The Secret
 

Hello All,

A number of my non-kendo friends are raving about some book and DVD called The Secret. Apparently is about finding inner peace, happiness, and success through some supposedly ancient...secret.

This sounds like a marketing ploy, especially since Oprah supports it (yarrgh!). Any thoughts or insight into this latest craze?

The secret is: More keiko!

More keiko, less Oprah! http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/jaguar.gif

My guess is that it is some blending of Western and Eastern thinking with a dose of feel-good psychology. Sometimes I kick myself for not making up my own religion and selling it to others...just kidding (no need to flame!)http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/ditsy.gif

I've actually seen it, and its actually fairly motivational.
Its about how to harness the power of positive thinking and such, worth checking out even if it seems kind of hokey.

From what I know about it, it's about using the "power of positive thinking" - but I forget what they actually call it - something that sounds scientific. Now, I'm all for positive thinking - I really think it can make one happier. But this person says (as do the books she's based this on), if you think positively about getting something - really visualize yourself getting it - the universe, in a very mystical way, has no choice but to let you have it. Complete and utter BS preying on today's selfish consumer culture.

Little to do with kendo, but...

Calling abundance... cosmic ordering... positive thinking... visualisation...

All this and more.

In my view 'The Secret' is worth watching and the message is valid and useful if you have an open mind... (but I would look on eBay for reasonably priced copies...!).

A related DVD is 'What the Bleep?... (Down the Rabbit hole)'... also effective and worth watching.

There is an undercurrent of TOE in both of these with their reference to quantum worlds, alternative futures and neuroscience...

Even the cynical amongst you might learn a little something...

In the normal fashion of this forum I expect this post to be followed by a whole deluge of uninformed, negative, puerile, critical and dismissive posts from our regular adolescent 'contributors' so I suggest that you don't waste your time reading beyond this point... I know I won't...

I know I go where no man has gone before but could you tell me what TOE means? I could get it this far so please enlighten me about this abbreviation/acronym. If you would be so kind. Please.

Sorry Fonsz... (Ik verontschuldig me... mijn fout) ... that's Theory of Everything... ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_everything )... should have put a link in the previous post... Cheers

I find it funny how many people equate rationality with cynicism. I have a quite open mind, but I also have knowledge and experience which just doesn't jibe with any of this new-age stuff. To me it looks like the wishful thinking of desperate people (when it's not outright lies by the people exploiting it), and it just makes me sad.

"What the Bleep do we know" is a great little film.

Also "The elegant universe" is a great book, but also a good series from NOVA--on GoogleVideo. 11 dimensions of space to solve quantum Physics, String Theory with E=MC2.... very interesting theories...too bad you can't prove any of it. Seeing that a "string in the atom" is the size of a tree on earth, if an atom were the diameter of our solar system.

One of my students did a short trailer on Eta Carina, a super massive star several thousand light years away from us....1000 x our sun's mass. and our sun is 1.3 million earths.....those scales just make your imagination hurt...its just simply too vast.

Hmm! Oprah, the woman who supports the idea of Wulong tea as a magical wright loss compound that will make your excess weight melt away... hmm!

I avoid anything that tries to tell me what to believe/how to be happy etc... even down to chasing people who knock on my door to "talk about God" down the street barefoot with a bokuto screaming manaically at them... it works, they don't come back!

The Secret, isn't.
I have read the book, (it's available for free on the Net)
and it's nothing but Hocus-Pocus Mumbo-Jumbo new-age-feel-good Horse-Apples.

It's a scam, in other words. Complete nonsense.

if you ask me, here's:
Kenzan's "Secret" to happiness:

#1. You are responsible for your own life, not the universe.
Like the mantra says: If it is to be, it's up to me.
#2. Follow the path to your bliss with the passion that you would cut down God himself if he got in your way of it.
#3. Life is suffering. There is no life without it. Think of it as a magnificent game that hurts. Pain and Suffering are good things. They let you know you are alive. Deal with it.
#4. Quit Whining, and whatever it is you want to do/be just get off your lazy ass, engage in the process, realize that there will be obstacles along the way, and Just FREAKING do it! and if you fail, try again, but whatever you do, don't blame anyone else.
#5. Money ain't everything, but it does help. At the end of the day, you can't take it with you. Smell the roses. A LOT.

Lastly, all in all, that's no Secret.

That sounds interesting Thunder... I must have a look into that...

Funny and sad all in one short post.... watch out for those mood swings boy... they'll start to say you're crazy... and that would make me saaaadddd.... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Everything you really need to know about life is contained within the Ring cycle.

You wrote: And then:

Self fulfilling prophecy? Did you visualize this happening and alter the very fabric of the universe to make it so?

I recommend reading about what real scientists think of that particular film.
http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...s/sleeping.gif

Was that "Ring Cycle" or "Rinse Cycle?"
http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...es/biggrin.gif

No..seriously, I wasn't joking.
http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/hurt.gif

Some good old-fashioned common sense.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Kenzan again.

Thanks for the link it really blew my mind. Amazing theory everything connects. The things that I learn here apart from Kendo stuff and religion.
Thanks for the quick service and the Dutch very good indeed if I may say so.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......