You Wanna Hear A Secret?

See, I don't post for a few days and then you get two for one.

I'm sure by now everyone has heard about The Secret. Is it possible for anything to be on Oprah and not have the entire world talking about it non-stop for the next six months. Seriously, say what you will about this woman but there is no denying the power she wields in the collective consciousness of our society.

I had caught the last half hour of the show she did revealing “the Secret”, only half-paying attention since I missed the first half and wasn’t too up to speed on what they were jawing about. But with the one ear I had tuned in, I thought, ‘huh...sounds like common sense to me, maybe I missed something.’

So my friend and chapter-mate, Anne mentioned she had bought the DVD to check it out. There may have been some question to the cashier about a money back guarantee if it didn’t work. Either way, Anne watched it and offered to lend it to me. I figured what the heck. Everyone was talking about it and I kept thinking I had missed the boat. I hate when there’s a secret and I don’t know about it. I’m just real nosy that way.

Anyhoo, by this time I had heard enough of what The Secret supposedly entailed to maintain my first thought that it all seemed like a bunch of common sense to me, but I’d give the DVD a whirl because it was Sunday and it was either that or I’d have to suffer through an hour of Desperate Housewives, which just seemed like a cruel and unusual way to end my weekend.

So into the DVD player it was popped and I sat back to have the secret of the universe revealed to me. First impression? A little bit too DaVinci Code for me, but I did like the backgrounds they used and being an historical writer, I liked the seal with the big S on it. What can I say? I’m a visual kind of gal. They go through the opening blurb of a woman telling how her life had dissolved to crap and she was looking for answers. (Why does no one look for answers before their life falls to crap?) She came upon this book and then suddenly we are catapulted into The Secret.

You have philosophers, visionaries, quite a few authors, psychologists, and even a few quantum physicists talking about The Secret and how it works and what using it will bring you and how you do it. So what is the Secret? Here it is in a nutshell:

The Law of Attraction: What you send out, you get back.

Now, I don’t know how everyone else was brought up, but my parents drilled it into me right from the get go (I’m pretty sure my Mom must have been chanting this when I was in the womb) that I could achieve anything I put my mind to. My Dad instilled in me a strong work ethic. You combine those two and you get a kid that grows up believing that anything is possible if you (1) believe it to be; and (2) work to get it.

Which apparently is The Secret.

I have to admit, I watched the DVD with skepticism. Just another bandwagon everyone was going to jump on. Like that whole Women are from Saturn, Men are From Uranus, or whatever it was called. A fad, a thing that will fade out fast and be replaced by the next big thing. And maybe it will. But the essence of what they are saying is solid, and it’s been used by successful people for eons.

But it isn’t a secret. It’s just common sense. So let me save you the $35 on the DVD or the book and boil it down for you.

The entire universe is made up of energy. That includes you. And thoughts give off energy, according to the quantum physicists with their fancy machines. This isn’t a new theory, scientific or otherwise apparently.

So, if you want to achieve something, you need to believe in it. You need to visualize yourself already having it. You need to feel what it would feel like to have achieved it. If you want a shiny new red car, close your eyes and imagine how it would feel behind the wheel. Imagine yourself whipping through winding roads, the wind in your hair. Believe the car will be yours. This sends the positive vibes (energy) out into universe and the universe in return brings it on back your way. On the flip side, if you walk around thinking you’ll never achieve this, you don’t deserve that, things like that don’t happen to you, then you send that out into the universe, and the universe responds in kind and that’s what you get back. You’ll also annoy all of those around you with your whining and negativity and end up desperate, bitter and alone. Hey, it could happen. The universe is a crazy thing.

They also say that it’s the way in which you think of it. So if you want to be debt-free, don’t think about your debt, think about being affluent. Otherwise all the universe hears is ‘debt’ and that’s what it sends your way. If it hears ‘affluence’ then that’s what it sends your way. Positive thinking over negative thinking.

So there you have it. The Secret. And I won’t charge you a thing.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go visualize a three book contract for six figures with a major publishing house. And Christian Bale arriving on my doorstep declaring his undying devotion. It's going to be a busy day.