I am in the law of attraction niche. I have learned about it ten years ago and I have read all books I can find about it. I built a website 2 years ago and sometimes I search & browse other websites to see if I can find some new materials I can add to my site. There are 2 things I can’t help noticing, first, most often where there is the law of attraction, there is also The Secret by Rhonda Byrne; second, some uninformed & ignorant people considered The Secret to be the source of the law of attraction or that these two are synonymous. If you ever come across a site with this statement, don’t buy or subscribe to anything it offers because the webmaster does not know his stuff.
I have read The Secret too. Rhonda Byrne did impart the basic concept & application of the law of attraction and she included inputs from self-claiming gurus. However, it is hardly the best book on the subject. It is much too passive. You can tell if an author really has extensive knowledge & experience and feels passionately about the subject by the way he/she writes. Their own energy is reflected on their words. I cannot feel this from Byrne’s work.
Why am I harping so much about personal energies? Because we all know that the law of attraction is something proven only by experience. And it utilizes energies from our thoughts, words, actions & emotions. You cannot find a book or an article on the subject that do not link it to energy and the magnetism of thoughts. The central figure of the concept is the SELF — so it is personal.
The title, The Secret is even a misnomer. People have known and have been writing about the law of attraction for ages. Here are some examples:
- As A Man Thinketh by James Allen (1902)
- The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles (1910)
- Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (1937)
- The Magic of Believing by Claude M. Bristol (1948)
- The Power of the Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy
- The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale (1952)
Contemporary authors like the Hicks couple, Wayne Dyer, Neale Donald Walsch and Michael Losier among others, have also written and spoken extensively about the subject.
According to wikipedia, Byrne claimed that her inspiration for The Secret was Wattles’ The Science of Getting Rich which was published in 1910. If she had read about it from a person who wrote it a long time ago, then it is not a secret. So maybe the title is for commercial purposes or in reference to the author’s perceived ignorance of the general public about the law of attraction (sorry Abraham, you have not been successful in educating the public about it). If there is one thing Byrne knows a lot, it is making a good title.
Don’t think I am jealous or anything. I am not an author, but I have read extensively about the subject long before The Secret came and have applied it. This is a personal opinion and if we differ in our views we just have to respect each other. You can post a comment below just don’t get nasty.
Copyright (c) 2008 Joann Ang. Some rights reserved. You can publish or redistribute this article just make sure you include Joann Ang’s bio. Links must be correct, functional & must point to the author’s site.
