In this video, you can see some of the sillier segments that I've written about, if you haven't been able to watch the DVD.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Hit me.
I've taken some recovery time. Much needed.
40:00 [Eager anticipation]
Mike Beckwith starts by informing me that the feeling and seeing they've been encouraging me to feel and see will become an open doorway through which the power of the universe will begin to express. We are presented with a quote from Alexander Graham Bell:
"What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists."
Here is the quote in context:
"I had made up my mind to find that for which I was searching even if it required the remainder of my life. After innumerable failures I finally uncovered the principle for which I was searching, and I was astounded at its simplicity. I was still more astounded to discover the principle I had revealed not only beneficial in the construction of a mechanical hearing aid but it served as well as means of sending the sound of the voice over a wire.
Another discovery which came out of my investigation was the fact that when a man gives his order to produce a definite result and stands by that order it seems to have the effect of giving him what might be termed a second sight which enables him to see right through ordinary problems. What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it."
It is clear that Bell was not referring to the magical power of the universe. He was talking about inspiration, keeping mental focus and the mental lucidity that often accompanies "outside the box" thinking.
Canfield asserts that his job is not to be concerned with the "how". The "how" will show up after we believe in the "what". I think he just broke science.
Dooley reiterates (loudly) "The HOWS are the domain of the universe. It always knows the shortest, quickest, fastest, most harmonious way between you and your dream." Nifty. It boggles my mind, I admit, that the universe is so concerned with my mental fantasies and how to turn them into reality. It almost seems impossible for the universe to know what I'm thinking. So my thoughts are radiating out of my head complete with an encoded message that the universe is interpreting and then rearranging itself to accommodate. I just want to see a shred of evidence here. Any reason for anyone to even consider that this is even a remote possibility.
Vitale explains that "this is where magic and miracles happen". I don't believe in magic. I don't believe in miracles. These people have constructed their house of cards on a unicycle, on a tightrope, over a gaping canyon and in a howling gale. And now they resort to magic and miracles to add some balance.
He gives us the bottom line. Feeling good. That's the bottom line. We want to feel exhilarated by this whole process. "You want to be high, happy, in tune, as much as possible". But not in tune with reality. That's bad.
Next, Marci explains that the successful people who understand the Secret differ from us unenlightened folk in the following way (this is the only difference between them and us, she claims): "...the people who are living in the magic of life have habituated ways of being. They have habituated this process and the magic happens with them wherever they go..." Right. I have simply not become accustomed to the modes of existing. Silly me.
James Ray was reading my mind, since I was just thinking how this stuff doesn't work. According to him, the Secret powers of the universe are about to happen, any minute. But then I am too impatient and just before the universe can get a move on, I say "This isn't working!" and then the universe says "Your wish is my command".
So from that we can deduce there is some sort of lag in this process. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, struggling to get there, almost...universe is about to take action...Clearly there is a lag.
Except for bad thoughts.
Notice that the instant you think a negative thought, the universe overwrites all previous information and receives and decodes your negative emotion immediately. The secret is the most powerful scientific law in the universe according to these people. I would love to see how they worked out that positive emotions experience lag, but negative ones are instantaneous and have priority over all preceding "requests".
John Assaraf regales us with some tales of his doubt and how he wanted to test this law of attraction. Basic rundown: he created "vision boards" where he would stick up pictures of his goals. Cut to five years later, his son wants to know what's in the box after they'd finished moving house. Open the box, haul out the vision boards and voila, they are living in the exact house he had posted a photo of on his vision board five years ago. Not a similar house, the exact same house. He started crying. The universe obviously listened really closely.
More coincidence and confirmation bias. I am sorry that I am not more astounded by this. I have experienced some uncanny and incredibly complex coincidences in my life. Buying a house five years after cutting out a picture of that house doesn't seem that miraculous to me.
What John told his son when this happened was: "Honey, I finally understand how the law of attraction works." I'm going to have to disagree on that, unless he's about to explain how it works. But I doubt that he will, since the "HOWS" are not important, as you may recall.
Yup, no explanation of "how" follows. Only a supposed Einstein quote that seems innocent enough: "Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." Unfortunately I can find no source for him having said this. He did say other things about imagination, though. Normally I would concede the possibility of him having said this, but we already know these people lie and mine quotes, so I won't give them the benefit of the doubt. It is enough that their entire message is unfounded, I won't back down on those items that should be readily verifiable, such as quotes by famous people.
I'm a little bored by the repetition, so I'm skipping over some of the quotes and anecdotes, in search of something interesting. I mean I'm watching all of it, but I won't comment on it. I've been over it already.
Right now, the greed is surfacing. It's all about how to get more money, more "wealth and prosperity". (I'm guessing the answer "Write a book called "The Secret", then release a DVD with the same title and then some spin-off audio guides" won't be covered in this section.)
Since we can just order whatever we want, if we want cash, we should stipulate the amount. I'm feeling adventurous. Universe, I would like ONE MILLION US DOLLARS in unmarked, non-sequential bills. Thank you. (I was going to ask for ten million, but I didn't want to push my luck.) I'll let you all know if it happens and how long it took. It took the universe 30 days to give Canfield less than $100 000 and five years to get John a big house. So this might take some time.
Hmm, Joe says "it should be believable for you". What the heck, I'm sticking with the million. David Schirmer elucidates on how he solved his bills problem. He used correction fluid (Wite-Out) to alter the amount on his bank statements. He changed the amount to what he wanted it to be, instead of what it was. I don't recommend doing this, for the sake of accurate record keeping purposes, but that's up to you, the reader.
Loral Langemeier was raised to believe that you get money through hard work, but thanks to the secret, she "visualised" it as coming "easily and frequently". In the beginning, she acknowledges, this will be hard. She admits that they are instructing us to lie to ourselves. She describes it as a "little tennis-match that will go on for a while". Until the delusion sticks. Loral is the most honest one so far. I like her.
Money money money. Still going on about it, turning statues to gold in the accompanying clips, with the power of thought, mind you...money money money.
For Marie Diamond (the Feng Shui Consultant), the secret means that we are creators of our own universe. She relates a story about a client who had a lot of paintings in his home of stand-offish ladies. She guessed that he was struggling in the romance department (she was in his home, obviously she noticed the lack of feminine touches or items) and he was shocked at her insight. When she pointed out the paintings, he explained that he had painted them himself. This was even worse, she exclaimed, because he is actively bringing those types of women into his romantic life. The solution to his lackluster love life was replacing the paintings with portraits depicting three women and hanging them in every corner. See, he wanted to date three women per week.
The male actor playing this part is not only a bad actor, but a convincing male chauvinist. When Marie asked him six months later how his love life was, his response was "Great! They just call me, they all wanna date me! Now I have like three dates a week! People are fighting over me!" Maybe you need to hear it to experience how smugly he says that. Luckily he is now asking for stability, marriage. Marie's advice is to paint it!
If I paint what I want and hang the images all around me, is that enough? Do they consider this extreme visualisation? Hold on, hold on, hang on a minute here. Now she is explaining that this man held these wishes inside him for years, but because his outer environment (his home) contradicted his feelings, the universe never caught on. So the universe gave him bad romances, because his HOUSE had paintings of cold and distant women? Even though he held the correct "wishes" in his mind? Colour me completely confused here, lady!
We've moved on to relationships now, leaving money behind. Ray wants to know how we can expect others to enjoy our company if we don't even enjoy our own company? Very Dr Phil - "How much fun are you to be around?" Hardly a secret, though.
Lisa Nichols (author) has a very soothing, soft voice. She used a pleasing tone and what she says makes sense. She wants us to love ourselves before we enter into relationships. She asks us not to expect our partners to show us our beauty, we must find ourselves beautiful first. I agree with her wholeheartedly, one should not look to others for personal happiness. That's great, Lisa, what are you doing on this DVD?
Esther Hicks displays a very odd discrepancy between her speech and her facial expressions. Maybe it's just me, but while she is saying innocent things ("We recommend that you take a notebook"), she appears to be sneering with mild derision. It's strange, her face doesn't match what she's saying. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm bored and seeing more than what is really there.
Now we're hearing from Quantum Physicist John Hagelin again. "It's important to recognise that our body is really the product of our thoughts. We're beginning to understand in medical science the degree to which the nature of thoughts and emotions actually determines the physical substance and structure and function of our bodies." No references to any papers here.
Demartini mentions the placebo effect. Nice move, muddling reality with this "Secret" fiction. Thank goodness he suggests taking the medication prescribed to you while trying to find the cause for your ailment in your mind. Brownie points for you, John D!
I tuned out when Esther started talking. Listen to what she says, while they play cheerfully soothing music and show us pretty clips of plants growing and flowers blooming (ellipses indicate lengthy pauses, not omissions):
"There is only...a stream of wellbeing that flows [inaudible]...it is a stream of pure positive energy. And the universe...all that we know, is abundant with only that. This is a world that is based upon wellbeing, and wellbeing dramatically abounds. And when you are allowing that stream to flow, in its fullness, you feel very very good. And when you are pinching it off a bit, you feel not so good. There is only a stream of goodness or wellbeing, which you are allowing or not. And your magnificent emotions are telling you what the mix is. How you're doing in your allowing or your resisting of this connection."
At this point, I would like to remind you all again that "It’s a LAW - not a feel-good principle or some kind of new-age voodoo flake-out." Stream of wellbeing. Pure positive energy. Wellbeing dramatically abounds. This connection. Yes, all sound scientific terminology. If your definition of "sound scientific terminology" is "new-age voodoo flake-out".
Ben Johnson refers to "diagnoses" using scare quotes for reasons I cannot fathom. He says there are thousands of diagnoses and disease out there, but they're just the weak link. They are all the result of one thing: stress.
Warning Bells! A very effective way to identify quackery is to watch out for the "single cause, single cure" line. A quack will have one cure to sell, be it a potion or a machine or a secret power. In order to make his cure effective for all ailments, he must posit a single cause. "Stress is the underlying cause of all that ails you, try my potion". In some cases it may be vitamin deficiency (take our vitamins, just in case!), fluoride in water (buy our water filter!), electromagnetic rays emitted by household appliances (stick this crystal on your phone!) and so on.
Demartini postulates that our bodies devise diseases to give us feedback. Presumably my body changes itself to attract the right types of germs when it needs to give me certain feedback. I don't know how this is supposed to work, because they're making a lot of claims without any evidence to back it up.
Ok, I've reached my limit for now. Beckwith discusses a frequently asked question. When a person has manifested a disease, can it be turned around through the power of positive thought? His answer is absolutely yes. Sickening. People don't bring diseases upon themselves through the power of thought, nor can the power of thought reverse diseases. These people ought to be ashamed of themselves!
End: 01:01:38.
40:00 [Eager anticipation]
Mike Beckwith starts by informing me that the feeling and seeing they've been encouraging me to feel and see will become an open doorway through which the power of the universe will begin to express. We are presented with a quote from Alexander Graham Bell:
"What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists."Here is the quote in context:
"I had made up my mind to find that for which I was searching even if it required the remainder of my life. After innumerable failures I finally uncovered the principle for which I was searching, and I was astounded at its simplicity. I was still more astounded to discover the principle I had revealed not only beneficial in the construction of a mechanical hearing aid but it served as well as means of sending the sound of the voice over a wire.
Another discovery which came out of my investigation was the fact that when a man gives his order to produce a definite result and stands by that order it seems to have the effect of giving him what might be termed a second sight which enables him to see right through ordinary problems. What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it."
It is clear that Bell was not referring to the magical power of the universe. He was talking about inspiration, keeping mental focus and the mental lucidity that often accompanies "outside the box" thinking.
Canfield asserts that his job is not to be concerned with the "how". The "how" will show up after we believe in the "what". I think he just broke science.
Dooley reiterates (loudly) "The HOWS are the domain of the universe. It always knows the shortest, quickest, fastest, most harmonious way between you and your dream." Nifty. It boggles my mind, I admit, that the universe is so concerned with my mental fantasies and how to turn them into reality. It almost seems impossible for the universe to know what I'm thinking. So my thoughts are radiating out of my head complete with an encoded message that the universe is interpreting and then rearranging itself to accommodate. I just want to see a shred of evidence here. Any reason for anyone to even consider that this is even a remote possibility.
Vitale explains that "this is where magic and miracles happen". I don't believe in magic. I don't believe in miracles. These people have constructed their house of cards on a unicycle, on a tightrope, over a gaping canyon and in a howling gale. And now they resort to magic and miracles to add some balance.
He gives us the bottom line. Feeling good. That's the bottom line. We want to feel exhilarated by this whole process. "You want to be high, happy, in tune, as much as possible". But not in tune with reality. That's bad.
Next, Marci explains that the successful people who understand the Secret differ from us unenlightened folk in the following way (this is the only difference between them and us, she claims): "...the people who are living in the magic of life have habituated ways of being. They have habituated this process and the magic happens with them wherever they go..." Right. I have simply not become accustomed to the modes of existing. Silly me.
James Ray was reading my mind, since I was just thinking how this stuff doesn't work. According to him, the Secret powers of the universe are about to happen, any minute. But then I am too impatient and just before the universe can get a move on, I say "This isn't working!" and then the universe says "Your wish is my command".
So from that we can deduce there is some sort of lag in this process. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, struggling to get there, almost...universe is about to take action...Clearly there is a lag.
Except for bad thoughts.
Notice that the instant you think a negative thought, the universe overwrites all previous information and receives and decodes your negative emotion immediately. The secret is the most powerful scientific law in the universe according to these people. I would love to see how they worked out that positive emotions experience lag, but negative ones are instantaneous and have priority over all preceding "requests".
John Assaraf regales us with some tales of his doubt and how he wanted to test this law of attraction. Basic rundown: he created "vision boards" where he would stick up pictures of his goals. Cut to five years later, his son wants to know what's in the box after they'd finished moving house. Open the box, haul out the vision boards and voila, they are living in the exact house he had posted a photo of on his vision board five years ago. Not a similar house, the exact same house. He started crying. The universe obviously listened really closely.
More coincidence and confirmation bias. I am sorry that I am not more astounded by this. I have experienced some uncanny and incredibly complex coincidences in my life. Buying a house five years after cutting out a picture of that house doesn't seem that miraculous to me.
What John told his son when this happened was: "Honey, I finally understand how the law of attraction works." I'm going to have to disagree on that, unless he's about to explain how it works. But I doubt that he will, since the "HOWS" are not important, as you may recall.
Yup, no explanation of "how" follows. Only a supposed Einstein quote that seems innocent enough: "Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." Unfortunately I can find no source for him having said this. He did say other things about imagination, though. Normally I would concede the possibility of him having said this, but we already know these people lie and mine quotes, so I won't give them the benefit of the doubt. It is enough that their entire message is unfounded, I won't back down on those items that should be readily verifiable, such as quotes by famous people.
I'm a little bored by the repetition, so I'm skipping over some of the quotes and anecdotes, in search of something interesting. I mean I'm watching all of it, but I won't comment on it. I've been over it already.
Right now, the greed is surfacing. It's all about how to get more money, more "wealth and prosperity". (I'm guessing the answer "Write a book called "The Secret", then release a DVD with the same title and then some spin-off audio guides" won't be covered in this section.)
Since we can just order whatever we want, if we want cash, we should stipulate the amount. I'm feeling adventurous. Universe, I would like ONE MILLION US DOLLARS in unmarked, non-sequential bills. Thank you. (I was going to ask for ten million, but I didn't want to push my luck.) I'll let you all know if it happens and how long it took. It took the universe 30 days to give Canfield less than $100 000 and five years to get John a big house. So this might take some time.
Hmm, Joe says "it should be believable for you". What the heck, I'm sticking with the million. David Schirmer elucidates on how he solved his bills problem. He used correction fluid (Wite-Out) to alter the amount on his bank statements. He changed the amount to what he wanted it to be, instead of what it was. I don't recommend doing this, for the sake of accurate record keeping purposes, but that's up to you, the reader.
Loral Langemeier was raised to believe that you get money through hard work, but thanks to the secret, she "visualised" it as coming "easily and frequently". In the beginning, she acknowledges, this will be hard. She admits that they are instructing us to lie to ourselves. She describes it as a "little tennis-match that will go on for a while". Until the delusion sticks. Loral is the most honest one so far. I like her.
Money money money. Still going on about it, turning statues to gold in the accompanying clips, with the power of thought, mind you...money money money.
For Marie Diamond (the Feng Shui Consultant), the secret means that we are creators of our own universe. She relates a story about a client who had a lot of paintings in his home of stand-offish ladies. She guessed that he was struggling in the romance department (she was in his home, obviously she noticed the lack of feminine touches or items) and he was shocked at her insight. When she pointed out the paintings, he explained that he had painted them himself. This was even worse, she exclaimed, because he is actively bringing those types of women into his romantic life. The solution to his lackluster love life was replacing the paintings with portraits depicting three women and hanging them in every corner. See, he wanted to date three women per week.
The male actor playing this part is not only a bad actor, but a convincing male chauvinist. When Marie asked him six months later how his love life was, his response was "Great! They just call me, they all wanna date me! Now I have like three dates a week! People are fighting over me!" Maybe you need to hear it to experience how smugly he says that. Luckily he is now asking for stability, marriage. Marie's advice is to paint it!
If I paint what I want and hang the images all around me, is that enough? Do they consider this extreme visualisation? Hold on, hold on, hang on a minute here. Now she is explaining that this man held these wishes inside him for years, but because his outer environment (his home) contradicted his feelings, the universe never caught on. So the universe gave him bad romances, because his HOUSE had paintings of cold and distant women? Even though he held the correct "wishes" in his mind? Colour me completely confused here, lady!
We've moved on to relationships now, leaving money behind. Ray wants to know how we can expect others to enjoy our company if we don't even enjoy our own company? Very Dr Phil - "How much fun are you to be around?" Hardly a secret, though.
Lisa Nichols (author) has a very soothing, soft voice. She used a pleasing tone and what she says makes sense. She wants us to love ourselves before we enter into relationships. She asks us not to expect our partners to show us our beauty, we must find ourselves beautiful first. I agree with her wholeheartedly, one should not look to others for personal happiness. That's great, Lisa, what are you doing on this DVD?
Esther Hicks displays a very odd discrepancy between her speech and her facial expressions. Maybe it's just me, but while she is saying innocent things ("We recommend that you take a notebook"), she appears to be sneering with mild derision. It's strange, her face doesn't match what she's saying. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm bored and seeing more than what is really there.
Now we're hearing from Quantum Physicist John Hagelin again. "It's important to recognise that our body is really the product of our thoughts. We're beginning to understand in medical science the degree to which the nature of thoughts and emotions actually determines the physical substance and structure and function of our bodies." No references to any papers here.
Demartini mentions the placebo effect. Nice move, muddling reality with this "Secret" fiction. Thank goodness he suggests taking the medication prescribed to you while trying to find the cause for your ailment in your mind. Brownie points for you, John D!
I tuned out when Esther started talking. Listen to what she says, while they play cheerfully soothing music and show us pretty clips of plants growing and flowers blooming (ellipses indicate lengthy pauses, not omissions):
"There is only...a stream of wellbeing that flows [inaudible]...it is a stream of pure positive energy. And the universe...all that we know, is abundant with only that. This is a world that is based upon wellbeing, and wellbeing dramatically abounds. And when you are allowing that stream to flow, in its fullness, you feel very very good. And when you are pinching it off a bit, you feel not so good. There is only a stream of goodness or wellbeing, which you are allowing or not. And your magnificent emotions are telling you what the mix is. How you're doing in your allowing or your resisting of this connection."
At this point, I would like to remind you all again that "It’s a LAW - not a feel-good principle or some kind of new-age voodoo flake-out." Stream of wellbeing. Pure positive energy. Wellbeing dramatically abounds. This connection. Yes, all sound scientific terminology. If your definition of "sound scientific terminology" is "new-age voodoo flake-out".
Ben Johnson refers to "diagnoses" using scare quotes for reasons I cannot fathom. He says there are thousands of diagnoses and disease out there, but they're just the weak link. They are all the result of one thing: stress.
Warning Bells! A very effective way to identify quackery is to watch out for the "single cause, single cure" line. A quack will have one cure to sell, be it a potion or a machine or a secret power. In order to make his cure effective for all ailments, he must posit a single cause. "Stress is the underlying cause of all that ails you, try my potion". In some cases it may be vitamin deficiency (take our vitamins, just in case!), fluoride in water (buy our water filter!), electromagnetic rays emitted by household appliances (stick this crystal on your phone!) and so on.
Demartini postulates that our bodies devise diseases to give us feedback. Presumably my body changes itself to attract the right types of germs when it needs to give me certain feedback. I don't know how this is supposed to work, because they're making a lot of claims without any evidence to back it up.
Ok, I've reached my limit for now. Beckwith discusses a frequently asked question. When a person has manifested a disease, can it be turned around through the power of positive thought? His answer is absolutely yes. Sickening. People don't bring diseases upon themselves through the power of thought, nor can the power of thought reverse diseases. These people ought to be ashamed of themselves!
End: 01:01:38.
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