The Secret

Many of you by now have heard of The Secret. It is a popular book and video that has been seen all over. Oprah has featured it, so it must be great, right?

A few months ago I invested the five dollars or so to watch this hour and a half movie. I enjoyed it. It was inspirational. It was well produced and well written.

So can I tell you what the big secret is? Yes, but I won’t. What I will tell you is that I didn’t learn anything from the video that I didn’t know before.

Before you think that I am being pompous, let me explain. The video gave me the impression that there is this great secret that has been hidden for centuries and was discovered by Rhonda Byrne in a book. When you read the official website you realize that she has searched through the works of many prophets and sacred texts of the many philosophies of the world and has discovered something common in most of them.

Think about what this is saying. She has searched through many texts and has come up with a Reader’s Digest version of her truth that she is passing on and making big dollars from a public that wants a lifetime of learning packaged like a fast-food hamburger.

There are many gurus out there making a lot of money helping people with information that they can get from the local library. A lot of this wisdom is contained in the Bible. My guess is that a lot of it is in the Koran and other texts, too.

When you consult these people, what you are paying for is the packaging. The unfortunate part is that, like Chinese food, a couple of hours later you are feeling hungry again. There are motivational speakers by the truckload out there.

My feeling is that there are many lessons in life you just have to learn the hard way by experiencing them. Some things you have to do yourself instead of being fed by another.

If you want to read a book that helped me a lot, get hold of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. Written about eighty years ago, it is almost an ancient text by now, but its wisdom truly is a secret many have not heard.

Yes, consider what others have learned. That is part of the process, but why not go directly back to the source and find out for yourself. Read some of these sacred texts yourself. Hmmm, but that would take more than an hour and a half, wouldn’t it? Better to get the hour and a half, watered-down version. In today’s world, we haven’t the time to live.