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Tuesday 26 August 2008

Post #72 Hire a Hall / Nothing (Not a Secret at All)

I saw an article in the Weekend Australian Magazine about Rhonda Byrne. It was a revelation to me that the originator of the "Secret" scam was an Australian. Not an expatriate to be proud of. I'd first noticed this con when some advertisements were run for a programme which was, eventually, not run on Australian TV. I later discovered through The Chaser series on ABC TV what it was all about.

The Chaser made a great mockery of this maximus bogus, revealing what had been behind the ads. The gist of the "secret" is to compel "The Universe" to grant your wishes. The method is that you set your hopes on something, believe you'll receive it - and then you do. The piece shown by The Chaser team from "The Secret" video was of a boy dreaming of a new bicycle, reinforcing his wish by making a montage of clipped pictures of it and then being presented with it at the front door by a man who is apparently a benevolent uncle. (The Chaser crew called this bike-donating character "a friendly old paedophile" in their summary of the action.) They then went about to various retail premises trying to take possession of clothes, cars, etc. by "focussing, believing and receiving" - all spoken of in falsely reverential and unctuous tones. The proprietors of these establishments were suitably and hilariously dumbfounded by this presumptuousness. A clothing retailer was told by these provocateurs, "We've commanded the Universe to give us these clothes. Now we must receive them." This was said in a tone such as would be used explaining a fact of life to a child. All loving and so forth.

Where this ceases to be funny is that this twit, Byrne, is proposing that cures for serious ailments such as breast cancer may be obtained by this glorified "wishful thinking". She's currently enmeshed in litigation over the millions she's reaped from this drivel. Apparently the people who did the actual technical work of producing the film were prepared to believe her about their cuts of the proceeds...but they haven't received. What a surprise!

2 comments:

Dina Roberts said...

Oh! I was actually thinking about posting about her and her so-called secret.

First of all, the philosophy is nothing new. She just recycled old ideas and presented it as this new and wonderful things.

I remember someone sending me a link to it and thinking. I've heard all this before.

The "Secret" is pretty much the opposite of my own spiritual beliefs.

Retarius said...

I knew nothing about it until I saw The Chaser episode. They didn't cover the worst of it (pretending to avert or cure cancer). I only discovered that from the Weekend Australian.