I intended to read the Left Behind series so I could argue against them, intelligently. I made it through the first book okay, but I don't think I made it through the second (or maybe I made it through the second, but not the third). I took the ones I read out of the library, because I did not want to pay money for them.

I grew up in a small denomination that does not believe Hell is for humans, and my understanding of the end times (which is more from reading as an adult) is quite different from the one in the LB series, so the whole thing made me uncomfortable.

Isn't The Secret some book that Oprah featured? Or something.

It's a book that tells you that all you have to do is sit around wishing for shit and it will come to you. Conversely, people who are like, dying in the Sudan are in their predicament because they were thinking too negatively.

I've been hearing about The Secret for maybe a month or two? I don't know if it's been out for a while and just got popular, or if it's new.

Groan. I hate what is happening with The Secret. It's taken a quite simple notion...focus on what you want vs. what you don't want...and turned it into a joke.

I don't begrudge people making a living. Truth to tell, I wish _I'd_ thought of repackaging a bunch of superhyped/popular ideas in a skinny little book with evocative graphics and making a great Caesar's mint off of it.

But this phenomenon is backfiring and causing me trouble in my work. On one hand, I have a former client telling me that they recognize things I taught him in the text...but that he 'get's it' more now for some reason. On the other, people who shy away from anything that gets too big (Tony Robbins anyone?) rejecting things they could really use.

What's The Secret? I mean, are you allowed to tell me?

The Secret is Fight Club!

It's a book that tells you that all you have to do is sit around wishing for shit and it will come to you. Conversely, people who are like, dying in the Sudan are in their predicament because they were thinking too negatively.

Or, as my Very Wiccan big brother and I snarked recently, it's a book that takes the idea of making your will manifest and removes aaaaaaaaaalll the need for personal responsibility and work from it.

Basically, the Secret is a rehashing of the Law of Attraction , which is itself a rework of operant conditioning with a metaphysical sheen.

eta: Jilli said it much better. That is the crux of my problem with it.

Or, as my Very Wiccan big brother and I snarked recently, it's a book that takes the idea of making your will manifest and removes aaaaaaaaaalll the need for personal responsibility and work from it.

Yeah, from what I read, you can just sit around your apartment wishing you were a millionaire, and then... that's it, I guess.

Mom generally likes Oprah but because of the Secret she's rather pissed off at her for pushing such trash.