The Secret is a newly published book by Rhonda Byrne, available also in a movie version on DVD.  The author and individuals featured on the DVD have recently gained considerable exposure through the media--from Larry King Live on CNN, to Ellen DeGeneres, and most recently, on Oprah-twice.  If ever there was a book and movie to convince sheep that they are magicians, or can fly, this is it.  Although there are some valuable insights and teachings within The Secret, this is another instance of what i would call "new think"-- pseudo-mystical, new-age pablum, propogated to illude and deceive people as to their true situation--and how they are about to be skinned.  Although people imagine the Secret to be a 'spiritual teaching,' it is not.  In fact, it is a superficial attempt to 'spiritualize materialism,' and directly opposed to the paths of mystical attainment and higher magic. 

Thus, if we think positive thoughts and imagine positive things for ourselves, then these things will magically appear in our lives.   The big Secret is about how to actualize those things that most people want in life--varied forms of money, sex and power.  To be successful and gain recognition, to have your dreams come true, a new romance, and even to get a new car, house or home improvement--even a parking spot--all of these are offered by the quantum magic of  The Secret. This is a secret for imaginary wish-fulfillment and actualizing your desires--just like a lottery ticket.   The Secret is proposed as the key to unlocking the meaning of life--making you a real magician, instead of a sheep or a slug. 

The basic idea of The Secret is actually in conformity with Alistar Crowley's definition of magick as "making things happen in conformity with will."  The Secret suggests that we can so envision what we want, and because of our entanglement with the universe, these things can manifest in reality.  Quantum magic for sheep. 

Knowing the Secret is compared in the movie to having a Genie in an urn, but instead of having just three wishes, we can have as many as we want.  Generally, the aims of those espousing the Secret are for material and financial gain, new possessions, romances and business successes, and personal confidence.  We want to "love ourselves"  in a cult of narcissism, and to be satisfied and gorged to satiety, while atrocities are committed around the world and within our communties. Our nations are run by donkeys and idiots, cruel elites and deceivers, but we can have a new form of quantum wish-fulfillment based on ego self-centredness and self-love.  Oh boy, big secret-- bound to be a big hit. 

Of course, in other contexts, like attracts like.  If you are cruel to other people, and terrorize them, then they may want to be cruel back towards you, and terrorize you.  If you are loving and compassion, you may be loved back.  If you have money, it is easier to make money.  If you change your self defeating patterns of thinking and feeling, of scarcity and struggle, it may help you to move forward and actualize some of those things you have not yet attained.   There are valuable lessons in this movie and teaching--in some regards.  It is only if a person expands their horizens beyond themselves, maybe to other peoples of the world, that the self-centered focus of The Secret becomes apparent.  The Secret is like a key to narcissism, a new religion for the baby boomers who have been gorged to satiety, as described by Gurdjieff. 
 

The human race was not intended to become a rat race, controlled by a pseudo-master race, and to become a slave race.  And yet, this is what has happened, and humankind faces a task like that of Arjuna, in the Gita, where the forces of light and love gather on a battlefield to face those forces of cruelty and deceit. 
 

 
To understand the positions of human beings on planet earth, it is useful to quote this material from mystic G. I. Gurdjieff, about the hypnosis and delusions of humankind, the sheep being led unconsciously to slaughter --while buying into the Cult of Narcisism and "sacrificing care" to a great horny owl--in reference to the Satanic practices conducted at Bohemian Grove. 
 

"First of all it must be realized that the sleep in which man exists is not normal but hypnotic sleep.  Man is hypnotized and this hypnotic state is continually maintained and strengthened in him. One would think that there are forces for whom it is useful and profitable to keep man in a hypnotic state and prevent him from seeing the truth and understanding his position. 

There is an Eastern tale which speaks about a very rich magician who had a great many sheep. But at the same time this magician was very mean.  He did not want to hire shepherds, nor did he want to erect a fence about the pasture where his sheep were grazing.  The sheep consequently ofen wandered into the forest, fell into ravines, and so on, and above all they ran away, for they knew that the magician wanted their flesh and skins and this they did not like.

"At last the magician found a remedy.  He hypnotized his sheep and suggested to them first of all that they were immortal and that no harm was being done to them when they were skinned, that, on the contrary, it would be verg good for them and even pleasant; secondly he suggested that the magician was a good master who loved his flock so much that he was ready to do anything in the world for them; and in the third place he suggested to them that if anything at all were going to happen to them it was not going to happen just then, at any rate not that day, and therefore they had no need to think about it.  Further the magician suggested to his sheep that they were not sheep at all; to some of them he suggested that they were lions, to others that they were eagles, to others that they were men, and to others that they were magicians. 

"And after this all his cares and worries about the sheep came to an end.  They never ran away again but quietly awaited the time when the magician would require their flesh and skins. 

"This tale is a very good illustration of man's position.

 - G. I. Gurdjieff -Quoted by P. D. Ouspensky In Search of the Miraculous, 1949. (p. 219)