Comments on: The Secret

By: Mel

Mel — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:52:42 +0000

Did anybody actually try it and discover that it didn’t work?

By: Friendly Atheist » I Love Surprise Magazine Subscriptions

Friendly Atheist » I Love Surprise Magazine Subscriptions — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:51:07 +0000

[...] flipping through the pages and I come across this article that is ripping on Rhonda Byrne’s awful book The Secret: “The law of attraction doesn’t compute don’t or not or no, or any [...]

By: Amazon.ca: The Secret: Books: Rhonda Byrne by Rhonda (Personal Development) |

Wed, 30 May 2007 10:27:52 +0000

[...] … atheist, atheism, Rhonda Byrne, The Secret, Salon, Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra, … piece on the moral problems of The Secret at the eBay Atheist blog: … more… [...]

By: GirlAtheist

GirlAtheist — Fri, 04 May 2007 18:34:17 +0000

I have to wonder if Oprah doesn’t get some kind of kickback by endorsing these wacko books/products. Everything she touches turns to gold. That MUST be translated into cash for her, somehow.

Look at Rachel Ray. She’s going to be endorsing Dunkin’ Donuts. OMG.

By: Friendly Atheist » This is a Joke, Right?

Friendly Atheist » This is a Joke, Right? — Fri, 04 May 2007 01:12:40 +0000

[...] And Rhonda Byrne, the author of The Secret, is also on the Time 100 list… that’s a sad reflection of our society… [...]

By: Amy Vallery

Amy Vallery — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:58:55 +0000

It’s great to see some logical criticism of this garbage. It’s incredible how much attention it is getting. I even attended a professional software quality assurance conference last week and they were giving it away as one of the prizes. My mom borrowed the DVD and tried to talk me into watching it with her when she stayed with us recently, and acted totally perplexed when I told her I wasn’t interested.

By: Elisabeth

Elisabeth — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 23:44:03 +0000

This is actually the kind of stuff my church – Religious Science – taught. And it was when I started to study my religion in depth (well, I didn’t actually get very far) that I rejected all religion. They are actually having a seminar on this topic next month.

The only good thing about this kind of stuff (and the thing that actually has some scientific basis) is the idea that an optimistic attitude leads to more success in life. According to Learned Optimism, studies have shown optimistic people do better in numerous areas, live longer, have better health, etc. So positive thinking does work, it just doesn’t work the way people who subscribe to theories such as this think it does.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 15:37:28 +0000

All these comments are so spot on it hurts! No. 1 on the best seller lists? At least Harry Potter makes it clear that its fiction… The Secret should take a page.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:11:48 +0000

Karen, that is a very good point!

By: Devika

Devika — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:07:24 +0000

Wait a minute, I didn’t see this “secret” video or read the book, but I have seen the two Oprah episodes she did on it. I definitely didn’t think that it was about thinking positive thoughts and then waiting. Over and over again, they talked about thinking about what you want, taking action toward your goal, and then “receiving” the benefits. I didn’t think it was anything more than a lay person approach to cognitive-behavioral interventions. It certainly does not seem inactive.

But while we’re talking about Oprah, I have to say that it drives me BONKERS whenever she interviews someone who does ___ (survives trauma, coincidentally meets a long-lost friend, etc.) and then says, “Don’t you think it’s a miracle?” And invariably, the person says, “yes, it was God” or “my dead grandma was watching over me.” You all could probably guess what my problem is with such reasoning.