the secret - movie no depth -

I've held out for a while, but finally I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about.

Why have I held out you might ask? Two reasons. The first has just three words: What The Bleep. Perhaps you've heard of it? It's that popular spiritual movie funded by the female cult leader who claims to channel a 35,000 year old warrior king from Lemuria (little old red flag for ya there..) and produced by her (his?) students. This film takes bad interpretations of quantum physics, puts them alongside junk science claims of water and it's ability to retain the “energy of thoughts” and then drives towards all sorts of misguided spiritual and psychological conclusions that leave it's audience more confused and ignorant about spirituality, science and the relationship between the two than when they first sat down….presumably scratching their heads and saying “what the bleep?”

My second reason, you innocently ask?

Well that's a little more complicated and has to do with my having been around the spiritual community my entire adult life and being perennially surprised, amused and infuriated with what people call “spiritual” and with the naivete, superficiality and gullibility of most “spiritual” people, as well as the basically banal nature of the material that gets recycled and marketed to it's willing consumers year after year.

The Secret takes the cake though.

Seriously.

Let's begin at the beginning:


The Drama

The movie starts with a dramatization. A sexy/disheveled aging blonde Australian lady is clearly having a rough time - her father has died, her relationships are a mess, she has worked herself to exhaustion. Then she opens her suitcase and sees book. A post-it note on the cover says “Mom, this will help xxox…”

Whatever could it be?

It turns out (the montage tells us) that she is holding in her hands a glimpse of the ancient secret that has been passed down through secret societies along the ages, that people have persecuted and killed for, the knowledge that the power elite have used to keep the masses oppressed and that was known by everyone from Emerson to Shakespeare to Plato to Lincoln to Hugo to Newton to Beethoven! No hint as to how her daughter or son happened to slide this precious information into her suitcase…

In her mind's eye we see Romans and Egyptians, Templar Knights, priests, scheming white cigar-smoking men in boardrooms, all passing the secret document back and forth, chasing it, hiding it - presumably until one of them passed it off on the troubled Australian lady's child?

Finally, in a breathless climactic moment, she is lying on her bed, head flung back, - a tight shot of her face, eyes closed, lips glossy as she earnestly and not a little seductively asks “Why doesn't anyone know this?”

After another exhausting rapid research project, our short-lived Australian heroine has found those among us who know the secret today and leaves us now in their able hands.

Pretty exciting, huh?

What could the ancient secret knowledge be? So mysterious. So powerful.

Who are these modern teachers of the ancient mystery, the wise ones who are the contemporary bearers of the secret knowledge?

The Masters of The Secret

The set combines beautiful backdrops with state-of-the-art computer graphics, and each speaker has their name in both typeset font and signature form at the bottom of the screen, along with a title that, we assume, qualifies them to be speaking. Their titles range from “philosopher” to “author” to “quantum physicist” to “writer” to “visionary” to “entrepreneur” to my personal favorite - “feng shui consultant.” Only one of the “writer/authors” is well known and has his book “Chicken Soup for the Soul” included in the computer graphic backdrop behind him. One can only assume that none of the others actually have published anything - nonetheless they are writers or authors who are in on “The Secret.”

One of the speakers with the title “philosopher” appears by the letters after his name to be a chiropractor with a degree in science. OK…

But while their titles and qualifications may vary, on one thing they are all resolutely in agreement, and this is the ancient secret, shrouded in mystery, repressed, hidden, revered by the best minds of history. Finally available and delivered by this coalition of the brilliant and the brave. Are you ready?

The Secret

Your thoughts determine your experience. Shocking, isn't it?

That's right, you create your own reality. I know, I know it's complicated and deep, but we have decoded the golden thread of all the secret ancient wisdom traditions and the knowledge that made Emerson, Shakespeare, Newton et al such great men, and this is it!

The movie goes on to suggest, through well-made video dramatizations and repetitive rhetoric that “the Law of Attraction” is at work all the time responding to your thoughts and your feelings, serving up from the universe whatever you are putting out there. For example:

That parking ticket, those bills and piling up debt, your cancer, gay people who are harassed by homophobes, lonely folks who can't get a date and so on…all of these are without exception manifestations of bad thoughts.

If you are focusing on not wanting to be late as you drive to work - guess what, you will be!

If you think about your bike being stolen and are extra careful to lock it up tight - it'll be stolen. But if you visualize that rock-star parking in front of the store you need to go to - it will be there!

If you focus on how stressed out you are about your credit card bills - guess what, you'll only create more debt!

If you spend time thinking about your cancer it will be more likely to kill you and even better, if you just focus on good things, watch funny movies and feel good after your diagnosis, it could take just three months to completely destroy the tumor - hey it did for this lady…

then there's the little boy dying of a rare form of hepatitis. Full recovery because his family ordered up some extra special “gratitude rocks” from one of our “writers…..”

What's more all of this has been proven by science.

Cool, huh?

Not really.

The Problems

The film uses authoritative names, meaningless titles/qualifications, very badly constructed arguments, category errors, logical fallacies etc.. scientific seeming images that then never go anywhere to strengthen it's points, and examples/case histories that are anecdotal at best.

And the matter-of-fact “scientific proof” is alluded to by various graphics, impressive looking images of experimental scenarios, and vague verbal references, but never really appears.

What you may ask could be wrong with a hopeful, inspiring film that empowers people to use their minds?

Well how about the little boy who focuses hard enough on the bicycle so that he gets it? Or the young woman who gazes with just the right combination of longing and belief through the jewelry store window until a man magically appears to give it to her? How about that woman who cured her breast cancer by laughing? Or the little boy in South Africa who magically recovered from near fatal rare hepatitis because his father had gratitude rocks from California delivered to the door? How about Jack Canfield implying that he made a million dollars on his first book because he used the Law of Attraction - ie he thought about it a lot? How about the assertion that by protesting, say, the war in Iraq, you only perpetuate it by giving it your focus?

We see a “case history” of a young gay man who is depressed, picked on, constantly humiliated by homophobic co-workers and street thugs. No more once he applies the secret. Done.

In fact the audience at a comedy club cheers his proclamation of being “such an incredibly gay man…” Nice. He is happy and everyone magically either accepts and supports his homosexuality or, - get this - transfers out of his office - so strong is his intention!

You see the makers of The Secret want us to believe that if your mental focus is strong enough and the intentional “joy” in your being is brimming over enough, everything will happen as you want it too. That's the highest spiritual truth and the secret to life.

We see scenes from a brutally dysfunctional relationship. Shoving, yelling, faces contorted in anger and hurt. The solution? Write down what you appreciate about your abusive partner and watch them transform before your eyes to match the energy you are magnetizing them with!

They assure us that the reason a tiny percentage of the world's population has so much of the wealth is because they know this secret.

Never mind social conditions. Never mind racism, homophobia, colonialism, world history, psychology, trauma, economic oppression. Everyone, absolutely everyone could be wealthy, happy and in love if they just knew how to use the Law of Attraction. Um, what does that mean for people who are not happy, wealthy or in the perfect relationship? Well, for lesson number two - see lesson number one. You're just not doing it right, silly.

Of course we never hear about the implied (and clearly flimsy) connection to the list of historical luminaries. You should have seen Shakespeare park that horse exactly where he wanted to on opening night….Beethoven - died in the black. Deaf, but solvent - right? Newton - never got sick.

Friends, this is not a recipe for anything but a frontal lobotomy. This is not high spiritual truth passed down through the ages, it's narcissistic delusion, bordering on the psychotic, plugged into the akashic records by a tinfoil hat.

It is a complete abdication of depth in favor of a supremely superficial analysis of life.

It is a marvelous example of everything wrong with the new age movement and is so insulting of the true nature of suffering, so ignorant of the realities of privilege and oppression, so authoritative in it's endorsement magical thinking and judgment of those who are not doing it right as to set any nascent spiritual development and self-awareness back a good 5 to 10 years.

So what is the real secret?

An Intelligent Path

Well there are really three broad areas that need attention, and this movie beautifully illustrates why:

1) Critical Thinking

Gotta have it. Without it spirituality is filled with the unicorns of childhood fantasy and the poison kool-aid of manipulation and dishonesty. In order to have critical thinking one needs healthy rational development. Educating the mind by studying actual philosophy, psychology, literature and art that grapples with the universal spiritual themes that great minds have been expressing since at least the ancient Greeks.

A healthy dose of critical thinking will cut through the kind of nonsense these kinds of popular spiritual vehicles are selling. It will also allow one to side step the very real suffering and delusion that comes from buying into very, very poor interpretations of spiritual reality like these.

Rest assured, if The Secret and What The Bleep sound like deep truth to you, there is either a complete lack of critical thinking, or you have become convinced of the fallacious spiritual argument which says that critical thinking is the enemy of spirituality. Not so. Critical thinking is the enemy of false spirituality. It is the trusted ally of authentic adult spirituality. Use it!

2) Your Shadow is your Friend

Contrary to superficial and fragmenting prescriptions like those offered by What the Bleep and The Secret, the instruction here is to actually work with your shadow material and learn from it.

Your so called “negative emotions” have value and meaning. They are communications from your psyche. Be curious about them. Compassionate. Follow a path of inquiry into what lies beneath the surface of your reactions, fears, anger-triggers, unsatisfied feelings, sadness etc. The way to be free of these is to embrace them and listen to what they might be telling you about your shadow - the part of you that you have disowned and disconnected from.

Working with and ultimately integrating shadow material through a process that takes you beneath the surface into the actual meaning that your triggers have for you is the way toward ending self-sabotage, not just trying desperately to impose a junta of “good thoughts” on your mind from the outside in…

3) Spiritual Practice

Spiritual practice is absolutely distinct from spiritual beliefs or ideas.

Spiritual ideas might give you a map of the territory in preparation for and in analyzing the experience of spiritual practice.

Spiritual beliefs are usually best left alone as they tend to hinder authentic inquiry which is at the heart of spiritual practice.

Spiritual practices actually require that you do the work. That you sit down and meditate. That you start a yoga practice. That you journal. That you dance your demons and shake your Buddha. That you be present to your emotions, your body, your mental patterns and learn the art of self observation, introspection and that most harrowing of skills - honest communication.

Spiritual practice requires that you turn to face your shadow. That you get real about your social conditioning, your political situation, the distinction between what you have power over and what has power over you.

Spiritual practice is inspiring, but it's also deeply humbling. It does not tell you that you can have anything, be anything, do anything, without limit.

Sorry. That's the kind of fantasy high the Secret promises - and the hangover is a real drag.

But real practice does give you tools and resources to deal with the inevitable disasters, disappointments and struggles that make up every human life.

And this is perhaps what is most problematic about the ideas promoted by movies like The Secret. Most likely the audience is looking for some real tools, looking for some real practices, techniques and resources to help make sense of life and it's complexities, to help them to grow and feel supported. Yet what these ideas offer is a short lived illusory hope that fades to reveal only one area of deepening - that of denial, fragmentation and self-judgment.

The Ethical Problem

Not too much searching online reveals that the movie is part of an elaborate advertising campaign to get people interested in working with the various “teachers” it features. Just like What the Bleep is a recruitment vehicle for Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, The Secret is an infomercial for it's talking heads. On a purely business level - brilliant. Too bad this is the last thing it's target audience actually needs.

1) The movie suggests something impossible - not only are there millions of other people out there with their own agendas/intentions, but there are also multiple variables that are not even remotely influence-able at the level of conscious intention - no matter how admittedly valuable a positive attitude might be.
2) Gullible and desperate people will try really hard to apply the “Law of Attraction”. They will have some success with it because intention has a certain amount of impact. They will have a lot of failure with it, because it is nonsense. I already know of a few people who are watching the movie obsessively to try and master it's bogus teachings. See here for the recent New York Times article on magical thinking, it's harmless prevalence and problematic implications as a worldview.
3) the ones with money will buy the book, attend the events, and contact the teachers for help on perfecting their skills, which of course is, by definition impossible, so they will have a captive audience.

The dynamic described by the above three points is “The Secret” to these hucksters making a mint!
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Introduction

In response to the wonderful dialog about The Secret, I thought it might be interesting to do a slightly less polemical step-back here and talk about what I think healthy stage appropriate spiritual practice and philosophy can and should be for people likely to be taken in by The Secret, What the Bleep and the New Age paradigm they represent.

This is, of course, the basis for 90% of what you will find on my Zaadz pages, the website for my work ( www.julianwalkeryoga.com ), and this blog. Here too is an introduction to my Open Sky body of work, integrating yoga, meditation, hands-on bodywork, ecstatic dance and dialog in private sessions, group classes, workshops, trainings and retreats.

Some felt that I was unfairly slamming The Secret and it's adherents for what is a well-intentioned, stage-appropriate spirituality with training wheels - that ultimately the movie is positive and empowering and so what if it doesn't live up to some advanced spiritual or intellectual ideal, it's a good first step.

In my previous blog post I dismissed this position pretty strongly with the assertion that the Secret was stage appropriate for no-one, that in fact it represents a spiritual pathology rampant in the broad, popular and influential New Age movement that actually distorts reality, mixes junk science with superficial philosophy, and effectively limits healthy stage-wise spiritual growth.

Some felt that my critique and Part Two: Wilber, Gebser and New Age Pathology was not making enough room for whatever their favorite New Age idea was, be it the power of intention, the universe's benevolent creative generosity, or the reality of synchronicity. What was interesting to me about this position is that it came off not so much as a defense of The Secret (because the movie is relentlessly about one single oversimplified incorrect idea presented as an ancient universal truth in laughable and indefensible ways) but more of whatever New Age particulars still held a revered place in their heart or mind.


The Power of Intention

Perhaps the most common response to my criticism of the Secret, What the Bleep and the New Age worldview in general over the years has been this:

“But the power of intention is so important and people need to hear that message.”

Let's use this well-meaning assertion as a starting point.

The central difficulty I have with the pop spirituality phenomenon of the New Age is it's unfortunate lack of depth. I know, I know I said I'd be less polemical, but I don't actually mean that as an insult. It's a simple fact.

The New Age worldview suffers from a basic lack of depth, even a lack of awareness that there is such a thing as depth. The popularity of “intention” as an all-powerful spiritual tool is a perfect case in point. Intention, in and of itself, is of little value. What matters is what the intention helps to reveal and how the intention is, in turn, shaped by an interactive relationship to the process.

Intention can be an entry point into an inquiry process that allows for insight and healing. Intention can also be used to take those process-generated insights and apply them with some discipline to one's life. But there has to be insight first. Without a relationship to depth, intention remains superficial and empty. Without a way of interpreting meaning intention can be rigid and ineffective. Inquiry and depth makes the difference between the intention of a Martin Luther King Jnr. and the intention of an Adolf Hitler.

What most New Agers mean by “intention” is some combination of faith and determination. This can be useful, but like all forms of faith and determination it benefits immensely from, and is directed more efectively by, a relationship to the depth discovered through a genuine process of inquiry.

Spiritual practice and philosophy should be a sequential process of initiation into successive layers of depth, complexity, nuance and, yes, truth. I am going to use two approaches that I feel are legitimate spiritual practices that succeed in this duty, one from the East - Vipassana Meditation, and one from the West, Psychotherapy.

Two Spiritual Practices

In Vipassana Meditation practice, one sequentially learns several different skills that allow one first to concentrate a strong conscious intention to stabilize in the present and then to gain entry into one's own inner world with that concentrated awareness. The purpose of learning to concentrate on the breath (the “apana” stage of the work) is not merely an end in itself, it allows one to cross a threshold into depth. This meditation technique then allows the practitioner to become more and more familiar with first their sensations and then with the next layer of depth, which is the emotional and mental dimension of their embodied experience, this evokes yet another layer of depth which has to do with gradually becoming more and more stabilized in the observing or witnessing awareness that remains as the constant as the sensations, emotions, thoughts and even sense of self keep going through their ever-changing cycles.

Each of these deepening movements, from surface level concentration which calms the static of the mind, to focused awareness of the sensations as they arise, intensify, fade and pass, to the inquiry into one's emotional/psychological experience, to the deepening sense of one's witnessing consciousness, is a stage in a process that takes many years. The word “Vipassana” means “insight”, and the assertion is that through this gradually deepening path, one gains insight into not only one's own being, but also the nature of the human condition itself.

Along the way one will have to sit through many sessions of boredom, physical discomfort, emotional anguish, and psychological torment, alongside (and often transitioning into) periods of deep gratitude, bliss, release and clarity. Along the way one may find that several different belief systems, defense structures, and habit patterns come up for reconsideration. This is quintessential spiritual practice. It's inquiry-based, not faith-based, and it is as rewarding and transformational as it is gruelingly difficult. No short cuts.

In psychotherapy one goes through a deepening process of relating with a therapist who is there to be present and support your inquiry. initially, one usually brings in a some difficulty that is present and asks for help. That is the doorway. Through the process of sitting, talking, (and various other techniques depending on the therapists training), discussing dreams, expressing emotions, analyzing and attempting new strategies outside of the office, one goes on a deepening journey into self-discovery. Why do we feel the way we feel? What are the beliefs and expectations we hold? What do we really want out of life?

The most valuable part of a psychotherapeutic process is this initiation into depth, the fact that it asks us to consider what is beneath the surface. We pay attention and inquire and through that process we gain insight into the patterns, fears, defenses, beliefs and traumas that underlie the way we structure our present experience. Often there is deep healing work that is needed, intense unresolved emotions, fearful associations, unmet needs and longings that are almost unbearable to touch, but over time this gets easier and our surface ego gets more related to the authentic self that dwells in the depths of the psyche.

Just like in Vipassana Meditation, the Psychotherapeutic process takes us through stages of gradual deepening that allow us to become more honest with ourselves and to see reality, both internally and externally, more clearly. The wishful thinking, fantasy, projections, defenses and reactions become less powerful. As with Vipassana, this increase in clarity allows us to see ourselves and others with more compassion.

Both Vipassana and Psychotherapy are powerful spiritual practices that facilitate what Joseph Campbell calls The Hero's Journey. Here is the inner world and it's monsters and treasures as described by the world's rich mythological traditions.These practices take us into the unknown, into the depths of the psyche, into places where before the light of consciousness has not shone, and create a more open and vital channel of communication between the inner/depth world of the soul or Self and the outer/surface world of the ego. In Jungian terms this channel is called the ego/Self axis and strengthening it is the central purpose of the analysis.

You'll notice in both of these processes intention plays a part. It is the firm resolve that gets us started and keeps us going. Intention is a function of the surface mind. As such, intention needs direction and content from the depths if it is to serve it's function well. During the course of one's inquiry-based spiritual practice, one may have insights and set new intentions about how one wants to bring those insights into lived reality. It is also sometimes useful (and sometimes not) to enter the inquiry-based practice with an intention, to help direct the process towards discovering a particular hidden truth, feeling or motivation.

Through this kind of practice, one gets to be in a feedback loop with reality, with one's lived experience. It is not a guarantee of success or a strategy for happiness or wealth, rather it is a method for discovering meaning, for being in relationship to one's inner and outer life with more consciousness.

This awakens an unfolding freedom, but it is freedom from the need to control everything, freedom from the fear of life and death and feelings, freedom from the obsessive conditioned response to acquire money and power and possessions at all costs, - not freedom to have some kind of magical power in these domains.


The Magical Defense

In fact, from a psychological perspective the desire spoken to by The Secret to find the magic trick that gives one power over the unknown and makes the universe unconditionally grant whatever you wish is understood as a very immature need that comes from childhood and is incongruous with an adult relationship to reality. It's called magical thinking and belongs to a narcissistic stage of development appropriate to a young child but problematic and even, depending on the severity, quite pathological in adults .

From a Buddhist perspective that same longing to have magical power and limitless manifestation would be seen in terms of the never-ending reflexive grasping and pushing away of pleasant and unpleasant experience that creates suffering in the first place.

Now Buddhist philosophy and practice and Psychotherapy do not match up entirely. In fact there are areas of difference and disagreement that are fascinating and important for the serious student of either, and especially of both, - but my point here is that both are methods of self-inquiry that allow us to enter a process that leads us though stages of deepening awareness.

The New Age in general and movies like The Secret , in particular, do not.

The idea that through merely focusing one's intention, one can have and do anything without limit, while inspiring-sounding is actually delusional, regressive and perpetuating of what both Buddhism and Psychotherapy see as an unhealthy relationship to reality.

The failure to include a discussion of the limits of intention and to introduce people to the concept of depth, of practice, of being in the kind of feedback loop with reality, is disastrous. It ends up unwittingly pinning adherents between the rock of surface level intention and the hard place of a world that actually doesn't work that way. Without a methodology for interpreting meaning and assessing depth, for coming to terms with feelings, disappointments and bringing expectations down to earth, one is left with a vicious cycle:misplaced faith in a grandiose, but erroneous magical belief coupled with a self-blaming response when it turns out, time and time again, not to work.

This does not generate insight, nor will it cultivate compassion. It also fails to initiate a relationship to depth. In fact the central idea of The Secret decreases ones compassionate and curious relationship to oneself, other people and the world at large, by reducing everything to the magical relationship between thoughts and “the universe.”


Beginning Spiritual Practice

My sense is that there are three broad areas that contemporary spirituality should address: cognitive development, psychological awareness, and spiritual practice.

A beginning practice is only worthwhile if it serves as a genuine bridge into more advanced practice. As such, one should enter the domain of spirituality with a healthy sense of respect for depth and for the amount of work one has to put in to get anything meaningful out.

Movies and books like The Secret are mere entertainment, worse, they are a kind of drug that creates a false sense of depth, meaning and power and leaves one in a confused hangover once the high fades. They perpetuate the very defense-structure that real spiritual practice helps one to dismantle. Beginning practice should be clear on this point, not as a way to demand that people be advanced right away, but so as to appropriately begin the process of turning towards the depths and doing the first layers of work with one's delusions and defenses. The Secret dresses up the defensive delusions and grandiose fantasies as if they were themselves the higher truths.

So instead I suggest reading philosophy, literature, poetry and watching great artistic cinema, as well as reading current events/politics and watching documentary films. One will gain far more spiritually from attending to great art, literature and analysis of the day than from superficial opiated entertainments like The Secret. This will also deepen critical thinking and develop cognition in ways that equip us to be in relationship to depth.

For the beginner I recommend starting to engage genuine spiritual practice by reading Jack Kornfield's classic synthesis of Buddhist meditation and psychological awareness - A Path with Heart.

If you are really interested in spirituality, begin meditating and avail yourself of the plethora of incredible books by people like Kornfield, John Welwood, Pema Chodron, Ken Wilber and Stan Grof. Explore the myriad of experiential psychological awareness processes from certain forms of yoga, to bodywork, to holotropic breathwork, to ecstatic dance to straight -up talk therapy.

There is a real path and The Secret ain't it.
Please browse through the rest of my blog to see more on this subject and go to my website at www.julianwalkeryoga.com if you are interested in coming on my three-day Open Sky Retreat to Ojai, California, where we practice yoga, meditation, noble silence, ecstatic dance, Core Sequencing Bodywork and supportive joyful community in absolutely beautiful surroundings.