[Dialogue] {Spam?} The Real "Secret" is a Dark One

Fri Apr 20 18:04:28 EDT 2007

I second that emotion

Dick Kroeger

In a message dated 4/20/2007 2:05:33 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
jimripsr at qwest.net writes:

Thank you, thank you,  Lucille.  I have been dismayed by all the attention 
and enthusiasm on  Dialogue centered around “The Secret.”  For me, this is a 
tremendous  breath of fresh air. 
Jim Rippey, in Bellevue, NE, where the spring flowers are reviving  after a 
four day freeze. 

____________________________________

From:  dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net 
[mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net]  On Behalf Of  Lifeline248 at aol.com
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 1:33  PM
To:  dialogue at wedgeblade.net
Subject: [Dialogue] {Spam?} The Real  “Secret” is a Dark One
Three  times a year I receive a newsletter from Bo and Sita Lozoff of the 
North  Carolina-based (outside Durham) Human Kindness  Foundation.   Their 
Prison-Ashram Project began in 1973; its  goal:  to inspire and encourage prisoners 
and prison staff to recognize  their depth as human beings, and to behave 
accordingly...with a balance  between "Communion" and "Community."  They have led 
thousands of  workshops in over 500 prisons.  Their spring newsletter arrived 
today (as  did Stan Crow's wonderful Rite of Passage Journeys), and this is 
what Bo has  to say about The Secret.  I've copied it here, from their website:  
 http://humankindness.org/spring07.html    
Lucille Chagnon 
The  Real “Secret” is a Dark One 

In  the past several months as I’ve been speaking across the country, many 
people  have approached me and asked with some degree of excitement in their 
voices,  “Bo, have you seen The Secret  yet? Oh, you’ll love it! It will change 
the world! Let people know about  this!”
So I did watch The  Secret, as well as an Oprah show that featured its “
teachers,” and  I think we all need to reflect very deeply on the message that is 
passing for  wisdom these days. “New Age” centers, “New Thought” Churches, 
the Christian  “prosperity” movements personified by the likes of Joel Osteen, 
and now  Oprah’s enormous fan base, are really falling off the deep end into a 
 pseudo-spirituality that is not just a little self-indulgent, it is 
primarily  about selfishness and materialism.
The  Secret itself is a childish exaggeration of a minor energetic  principle 
- “The Law of Attraction” - which simply means what most of our  
grandmothers have said to us at one time or another: “If you think negative  things, your 
life will be negative. Keep your mind on positive things, and  you’ll attract 
more positive things and people into your life.” That’s pretty  basic stuff, 
who could argue with that? It’s true. Got it? Be positive!
But  to frame this as The Secret, as  the “greatest power in the universe;” 
to open the film with suspense-movie  scenes of scholars and monks throughout 
history desperately trying to hide  this “secret” for future generations 
while they are being pursued by armies  and assassins; to claim that every great 
man or woman from Jesus to Thomas  Edison knew this specific “Secret” and now 
you and I are finally going to be  let in on it, oh, pleeease!! It’s a minor 
part of life; nothing profound about  it. Both teams in the Superbowl should “
think positive” and visualize winning,  but only one is going to win, because 
being positive is not everything!
The  way we think factors into our lives along with many other realities such 
as  our past karma, genetic and acquired strengths and weaknesses, the needs 
of  our family or society, the politics of the age we live in, our willingness 
to  work hard, and of course, God’s plan for us.
And maybe I’m old-fashioned,  but I thought God was the greatest power in the 
Universe. I thought the best  things in life are free. I thought we’re 
supposed to dedicate our lives to the  greatest good. I thought God gives us a Peace 
that worldly riches can never  give. Not so in The Secret.  This film and a 
lot of the pop-spirituality I see these days has become so  self-centered that 
the religion it most closely exemplifies is... Satanism.  I’m not being 
sarcastic. It’s true.
I know the word “Satanism” conjures up  images of abusing children and 
sacrificing animals, but the actual Church of Satan has never endorsed that stuff. 
In  fact, two of the “Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth”  are:
•     Do not harm little  children.
•      Do not kill animals unless attacked or for  your food.
So suspend your media images of Satanism. The biggest  difference between 
Satanism and other religons is simple: Classic religions  put God at the center, 
and Satanism puts the self at the center. The Great  Religions share a theme 
of unselfishness. Satanism’s theme is selfishness. The  Great Faiths say we are 
here to love our neighbor and serve God’s creation.  Satanism says we are 
here to please ourselves, and creation is here to serve  us - exactly what is 
emphasized in The  Secret. All of you who have seen The Secret and have jumped on 
the  bandwagon about how wonderful it is, please take this comparison 
seriously.  You are unknowingly leaning toward Satanism.
“The Secret” and Satanism
Anton LaVey,  the founder of the Church of Satan, wrote: Satanism is the only 
religion which  serves to encourage and enhance one’s individual preferences. 
Since Satanism  is essentially a religion of the self, it holds that the 
individual and his  personal needs come first.
Now read an exchange on Oprah between Lisa  Nichols, one of The Secret  “
Teachers,” and an audience member:
Nichols: So, you serve everyone else,  don’t you?
Audience member: You got that right.
Nichols: So, make 2007  the year that you show up in the now for YOU! 
(thunderous applause) Now repeat  after me: I choose today, to give myself, the best 
life ever!!
Audience  member: (repeats it, to cheers and applause)
Honestly, that would qualify  as a nice Satanic initiation. The following (in 
blue) are principles of the  Church of  Satan, followed by  teachings from 
The  Secret:
Satanists  do not worship a living deity.
The  Secret  makes it clear that the Law of Attraction (not God) is the most 
powerful force  in the Universe, and it is amoral and “scientific.” One man 
in the film says  he wants lots of women, three or four a week, and is shown 
how to attract them  into his life, and he succeeds. When he decides he wants 
one lasting  relationship, he changes his thoughts and again attracts what he 
wants. No  higher or lower desires, just whatever we want. If there is any 
object of  worship implied in The Secret,  it is personal success. Big houses, lots 
of money, fame, glory. There is no  greater God to worship, no sanctity in 
serving the poor, the unfortunate, the  sick. Just have a good time. That’s the 
lure of  Satanism.
Major  emphasis is placed on the power and authority of the individual… 
rather than  on a god or goddess.
One  so-called “metaphysician” of The  Secret, Joe Vitale, tells us “The 
universe is merely your CATALOG.”  You just “shop” for whatever income, product, 
person or experience that you  may want by thinking and visualizing 
constantly of it. Cut out pictures of a  car, a house, whatever you want, and post them 
on a “vision board,” do rituals  to affirm that you will receive it. 
Satanists do a lot of this kind of stuff.  They call it Ritual Magic. Please don’t do 
this.
Satanists  believe that "no redeemer liveth" - that each person is their own 
redeemer,  fully responsible for the direction of their own  life.
Just  to make sure we know there is no need for God in this new theology, 
Neale  Donald Walsch, of “Conversations With God,” appears in The Secret to tell 
us there is no such  thing as God’s Will for you - You are entirely in charge 
of whatever you want  to do. That’s exactly what Anton LaVey says! No God to 
surrender to, no God of  Love, no God to guide us or to humble ourselves  
before.
Another  “Teacher,” Esther Hicks, tells us we entirely create our own 
reality. That  exceeds even Anton LaVey’s view. I guess our young men and women 
dying in  Iraq, and all the Iraqi victims of  this crazy war, are just creating 
their deaths with negative thoughts? Along  with all those hungry kids in India, 
millions dying of AIDS in Africa? Nothing more complex about Life than to “
ask,  believe, and receive”? How dare you be so arrogant, Ms. Hicks? How dare  
you!

Enough, Bo! What’s the point?
But The Secret did not arise in a vacuum.  It's just the latest descent of 
pop-spirituality into a materialistic,  self-centered new theology truly similar 
to Satanism, that seems to be taking  hold in many churches, spiritual 
centers and households. It’s a theology of  “Me First;” a theology of entitlement (“
I deserve everything good in life and  I should not have to struggle for it); 
a theology of disconnection from our  influence on others and their influence 
on us; a theology where modesty and  sacrifice are seen as unhealthy and 
pride and vanity are seen as  essential.
Most of all, it is a theology of “prosperity and abundance”  where lip 
service is paid to words like peace and joy, but the bottom line is  GETTING RICH, 
no two ways about it. In fact, even gratitude and forgiveness  are explained 
merely as strategies to attract more success into your life.  It’s always about 
you. I’m sorry, that’s just not deep religion.
And  neither is it responsible politics. At a time when the world is at war 
over  oil, clean air and clean water are fading memories, and Al Gore’s 
Inconvenient  Truth begs us to take seriously the jeopardy our planet is in, this new 
 theology says not a word about living more simply or about wanting less  
consumer wealth. It does exactly the opposite, and encourages us to think and  
get rich. This theology of the self cuts us off from any sense of  
responsibility for ecology or conservation. None of that is our problem, it is  just “
scarcity consciousness.” These “teachers” actually say with a tone of  scientific 
authority “The universe has plenty of resources for everyone to  have 
everything they want!”
Well, maybe the universe has unlimited  resources, but the Earth clearly does 
NOT. Many species are already extinct,  rainforests already damaged beyond 
repair, icecaps already melting, from our  relentless consumption of resources. 
It is more than immature; it is viciously  irresponsible to entice us to want 
more luxury and wealth instead of  encouraging deeper happiness from living 
more sustainably and simply.
One  of The Secret’s “master”  teachers, Jack Canfield, shows off photos of 
his $4Å¨ million-dollar house,  his “wife to die for,” and his exotic 
vacations. That’s a “master!”? A rich  guy who brags about his life? How much 
petroleum does it take to sustain  Canfield’s mansion? How many little brown kids 
around the world work like  slaves to produce the products such a household 
consumes? How many maids and  gardeners take care of his estate? Why doesn’t he 
tell them The Secret so they can get rich? It’s  all just so sad…..
The biggest sorrow about this new theology is not just  that it echoes 
Satanism, but that it robs us of the greatness of our Spiritual  Adventure. If life 
is just a catalog of our petty worldly desires, then where  is higher 
consciousness? Where is holiness? Where is the “dark night of the  soul” and our 
subsequent transformation? Is there truly no spiritual journey?  Just a shopping 
spree to get the stupid external props that we think will make  us happy?
Do use the “Law of Attraction” in your daily life - pray first  thing every 
day to be less selfish, to love thy neighbor, to be humble, to  keep God in 
mind all day, to have constant faith in Life’s ultimate Goodness.  We can use a 
hammer to build a house or to beat someone to death. The “Law of  Attraction” 
is just a hammer. Please don’t use it to beat God to death in this  weird age 
when the tiny egoic self’s worldly desires become your god. This is  no “
Secret” at all. It is the classic road to  Hell.

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