of the most influential persons. It is based on the Law of attraction and popularized it. I have some views regarding this and also about the real truth which escapes the creators of the DVD, which I shall mention. However, my objective is to draw your attention to the last paragraph which is the most important thing I want to convey.

What is Law of Attraction ?

Some thoughts on "The Secrets".

A little about the self-proclaimed creators of this theory.

Some thoughts on the Law of attraction.

Some thoughts on Self-Help Gurus.

The real and misunderstood truth.

What is the Law of Attraction?

The Law of Attraction argues that thoughts (both conscious and unconscious) can affect things outside the head, not just through motivation but by other means. The Law of Attraction says that which is like unto itself is drawn.  

The Law of Attraction became widely popular after the release of The Secret, a 2006 film by Australian television writer and producer Rhonda Byrne. Byrne followed up the film with a bestselling book of the same title and appeared on a series of talk shows in 2007.

Some weeks ago, a friend wrote to me, declaring, “In six months I’m going to have three million dollars, the woman of my dreams, and a beautiful house – because I’ve seen . . . The Secret! 

The Secret lists three required steps — "ask, believe, receive" — as the essence of the Law of Attraction: 

Ask: -

Know what you want and ask the universe for it. This is where you need to get clear on what it is you want to create and visualise what you want as being as 'real' as possible

Believe: -

Feel and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way. Focus your thoughts and your language on what it is you want to attract. You want to feel the feeling of really 'knowing' that what you desire is on its way to you, even if you have to trick yourself into believing it – do it.

Receive: -

Be open to receiving it. Pay attention to your intuitive messages, synchronicities, signs from the Universe to help you along the way as assurance you are on the 'right' path. As you align yourself with the Universe and open yourself up to receiving, the very thing you are wanting to manifest will show up.  

Thinking of what one does not have, they say, manifests itself in not having, while if one abides by these principles, and avoids "negative" thoughts, the universe will manifest a person's desires. It emphasizes upon the way in which a person’s thought process, emotions and attitude influence his life. The theory explains that through positive thinking and rightful utilization of our positive energies we are capable of bringing about significant changes in our life.  

Some thoughts on The Secrets : -

First of all, it is not a secret at all. This has been known to too many people of all times. There had never been any effort to suppress it and Wattles or Rhonda are not the discoverer’s of this theory. The name is a marketing technique.

Though the program is up-beat, good hearted, encouraging much of it influence is also because of the excellent production values, cinematography, effects, and sound. The editing is excellent as well as the cutting-edge method of delivery. What is concerning many, however, are the program’s primary suppositions. The message, repeated in different words by the various guests, is that if we simply intend and visualize and dream big enough, we can “manifest” all our dreams — effortlessly, magically, mystically.

In any case, this “Law of Attraction,” as taught many decades ago by metaphysicians like Catherine Ponder and others, is certainly a positive and expansive idea. But dreams, desires and visions are only the beginning — they must be followed by focused effort over time – something barely mentioned in the “Secret” production. Thomas Edison wrote, “We often miss opportunity because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” It has the ring of truth, doesn’t it? But suggesting that we need to work hard over time to achieve our goals doesn’t sell well. It isn’t sexy or fascinating, or sound much like a “Secret.” Common sense rarely does.

The biggest issue people have with programs like The Secret (or other idealistic notions such as learning “positive thinking”) is that when their magical methods don’t work, they end up believing that it’s their fault, their lack, their fault. We believe that if we had truly deserved it, or really applied ourselves, or focused more intently, or visualized more clearly with a sincere heart, surely it would have worked. The Secret, then, with its lovely and uplifting promise, is a foolproof supposition: If we don’t heal, manifest, get what we want, it’s due to our own lack of faith. Or maybe it’s because we forgot the “taking action” part . . .

There are some successful people who claim to have mastered “The Secret” and who have manifested their dreams and desires. Few of them tell us about their years of struggle and labor and preparation. By all means strive in the direction of your dreams! Visualize a grand life! Then get to work. While we cannot control the outcomes, we can control our efforts. And by making the effort, we increase the odds of creating a larger life. Henry David Thoreau: “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. Now put foundations under them.”

Not too much searching online reveals that the movie is part of an elaborate advertising campaign to get people interested in working with the various “teachers” it features. Just like “What the Bleep” is a recruitment vehicle for Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, The Secret is an infomercial for it's talking heads. On a purely business level - brilliant. Too bad this is the last thing it's target audience actually needs.

The problem with the movie is the claim that whatever you sit down and imagine in this way, the universe will provide. Almost as if the universe is a big vending machine: Insert sincere wish here, pull out cold coke (or shiny new Ferrari) here. That seems to me to be a very mechanical, shallow, self-serving description of the universe. The universe is still very much self service – not delivery.

The Secret is not just a moronic hymn to greed and selfishness; it nastily suggests that victims of catastrophe are the authors of their misfortunes. And anyone who happened to be starved, bombed, or herded into a death camp at the same time as thousands of others. "By the law of attraction," explains an expert on this law, "they had to be on the same frequency as the event." Just a twiddle with their personal thought frequencies, and everyone in the cattle trucks could have been attracting friends, high grades, and lovely new cars instead. Cancer victims. Sexual assault victims. Holocaust victims. They're responsible? The book is riddled with these destructive falsehoods. Do you want to say the person who met a road accident actually attracted it through his thoughts ? How do you prove it so conclusively to name it as a Law. The claim for it’s link to quantum physics is baseless. The book does not give reference to a single scientific paper. It is outrageously stupid. You want to say Jesus brought upon him the crucifiction by his negative thoughts and Gandhi brought upon him the shooting because he created it with his negative thoughts. What about Napoleon ? Do you think Galileo think anything except the secrets of the Universe and what kind of thought brought him the Poison ? Do you think Socrates feared death by poison, who refused to escape though well aware of the Poison?

One person says "Living is difficult. ... People want ... a solution and an answer. If it were an easy one, like 'think it' -- that would be even better, right?" she said. "I understand. It's a wish fulfillment. I really do understand that. And the Self-help gurus who promote these do it, like any other salesman, because it is a good product which sell easily and not necessarily because of the compassion or care for the society or people."

Medical professionals suggest it could even lead to a blame-the-victim mentality and actually be dangerous to those suffering from serious illness or mental disorders. You can also read some of the effects of the application of this theory here. http://www.macleans.ca/homepage/magazine/article.jsp?content=20070416_104195_104195

Some says the Law may be explained as an illusion created by the connection between self confidence and success or one’s own perception, like the placebo effect. This requires an explanation of the effect.

The phenomenon of an inert substance resulting in a patient's medical improvement is called the placebo effect. The phenomenon is related to the perception and expectation which the patient has; if the substance is viewed as helpful, it can heal, but if it is viewed as harmful, it can cause negative effects. A placebo is a sham or simulated medical intervention that can produce a placebo effect. In medical research, placebos depend on the use of controlled and measured deception. Common placebos are inert tablets, sham surgery, and other procedures based on false information. In one common placebo procedure, a patient is given an inert pill, told that it may improve his/her condition, but not told that it is in fact inert. Such an intervention may cause the patient to believe the treatment will change his/her condition; and this belief may produce a subjective perception of a therapeutic effect, causing the patient to feel their condition has improved. This phenomenon is known as the placebo effect. a study found that patient recovery can be increased by words that suggest the patient “would be better in a few days”, and if the patient is given treatment, that “the treatment would certainly make him better” rather than negative words such as “"I am not sure that the treatment I am going to give you will have an effect" Because the placebo effect is based upon expectations and conditioning, the effect disappears if the patient is told that their expectations are unrealistic, or that the placebo intervention is ineffective. A conditioned pain reduction can be totally removed when its existence is explained. It’s a feel good hypnosis.

A little about the self proclaimed creators of this theory: -

Rhonda Byrne

Who created this philosophy? Rhonda ? Like so many other self proclaimed Self help gurus she is here for business and nothing else. You can read about how her secret law is working for herself here

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/the-secret-of-rhondas-success/story-e6frg8h6-1111117271174

Depression caused by unfulfilled desires, and difficulties posed by reality brought her to the breakdown which she so proudly mentions. And what she has created is nothing but marketing gimmicks. She got the idea from the Science of getting rich and as she had been involved with the TV and media, she knew how to present it and market it and used the thing to come out of the professional situation she was in. Because of her own liking for the subject ( in accordance with Western culture which praises Capitalism and respects wealth creation literature and bullshits and her  depression due to personal difficulties ) she absolutely understood the potentiality of the theory for selling and profit making and since then has adopted an appearance and expression in accordance with the product. She had only imagined wealth? How great. And yet she is attracting so many law suits?

Wallace D. Wattles

Wallace D. Wattles wrote two books on The science of being well and The science of getting rich. Both were his own research and were produced and motivated by his frailty of health and his poverty. Wattles ran two elections in 1908 and 1910 and did not win any despite his claim that he has practiced his philosophies before publishing (The book was published in 1910). And of course the books are published for selling. Wattles himself was greatly influenced by Hegel and Emerson. And quite ironically to Rhonda, who thinks she understand Wattles, Emerson is famous for his article called “ On Self-reliance” and not “on Magic”. Even in Wattles’ daughter Florence's words, he "formed a mental picture" or visual image, and then "worked toward the realization of this vision".

Some thoughts on the Law of attraction

Among the spiritual circles, the Law of Attraction is criticized strongly because of its attempts to hold individual ego and self will with higher self. The two are contradictory and cannot operate in synergy. On the other hand, the Law of Attraction which emphasizes repeatedly on inner consciousness and spiritual integrity makes a generalized statement; it overlooks the diversified collective mind and treats the single as the many. The theory appears too generalized and often misses out on external factors which may not be within the mind’s reach. Our realities are not simply mere creations of our mind. Here's a joke.

Why did the idealist jump out of a 14th story apartment window? 

She though the law of gravity was like the law of attraction: all in her mind. 

The Law of Attraction when judged by testability parameters, it fails live up to the logical quotient. This means the claims brought by the theory are unable to give an exact relation between the thought process and its results. The cause and effect relation, as posited by the Law of Attraction, often overlooks the probable deterring factors or differences in circumstances. The theory makes a hypothetical study of human nature and draws out the inference, by frequent and repeated reference to a few instances, some of which may also be coincidences.

Changing your thinking changes nothing out there, in the vast universe surrounding you. It changes something inside of you. Changing your perception, your focus, your emotions and your thinking from negative to positive (from what you lack to what you want) has an enormous effect on your motivation, energy and creativity and that’s why you will then be more efficient working towards your goals. It’s that simple.

Some thoughts on Self-help Gurus

There have been self help gurus. What they are after really is money. Yes, they have a little compassion, ego or guru sense, and ambition which also is a motive.  However they know nothing. Parroting other people’s ideas and thoughts as their own to influence people to believe in them. They will sell only easily saleable theories, appealing to popular sense. Anything unpopular or radical and needing a rebellion and they would promptly avoid. They will not teach the ordinary public first but aim for the corporate. All books copyrighted. All teachings catalogued. Nothing is free. Just simple awareness would make them understand and show them the correct way. However, they are not ready yet. May be they don’t have time to do that. They are so busy reading others and amassing wealth and followers that they have forgotten where to get the truth. Truth is obtained in silence and solitude. The whole world’s library can’t make you see the truth. For truth is not a thing, it is an experience. Like you experience taste. You can’t explain it through words very accurately and can’t know it through words. You have to get it yourself.

We are like babies when compared to the really wise. Yet, our Gurus think they can modify the age old theories. Our Gurus teach happiness and also explains the wishing and desiring in the same lecture. How can you have happiness and desires at the same time? And the same Guru will give you examples from Buddha on happiness. What an irony. What does Buddha mean when he says “Desire is the root cause of all pains? By the destruction of desire you destroy pain and can experience Happiness.“ And yet the Guru keeps teaching people happiness, desire, and law of attraction, Buddha and levels of consciousness at the same time. What is consciousness without awareness? And you can easily see how aware are they themselves who are busy perfecting their catalogues and websites. They can’t even accept that what they are doing here is giving themselves (like all the politicians) a feel good theory that they are doing good for the society. The blind person saying he has seen and is here to lead and show other blinds the way.

The real and misunderstood truth

The secret is about how to creat through the thought. Thought results from the mind. It teaches you about how to creat through the mind. That you can bring money to yourself or healing to yourself or you can bring people to yourself. It explains how you can creat a vibration and the energy begins to come to you. That is all true. However, that’s assuming that what is out here is the source of creation and is real. However, there is also something which the creators of the DVD “The secret” did not understand when they produced it. But the Tibettan Buddhism and Hinduism did understand that many many years ago. The writing of The Secret is not new. In the writings of the book by Gregg Braden “ The Isiah effect” and it talks about a scroll that was found on a clay pot which was found in 500 bc near where the dead sea scroll are found. and talks about exactly the same stuff. That your thoughts are based on logic and logic will go to where you place your attention or your intention. And your intention has three basic patterns i.e.  What happens in your mind and in your heart and in your body? If you engage all these things together at one time you can get exactly what your intention is. But what the creators of the secret don’t understand is the instrument that the creation is done through is the mind, it’s the brain. And the brain is a polarized tool (which is why the universe appears as a duality to us i.e. love-hate, war-peace, anger-forgiveness, light-darkness etc). You have a right brain and and you have got a left brain. And in the left and right brain you have got the front lobe and the back lobe and it keeps going through 64 different divisions.  The same 64 divisions that there are in the 64 codons of Human DNA.  It is possible to bring to you what you want and what you intend to through your intentions. But what you will also get is the exact and equal opposite force coming from behind you where you can’t see.  Our eyes see this way but we can’t see the behind way. So you get what you want coming from one way and you get the exactly opposite force, which you don’t want coming into your life from another way. There is now a man in California Mr. James Watt one of the experts in brain surgery and research. He is the best brain surgeon ever born. He agrees that you can go with the brain and creat anything you want but you will also get the exact opposite always coming. You have got in the world 6 and a half billion people. Most of them want peace and they are praying to get it. But they are never going to get world peace, as long as they pray from the brain. They are going to get a world which is half peace and half War. And it will keep generating the half peace and half war until they learn to creat in a different way. We need to understand the process of creation more thoroughly to get to the truth of creation. To get out of duality that we are enveloped in and creat without cause and effect.  

It is a huge topic and is not suitable to be mentioned on a blog like this. I am aware that this post has become one of my longest. I must apologize for this and thank you for reading.

OM MANI PADME NAMAH.

Your Way to Power

Dear Readers,

Thank you for your overwhelming response to my last post. It has so much heightened my self image and made my disposition so cheerful that I sat down today to write something more, being much encouraged by your kind words. 

I want to write something. But nothing has occurred till. I have now started writing anything that comes naturally. How strange nothing is occurring. Writing is a creative process. We creat something. Do you know why there are fewer women writers than men. Because men always try to creat more and more. Not because he is more creative but just to overcome the feeling of inadequacy when compared to the creative capacity of a woman. Have you noticed how many woman become great artists, scientists, businessmen and inventors in comparision to the number of men ?

God has given women the ability and responsibility to creat life, ( with a very little support from a man). The woman is always satisfied after the baby is born. The experience is so overwhelming and great that the love of his husband is nothing in comparision to that. The 9 months of the creative process demands from her so much creative energy that once after the delivery she resolves not to have another baby for a long time. It is both because of the long creation process and the painful climax. Each moment of the 9 months she feels within her a life that she is creating. Only a mother can understand what this experience is. Contrary to popular belief it is not the husband which is the purpose of a woman's life but the baby. It is the experience of creation that brings fulfillment to her life and not the marital life. This experience is so demanding and fulfilling that a woman does not find any pleasure in creating any thing else. Her capacity to creat gets much limited by this expenditure.

In comparision man creats nothing even closer to life. His contribution is so insignificant that modern science has threatened to remove him altogether from the process. The men desparately tries to experience the creative process and the resulting peak experience. He tries to creat a poetry, to make a machine, to discover a galaxy, to build a big business. Man's urge to succeed and creat is ever so overpowering over all his other desires. Have you seen a man driven to succeed, visualising his future achievements. Does not he look restless ? Can you see the smouldering fire in his breast ? Oh! only if he can achieve what he dreams. His creative energy is trying desparately to find an outlet. All ambitious and driven people have a strong creative urge coming from the energy that is trying to force its way through to the surface. The great arts, business, discoveries and achievements in history is mostly by men.

Let me tell you a further secret. The creative energy is nothing but the sexual energy. The sexual energy is actually much misunderstood in the present society and medical science. It is not just a hormone which can be spent without any detrimental effect. Some doctors in West even suggest the expenditure of it as beneficial to health. But what ancient sages have realised and what medical science is coming to acknowledge recently is that it impacts too many more things than one can ever imagine. It is the life itself of a person. Doctors have analysed subjects who squanders too much of the sexual energy, and found out that there is a direct relationship of this with lunacy and instability of mind. There has been a vast amount of research now to show the ill effects of squandering this vital life energy. As there is not sufficient space to site all those, I shall get back to the point I was illustrating.

The creative power of a man is also linked to this energy. A low sexual energy suggests a very low creative power. Goethe had once said "There is a great relationship between youth and productivity", meaning it is the young who has created many of the great things in the world. All creative and artistic people along with all the ambitious people have a strong sexual drive. This is also the reason why as the man ages his creative power declines. His ability to solve a problem, find a new way and putting forward a new system is hampered seriously. Young blood is always welcome everywhere.

The next question is "How to harness this ?"

It is very simple. But before you know the way you must understand the following...

What we call Sexual energy comes from Virya ( in Sanskrit) or Semen ( in English ). Virya is one and the same thing as Chitta ( mindstuff in English ) or Mann ( in Hindi ) or simply the matter from which mind is created. Both Virya and Chitta are also the forms of Prana ( Vital Energy or Breath in English) and simply the positive life particles that we breathe in when we inhale. You can understand them as three different things which are highly interrelated so much so that they are almost one. If you can understand how closely they are related you can understand why controlling your breath can control the movements and urges of your mind (Chitta) and Virya (Semen). Everybody knows that the only way to enjoy the pleasure of coitus longer is by controlling the breath. The slower it is, the longer you can withhold. Also, have you ever noticed, how your breathing is quickened when you are agitated or angry ? The Chitta affects directly the Prana. When your mind is stirred your breath can't keep constant or slow. Similarly have you seen people taking very deep breaths suddenly after an intense thought or concentration on something ? When you try to focus your mind, you try to slow down other waves in it and keep just one. This slows down the breath. You can achieve the concentration thus by slowing down the breath. This enumerates the relationship between mind,semen and breath.

Breath is the easiest of the three to control and is the most popular choice of ancient sages. You can achieve all the super powers that you can dream of, not just creativity, if you gain control on the breath. Nothing is impossible for a person who has got perfect control over breath. By this simple practice alone you can overcome the death. Unbelievable ? Let me tell you that in Samadhi you don't breath. ( if you have never heard of what "Samadhi" is, please check this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi.)

Many thanks for your reading.
I shall write further if the above pleases you.

OM MANI PADME NAMAH

Love - What does it mean ?

Dear Readers,

Destiny guided subtly my unsuspecting mind to Osho's works. I have since read a few and listened to some. It was wonderful to know his thoughts on so many things. His depth of knowledge and his loving heart speaks to you when you read or listen to him.

The thing that touched me most is the way he describes love. He is short and simple.

I have read many great persons trying to define love. One of my all time favorite hero Napoleon says "It is difficult to define what it is. The more you define the more confusing the subject becomes. However, I think it is detrimental to the society and unsuitable for the happiness of an Individual. Man will be happy if he stays away from it." However, Napoleon was no ordinary man. He was one of the history's greatest military commander and till today is considered one of the most thoughtful man. What Napoleon had realized is that Love destroys individuality, which was the base of Napoleon's power.

Osho says, it is simply....GIVING. To give is to love. The person who loves find happiness in giving. His happiness does not depend on the receiver. He is not required to know who receives the given. To Whom So Ever it may Concern, he says. He keeps sending love letters. He is not concerned about the address. He is only interested in sending. Lust, he says, is the death of love. Love is unconditional giving.

You shall notice when you start giving to others, you shall feel a pain in your heart. You are giving something for nothing. Your mind tells you, you are a fool, be practical. Even if you start giving, you secretly wait for the return and when the return is not to come, you repent the giving. This is human nature. This is the way we have been always. We have always wanted, demanded and needed love. If we are not loved we feel ill treated. We do thousand things, so that others can love us. However, we can't think of giving the same. Everybody is in the same state. Every one begging and no one giving. Everybody going into the relationship expecting what he will get and not what he will give. So that all relationship become sour after sometime, as two beggars can't beg from each other. Much like a beggar, when it comes to giving, our heart sinks. We feel terrible, we calculate, we expect, we insure, we ensure, we hesitate. While Love opens the heart and brings into our consciousness that what we love, miserliness ( read as "not giving") shrinks the heart. The consciousness shrinks to a petty nothing.

Love is the unit out of which the whole world is created. Everything is created from it and will get dissolved into it. The law of physics has now come to a point where it proclaims that the smallest particle of a matter is not atom. In fact the sub atomic particles are 99.9% empty and the rest is nothing but energy. We are 99.9% empty. The intelligence which spawn us out of emptiness was there when we first appeared in our mother's womb. The present scientist realizes, matter is not new, the atoms we have in our body are not new but billions of years old. What has resulted in a new body is the intelligence.

Osho says the intelligence is of the spirit which traveling through the universe is taking up new bodies, much like we change our clothes when they become dirty or unsuitable, to get new experiences. The soul transforms itself to more evolved state by the new experiences. The soul tries ever so, evolving with each experience. The ultimate aim, the ultimate experience is the one which Yoga describes as Samadhi, which is nothing but when the Soul finds itself as one with the universe. When it realises that it is his foolish individuality or sense of self, is what was obstructing him to realise the ultimate unity. That the universe is not different things but one thing appearing as many. Each part assuming itself as a separate being or universe in itself and thus giving birth to "MAYA" or illusion. This appearance, illusion or belief of the soul is the obstacle which experience overcomes gradually in the journey. The oneness fills the Soul with a sense of oneness with everything else. He is the sky, he is the earth, he is the fire, he is the Water. He is what burns and what is burnt. He is what eats and what is eaten. He is the flower, he is the Stone. He is the enemy and he is the friend. He is the rescuer and he is the rescued. Thus the soul comes to the realisation that he is the whole and he is the part. The realisation is what Osho says Love. Love is ever expanding, all embracing and the real nature of creation.

It is the same feeling that we some times experience and ignore. This is the same thing which is in a mother's heart and in the beloved's eyes. This is the only purpose of this life and all the lives to come for you. This is why you are born. Osho says if you can practice loving ( read as "giving" ) we can get closer to this experience and realise a new beauty in life and everything. Love is not a thing, like happiness and anger it is a state of mind. Much like you can choose to think one thing or the other, you can choose to be in love or out of it.

Thank you for your patient reading. I shall be encouraged to express more if the above made sense to you.

OM MANI PADME NAMAH.