The Secret behind "The Secret"

This arrived in my email today, and I liked it so much I wanted to share it. It's from Michael Neill, who owns and operates the website Genius Catalyst. Check it out. He gets it.

"Everything should be made as simple as possible - but no simpler."

-Albert Einstein

With the movie "The Secret" and books like "Cosmic Ordering" all the rage these days, a whole new cross-section of society is getting interested in attracting their perfect job, perfect partner and perfect bank balance. As a few seem to succeed almost instantaneously while the vast majority seem unable to get what they want no matter how hard they try, a question I'm being asked more and more is "what do I need to change in my thinking in order for me to get what I want?"

It sounds like a simple enough question, but having explored metaphysics, NLP, mind dynamics and a host of other disciplines in relation to the art and science of success for the past 16 years or so, I think the answer is worthy of a bit of
complexity.

There are essentially two schools of thought in relation to getting and having what you want - the school of acquisition and the school of attraction.

The school of acquisition has been the dominant one in Western culture for many years, and its teachings can be summed up in the sentence:

*If you want it, go and get it!*

From the ancient Mongol hordes to the modern titans of business and industry, our society tends to reward and hold up as heroes those men and women who have gone after what they want with enthusiasm and passion. (If they happened to trample a few people on the way to the top, well, it's unfortunate of course, but those are just the casualties of war.)

On the plus side, graduates of the school of acquisition have helped create ancient and modern empires and contributed tremendous advances in science, medicine, and business; on the down side, they have contributed to a world culture where the strong tend to look down on the weak and wonder why they don't just get off their lazy behinds, try harder and go and get "it" for themselves.

But while the school of acquisition has been in full session for the past 2500 years or so, the school of attraction has been quietly holding classes in hidden caves and "new thought" churches, its teachings disseminated through secret texts, biblical parables and new age gurus.

The school of attraction teaches:

*Like attracts like*
*Thoughts become things*
and
*You become what you think about*

These "secret" teachings and principles of attraction were often suppressed by the ruling elite, or so the story goes, because they placed the power within each individual, although the true source of that power is often attributed to God or a benevolent, vibratory universe.

Many of the great men and women throughout history, from ancient religious icons to renaissance men like Leonardo DaVinci and Sir Isaac Newton are known to have studied the ancient texts of the school of attraction.

So now that this "secret" teaching is no longer a secret, why isn't everybody living the life of their dreams?

Here's what I believe to be the answer:

*People are attempting to use the principles of attraction as a new set of tools for acquisition.*

Instead of actually shifting the basis of their approach to life to one of planting seeds of kindness, beauty and love and reaping the harvest of a bountiful life, people are attempting to get a better parking space (or indeed a better car, girlfriend or bank balance) by "thinking the right thoughts".

The problem lies in the reason people want the car, girlfriend or bank balance in the first place - because they believe having what they want will "make" them happy. But a closer looking at the teachings behind "The Secret" reveal that it works the other way around. It is the energy of happiness that attracts the good things into our lives.

Do the principles of attraction really work? In my experience, absolutely. But if you use them to try and manipulate the universe into giving you what you think you need to be happy, you are as likely to manifest frustration and self-doubt as that shiny new husband or loving automobile.

With love,
Michael