Saturday, April 28, 2007

"Secret" Audiences Deserve a Prequel


After viewing The Secret, the consensus here in the balcony is that the producers must be planning to reveal the entire “secret” at a later date. While I’m sympathetic with the position that the masses probably can’t handle the full “secret” in one sitting, I’m not sure that the Law of Attraction is the most logical or effective opening scene. In fact, it’s closer to the denouement.

Trying to create or change the scenes in your life’s drama by using only one tool in the box is like playing nine holes of golf with only one club. Fewer things can be more harmful to the body, mind or spirit than learning the Law of Attraction without context, and practicing it in isolation and out of sequence.

As The Secret explained, wise souls have known this Law for many millennia. Since then, they and their messengers have faithfully spread the word. In the 20th century, Earl Nightingale became the first to record this wisdom on vinyl, crediting these not so New Age sages for his “We become what we think about” mantra.

Oprah, perhaps history’s most prolific messenger, knows and shares the Law of Attraction extremely well. Did she consciously practice it to transform her life from an unhappy, abused child with low self esteem into that of a highly respected, internationally known talk show host and billionaire? Frankly, I doubt it. I think she’ll admit that her lifestyle today was beyond the wildest imaginings of a woman who once told me that she couldn’t balance her checkbook.

Oprah and I worked at the same Chicago television station for years. When she arrived at our station, she didn’t envision that her enormous talent would redesign the TV talk show landscape forever. In fact, she was stunned when our station manager offered her the job as the AM Chicago host.

Oprah quickly stole the hearts of Chicago viewers, and advertisers stampeded for exposure to her huge audiences. Then the station manager proved that he was more than a great talent scout. He changed her air time, renamed the show and decreed that the new Oprah Winfrey Show would now challenge the venerable Phil Donahue, head-to-head.

Oprah told us that she was petrified. She feared that Donahue would obliterate her from the airwaves. Fear was her prevailing thought. But in no time flat, she reduced Donahue to Dona-who? Was Oprah working the Law of Attraction?

Few, if any, have focused our attention on developing a debilitating or deadly disease, being downsized, losing our homes and loved ones to an accident, wildfire, hurricane or tornado, or our pensions to unscrupulous corporate executives—but it happened, anyway. On the other hand, many have connected emotionally with vivid images of what their lifestyle would be like if they won a big lottery jackpot, married the mate of their dreams, landed a great job or received an admission letter to the college at the top of their list—yet it never materialized. How many have followed the directives in The Secret and received disappointing results?

I speak from experience. More than a decade ago, I followed these same steps, based on the teachings of the sages that inspired The Secret. I outlined that drama and its results in EARTH Is the MOTHER of All Drama Queens. I learned the hard way that a little bit of information can be a dangerous thing.

Is the Law of Attraction all we need to know? Is it even the first thing we need to know, if we want to take control of our lives? What’s the rest of the secret—the prerequisite lessons that support this Law? The ancients have passed on that information, too; and it’s just as accessible.

Let’s hope that the producers of The Secret unveil it in a desperately needed prequel—and soon. Otherwise, many who are now open to exercising the power of positive thought and invoking the Law of Attraction to control their outcomes will lose ground and lose faith when they don’t consistently create the results they desire, as The Secret has promised.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Are We Digesting Conflicted Fruit?


Today we celebrate the greatest lesson demonstrated by perhaps the greatest teacher the world has ever known, a Jew named Yeshua. What he demonstrated more than 2,000 years ago was that there is no death.
He reportedly revealed that even though the physical bodies we wear are lifeless and entombed, we are not dead. We are immortal spirit, made in the likeness and image of our Father. We are not physical bodies. What we learned from his demonstration is dramatically different.

Yeshua, whose name was mistranslated as Jesus, was a powerful teacher who was committed to sharing the Truth as it had been revealed to him. Through parables and folksy stories, he spread the word about an unconditionally loving and eternally forgiving God. It was a soul-stirring, joyful message that resonated in hearts wherever he went. But as the Bible relates, some of the questions his followers asked reveal that they were also confused by his message.

Like Yeshua, his followers had been reared in the Jewish tradition. Many had committed Jewish law to memory and were expected to live by the letter of that law. So, despite their acceptance of Yeshua’s dramatically different perception of what God is and what God does, his followers didn’t completely replace their old beliefs. Instead, they planted Yeshua’s empowering and revolutionary teachings on top of the lessons they’d learned as children. We’ve been harvesting conflicted fruit ever since.

For example, Yeshua believed that God not only is absolute (unchanging), he believed that God loves us unwaveringly and forgives us unconditionally. In his Prodigal Son parable, he portrayed God as a Father who will welcome us Home with open arms, no matter what we’ve done.

By contrast, the religious tradition of Yeshua’s family portrayed God as a violent, angry Supreme Being who demanded us to slaughter an innocent creature to atone for our errors. Today, such live sacrifices are considered barbaric and acts that are frequently associated with satanic rituals.

It begs the question: Have we digested conflicted fruit? Or do we truly share Yeshua’s belief that:
1. God is always the same and has never changed;
2. God has always been unconditionally loving and forgiving;
3. God doesn't heinously punish an innocent for another’s wrongdoing?