Bob Crawford Online

Does The Secret work? Or is it just a fantasy designed to play on peoples' wishes and desires? I guess the answer depends upon who you ask.

The May/June issue of Spirituality & Health magazine features a column by Rabbi Rami Shapiro entitled "What do you think of The Secret?" In it the Rabbi not only dismisses The Secret as "...a New Age version of age-old snake oil." but goes on to say, "If the ideas in The Secret are true, the universe is doomed."

Right off the bat I want to say that I do agree with Rabbi Shapiro when he says, "The Secret appeals to us at our most shallow." It sure does. We all want a better life. We all want to find happiness. And like it or not, most people want bigger and better 'stuff', i.e., material things. This hasn't changed since the beginning of recorded time.

Rabbi Shapiro feels that if we were all capable of manifesting our desires as easily as The Secret would have you believe, that we would quickly turn into a planet of narcissistic idiots, constantly chasing the perfect body, the perfect car, and the perfect life. Turn into? I think we're already there. I think the problem is that most people don't achieve their desires and are left with feelings of failure, lack, and fear.

When people learn to attain their desires they become happier, more peaceful, and ultimately more spiritual. Yes, a lot of people desire material things and will focus on those things after reading or watching The Secret, after all, this is a material world. But some people will choose to focus on creating abundance, on love, on peace, on helping mankind.

Rabbi Shapiro reinforces this point for me: "...I spent a few hours wandering around the campus where I teach asking people what they would ask for if they thought the universe was a giant wish-granting machine. For every "world peace" there were 10 "SUVs." For every "cure for cancer" there were dozens of "a million dollars." For every "an end to injustice" there were 20 "a perfect body""

That sounds about right. After all, if the universe was a giant wish-granting machine we wouldn't need everyone to wish for world peace. Just one person would do. Another person could ask for the cure for cancer. Another could ask for an end to injustice. Let the rest wish for SUVs and millions of dollars and perfect bodies. The quicker those people attain those material things the quicker they'll realize the truth. The truth that material things won't last. They won't bring you lasting joy or peace. They don't learn that lesson because they don't know how to get the things they want.

After reading his column I am left with the distinct impression that Rabbi Shapiro gave up before making it all the way through 'The Secret'. He spends most of the column telling us why The Secret is bad, but ends it by saying, "It isn't enough to think differently; we must be different and do differently."

This is exactly what The Secret teaches. I guess the Rabbi missed the part about allowing our emotional guidance system to 'guide' us to take the correct ACTION. That, to me, is the core of the teachings in The Secret. Focus on what you want and take inspired action to get it.

Rabbi Shapiro knows exactly how people can achieve whatever they want. Ironically, his method is the same as that in The Secret. He says, if you want love, act lovingly. The Secret tells us that to attract love we must focus on thoughts of love. At another point the Rabbi states, "You are not what you think. You are what you do." Yes, we are what we do, but we can't 'do' anything until we first think about it. We don't take action without first deciding to take action.

What I think Rabbi Shapiro means, is that because we don't have conscious control of our thoughts, but we do have control of our actions, that it is the actions that are more important. But The Secret starts at the beginning - with our thoughts. You acknowledge that you will have many uncontrolled thoughts, but you choose to focus on the ones that are in alignment with your goals and desires - no matter what those goals and desires are.

By continuously focusing on those thoughts, you will begin to have more thoughts that are related to your desires. You will have ideas that coincide with your desires. Some of these thoughts and ideas will inspire you to take an action that will move you closer to you goal. But there can be no action until you first decide to do so.

Rabbi Shapiro and The Secret both teach us that to get love you must 'be' loving. To 'be' loving would be to think and act loving, but again, you can't 'be' anything until you first decide to do so. So to 'be' abundant and to attract abundance into your life you must think abundant thoughts and develop abundant behaviors. 'Being' anything is simply thinking and acting that particular way. But it all starts by focusing on the thoughts that are in alignment with our desires.

It's true, there are no secrets in The Secret. This information has been around for a long time. It isn't evil, it isn't good, it's just the way things work. One fact that Rabbi Shapiro should take comfort in is that even though The Secret has the potential to allow untold numbers of people to chase after material things, most of them won't attain them. Kind of just like the way things are now. Most people won't overcome their fear of change that would enable them to achieve their desires. They won't be able to 'be' the thing they want, because to become something other than what they are now requires change.

The Secret is not the ultimate guide to manifesting the life you desire. There are certainly many books out there that go into greater detail about manifesting and the law of attraction. The Secret is more of a travel brochure than a detailed travel guide. You know, "Come live in Connecticut. The weather is great, the people are friendly, and we've got plenty of great jobs!" That's a travel brochure. Flashy, slick, and full of promise. It gets your attention and possibly causes you to take action.

The Secret is like that, it gives the reader or viewer a glimpse of a better life and then gives them a bare bones approach to achieving that life. It's not the last word on creating a better life, it's not even the first. It is, however, a great introduction to the power of using thought to manifest your desires.

Teaching people that they can change their lives by changing the way they think is the greatest gift we can give to each other, and anything that helps further that cause, no matter how elementary, or how basic, can only be beneficial. It seems that Rabbi Shapiro's dislike for The Secret isn't based on an understanding of the concepts contained within it, because his alternatives to The Secret are the same processes as those found in The Secret.

My first reading of Rabbi Shapiro's column left me with mixed feelings. I was upset by his dismissal of the whole thing. I was confused as to how anyone could read or watch The Secret and come away thinking it was evil or terrifying. I was angry that a magazine subtitled, "The Soul/Body Connection" would bash something that, from my understanding, was promoting that very same body/soul connection.

I was moved enough to begin this blog entry with the intention of setting the record straight. I was going to patiently show Rabbi Shapiro the error of his ways.

But then I understood. There is nothing wrong with Rabbi Shapiro's viewpoint. After all, he finishes his column by recommending the same techniques taught in The Secret. For whatever reason, his belief patterns or his mental paradigms didn't allow him to process this information completely. He formed an opinion based on an incomplete and superficial knowledge. This is the same thing that will happen to the majority of people who rush out to buy The Secret. The difference is that they will believe in it without understanding it. Rabbi Shapiro doesn't believe in it without understanding it. Same coin, different side.

Millions of people who will buy The Secret will get excited about achieving their goals. Sadly, most of them will be unable to manifest the things they desire. Why? Because they don't understand the process completely and are afraid of changing, afraid of that leap into the unknown.

Most will fail to achieve their desires because their desires weren't really desires in the first place, they were simply wishes. Wishes are when we 'wish' something would fall into our lap without any energy on our part. DESIRE, on the other hand, is what we call it when we are ready to give up anything to achieve our goal. Desire is what gets manifested. Wishes get bandied about like a leaf on an autumn breeze.

Rabbi Shapiro may have 'wished' to write an informative review of the The Secret, but I don't believe he 'desired' it. If he had, he would have seen that his negative comments are contradicted by his advice and he would have delved further to see why such a discrepancy existed.

Don't let the same thing happen to you. Be sure that your intentions that you are trying to manifest are really desires and not just wishes.

You won't achieve anything by simply wishing for it.

You CAN and WILL achieve anything you want by focusing your thoughts and creating a burning desire.

Secret or not, that is the key to living the life of your dreams.