The law of attraction is real.

The movie “The

Secret” is fake.
March 15, 2007 @ 10:11 am · Filed under Psychology

I recently saw the movie The Secret, a pseudo-documentary that explains The
Law of Attraction. There are things in this movie that need a rebuttal and I
haven’t found one elsewhere - so here’s mine.

The important thing here is that The Law of Attraction itself is real. But the
arguments and explanations put forward in The Secret are alternately
unscientific, mystical, nonsensical or just plain wrong.

First, what is The Law of Attraction (TLoA)? Let’s say you’re poor and really want
to be rich. Instead of always complaining about being poor and always focusing
on what you don’t have, TLoA says that you should visualize yourself as rich. See
yourself in this situation. Feel what you would feel if you were in that situation.
Then, somehow, money will come to you.

Simply stated, it is the belief that what you focus on, is what you get (or create
for yourself), and in my experience this is mostly true.

The movie itself is entertaining, well-produced and it looks great. And popular as
it has become it has had the positive effect of opening many people’s eyes to the
existence of TLoA, which is great. But I believe it has done so on an erroneous
basis.

These are my major beefs with the movie:

1: The movie claims that famous people knew “the

secret”

The movie indicates that a number of famous people knew “the secret”,
including Einstein, Plato, Newton and Edison. However, the movie offers no proof
that any of these people knew of, agreed with or used the law of attraction.

2: The movie claims that TLoA is kept secret

The movie also claims that the people in power in society and business have long
known of this law and worked to keep it from the rest of us. Scenes are shown of
people being persecuted for trying to steal the secret and (I assume) bring it out
to the rest of us.

No proof of this is offered and to the best of my knowledge, no conscious effort

has ever been made to keep TLoA secret.

3: The movie talks about electromagnetic

waves/vibrations as the explanation for TLoA

The movie claims that since thoughts are electromagnetic waves, every thought
we have spreads to and affects our surroundings, and this is why our thinking
affects the universe. The movie repeatedly shows people who, as they visualize
their goals, generate a wave or signal that emanates from their heads. In some
of the cases, this wave is seen to spread over the entire Earth.

There are many things wrong with this assertion, primarily the fact that while
thoughts are, at least in part, electromagnetic waves, there is no scientific
indication that our brain waves alter the world around us in any meaningful way.

4: The movie uses quantum flapdoodle. Badly.

The movie also offers explanations from quantum physics as evidence of why
TLoA works. I happen to have studied a lot of quantum physics at university, and
I can safely say that the explanations offered in the movie are a prime example
of what Murray Gell-Mann called quantum flapdoodle, i.e. “hijacking the
terminology of modern science without understanding the underlying concepts or
employing any of the intellectual rigour intrinsic to scientific inquiry”.

5: The movie claims that the universe will provide

But my greatest beef with the movie is the claim that whatever you sit down and
imagine in this way, the universe will provide. Almost as if the universe is a big
vending machine: Insert sincere wish here, pull out cold coke (or shiny new
Ferrari) here.
That seems to me to be a very mechanical, shallow, self-serving description of
the universe.

The upshot

I believe that TLoA is very real. I’ve used it on any number of occasions. It works.

But this is my point: Changing your thinking changes nothing out there, in the
vast universe surrounding you. It changes something inside of you. Changing
your perception, your focus, your emotions and your thinking from negative to
positive (from what you lack to what you want) has an enormous effect on your
motivation, energy and creativity and that’s why you will then be more efficient
working towards your goals. It’s that simple.

No electromagnetic waves emanate from your head, magically transforming the

universe. No mystical vibrations affect your surroundings. Changing your thinking
does not change the quantum states of objects around you in any reliable, useful
way. The universe doesn’t stand ready to fulfill your every wish.

Rather, you change yourself and THEN you change your circumstances. It works
through a combination of entirely non-mystical, psychological and rational
mechanisms, including confirmation bias, positive thinking and optimism.

The Secret offers precisely zero evidence that it could ever be otherwise, and
instead proposes a number of mystical, unscientific and entirely unproved
explanations. That’s why looking to this movie for explanations and insight will
weaken your understanding of the TLoA and reduce your ability to successfully
employ it.

So, while the law of attraction is real, the movie, quite simply, is fake!

PS.
And don’t get me started on What the Bleep do We Know - that one is even
worse :o)

UPDATE: Satirical website The Onion’s take on The Secret.

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