Have you read the book, THE SECRET? Seen the movie? If so, you may have wondered over the years why it hasn’t worked as advertised, or if it has, why it hasn’t worked every time. Though the premise of the book is valid, much of how and why “The Secret” works (or doesn’t work) in the mystical sense is not developed.
Followers of the Secret have been under the impression that their dreams and thoughts would be made manifest by the law of attraction, and of course, there is truth to this. For instance, dreams rarely become real without consciously imagining them first. Imagining them in detail and over time can draw the dream into your field of potential. The idea that thought precedes action is an ancient and time-proven truth. The more important idea—that a well-worn thought takes on an almost tangible etheric form—is also ancient, but more or less new to the Western world. These mostly subconscious and unconscious thought forms are called “elementals”. And elementals, yours and mine, separately and in community, are the invisible forces that really control our lives.
If you’ve contracted an illness, followers of the Secret may tell you (or at least think) that you attracted the illness through some negative aspect of your thought or being. This oversimplification of the philosophy can do real damage. Certainly there are people who are constantly worried about illness, risk, and danger, and this obsessive pattern, if not neutralized, can contribute to illness. Fear and the resulting stress are capital offenders. But the body, mind, and spirit are constantly exposed to complex hazards and effects that even the most conscious person cannot always dodge. It is therefore critical to remain humble and nonjudgmental in the face of another’s suffering and travails, as well as your own. We really cannot know all the contributing forces, and should not pretend to know.
Conversely, I have heard celebrities declare ala the Secret, that their celebrity was the result of a lifelong attraction to fame. They always knew they would be successful. So it is natural for them to assume (and profess) that if they can do it, so can you. So can anybody. But everybody is not aimed for fame, nor should they be, so this too is a ridiculous oversimplification of the law of attraction. And only so many equally-qualified people in a competitive platform can win. Somebody has to “lose”; somebody who has no doubt also dreamed of success.
Recently, a contestant on American Idol, believing in the power of this idea, said he’d spent years imagining himself as The Idol. He trained, practiced, meditated, and visualized himself winning the title. He did everything imaginable to make this goal happen, and was utterly shocked when the judges told him that he had no talent whatsoever and should give up singing immediately. His expression registered utter disbelief. The truth was, he couldn’t sing well, but had used this philosophy to deceive himself. I’m sure many people, especially very talented people, who believe in the Secret, were just as shocked and disappointed when they were turned down for: the job, the contract, the book deal, the marriage proposal. How does this happen? Why didn’t the Secret work for them? Why doesn’t it work for everyone?
Wayne Dyer has recently weighed-in on this topic. He says more or less that the concept of the Secret, as it stands now, is incomplete. I agree. He says (and I’m paraphrasing) that it’s not what you think or believe that attracts your destiny, but rather, who you are. This is far more true than the book’s original thesis, but still does not go deeply enough in my opinion. In this case, who we are depends on many things, but most importantly, the condition of our psyches. And not just our own psyche, but the collective psyche that we automatically access as part of: our family, community, state, nation, ancestry, human fellowship. Thoughts good or bad, do not arise from nowhere without context. Thoughts, good and bad, arise from our psyches and the psyches of our tribes.
The psyche, individual and collective, can be a garden or a cesspool. The choice is ours. A garden is better than a cesspool, but requires a lot more work. Even a garden can be undisciplined and choked with onion grass, however, if you’re a lazy gardener. Most of us, most of the time, are unaware of the nature or origin of our subconscious thoughts (thus the term subconscious). To clean up our universe of thought, our “noosphere”, the lousy elementals we’ve all created, is the first step in cleaning up the subtle energy that surrounds our person. If that subtle energy is dirty and obstructed, it will interfere with our field of attraction, no matter how positive and powerful our conscious intentions may be.
After cleaning-up our own backyards, we must then move onto our families and neighborhoods. For instance, do you belong to, or are you complicit with, a psychic culture that breeds greed, anger, hatred, bigotry, and war? A culture that tells you that you can only succeed if you’re conventionally beautiful, conventionally smart, or think within conventional guidelines? Even if you are attractive, intelligent, educated, and derive from a positive and encouraging tribe, you may be unaware of your subconscious participation in such a negative psychic culture. And even if you are aware of it, it may be so much larger than you that it prevents you from attaining the huge leaps of success you covet. Unless you learn to neutralize it.
Enough for now. More to come in future blogs, including the causal levels of effect that factor into success; corresponding levels of consciousness; ways to enhance your field of attraction by enhancing your field of integrity; how to neutralize the negativity in your life, and more.
