The Secret

I was bored the other day so I turned on the television and Oprah Winfrey was on. I settled back to see what topic she was discussing and got a bit confused. When did Oprah Winfrey turn into a saleswoman? The show was one long glorified advertisement for a DVD called “The Secret”. All that was missing was the phone number to call so I could order my bargain priced copy.

As I listened to how “The Secret” works I snorted with disbelief. This brilliant “secret” is not new to me. I call it “faith” and it didn’t cost me a cent to find out about it.

I turned off the TV and went to take a nap but a quiet voice in my mind told me to turn the TV back on. I know that voice. I call it God. I told him I didn’t want to listen to any more of the sales pitch.

“You can’t write a blog entry about it if you don’t watch it.” God said.

So I compromised. I turned the TV back on then went to my bedroom in the next room. I curled up in bed and listened to the show.

Until I fell asleep.

When I woke the show was over. Oh well, I thought, can’t write about it now so I watched some other shows and tried to forget about it. No such luck. I kept feeling the urge to get on the computer and write about how “The Secret” is just another name for “Faith”. I resisted the urge and kept watching TV. Then I changed channels and there it was again. A show called, I think, “The Chaser’s War On Everything” was doing a send up of “The Secret” and, once again, I heard God speak.

“Write.” He said quietly.

I don’t like writing about something I am ignorant of. I was worried I might have missed some important information by falling asleep during the show so I got on the computer to find out more about “The Secret” and I found their website.

The first thing I noticed was the discrepancy between the people they claimed were historical teachers of this secret and those who are teaching it today.

According to the site (link broken) Beethoven, Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, Buddha, Joseph Campbell, Andrew Carnegie, Winston Churchill, Robert Collier, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Ford, Victor Hugo, Carl Jung, Martin Luther King Jr., Isaac Newton, Plato and W. Clement Stone all knew and lived by “The Secret”.

The first “teacher” of the secret is an ancient Greco-Egyptian God named Hermes Trismegistus who is believed to have written something called The emerald tablet. This stone document is said to contain a discussion about the oneness and interconnectedness of all things and is referred to as a guide for assisting us to understand our relationship with the universe. The tablet no longer exists as it has been lost but there are many interpretations of it available today.

As far as I know not all the cited names were famous for what the universe gave them! They were famous for what they gave the world. Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton gave the world scientific advances. Beethoven gave us music. Buddha was a religious leader and Churchill led his country. Plato, Carl Jung and Martin Luther King Jr. were creative thinkers whose ideas helped enlighten us. Victor Hugo, W. Clement Stone, Robert Collier, Joseph Campbell, Ralph Waldo Emerson were all writers.

Andrew Carnegie made a fortune then spent his retirement giving it away and Henry Ford was the father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. I guess you could say his contribution to the world was global warming.

How do they compare with the twenty four modern teachers of “the secret” featured on the site? I couldn’t find much about what they had contributed to the world. Most of them simply seem to be using the secret to get rich. They are writing, teaching or lecturing on their version of “The Secret” and I think it’s a bit cheeky for them to put themselves on the same page as the likes of Edison and Einstein.

I did a bit more prowling around and discovered references to other things including Egyptian Mystery Schools and the Rosicrucians. Words like alchemy, science, magic, religion, the occult and so on began appearing in the things I browsed through.

The website for “The Secret” claims the secret existed before Jesus and that bothered me. It bothered me even more when I found a site that claimed Jesus attended an Egyptian Mystery School and learned to perform miracles there.

I prowled through a Bible site looking for stuff to combat these claims but all I found was that we were to pay attention to our thoughts:

“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” (Philippians 4.8)

We were also told we do not have what we want because we don’t ask for it so we are to ask God for what we want and believe we will get it:

“And all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” (Matthew 21.22)

Except, of course, if we ask lustfully rather than righteously:

“You ask, and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.” (James 4.3)

Finally, we are told we possess the ability to do miracles just as Jesus did. All we have to do is believe:

“Jesus answered and said to them, Verily I say unto you, If you have faith, and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.” (Matthew 21.21)

I totally lost interest in writing this entry. I’m no theologist. Some of the stuff I read was quite convincing and I lack the zeal to go to battle over the issue so I shut down my computer and went to have a shower.

God wasn’t done with me though. I continued to feel I should write something about this supposed “Secret”.

“What about that claim the Egyptians taught “the secret” to Christ? That kind of turns him from teacher to student of the ancient Egyptians doesn’t it?” I questioned God.

He was silent so I persisted.

“Well? DID Christ study under the Ancient Egyptians?”

God answered:

“Who am I?”

(God loves to answer my questions with questions of His own.)

“You are God.” I patiently replied.

He didn’t reply. He simply left me feeling he was wanting the answer he gave in the bible so, after my shower, I got back on the internet and checked the bible site. I found this.

“God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” (Exodus 3.14)

God reminded me of the last time I read those words. I stewed over the precise meaning of God’s claim to be the “I AM” and my thoughts struggled to take shape so I sat at my computer and wrote them down to try and make sense of them. I ended up with an essay about who God really is with the main conclusion being that He is the personification of “Existence”.

The essay sat, unread by anyone, on my computer for many years. During those years it became clear that, whilst my son was happy to accept Christ as his Saviour, my daughter was not at all convinced.

One day she came to me and said she was ready to accept Christ as her Saviour. I asked her why and she said she had read my essay and it had answered all her key questions to her complete satisfaction.

I went to my computer after talking to her and tried to read the essay again myself. It had been completely corrupted and was gone. I was unable to recover it so I never was able to refresh my memory about exactly what I wrote that day. I was quite distressed. If it had the power to save my daughter’s soul by convincing her to believe I felt it might be useful for others.

God told me: “It has served its purpose. It was created for your daughter in answer to your prayers that I will bring both your children into salvation with you. It was for her eyes only.”

I have struggled, in vain, to reproduce my thought processes and recreate that essay but it has proven impossible to recapture. I am left with only the final conclusion I reached. It turned out to be the same as a passage in the bible:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1.1 & 3)

God spoke to me again.

“Who am I?”

I answered:

“You are the substance from which all things are made and you are the one who made all things.”

God said:

“The secret they talk about is this – the law of attraction dictates that what you call to you will come. It works because all things are made from my essence so all things are one. All that exists is a part of you because it is also made from me, just as you are, and the real law of attraction is that all the parts of me want to become whole again.In the beginning was the truth. Many have learned the truth. Truth cannot be hidden from all. The secret is simply the truth being told by those who don’t understand it quite as well as they think they do.

Tell them this. In the beginning there was nothing but Me and I was complete, whole, in need of nothing. Then I got pregnant – I conceived each soul that lives, that has ever lived, that will ever live – they sprang to life in my heart.

I knew what it would cost to let my children live outside of my heart. I knew what mankind would do to me, to the earth, to each other and I was in agony. I had a choice – abort you all or let you all live – I chose to let you all live.

I loved you all so much from the moment I conceived you. I wanted you all. I still want you all. I have lost so many. I am losing more each day. Each one I lose is a lost piece of me and each loss is agony to me.

I live with grief and sorrow beyond anything you could ever imagine. I knew it would be so but, even if only one of my children was going to survive this, I would have had to do it. My son Jesus is not all I have sacrificed for each of you.

In the beginning there was nothing but Me and I was complete, whole, in need of nothing. I gave that away for love of you. I tore myself apart to create you and all you would need, I lost all the parts of me that have turned away from me, I gave it all up to give you life.

The Indian’s in America knew “The Secret”. They knew everything comes from one source. They thanked each animal they killed for food. The animals become one with those who eat them and they live on in their new form. If you are starving – call for food – it will walk, slither or crawl to you to be joined with you provided you treat it as what it is. All that exists is a part of you because you are a part of me. That is the real secret.

Truth is truth no matter who tells it. The sun shines on all my children and all good things are there for all. Some will come to me and ask whilst others will take without asking. You will be called to account for how much of me you get, how you get it, and what you do with it while you have custody of it.

Most people understand that I will call them to account for how they have treated their children, their servants, their animals and other living things.

Now I tell you – beware “The Secret” because I will also call you to account for every other part of me that comes into your custody – including money.”

EDIT

I should make sure readers know that, whilst I am aware of “The Secret”, I have never been able to use it to bring me everything I want. I believe God will supply my needs. The years have proven that. Unexpected expenses always seem to be taken care of by unexpected income and I always seem to have a little more than I actually need.

Before I married and discovered middle class living I always had enough to live a reasonably good pension class life. Money was scarce, possessions were cheap, and credit was the main resource for purchases. That was the life my mother lived and it was all I knew.

After marriage my ideas about what constitutes basic needs changed and my tastes became more expensive. Most women end up with a much lower standard of living after divorce but I did not. I continued to be supplied with what I had come to believe were basic needs and a bit to spare. The supply altered to match my expectations.

I have no doubt that I will always have what I need and some of what I want. I am not able to summon the faith to believe I should have any more than that. I’m kind of glad about that because it’s going to be hard enough to answer to God for the way I have wasted so much money gambling as it is. If I could spare the money to gamble I probably wouldn’t try so hard to stop!