by Stephanie Brail

Does The Secret work better for affluent white people?

Here's an interesting quote I caught randomly on a blog. The article is mostly about PETA, but I was struck by this sentence at the end about the organization:

To me, they’re just another group based on the same hype that sustains New Age religion: they make privileged people feel good about their privileges, and relieve them of the difficult responsibility of making the world better for other human beings AND for animals.

I immediately thought of The Secret and the Law of Attraction, and how those memes do precisely what this author accuses: "They make privileged people feel good about their privileges, and relieve them of the difficult responsibility of making the world better for other human beings..."

I would not be surprised if this is just the tip of the iceberg, and we'll be seeing more exposes of the self-proclaimed gurus of "The Secret" over the next few years. Here, an Australian television reporter provides a shocking investigation into claims by David Schirmer's students that he has bilked them out of tens of thousands of Australian dollars that he was supposed to invest on their behalf. (Watch Part Three to see a shifty-looking Bob Proctor appearing guilty by association.)

The Secret's David Schirmer Exposed - Part One

The Secret's David Schirmer Exposed - Part Two

by Stephanie Brail

Since I do hypnosis and energy healing, you would think that I would be a huge fan of the Law of Attraction, right? After all, I often use hypnosis to help people visualize positive outcomes for themselves, often with very powerful results. I use affirmations in EFT and in my healing music. Aren't all these things the Law of Attraction?

No. Visualization, energy work, and affirmations are not the same thing as the “Law of Attraction.”

First, let's distinguish what these things actually are. Visualization is a personal development technique. Energy work, or energy healing, is a method of spiritual healing. Affirmations are another method of personal development. All of these things are tools.

The Philosophy is Not the Tool

The Law of Attraction is not a tool. It is a philosophy. It is a philosophy that states, “whatever you focus on, you will attract into your life.”

It was inevitable. Some fine, funny folks have put together a parody of The Secret. It's called...

Shhhhh!

Monday I had the chance to see a special preview of an upcoming film that will be out later this year (I think). As part of the transformational film genre, it might be initially lumped in with The Secret, but it seems to be very different (at least to me). The Shift is about a global shift in consciousness happening on the planet right now, where people are banding together to change the world for the better.

From what I saw, The Shift looks to be inspirational, meaningful, and all about making a difference. So where The Secret was all about changing your own life, The Shift is about changing the planet.

I am excited to see this new film and I hope that it catches on as half as much as The Secret has. (And then finally people can start talking about something bigger and better than the Law of Attraction!)

I'll post any new information I have on the film as I hear about it.

Byron Katie is a beautiful gray-haired woman with a twinkle in her eye and a tremendous amount of love in her heart. If you ever get a chance to see her in person, you can feel the love radiating out from her as strongly as the bright light from the sun.

She delivers her message through a simple process called "The Work," which consists primarily of writing down your negative thoughts and questioning them. It's simple, elegant, and requires no particular spiritual belief or religious dogma.

The beauty of The Work is that when you do it consciously, you'll find that it sets you free. Free from expectation, worry, judgment, and desire.

The Work not a cult, or a hyped up self-help seminar that makes you feel really good while you're there but doesn't really deliver once the high has worn off.

I had an opportunity to see Michele Blood speak earlier in the week. She is the singing Australian self-help guru who has for years teamed up with Bob Proctor, one of the main guys on The Secret DVD. I enjoyed her talk, if just for the fact that she liked to throw the F-word in there a lot, and didn't seem to take herself too seriously.

What struck me was her comments on the issue of manifesting money. She mentioned briefly that sometimes she gets criticized for her focus on wealth. She said something along the lines of: "If you want to accomplish anything, you need the energy of money behind you, and so I don't apologize for that." (I am completely paraphrasing here.)

Hmm. Well, yes, I certainly would like more money, as it would make my life easier in many respects. But do we need to be wealthy in order to achieve anything?

Since I've been very critical of The Secret, every once in a while I will poke around Joe Vitale's blog and comment here or there. (I will also freely acknowledge that his blog gets a lot of traffic, and posting there is a bit of guerrilla marketing on my part.)

Joe, as you might remember, was the guy in The Secret who likened the universe to one big cosmic catalog that you could order a Ferrari from at will. He recently wrote a post in his blog, Thresholds: Is it serving or selling? Here, he gives the typical response to people who criticize the materialism of The Secret, suggesting that those who have a problem with it are just feeling "undeserving."

by Stephanie Brail

I am a mystic, but I am also a science geek. I used to teach science to elementary school students. I believe in miracles, but I believe these miracles occur within the framework of a very real world that is subject to certain laws of physics. Science is very complicated, and you cannot reduce the way the universe operates down to one simple formula.

Yet, many are accepting the idea that the so-called Law of Attraction is the way the universe works, or, in the least, the way people’s lives work. This idea, now put forth into the mainstream by The Secret, has been called “scientific” by many of its adherents. Yet, this label is not only misleading but downright false.

I have been having lots of discussions lately with folks about The Secret and the Law of Attraction. I believe quite a few people think The Secret has the "answer" because they've tried the positive thinking portion of it, and that works.

Of course positive thinking works (though, not for the reasons the film states). But that doesn't mean you've attracted everything in your life, 100%, as the Law of Attraction states.