“REVEALING ‘THE SECRET’”
A Sermon by the Rev. Bruce Clear
Sunday,
All
Something in me
says that this may be among the most controversial sermons I’ve ever
given. I have spoken on subjects like euthanasia,
abortion, war in
Well, in a way, I do know why. I am going to spend the first half of this sermon praising the phenomenon that has come to be called The Secret. Those who don’t share my view on this may be troubled by what I’m saying. Then I will spend the next half of the sermon on what bothers me about The Secret, or at least how it is presented. During this time, those who had been cheering me on before will likely become irritated with me, and join the others whom I had already alienated. So during the third half of the sermon – I guess this one is going to have to have three halves in order to have a chance of working – I will try to blend the pluses and the minuses until I create something I find acceptable. Wish me well.
It’s hard to know where I should begin. There are some of you who have no idea what I’m talking about when I mention The Secret. There are others of you who know only that it is a popular book and documentary-style movie. And some of you have read the book or seen the movie or both, and have already strong feelings about it. It has been a publishing phenomenon, and a frequent focus of several daytime talk-shows, including Oprah, Ellen, and Montel.
But I’ll start by describing it, as best I can. It was the brainchild of an Australian TV producer named Rhonda Byrne, who brought together many of the most successful self-help authors, lecturers, and teachers, all of whom seem to agree on what is The Secret to success and happiness. There are a couple dozen of them, the most famous of whom are probably Jack Canfield, the co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and John Gray, author of the bestseller Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus. They also claim that this Secret to success has been known by all the great thinkers throughout the ages, from Plato to Beethoven, from Emerson to Einstein. The Secret is actually fairly simple, but I’ll attempt to describe it, though, using two different ways to do so.
Here’s the first description: The Secret tells us how success happens in life – success in financial goals, in relationship goals, in work, in health, and every other category you can imagine. Success happens by focusing the mind positively on what you want, letting go of any negative thoughts, even such negative thoughts as “I can’t afford it” or “here comes my allergies again.” If you keep your mind focused positively, sincerely believe you will get what it is you want, then it will happen. The world you create for yourself is a response to the way you think about the world. If you genuinely believe, without reservation, that good will happen to you, then that good is going to happen. But if you lack any confidence that good will happen, what you will get is what you fear. In effect, the universe responds to the way you think. It is called “the law of attraction,” and it means that positive thoughts attract positive events and circumstances, negative thoughts attract negative events and circumstances.
Now, let me try a slightly different way of describing it – really only slightly different. The Secret tells how success happens in life – success in financial goals, in relationship goals, in work, in health, and every other category you can imagine. Everything in the universe is ultimately made up of forces of energy, including our minds. Our thoughts emit energy when we think them, and those thoughts attract energy back from the universe around us. If we think at a certain frequency, the universe answers our thoughts in the same frequency. Therefore, if our thoughts are positive, optimistic, and confidently so, they attract from the universe a positive and optimistic response. If our thoughts are negative and fearful, the thoughts emit a frequency which attracts back that which we don’t want, and that which we fear. It is called “the law of attraction,” and it is rooted not only in ancient philosophies and all religions, it is also confirmed by modern science through quantum physics. We create our own reality through our thoughts. The author of The Secret, Rhonda Byrne, reduces it to three words: “ask, believe, receive.” That is, through your thinking ask for what you want in life, believe without any hesitation that you’ll get it, and you will get it. We can have whatever we want if we train our minds to focus on having it. When our thoughts are on the right positive frequency, what we want will become manifested; it will appear. But if our thoughts are on the wrong frequency, we will attract whatever negative circumstances our minds are tuned to.
I have used these two similar, though somewhat different, descriptions to put the rest of what I have to say in some context. The first description is, I think, a summary of a long-standing metaphysical tradition, going back centuries, about the power of the mind and the power of positive thinking. That tradition embraces the “law of attraction” as described in The Secret.
The second description has somewhat of a new twist to the same theme, claiming that the “law of attraction” has been scientifically confirmed as a law of nature and is as constant and reliable as the law of gravity.
I begin by saying that, within some boundaries, I believe in the “law of attraction.” I make the distinction between the two descriptions because I don’t think a defense of the law of attraction requires one to accept it as science. I don’t think it is. Science provides a good metaphor for how it works, but I wish they hadn’t presented as science. It is enough to say it’s a pretty good description of how life works. And it is. And that is of tremendous value.
I approach The Secret not too unlike I approach the Bible. One can be literal and fundamentalist about its claims, or one can take it more as metaphor and parable, mining it for the gems of wisdom that we too often ignore or deny. I find value in both books far more through metaphorical than through literal or fundamentalist reading.
I believe there are quite a few gems to be mined from The Secret. First of all, it is based on the premise of interconnectedness, not just of people to people, but even more of each one of us with the universe. The metaphor of living energy is true – the same “stuff” that comprises the most distant star is the same “stuff” of which I am made. Too often, it seems, religion is reduced to just “me and God” and that’s all that counts. In truth, all parts of existence vibrate with the same energy. One insight of The Secret is that our own minds, our own thoughts, are not separate from nature, but are part of it, and we are just one expression of the soul of nature itself.
I think that Rhonda Byrne is entirely justified in including Ralph Waldo Emerson among the pantheon of names associated with The Secret. His writings express a nineteenth century version of the teachings of The Secret. It is found in the Responsive Reading we used earlier:
“Let us learn the revelation of all nature and thought; that the Highest dwells within us, that the sources of nature are in our own minds. There is no screen or ceiling between our heads and the infinite heavens, so there is no bar or wall in the soul where we, the effect, cease, and God, the cause, begins.”
Emerson belongs in the tradition of The Secret, and has ably carried these insights into our Unitarian Universalist tradition.
Another gem from The Secret is the power of the mind, especially the power of the mind over the body. This is something that is a relatively new discovery, and in fact finding increasing confirmation in science. We know that mental attitude is an important factor in healing, and we know that negative, angry or pessimistic people are more prone to illness. We know that our thoughts are, in fact, our most powerful tool in being happy in life, and that the mind can be trained to think differently, if we want.
The biggest gem, of course, is that law of attraction. I think it works. I’ve just seen it operate too often around me not to believe. People who are positive in their outlook in life, who never whine or complain, who expect good things to happen tend to be the most successful and happy. They seem to attract good things. People who are negative and always unsatisfied with what they have tend to find their problems mounting as life goes on. Whether it is because of some scientifically-based magnetism, or whether it is entirely a psychological process doesn’t matter. Life just works that way. The authors, I think, go way too far in saying that what you want – whether it’s a certain car or a job promotion or a parking space – you are guaranteed to have. I don’t think there are any guarantees in life. But there sure are probabilities, and focusing positively and optimistically and confidently, rather than negatively, substantially increases your odds of success and happiness.
Another gem is something I haven’t mentioned yet. The Secret emphasizes the importance of being grateful for what we have. So many of us are more inclined to focus on what is missing, what we wish we had in life. But the authors say correctly, I think, that the first step toward being open to new treasures of life that can come to you is to appreciate intentionally the things in your life that you already have. Gratitude is the most basic element of nurturing a positive attitude toward all the rest of life.
So these are some of the very positive things I find in The Secret. And again, I read the book as I read the Bible, not as infallible textbook, but rather as a source for discovering genuine wisdom. And that wisdom is there.
But still there are several parts of this that trouble me deeply, and I wish the authors would re-think some of their points.
Perhaps the most troubling part of The Secret, for me, is the claim not just that everything good that happens to us happens because we attract it by our thinking, but also that everything bad that happens to us we also attract.
So, they say, if you are struggling with money issues it is because you are always thinking about not having enough money. Or if you can’t sleep at night it’s because you focus on the problem of not sleeping. So far, so good. I heartily agree that negative thoughts can, and do, attract negative circumstances.
But their claim goes much deeper than that. Everything negative that happens to us is a result of our negative thinking. Everything. On the positive side, they use examples of curing cancer through the laws of attraction. If we focus our minds on having a healthy cancer-free body, then the universe will supply it. But the implication, sometimes stated directly, is that if you don’t have good health it is because you haven’t focused positively enough. Or that a person’s disease came in the first place because that person attracted it by his or her negative thinking. You create your own reality, and if your reality includes poverty or disease, or unhappy relationships – anything – it is your thoughts which brought it about. The book says it concisely this way:
“Nothing can come into your experience unless you summon it through persistent thoughts.”
I find that
thinking to be profoundly dangerous. At
its worst, it is a “blame the victim” mentality. It suggests that tens of thousands of people
in
I know and admire a lot of people who live with the kind of positive thinking that this book advocates. These are people who feel good about themselves; who, if they run into an obstacle in life, don’t let it stop them. They are people who are optimistic about life, and you never hear them complain about anything. If someone else starts whining about something, they either change the subject or leave the room. These are people who believe they can succeed, and they do, and they are magnets not just for good things in life, they are magnets for people. Everyone wants to be around them and bask in their good fortune and positive outlook. These people live according to the principles outlined in The Secret.
I have known a number of these people in my life. At least one I know got cancer and died. Nothing can convince me that his thoughts attracted that cancer. Others have had financial misfortunes, or family troubles, or lost a child. But they kept their positive attitude. Bad things do happen to good people; it’s a simple as that. Bad things can and do happen to people with positive attitudes. Those with positive attitudes are far better equipped, I think, to cope with misfortune, but their thoughts are not the cause of it. It does no good at all, and a lot of harm, to blame the victim for what happens to them.
Let me put it succinctly. A doctrine that blames the victim for their misfortunes is cruel. A doctrine that is cruel brings negativity to the world. If they want to avoid negativity, they need to re-think this doctrine of blaming the victim.
Another problem I had reading this book, that I wish the authors would re-think, concerns the tone of selfishness found in their prescription for happiness. The example of good that is manifested is almost always something for me. Me, me, me. And it is way too often materialistic. I wish, for example, that somewhere in the book there was mention of the concept of compassion, of caring for other people. Such is at the heart of almost every religion in the world, and while The Secret claims to be a universal spiritual insight, it lacks, almost completely, this vital element.
One more problem
I have. Perhaps one of the reasons there
is no mention of compassion is because this book advises ignoring any pain,
suffering, or injustice in the world.
Even thinking about starving masses in
I was appalled when I read the following sentence from the author Rhonda Byrne. She said, “When I discovered The Secret I made a decision that I would not watch the news or read newspapers anymore, because it did not make me feel good.” I can’t understand that thinking at all. Here’s what doesn’t make me feel good: realizing that I don’t care about the suffering of others in the world. That makes me feel like a worm. Thoughts don’t get more negative than that! I suggest that compassion is a positive emotion, one that adds to the store of good in the world. Indifference, or lack of compassion, is a negative emotion, one that gives more negativity to the world. If these authors hope to enhance all that is positive in the world, they really need to re-think their doctrine of indifference toward those who suffer.
Elsewhere she invokes, somewhat gratuitously I think, the names of Gandhi and Martin Luther King as historical figures who were “in on” The Secret. Their lives are testimonials to compassion. Gandhi and King did, through their persistent thoughts and actions, attract justice to our world. But they didn’t do it by ignoring injustice, as these authors seem to advocate.
These problems are serious, but I don’t think they are fatal to the primary argument of The Secret: the law of attraction. One can sincerely believe in the law of attraction and still pay attention to, and have compassion for, the sufferings of others. One can understand life through the law of attraction and still allow that not everything negative someone experiences has been manifested by their own bad thoughts. These problems, it seems to me, are problems of the authors, not problems of the law of attraction.
I think The Secret can be repaired by looking again at these points. My attempt to affirm the law of attraction along with a life of compassion takes me to the work Viktor Frankl, one of the thinkers on such topics that I admire most.
Frankl's name is
familiar as a writer about the Nazi holocaust.
He was an Austrian psychoanalyst whose career was interrupted during
World War II when he was sent to
Frankl was led to the conclusion that those who were able to find strength to go on, in spite of the utterly inhumane and frightening anguish that existed there, were those who found a way to create some kind of meaning in life which transcended the despair of their condition. In other words, having positive thoughts about the meaning of their lives is what brought them through hell. The survivors were, in fact, those who could find some kind of meaning in their suffering. Those who were unable to find any meaning to their lives and situation, gave up on life itself, and did not survive.
In Frankl's words, "the prisoner who had lost faith in the future -- his future -- was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay."
Frankl’s thinking points, it seems to me, in much the same direction as the law of attraction points. Our world is shaped by our thoughts. He concluded that those who could manifest in their minds some meaning and purpose to their lives, even within a concentration camp, were far better equipped to cope with anything life presents, and those whose minds only saw dread experienced only dread. They in no way tried to ignore or deny the negative in their lives. What they did was to see their lives as more important, more positive, than the negatives around them.
There are passages from Frankl that seem to reflect the underlying theme of The Secret. After listing many of the horrifying conditions they faced in those camps, Frankl wrote,
“it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone. Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him – mentally and spiritually.”
In other words, the best tool any of us has to face the future with confidence is to use our minds to create meaning for our lives: to attract and manifest meaning.
To me, this is what is missing from The Secret as it is now. The law of attraction is true to an extraordinary degree. Our thoughts do attract our circumstances in many cases, and in every case our thoughts determine our happiness because they determine how we respond to the circumstances we face. What is needed is not just random positive thoughts about BMW’s or finding a parking space; what is needed more is positive thoughts about what our life ultimately means. This kind of thinking, it seems to me, allows the law of attraction to expand and embrace compassion, because our meanings are inevitably tied to what our lives mean to others.
So there’s the food I offer for thought about the current cultural phenomenon known as The Secret. You can chew it up or spit it out as you wish. Over all, like the Bible, I think The Secret offers us a great deal of wisdom and good advice. Like the Bible, I think it works better as metaphor than as science. And like the Bible, it doesn’t give us the complete answer.
When Viktor Frankl spoke of finding meaning in life, he frequently emphasized that there is no one single meaning for everyone – that we all must find our own. One of Frankl’s students, Joseph Fabry, commented on that with a sentence which for me has relevance to our topic. He said,
“People have discovered that to demand the answer will bring frustration, but the continued attempt to find an answer may bring fulfillment.”
Like the Bible, The Secret is not the answer. Like the Bible it does offer us an answer, and brings us closer, I think, to the fulfillment we all seek.