In the last few months, I’ve mostly thought about the things that I normally think about. Things like being a competent and interesting writer, the Porsche Cayman, java development and an OS X sub-notebook. At no point did thoughts of self-help babble float across my cerebral cortex. This makes me highly skeptical of The Secret’s premise: the “Law” of Attraction. This law explains that human thought is so powerful, that it attracts the objects and states of being that one thinks about. If you have a lot of debt, or are stricken with cancer, you can change this simply by thinking of yourself as debt free or cured.
Well my writing is average at best, the garage does not contain a Cayman, I’m not really even sure I know what java is anymore, and I’m writing this on a 3.5 year old Linux box, yet I didn’t think about self-help nonesense and have gotten it twice recently. Hrm, it doesn’t look too good for the law of attraction. Perhaps there’s a reason it’s such a secret.
The Secret is like anything else that promises easy solutions to hard problems: it’s total bunk. (Ruby on Rails excepted of course). The fact is that you can always prove something anecdotally. There are over 6 billion people in this world. It’s almost a statistical certainty that you’ll be able to find a handful of cranks and crackpots to not only prove whatever point you’re trying to make, but also are foolish enough to get on camera and look ridiculous. Like all other works in this genre, “The Secret” includes it’s fair share of lying by omission. One of the prime examples was the woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer, who “cured” it by using the law of attraction (ie believing she was cured) and watching comedies. She is now cancer free, although she has never had a dose of chemotherapy or radiation (note how surgery was omitted from that list). Needless to say, the needles of sense in the haystack of hogwash will be touted as proof by whichever impressionable friend advised you to watch this video.
At the end of the day, no amount of thinking that I have the hour and a half of my life back will lead to me getting that time back. All I can hope for is if some new-age influenced acquaintance of yours attempts to show you “The Secret,” you’d be well off to leave the room. If you are really desperate for entertainment, go watch grass grow or paint dry. Both activities are far more exciting and educational. Consider yourselves warned.
