The movie "The Secret"

I watched the movie “The Secret” last weekend and am happy to have a clearer understanding of its main message.

Here are some of the movie’s points:

• A practitioner of The Secret starts with the question, “What do I want?”
• The practitioner must visualize that desire in their mind and hold to it.
• The universe exists to serve your desires. Like the Genie that emerged from Aladdin’s lamp, “Your wish is my command,” says the universe to each of us.
• Our thoughts call forth the resources we need from the universe to have our wants fulfilled.
• Thoughts are things, so the more pronounced the thought the more likely you get the thing you want.
• You have to remain in the spirit of joy and love to receive the positive blessings you desire. Depressing and sickly thinking brings forth depressing and sickly circumstances.
• The law of attraction brings to you what you focus on whether good or evil.
• You are the creator of your own destiny.

Jack Canfield, co-author of “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series was used as a shining example of The Secret in action. He told how he lived in a 4½ million dollar house, had a wife to die for, vacationed in all the hot spots of the world and had achieved celebrity status by putting The Secret into practice.

A young teenager was shown cutting out a picture of a bicycle he wanted, and then worshipping the pictorial image until the bicycle was manifested in his experience, showing up on his doorstep one day.

A gay man’s story about feeling condemned and picked on all the time was used to show how when he dropped his negative feelings about co-workers and neighbors, they started treating him nicer.

As I watched the movie, the words animal magnetism, which is a term used in Christian Science to signify mind with matter type thinking, came forcefully to my attention. Testifiers in the film referred to being a magnet, and having magnetic thought-waves flowing out into the universe calling forth the fruition of their desires as being part of understanding how The Secret worked.

It was refreshing to hear that depressing thoughts bring forth depressing experiences. Who could argue with that? And contrariwise, positive joyful thoughts spawn happy experiences. But through it all I felt uncomfortable with the underlying premise that life is all about getting what we want and the human mind, or brain, viewed more or less as a god. All goals surrounded self, feeding the ego, and satisfying personal desires. People become gods unto themselves.

To have all our life goals start with “What do I want?” brought other questions to my attention.

What if we wanted the wrong things? What if what we want is not in our best interest to have or in the best interest of humanity? Is a life centered on self going to benefit the greater good of the world?

In raising our children, my wife and I work hard to help them think unselfishly. We don’t start the reasoning process with the question “What do I want?” but with asking the question, “What is best? What does God want?” We explain that there are moral and spiritual imperatives that need to be learned and followed to live a decent life and contribute to the well being of the world.

If everyone on the globe started their decision-making with “What do I want?” where would that leave everyone else? I was wondering….

I’m glad I watched the film so I am more informed about all the talk surrounding The Secret. I can see how people find beneficial ideas in its message to uplift their perspective and stay out of the gutter of negativity and self-pity. But the constant barrage of “Seek what you want,” left me doubtful that what the movie’s experts claim to be “The Secret” is really the ultimate key to life and happiness in the long run.

The things of matter are temporal, fleeting, and short-lived in the big picture scheme of things. To center one’s life on finding happiness through material conditions and circumstances is not going to set one up for long run joy when the material sense inevitably gives way to the allness of Spirit.

Yes, seeking joy independent of things is a worthy pursuit, as suggested by the film, but the prevalent linking of joy to things and worldly conditions, leaves one mentally still in a universe of matter and spirit rather than in a reality of All-Spirit.

The greatest riches in the world are not material things we acquire or status we achieve, even when we think so, but is found in the truth and love of God that keep us spiritually centered and grounded in a life of genuine unselfish giving.

I'm inclined to believe that knowing and understanding God, infinite Love, is The Secret to success in life. This truth has been taught by many religious traditions for untold eons, and, interestingly, that fact is no secret at all.