Monday, October 26, 2009

Important Article on "The Secret"

Brother Stenwick has an article up that if you haven't read, you should, especially if you've fallen into the trap of The Secret. I especially like how he applies the logic of The Secret to the presentation that killed people.

My boss has a "The Secret" quote a day calendar on her desk. She faithfully reads each one each day. She got it as a gift from her best friend, so she tries to keep up with it in case there's anything to it. She also wore a bracelet with eyes on it to a meeting with our Project Sponsor to keep away the influence of the evil eye. We got to talking hoodoo and laying a line of brick dust across the conference room door to see who could or couldn't come in.

I think she's a mundane type who watches a lot of stuff on TV, and learned hoodoo from The Skeleton Key movie. She might be a root doctor for all I know though. Life is weird.

But the pervasiveness of The Secret is annoying. If I wrote a book that presented real magic that could do most of the stuff that people think The Secret promises, no one would buy it. (Actually, I did, I wrote the Modern Goetic Grimoire, but I didn't get into some of the stuff that using it can do, I figured people would figure it out on their own and from the spirits themselves.)

I really appreciated Scott's article on the subject today. I hope it clears some things up in the whole Mind Over Matter front. When people realize that Mind is Matter, and that the manipulation of one is the manipulation of the other, life will be easier for most people, but people need to understand what MIND matter is made of. (Hint: it ain't mine, and it ain't yours.)

10 comments:

  1. He had me right up until he started going on about that usual energy bullshit.

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  2. I see you have finally ran in to the infor-mertial the secret. Yea sure getting things for free is great but so is making money out of ppl. And that is what it is - using the history channel enactments of how the stone tablet was "copied" on a A3 Rota trim paper not papyrus leaves makes me wants to puke - the only good thing about this is it makes ppl think about how their thoughts affect their lives. some will make changes other will go "pretty" and move onto the next new age thing than pops up.

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  3. I believe the matter of the universe is information, as oposed to energy or thought. A case could be made that energy is information (wavelength, amplitude, etc). Murray Gell-Man (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Gell-Mann) classifies humans as IGUS', information gathering systems. Basicly, reality is information as percieved, and the changes that are operated in us are changes in our perception.

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  4. Haha, I work with this tool recently who came to me asking, "Do you know the book, The Secret?" -- I kind of blinked, stared at her, and said, "Uh... Yeah? Are you seriously asking me this question? Yeah, it's basically a bunch of mind magic for the masses who can't swallow what magic really is. Typical New Age hype junk."

    She proceeded to tell me that she thoroughly believed she was going to be winning the lottery soon as a result of the "enlightenment" she gained from this book. She is also the kind of person that blames her shortcomings and failings on others and continually won't make the effort necessary to change anything.

    I laughed at her and said, "You are joking, right?" -- She says, "You just wait and see.", I said, "Oh, yeah, oh okay. Yeah, I'll just see. You know something? I know Sorcerers who summon *demons* for the purpose of winning the lottery and it's still not happening. Not saying it can't, and magick certainly can bring you money and jobs, but... Seriously? How many people do you think are out there, just like you, thinking they're going to "Attract" giant lottery winnings?"

    She says, "I believe that if I put my positive thoughts out into the universe that it will bring me what I want."

    And so I said, "Okay. So it's that simple, huh? Why are you still working here, then, hmm?"

    That ended our conversation. Such a tool. I'm glad you wrote this blog about this piece of shit.

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  5. I've added a clarification to the article that by "energy" I meant physical heat rather than psychic or magical "energy." I think the original text was pretty clear on that, but at least a couple of readers seem to have thought otherwise.

    According to quantum physics the macrocosmic universe is made up of both energy and information rather than one or the other. While our experience of the universe is made of thought in the microcosmic sense, it's important that we don't confuse the two in the context of magical workings. There is a relationship between these two realms, but it's nowhere near as deterministic or absolute as "The Secret" devotees like to claim.

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  6. RO, This is exactly why you have such a responsibility to properly educate people on the fundamental theories and to help guide. Thank you for sharing this. I have known a lot of people intent that The Secret is absolute fact and even the idea behind it, which is terribly garbled, is misunderstood by the majority of the audience who watches it and/or reads it.

    Frater Serpentis [aka Space Cowboy], did you not recognize that this woman perhaps was in search of inspiration and a way to have some control over her life, and this was an opportunity for you to help her or give her better information?

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  7. Another,

    Thanks. Go gently on the good Frater, he's young. Even if he'd tried to tell her anything, she wouldn't have listened to him. No one listens to the youth.

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  8. Of course, that was not meant to sound as harsh, as I see now, it did :-)

    Perhaps people should listen more to our younger brothers and sisters. Their insight is just as valid.

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  9. I apologize Frater Serpentis. I did not mean to sound so harsh. I know how you feel, and to be honest, it can be very frustrating being in situations like that. I have been there before.
    :-)

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  10. "Another" -- Thanks for your apology and also for recognizing where I was coming from.

    Understand, I have honestly spent copious quantities of time talking to this individual, and I've just seen her breeze through New Age hype garbage for a few years, and not really living or acting in a way that shows any type of enlightenment (as she so often professes)

    Anyhow, it's all gravy. Some people just can't or won't be reasoned with. New Age material is sweet, simple, and sugar coated and that's why it's got the appeal -- if people recognized the lengths you must go to in the actual Great Work, they'd take the lesser, ineffectual route, as they so often do.

    Bah. I'm no adept (yet), but I do recognize and take on what I'm up against.

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