Do You Want to Know a Secret?

On Thursday February 8, Oprah Winfrey featured the movie "The Secret" on her highly-rated national television program. This follows appearances by teachers from the movie on Larry King Live and on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. It's been talked about on CNN. "The Secret" is a phenomenon.

So what is all the buzz about? It looks like "The Secret" is pretty mainstream these days. (So how much of a secret can it be at this point?)

The movie features the world's leading scientists, authors, and philosophers, who reveal what the producers of the movie promise is "The Great Secret of the Universe. It has been passed through the ages, traveling through the centuries to reach you, mankind, and humankind. This is 'The Secret' to everything - unlimited joy, health, money, relationships, love, youth; everything you have ever wanted."

What is the Secret and how can you get in on it?

Rhonda Byrne, who created the movie, says that her life had literally fallen apart in every way when her daughter gave her a copy of The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles. That, she says, is when she discovered the secret. After that, she read several books, all teaching the same principles and helping her discover that many of the great figures of history had used the secret.

Byrne claims that The Secret has transformed "every moment" of her life since she found it. She describes it as "the most powerful law in the Universe." It works in all circumstances and at all times.

It's simply the Law of Attraction - Like attracts like and we make shape our lives, or what we focus on expands. Our thoughts shape our choices. Simply stated, it is that what we think and feel attracts what we want into our lives. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." We attract that which we believe.

Byrne says that the Secret is that "Whatever we are thinking and feeling we are attracting into our lives." She says that "there is incredible power in every human being. Think and feel what you want and you will magnetize it to you," she says.

So how do we use this Secret? According to Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, "Whatever you think about comes about." He says that "the Universe is an endless sea of energy. What I think about sends out an energy field."

This law works, whether consciously or unconsciously. "People aren't walking around thinking, 'I want a bad thing to happen to me,' but there's an unconscious fear. There's a doubt. There's a worry. There's a sense of separation there that's running them," says Rev. Michael Beckwith, spiritual leader of the Agape International Spiritual Center and one of the teachers featured in the movie. Dr. Beckwith adds that spiritual growth is "allowing that which is unconscious to become conscious."

One of the most powerful attractors is gratitude. Being thankful for what you have is one of the best ways to attract what you desire. As Dr. Beckwith says, "Basically, nothing new can come into your life unless you open yourself up to being grateful [for what you already have]." The movie suggests that we start by making a list of things we're grateful for.

Another key principle is forgiveness. Don't let the past hold you back in the present. Forgiveness is a release of that burden. it prevents it from going with you moving forward from here. As one of the panelists on Oprah's show said, true forgiveness is when you can say "Thank you for giving me that experience" and appreciate where you are now because of it.

You can use these principles to achieve anything from weight loss to financial freedom to better relationships to health.

The law works because the Universe is abundant. It works by giving us an abundance of whatever it is on which we focus our energy. If we focus on lack and limitation, on poverty and disease, then we get an abundance of these by the Law of Attraction.

"The Secret" teaches that the Universe is essentially an energy field and wherever our energy goes, it directs what our experience is. To quote Canfield, "The thoughts we have, the things we do, the magazines we read, the movies we watch, create a feeling and this feeling sends a wave out into the universe which attracts the same back to us. Everything is energy controlled by our thoughts and feelings." As the New Thought movement teaches us, that which we put energy into expands.

If you haven't seen the movie, I strongly recommend it. It can change your life, if you start putting the principles to work.