The cinema can have a powerful effect on a society—especially when some of the movie productions are of a religious nature. The Secret, produced by Prime Time Productions, is a film consisting of a series of interviews and dramatizations related to the “Law of Attraction.” Who is the author of The Secret and what are her beliefs?
Rhonda Byrne is the executive producer of the film and also the author of a book by that title. She is a New Ager who has written a self-help, metaphysical book. The Secret makes some astounding promises which, if they are true, will solve all of the world’s perplexing problems.
Astounding promises to solve the world’s perplexing problems sounds dangerous. False teachers have always been making astounding promises, and The Secret is no different. It has become immensely popular and attracted media figures such as Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, and Larry King.
What is The Secret all about? Larry King, on CNN’s “Larry King Live” (11/2/06) made this statement:
Unhappy with your love, your job, your life, not enough money? Use your head. You can think yourself into a lot better you. Positive thoughts can transform, can attract the good things you know you want. Sound farfetched? Think again. It’s supported by science.
In her book, Rhonda Byrne makes the astounding statement that people gain weight, not because of the food they eat but because of the thoughts they think. On page 59 she writes:
The most common thought that people hold, and I held it too, is that food was responsible for my weight gain. That is a belief that does not serve you, and in my mind now it is complete balderdash! Food is not responsible for putting on weight. It is your thought that food is responsible for putting on weight that actually has food put on weight. Remember, thoughts are [the] primary cause of everything, and the rest is effects from those thoughts. Think perfect thoughts and the result must be perfect weight.
Isn’t this parallel to what the prosperity preachers are preaching?
It certainly is. These popular word-faith teachers are teaching that the faithful can speak prosperity into existence out of nothing through what they call “positive confession.” “Negative confession” produces poverty and sickness, but “positive confession” will bring you wealth and health. None of that is true.
Do the teachers of The Secret claim that the Law of Attraction is something new that they have just discovered, or is it something old that has been known for a long time?
They claim that it is something old. That’s the only thing that is really true about The Secret. It’s unadulterated paganism that has been around since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. Proponents of the Law of Attraction speak of a universal intelligence that responds to our desires. Man can therefore create his own reality apart from God. God is simply not needed. This is the lie that Satan offered to Adam and Eve in the Garden.
Author Rhonda Byrne claims that a number of great people in human history were secret teachers of the Law of Attraction. People such as Buddha, Aristotle, Plato, Isaac Newton, Henry Ford, Carl Jung, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and many others were all devotees of the Law of Attraction.
So those who believe in The Secret believe in some kind of a “Universal Mind” that pervades everything?
That’s what they believe. Rhonda Byrne claims that Charles Haanel, almost a century ago, understood this principle. He believed that there is a Universal Mind that is in everything and operates through everything. Since there is only one Universal Mind, the human mind is identical with the Universal Mind, meaning that all mind is one mind.
In their book The Truth Behind The Secret, James Walker and Bob Waldrep show that the Law of Attraction is ultimately based on the belief that every human being is “God” manifested in human form. This dangerous teaching elevates man and removes God.
In Genesis 3:5, Satan said to the woman, “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods. …” Isn’t this what the proponents of The Secret are teaching?
They are indeed. Satan was promising that God had an evil motive in telling Adam and Eve not to eat of the forbidden fruit. God gave the prohibition, allegedly, because He didn’t want Adam and Eve to reach their full potential. Supposedly, God was against “empowerment”—a buzzword in our modern society.
Sometimes the plot of The Secret is laughable and seems about as plausible as putting your faith in the Tooth Fairy. But in the main, it is offensive to Bible-believing Christians because it makes man lord over all. It’s the old lie couched in modern terms—and people are eating it up.