On November, 2006 The Secret by Rhonda Byrne about the Law of Attraction was published and quickly hit the mainstream. It became a phenomenal success. This is an article I wrote about The Secret on May, 2007.
“The Secret” was bound to attract many critics. Of course, Rhonda Byrne did go a bit over the top with her claims in the book and DVD. To state that you absolutely get everything you ask for is a bit disingenuous. That’s because so many other factors come into play. Since I have been teaching “Visualization”, which is really the backbone of “The Secret”, since 1991 and using it myself since 1983, I have ample experience with the “law of attraction”. So here is the good, the bad and the ugly.
First, if you have been living in a cave and haven’t heard about “The Secret” here is what it is all about. In a well put together and performed DVD, Rhonda Byrne has a variety of guests, including Jack Canfield of “Chicken Soup for the Soul” talk about the “law of attraction” or “how thoughts become things”. This is an old principal that says that your life reflects the way and what you think about. You attract to you situations and “things” by your thoughts. If it were only that simple, I would now be a slim 105 lbs…………….and rich! Ok, I’m working on it with my thoughts every day. Yes, I really do believe this works, just not as easily or effortlessly as has been reported.
So now that we have clarified what “The Secret” is, lets look at the good it does. First, you can manifest or create some amazing things. I have done this many times in my life as have many of the students of my workshop, Creative Visualization (changed to Law of Attraction). Many friends and associates who only read the book by Shakti Gawain of the same name have also manifested wonderful things. I sold a house within three weeks simply by visualizing everyday with great emotional intensity and desire (fear of bankruptcy will do that for you) that there was a SOLD sign across the Realtors sign. Not only did the house sell quickly, but the people had their own financing and it closed in three weeks from the signed contract. In six weeks I went from near poverty to lots of money in the bank. I’ve gone on to manifest many other things in my life. I’ve had students who have created some incredible situations for themselves, even against great odds. So yes, to all the detractors, it does work. Just not all the time.
Now for the Bad. Why doesn’t it work all the time, you might ask? Well, you take you everywhere you go. By that I mean your deeper subconscious thoughts get in the way. If you don’t think you are worthy of being rich, or you have a bias against rich people, you can think yourself rich forever and not attain wealth. Not only do you have to have the Desire, but you also have to have the Belief. (there’s a workaround, but it can take awhile). Many factors affect what you really believe, deep within the hidden parts of your consciousness.
In addition to your own limiting thoughts which may have been seared into your consciousness by your upbringing, home environment, parents beliefs, religious thoughts and dictates of society, there is also the axis of fate versus free will. Having a business background, I like to simplify by using the 80/20 rule. 80 percent you can control, 20 percent is going to happen regardless of what you believe, or really, really believe. A friend challenged me on the numbers, but it works for me. It might be 95/5 or 75/25, but the point is that there is a part of our journey on this planet for which we cannot control. When my late husband Ronald Patterson was killed in a car accident in 1971, ( not to be confused with my current and very much alive husband Wayne Pusey) I had absolutely no control over his fate. His death greatly impacted me in ways that I could not have imagined. I was only 23 at the time and many of the things that I believed prior to that September vanished when faced with his death. I became a different person, a better person. My thoughts had absolutely nothing to do with his death.
There’s another thing that gets skimmed over in “the secret”. As the Rolling Stones so aptly sang “you don’t always get what you want when you want it”. After all, the one guy on the DVD got the actual house he had on his “treasure board”, but it was five years later. Some of us would be willing to wait for that kind of hit, even though it took some time to manifest. If you have seen the movie, then you know that he kept moving up until he achieved the original dream/goal. The point being that he did get the house, it just took awhile.
The Ugly in all this is the concept that if you have an illness you should be able to magically wish yourself well. Carloyn Myss says this is ridiculous and I believe her. You don’t get ill overnight and cures don’t happen quickly either. Can you visualize yourself well? Of course, that’s demonstrated on the DVD by the “miracle man”, but not everyone has that kind of will power, especially in the face of a devastating illness. It’s not helpful to be blamed for your illness when you already feel pretty rotten.
The net of all this is that learning to use the Law of Attraction is worth pursuing. It will work for you in some amazing ways. But if it doesn’t happen right away, don’t be discouraged. Sometimes it just takes a little time to manifest.
So, what’s possible and what isn’t? Well, the sky’s the limit!
Note: June 2013 I produced a CD with Meditations to help you achieve a relaxed state in which to manifest your desires. These are the Meditations I use whenever I have taught the Law of Attraction. It is available on the products page https://deepatterson.com/?wpsc-product=law-of-attraction-meditations or by calling 502-426-2220.