Allyson, from what you've written before, your biggest issue was not only their beliefs, but also, as Strega noted, how this played into their actions. Faith is inherently a belief in something irrational and inexplicable. Given that does it bother you that they believe in astral projection or the power of positivity, or that they choose to do things like not take any action to move towards a goal other than to think positively?

Isn't there supposed to be a The Secret movie too? Or maybe I dreamed that too....

WEll, there's a Secret DVD that I've seen playing on a bookstore's TV.

Aimee, you can't doubt yourself though or think negatively. I like you can't think "I don't want to be fat" becaues the universe will get confused and make you fat. And you can't doubt, you have to have a firm belief that you will be thin and wealth will come your way.

Any slight negative thought and it just screws up the Secret.

At least that's the way it was explained to me.

One of the examples used in the book (or promotional info) is some guy that whited out all the amounts he owed on his bills and put in a positive number that he wanted to get and then BAM! checks started rolling in.

There are so MANY arenas of belief, though. I think everyone I meet is going to have different beliefs than I am. Even if someone shares my non-belief in God, they might have radically different beliefs about our place in the natural world and be a strict vegan, or maybe they believe exactly as I do in terms of ethics but also think they are reincarnated.

I was brought up by die-hard liberals, who use politics as a marker for everything else. My DH finds making that kind if distinction odd. He says, "Your mom is incredibly tolerant of every race, creed, religion and orientation, except for conservatism," and it's true. I am trying hard not to be that way and to accept people based on how they actually behave in the world, not in what they believe. It ain't easy, though.

Jesse - did we ever talk about how Marble did this whole thing on the Secrect because of Dr. Peale and The Pwr of Positive Thinking. I didn't it to the discussions, but the feelign I got was they wanted to distance themselves from that blame part of the book.

No, we didn't. That's super interesting to me, though. Because of course I believe that people who are successful believe in themselves before they become successful, and moping around doesn't really get you anywhere.

One thing with the Secret that's double-bizarre to me is that the wording is really important, because The Universe doesn't understand the concept of "no," or some shit, so if you say "I want to be less fat!" all the universe understands is "I want to be fat!" So you have to be really careful to only say "I want to be thin!" If that's your goal.

The Universe is a chatbot?

The universe uses bablefish

Is DavidS still not able to access b.org while at work?

I like you can't think "I don't want to be fat" becaues the universe will get confused and make you fat.

No shit, I've read the same thing about giving instructions to toddlers. That toddlers only hear the last one or two words you say so if you are telling them, "Don't run." all they hear is "Run" and then, do so and piss you off.

Interesting.