The trouble with Rhonda Byrne's 'The Secret'

I'm not here to do a hatchet job Rhonda Byrne's book The Secret, but rather, to clarify certain things which are just not mentioned throughout the book, and which I feel are glaring omissions. Which in some ways is tantamount to selling a dishonest dream..

The Secret has obviously helped a huge number of people, who have been carried and changed by the storming positivity of it (including Rhonda Byrne herself), but nowhere in the text is it looked at why it works for Rhonda Byrne and others. There appears to be a void in observation. Just a bunch of great tenets, and their application, simply isn't enough to create your own reality, as many have found out.

Why?

First of all, it's important to look at Rhonda Byrne (and others who have managed the apparent miraculous through the use of The Secret). Throughout the book, it's interesting to note that at no point does any extent of self-enquiry come into the equation. There is an unquestioning assumption that if you want something, the universe will provide it. And it fails to look into all the ground work that has gone in, behind the success stories. Because, with all the will and intention in the world, someone can't just manifest anything they want just because they think they want it.

People who have manifested something they really want, have done so because the ground work is already in place, and the time has come for them to receive these things they wanted. It wasn't because of The Secret. The Secret was simply a vehicle for something which was time to manifest. But no-where in The Secret is this pointed out. It's as if The Secret is this incredible wish-fulfilling tree, which obviously leaves many disappointed.

It appears that The Secret is saying that the laws of attraction, are able to outperform the laws of karmic attraction, and other resonances (of sabotage) that are the calling from our subconscious minds. This cannot be. A responsible universe just doesn't work like that. Beings are generally only given power equivalent to their level of responsibility, spiritually speaking....
So the secret isn't really about asking for what you want, to make the laws of resonance work for you, but actually in knowing what you want in the first place. That is the real nub of the issue. And yet, it doesn't even seem to appear in The Secret.

Knowing what you really, really want is actually quite hard to define when you start thinking about it. All sorts of things rear their heads when you look into it. Unclear motivations, and sometimes unhealthy reasons.

Knowing what you really want is actually a process of self-enquiry, something The Secret doesn't mention. Looking into what you really want, turns over all kinds of stones. A true knowing of what you want, is usually in line with what is actually right for you to have, which is quite a different thing than what The Secret 'reveals'.

You can think to yourself 'I want a Porsche car', but the fact is, is that if you get it, you get it because for some reason that energy was owed to you, not because you could suddenly manifest it, even though it looked that way to you.

A more direct problem I have with The Secret, despite observing and understanding the laws of attraction (and thus agreeing with Rhonda Byrne), is the way it sells false dreams to people. It reveals that really anything at all is possible. Anything! Wow! But that's only true within reason. If I wanted to become the best dancer in the world, in classical ballet, for example, it would never, ever happen (at least not in this life). That sort of thing requires training from the earliest of ages.

Also, it somehow allows people to fantasize over great material wealth, for example, as an end in itself, which is really quite spiritually sterile. As if great wealth will magically make people happy.

Rhonda Byrne's 'secret', is that she is karmically in a position to reap a lot of good energy, and draw a lot of people along with her...

I have a secret of my own to tell you, and I'm not charging anything for it!!

Know yourself.