The Secret (Shhh... Don't Tell!)

I also recently viewed "The Secret," and I also had the same essential problem with the film's material edges. I am reminded of the New Testament scripture from the book of James that suggests that even the demons believe in the oneness of divinity.

In the Amazon when shamans drink Ayahuasca they are essentially moving into faster and more lucid realms of the "energy" that connects all life in the cosmos. The secret, of course, upholds the idea of this energy and suggests that we can tap into techniques for moving the energy to manifest our desires (at least when the film covers asking for more money, etc). This isnt' much different than an Ayahuasca healer working with/moving the energy in a patients body to manifest a healing.

 What the Secret may fail to recognize is, I think, what a good shaman doesn't: that creative power, alone, is not necessarily beneficial or virtuous.

 In the jungle shamans are always doing battle with "brujos,"--witch doctors. The brujos are essentially like rogue agents of ego who know how to move the energy incredibly well, and they are mostly out for their own benefit and increased power.

  I sometimes think of them like the antithesis to Jedi Knights (the Darth Vaders of the energy). The point is that the energy is always larger than the individual ego who has learned how to harness it. Brujos don't get this part of the program, and a light-walker/healer/shaman does.

 I sometimes wonder about a particular scenario I've seen in Ayahausca visions. I see increased technology that works with people, training them in energetic manifestation, etc, but then I see the conflict of the system of ethics that might need to rise in light of the fact: what is most desirable for our highest cultural/planetary self?

It seems to me that the core of divinity works very seldomly with material gain for abudance's sake, and I see this as the paramount issue with the rising "pop-spirit" films and quantum self-help gurus: What the Bleep, The Secret, etc.

Adam Elenbaas

This is the first I've heard of "The Spirit." I listened to your podcast, and this sounds like more of the same: commonplace spiritual platitudes repackaged as a slick, consumerist product. There is a difference to me between simply putting forth one's philosophy as a life path or a self-help text, and doing what these folks are up to, ala James Redfield and his ilk. New Age shysterism is what turns a lot of people off to esoteric beliefs, and in my opinion only serves to make the essential message more shallow.

If this is a right-hand path, hand me the poison...

;)
st