The Secret - critical summary review

If you have always wanted to live a more fulfilling and happier life, but always struggled to get there, “The Secret” will reveal the path. Upon publication, “The Secret” was an instant bestseller and global phenomenon. It perpetuates the theory that to get what you want, you simply need to change your mindset. By focusing on the things you want, you will send out the energy into the universe that will transform your wishes into reality. Intrigued? Get ready to learn all about the secret to success, happiness, and love.

What is The Secret?

The Secret governs all of our lives and has been used by William Shakespeare, Ludwig van Beethoven, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Goethe. It can also be found in the writings of all major religions. So, what exactly is The Secret?

The Secret is something known as the law of attraction - meaning, whatever you think will come to you. Positive thoughts will translate into positive things, while negative thoughts become negative things.

    The universe around us is governed by one power. The law of attraction determines the workings of the universe, and it can be called into action by our thoughts. Our thoughts are magnetic and vibrate on a certain frequency, and positive and negative thoughts have different frequencies. When you send them out into the universe, they will magnetically attract everything vibrating on the same frequency.

    So, if you want to become wealthy - simply think about it, and wealth will be attracted to you. Your thoughts are like a human transmission tower, sending and receiving frequencies from the universe. Your thoughts will become reality. Whatever you think about most and concentrate on will eventually come to you in real life.

    Your mindset, therefore, determines the future. Good feelings will attract good things, while bad feelings will attract bad things. So getting what you want in life is as easy as changing your mindset! The first step is to become aware of what you’re feeling. 

Whatever situation you find yourself in right now is the sum total of your thoughts and feelings in the past. This means, once you change your thoughts, your life is going to change as well.

How can you use The Secret?

    To get everything you ever wanted, you need to harness the power of the law of attraction. This is possible in three simple steps: ask, believe, receive.

    The first step is to ask for what you want. You need to be clear in your question so that the universe can give you what you desire. It works like placing an order from a catalogue: you only need to ask once for your wish to become reality.

    The second step is to believe in what you want. You have now formulated your question to put out to the universe, so it’s time to get it ordered. If you were ordering something from a catalogue, you would be relaxed in the unwavering belief that your order will be delivered. That is the mindset you need to have when using the law of attraction: “You must believe that you have received. You must know that what you want is yours the moment you ask. You must have complete and utter faith.” It is incredibly important that you strongly believe in what you want – that is the only way the universe can give you what you asked for. 

Once you believe in the unseen, the universe will make the wish visible. While you wait, act as if you have already received your wish. Think about it like winning the lottery: if you had won the lottery, but not physically received the money yet, you would still be confident that it’s yours. You need to adopt the same feeling when it comes to ordering something from the universe.

    The third step is to receive. This means feeling how you would feel when you receive what you wished for - acting as though you already have it. Feeling good and positive means you are on the right frequency to get what you want. Say to yourself: “I am receiving now. I am receiving all the good in my life, now, I am receiving [fill in your desire] now.”

Changing your thinking

    As soon as you change your thinking, your life will change accordingly. Certain thought processes can enhance the power of the law of attraction. Expectation is a powerful feeling as it draws things to you. If you expect debt in your life, that is what’s going to happen. So expect a paycheck instead!

At the end of every day, before going to sleep, think through all the events of the day. If anything didn’t go the way you wanted, try to reframe this in your mind in the way you wanted it to go. That way, you’re emitting a new signal for the following day.

Another powerful thought process is that of gratitude. Being thankful for what you have will attract more good things  to you. To practice your gratitude, you can start every day by making a mental list of all the things you are grateful for, before even getting out of bed. Then, with every step you take during your morning routine, say thank you. By the time Byrne has her breakfast, she has already said “thank you” hundreds of times. That way you create the day you want, instead of letting it take control of you.

Another way in which you can enhance the law of attraction is by visualization. When you create pictures in your mind of yourself with everything you want, you simultaneously create the feeling of having it now. That way, you tune your “antenna” to receive what you desire.

One way of successfully visualizing is by creating a vision board. Put pictures of what you want to have and achieve in your life on one board and place this somewhere where you can see it. Look at it every day and believe that you already have those things.

The time to change is now. Embrace the past as part of your life, and be grateful that it brought you to this point, allowing you a fresh start.

Putting The Secret into action

    The law of attraction governs every aspect of your life, and so you can use it to achieve a multitude of things. It can help you become rich, have wonderful relationships, and even improve your health.

    It is important that your actions are in sync with what you desire. If your wish is for a perfect partner, for example, you need to act as if you already have the partner. One of Mike Dooley’s friends, a teacher of the Secret, had taken all the steps described. She had formulated a clear idea of her desired partner and spent all her energy believing and receiving what she was wishing for. But at some point, she realized she wasn’t acting as if she had the perfect partner. So she started parking her car in one side of the garage and sleeping on only one side of her bed. She even made room in her wardrobe for her future partner’s clothes. She is now happily married.

To have successful relationships, it is also important to love yourself first. Loving yourself means sending out signals of love and respect  - this will attract a loving and respectful partner to you. If you are not treating yourself with respect, you will be sending out the signal that you are not worthy or deserving enough. 

In terms of health, the law of attraction can have a powerful effect, as well. You may have heard of the placebo effect before – patients curing themselves by believing they could be healed. And that is exactly because they were following the teachings of The Secret. To lead a healthy life, it is enough to focus on perfect health in your life.

Don’t resist

    Resistance is unnatural. If you resist something that you don’t like, in fact, you will experience the opposite effect. You add more energy and fuel to the things you don’t like, enhancing their signal and thereby effectively attracting more of them to you.

    That’s the reason the author doesn’t keep up with the news anymore. She feels it makes her focus too much on the negative things in the world, thereby adding to them and the negative events in her own life.

    So when you encounter something you don’t like or want, you have to change the signal you’re emitting. Don’t resist the negative, but instead focus on something positive, such as love, trust, peace, and abundance. This means every single one of us has the power to change the world for the better, simply through thinking the right thoughts.

    Everything in the universe is made up of energy, including yourself. That is why sending out the right vibrations will change the world around you. “You are an energy magnet, so you electrically energize everything to you and electrically energize yourself to everything you want.”

    Since energy cannot be destroyed, this also means that you cannot be destroyed. When you die, your energy will simply be transformed into something else. “Despite everything you have seen and experienced in your life, can you imagine not being? You cannot imagine it, because it is impossible. You are eternal energy.”

    Everything exists within the One Universal Mind. This is where every possibility exists, and the Universal Mind is everything and everywhere, which means it is also a part of you. The Universal Mind is the place where every creation and invention in history comes from, and that means you too can tap into this infinite potential.

    You are the only one who can create the life you want. There is no greater, predestined purpose to life. What really matters in life is what you want, so find what brings you joy and follow your heart!

Final Notes

    To get what you want, you have to send out the right thoughts and the universe will reward you. Stay positive, and you will achieve all you ever wanted.

Despite being a global phenomenon and a bestselling book, “The Secret” strikes the critical reader as questionable. It borders on the spiritual and while apparently citing many success stories, it also refers to pseudo-science. The link to quantum physics for example is a tenuous one, not accepted by general science – and the fact that the author has stopped following the news as a direct result of following the teachings of “The Secret” seems dubious, to say the least.

12min Tip

    Think positive! That way you will make your dreams come true.