The Wrath of the Secretrons

For the past few months I’ve been getting some pretty interesting hate mail in response to my blog, Whirled Musings. I created WM as a humor blog, dedicated largely to making fun of the New-Wage subculture. That’s my term for the prosperity-obsessed, MLM-loving segment of the New-Age and motivational crowd (or, to use a term coined by my partner Ron Kaye, the “hustledorks”). I also like to hit on more traditional New-Age targets, as well as pop spirituality, self-help, and the silly side of the corporate world.

But some people aren’t laughing. In fact, some are pretty upset with me. They’ve accused me of being overly negative, ignorant, and a hate-monger. One person even advised me that I’m committing some of the same acts that led to the extermination of eleven million human beings during the Third Reich.

“LADY, THIS IS HOW THE HOLOCAUST STARTED, WITH CUTE LITTLE ATTACKS LIKE YOURS,” one writer said in response to one of my recent blog posts.

“Keep it up, make it funny, make it (slowly but surely) PALITABLE (sic) TO THE MASSES to attack those with ideas that you don’t like.”

So just what have I been doing? Making unconscionable racial and ethnic slurs on my blog? Encouraging my readers to go out and implement the Final Solution?

No, I have been making fun of that mystical, motivational, and astonishingly successful franchise called The Secret, as well as some of its “stars.” I once received only supportive comments on my blog; that changed when I turned my satirical eye to The Secret. The Holocaust alarmist’s missive was just one in a string of disapproving messages I’ve been receiving in response to my numerous potshots at the marketing coup of the Aquarian Age.

You’ve probably heard of The Secret by now. If you haven’t, it is not from any lack of effort by The Secret’s aggressive promotion machine, or, for that matter, by the mainstream media, with their almost daily offerings of news and commentary about The Secret. The DVD was an almost-overnight cult hit with the New-Age/New-Wage crowd, and has now hit the mainstream in a big way. The companion book, released in November 2006, is Number 2 on Amazon.com as I write this.

Although its promoters bill the DVD as a life-changing “movie” and the harbinger of a new era for humanity, I’ve viewed it from the beginning as little more than a glorified infomercial for some of the leading lights in the self-help and pop-spirituality industries. Included in this stellar lineup are Mars-and-Venus author John Gray; New-Age preacher and Agape International founder Reverend Michael Beckwith; chiropractor-turned-New-Wage leader Dr. John Demartini; self-described metaphysician and marketing guru Joe Vitale; Chicken Soup For The Soul co-creator and “success coach” Jack Canfield; motivational speaker Bob Proctor; and Conversations With God creator Neale Donald Walsch.

Also starring in the original DVD, but missing from a subsequent “improved” version, are Esther and Jerry Hicks, best known for Esther’s channeling of a group of disembodied entities known collectively as “Abraham.” Jerry and Esther are also the authors of several books based on wisdom imparted to them by “Abraham.” The couple’s absence in the re-release is not, as you might be tempted to speculate, due to the producers deciding that The Secret would be more credible to a wider audience if the specter (so to speak) of channeling were removed. According to a statement that appeared briefly on Jerry and Esther’s web site, and that was substantiated in a February 2007 New York Times article, their appearance in the revised version would have necessitated a new contract that force them to relinquish too many rights to their own material.

In any case, the presence of a channeler is apparently not a problem, credibility-wise. After all, JZ Knight, the rich and famous mouthpiece for a 35,000-year-old imaginary friend she calls Ramtha, was featured in another underground New-Age hit: the 2004 docudrama What The Bleep Do We Know?!?, which, in addition to being an infomercial for JZ/Ramtha, is a celebration of the fashionably enlightened set’s delusions about quantum physics. (Though the “science” in What The Bleep has been deconstructed by Skeptical Inquirer and many others, that seems to have had little impact on the quantum-mystic crowd.) JZ was also one of the guests on a November 2006 Larry King Live show, and neither King nor his audience seemed to be laughing at her. To the contrary, King was very respectful, asking her questions as if she were an expert of some sort.

If you’re at all familiar with The Secret, you know that the big secret revealed therein is a centuries-old principle called the law of attraction, or LOA. In The Secret LOA is presented as a scientific law akin to the law of gravity. LOA believers maintain that whether we realize it or not, we “attract” everything that happens to us – the good and the bad, the sublime and the silly, the comical and the tragic. Financial success or failure, health or illness, a life of peace or one beset by violent crime or natural disasters, all occur because we somehow attracted them. Proponents of LOA explain that this happens because our vibrations are in sync with the events in question. If we learn to focus on the good and ignore the bad, we will “raise our vibrations” and attract more good things into our lives – including, and some would say especially, material goodies.

Projecting backward

There does seem to be a great deal of emphasis on material wealth in The Secret, and this is by design, according to the producers, since so many people these days are interested in getting rich. The story goes that Rhonda Byrne, the main creator and producer of The Secret, was originally inspired by a 1910 book called The Science of Getting Rich, one of many books by success/motivational writer Wallace D. Wattles (1860-1911). Wattles, who believed a fulfilling life was not possible without wealth, wrote that a “normal” person cannot help wanting to be rich, and that if you don’t become rich, “you are derelict in your duty to God, yourself and humanity.” Although he did not mention the law of attraction by name in the book, he alluded to it: “It is a natural law that like causes produce like effects.” He added, “Once you learn and obey these laws, you will get rich with mathematical certainty.”

I think it worthy of note that Wattles, who died at a relatively young age, did not die rich. Perhaps he failed to do the math. Nevertheless Byrne was so impressed with Wattles’ book that she decided her mission was to bring its message to the world – with the assistance of some of the most successful New-Wage go-getters, of course. To add to the credibility and ancient-wisdom cachet, some “great teachers” from the past were tossed into the mix, including Jesus Christ, Plato, Galileo, Edison, and Einstein, who, according to The Secret, were also privy to the law of attraction.

Notwithstanding the reported humility of some of those famous dead people, there’s definitely a focus on New-Thought style prosperity consciousness in The Secret. And there is an added bonus: the message, both implicit and explicit, that one hardly has to do any work at all to draw the good things into one’s life. According to Secret star Joe Vitale, who says he holds doctorates in both metaphysics and marketing, “This is really fun. It’s like having the Universe as your catalogue. You flip through it and say, ‘I’d like to have this experience and I’d like to have that product and I’d like to have a person like that.’ It is you placing your order with the Universe. It’s really that easy.”

For Vitale, perhaps it really is that easy these days. But he didn’t simply sit down one day and flip through a virtual catalogue of the Universe to pick out toys to furnish his world. He didn’t suddenly “discover” the law of attraction and consciously begin using it to create a fabulous life. He worked hard for decades as a freelance copywriter, journalist and marketing consultant, doing more than his share of the freelance writer’s equivalent of grunt work (press releases and the like), and penning numerous books on writing, marketing and motivational topics. He also paid his dues conducting low-cost or free workshops, classes, and public-speaking gigs. And through the years, he supplemented his writing, marketing and speaking incomes by earnestly promoting a long string of MLM programs, one after another.

Vitale also says he’s been a lifelong spiritual seeker, having explored a broad range of personal-growth programs, alternative “therapies,” and gurus over the years. For seven years he was a faithful follower of the late controversial cult leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, though he left that cult in the 1980s. Vitale finally found a formula that really worked when he decided to combine his lifelong interest in spirituality with his love of marketing. He also used his long-time fascination with magic and hypnosis to create something called “hypnotic marketing.” Above all, he was and is a tireless self-promoter, and I believe that this, more than anything else, led to the big payoff for him.

These days he devotes a fair share of blog space to writing about his BMWs, his $150,000.00 Panoz Esperante sports car, his custom Rolex watches, his vacations on Maui, and the multi-million dollar mansion in California that he’s thinking of buying. This is all couched in motivational or spiritual life lessons, but even when he is writing about profound matters, he rarely misses a chance to boast about his newest toy. The hook is Vitale’s implied promise to readers that they can enjoy similar wealth and fame, or something even better, if they just follow the principles in The Secret and, of course, in Joe’s own books, CDs, DVDs and $1,000.00 “Beyond Manifestation” workshops. Above all, Vitale is selling them the hope that “it really is that easy.” (I must add, though, that in light of numerous critical comments on the magical-thinking aspect of The Secret, Vitale is now emphasizing that action is as important as wishing and hoping if you want to realize your dreams. And he’ll be only too happy to sell you endless products, programs and services to help you determine your best course of action.)

Most of the other teachers in The Secret followed similarly circuitous paths to success as Vitale, and along the way many of them also picked up dubious doctorates and other credentials that they have never hesitated to exploit. “Dr.” John Gray, for example, didn’t start out as a phenomenally successful relationship “expert.” According to a 1994 Houston Post article by journalist David Kaplan, who is currently with the Houston Chronicle, Gray, like many members of the baby-boom generation, did his share of experimenting with recreational substances and Eastern religions when he was young. Born into a wealthy oil family in Houston, he immersed himself in the psychedelic drug culture while in high school. After high school, he lived as a celibate Hindu monk for nine years in Switzerland and was the personal assistant to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the infamous founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement and guru to the Beatles. During this time Gray received the equivalent of BA and MA degrees in “Creative Intelligence” from the Maharishi European Research University. When he moved back to the US in the late 1970s, he was jobless, homeless and flat broke for six months. He sometimes sat and talked with other homeless men about his philosophy of life, but most of them had no idea what he was talking about. He was, perhaps, a little ahead of his time.

Even though he didn’t find his audience among the homeless, it seems Gray was destined to do workshops. In 1980 he began conducting seminars, first teaching workshops about “sex and spirituality,” and later about relationships. His Maharishi background enabled him to be a “spiritual counselor” in the state of California. Gray acquired his Ph.D. at Columbia Pacific University, a correspondence school that was later shut down by the California Department of Consumer Affairs for being a diploma mill. For a time he was married to self-help author Barbara De Angelis, but when their two-year marriage fell apart, Gray was both professionally and personally devastated. Forced to re-evaluate everything he believed, he eventually hit upon the “discovery” that the things that make women happy are completely different from those that make men happy. This eventually led to the Mars-and-Venus gimmick, which turned out to be an astonishing success. Questionable credentials aside, Gray was able to grow his 1992 book, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, into a lucrative empire. Now he is touted as an “expert” on everything from dating and sex to parenting (Children Are From Heaven), and from workplace politics to dieting. And ever since Rhonda Byrne decided he was one of today’s greatest teachers, he also has that law of attraction thing going for him.

Then there’s another Dr. John, chiropractor John Demartini, who says that at the age of seven he was told by a teacher that he had a learning disability and would never read, write or communicate normally. He dropped out of school at fourteen, headed for the California coast and became a surfer dude, ending up in Hawaii by seventeen. His life in paradise nearly came to an abrupt halt when he almost died from strychnine poisoning. The bio page on his web site does not specify exactly how he got strychnine poisoning, so one can only speculate (I suspect a recreational-drug connection). Whatever the source of the alleged poisoning, the near-death experience apparently turned Demartini’s life around. On the road to recovery he found Dr. Paul Bragg, a nutritionist and founding father of the health food industry, who, according to Demartini’s web site, “would change his life forever by instructing him to repeat one simple affirmation every day: ‘I am a genius and I apply my wisdom.’” The affirmation did not make Demartini rich overnight. Eventually he went to college and then went through chiropractic training. He also began doing public speaking, and at one presentation in the mid 1980s he was introduced to self-help giant Dr. Wayne Dyer, who shared life-changing advice with him about how to become a successful international speaker.

Even Dyer’s tip wasn’t the key to overnight wealth for Demartini, who continued to grow his chiropractic practice, while developing seminars on wisdom and wealth, always working towards his goal to become a famous public speaker. After many years of small-time speaking engagements that grew increasingly larger, after countless hours spent honing his wisdom and turning it into a marketable shtick, he hit the big time and became the self-help/motivational star he’d long wanted to be. Today Demartini owns several homes all over the world, with his main residence being a luxury cruise liner, The World, described on his web site as “the only resort community to continually circumnavigate the globe.” He has made remarkable progress since his days as a fourteen-year-old dropout; a glance on the home page of one of his official web sites reveals that John Demartini is one of “The Greatest People Of All Time.” His name is at the top of a list that also includes Einstein, Rockefeller, Lincoln, Carnegie, Emerson, Edison, and Henry Ford. Demartini is also, obviously, modest to a fault.

I could go on and on with examples, but the point of every story would be the same: In the New-Wage world there are very few overnight sensations – no matter how many positive thoughts, affirmations and earnest prayers are sent out to the Universe.

The reason for featuring Vitale, Gray, Demartini and other successful self-help gurus in The Secret is, obviously, to convince watchers that these people became successful because they learned how to use the law of attraction in their favor. Never mind the years of trial and error, hard work and dumb luck, that got them to where they are now. Steve Salerno, author of the book SHAM: How The Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless, wrote in his review of The Secret on Amazon: “One seldom encounters a better/worse example of the logical fallacy known as a posteriori reasoning. To take a successful person, look backwards at the attitudes they held on the way to becoming successful, then use those as proof-positive of WHY they’re successful, is as fundamentally silly as using the fact that Bill Gates and Ted Turner were college dropouts as justification for why you or your kids should drop out of college, too. (‘See? You’ll become a millionaire, just like they did!’).”

In lieu of Gates and Turner, of course, Salerno could just as easily have cited any of the dropouts, dilettantes, and former drug users packaged in The Secret as “master teachers” who have lassoed the law of attraction.

From a marketing standpoint, the a posteriori tactic makes sense for The Secret’s producers and certainly for its stars. If the self-help gurus can attract more followers by claiming that they consciously used the law of attraction to create their success, they’d be foolish not to make that claim. After all, most of them teach or practice something that is at least vaguely compatible with LOA, whether they use that specific term or call it positive thinking or something else. Further, it’s easy enough to convince those who want desperately to believe in overnight success that although most of the gurus discovered LOA the hard way, they are simply attempting, via The Secret and their own works, to spare the rest of us years of grief and suffering.

The contagion spreads

The Secret is, if nothing else, an extraordinarily successful example of “viral marketing,” which is exactly what it sounds like: a highly contagious hustle. As a television producer, Rhonda Byrne originally intended The Secret to be a TV program, but the deal she initially made with an Australian network fell through. That was no problem; with today’s technology there’s more than one way to produce and distribute a program, and Byrne had visions of global distribution anyway. But she needed to market The Secret, and she’d already spent a bundle in production and didn’t have a big marketing budget. To supplement her efforts, she called upon the participants in the film to promote the DVD via their web sites and their huge mailing lists. And promote it they did – aggressively.

In addition to the efforts of the contributors, an official Secret web site was launched with a promotional trailer and all kinds of bells and whistles to enhance the mystique; the site received thousands of hits a day. In keeping with the whole “secret” theme, the producers and participants were very cagey about the contents of the DVD in the months preceding the actual release, teasing their market unmercifully. When the movie finally made its debut in March of 2006, it was, according to Vitale in a November interview with ABCNews.com, “an instant best seller, because they had this giant mailing list of people that were almost unbearably impatient in waiting for the thing to be released.”

As sales of the DVD took off, as more and more New-Thought churches and metaphysical venues across the US held public screenings of the DVD, and as the relentless publicity continued, the mainstream media began to take notice. In November 2006, CNN’s Larry King Live presented a two-part special on “Beyond Positive Thinking,” featuring stars of The Secret and What The Bleep. On both segments, King was almost fawning in his interview questions, and didn’t offer any serious challenges to the panelists. Later that month, ABCNews.com ran an uncritical article about The Secret phenomenon, adding to the joy of producers, stars and fans. The turning point was in February of 2007, when Oprah Winfrey officially came out as one of The Secret’s most enthusiastic – and influential – supporters.

By then the inevitable backlash was hitting its stride, though some of us had been criticizing The Secret from the very beginning. In an effort to address the criticism, Larry King ran another segment on The Secret in March 2007, but it was stacked with “stars” from the infomercial, with only one lame (though decidedly camera-friendly) dissenter, psychotherapist Dr. Robi Ludwig, who turned out to be quite conciliatory after all.

The law of capitalism

Although The Secret producers advertised the DVD as revealing the ultimate wisdom of the ages – everything anyone needs to know to put LOA to work – it seems that there are still more “secrets” in the offing. In addition to the new and improved version of the original DVD, an upcoming sequel will take people to “the next level.” Yes, there is always a “next level,” and yet another “next level,” and there always will be until a new “ancient secret” comes along. For now there’s the book, a companion workbook, an audio CD featuring music from the DVD…and on and on.

Most significantly, The Secret’s stars are busily touting their own enhancements and auxiliary products that, for a price, will help you get the most out of the law of attraction. The most notorious example so far comes from three Secret stars I’ve dubbed the Three Amigos – Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, and Michael Beckwith, who have unveiled their Science of Getting Rich MLM scheme (entry fee: $1,995 USD). While SGR is not authorized by the producers of The Secret, the Amigos are definitely capitalizing on their Secret connection, and to my knowledge haven’t yet been told to cease and desist.

One can hardly blame the luminaries featured in The Secret for exploiting their participation to the max, via their web sites and other promotional media. Though most were highly successful on their own, The Secret has breathed new life into their careers and promotional efforts. They are benefiting handsomely from the sales of the book and DVD, even if they’re not getting a direct share of the profits.

The Secret has sparked the entrepreneurial spirit in other New-Wage merchants large and small, and there are already a number of spin-off products and services. As is true in other segments of the infotainment industry, for every megastar there are hundreds of wannabes, and I write about them frequently on my blog. Evidence of LOA capitalism is everywhere, particularly in the online forums, such as Marcy From Maui’s Powerful Intentions forum. These communities are heavily populated by folks who are trying to make a living from marketing, metaphysics, or some combination thereof. The LOA craze has even provided a whole new angle for those ubiquitous “life coaches”; just Google “law of attraction coaches” and you’ll come up with pages of results.

What does this mean for skeptics?

I’m not a scientist, but it’s pretty clear to me by now that the Secret promoters’ claim that the law of attraction is a scientific law, similar to the law of gravity, is ludicrous. I have no doubt that we unwittingly “attract” circumstances and people into our lives with our actions and even our thoughts (which, more often than not, fuel our actions). Learning to become more conscious of our thoughts and actions is surely a worthy endeavor. I’m even willing to acknowledge that there are forces in the Universe that science doesn’t yet have a handle on, and may never fully understand. But I draw the line at embracing the “science” lessons of egotistical hustlers, no matter how many bestselling books they have under their belt.

Despite their phenomenal success, The Secret (and What The Bleep) may strike many skeptics as just more New-Age nonsense – easy targets for scorn or laughter, perhaps, but not worthy of serious consideration. But I think it would be a mistake for advocates of science and reason to dismiss these movies without considering their effects on the public. The Secret and Bleep are yet more examples – and unusually successful ones at that – of an increasingly common tactic employed by many of the New-Age/New-Wage true believers. These believers are no longer content to use God or some other abstract being to give leverage to their ideas. Rather, they use – and abuse – science. SI and others have been pointing this fact out for at least fifteen years, but it hasn’t stopped the tide of scientific mysticism, or “scientysticism,” as I like to call it. (Hey, if the New-Wagers can make up words at will, so can I.)

As does Bleep, The Secret bears the message that there is real science behind the hype. Not only is the law of attraction – “like attracts like” – touted as the most powerful force in the Universe, but Rhonda Byrne has also been quoted as saying that “a recent study proved if you watch the movie just seven times…your brain would be transformed. Just seven times and The Secret is part of your life forever.”

The above quotation from Byrne comes from Joe Vitale, on his Sept. 11, 2006 blog entry. While the rest of the blogging world was reminiscing on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack, Joe, writing from a cushy vacation spot on Maui, was focused as usual on more important things. He didn’t quote details of the “study” Byrne cited, nor did he say whether or not she explained precisely how one’s brain would be “transformed” by watching the movie seven times. He did, however, add that Byrne told him one person had watched the movie 200 times in two weeks. ’Nuff said. (More of Rhonda Byrne’s scientific pronouncements can be heard in a 2006 interview with Anna Darrah of the New-Age film club Spiritual Cinema Circle.)

Vitale has not hesitated to use science, or pseudoscience anyway, to promote himself and his own work. He is fond of citing “studies” and “research” to back his claims. In September 2005, while the Gulf Coast of the United States was still reeling from Hurricane Katrina, another hurricane, Rita, threatened the Texas coast and surrounding areas. Many of us in Houston were in a panic, and quite a few evacuated. In one of his online newsletters, Vitale asked his readers to send positive thoughts to neutralize Hurricane Rita. “As odd as it may sound,” he wrote, “I believe that if enough of us think positive, we can create a counter storm of sorts. We can protect ourselves and our loved ones with our thoughts. I’ve described and proved this with the research in the back of my book, The Attractor Factor. Nineteen studies *proved* [emphasis Vitale’s] that when a large group of people hold positive intentions, those intentions radiate out and become reality.”

Again, Vitale did not elaborate on these studies in his online piece. However, in The Attractor Factor, he writes, “19 separate studies proved that meditation can lower crime rate. Those studies were all about a form of Transcendental Meditation.” Vitale directs readers who want to find out more about the studies to Robert Oates’ book, Permanent Peace: How To Stop War Now and Forever.

To be fair, Vitale wasn’t asking his readers who were possibly in harm’s way to ignore public safety warnings about the hurricane. He was simply asking everyone to “be happy, right now. Smile. Send that loving energy out, in the direction of Texas. Intend for all to be well, for, in reality, all is well. In fact, pretend you are the eye of the hurricane. That’s the center where all is at peace. *Be* that peace and send that peace from the eye to the hurricane itself, imagining it dropping in intensity.”

A few days later, Vitale informed his readers that his Hurricane Rita piece had generated more positive replies than anything he’d ever written. “Hundreds wrote to me. Thousands forwarded it around the net. The positive energy it generated was like a white tornado of love. The result was Rita dropped from a terrifying category 5 hurricane to a category 2 by the time it hit land. It changed direction, too. It never hit Houston, which had panicked and evacuated. It never hit here, either.” (“Here” for Vitale is the lovely Texas Hill Country, which is in central Texas, a safe distance from the coast.) “Did our combined positive efforts make the key difference?” he asked. “What do you think?”

Just don’t ask the people in East Texas and parts of Louisiana, some of whom are still homeless as a result of Rita’s redirection, what they think.

Lest it seem that I’m picking on him, I hasten to add that this kind of thinking is not limited to Vitale. The idea that thoughts and intentions can directly influence the physical world prevails in The Secret and What The Bleep. It’s a pretty empowering message, and yet with that message of empowerment comes an implied blame, or New-Age guilt, as it has sometimes been called. In The Secret book, for example, Rhonda Byrne writes that that people who experience widespread calamity – tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, famine, diseases like AIDS, etc. – have this experience because they are “vibrating” in exact alignment with these disasters. Their thoughts, she wrote, are often responsible; even just thinking about or fearing the possibility of being in the wrong place at the wrong time can cause the thought or fear to become a reality. Even some of the fans of The Secret DVD were put off by Byrne’s seemingly callous remarks in the book.

So is this Secret/Bleep phenomenon just harmless drivel, or is it something we should really be worried about? Though I’m obviously no fan of these films, I tend to weigh in somewhere in the middle. Even in light of growing concern from several factions – including mental-health professionals – about the potential dangers of Secret-style magical thinking, I’m still more amused than worried at this point, and most of my writings reflect this. But I am concerned. In addition to the fact that The Secret and Bleep are grievously misusing science, I become concerned when the mainstream media give completely uncritical coverage to The Secret and its stars, as did Larry King and Oprah, and even the major news media for several months. Yet I don’t for a moment suggest that the producers, promoters and stars of films such as The Secret and What The Bleep should be silenced, censored or outlawed. As long as they are not committing provable fraud – and in these cases, actual fraud would be no more readily provable than the proponents’ claimed benefits – I don’t think the legal system and the government need to be involved in this.

I’m not even arguing that youthful indiscretions, past dilettantism or a questionable Ph.D. necessarily render a person’s advice worthless. After all, real-life experience can be a powerful source of wisdom. But I do have a big problem with people who exploit phony degrees as a means of increasing their credibility, particularly if they are involved in any type of “therapy” or “counseling.”

On a deeper and more personal level, I am, despite my own agnosticism, quite sympathetic to the spiritual yearning that draws so many people to support – or try to force – the marriage of science and mysticism. The Secret and Bleep surely appeal to this spiritual longing as much as they do to the desire for material wealth.

I do, however, think the media should be more diligent about offering equal time for scientific and cultural criticism of these cult films. Now that The Secret has hit the mainstream we’re seeing considerably more criticism, but let’s be honest: that’s mainly because The Secret is now a hot topic, and any discussion, pro or con, is good for ratings. The responsible course would have been to give equal time to critics much earlier, ratings be damned. In any case, I believe education, not additional legislation, is the key to preventing more people from being unduly swayed by the giddy promises and magical thinking of products like The Secret and What The Bleep. And a healthy dose of humor doesn’t hurt.

The perils of naysaying

One thing is certain: If you publicly criticize The Secret, you must be prepared for the wrath of the fans. Or at least be prepared to be psychoanalyzed and told you’re too negative. “Your attitude is TRAGICALLY HIP,” one person wrote to me in response to one of my Secret posts, adding, “However, since you have chosen to send this out, the universe will send it right back to you. The question is, WHY do you dislike yourself so much that you have to insult people who have an interest in something you clearly know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT.” In response to his one-star review of The Secret on Amazon, SHAM author Steve Salerno was lectured by people who said they feel sorry for him, that he needs help, that he is full of rage, and that he obviously feels threatened by The Secret.

You might also be told, as some of the Secret fans said about a disparaging article in one of the news magazines, that you’re obviously part of the mainstream media / establishment who are trying to keep the masses ignorant. (Do I even have to point out the irony in the latter claim?) You could even be accused, as I was, of being a hate-monger who’s planting the seeds of the next Holocaust.

I should note that I’ve made fun of What The Bleep on my blog nearly as much as I have The Secret. And yet so far none of the “Bleepers” (the name many Bleep fans have chosen for themselves) has taken me to task. I suspect this is because even though Bleep appeals to the same market as The Secret, people have not taken it to heart as they have The Secret. I think it all comes down to the fact that The Secret, with its mystical airs and earnest talking heads, is more of a feel-good production than Bleep. It’s tailor-made for today’s enlightened narcissist.

And you just can’t mess with people’s feel-good stuff without catching some flack. It’s like messing with their religion. In fact, it could easily be argued that for many, The Secret and the law of attraction have become their religion. There’s even a big Secret discussion now on Rick Ross’ Cult Education forum. God (or whomever you perceive as capable of interceding on your behalf) help us when the cosmic jihad is launched!

According to one of my critics, one of the meanest-spirited, most hate-mongering things I’ve done was make up derogatory names for the more fanatical followers of The Secret. I call them “Secretrons.” I have been called a lot worse, very often by fans of The Secret; some of them have not hesitated to call me by a very crude slang term for a part of the female anatomy. And the writer I quoted at the beginning, who was among those accusing me of name-calling, ended his/her missive by saying, “Lady, I can smell your kind of rat from a mile away.”

Spread the love, Secretrons.

About the Author

Connie L. Schmidt, aka “Cosmic Connie” (the “Cosmic” part is ironic) is, in her day job, a ghostwriter, editor and book designer with her business and life partner, Ron Kaye. Together they run Schmidt Kaye & Company Professional Literary Services in Houston, Texas. Connie is also the perpetrator of a BLP (book-like product) called Cosmic Relief: Honoring & Celebrating The Global Paradigm Shaft, as well as a companion web site. A long-time fan of Skeptical Inquirer, she wrote a humorous essay that was published in the Winter 1992 issue of SI, and can still be viewed on her Cosmic Relief web site. Connie is an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church, and is thinking of purchasing numerous doctoral degrees from some of the more prestigious metaphysical diploma mills, just so she’ll have all of her bases covered. But she would also like some real science degrees and other impressive credentials too, so anybody who has any extras lying around the house can notify Connie at cosmic.connie@juno.com or moonshad@swbell.net.

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