I'm curious. What opportunities are presented to cancer patients who concentrate on the positives in their lives that are not afforded to those who are worried and scared by their condition?

Powder Milk biscuits give shy people the strength to get up and do what needs to be done.

So, are you not on board with the cosmic ray, positive ion, aspect of this philosophy either?

By the way rep for the James Randi clip.

Ultra Peanut decided he was gonna get fit and get into shape... he focused on getting fit and did the right things to get into shape.

Due to his focus, he went from 260lbs to 170lbs...

Same principle.

You get what you focus on.

people have a hard time buying into 'vibrations', but what about gravity, or magnets or wireless internet? We don't see any of that stuff, but it has an effect on us.

Just because we don't 'see' doesn't mean its not prevalent in our lives.

--- FWIW, the 'Secret' to me, is just repackaged Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich... which is one of the best books ever.

To attain anything, you must have a goal, a definite purpose, focus on that goal, and do the actions towards attainment of that goal. That is the 'Secret'

So.... for the past 6 months or so... I've been concentrating very hard on Jenna Fischer... :drool: and wouldn't ya know it... she left her husband and she's moving in with me....

…To lazy to read all that; could someone summarize?

This is really no different than the philosophy that is championed by the kookier brands of televangelists - that if you have enough faith, you can create whatever reality you want.

I don't mean the regular mainline pastors who happen to broadcast on TV, but the ones who claim to be able to heal people or are knocking people over with their jackets and such.

That philosophy - that you can somehow change reality just your mind - is packaged in Christian terminology by televangelists for their audience, people who are at least superficially susceptible to religion. It sounds like Oprah is selling the same thing repackaged in self-help terminology for people who are susceptible to self-help.

Oprah bought scientist. Made time machine. Went back in time. Got stepped on dinosaur.

Who doesn't want some area of their life to be better?

That's not the same thing as being a self-help junkie, someone who worships the Oprahs and Dr. Phils of the world, someone who has chronic low self-esteem and is addicted to pop-psychology, buying into every self-help fad that comes down the pike.

The Secret to me is Wallace D Wattles book, The Science of Getting Rich. Like Ari said Think and Grow Rich is all through it too. Heck, Proverbs says "as a man thinks, so is he."

What I find interesting is that people who are crazy rich, and have been super successful share how they did it--and are looked down upon for it. The people that haven't seen success will quickly insult these people because they obviously don't know what they're talking about.

At the age of 25 I was living in a $1.25 million dollar house, and I grew up in poverty. I dropped out of college because I couldn't afford it, and I took a job making $6.25 an hour. I was 20 when I did that.

The 'Secret' absolutely works.

Cool! Now mabe my wife will quit watching her.

Man you worked a lot of overtime! ;)

Not so much. At least I don't look at it cosmically at all. I think it's kind of silly to apply a macro philosophy to something that you want to apply on a micro level. I do believe that there is some sort of cosmic tie in somewhere along the line, as I'm a believer in God, and I think there is more to life than "you live, you die." But I'm not going to pretend to know how He works. I have my own opinions, but am humble enough to know that they're just that: opinions.

I just know that when bad things happen to me, I try to put the best face on them as possible and look for the opportunity. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's incredibly hard. Sometime you just have to take a bad experience at face value and learn from it as best you can.
I don't know about cosmic rays or positive ions... I do know about "Garbage in Garbage out" and "I think therefore I am."