Spill Your Secrets, a GUEST POST by Ann H.

I have never heard of this guy, but I looked at his blog and noted that he is unusually decorated for his age of 53:

-A red thread band around his wrist, signifying he’s a guru-hopper of the Indian type, maybe a Sai Baba follower since he won’t spend his money on minor figures.

I found the following on read wrist bands on the internet:
“Let the body be the Brahmin, and let the mind be the loin cloth; let spiritual wisdom be the sacred thread, and meditation the ceremonial ring. I seek the Name of the Lord and His Praise as my cleansing bath. By Guru’s Grace, I am absorbed into Waheguru.”

-Wearing a gold ring on his index finger (authority), showing that he’s of the demonstrative kind, wanting to inform the world about his unusual personality and authority.

-Wearing a purple shirt, again showing how unusual he is, and how spiritual at the same time.

-His face reminds me more of Danny De Vito and the more dreaded Italian clans.

My secret to success? Hard work. Roll up your sleeves and put in the hours.

Ann, interesting post. I’ve joined many a forum online discussing “The Secret” and found similar “tourists”. It’s interesting to me that Wayne Dyer was speaking about this 30 years ago (which is where I heard it – I started listening to him about 2003) and I think each time the concept comes around, it’s stepped down just a bit more so that more people can “get it”.

I am not a fan of the way it’s used to attract more “stuff” (i.e. material goods) but I trust that those who need to get it on a higher level will and those who are not yet ready for the teachings (and willing to look a bit deeper into it) will allow it to float through.

Nice post – thank you for your thoughts.

Hi Ann! I think that having The Secret being out there is great..indicative of a change in paradigm.

I also have been very familiar with Esther Hicks and “Abraham” on which The Secret is based.

Having said all that, why is not everyone who knows of this information not materially rich?

I have had my own belief systems to work through,my own soul gifts, that are different than others. It is not everyone’s path in life to be materially rich, though prosperity and abundance can certainly be theirs and mine.

Everyone’s needs and attitudes are different concerning money and what they think they need. There are also issues that come up with having a great deal of money. There are some other things rolling around in this head that are connected to The Secret that I can’t seem to pull up right now. Then there is karma….I’ll have more to add when I think it through a bit more.

Hi all,

Interesting comments. One comment in Anita’s post struck me…

“What has happened with “The Secret,” for many people, is that they now believe that if they think it, it will just arrive. No work is necessary, they just have to wait for the goodies to arrive.”

With all due respect, I have no idea how it is possible to know this to be true for many people. This is what is puzzling to me in these conversations. Given the huge sales of the book and DVD, I honestly don’t know how it can be humanly possible to truly comprehend the impact of this movie and book at this point. Which is, again, why I find it intriguing to jump to a negative conclusion about the impact and by association, the movie itself.

One of my favorite books of late on the topic of the Law of Attraction is the newer, short LOA book by Esther Hicks. The section on the Art of Allowing was truly transformative for me and actually resulted in a huge sense of relief and perspective and a major shift. Even for the people who are brand-spanking new to LOA who might be thinking that it’s basically about wiggling their nose and wishing, they are exactly where they need to be, doing what they need to be doing, at their current level of consciousness. What difference does it make?

I was mulling my comment-transformed-to-guest-post this afternoon before reading any comments and an image came to mind to depict my relationship to The Secret and the related phenomenon. It’s just my take on it, which comes from a live and let live and “take what you like and leave the rest” approach.

I picture the folks in the film and the experience of the film as a big, crowded, exciting party. Being an introvert, I move through the party, observing, sometimes connecting with these folks individually, checking them out, chatting a bit. I enjoy myself, find illumination, sometimes lots of excitement and enthusiasm from the others, but no resonance for me with some of them, so I smile, thank them and just move on.

I take my nuggets of new information and leave the party and meet more folks. The fact that the LOA was known about by accomplished people throughout history is fascinating to me, so I explore the readings of Florence Scovil Shin and Wallace Wattles.

Here’s a side note and true story. One day while walking across the street in the city where I work on my way in to work, I was listening to a Florence Scovil Shin audiobook on LOA. I found a particular idea intriguing…it was something about destiny, how we’re destined to attract our soul’s desires. I found myself pondering my love of floral design and desire to manifest a way to bring that work into my life and said to myself, “Hmmmm..I wonder how I am going to do that? I wonder how that is going to happen?” As in, what are the details related to bringing that about. Not ‘how will it fall into my lap?’

I stepped up on the curb, looked up, and there, seemingly out of nowhere, was a beautiful, elegant woman who looked like Joan Baez walking toward me, saying, “Would you like these?”

In her arms was an enormous bouquet of flowers, wrapped in plastic with a big bow! I was shocked and amazed. I thanked her and couldn’t help but ask if she was familiar with the LOA, which she was. I explained what had just happened and we delighted in the energy of the synchronicity. She was staying at a nearby hotel and couldn’t take the flowers home on the plane.

A few months later, I attended a Sonia Choquette workshop and grinned as she recounted more tales of manifesting. As I mentioned somewhere in blog-land, she was weaned on creative manifestation, as was her entire family, and has fabulous tales to tell that have inspired me tremendously. I resolved to share my floral tale with her after the workshop. One of the first things she ever said to me in a reading 4 years ago was “floral design….you have a talent in floral design…” …which has been a thread through my life as I’ve worked to create a new chapter in my life these past few years.

As the workshop was wrapping up, I was thinking about how I wanted to pick up some flowers on the way home, yes, I’d gone too long flowerless and that would be good for my spirit. Some of us were chatting when one of the organizers standing next to me called out, “Who wants the flowers?” …meaning the big vase of gorgeous flowers that had been on the table next to Sonia during the workshop.

“I do!” and there I was, with a 3-foot tall bouquet of flowers to take home! I stopped by to tell Sonia both my tales. She paused, looked me in the eye and said, “This means that you are exactly on the right track.” How fun!

My point in sharing these tales (and I’ve actually had lots of manifesting adventures and synchronicities) is to simply say, hey guys, it can really be great fun to have a go at this rather than jump to negative conclusions. But if that’s what you want to do, be my guest!

I’ve had the basic parking space manifestation (which does always work for me)and some bigger, more complex manifestations unfold, with more that I know are in progress.

OK, back to the “after party” after The Secret…I participated in two teleclasses given by Rhonda Britten, a coach whose expertise is helping people to master fear. The subject of these classes is “Fearless Living and The Secret.” I can’t do justice to all the dots that were connected through that experience, but many, many nuances were explained. Rhonda helps people to become conscious of the ways that fear can unconsciously run their lives. This is crucial in relation to LOA because as she explains, it can often happen that people throw themselves into trying to manifest something that is basically motivated by fear and insecurity, so it doesn’t manifest. Also, manifesting can take a very long time. She knows several of the teachers in the film and explained how they have been working with these principles for a long time.

I listen to a few of the follow up talks by some of the teachers in The Secret…in which they point out that it takes getting off your butt and doing work to bring about manifesting.

Another helpful related thread I discoverered later is the work of Michael Losier, a Canadian who’s written a helpful little nuts and bolts book, basically explaining how exactly to go about using LOA to manifest on the most practical level.

There is still lots more to say, but I’ll stop there and say that I’ve enjoyed making the transformation in the way that I think and use my mental energy as consciously as I can, framing seemingly negative situations as ‘contrast,’ as suggested by Esther Hicks. Do I criticize the filmmaker for not including every follow up interview, article, teleclass, and book I’ve discovered? No way! How much is it possible to include in one movie? Do I believe that there were ill intentions behind the movie? Nope. I’m just not that cynical. Do I believe that it’s done more harm than good? Nope on that, too. Do I believe that LOA is at work? Yep, from the experiences I’ve had in my life. Do I believe it’s the only universal law at play? Nope.

I know that it’s possible to embrace LOA to create delightful experiences and significant positive (and negative-though there were more of those in years past) changes in one’s life because I’ve been doing it for several years now.

Hi Ann,

I don’t think anyone here is arguing that “The Secret” has done more harm than good, that the producers had ill intentions, or that people are jumping to negative conclusions instead of having fun with the Law of Attraction.

What I think people are saying is that it’s important to be discerning. It sounds like you have that, Ann, but the people commenting here are saying that they have met people who don’t have the level of discernment and consciousness that you do and so wonder why “The Secret” hasn’t worked for them in the way they expected it to.

Incidentally, I’ve heard a lot of things about where people need to be, where the collective consciousness of people is at the time, etc. While I accept it and believe it on one level, I can see how this argument, when manipulated or misused, can be harmful – e.g., the place that collective consciousness is happens to always be good and shouldn’t be changed.

Using this line of reasoning, I’ve heard it argued that things like the Holocaust had to happen, that women weren’t allowed to vote and don’t earn equal pay, that people of color were considered inferior, etc., as all manifestations of the collective consciousness, therefore the collective wisdom, of the times.

In some ways, for some people, it justifies not taking action, even with awareness and discernment. I’ve heard crazy things like, “The children in Africa need to starve because that is their karmic lesson – that is where they need to be right now. If they could only harness the Law of Attraction, they could manifest some food for themselves.” Umm, really?

Even if that is true in some bizarre way, is it not also our positive karma to do something about this and to help?

The same could be said about any number of other pressing issues like global warming, the war in Iraq, etc.

I don’t expect the producers of “The Secret” to include every follow-up article, interview, teleclass, book, etc.

It’s wonderful that you’ve been able to manifest everything you’ve wanted to, but that hasn’t been everyone’s experience with “The Secret.” That’s all people here are pointing out.

Hi Melanie,

I think you raise a very important and often overlooked point.

And I agree, life isn’t a race of “he who has the most toys wins.” And it can be endless. It’s no secret – well-documented in many mainstream media sources and books – that Larry Ellison is constantly in competition with Bill Gates, even though both of them have so much money that the rest of us could hardly imagine how to spend it all.

And with Paris Hilton’s grandfather recently deciding to donate most of the family fortune to charity, apparently even those who have a lot realize there can be too much of a good thing. While I don’t personally have anything against Ms. Hilton, what has she really accomplished with her life, except for becoming famous by spending her family fortune in very public and ostentatious ways? Ms. Hilton will still be well cared for, as she will still receive $5 million in inheritance, more money than the vast majority of us will see in our own lifetimes, whether we earn that amount or receive it through inheritance. Most of us will certainly not get that kind of money in one lump some, even if we win the lottery.

If this is what “The Secret” is about, is that something to be proud of? To encourage people or raise one’s children to be preoccupied with amassing as much money as they can? I don’t plan to raise my own children that way, with the messages, “Hey, sweetie, just remember that your number one goal in life should be to amass as much money and stuff as you can. Because that’s what life is all about – getting as much stuff as you can and valuing people by the amount of stuff they have. Remember, now, when you get married, you always want to find someone and marry the richest person you can get, so that when you get divorced, as you inevitably will, you can get a huge amount in the divorce settlement.”

Yes, we all need a certain amount of stuff to live comfortably – and when you don’t reach that minimum threshold, life is very uncomfortable.

But I know people whose every waking moment is preoccupied by how much things cost, how much money they spend, how much money they want but don’t have. I don’t know if you’ve ever spent any length of time with those people, but they are really unpleasant to be around. After a while, you start feeling like all they see you as is a walking bank account, rather than as a person or someone they enjoy spending their time and energy with.

And judging by how much stuff I see at the local Salvation Army – particularly because I live in a college town – most people own way too much stuff and don’t even begin to know what to do with it all.

I’d like to make a few final comments before signing off on this conversational thread.

What I have attempted to communicate in my posts is two major themes that have arisen out of my personal experience of intentionally studying and practicing the LOA over the past few years.

The first is that through a variety of explorations, I’ve had success in manifesting on a variety of levels. I have never claimed to “manifest everything (I’ve) wanted to.” My intention in describing some manifesting adventures I’ve had has simply been to illustrate that it is possible to consciously apply the LOA and to have success with it. And that it can be great fun to do so. There are actually a number of longer-term and deeper intentions that I have manifested, along with bumps along the way, that I would be happy to share about if anyone is interested. With all due respect, I’ve sensed that there is less interest in exploring how to go about developing manifesting skills than in bringing up concerns with the movie and the recent spike in interest in LOA, so I will not bring up any of that. I am realizing now that I had hoped that there might be more interest in pursuing this thread of conversation because I think it could be fun and interesting, but I respect where people are in their interest levels.

The second point I felt it important to raise is that there are many, many related nuances and issues that directly affect one’s manifesting.

Any illustrations I’ve chosen to share are not intended to be statements about anyone else’s experience or any other deeper issues in relation to interpreting LOA.

That said, I realized that there is a third point that has come out of processing what I’ve learned and what I’ve read in this thread in response to the initial post.

A major breakthrough for me came, as I mentioned, in understanding, to the best of my present level of consciousness, the Art of Allowing, as described in the Esther Hicks material. This has been a wonderful gift for me. So in the spirit of the Art of Allowing, I leave every other person’s relationship with the LOA entirely up to them. I make no comment on anyone’s relationship to materialism or how they choose to interpret the LOA. I believe that the greatest contribution I can make is to focus on developing my own gifts to the best of my ability so that I can be of service.

Thanks to all for taking the time to share your thoughts.