Watching “The Secret,” the mega-hit movie that hit the jackpot with network news coverage and an all-out endorsement by Oprah Winfrey, I got the same sinking feeling I had many years ago when I attended a get-rich-quick seminar seeking recruits.

I was desperate then, as were the people to the right and left of me.  Where would the rent money come from; did we even have a future?  Dangling in front of us was the prospect of out-and-out riches, available to all of us.  Ordinary people, once as unsatisfied and unfulfilled as us, were now drinking wine at sunset on their yachts.  That could be you or me; we were practically salivating at this redemption before us. It was practically a miracle that this opportunity laid before us.

I signed up and lasted one whole day trying to sell something that was, in essence, a pyramid scheme.  How could I have fallen for this?

That’s a question that should be asked of anyone who has bought The Secret.   New Agers and other spiritually-minded folk are often scorned as gullible, suckers for anything that comes branded as the key to nirvana.  Sadly but deservedly, The Secret will further that perception.

Now, it’s all too easy to attack The Secret for its financial aspects.  A friend of mine signed up for The Secret’s free newsletter, and got pummeled by marketing pitches.  A church I know now has a link to The Secret’s website, and I’m sure that wasn’t done for free.  And there are indeed elements of a pyramid scheme, wherein people pay money for products and regain – perhaps – those funds by selling those products to an ever-declining audience of sellers.

But to attack The Secret just because of the financial underpinnings is lazy man’s thinking.  It’s the type of mindset that allows atheists to dismiss spiritual ideas without actually looking at them.

So, what is the spiritual essence of The Secret?  What is the paradigm?

The movie draws upon the very legitimate concept of cosmic consciousness – or god, as one might call it.   Correctly, The Secret notes that the living energy that permeates everything is aware and supportive of you.  And yes, it is indeed there for you to use. 

Rhonda Brynes, the Australian producer of the movie, refers to this as “the law of attraction.”  She told Associated Press. “Like attracts like, and when you think and feel what you want to attract on the inside, the law will use people, circumstances and events to magnetize what you want to you, and magnetize you to it.”  

And so, focusing on what you want rather than what you fear, visualizing your success, and taking action is, as metaphysician Joe Vitale says, “like placing an order with the universe.”  Adds author Esther Hicks, “You are the creator of your own reality.”  The universe is ready, willing and able “to give you anything you want, “ says pitchman Bob Proctor.

Doesn’t that just sound like the God of your dreams?  It’s so attractive… and so terribly wrong.

Yes, God/cosmic consciousness exists, and yes, the universe is here for you to use, to support your spiritual growth.  There’s a brief – very, very brief – segment on attracting love into your life.  But that sure isn’t what The Secret dwells upon.

The astonishing thing is that The Secret is so upfront and so obvious about its true value to humanity.  As Vitale says, “I can just imagine what a lot of people watching this are thinking, and that is, “How can I attract more money into my life?  How can I get more of the green stuff?”

The Secret says, in essence, that if you live in alignment with cosmic consciousness, you will be able to use its power.  This is completely true. But then, what is the nature of cosmic consciousness, and what power does it provide?

What NDErs would tell proponents of The Secret is that the God they experience places no value whatsoever on your material accomplishments.  You’ve been given this incredible opportunity in life to become a more loving and compassionate soul.   That is ALL that matters.

God is unconditional love, and that love is expressed in this dimension by giving you what your individual soul needs – NOT what you want, with your limited understanding.   You hopefully get joy along the way, but your greatest spiritual growth will come through challenges.  If you feel you’ve grown spiritually in this lifetime, wasn’t that the way it was with you?

In the end, you surrender everything – everything except your spiritual nature, which is eternal.  The money, the wine, the yacht – poof!   

No, God is not Santa Claus – or Aladdin, as several Secret commentators invoke (except Aladdin only gave three wishes!).  You don’t get what you wish for, you get what you need.  That’s how wise and great God is.  We are like infants who get a vaccine and perceive only the pain, not realizing it’s what’s good for us. 

And another thing.  Happiness comes not from wanting or even acquiring, but rather from freedom from want. 

“You are the creator of your own reality,“  notes author Esther Hicks.  That’s true – but only if you’re talking about your inner soul.   When you are living in alignment with cosmic consciousness, as the NDE Paradigm states, you come from love and compassion, and that will indeed harness the power of God in your behalf. 

But even then, you do not control the events and outcomes in your life.  There is no amount of planning, visualizing, wanting or praying that will give you this power.  You are part of God – but you are not God, nor can you manipulate God. 

The warped version of cosmic consciousness that The Secret promotes leads to questions that caused its creator to practice some tortured logic in her AP interview.

So you're asking the universe to deliver your new car, and as luck would have it, you get killed in a terrorist attack, or die in the Holocaust - what went wrong?

Says Bryne, "the law of attraction responds to people being at the wrong place at the wrong time because their dominant thoughts were on the same frequency of such events.  Now, this doesn't mean they thought of the same exact event, but if their dominant thoughts and feelings were in alignment with the energy of fear, separation and powerlessness, and having no control over outside circumstances, then that is what they attracted. 

But Rhonda, what about our ability to control the universe, to answer our beck and call?  Isn’t that the essence of The Secret – individual empowerment?  You mean that if I’m hanging out with the wrong crowd – say, the entire city of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina – that my Secret power doesn’t exist?  For that matter, what if the wrong crowd is the entire Planet Earth, with all its unhappiness and negative energy?

And what about all this focusing?  One interesting story in The Secret has a man telling of how he visualized his dream house, even drawing it.  Lo and behold, years later, he finds the old drawing and to his shock and delight, realizes he got the home he visualized.  Which begs the question, if he was so focused, how come he forgot that house along the way?

Or what happens if I’m entirely focused on winning the Big Game, and so is my opponent?  Does it come down to who wants it more?

Well, the answer to that, you see, is that The Secret comes with bright shining asterisks - ****!  If it fails, it’s because you failed.  As a proponent says, “Most people are thinking about what they don’t want, and it shows up over and over again.” 

Remarkably, this extends to health, The Secret proclaims.  John DeMartini, identified as a philosopher, says, “Our physiology creates disease to give us feedback – to know that we have an unbalanced perspective and we’re not loving and grateful.”  Bob Proctor claims “Disease cannot live in a body that is in a healthy emotional state.”

That’s pure nonsense.  It confuses the real you – the spiritual, eternal you – with this temporary machine.  Some of the most beautiful, wise and compassionate people you will ever meet – with an emotional balance that is as beautiful as it is awe-inspiring - live in daily pain from disease. 

And that includes children who face diseases from birth.  Guess this is where that damned asterisk comes into play.

You’ll find no discussion whatsoever in The Secret about love and compassion for others, with no hidden agenda, nothing wanted in return.  You’ll find nothing about the interconnectedness of everyone, and why the failure to recognize that causes isolation and pain.

There is a spiritual void in The Secret.  Concentration, visualization, a positive attitude, hard work – all are good qualities/techniques, but The Secret grafts them onto a false god/cosmic consciousness. 

It’s like some bizarre atheistic spiritual materialism.  Perhaps that's because of Byrne’s concept of the law of attraction, which she describes as "impersonal.” 

Impersonal?  The God that NDErs encounter is a force that loves them unconditionally – and sees them as an indispensable individual aspect of God.  The Light, they say, “knew me better than I knew myself.”  Does that sound impersonal?

The  Secret – like the get-rich quick seminar I attended those years ago – will provide a placebo of hope to its adherents.  But the thing is, placebo paradigms perish.  This one will fall on its face under the weight of it’s own falseness. 

The Secret faithful will find, as the years roll by, that nothing was delivered.  Dreams will rise and fall.  There will be “unfairness”; plans will fall apart.  Life will not be under our control.  Challenges – some of which cannot be overcome – will be part of life. 

Seen as your failure, these experiences will cause guilt.  Seen correctly – as opportunities provided by a loving God – they will become just that, regardless of outcome.

Thank God that's no Secret.