The Secret (2006)Some ideas can be taken at face value; others require a degree of discernment to interpret the message behind the message. The Secret (2006) is a self-help film presented like a documentary, combining dramatic recreations and stock footage with assorted philosophers, theologians, and financial advisers discussing their understanding of the eponymous "secret". Through varied and choice examples, these advocates postulate that the mystery as to why some people have "all the luck" in life and throughout history comes back to a life-path strategy they describe as the "Law of Attraction".
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So, if "The Secret" is the "Law of Attraction", then what is the "Law of Attraction"? You could say that a high-level overview of the "Law of Attraction" is based on the premise of "positive thinking". Moreover, it is the suggestion that one's outlook of the world is a catalyst for that person's experience of the world. In other words, someone focuses their thoughts on the objective they wish to achieve--wealth, romance, success, and so on--and through the "Law of Attraction", it is achieved. In order to reinforce the claim that the "Law of Attraction" is the proverbial (and literal) secret to happiness, The Secret unleashes a rapid fire barrage of presumed experts in their field, their testimonies designed to promote this idea in the audience's subconscious by appealing to their desire to watch the movie in the first place--in most cases to seek some kind of guidance in their lives. Sympathetic scenarios presented as case studies are accompanied by emotional music and staged scenes depicting emotions ranging from distress to bliss. Quotes from inspiring figures in history--from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Buddha--punctuate the scenes, whispered by a disembodied (and somewhat creepy) voice. The varied speakers are superimposed over backgrounds resembling ancient parchment suggesting esoteric wisdom or a long-forgotten gospel like the Dead Sea Scrolls, with images and icons like primitive cave drawings corresponding with the speaker's profession. These speakers talk right to us--to you--transferring this knowledge in a personalized way. And for those not paying attention, I've committed a literary "sleight of hand"--like the way The Secret provokes sympathy through choice wordplay--by substituting "the audience" for "us" and "you". The Secret does this by presenting these testimonies as "evidence" of the so-called "Law of Attraction", enticing the audience over its hour-and-a-half length. And yet the evidence is circumstantial at best, fiction at worst. So, is The Secret attempting to manipulate the audience into seeing its proclamations as an indisputable truth? Yes; but then, how many other documentaries are fundamentally biased, advocating the topic as fact? (Michael Moore springs to mind.) Does this mean that The Secret is without merit? No, although arguably "viewer discretion is advised".
One of the bigger concerns I had watching The Secret had to do with the choice to identify the "Law of Attraction" as a literal "law". To distinguish, a "law" is something which is an immutable, proven truth (I'm not talking about the realm of governments but physics), whereas a "theory" is something which is speculated to be true; the "Law of Attraction" is a theory. The counterpoint to this is that the definition of a law comes down to a physical force versus what amounts to a psychological impetus that triggers the ostensible "Law of Attraction". In visuals and scenes meant to show the "Law of Attraction" in action, when people visualize both positive and negative elements, the effect appears as rings of asynchronous shockwaves emanating from their heads--a depiction of the "Law" in action, influencing the universe via its outward rippling. At its core, The Secret proposes that your feelings--broadly defined as "good" and "bad"--are the cause of your welfare, not the effect. This kind of approach to lumping so-called "good feelings" as disparate from "bad feelings" is emblematic of a New Age attitude toward selective interpretation of events, without context or consequence. Some of the presenters even go so far as to make the fairly obvious analogy of Aladdin and the genie granting wishes as being like the "Law of Attraction", that only by believing in its authenticity and committing your aims toward the positive will it work. The speakers participating in The Secret talk of how the "Law of Attraction" is not imaginary, but do not back up the claims with empirical data. They speak in truisms about mental health practices and general psychiatric guidance to ply skeptical audiences with choice nuggets of successful strategies for better living, then associate those strategies with the "Law of Attraction". These moments have the most universal acceptance, and are good advice on the whole...moments like one speaker's description of being grateful every morning for his day when he rises. Similarly, for those who find comfort in totems, the story of the "gratitude rock", which is similar to a religious symbol, is also a means of maintaining mental wellness through the effect it has on those who assign meaning to it. These are the moments where I found myself saying, "yes, that is a useful and healthy way of encouraging positive thinking in one's life"...but that doesn't necessarily mean it should be the "thin edge of the wedge", and invite everything else in as unquestioned fact. One of the most illuminating metaphors about this is one shared by co-author of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series, Jack Canfield, who talks of faith in the "Law of Attraction" being like driving from California to New York at night, seeing only one hundred to two hundred feet ahead by the glow of the headlights, knowing that the rest of the road is there. However, the flaw in this analogy is that it disregards that on making this eastbound trip, the sun will rise, and you will no longer need those headlights at all, and the truth will be revealed, and you will know if you have the road or not by presumptions but by physical laws. This is the metaphor for the missing elements in life that The Secret withholds to bait your interests.
There is an element of the overblown and even excessive in The Secret, which has the side effect of making it unintentionally funny. For example, one such "expert", a reverend who offers insight into the "Law of Attraction", actually has his occupation subtitled as "visionary", without irony. The overly dramatic title sequence suggests that all of what follows in The Secret is from the contents of a diary left to a grieving woman, and yet there is no true narrative to the film. Rapid flashes of dramatic recreations from history suggest conspiratorial cover-ups, like those in the pulp-historical thrillers of Dan Brown. The special effects--I'm looking at you, genie--are of the kind which would be found in a student film edited by someone with only a passing knowledge of After Effects. Even the assorted archive and stock footage of varying quality had me looking for an unintended watermark here and there, to see if had been lifted from somewhere else. The issue with this is that it only supports the criticism that The Secret was intended as a low cost/high profit cash grab, which undermines whatever positive elements might be gleaned from the film. As The Secret progresses, some of the practices encouraged by the experts takes on seemingly contradictory qualities, with statements claiming one thing--like "the secret takes time to manifest", and later that "the process starts as soon as you begin visualizing your dream". Vague, broadly open-ended--even contradictory--messages like these are designed to capture the attention of a majority of the audience by banking on the idea that someone watching will hone in on that which they feel most sympathetic to hearing. This ends up making this "secret" a blanket catch-all for education, self-esteem, even physics itself...whatever sounds best to you, which only makes the message lukewarm and its neutrality muddy. And since everyone wants something in their lives, the proposition that if you "want something bad enough, you will get it" runs the risk of sounding dubious or opportunistic. (Interestingly, it sounds somewhat similar to the speech given by Bill Murray's character at the end of Scrooged.)
A significant concern about The Secret is how it hinges on the idea that through the "Law of Attraction", all of your dreams can come true, that you can obtain the object of your desire. Testimonies from entrepreneurs and authors include their "vision boards" and "one hundred thousand dollar bills" which are showcased as the seed by which their dreams are manifested. The claim is that these rituals aid them in making their outlandish dreams come true, with a direct correlation between this pre-visualization and the inevitable outcome. In this, The Secret comes across as being predisposed to praising materialism with the promise of the reliability of the "Law of Attraction", and only begrudgingly seems to acknowledge that more modest dreams are okay, too. But all of this circumvents the idea that these dreams of excess are being thrust upon you as a value, something achievable through sheer power of will. And while no billionaire became one without ingenuity, determination, and some luck no doubt, it is undoubtedly a matter of action, more than mere mindset. And really, is your dream to be a billionaire, or is that the dream you're being conditioned to want? (Now that's the question.) The "Law of Attraction" is not a surrogate for action in one's life, and problems cannot simply be "thought away" by thinking only in pure positivity. The reflexive feeling I had, while balking at this idea, was of the arrogant presumption that the whole universe is my magic lamp. The "Law of Attraction" is best taken as a metaphor for motivating the audience to believe that the seemingly impossible can be achieved, and optimism is not a bad thing. But the true happiness in the universe which The Secret only seems to casually touch upon near the end is that it comes not from acquisition, but from self-actualization, achieving what is of genuine spiritual value to you--and these are two very different things. I think the best way to approach The Secret is not as a literal means to achieve success and get fame and wealth, but with the intent to encourage others to appreciate life from a more positive outlook. It is to achieve a wellness that is authentic and genuine, springing forth from a sense of fulfillment and gratitude for life through guiding principles which make the journey the reward, not just the destination you obsess about what others have.
Recommended for: Fans of a film about happiness and values, be they worldly or spiritual. The Secret proposes a vast swath of approaches to achieve these goals through methods of varying plausibility, and the film is best considered from an objective point of view, taking its claims on your own terms.
One of the bigger concerns I had watching The Secret had to do with the choice to identify the "Law of Attraction" as a literal "law". To distinguish, a "law" is something which is an immutable, proven truth (I'm not talking about the realm of governments but physics), whereas a "theory" is something which is speculated to be true; the "Law of Attraction" is a theory. The counterpoint to this is that the definition of a law comes down to a physical force versus what amounts to a psychological impetus that triggers the ostensible "Law of Attraction". In visuals and scenes meant to show the "Law of Attraction" in action, when people visualize both positive and negative elements, the effect appears as rings of asynchronous shockwaves emanating from their heads--a depiction of the "Law" in action, influencing the universe via its outward rippling. At its core, The Secret proposes that your feelings--broadly defined as "good" and "bad"--are the cause of your welfare, not the effect. This kind of approach to lumping so-called "good feelings" as disparate from "bad feelings" is emblematic of a New Age attitude toward selective interpretation of events, without context or consequence. Some of the presenters even go so far as to make the fairly obvious analogy of Aladdin and the genie granting wishes as being like the "Law of Attraction", that only by believing in its authenticity and committing your aims toward the positive will it work. The speakers participating in The Secret talk of how the "Law of Attraction" is not imaginary, but do not back up the claims with empirical data. They speak in truisms about mental health practices and general psychiatric guidance to ply skeptical audiences with choice nuggets of successful strategies for better living, then associate those strategies with the "Law of Attraction". These moments have the most universal acceptance, and are good advice on the whole...moments like one speaker's description of being grateful every morning for his day when he rises. Similarly, for those who find comfort in totems, the story of the "gratitude rock", which is similar to a religious symbol, is also a means of maintaining mental wellness through the effect it has on those who assign meaning to it. These are the moments where I found myself saying, "yes, that is a useful and healthy way of encouraging positive thinking in one's life"...but that doesn't necessarily mean it should be the "thin edge of the wedge", and invite everything else in as unquestioned fact. One of the most illuminating metaphors about this is one shared by co-author of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series, Jack Canfield, who talks of faith in the "Law of Attraction" being like driving from California to New York at night, seeing only one hundred to two hundred feet ahead by the glow of the headlights, knowing that the rest of the road is there. However, the flaw in this analogy is that it disregards that on making this eastbound trip, the sun will rise, and you will no longer need those headlights at all, and the truth will be revealed, and you will know if you have the road or not by presumptions but by physical laws. This is the metaphor for the missing elements in life that The Secret withholds to bait your interests.
There is an element of the overblown and even excessive in The Secret, which has the side effect of making it unintentionally funny. For example, one such "expert", a reverend who offers insight into the "Law of Attraction", actually has his occupation subtitled as "visionary", without irony. The overly dramatic title sequence suggests that all of what follows in The Secret is from the contents of a diary left to a grieving woman, and yet there is no true narrative to the film. Rapid flashes of dramatic recreations from history suggest conspiratorial cover-ups, like those in the pulp-historical thrillers of Dan Brown. The special effects--I'm looking at you, genie--are of the kind which would be found in a student film edited by someone with only a passing knowledge of After Effects. Even the assorted archive and stock footage of varying quality had me looking for an unintended watermark here and there, to see if had been lifted from somewhere else. The issue with this is that it only supports the criticism that The Secret was intended as a low cost/high profit cash grab, which undermines whatever positive elements might be gleaned from the film. As The Secret progresses, some of the practices encouraged by the experts takes on seemingly contradictory qualities, with statements claiming one thing--like "the secret takes time to manifest", and later that "the process starts as soon as you begin visualizing your dream". Vague, broadly open-ended--even contradictory--messages like these are designed to capture the attention of a majority of the audience by banking on the idea that someone watching will hone in on that which they feel most sympathetic to hearing. This ends up making this "secret" a blanket catch-all for education, self-esteem, even physics itself...whatever sounds best to you, which only makes the message lukewarm and its neutrality muddy. And since everyone wants something in their lives, the proposition that if you "want something bad enough, you will get it" runs the risk of sounding dubious or opportunistic. (Interestingly, it sounds somewhat similar to the speech given by Bill Murray's character at the end of Scrooged.)
A significant concern about The Secret is how it hinges on the idea that through the "Law of Attraction", all of your dreams can come true, that you can obtain the object of your desire. Testimonies from entrepreneurs and authors include their "vision boards" and "one hundred thousand dollar bills" which are showcased as the seed by which their dreams are manifested. The claim is that these rituals aid them in making their outlandish dreams come true, with a direct correlation between this pre-visualization and the inevitable outcome. In this, The Secret comes across as being predisposed to praising materialism with the promise of the reliability of the "Law of Attraction", and only begrudgingly seems to acknowledge that more modest dreams are okay, too. But all of this circumvents the idea that these dreams of excess are being thrust upon you as a value, something achievable through sheer power of will. And while no billionaire became one without ingenuity, determination, and some luck no doubt, it is undoubtedly a matter of action, more than mere mindset. And really, is your dream to be a billionaire, or is that the dream you're being conditioned to want? (Now that's the question.) The "Law of Attraction" is not a surrogate for action in one's life, and problems cannot simply be "thought away" by thinking only in pure positivity. The reflexive feeling I had, while balking at this idea, was of the arrogant presumption that the whole universe is my magic lamp. The "Law of Attraction" is best taken as a metaphor for motivating the audience to believe that the seemingly impossible can be achieved, and optimism is not a bad thing. But the true happiness in the universe which The Secret only seems to casually touch upon near the end is that it comes not from acquisition, but from self-actualization, achieving what is of genuine spiritual value to you--and these are two very different things. I think the best way to approach The Secret is not as a literal means to achieve success and get fame and wealth, but with the intent to encourage others to appreciate life from a more positive outlook. It is to achieve a wellness that is authentic and genuine, springing forth from a sense of fulfillment and gratitude for life through guiding principles which make the journey the reward, not just the destination you obsess about what others have.
Recommended for: Fans of a film about happiness and values, be they worldly or spiritual. The Secret proposes a vast swath of approaches to achieve these goals through methods of varying plausibility, and the film is best considered from an objective point of view, taking its claims on your own terms.