The secret

My kid sister lives in Jersey. A few weeks back, I got a frantic call from her. There was a movie she saw called The Secret, she told me and that it was fantastic. She went on harping about it for half an hour. Being siblings, we have a lot of tastes in common and one of them is in movies. We generally like the same kinds of movies with the usual exceptions of ‘chick flicks’ (the saucy romances) and ‘guy flicks’ as she calls some of the testosterone powered action movies.
So I was genuinely curious. Now, its not so easy to get the new English films where I stay and had to order a copy of this one all the way from Bangalore. I waited breathlessly while it loaded when it came. And as you can probably tell from the content so far, I didn’t get it. I couldn’t figure out what she was so excited about. I still can’t. It’s an interesting point of view that the whole universe is actually listening and heeding to what I say or think. Philosophically, I could argue that the universe exists because I exist and when I cease to be, the universe wouldn’t matter a whole hell of a lot, at least to me. I am therefore the universe exists… cool in theory but a bit arrogant and misguided in practice.
So when I told her this, she wasn’t very happy with me. Not surprising since I knew she would react exactly like that. She got defensive because she loved it and thought she really did have something there. She ended up convincing me to watch it again; more carefully this time. So I did.
It was still the same movie and it did occur to me that this concept was not new. It wasn’t even repackaged, it was just like one of the other self-help concepts where the only ones reaping the profits are those who sell them. You can’t ever prove or disprove them but people jump at them because they give hope, a rare commodity in this day and age.
If you practice whatever ‘The Secret’ proposes, at least you will feel good about yourself. In the end, I think that is all that matters. If you spend your energies concentrating on only the positive aspects of your desires and wants, you have hope. Psychologically you feel better. And from my own experience, what I know is that usually the difference between successes and failures is a small fraction of the total effort. If the scales were tilted even slightly in the right direction, more often than not, you will succeed where you had previously failed. Most people do try hard enough and at times when they fail, its usually because of a very small margin of things unknown or uncontrollable. They may or may not realize this, that’s a different story. Some people call it luck, some grace of God, some thank their own efforts.
What this concept does is charges you up from the inside so you are confident and more resolute. That bit of doubt we all feel sometimes is minimized and we concentrate positively on what we are doing because we are sure. Its nature is immaterial, all other things being equal, a more confident person will always get what they are after. And I think that is a good thing. More power to you kiddo, if it works for you then by all means, go for it.