Discovering The SecretPeople around the world have been talking about a movie so powerful that it can change the course of your life. This movie, The Secret, was created by Australian Rhonda Byrne, and she says that if you follow its philosophy, you can create the life you want—whether that means getting out of debt, finding a more fulfilling job or even falling in love.
Rhonda says she stumbled on what she calls The Secret at the end of 2004. At the time, everything in Rhonda's life had fallen apart—physically, emotionally and financially—and she was in "total despair." Then her father died suddenly, and she was worried about her grief-stricken mother. "I wept and wept and wept, and I didn't want my daughter to see me sobbing," Rhonda says.
That's when Rhonda's daughter gave her a copy of The Science of Getting Rich, a book written in 1910 by Wallace D. Wattles. "Something inside of me had me turn the pages one by one, and I can still remember my tears hitting the pages as I was reading it," Rhonda says. "It gave me a glimpse of The Secret. It was like a flame inside of my heart. And with every day since, it's just become a raging fire of wanting to share all of this with the world."
After that first discovery, Rhonda read hundreds of books, listened to hundreds of hours of audio tapes and scoured the Internet for more information. She says she traced the idea of The Secret through history—all the way from 3500 B.C. to the present day. "Since I discovered The Secret, every single moment of my entire life has changed, and I am living my life for the first time," Rhonda says.
Rhonda defines The Secret as the law of attraction, which is the principle that "like attracts like." Rhonda calls it "the most powerful law in the universe," and says it is working all the time. "What we do is we attract into our lives the things we want, and that is based on what we're thinking and feeling," Rhonda says. The principle explains that we create our own circumstances by the choices we make in life. And the choices we make are fueled by our thoughts—which means our thoughts are the most powerful things we have here on earth.
To help teach the philosophy, Rhonda created the DVD The Secret, which features experts including the Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith, James Arthur Ray, Lisa Nichols and Jack Canfield—who not only teach other people about The Secret, but say they are successful in their own lives because they know and use the principle.
The Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith says he was a drug dealer in college—until he was arrested in a deal gone bad. Michael says he had a spiritual awakening during his trial and decided to turn his life around. Today he leads the Agape Spiritual Center in Los Angeles, where he teaches thousands of faithful followers the path to reaching their highest potential.
James Arthur Ray was insecure and awkward as a teenager until weight lifting helped the self-described geek gain confidence in his 20s. He says that surviving a near-fatal motorcycle crash and almost going bankrupt forced him to focus on the life he truly wanted. Now he runs a multimillion-dollar corporation dedicated to teaching people how to create wealth in all areas of their lives.
Lisa Nichols grew up on the tough streets of South Central Los Angeles. She admits that as a self-conscious teenager, she often used sex to feel loved by men. After hitting rock bottom at age 19, Lisa prayed for a better life. Now, she has made her fortune by motivating more than 60,000 teenagers to make better choices in their own lives.
Chicken Soup for the Soul creator Jack Canfield was deep in debt before he made it big. Now his best-selling books have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, and Jack travels the country teaching the secret of his success.
The law of attraction means that everything that happens to you—good or bad—you attract to yourself. Lisa describes it as if you're placing an order. "If you were at a restaurant and you ordered something, you fully expect it to come served that way. That's how the universe is. You're putting out orders—consciously and unconsciously," Lisa says. "So if you say, 'I'll never have a great relationship,' you just placed an order."
Jack says everything you focus on can have an effect on your life—from books to magazines to thoughts. "All of that affects how we feel, and the feelings actually send out a wave into the universe, and anything that's vibrating in a similar level gets attracted into our life," Jack says.
"Most people focus on how it is. We talk about our current reality—'I'm in debt. I'm overweight. I'm not happy. I'm sad. The world's not working. We're at war,' whatever. And the more you think about that and focus on that and talk about it, the more you attract that [negativity]," he says.
Although thoughts are powerful, Jack says the feelings that the thoughts generate are what actually attract things into our lives. "Too many times people are thinking a thought like, 'I want to be my perfect body weight of 185 pounds.' But they look at the scale and they see 205 and they think, 'But I'll never make it,' … so they feel bad," Jack says. Instead of wallowing in those negative thoughts, you need to find the positive in the situation. Jack says you should stop feeling bad about the weight, and instead feel positive that you are willing to do something healthy to make your life better. Carrying with you those positive feelings is one key to your success.
James says that in order to attract the things you want into your life—to place the right order—you have to do what he calls going "three for three." "Your thoughts, your feelings and your actions all have to be firing simultaneously in the same direction," he says. Visualizing your future life can help to hone your thoughts and feelings toward the things you want.
The panel says the thoughts and the feelings are often easy for people to grasp, but you still have to do something about them. "A lot of people watch The Secret and they say, 'Well, I'm sitting around visualizing my millions coming into my lap.' Well, they'll come take your furniture away. And then how are you going to visualize [when you're living] on the curb?" James says. "You've got to act on it. Make decisions on where you're going versus where you have been."
Jack says that everything in the world is made up of energy, which is controlled by thoughts and feelings. According to Jack, thoughts can travel long distances, so you are sending out signals to many people without even knowing it, and these signals attract like energy to you.
Jack and James say that this means there is no such thing as a coincidence. "Everything happens by principles and laws in our universe. And so consequently, we have an absolutely unlimited power within us," James says.
Michael says that thoughts—which turn into experience, speech and behavior—become the "feeling tone of your life." "An individual can actually begin to generate a certain feeling of gratitude, of love, of peace and of harmony, and the universe will begin to match that feeling tone—and what will flow into your life will match the feeling that you're holding," he says. "It means that everyone…can release themselves from being a victim and begin to take control of their life's destiny."
Gratitude is one example of the magnetic force of the universe. "Basically, nothing new can come into your life unless you open yourself up to being grateful [for what you already have]," Michael says.
"If you think about it, the universe has a conveyor belt of presents lined up for you, and until you receive the one and fully are grateful for it, the next one can't come out of the chute. It's all lined up," Jack says.
Lisa says this perspective applies to weight, family, friends and other aspects of life. She says too many people who want to make things better focus on what's wrong with the present. "Instead of wanting to change it, appreciate what's there," Lisa says. "Find the things about it that work … and by doing that, you create a space for it to get better."
For example, Lisa says she would like to lose some weight. But instead of focusing on the negative—that she hasn't dropped the pounds yet—she loves and appreciates the present moment. "I accept it. I love it. I embrace every inch, every pound," she says. In this way, Lisa is creating the space to "celebrate the now" and then invite better things into her life.
According to the panel members, much of the energy that people project into the world is done unconsciously. "People aren't walking around thinking, 'I want a bad thing to happen to me,' but there's an unconscious fear. There's a doubt. There's a worry. There's a sense of separation there that's running them," Michael says. He adds that spiritual growth is "allowing that which is unconscious to become conscious."
Michael says that spiritual growth does not mean religion but our "real identity." "The love, the peace, the joy, the wisdom, the harmony—these are all qualities of the spirit that it's seeking to express through us," Michael says. "And so as we become more awake, more aware of that, our life is filled with that kind of vibration, that kind of feeling tone. To grow spiritually is to actually become more aware of who you really are."
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