The purpose of this article is to explain some of the words used by people who have read The Secret. The book that inspired The Secret was written over a century ago so some of the language may sound “quaint.” I’ve heard people say the language of the time sounds forced and unnatural.
Things were different back then. The discoveries of quantum physics were forcing people to re-evaluate their relationship with life, the universe and everything. Charles and Myrtle Filmore were creating study groups that eventually became Unity Church; Ernest Holmes founded Religious Science and Edgar Cayce was giving psychic readings that were uncannily accurate.
The old ways were being swept away. Key to this process were the discoveries of quantum physics. We learned that we had an effect on the world in which we found ouselves.
We started looking at the universe as something we could have an effect on. We were no longer just an effect of outside forces; we became a cause in the universe.
Our whole universe expanded! This didn’t just influence the New Age religions. The idea of Positive Mental Attitude, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, the fields of art, literature, music and many others were strongly influenced by this shift in consciousness.
Some say this sounds like Jedi mind tricks, like The Force of Star Wars fame, which “surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” This view of a universal substance that is everywhere present is echoed in many of the world’s great religions and is described by Wallace Wattles as “a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.”
The idea was born that we had a say in the unfolding of our lives. No more pleading for the intercession of a Supreme Being! Needless to say, this was a very liberating concept for people to consider.
One thing is for sure: it’s good to have choices. There are things we cannot know for sure. It makes sense to this writer that if we are made in the image of a Supreme Being then we would be co-creators of our lives.
Do you believe in past lives? Whether you do or not, it should not dictate the way you live your present life! I would not like to find out in the end that my ultimate fate depended on whether I mumbled certain chants or rubbed magic beads in a certain order.
We create our own reality by the thoughts we think. It’s exactly what the New Agers, the Positive Mental Attitude people and the optimistic folk have been trying to tell us all this time. Like Edgar Allen Poe’s Purloined Letter, it’s been there the whole time!
It really makes for an interesting study. The name of the book is titled The Science of Getting Rich. Published over 100 years ago, it is in the public domain today. Look for more information in the next paragraph.
Adam Dillinger runs the Self Help Hotline and has been involved in self improvement and New Age thinking since childhood. He is happy to offer a free copy of the book that inspired The Secret. You can learn more about it here.