Proponents of The Secret answered some of my questions, such as how did the victims of 9\11 attract what happened to them, and how does a small child who is being sexually abused attract that?

The answers:
9/11 - We collectively caused that 9/11 to happen. It is what our society attracts.

The child has the option of telling a teacher or a cop. If they are scared and cannot or will not do that, then they are attracting the sexual abuse.

These people are nuts.

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The answers:
9/11 - We collectively caused that 9/11 to happen. It is what our society attracts.

The child has the option of telling a teacher or a cop. If they are scared and cannot or will not do that, then they are attracting the sexual abuse.

oh my gosh! That is so sick! Why don't we just 'collectively' rehabilitate every terrorist and pedophile on the planet today? Tomorrow we'll start on the deluded and those that casually betray the responsibility of protecting the little ones and destroying their trust in the process, for the cheap thrills offered by the secret!

What insane logic! Obviously, The Secret and its army have no time to think beyond its own self-serving doctrine. 9/11 and child abuse. How can anyone grimace at the victims?

Using their logic, why haven't we been able to end the tyranny of this insane thinking? Landmark still thrives. The Secret still thrives. Many, many lost souls are still putting their faith in some 'super' power.

Maybe I gotta try harder. Come on, I'm sure if we really, really tried...

What a sorry way to deal with the complexities of existance.

Well, what I've been finding in almost all discussions about The Secret is that I just "don't get it". That is a stock answer. When I asked one person to elaborate on the idea of small abused children attracting child abuse, they said they attracted the abuse because of bad karma from another life.

Oh, right. So a child is abused because of some intangible aspect of his life - it's got nothing to do with the sick bastard who comitted the act!

And, I suppose, this 'bad karma' can be cleansed by some New Age healer for $199.95 (+GST) over a six-month period (no real guarantees, of course). Failing that, I'm sure there's a dozen or more equally useful methods for dealing with the problem, like watching The Secret.

Perhaps as a safe-guard against this kind of abuse, and because it is so intangible, we better start a national screening process. Ooops, many are already trying - heard of Landmark?

Hope, that might be a good thing to ask the Secret groupies. Why are they standing idly by and allowing stuff like 9/11 to happen? What about all the POWER they possess? They are obviously to BLAME for all the world's problems. Can't they do a better job? What, are they all talk, no action? Let's see some RESULTS!!!!!!!!! TALK IS CHEAP!!!!!!!!!

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skeptic
Hope, that might be a good thing to ask the Secret groupies. Why are they standing idly by and allowing stuff like 9/11 to happen? What about all the POWER they possess? They are obviously to BLAME for all the world's problems. Can't they do a better job? What, are they all talk, no action? Let's see some RESULTS!!!!!!!!! TALK IS CHEAP!!!!!!!!!

Talk is exactly what they do - in circles. It finally got down to this gem - well, child abuse is talked about from a survivor point of view, so it is either the company the person keeps or it is the story they created out of the events. I have removed myself from all discussion on The Secret because it is just mind-numbing.

Oops, wanted to add this to the last post. THe person suggested I try to see child abuse as a lesson which is helpful if I survived it.
you could say that i chose to be molested so that, in the healing from it,
i would encounter my true self. or you could say that's just a story i made
up to make myself feel better.

Gee, that really pushes the old saying, 'Sickness is a great healer.'

So, what about those who do not survive (physically, mentally, emotionally)? Oh, yeah - I must be stupid - THERE'S THE SECRET et al.

So, by my skewed logic, the new technologies of The Secret VII (7th sequel) will include bringing back life from death. I better just be patient - the answer's blowing in the wind!

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Hope
For those of us who abandoned Christianity for the reasons above and don't have a depth of knowledge on scripture, are the scripture passages quoted on Oprah\Secret taken out of context, misinterpreted?

I would say the actual quotes are correct, but its just a radical reinterpretation.
The New Thought Leaders of the last 100 years, knew that they were reinterpreting Christianity, and believed they were seeing its "truth" after 19 centuries of error.

For example, this quote is pretty much the core of New Thought.

[b:cd0e36b254]Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do;[/b:cd0e36b254][/color:cd0e36b254]
[scripturetext.com]

You can see there are many translations above, but they all say basically the same thing.

New Thought people, like in The Secret, take that phrase to mean that if you BELIEVE in Christ hard enough, you will be able to do the same works as him, and even GREATER works.
What that means is you will be able to walk on water, heal the sick, shrivel fig trees, multiply loaves and fishes, turn water into wine, and everything else. This also includes raising the dead and living forever! Not just in heaven someday, but now, in a new "energy" body, or Christ Body. They call that the Ascension.

I am not exaggerating at all, that is what they say, and this is what The Secret is based on when they say...ANYONE CAN DO ANYTHING, if they Believe they have Received it.

And there are all kinds of quotes like that from the bible, that can be used to support those ideas.
this one summarizes The Secret.

[b:cd0e36b254]Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.[/b:cd0e36b254][/color:cd0e36b254]
[scripturetext.com]

(in psychology that might be called the self-fulfilling prophecy, or self-efficacy).

Emmett Fox believed that New Thought was the revealing of the Truth that was hidden in the bible for 1900 years.

So traditional Christianity tell folks that Jesus is THE son of God, and is your Savior, etc.
But New Thought Christianity tells people that THEY are equal to Christ, and can become a Christ.

So that's a pretty big difference! Technically, I would think that its blasphemy, and also just plain idiotic.
Its the same story as Faust, basically.

The only thing else I will say, is that some of the New Thought type of ideas might simply be the mistake of taking a mythological image, and taking it literally.
For instance, the idea that one day Man will have Godlike Powers, is sorta coming true in metaphorical ways.
Take a single man in a loaded Harrier Jet, to a primitive man he would be a literal God, as he could destroy a city single handed.
Or gene-therapy might extend our life-spans, and various technologies can "mimic" certain types of "powers", and in the future, who knows what will be possible. That can be contained in what is called Transhumanism.

But these images of man with Godlike Powers can only be taken as a mythological metaphor, and need to be tempered with the all-too-human condition. (Carl Sagan covers all of this in Pale Blue Dot).

Also, the main idea of New Thought and The Secret that the MIND DIRECTLY EFFECTS EXTERNAL REALITY has certainly NOT been proven. All the scientific evidence I have ever seen says the exact opposite, that the Mind works inside the brain.

There are debates in Quantum Mechanics about "entanglement", but dear lord, its so complex, and so difficult, you need about 3 PhD's to start making any sense of it, and it certainly does NOT say the same thing as The Secret. If I ever figure it out, I'll let ya know!

The Secret says the Universe is a big Sears catalogue, and God-Universe just brings you whatever you want, if you Ask, Believing it will.
They are just misinterpreting basic Goal-seeking behavior of any organism. Even bugs, and rats go for what they want...food, sex, nice place to live.

The Secrets error is in saying that the human Mind acts DIRECTLY on external reality. Almost certainly that is false.
But the mind does act on the INTERNAL reality of the brain, so paradoxically if they focused on that, and modifying Behavior and Beliefs inside your OWN brain, then they might have something.
But people won't buy that because its not Magical Thinking. People buy Wishful Magical Thinking, as that is a hellava lot easier than actually working hard at something.
The inrony is that the less you engage in Magical Thinking, the better you are going to do! So doing The Secret most likely is going to make you get much WORSE results, than just going for it!

Ironic and Nutty?
But a good moneymaker.