I feel like this movie had a good message but went about it in a bad, I'd even go so far as to say a harmful way.
The main idea of the movie is that the big secret every successful person is hiding is The Law of Attraction, that is "If you believe in your mind strong enough you can have whatever you want." On the surface that sounds like a reasonable thing to say, after all we've been told all our lives that we can do anything as long as it's something we really work hard towards, but this isn't what the movie tells us.
It goes further on to say "If you have the image in your mind and believe, and feel like you already have it, it will physically manifest itself into your life." Cut to a little boy thinking about owning a little red tricycle, he takes a crudely drawn picture of it and hangs it on his wall, then he obsesses over it like a crazy person; after a short time he goes to his front door and opens it to find...
NOTHING!
Just kidding, that's what should've happened, but this movie believes thoughts literally transcend the laws of physics and are not bound to any form of logic or science, so the kid got what he wanted; a shiny new tricycle appeared on his door step. This section of the movie goes on to say that you can make your bills disappear from your mailbox if all you think about is getting checks instead of bills in the mail.
Yeah, try doing that in real life and see how it turns out.
There's also a chapter on dating which is more of the same, you can magically attract women into your life by sending out a pulse of pure thought energy from your brain.
But this wasn't even the biggest problem I had with the movie, there's a section on healing and as you can imagine this is where it gets really outrageous.
The tell a story of a woman with a terminal illness who spends the rest of what should be the last few months of her life doing positive activities and thinking positive thoughts. Lo and behold, she has been magically healed by her thoughts and is healthier than she's ever been.
They also get a doctor (of philosophy) to do an interview and where he basically said "blah blah blah THE PLACEBO EFFECT, blah blah THE POWER OF THE MIND... (okay but seriously I'm not a medical professional, and legally obligated to say you should still get medical treatment)."
After that I shut it off, I was having a good laugh making fun of it but I know there are people out there who are going to take this movie's advice seriously (I know this because I found out about the movie through a friend who seemed to really believe in what she was watching), I really wonder how many people have had their lives ruined from deciding to not pay their bills, trying to seduce women through suggestive telepathic thoughts and by trying to ignore cancer to death.
This movie would've gained a lot more credibility if it had ditched the mystical angle and instead focused on the psychology behind the so-called law of attraction; which is, you think about what you want, then get obsessed about it, THEN take action to obtain it. It could've used case studies of people who've achieved success that way, but that isn't what we got.
I'm really sad to find out this book and movie got as big as it did, I hope in the future someone will come around and do the idea justice in an ethical non-idiotic way.
In that respect I would rather suggest:
The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle
It handles the same ideas but feels more tangeble to reality.
"The secret" i sounds a big like "hocus pocus" and makes it rather difficult to be taken seriously.
Now, you can find it on youtube in "book's on tape" form.
Dude yes! Eckhart is the man! I love watching his talks and hope to be as present as he is one day.
I just noticed this on netflix the other day and was meaning to watch it. I also like the message but it has to be combined with action and i think you kinda brought up another great point which is you have to be somewhat self aware and go after things your strong at and dont think you can be a professional basketball player if your 4'10".
steve harvey who has a lot of popular motivational speeches is a big proponent of the secret and positive thinking but he also says follow your god given strengths and not necessarily your passions. he says he loves golf but he sucks at it. his strength is talking and making people laugh and telling stories
Good things happen to positive people because they always see the silver lining, bad things happen but they don't pay attention to them. I know someone who has a good life but is always complaining about their life, I tell them to be more positive and told them about this book but it really doesn't matter. Success is when hard work meets opportunity. You can't just imagine things into your life, but you can change your outlook on it.
haha i know some people who believe this too. I don't but i also think that positive thinking can't hurt (but i do wish we could make bills into checks this way ^^) Great post! :D
Thanks! yeah nothing wrong with positive thinking as long as it's grounded in reality :b
The secret is supposed to be about the Law of Attraction which is a sound principle but it missed out key information and made it out to be very materialistic and selfish which it is not. You are right to focus on the psychological aspects of how it works, but also remember that there is an energetic aspect - if you put out energy you will receive it back - there is nothing woo-woo or new age about this, it simply means that if you put yourself in a place where you exude the energy for the things you want to attract into your life you will notice the opportunities and situations, attract the people and naturally take the actions that will make it so.
I've mentioned the Secret in a couple of my posts and intend to talk more about it and applying practical principles of the Law of Attraction in future.
Anyway - upvoted and followed. Interesting post.
Yeah I didn't mention it in my post but I do think the law of attraction is totally real, it just doesn't work like the movie says it does. I've heard it explained like you just did, and that the brain's reticular activation system picks up on things you would've missed had you not been in the right mindset.
Nice