Monday, June 22, 2009

"The Secret" book review


I am just raking my brain for superlatives of the word "CRAP".. pure and absolute crap..

The fact that I picked it up says a lot about the marketing campaign and blitz it is all about. Wiki sayz by end of 2007 it had sold 4 milion copies of the book and 2 million DVDs of the movie of the same name. No wonder the foreword says " The secret has been used to attract all manner of things - from a specific feather to ten million dollars." Not for her readers but she is definitely a millionare because of the book.

A beautifully designed cover and glossy paper does not cover the hogwash inside (all that marketing team stopped short of is using scented paper!!). Of course there are no origingal ideas and she most conveniently accepts it in the foreward itself. But opening up a best-seller and having the feeling that you are reading the thesis draft of an undergrad!!!!! terrible.

I do not wish to judge the words of some of the big names that are thrown all around the pages of the book but it does irritate me as name-dropping would in any other context or medium. What pisses me off is that the book is touted as a New Age self-help and Spirituality book.
A Spiritual book that tells me this book will help me earn millions!!!!!!!!

This is just a compilation of random pieces of big speak by some well known (in the western world) speakers. As I started going through it, I kept thinking if they have been quoted in context or not..

What she magnanimously reveals ast the secret is a very simple concept that you must have come across a million times and in much more sensible words.. "The great secret of life is the law of attraction...so when you think a thought you are attracting like thoughts to you...your thoughts become thing."

What's put in the books may be great advice..(actually i woud suggest you view this web page and you might feel motivated...but then that's all there is in the book..a collection of quotations..!!) ..it's just that I cannot agree with the intent.. May be it's the very essence of the philosophy of the East. You cannot and should not even think of using the powers of the universe for selfish purposes.. it simply doesnt work that way..

The other part of the story could be my mistrust in the so called self help gurus of the West. Most of them are just charlatans selling hope to millions of losers, all thanks to an army of spin-doctors and media consultants..

13 comments:

  1. Umm to some extent content sounds hypothetical i agree. But years back couple of guys studied 'secret'(attended the so called coaching seminars) and they went on to make the movie 'Matrix'

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  2. @sam..
    which secret are you talking of.. Matrix if u remember released long before this book was written (2006)

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  3. There is a org called 'Landmark' who runs some kind of seminar series and secret is basically a collections of those sermons, and i was refering to these seminars which inspired the matrix guys

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  4. i jst started..and ths very quote attracts me ..
    "Don't speak to me like that."
    " i want you to speak to me like that and i want other people to speak to me like that."

    if rudeness is optimized, can ths rule be taken as attraction?
    can this help?

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  5. It really works in day to day life
    hey guys just follow it
    it will really change ur attitude to see life

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  6. what u think...is transmited to universe and u get the same reslt of that...

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