The Secret, Interpreted

As I see it, there's nothing mystical about the principle described in the movie The Secret. Basically, it works like this:

— — —

You are tied to negative ideas about yourself as long as you hold on to them. If you cannot let go of those negative ideas you will be chained to that dismal starting point. You will usually be slightly better than your dour self-image but you can't stray far from it because you keep telling yourself that's the way you are.

That's stories, for you. Stories tell us, “This is how it happens.” The Story of Me says, “This is how you became what you are therefore this is what might happen next.” If the Story of Me tells me that I'm a criminal, I'll tend to behave like one.

So much for negative ideas. If I have positive ideas about myself, I will achieve more. I won't be my own worst enemy; I won't be nay-saying myself; I will proceed with confidence, making good use of creativity, not being sidetracked by emotional baggage etc.

— — —

If that's the message of The Secret then it sounds good to me.

A question occurs to me. Why should I have any thought at all about what I am? Even a “good” assessment of the self is still a self-centered assessment. How often need I be reminded what I am?

If I'm right about The Secret, then I might understand why (to the perplexity of many critics) the movie spent so much time talking about wealth. If the mind is seeking for things to be “good” then wealth is an obvious attraction.

Come to think of it, the movie did call its main principle “The Law of Attraction.” Maybe people's thoughts really can attract money, but only if money attracts the people back. To put it another way:

People who really like wealth

are more likely to get it than
people who don't care about wealth.

In this sense at least, it really does seem like there's a “Law of Attraction.” Personally, I'm attracted to writing blog articles like this one, so that's what happens.