The Secret: Creating One

 
The Secret: Creating One's Reality
By Russ Wise Part Two
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Master Teachings
 
The Secret is revealed through some of the most high-profile individuals of our day. They include such notables as Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books. Jack is a thirty-year veteran of metaphysics and helps individuals achieve their personal goals by helping them understand The Law of Attraction.
 
Another teacher is Neale Donald Walsch.13 He is known for his book trilogy, Conversations with God. He, too, is a student of metaphysics and teaches that man is Divine. John Gray is best known for his popular book, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. These teachers speak with one voice. Their message is brief, yet simple. You create your circumstances; if you live in lack it is your fault; you are an expression of divinity; in fact, you are God. Another of The Secret teachers is Fred Alan Wolf, a physicist. He makes a profound statement on The Secret web site, "You! I want to tell you something. You are God in disguise." Of the twenty-four Secret Teachers perhaps the most troubling is Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith. He is the pastor of Agape International Spiritual Centre in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />California. His message is that we are co-creators with God and that our abilities are unlimited. Our potential is divine in nature. Dr. Beckwith is troubling, in my view, because he represents a pseudo- "Christianity". He has the greatest ability to be used to deceive those whom God has touched by His Gospel. The Christian who is unable to rightly discern God's Word will fall prey to such false teaching as found in The Secret.
 
"Truths" that One Cannot Deny
 
So what is it that The Secret teaches that would be harmful to the Christian? In her section on acknowledgements Byrne names names and she lists several that stand out as being instructive. One name, in particular, is Charles Fillmore. His name may have slipped from your memory, but he is the founder of Unity School of Christianity14 along with his wife Myrtle. Unity is a classic new age belief system that teaches the divinity of man. Eric Butterworth, a past Unity minister, in his book Discover the Power Within You underscores the new age premise that Jesus taught the divinity of mankind. Butterworth is of interest because he is proclaimed by Oprah Winfrey to be her spiritual mentor.15
 
Perhaps the most revealing of the occult connection between Rhonda Byrne and her stable of Master Teachers is Ester Hicks who channels a non-physical being named Abraham.16 Hicks is but one thread in the occult pattern that reflects the teachings of The Secret. Hicks' story is similar to that of Helen Schucman, the channel of A Course in Miracles.17
 
The premise, whatever we think about and thank about, we bring about is central to understanding The Law of Attraction. In Christian circles this concept is known as "name it and claim it" where the individual simply professes a desire and then claims that God will provide it. This is a Christianized form of an occult "truth". Rhonda and her Master Teachers are more than willing to use scripture to make their point. They ask us to turn to Matthew 21:22 and Mark 11:24 where Jesus tells His disciples, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. A common mistake made by those who jump on the metaphysical bandwagon is that they often overlook the whole counsel of scripture. It is instructive that Rhonda did not ask her readers to consider James 4:3 where the writer says, You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
 
The question the Christian should be asking himself at this point is this. How does one ask correctly? Verse four offers us a glimpse of God's Truth. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James then draws our attention to verse ten where it says, humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. The implication here is not for us to command God to act because of our asking or believing, but to allow Him to exalt us because of our humility. This teaching would not fit very well within the context of Rhonda Byrne's The Secret.
 
A central teaching of The Law of Attraction is that nothing can come into your experience unless you summon it through persistent thoughts.18 Another of the Master Teachers, Dr. Joe Vitale, believes that everything that surrounds you right now in your life, including the things you're complaining about, you've attracted.19 According to Byrne our feelings are our greatest tool to help us create the positive things in our lives. She says, your thoughts are the primary cause of everything. She continues by stating, your thoughts determine your frequency, and your feelings tell you immediately what frequency you are on.20 Byrne says that we are "the most powerful transmission tower in the Universe. In simple terms, all energy vibrates at a frequency. Being energy, you also vibrate at a frequency, and what determines your frequency at any time is whatever you are thinking and feeling. All the things you want are made of energy, and they are vibrating too. Everything is energy." 21 Another way of stating this "truth" is to say that as you focus on what you want, you are changing the vibration of the atoms of that thing, and you are causing it to vibrate to You. I know this is a mind-blowing concept, but there's more! Byrne states that one of the most magnificent teachings of The Secret is that you are energy, and cannot be created or destroyed. Energy just changes form. And that means You! The true essence of You, the pure energy of You, has always been and always will be. You can never not be.22
 
I trust your seat belt is fastened! It may get a little bumpy for a bit. According to the teachings of The Secret and The Law of Attraction the Universe communicates our feelings back to us and tells us what frequency we are currently on. If you missed that, what is being said here is that the Universe (God) helps us to determine what frequency or vibration we are on so we can best acquire optimum health, wealth, and joy.
 
"When you are feeling good thoughts, it is communication back from the Universe saying, 'You are thinking good thoughts.' Likewise, when you are feeling bad, you are receiving communication back from the Universe saying, 'You are thinking bad thoughts.'" 23 Our feelings about something turbo-charges our outcome. In other words, we can purposely use our feelings to transmit an even more powerful frequency, by adding feeling to what we are wanting.24 Michael Bernard Beckwith clarifies this concept by stating, You can begin right now to feel healthy. You can begin to feel prosperous. You can begin to feel love that's surrounding you, even if it's not there. And what will happen is the universe will correspond to the nature of your song. The universe will correspond to the nature of that inner feeling and manifest, because that's the way you feel. In other words, don't allow your perceived reality to convince you otherwise, but step out and create your new reality by simply saying it is so and the Universe (God) will bring it about. Essentially, we are seeking a god to do our bidding as we command.
 
Marci Shimoff, another of the Master Teachers, makes this observation: Once you begin to understand and truly master your thoughts and feelings, that's when you see how you create your own reality. That's where your freedom is, that's where all your power is.25 The Bible offers a different exhortation to the Christian at this juncture. We read in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that we are to destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Our purpose is not to use our thought life to enhance ourselves, but to bring our thought lives into obedience and submit ourselves to a holy God. This thought is totally absent from The Secret!
 
Shimoff adds that we should consider if the Universe is a friendly place for us to hang out. Byrne says that knowing The Law of Attraction we would have to say that the Universe is, indeed, a most friendly place where we can create our own reality. The Secret and new age thought in general encourages its adherents to practice affirmation as a way to channel your thought life to a place where it will benefit the individual. Byrne suggests that we use the following affirmation: This is a magnificent Universe. The Universe is bringing all good things to me. The Universe is conspiring for me in all things. The Universe is supporting me in everything I do. The Universe meets all my needs immediately.26
 
Lisa Nichols, also a Master Teacher, informs us that the first step to achieving our desires is to ask. Make a command of the Universe. Let the Universe know what you want. The Universe responds to your thoughts.27 It seems that if one were to "command" God (the Universe) to produce all that he desired and wanted he might prefer a different outcome. In my view the secret to living the Christian life is to desire the things that God desires for you rather than making a command to fulfill one's lusts. Dr. Joe Vitale offers this quip, This is really fun. It's like having the Universe as your catalogue. It is You placing your order with the Universe. It's really that easy.28
 
Nichols continues by stating that the second step in achieving all that we want is to believe. "Believe that it is already yours. Have what I love to call unwavering faith. Believing in the unseen." In the moment you ask, and believe and know you already have it in the unseen, the entire Universe shifts to bring it into the seen. In other words, God, the Universe, immediately tunes to your frequency and then because of The Law of Attraction he is obligated to supply all your wants. Vitale makes another head-scratching comment when he states, The Universe will start to rearrange itself to make it happen for you. You don't need to know how it's going to come about. You don't need to know how the Universe will arrange itself.29 Just simply believe!
 
The third step according to Nichols is to receive that which we have commanded. Nichols states that an important part of our receiving is for us to feel wonderful about it. Beckwith comments, This is a feeling Universe. If you just intellectually believe something, but you have no corresponding feeling underneath that, you don't necessarily have enough power to manifest what you want in your life. You have to feel it. I can understand that! I recognize that I have limited power. What power I may have is only that which God allows me through the Holy Spirit to do His good will – not mine. I also recognize that no matter how wonderful I "feel" my feeling about something is not what is going to make it right in God's sight. It is only when I apply His will to the matter that I see appropriate results.
 
The premise that mankind and the impersonal Universe are interconnected is widely taught within occultic, New Age, literature. They teach that all-is-One. Man is an integral part of The Supreme Mind and he is seen as being one with it, to the point that he is the source of the Universe.30
 
Endnotes:
1.      Neale Donald Walsch, see:  http://christianinformation.org/article.asp?artID=63
2.      Unity, see: http://christianinformation.org/article.asp?artID=46
3.      Butterworth, Eric, Discover the Power Within You, (New York, N.Y., Harper & Row 1968), also see: Oprah, http://christianinformation.org/article.asp?artID=103
4.      Hicks/Abraham, Ester, see: Acknowledgments – Inspirational Teachings, Byrne, Rhonda, The Secret, p. xv http://www.abraham-hicks.com/teachings, http://www.money-health-relationships.com/abraham-hicks.html
5.      Schucman, Helen, A Course in Miracles, article, Wapnick, Kenneth, Awaken Form the Dream, (Roscoe, N. Y., Foundation for A.C.I.M. 1987) p. 2
6.      Byrne, Rhonda, The Secret, (New York, N.Y., Atria Books 2006, Hillsboro, OR, Beyond Words Publishing 2006) p. 28
7.      Ibid., p. 27
8.      Ibid., p. 31
9.      Ibid., p. 156
10.  Ibid., p. 159, Redfield, James, The Celestine Prophecy, (New York, N.Y., Warner Books 1993) p. 42 In other words, the basic stuff of the universe, at its core, is looking like a kind of pure energy that is malleable to human intention and expectation in a way that defies our old mechanistic model of the universe – as though our expectation itself causes our energy to flow out into the world and affect other energy systems.
11.  Ibid., p. 33, Eadie, Betty, Embraced by the Light, (Placerville, CA, Gold Leaf Press 1992) p. 57-58 See: Eadie, http://www.probe.org/cults-and-world-religions/cults-and-world-religions/embraced-by-the-light-of-deception.html
12.  Byrne, p. 35, Redfield, p. 153
13.  Byrne, p. 39
14.  Ibid., p. 40
15.  Ibid., p. 47
16.  Ibid., p. 48
17.  Ibid., p. 51
18.  Ibid., p. 160

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