The Law of Attraction is Offensive
Bob Proctor is at it again. The Secret, which benefited greatly from “The Oprah Effect” essentially put The Law of Attraction, around which much of Proctor’s shtick is based, on the map. The Law is…
“Essentially, “if you really want something and truly believe it’s possible, you’ll get it”, but putting a lot of attention and thought onto something you don’t want means you’ll probably get that too.”
This claim is entirely fantasy based, with no clinical evidence to back it up AT ALL. Yet The Secret was purchased by over 2 million people and that’s just the Book, not counting the DVDs and tapes.
“The Secret” itself is not really a secret since it was featured in Napolean Hill’s book from 1930 “Think and Grow Rich” which I read in 2005. That was my first encounter with the Law of Attraction.
The Law basically says if you want something you must “think” about it. If you think good things then good things will happen to you, if you think bad things then bad things happen. Basically whatever happens it’s on you.
Let me take this time to call out to a few folks to make sure they’re listening: Are you hearing this Mrs battered woman stuck in a domestic violence situation? Are you understanding this young boy being sexually abused by your local minister? Are you paying attention young soldier being shot to pieces in Afghanistan? Are you wishing hard enough little child dying from leukemia? Are these people victims of their own minds attracting negative energy through some invisible, unmeasurable, implausible yet still somehow real mechanism?
I really find this type of bullshit offensive and it makes me mad to my very core.
Well Bob and his buddies are at it again with their latest crock “Beyond the Secret”. What? Yes, “beyond”. In a video from his blog (which I refuse to link to) he claims the Secret was good but incomplete. We need to go “Beyond”. So having raked in millions from unassuming vulnerable individuals world wide this vampire wants to suck people even drier? I think THAT’s the real Secret.
Let ME be the coach for a second: Consider this:Â Forget phony baloney coaches and miracle cures. Forget the easy route. Forget the free ride. Forget looking to CHANGE your life. Forget your untapped potential, chances are if you’re not already using it you don’t have it (harsh but true). Forget blaming other people and get off your ass and enjoy yourself.
Consider this: What if I am already very happy with my life and don’t want it to change? I don’t buy into the notion that happiness is a target that we must constantly run after by seeking change or that potential is lying unused. I’m actually fairly confident that I’m operating at full potential and have been for some time now. I finished 3rd in my class in college and top 2% in the country, I have written a book, I workout, I play guitar, I run, I’m artistic, I cook, I understand electronics, I have good friends, two wonderful children and a beautiful wife. I’m happy, I’m very happy. What more do I need? Let me tell you a secret….nothing.
Francis, you know they made over $300M selling copies of that book and the dvds? It is ridiculous.
I have read quite a bit about the self help world and how those product hurt people. It is fascinating how flimsy these so called “gurus” are and the techniques the use to scam people. And they care so little about their followers. One of the creators of The Secret accidentally killed a bunch of his followers in Sedona, AZ in September, and showed no remorse for what he had done.
If you want to learn more, you should check out this guy’s blog:
http://shambook.blogspot.com/
His book is excellent too.
Jim
Absolutely right James. I was not aware of the AZ tragedy, 3 people dead, 19 hospitalized after a “Sweat Lodge Ceremony”. They paid $9,000 each for the privilege.
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/local/flagstaff/arizona-sweat-lodge-deaths-12-28-2009
In a separate incident a lady as recent as December jumped to her death after attending a “Turning Point” seminar.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10614329&pnum=1
I’m completely with you man. Btw…I had no idea you wrote a book! What’s it about?
Oh yeah i’m in total agreement on this one. I’ve seen that book ‘The Secret’ in the shops and I could not BELIEVE that people would actually buy into this garbage.
I must be really missing something here that I haven’t written some sort of trash like this myself and make a few million. its actually criminal that this rot can get published and even worse that sane (maybe) normal (probably not) people will buy it.
but then put a glossy cover on and people will buy anything. If wishing and wanting would work there’d be a lot more millionaires, we’d all be married to the perfect partner who never lost their temper, our kids would all be well-behaved geniuses etc etc.
but they’re not so we must live away with what we got.
The secret seems to me to be to make the best of what you’ve got, not wasting time wishing for the moon, if you want a better life you have to do something towards it all by yourself.
I am wishing very hard for a very painful and treacherous misadventure to befall the purveyors of The Secret. But I guess the karma-bus just does not stop in their part of town.
Devoting any mental energy towards worrying about other people “buying into” crap; or whether there is any justice in this world for con men, is, what my therapist assures me is called “magical thinking”, and contributes to my sleep disturbances, acid reflux, and other neurotic behavior. There are more constructive things to focus my attention on. Like me. And guiding my own choices.
All this other stuff – thinking about it, worrying about it; has no effect on outcome. No more effect than on the fact that we all gotta pay taxes. No more effect than on how some people work very hard for very little reward, and others produce almost nothing, and are compensated with unimaginable wealth. No more effect than on the 50,000+ that just died of a natural disaster in Haiti. No more effect than on, well, the fact that all of us are going to wear out and end someday.
Or as the coach in the Bad News Bears put it; “It just doesn’t matter.”
Hi Fran,
Interesting topic.
You have a strong point.
These books prey on weak people!
I can summarise it all up in what
Gran used to say to us as kids
“God helps those who help themselves”.
Life isn’t fair and we have to make
the best we can with the cards we are dealt.
Of course some are better at that than others
and some get better cards!!
Jim
You obviously didn’t really read or study or even test any of these ideas you small minded dorks. The law of attraction works perfectly in that it gives you all the evidence you need to prove to yourself that it doesn’t work.
PS: they gave me “the secret” in a drug treatment center in 2005 and I immediately took responsibility for my own thoughts and I have been clean and productive for 5 years now. I put my focus on creating a new future and I got it, and I continue to get it.
I did my research, and the shit works… you just have to apply it just like anything else. It’s not like you invite war, or invite rape, or invite disease… but if you constantly talk about it and put your attention on other people’s suffering, and then simultaneously believe that you are vulnerable and you feel fearful and don’t do something to get out of harms way, then your chances of getting the bullet, or the rape, or the disease go way up.
Plan and simple, you’re just not willing to accept that you’re fully responsible for everything that happens to you and you alone. There’s nobody else. It’s just you, dumass.
Bob Proctor is a bit of a knob… I will admit. There are more clear teachers of these principles.
Again… So much of what you said was flawed, but you have masterfully attracted all the evidence you wanted to prove that it does not work. Extreme situations don’t just happen… there’s a lot of time and thought leading up to those events. Those people who have those things happen to them are masterful victims… even the little babies… those innocent little babies.
But they keep coming back for more for many reasons too numerous to count; but here is a very good reason I like to assume that they are being an example to others of what not to focus on.
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