DVD: The Secret

[Jennifer_G]

I don’t watch Oprah - I’m at work. I don’t know what “the secret” is all about, but I do know that my mom (who watches Oprah) got this “secrets to the universe excercise” thingy. I think she actually believes in things like that - “connecting to the universe by ‘moving your hands a certain way’”. As if posing like you’re carrying a huge log while humming is going to make you lose weight and feel good… :nope: (I’m not sure if it’s the same thing, but it’s supposedly Chinese. After all, in thier thinking, “If accupuncture, Reiki and Taichi work and are Chinese, anything Chinese must be right!”.) I think it’s the baby boomer generation stuck in the 60s and 70s.

I just thought of a counter-“secret” -

to Happiness and (Everlasting) LifeTrue Secret

I remember reading something long ago about being careful of those to profess, or encourage people to seek out, “secret knowledge” and other things.

 

[AlegreFe]

I don’t watch Oprah - I’m at work. I don’t know what “the secret” is all about, but I do know that my mom (who watches Oprah) got this “secrets to the universe excercise” thingy. I think she actually believes in things like that - “connecting to the universe by ‘moving your hands a certain way’”. As if posing like you’re carrying a huge log while humming is going to make you lose weight and feel good. (I’m not sure if it’s the same thing, but it’s supposedly Chinese. After all, in thier thinking, “If accupuncture, Reiki and Taichi work and are Chinese, anything Chinese must be right!”.)

Oh my :whacky: That’s pretty sad.
Jennifer G:

I think it’s the baby boomer generation stuck in the 60s and 70s.

I’m from that generation and I was never into that “new age” garbage. Pray for your mom.
Jennifer G:

I just thought of a counter-“secret” -

The True Secret to Happiness and (Everlasting) Life

When I saw previews for this show, it didn’t say anything about what the show was really going to be about. They just kept talking about some secret. I thought Oprah was going to anounce that she was going to finally quit her talk show career. So I set my recorder. I was going to shout a “woohoo” for her final show. Then I saw the beginning of the show and they started asking if we knew the secret to happiness and the secret to this and that… and the first thing I thought of was “Jesus is no secret!” And then they started talking about this “secret” garbage. Huh?! I was shouting out to the audience, “don’t listen to them, just listen to Jesus.” Yep, I went a little nutty… :whacky: and they couldn’t even hear me. LOL Oh well, their loss.
If they have a choice between the “secret” and Jesus and they choose the “secret” over Jesus Christ we really need to pray for them.

 

[Reformed_Rob]

Well I watched the show the other night. Also I got a request to offer my thoughts/critique so here goes.

It obviously can’t be comprehensive. But hopefully I can cut through all the muck and give a nice slice of good & bad associated with this movie.

The books and all that is outside my scope, I just have the DVD movie.

** The Secret -** The revealed “secret” IS the “law of attraction” that works sort of like this as…as explained by Bob Proctor on the DVD

Everything that comes into your life, you are attracting into your life. And it’s attracted to you by virtue of the images you are holding in your mind. It’s what you’re thinking. You see whatever is going on in your mind you are attracting to you.

Then an author named Bob Doyle says:

Very basically put, the Law of Attraction states that “like will attract like.” But we’re really talking at a level of thought.

And entrepreneur John Assaraf says:

Our jobs as humans is to hold on to the thoughts of what we want. Make it absolutely clear in our minds what we want. And from that we begin to invoke one of the greatest laws in the universe, and that’s the law of attraction. You become what you think about most, but you also attract what you think about most.

To summarize the rest, I’ll put it like this. There is a practice that all these experts teach on the dvd. Basically you start by writing down: “I am so happy and grateful now that…” and you fill in the blank. And every day you look at that and envision in your mind that reality being fulfilled. And it has to be a positive thing.

For instance it can’t be** “…I’m not late to work every day.”** It has to be positive - **"…I get to work early every day." **

Then from writing these things down, you think about how happy those things make you feel. And then there will be events or things in your mind that have the potential to set you on track to making those thoughts a reality. The potential is fulfilled by your acting on those events and/or thoughts.

It’s not like you wake up some morning and your $50,000 house magically becomes a $500,000 3-story brick house just because such a house gives you happy thoughts. But it is reported that if you constantly think positive thoughts, never doubting that such a reality will be yours, indeed already is yours, then “the Universe” will mold things so that you can receive just what you are attempting to attract by your thoughts.

Ok…I’ll hopefully finish on the next post

 

[Reformed_Rob]

The Good - By “good” I simply mean “how can this be related positively to our Catholic faith?” And if you’ve read this far, you must read the rest of my post before you comment.

Matthew 21:21-22
And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.

Now I’m not trying to use Jesus’ authority to bolster the Secret. On the DVD, Jesus was used, along with Mother Theresa, Henry Ford, Abraham Lincoln, and a host of other people. But that verse came to mind, it wasn’t on the DVD.

What I’m using that passage to relate to “the secret” is that the “Universe” or “God” does respond to our thoughts. And for that response to be granted, a belief is required.

The Secret sets forth this “believing” as being happy because these good things are coming your way. Our Catholic Faith teaches us to believe that what we ask that is in accord with God’s will will be done, and that will be ultimately for the benefit of all involved.

So the relation is this… As Catholics, we should realize that God is onmi-potent. If some dude (Morris Goodman, the “miracle man”) who is paralyzed for life and can’t breathe on his own can, within a year, breathe without a machine helping him and get up and walk out of the hospital on his own just because he committed himself to positive thoughts and acted on them, then what else is possible by the power of prayer and positive thinking regarding our prayer!! ?? After all, shouldn’t we think positively in regards to our prayer? If we pray and think “God won’t” or “God can’t” then what kind of faith is that?

Another good thing the folks on the DVD did mention, is that money is not going to automatically make you happy. So they encouraged viewers to focus on what would actually give them happiness, and not just on money.

**
**

 

[Reformed_Rob]

**The Bad **- I didn’t notice any conservative Christians promoting this. Probably the producers weren’t interested in having any on the show. Or maybe no conservative Christians would want to keep fellowship with the other guests on show. I sure wouldn’t want to be associated with some of those folks on the DVD or books or whatever! Yikes!!!

That dude (Jack Canfield) who started the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” was probably the closest thing to a conservative Christian on the movie. But I don’t know much about him so I can’t really say.

This “Secret” is actually not a secret like some try to make it out in the DVD. They said the ancient Babylonians knew about it (whether that’s a good thing or not…you decide). The greatest thinkers in the world knew about it. Also the 1% of the population that controls 96% of the money, they know about it. But maybe that’s just a coincidence.

But we should all know about it, we just may not all use it. So the purpose of this DVD is to get the message out. It’s to inspire people. But it is inspiring them towards a more New Age worldview. Or towards a “Religious Quantam Physic” where we are all incarnate versions of “god” and the almighty Universe is ready to give, give, give, and do, do, do if only we would ask, believe, and receive with happiness never doubting.

Also, during the switches from scene to scene, there were all these images and pictures of manuscript flying around the screen. At least a few times, the word “**Rosicrucian” **flew by. And who knows what else!

The Ugly / The Funny I gotta tell you, this movie was funny! I get a kick out of hearing some of the things these people say. Sure, there were serious parts, but at the beginning and all throughout, I couldn’t help but laugh!

In closing, as Catholics, we must remember the Apostle James’s advice regarding prayer:

James 4:3,4 - You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?

The ugly is that we can want all sorts of good things that may make us happy. And according to the Law of Attraction, we can bring those things into our life. But if we are going to ask and desire to receive answers to our prayers, we must ask for things that are not selfish. Which requires conversion of our intellect and will to ask for things in accordance with God’s will and the benefit of our neighbor.

In the Secret, and I could be wrong, but it all seemed very self-centered. Which if you view the Universe is your mail order catalog, I guess that’s normal. Because everyone else has the same catalog, so let them fend for themselves. Not the Catholic way.

 

[jmm08]

I sometimes watch Oprah.

I am glad to see Oprah for this reason: Mary is better.

So when Oprah has a bus to help peoples dreams come true, I realize that Mary has even more grace available to us. Mary wants us to dream a worthy dream so she can make it come true for us.

Oprah can establish a school or an orphanage or make houses for people. Mary has done more and can do more.

So my attitude is this – Oprah, you go ahead and push the limits of what I can believe. And then by faith I can see Mary able to do more.

 

[Kevin42]

Thanks Reformed Rob for your detailed thoughts on the show!

I suppose this isn’t the worse thing that we have to face in today’s world, but that being said, I am still uncomfortable with it.

 

[aimee]

Thank you Reformed Bob…

Excellent review…I can certainly understand what you are saying…for me, it seems some are putting forth the ‘Secret’ as separate from Christianity…

 

[Shoshana]

Bob: If I am reading you right, than, there would be a grain of truth to the Wicca cult when we are our own goddesses. Because in the Eastern spriituality it is said that God became human so we can become gods.

Your reasoning comes across to me like that. There is a human element in New Age…there is some truth that if we remain positive, some positive things can happen. Just like if we think negative could have a great bearing on our own life. But by Oprah’s standard, Jesus got what was coming to Him. (as a result of her thinking not to what she has said) If He would’ve remained positive instead of coming across ‘negative’, he would have lived longer. Because of the many admonitions He gave, which, btw, would be considered negative and is considered negative by many new agey kinda of people (Course of miracles, etc). So because of his ‘negativity’ he died and this is exactly what he promised us if we are to follow Him…the servant is not greater than the master.

The other thing I can think of off the top of my head…many martyrs sang in joy and love when they were being tortured and killed. We have the early chistians as proof. I just finished reading St Alphonsus’ book on the Martyrs…amazing…And tortured they were…they even asked for more just so they can imitate their Lord…they knew they were dying for Him and were in ecstasy dying…Some died quickly, others died a very painful and long torture before dying. They were positive but evertyhing was negative around them.

So this is where the confusion lay…The makers of ‘The Secret’ …are they Christian? Is Jesus their Christ and Lord? from what i have read, they are not…

I woudl like to hear your comment on this…thanks for the review…

 

[aimee]

Thank you Reformed Bob…

Excellent review…I can certainly understand what you are saying…for me, it seems some are putting forth the ‘Secret’ as separate from Christianity…

I meant the people promoting the ‘Secret’ …

 

[Reformed_Rob]

I meant the people promoting the ‘Secret’ …

Seems that way to me also. I think the people promoting the Secret are not distinctly Christian (which we would probably all agree on that). Also, at the end of the show the speakers say something to the effect of:

“People all through history have their own name for the Power that governs the Universe. Some call it “God” and we just simply refer to it as “the Universe.””

Not exactly that, but close you understand. Seems to me they are trying to slide in and be respected by all belief systems and not offend any of them.

 

[Reformed_Rob]

Bob: If I am reading you right, than, there would be a grain of truth to the Wicca cult when we are our own goddesses. Because in the Eastern spriituality it is said that God became human so we can become gods.

Your reasoning comes across to me like that. There is a human element in New Age…there is some truth that if we remain positive, some positive things can happen.

The other thing I can think of off the top of my head…many martyrs sang in joy and love when they were being tortured and killed.

So this is where the confusion lay…The makers of ‘The Secret’ …are they Christian? Is Jesus their Christ and Lord? from what i have read, they are not…

I woudl like to hear your comment on this…thanks for the review…

Greetings Shoshana,

I’ll try to reply based on my limited understanding. I don’t know much about Wicca or the Secret.

1. Wicca and Catholic Spirituality - In our Roman Catholic Catechism (CCC #460) we learn that our divinization has a source and a result. The source is the Incarnation. The Word was made flesh. The result is we become partakers of the divine nature.

For a Wicca person, the source of their goddessization (?) would probably not have anything to do with the Trinity. There probably is not be an idea of being “born anew as a child of God through Baptism.” So the relationship would be a weak one. But in any religious belief system, there is likely to be similarities here and there.

1. Positive thinking and Martyrdom - I’m not sure what an instructor of “the Secret” would say, but as a Catholic who has seen the movie, I’d think about it like this…
   If the thing that you think about the most that will bring you the most joy is uniting yourself with the life and death of Christ, then God will bring events in your life that will make that a reality for you. Not always via torture and pain, but always through some means. If you’re truly serious about it, you will take joy when those things happen.

So, my thoughts are, this Lent, maybe we can ask God for ways to unite us closer to Christ by doing Works of Mercy. That was what we talked about at Life Teen tonight. We have the obligation, and even more so during Lent, to perform Corporal and Spiritual works of mercy. So we need to be on the lookout for people that He brings into our daily lives that we can help and pray for.

 

[Jennifer123]

What I’m about to say may sound judgemental but I am really trying to honestly say this from having seen it myself from watching Oprah, that this “Like attracts like” business is a good way for someone like Oprah to reward herself for being so successful.

Honestly, from watching her shows in the past and seeing her on TV now, it just seems that she thinks very highly of herself and her opinions. So, maybe in her mind, this “Law of Attraction” makes a lot of sense. After all, she has done so much for the world. Come on, those of you who have or do watch the show know what I’m talking about! She barely lets anyone finish a sentence before she is giving her own analysis and how it relates to her life somehow. Really, it was this behavior that initially turned me off a long time ago.

Anyways, the point is, is that I think maybe this is her way to feel validated by her success, this whole “attraction” thing. I mean, what is being humble and last in line going to get you really?? It’s easier to embrace your success maybe, if you don’t have to give credit to the One who blessed you with it.

Just my opinon, sorry if I offend, but I just think it’s all part of the deception.

 

[Shoshana]

So to summarize all of this…the source of our divinazation for us christians is the Trinity itself…and never oneself. All good things come from God. All things have their being in God.

As far as The Secret goes…all good have their source in me as it is I who attract them by my positive thinking. It is I who is the author of everything in life as I can tap into the positive energies from the univerdr and if I do not do that, well. that is my fault. I am not in possession of The Secret.

As my pastor said about the Da Vinci code at the pulpit…we have the code…then so it is with The Secret…we possess The Secret for sure which is our life in Jesus Christ.

 

[FuzzyBunny116]

Has anyone heard of this? Its some sort of New Age-y self help series. My mom picked up, and I just sighed.

 

[AlegreFe]

What I’m about to say may sound judgemental but I am really trying to honestly say this from having seen it myself from watching Oprah, that this “Like attracts like” business is a good way for someone like Oprah to reward herself for being so successful.

Honestly, from watching her shows in the past and seeing her on TV now, it just seems that she thinks very highly of herself and her opinions. So, maybe in her mind, this “Law of Attraction” makes a lot of sense. After all, she has done so much for the world. Come on, those of you who have or do watch the show know what I’m talking about! She barely lets anyone finish a sentence before she is giving her own analysis and how it relates to her life somehow. Really, it was this behavior that initially turned me off a long time ago.

Anyways, the point is, is that I think maybe this is her way to feel validated by her success, this whole “attraction” thing. I mean, what is being humble and last in line going to get you really?? It’s easier to embrace your success maybe, if you don’t have to give credit to the One who blessed you with it.

Just my opinon, sorry if I offend, but I just think it’s all part of the deception.

There’s no need to be afraid if you’re offending anyone here. It just seems that most people here would agree with you. I know I agree with you. And you are so right, she rarely lets anyone finish their statements when someone is on her show. I stopped recording her show over two years ago. And even before then I watched her less and less.

 

[fnz2thrght]

HI everyone, I’m very new here. I’m not great with words and I’m probably not as versed as I should be but here’s my story in regards to Oprah/the Secret and Satan.

For the past week I have been searching in vain for information on The Secret. I was introduced to it by a group of online friends (quite innocently they asked what everyone thought about it ) and immediately it looked to me completely anti-Christian and totally New Age. Some of these woman are in fact into paganism and pantheism wicca and whatnot. My friends all said “Oprah says it complements every religion” . yes, well, thanks but I’ll be the judge of that. lol I dug around and came up short but my initial feeling was that “the secret” was very contrary to my Catholic faith, so I told them, thanks but no thanks, snake oil is still snake oil, new age is not for me.

After this past Sunday’s readings (3 temptations in the desert) I was able to see a bit more clearly what was at play (don’t you just love when the reading is directed at something you’ve been struggling with??) :

Jesus tempted by the devil to fulfill his bodily needs.
Jesus tempted by the devil to gain power/wealth/success
Jesus tempted by the devil to command the universe(angels)
vs.
The secret says you can heal yourself (physically and mentally)
The secret says you can get what you want (money/job etc)
The secret says you can influence others

see what I mean? This scared the pants off of me and it’s as plain as day and I didn’t know why I didn’t see it sooner. It IS the work of Satan, this whole business.

Anyway, I kept trying to tell these friends that it wasn’t something that any Christian should be looking into. That it clearly wasn’t something that I would be looking into.

Guess what happened? My group of friends has been torn apart by this. Harsh words were spoken, friendships have ended and people have been hurt.

wonder who’s doing that is? Nothing good ever comes from Satan.

Anyway, thanks for letting me share. I’m off to continue reading more here - somehow I’ve never wandered in.

 

[AlegreFe]

My friends all said “Oprah says it complements every religion”

Oh gee whiz. She’s into Scientology and the “universal powers” and all that junk so what does she know?

If I remember correctly, on the second show that she had, a woman in the audience stood up and said she hasn’t heard anything about Jesus so how would this help her (or something like that). She was a Christian (protestant for sure but just my guess), so good for her for standing up and mentioning Jesus. So then Oprah said (don’t remember exact words) paraphrasing…
"I used to be a Christian,…" then she “caught” herself and continued saying,
"…I still am a Christian… " and then continued spewing garbage out of her mouth.
Sorry, I know, harsh words but she has no idea what she’s saying. So I will say many prayers for her. What she should be saying is, “Get thee behind me Satan!”
I used to have this on tape but finally recorded over it… I just got tired of all of this garbage and I didn’t want this on my tape anymore. So if anyone remembers exactly what Oprah said, please correct me if I’m wrong. But I could’ve sworn she mentioned something about “used to be” or “was” when she mentioned being a Christian.

fnz2thrght:

After this past Sunday’s readings (3 temptations in the desert) I was able to see a bit more clearly what was at play (don’t you just love when the reading is directed at something you’ve been struggling with??)

This happens to me too and I’m sure to many others!

fnz2thrght:

Jesus tempted by the devil to fulfill his bodily needs.
Jesus tempted by the devil to gain power/wealth/success
Jesus tempted by the devil to command the universe(angels)
vs.
The secret says you can heal yourself (physically and mentally)
The secret says you can get what you want (money/job etc)
The secret says you can influence others

see what I mean? This scared the pants off of me and it’s as plain as day and I didn’t know why I didn’t see it sooner. It IS the work of Satan, this whole business.

It sure is the work of Satan.

fnz2thrght:

My group of friends has been torn apart by this. Harsh words were spoken, friendships have ended and people have been hurt.
wonder who’s doing that is? Nothing good ever comes from Satan.

:nope: No, nothing!

Saint Michael the Archangel
Defend us in battle
Be our protection against the wickedness
and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him we humbly pray
And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host
By the Power of God
Cast into hell Satan and all his evil spirits
Who prowl around the world
Seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

The devil can’t stand Latin…
Sancte Michael Archangele,
defende nos in proelio.
contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium.
Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur:
tuque, Princeps militiae coelestis,
Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos,
qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo,
divina virtute, in infernum detrude.
Amen.

Here’s a prayer from St. Ignatius. This is good because it mentions giving up everything of possession and that we can be rich enough… well you can read it for yourself

Offering and Prayer of St. Ignatius Loyola – “Suscipe”
Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess You have given me: I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will. Give me only Your love and Your grace; with these I will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more.

Wow, that’s enough to bring tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat. Please, let’s ask St. Ignatius for his intercession okay?

fnz2thrght:

Anyway, thanks for letting me share. I’m off to continue reading more here - somehow I’ve never wandered in.

I’m so glad you shared with us. And this is your first post. I’m so glad you finally decided to post. I’ll say a prayer for you and your friends.

 

[fnz2thrght]

Thank you Sandy,
I think my exact words to my friends were “snake oil, wrapped up pretty and touted as a ‘favorite thing’ by Oprah is still snake oil” lol

I had been saying the Prayer to St Michael - whenever I feel “at war” as it were…I hope that I’ll find courage, and the prayer to St. Ignatius is one of my favorites.

Its so plain to me - even if we took the religious thing out of it (which for me I can’t…but for sake of argument) its just nothing more than Norman Vincent Peale, or Est or Tony Robbins…its all the same thing packaged differently. They aren’t telling anyone anything new. Why are people do gullible?

CNN did a special on The Secret last night - I was so surprised, and while it was balanced, CNN definitely was pushing how ridiculous this whole thing is.

 

[Shoshana]

Why are people do gullible?

Maybe they have not had an encounter with Our Lord yet…we should pray this deception does not entangle too many people although there has been many already within the catholic world. I am thinking and praying of starting a perpetual prayer (the rosary) for a deliverance of such a deception…Mary would be my consolation in all of this and her power is immense as the devil hates the rosary…

CNN did a special on The Secret last night - I was so surprised, and while it was balanced, CNN definitely was pushing how ridiculous this whole thing is.

And this coming from a secular institute…good for them and for those who listened…wish the baptized could think so clearly…