It's hard to keep "The Secret" (in stock that is)

"The Secret" is out and from a sales perspective, it's a monster. The book's publisher, Simon & Schuster Inc.'s Atria/Beyond Words, just ordered an additional two million copies increasing the number of copies of the book in print in the U.S. to 3.75 million (it's the largest single reprint in the history of Simon & Schuster). It is out-pacing Barack Obama's book which is just behind it on the WSJ Best Selling Nonfiction Book Index 9-to-1.

For those of you who don't know, "The Secret" is Rhonda Byrne's self-help book "that urges people to think positive thoughts if they want to have positive experiences in life." A DVD version of the book is currently the number one selling DVD listed on Amazon.com's Web site.

Earlier, we noted that "The Secret" is not without its critics. "One reviewer on Amazon said "This 'movie' is nothing more than an infomercial marketed to look like the Da Vinci Code." Another on IMDB said, "This is just a new-age rehash of snake oil." In other words, caveat emptor, and like all such efforts it will probably work for as many people as it doesn't (and visa-versa)."

A far more balanced and detailed dissection has been done by author Jed Diamond and is available at his blog. Diamond segments his thoughts into what's "good, bad, and ugly" about The Secret. Excerpts from his analysis:

The Good

The film dramatizes some simple, yet profound, truths about life. The core of this wisdom centers on what is called "The Law of Attraction," which basically states whatever we focus our attention on is drawn to us.

I like that The Secret helps people recognize this simple, yet profound, Law of Life. I think it was Henry Ford who said, "If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right." When we are in pain, it’s very difficult not to focus on the pain. Yet the more we focus on what hurts, the more we hurt. If we can bring our mindful attention to relaxation, ease, and comfort, the more we bring those experiences into our lives.

The Bad

I found The Secret to be misleading. It heightens our emotions by suggesting a Da Vinci Code-like conspiracy that this information has been hidden through the ages and has just now been re-discovered. In a world where people feel vulnerable and fearful, conspiracy theories are a quick way to get people’s attention.

It quotes philosophers and scientists such as Albert Einstein and suggests that masters through the ages have known The Secret and once we know it too, we will be as smart as they are. We don’t have to go to school or study. We don’t have to spend days and nights alone figuring out the answers to difficult questions. There is a simple solution to all our problems, a tool everyone can use, and a painless path to all the riches in the universe.

The Ugly

What’s troubling for me about the movie is not the value of the ideas, but the way they are touted. Most of the focus is on achieving wealth so that people can buy the things that money can buy—fancy cars, million-dollar mansions, a perfect body, the most attractive partner.

Do we really want to attract more money and the things that money can buy? Or do we need to learn to seek and appreciate the things that money can never buy—love, faith, peace of mind, a caring community?

Diamond then opens it up for comments and his readers concur.

"I agree with positive thinking and positive action to bring those thoughts to fruition, however in a marriage or partnership some things require as you mentioned co-operation ...P.S., my wife thought it was a bunch of worthless bull, made no sense and had no intention of watching it a second time. I just don’t think she got it, or wanted to get it!"

"The Secret. Indeed, it’s just a way of restating the Abraham teachings, Emmerson’s “A man is what he thinks about all day”..."

"All this is just another way of saying the ancient wisdom, “You reap what you sow.”"

Meanwhile Salon.com not only blasts the book/DVD but Oprah for her support of it saying that "By continuing to hawk "The Secret," a mishmash of offensive self-help cliches, Oprah Winfrey is squandering her goodwill and influence."

The main idea of "The Secret" is that people need only visualize what they want in order to get it -- and the book certainly has created instant wealth, at least for Rhonda Byrne and her partners-in-con. And the marketing idea behind it -- the enlisting of that dream team, in what is essentially a massive, cross-promotional pyramid scheme -- is brilliant. But what really makes "The Secret" more than a variation on an old theme is the involvement of Oprah Winfrey, who lends the whole enterprise more prestige, and, because of that prestige, more venality, than any previous self-help scam. Oprah hasn't just endorsed "The Secret"; she's championed it, put herself at the apex of its pyramid, and helped create a symbiotic economy of New Age quacks that almost puts OPEC to shame.

While putting it in more acerbic terms (for example "meretricious nonsense"), at its root Salon had the same criticisms that Diamond had. Namely, its anti-intellectualism and "craven consumerist worldview."

One point missed by Salon however is that positive thinking, at its core, is a good thing. Diamond notes his own experiences as a coach and therapist the benefits gained from turning patient sessions around from focusing on what was going wrong to what they wanted to go right. If a book like "The Secret" accomplishes just that (ripped-off Da Vinci Code notwithstanding), then more good should ocome to the people reading it than harm.

Amazon: The Secret

tags: The Secret self-help