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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

The Secret - 2006

22:53 / 01.04.07

weird that I haven't found any thread about this documentary neither here or the Magic forum. I've watched it at the theater yesterday and have to say I enjoyed it a lot. not a documentary per se, feels more like an extended piece for a tv show.

it's about the Law of Attraction [really wish good things and you get them \ wish bad things (we do that, mostly) and you'll get them] and based in statements from writers - such as the guy from CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL - doctors, philosophers, quantum cientists, coaches and people who have applied the exercises in their life to great results.

there are some cheesy dramatisations and an overall Oprah-esque feel to it, plus a focus on wealth, but I guess that's what they had to to in order to make it more acceptable to the general audience - and it's easy to get past the cheesy bits.

as those concepts are the Pop version of NLP techniques and stuff we've seen and done [some of us here, anyway] in Chaos Magick. like the distilled general concepts for Everybody.

http://www.thesecret.tv/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_(2006_film)

23:12 / 01.04.07

It's just more Ramtha School of Enlightenment propaganda discussed in detail here.

00:23 / 02.04.07

but, it's not a bad thing that they're getting the basic info. out there. The movie certainly doesn't say 'you must subscribe to Ramtha etc. in order to practice this and enjoy the benefits.' And I have seen this movie in particular getting these ideas out there to a larger populace in recent months, which is all good.

02:06 / 02.04.07

I haven't seen one mention of this Ramtha School throuhout THE SECRET... if anything a lot of self-help gurus are named so you go after their books and seminars. nothing more than that and not in a organized fashion sustained by a single doctrine.

the 1st 20 minutes of the doc have been posted - legally, it seems - here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b1GKGWJbE8

the first dramatisation with the blonde is a wee bit over dramatic, but once you get past that it gets intersting.

01:20 / 07.04.07

The Law of Attraction idea really, deeply bothers me. Placing the burden of guilt and blame on the poor, sick, and disenfranchised because they're *just not thinking positive!* kind of makes me want to throw a chair at someone.

RFR, Airwolf style

03:44 / 07.04.07

I'm with Ibis on this one. I've been tempted to start a thread on this movie just to complain about the victim-blaming core of the ideas, but that seemed mean. I couldn't bring myself to watch the whole thing, because it was painful, and the smugness of some of the people spruiking the 'secret' was a real turn off. Why don't they choose 'I'd like to be more personable' from the catalogue of the universe?

RFR, Airwolf style

03:45 / 07.04.07

Oh, because changing yourself takes work, and there's nothing in the movie about doing any work to get what you want. Just sit back and wish for it!

03:33 / 08.04.07

i guess there is, frog.

and i'm also with ibis; but as changing oneself is the hardest thing to do - i know how hard it is, being trying a lot lately - maybe that's why people who do get screwd by circunstances and whatnot have difficulties getting out of those situations.

if you don't have a strong desire, how are you going to act in the first place? so...

Quantum
(prev. Quantum - terribly nonplussed)

16:48 / 26.06.07

I started a Temple thread to discuss the ripping off of other work they do, but I'd like to crit the film as a film here. For example the shoddy research;

"For eight weeks Rhonda intensively taught everything she had learned to Paul and Drew. In two short months she had studied the great leaders from the past, read hundreds of books, and amassed countless hours of research."

Two months, hey? Hundreds of books? So, several books a day, plus 'countless' hours of research? Chinny reckon. It's just more advertising, and makes me think they are at least lying a little bit.
Did you know one of the 'Teachers', John Hagelin (labelled 'Quantum Physicist' in the film) was the Presidential candidate for the Natural Law party? Sorry, I should say Doctor John Hagelin Ph.D A.B.M.A.

16:50 / 26.06.07

I voted for him, actually.

Quantum
(prev. Quantum - terribly nonplussed)

17:37 / 26.06.07

He really annoyed me, but I would have voted for him over the other options. Don't the Natural Law party have a defence policy that involves everyone learning to yogic fly so world peace is achieved, or is that just the UK?

Nope, same party;
The party was the political arm of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation organization.
...and I notice Hagelin is a physics professor at Maharishi University of Management.
Funny that none of this stuff was mentioned in the film.

Lunch with Lenny
(prev. Secret Bat-Fairies)

23:19 / 26.06.07

He really annoyed me, but I would have voted for him over the other options. Don't the Natural Law party have a defence policy that involves everyone learning to yogic fly so world peace is achieved, or is that just the UK?

They were big on getting into office in Canada back in the Nineties with just such a platform, actually.

14:34 / 27.06.07

I have seen "The Secret". It is sort of a craze down here in Brazil and it only speaks for our national all-time low in capacity for critical thinking, our rampant intellectual debility and unwillingness to chew our mind food for ourselves. It's just like when the Portuguese came to Brazil and they got to pacify the aggressive instincts of the native indians by showing them all sorts of cheap trinkets: bijoutry, mirrors, combs. The Indians were ecstatic and didn't eat anyone[1].

This system is being talked about in the parties of the uninformed, bourgeois and bohemian alike, and people who in their daily low-brow routines wouldn't care a cat's fart for the heavy theoretical concepts purportedly supporting this "system" (concepts which are being stretched and warped in order to lend an appearance of causal significance to what is nothing more than a piece of grandmotherly advice - if your grandmother happened to be a naive silly old lady) are now blabbing cluelessly that "oh quantum physics sez" and referring to the inner workings of the Universe as one would talk about the bathroom plumbing.

Don't even get me started in the blatant marketing strategy of having the thing presented as a sort of "DaVinci Code" deal with the parchment and ink stains and wax seal, hinting to alluring ancient knowledge (that would be easily accessible in our enlightened time - how convenient - in a complete package which you can pay with your credit card), of having the thing called "THE Secret", like one would expect to see painted above a traveling medicine show wagon etc etc.

It's a cutthroat world out there for the wide-eyed. I'd advise some judicious squinting now and then...

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[1] - ... for a while (I suppose someone got eaten at some point during our colonizatory process...)