Have you heard about "The Secret?" If you have not, you will want to educate yourself on this one.  Why?  The book and DVD have sold 1.2 million copies and now that Oprah is on the bandwagon, expect that to at least double.  So, in other words, our people and the people they rub shoulders with are going to be reading this.

The Secret is a book about the so called Law of Attraction.  What the law purports is that if you believe something with enough vigor and hope, somehow what you hope for will gravitate (be attracted) towards you.  You hope for it, you get it.  (I am right now thinking positively about gaining 100 more subscribers today!  Very positively!)  Or in her own words…

Author Rhonda Byrne says the secret is the law of attraction: If you
think positively, you become a magnet that pulls everything you want
toward you.

And speaking about how it would work out…

"Everyone has to have their own experience to believe," says Byrne, 55.
"People should start with little things like deciding a cup of coffee
will come to you or that you’ll see a feather. There’s no difference
between attracting a feather and anything else you want. It’s as easy
to attract one dollar as it is $10,000.

It is popular too.  Besides Oprah, Larry King has given the author time on his show.  Some others who have gotten on board…

Byrne has attracted numerous celebrities to her cause. In the book and
on the DVD, the law of attraction is touted by such self-help
luminaries as Jack Canfield, co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series; John Gray, author of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus; and financial and spiritual gurus.

(Source of quotes: http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2007-02-14-the-secret_x.htm)

First of all let me say that I am an advocate of a brand of optimism…what I call informed optimism. In the great book, The One Thing You Need to Know: … About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success , Marcus Buckingham talks about how leaders need to be positive people.  But for that positive nature to rub off, it has to be based on something concrete and real.  So, in other words, what I need to hope for is not for my blog to increase its subscription base by 100 today because I hope sincerely but to hope because I have attached it to some sort of action(s).  (Example: I hope my subscription base will increase by 100 today because I am hoping really hard vs. I think it may because I am going to comment on 1000 blogs today and make my subscription mechanism more visible.) 

But here is also what I also think.  These kind of ideas are dangerous.  One, because it can produce false guilt.  Just like the church that teaches one will be healed if they only believe with enough faith, the same kind of guilt and shame can come when the money is not manifested or the guy goes without a girlfriend who looks a certain way.  Secondly, this is a industry that feeds on the needs of people.  So when a person is disappointed that they were not able to manifest $10,000 they decide to attend the one day seminar for $79.99 (meals included).  And when the one day seminar does not work, they ask you to attend the executive weekend retreat for $799. 

I have not read this book nor have I any plans to, but I have read this kind of literature before and viewed the teaser video online, so my thoughts come there there.  I also am not aware of any seminar or weekend retreat based on this book, but most of this kind have such a thing attached to them.

Any experience with this sort of thing?  Am I off base?