Has Anyone watched the Secret?

[ericmedem]

I am wondering if anyone in the forum has watched The Secret. If you have, what are your feelings on the scarcity thought process relative to living frugal?

I just read about The Secret a couple days ago, and watched it. Then I saw it on Oprah yesterday, it must be catching on. I was very intrigued by the movie and it made me realize that I was actually using the secret concepts in my real estate career. If you havent watched the secrets I would strongly suggest that you do so. I won't go on and on talking about The Secret and then spoil The Secret for you.

I had an experience very similar to what they describe in The Secret. When I was a flat broke salesman about 7 years ago, I was sitting in my office reading books and decided to make a goals picture board. On that board I put down all of the things that I wanted. Looking back it seems funny but I put that I wanted to make $100,000 before I was 30 (I was only making $20,000). I wanted to have a Harley Davidson. I wanted to have a sports car of some sort (I really didnt even know which one, but hey I was dreaming I figured I better throw it in there), I wanted to buy my first house by 30, I wanted a boat, lastly I realized I would need something to pull the boat with so I threw a jeep in there as well.

Fast forward 5 years and we were moving to our new house and my wife was bringing one of my old work boxes out of storage and I saw my old goals board which I had forgotten about completely, as odd as it seems that board never crossed my mind again after the day I put it together. I pulled it out to have a laugh and realized I was moving into my dream house, parked in my 3rd stall was a convertible vet, and a Harley (both paid for w/cash), in my driveway was my jeep hooked up to my boat ready to go. I know it sounds hard to believe but my thoughts had actually manifested themselves into making my dreams a reality.

[creditcardfree]

Yes, I have seen The Secret. And I saw it discussed on Oprah yesterday. I can't say that I have a specific example to provide on how it has impacted me. But I know that many thoughts and my positive beliefs and feelings about them have manifested.

For many of us here on the board, we do need to be careful in our belief about the scarcity of money. The truth is that it is not scarce, it is unlimitless...yet that doesn't mean we should rack up debt either. Many of us have the positive belief and expectation that our investments will make us money and that truth becomes a reality over time.

Great topic...I'm sure I have more to say on the subject, but my brain is getting tired for the day. I hope that others will check out The Secret, too. It is fabulous information that doesn't effect only the financial side of one's life.

Eric, your quote in your signature is something I've always agreed with and applicable to The Secret as well!

[threebeansalad]

I love Oprah, but the guests on the Secret Show seemed ....er, cheesey? I think I actually live my life similar to the way they advocate, but their overall presence just didn't resonate with me.

[creditcardfree]

threebeansalad, I hear you on the cheesey...it does have that element that can be hard for some to get past. Sounds like you get the underlying message.

[Langlo Family]

The Secret is amazing. After I had watched it a couple of times, I decided to try it. Just for the heck of it, I started to focus on black cats. The next day, I saw one. The next day after that, I saw 7. The day after that, I saw 13!

Next, my wife and I were expecting our daughter and my job didn't pay enough and my wife's job didn't pay enough. So I started focusing on getting a higher paying job. Within the next week, unexpectantly, I was offered a position that paid 3x as much as I was making.

I then asked for a large amount of unexpected money to come my way. Within the next 2 weeks a friend of mine that I had loaned $1,000 to and I had completly forgotten about, paid me back out of no where.

There have been many other instances, but I strongly believe in the Secret. I continue to make goals and I'm always crossing completed ones off my list. Part of my New Years resolution is to watch the Secret at least once a week. So far so good!

[Ima saver]

What is it and where do you go to watch it??

[creditcardfree]

Ima, you would need to get it on DVD. Check out the link in the original post. Or there is now a book, but I have not yet read that. My mom and dad bought the video and I have only seen it once. I think I would like to see it again.

I just found out that our bank, USAA, deposited $100 for some promotion into our account yesterday! I've been asking for unexpected money to flow and there it was! Amazing! I didn't know anything about the promotion and in fact still don't!!

The premise of the secret is the law of attraction. Like attracts like. I like to think the law of attraction brought me here to savingadvice.com!!

[dexter]

you can watch it on youtube. I don't know how long the video is but I've found parts 1-4 on youtube.

There is a free version on Google. Amazing movie!

[cornflakesdisease]

So tell me, why didn't the secret work for the millions of people who died in the concentration camps in Germany or the millions of people who suffer a multitude of difficult and terrible life experiences?

The secret is a joke. metaphysical hogwash.

Many times people with more money or better life circumstances try to justify or validate their circumstances in these ways.

Its called coincidence and blind chance. Unforseen occurance. being in the right place at the right time.

You tell me why a child who sits in foster care for eight years never finds a home or why a child who wants to eat, dies of starvation.
Aren't they more than anyone else worthy of having these simple things?
Aren't their motives the purest and simplest?

And yet, no amount of wishing or hoping helps most of these innocent ones.

There is no mind over the universe connection. Sorry. Your thoughts are nothing more then chemical messages.

The "secret" is just another Dyanetics-type positive thinking guru Dr, Phil load of crap.

PS My wife works with pediatric cancer patients. They pray, they wish, they hope, and most still unfortunately pass away and die.

But wait, the few that survive their ordeal and everything works out . . . att ribute that to "the secret".

Same reason wealthy parts of town have so many churches; God must be blessing them, and not the poor people on the other side of the tracks.

Absolute crap.

Ima you can watch for free here http://go2-url.com/aaizsn/ It basically talks about the law of attraction and how to put it to work for you. Hope you enjoy!!

[cornflakesdisease]

There is no law of attraction. It's a feel good philosophy that has no validity. It's very much like 'economic religion" which is proving very common today. If things work out it is because this mindset was right. If they don't, you weren't trying hard enough. Its like a psychological pyrimid scheme.

[ozzy gurl]

cornflakesdisease, after reading a few of your posts, you seem to be a very negative person. I agree that bad things happen to good people (and vice versa), but the whole point of the "secret" is that to attract positivity, you must think positively. Again, things might not work out that way...but you are more likely to attract what you want if you have a clear vision of your dreams and goals. It's much better to have a clear dream than to just muddle through life, and I'm sure you will agree with that.

[PrincessPerky]

While I do believe in the power or prayer, I also believe we live in a rough world, and to bairly quote and old phrase 'stuff happens'...and not nice stuff always.....

I also know that focusing on black cats means you are more likely to find them, because you are looking for them. Now on one hand if you are having major trouble finding something you need a break, look for something else (better yet clean up) you will find the origional thing, but on the other hand, buy a new car you will see more of your new car or old everywhere, depending on what you tend to 'think' about and therefor subconciously look for.

As to goals and writing them down, well writing seems to help the vast majority of people focus and or learn (honest there was a reason your old teacher made you write out your spelling words a billion times, it works)

This week for me is a perfect example, I started thinking about what I wanted to spend 30 dollars on, then I started thinking of what kind of rediculous toy I wanted (sword) then I went to the store today and had the old Gimmes! Havn't had that in awhile, no special secret as to why, gimme was on my mind. I had put it there and I had encouraged it.

Now to put 'find new ways to save' and 'find new ways to make money' back in my mind and encourage them a bit more than the gimmies......

On a related topic...I do believe our mind has a powerful impact on ourselves. For example: ever have trouble typing when someone is looking over your shoulder? Normally I am a relativly good typer, nothing extroardinary (though impressive as one handed!) Last night doing taxes, I had my husband over my shoulder as we did it together, I managed to screw up like ever single word! and the more I thought about screwing up the more I did, when I relaxed and stopped worrying about it, I went back to a more normal oops on occassion. Many motivational speakers would say I could have had a flawless typing session if I had focused on how good I was at it, I dunno about that far, but relaxing does help.

I think that kind of 'positive' power could be focused on finances easily.

[lieweheksie]

reading these posts there seem to be 2 seperate issues:
does having a positive outlook make things go better- YES
is that an excuse not to do anything about social injustice- NO

[cschin4]

I find it amazing that people so willingly to buy into the "You are the Master of the Universe" philosophy. And, those who are doing well are obviously much more "masterful" and therefore deserving.

[cschin4]

If this is information that will help mankind, why do they need to call it the "Secret" and charge people for it. It is just another "positive thinking" scam.

[david909]

The law of attraction works, and it is no "secret" for me. I've been living this principle in practice about 15 years now, and I don't have a shadow of a doubt that positive circumstances in my life were brought about because of my conscious intentions to make them appear. The more energy, resolve and decisiveness you put into your intentions, the faster they materialize.

[genmed]

Just my two cents if you're interested. Feel free to retain your own opinions! (I'm not trying to change them here)

I just saw this. I can agree with the idea that how you think and look at the world affects how you experience life. If you are so tuned in/focused on one thing (i.e. saving money!) you'll start finding opportunities that can make that happen.

I can't buy into the "it cured my cancer" and other such. Yes, I'll agree, as a medical professional, stress and thinking do impact health.. greatly at times. So the whole focus on/positive thinking/prayer or whatever aspect you look at this yes can make a difference, but it still takes either medicine (health), work/opportunities (wealth), etc. and even then it doesn't guarantee anything and many times does not work. Cornflakedisease I understand and agree with lots of what you are saying. I can't understand how, as mentioned in the show you can be responsible for every bad thing that happens to you because you "thought" the negatives into your life. Sure if all you can think about is anger, you are more likely to see anger and violence. It's your view on the world. But thinking about anger doesn't mean you are now responsible because someone broke into your home, or because someone killed your son/daughter. And yes if you have no hope, it's going to be harder for you to get out of poverty; but all the hope and "right thinking" in the world isn't going to guarantee it's going to happen either.

[StressLess]

I think we might be getting the book in at work, since someone requested it, and I'll be taking a look. But--

I grew up reading "positive thinking" authors like Norman Vincent Peale and Margery Wilson because my mother had their books around the house. Then I graduated to various titles by Shakti Gawain, Catherine Ponder, "Money Is My Friend" by Phil Laut and "The Seven Laws of Money" by Mike Philips.

You can see I was immersed in this kind of stuff for years. I still ended up in debt at age 48, and had to come here and start blogging in order to dig out!

There is something about believing things will work out that can make you take risks you might'nt ought. Since everything's going to turn out in the end, why not charge whatever you want? You get psyched to pursue some dream your parents wouldn't have dared to, because they had more sense, and end up loaded with student loan debt. Maybe you spend time writing affirmations and don't bother to do a budget.

Worst of all, you buy into the assumption that happiness is the result of more degrees, more money and more stuff. After all, why bother trying to attract "more" if your happiness doesn't depend on it?

I think this stuff has a place--but you still have to learn the nuts and bolts of money management, and do the hard work. Otherwise you can just end up feeling enlightened, but broke.