My Experiment with The Secret

“The Secret” is an allusion to the Law of Attraction, popularised by Rhonda Byrne in her bestselling book as well as her documentary. What is the secret? In the simplest words, the Law of Attraction says that you attract the thoughts that you think. Accepting this, the book proceeds to give corollaries. We should therefore think prosperity, not lack. We should think money, not poverty. We should think about joy, not sorrow. We should think about good health, and not bad health, and so on.

Usually, when good things happen to us, we feel good, and when not-so-good things happen to us, we feel not so good. The Secret says that we have the equation wrong. It says that when we feel good, we attract good things in our lives, and vice versa. The book also proceeds to extol the virtues of gratitude and love. In fact, Byrne has written an entire book on Gratitude called The Magic, and an entire book on Love called The Power.

The world, though, is about The Secret. A lot of people believe in it completely. A lot of people believe it is hogwash. One of my favourite authors Jack Canfield is one of the teachers in The Secret. A couple of my favourite authors, Ryan Holiday and Mark Manson have written scathing articles against The Secret.

Ryan Holiday’s article
Mark Manson’s article (This article uses explicit language)

My understanding is that the objection is with regard to sitting and trying to manifest something by thinking, without working for it. My take is that if we assume that action is non-negotiable, then The Secret is a welcome addition to the way we function. 

So, does the Law of Attraction work or not?

I decided to try out one of the principles impromptu. One evening, in a situation where I would usually be cross and start arguing with my wife (I can’t remember what that situation is now), I smiled and started jumping up and down with joy. My wife, now, was expecting me to be cross, and when I was not, she was pleasantly surprised, and she broke into a smile as well. We were both jumping up and down, and the energy in the atmosphere was positively electric. We had a pleasant time that evening, a better alternative to fighting.

So does the Law of Attraction work or not? I don’t quite care; responding positively, even if artificially, is a much better feeling than responding negatively, and I’m happy to take away this from my experiment with The Secret.

Image Credit: Pixabay by Pexels

P.S. Did you know that Swamiji has written an article on the Law of Attraction?