[threadbear]

Has anyone read the book, or seen the film, "The Secret"? If so, what do you think?

[Eli]

I have not read it but have heard enough about it to safely say that as a whole it is complete crap.

It is pseudo religious prosperity Gospel.

Thread you know why you are poor and do not have a lot of money?

It is because your thinking within yourself is blocking money form coming to you.

Under the current circumstances the tripe this book spouts is dangerous.

[threadbear]

What's particularly toxic about it, to my mind, is it manages to take the really wondrous and curious inexplicables in our lives and twist them into metaphysical axioms with a solid scientific base. They've taken the awe out of awesome, reducing it to "some", followed by "more"

I shudder to think how many people are praying for bigger, better, more, and permitting themselves to think ONLY good thoughts when the world is already almost completely ruined by knobs from the G8 countries demanding their share, and everyone else's. Truly pathetic.

[Ludi]

"If wishes were horses then beggars would ride."

[TWilliam]

On the other hand, the same principles seemed to work pretty well for people like Carnegie, Ford, Edison, Rockefeller etc.

Read Napleon Hill's classic Think and Grow Rich sometime...

That said, the one glaring deficiency I saw in The Secret was that it completely glossed over the most vital element of the process of creating one's life as desired. It referred merely to "bringing oneself into 'alignment' with one's desires", which is a very euphemistic way of saying "get off your @ss and take action toward achieving them".

Basically a very superficial treatment of what are otherwise deeply significant ideas regarding human fulfillment. I too found the primarily materialistic focus irritating...

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TWilliam', 'O')n the other hand, the same principles seemed to work pretty well for people like Carnegie, Ford, Edison, Rockefeller etc.

Read Napleon Hill's classic Think and Grow Rich sometime...

That said, the one glaring deficiency I saw in The Secret was that it completely glossed over the most vital element of the process of creating one's life as desired. It referred merely to "bringing oneself into 'alignment' with one's desires", which is a very euphemistic way of saying "get off your @ss and take action toward achieving them".

Basically a very superficial treatment of what are otherwise deeply significant ideas regarding human fulfillment. I too found the primarily materialistic focus irritating...

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Eli', 'T')hread you know why you are poor and do not have a lot of money?

It is because your thinking within yourself is blocking money form coming to you.


Under the current circumstances the tripe this book spouts is dangerous.

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'A')ll the most compelling disinformation carries within it the most positive, uplifting, hopeful and loving. The Secret is no differerent.

[PrairieMule]

I think visualization gives us the direction for what we want in life but with out hard work, a bit of smarts, and a thick hide you will never bridge the gap between here and there. From what I understand about this book, it seems to gloss over that crucial second part of the equation.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TWilliam', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Eli', 'T')hread you know why you are poor and do not have a lot of money?

It is because your thinking within yourself is blocking money form coming to you.


Under the current circumstances the tripe this book spouts is dangerous.

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'B')y most people's standards, etc. etc. ...

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TWilliam', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'B')y most people's standards, etc. etc. ...

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'T')hanks Twilliam. But I see it a little differently. If anything has lifted burdens, it's the realization that I'm not the author of my own destiny. I feel like a contributing writer in a screen play that I have limited control over. I had a monumentally horrifying adolescance and earlyadulthood and at the time, considered it, "all my fault". Of course I co-authored that screamplay, but I WAS also a victim of circumstance. Most people tend to blame themselves too much, when they should ease up on themselves AND others. Compassion is absolutely key.

I'm still working on my temper. I can be a real beast when I'm angry. Not mean, just goddawfully cranky and snarky.

Now it's your turn--How is your life going and to what do you attribute your success/failure? What part of the Secret has actually worked for you?

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TWilliam', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'T')hanks Twilliam. But I see it a little differently. If anything has lifted burdens, it's the realization that I'm not the author of my own destiny. I feel like a contributing writer in a screen play that I have limited control over. I had a monumentally horrifying adolescance and earlyadulthood and at the time, considered it, "all my fault". Of course I co-authored that screamplay, but I WAS also a victim of circumstance. Most people tend to blame themselves too much, when they should ease up on themselves AND others. Compassion is absolutely key.

I'm still working on my temper. I can be a real beast when I'm angry. Not mean, just goddawfully cranky and snarky.

Now it's your turn--How is your life going and to what do you attribute your success/failure? What part of the Secret has actually worked for you?

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'T')his advice can be used as a weird weapon to control others, too, though. The focus on controlling attitude gives the offending party in any dispute the ability to counter with, "it's not my obnoxious behaviour that's a problem, it's your inability to control your attitude to it, that's a problem". I went through this dynamic recently with someone, and everytime I think about it, I nearly pop an artery.

[threadbear]

I always thought the ultimate nightmare, TWilliams, would be to marry a psychologist, for the reasons we've been talking about. Can you imagine having a dispute with someone who could pathologize your every statement and action? Shudder.

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'I') always thought the ultimate nightmare, TWilliams, would be to marry a psychologist, for the reasons we've been talking about. Can you imagine having a dispute with someone who could pathologize your every statement and action? Shudder.

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')
By Michael Spence/Milan A few years ago, I wrote a book called The Next Convergence, about how developing economies were “catching up” to their advanced counterparts in terms of income, wealth, health, and other measures of well-being. I looked not just at how these countries had achieved rapid growth – including the central role played by an open global economy – but also at the opportunities and challenges this process of convergence would bring. In writing the book, I had planned to include a lot of data in visual form. But a respected literary agent told me that using graphs was a bad idea, because only a small share of people absorb quantitative information better when it is presented visually. I came to realise that graphs are, in a sense, answers to questions. If you don’t pose a question, a graph is