I'm gonna be rich! I'm gonna be Rich! I"M GONNA BE RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICH!

http://thewizardofoz.warnerbros.com/...os/photo16.jpg

Yeah... it's their fault they got cancer! It's their fault their plane got hijacked, and if they'd directed enough positive energy, those terrorists wouldn't have crashed it into that skyscraper!

The kernel of truth (thinking positively helps you take positive steps) doesn't justify the mystical bullshit that accompanies it.

I didn't read that because:

1. It was way too long.

2. It was about Oprah.

Blah blah blah blah...

Foaming at the mouth because someone believes something does exactly what for you?

OH MY GOD I'M SO MAD ABOUT THIS GGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

My point is, unless he regrew a kidney or willed cancer away after watching the DVD, there was nothing in there that he couldn't have gleaned from The Little Engine That Could.

It would be AWESOME if all it took to make life amazingly wonderful was just thinking it would be amazingly wonderful. Really, truly having unlimited happiness and health would be fantastic beyond the telling of it. But it's not possible, and believing in it doesn't make it so. The problem with "THE SECRET!!!!!" is that it gives people in dire circumstances false hope that can lead to terrible consequences ("Who needs medicine? I'm doing great just thinking positively!").

If Ali wants to believe following the Flying Spaghetti Monster's set of rules for attaining success are what led him to where he is today, fine. Maybe it's true. But I'd prefer to give credit to Ali for doing what he needed to do to make it happen rather than saying it was all in the vibrations.

I just wanted to add that this new marketing iteration of an old philosophy doesn't ascribe "fault" for people who get cancer (and the like). The underlying philosophy is that people aren't victims of their lives, but rather choose their destiny going into them. Thus, they go into them to learn from specific experiences. As the philosophy goes, someone isn't at "fault" for getting cancer, but rather are experiencing the life of a cancer patient. It's now up to them to live that life, either as a victim of cancer, or in control of the experience.

The secret to people being rich lies in the very fact most of us can't be and will never be.

"The Secret" isn't about life experiences and shedding karma to reach enlightenment; it's about, well: "Ask once, believe you have received, and all you have to do to receive is feel good."

Just feel good and all of your wildest dreams will instantly come true!

And you actually hit upon what's most distasteful about this: It's a shitty marketing scheme to make money off of people who really WANT something like this to be possible. They take a few sensible ideas ("I think I can, I think I can..."), wrap them up in a shiny new "spiritual" coating with all sorts of fun buzz words that mean absolutely nothing, and rake in the dough.

The people pushing this are no better than people who claim they can talk to the dead or move objects with their minds.

I can buy that people can concentrate on the right things and synapses are created from said concentration that give them insight into achieving their goals.
I can't buy that you radiate energy that the cosmos rewards you for radiating.

Not "it would be Awesome." It *is* awesome. I know first hand because this is the way I've always thought. Not that life doesn't deliver me lemons. But there's something to be said for the ability to take lemons and make lemonade. Not everyone can do it. Some people take lemons and make sure that everybody knows that the lemons are bitter. Now take those two and juxtapose what you think each of these different types of individuals are going to attract into their lives?

It's pretty simple, even using your example of a cancer patient. What do people who have cancer and are miserable and talk about death all the time attracting to them? What are people who have cancer and go out and talk about life attracting to them?




Only if you drastically misinterpret it. I haven't heard refusing medicine advocated by anyone who ascribes to this philosophy. Have you?

Lemons are sour.

Your mom is like the "Secret"....everyone is buying into her, she gives out unlimited happiness to all who pay to finger her pages, and when you are tired of her you can dump her onto your friends

No shit. My brain needs a shower. :cuss:

When Life hands me Lemons, I find a person who life handed Vodka.

That's pretty much the long and short of it. People who concentrate on the right things are more open to recognizing the right opportunities when they are presented. It's really about knowing what you want, and keeping your focus on that, rather than what you don't want.