The Secret Is Not A Secret.

The Secret, written by Rhonda Byrne, hit the shelves shortly after the film in 2006 and claimed to hold the secret method to obtaining everything your heart desires in life. I saw it advertised, I watched the hype, I listened to friends talking about it in conversations around the braai... And I decided I would not read or watch it.

I was browsing Netflix a few nights back, looking for a new documentary to watch, and The Secret popped up as a suggestion in my profile (really, Netflix?!). I was about to skip past when I remembered that my friend Rambles had mentioned before that she enjoyed the concept of the book/film. So in the interest of educating myself, I pressed "play".

I watched the whole thing. I raised my eyebrows in parts, shook my head in other parts. By the end of it my blood pressure was way up and I had the urge to write to the author and directors and say "WTF - you need to refund your fans".

In short, here's why I think The Secret is a load of bull...

The Experts - the panel of "experts" is made up of a bunch of philosophers and authors and an entrepreneur. They all seem like nice folk, but they just happen to exhibit the typical signs and mannerisms of con-people. Notice the slicked-back hair, the practised smile, the unblinking or wide-eyed stare, the typical salesy lingo and catch phrases... All designed to build trust to get you to buy what they're selling.

Scientific Claims - when someone says "scientists have proved that...", you should already hear a warning bell. When they use scientific terms to explain pseudoscience, your BS radar should be blaring.

The Law of Attraction - this is the premise of the whole philosophy: you attract the things you think about or feel (i.e. manifest). If you think positive thoughts, good things will happen. If you feel strongly about getting something you really want, it will happen. It might seem like a harmless thing to believe, but look a bit closer...

When a person thinks positively and pursues their goals, this is what happens:

• They project confidence, which makes people take them more seriously - in work, in relationships, in every area of life.

• Their positivity makes them better company, so people will want to spend more time with them, which expands a person's network and presents more opportunities. Their positive mindset means they will be more likely to notice and take opportunities, leading to success.

• Having goals and big dreams makes a person more inclined to act responsibly with their finances and decisions, and to spend time with people who share the same mindset, which limits the room for things to go wrong in life and things will seem to keep going right.

There is no Law of Attraction. The universe doesn't care about you personally.
The results that come from thinking and acting positively are logical.
COMMON SENSE.
You don't need to buy a book or watch the film to gain this knowledge, because logic is FOR FREE.

The book and film are making specific people rich by taking common sense, twisting it around, adding some scientific terms and then tacitly encouraging readers to turn off their common sense and blindly believe a bunch of woo instead.
And the more you believe the woo, and the less you use your common sense, the more spin-off products they can sell and the more money they can make.
The Secret isn't magic, or the manifestation of energy - it's business.
There's a lot of money to be made in selling hope and self-help.

I'm sure I'll get hate for my opinion because the philosophy now has a cult-like following, but to anyone who feels defensive or aggressive when reading this: Apply the concept of thinking positively and acting positively to achieve your hopes and dreams, but don't let anyone sell you logic packaged as magic.

You can achieve your goals with positivity and logic.
There is no Secret.
And I'm sorry to deal a double blow, but Santa Claus doesn't exist.