Originally Posted by
andshewas 
This film promotes a lot of fuzzy pseudoscience. I think it's a shame that our science education is in such a state that a lot of people accept this as the real deal through either lack of exposure or exposure to inaccurate information.
Well... Yes, it as well as The Secret actually roll together a bunch of decades old, new-age spiritualism with a liberal helping of feel-good concoction. lol
Originally Posted by
andshewas As for Changing your thinking to change the world. Well, if you change your mind and decide to take action, then I say ok. Otherwise, no. You cannot just think your way out of a paper bag.
It's catchy though. Wayne W. Dyer made a killin' off these
same precepts 30 years ago in the awesome book,
Your Erroneous Zones.
It sells. Telling people that society has constructed a myth-cocoon and we're willing denizens is intoxicating! It
feels good to hear a credentialled talking head say to you... You Can Do Any Damned Thing You Set Your Mind To Doing.
And sells even better. That's precisely what Dyer did, and a slew of others throughout the seventies into the eighties and part of nineties (
The Celestine Prophecy - another one).
Dyer was right, of course, and so are the producers of Bleep and the author of Secret--there IS far more to the world than what we know! That's part of the lure. However, claiming then to have
answers... to talk of reincarnation and the journey of the soul, and variously claim that science
supports these types of ideals is the fatal leap they make.
To a degree these people are right about the mantras, "We create our own reality"... "Change your thoughts and you change your world"... "We are the sum total of the choices we have made," and "Thoughts are things."
See... it's
tantalizing; nay,
titallating! I know! I've long been the student. It's, well it's stupefying to think that... With my thoughts alone, I can create the circumstance in my life that will grow me $10,000,000 over the next ten years.
There is *some* truth to the principle. Unfortunately, once you come out of the theatre or the book, there is no magic to it, no supernatural "beam of attraction" going to make that happen. It requires all the luck, all the hard work, all the brains and savy to make happen as if one never read the books or saw the movies.
It's mostly feel good, pop psych with a new dressing, people.
And hey, if the spiritual principles feel good to live by and they improve your life, then by all means! ...So long as you don't start blaming yourself for having cancer or being alcoholic... or stop an antidepressant because The Secret does, after all, champion
"the power of thought!" -with frightening exaggeration.
Oh. And if you want financial freedom? A four-year degree in a high-demand field will net you more than being versed on the 30 year-old "Secret" that everybody already knew about.
Ten