Anything you want, that’s the promise. Anything you want, you only have to think it. In a nutshell, that’s “The Secret.”
The what? You know, silly. The secret of life. Where have you been?
Perhaps you’ve been busy, working two jobs to pay bills, or struggling with a serious illness.
If I’m reading “The Secret” correctly, you brought those situations on yourself with negative thoughts. That’s what author Rhonda Byrne espouses in her self-help book “The Secret.”
Since the Australian author was featured on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in February, folks have been buzzing about “The Secret” in blogs, online forums and face-to-face discussion groups.
Byrne calls it the “law of attraction.” In her words and those of other motivational speakers and New Age thinkers, the book insists that we create our lives with our thoughts.
“Thoughts are magnetic,” the book says. “Your thoughts become things.”
Pair that thought with Byrne’s enthusiastic prose – “Like Aladdin’s Genie, the law of attraction grants our every command,” she writes. Who can resist?
The online bookseller Amazon.com noted Friday that it had 917 customer reviews for “The Secret.” By comparison, only nine Amazon customers had anything to say about “The Good News Bible.”
How hot is “The Secret”?
At BookWorks, a Marysville bookstore, owner Mary Burns said that the day after “The Secret” was featured on “Oprah,” she sold out of it in five minutes.
Taking a page from “The Secret” marketing machine, Burns turned scarcity into opportunity. She told customers “The Secret” is the same idea as Norman Vincent Peale’s 1952 classic, “The Power of Positive Thinking,” or “The Power of Intention” by Wayne W. Dyer.
Burns has read “The Secret” and doesn’t disagree with it. “Wouldn’t you rather be around somebody who’s happy than somebody miserable?” She also watched “The Secret” DVD, a companion to the book. “The DVD is like an infomercial,” Burns said.
Nicole Aceto is Burns’ 34-year-old daughter. She’s been interested for years in the human potential movement.
“The concept behind the book is basically what you think, you attract,” said Aceto, of Everett. “If my house is a mess, it’s generally because I’m not thinking positively.”
Chris Tinney of Portland, Ore., is co-founder of powerful intentions.com, which he calls “the largest law-of-attraction online community.”
“It’s kind of a spiritual MySpace,” Tinney said. The site has free and paid access. It also has pitches for making money through home-based businesses. Some people may be getting rich from “The Secret” not by thoughts alone.
“About 8,000 people a day are registering,” said Tinney, who used to be in the stock brokerage business “but chucked it all to be an ambassador of abundance.”
I’m not the first to wonder how “The Secret” accounts for people suffering from famine in Africa or dying in a plane crash.
“I really don’t try to answer questions like that,” Tinney said. “What people are looking for is to find some relief from unhappy thoughts.”
Does “The Secret” make room for what God wants?
In Seattle, Louise Cardarella embraces the law of attraction in her work as a mystical Christian priest at the nondenominational Center of Light, near Green Lake.
“What we ask for we receive,” Cardarella said. “It’s really Jesus who told us that if we knock, the door will be opened.”
She gets around the sticky subject of innocents suffering through her belief in reincarnation.
At the New Life Center Foursquare Church in Everett, youth pastor Shawn Roberts didn’t know much about “The Secret.”
“I watch more ESPN than Oprah,” he said. “I do believe God wants to bless our lives completely. God wants to better us in the realm of finances, spiritually and emotionally. Folks are just looking for hope.”
It’s interesting where people look for hope.
Back to the best-seller lists, the Los Angeles Times this week has “The Secret” in its top nonfiction spot.
In the No. 2 spot is a book by one of my favorite writers, Anne Lamott. “Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith,” is Lamott’s latest. Here’s the description: “The author explores decency, love, forgiveness and finding grace in living.”
I think … I’ll pick that one. And remember, whatever I think, I get.
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
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