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[Khan Boyzitbig]

Saw an unmarked police car responding to an incident (presumably an accident) just a short while ago. Never seen one do that before.

[Avarice]

So I got showed The Secret on a career coaching course, and holy shit is it an unhealthy philosophy.

The idea is that because of some woo magic the universe arranges itself according to your thoughts and emotions, and therefore you should ignore every single negative thing lest you 'attract' more of it, same with feeling negative emotions. Instead, you should fool yourself into thinking you already have everything you want.

Not only is it logically paradoxical and self-defeating ("The Secret isn't real", therefore the universe arranges so that it isn't), policing your own thoughts and emotions only leads to a massive breakdown later on that is probably worse to your psyche than facing the problems individually. It's never wrong to feel; the proper way to tackle negative emotions is to consider why you're feeling them rather than blame the universe on them.

While I do agree with you
There is something behind it working.
If you retrained your brain to be more positive then you'll feel better leading to more positive choices and so on.
Thats not to say being positive bends reality to prevent bad things happening.
The only reason I think this is the same with my depression.
If I was happy or manic instead of depressed all these years then my reality would have been manipulated instead of being really good at smoking pot and videa gems i would have a healthy bank account etc.
Do you get me?
One day i hope to make sense

[Reelya]

It's not just about "positive thinking" which is common sense.

The Secret is a best-selling 2006 self-help book by Rhonda Byrne, based on the earlier film of the same name. It is based on the pseudo-scientific 'law of attraction' which claims that thoughts can change the world directly.
...
Byrne re-introduces a pseudo-scientific notion originally popularized by persons such as Madame Blavatsky and Norman Vincent Peale, which suggests that thinking about certain things will make them appear in one's life. Byrne provides alleged examples of historical persons who have achieved this. Byrne cites a three-step process to achieve this: ask, believe, and receive. This is based on a quotation from the Bible's Matthew 21:22: "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
...
Byrne's scientific claims, in particular concerning quantum physics, have been rejected by a range of authors including Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons at The New York Times and Harvard physicist Lisa Randall.

So she's making some rather stronger claims than merely saying your internal language can change yourself and how you live your life. "ask, believe, and receive" with the last bit happening either by magic or unspecified "quantum effects".

[Avarice]

Well thats bananas

[Reelya]

What I think it boils down to is that she's claiming that if you want chocolate, then just think about chocolate, believe you'll get chocolate, and then people are more likely to give you chocolate because of quantum mechanics.

But you can clearly see that it's junk science similar to psychics. You're bound to get some chocolate at some point, so you can then turn around and say "see? the secret works!"

EDIT: Actually I have the PDF open right now:

There  is  no  greater  power  in  the  Universe  than  the  power of love.
The  feeling  of  love  is  the  highest  frequency  you  can  emit.
...
Marci  Shimoff  shared  a  wonderful  quote  from  the  great  Albert 
Einstein:  "The  most  important  question  any  human  being  can  ask 
themselves is, 'Is this a  friendly  Universe?'" 

Knowing  the  law  of attraction,  the  only  answer  to  give  is,  "Yes, 
the Universe  is  friendly."  Why?  Because  when  you answer in this
way, by the law of attraction you  must experience that. Albert Ein-
stein  posed  this  powerful  question  because  he  knew  The  Secret. 
He  knew  by  asking  the  question  it  would  force  us  to  think  and 
make  a  choice.  He gave us  a  great  opportunity, just by  posing the
question.

To  take  Einstein's  intention  even  further,  you  can  affirm  and  pro-
claim, "This is a magnificent Universe. The Universe is bringing all
good  things  to me. The  Universe is conspiring  for me  in  all  things. 
The  Universe  is  supporting  me  in  everything  I  do.  The  Universe 
meets  all  my  needs immediately." Know that this is  a  friendly Universe!

JACK CANFlELD
Since I learned The Secret and started applying it to my life,
my life has truly become magical. I think the kind of life that
everybody dreams of is one I live on a day-to-day basis. I live
in a four-and-a-half-million-dollar mansion. I have a wife to
die for. I get to vacation in all the fabulous spots of the world.
I've climbed mountains. I've explored. I've been on safaris.
And all of this happened, and continues to happen, because
of knowing how to apply The Secret.

It reads like a chain-letter scam!

The law of attraction is a law of nature. It is as impartial as the law
of gravity.

Nothing  can  come  into  your  experience  unless  you  summon  it through persistent thoughts.

The  second  thing  to  know   is  that  the  condition  of  being  over-
weight was created through your thought to it. To put  it in the most
basic  terms,  if  someone  is  overweight,  it  came  from  thinking  "fat 
thoughts/'

Whether  people  have  been  told  they  have  a  slow  thyroid,  a  slow 
metabolism, or  their  body  size  is hereditary,  these are  all disguises
for thinking  "fat thoughts."  If you  accept any of those conditions as
applicable  to you,  and  you  believe  it,  it must become  your experi-
ence,  and you  will  continue to attract being overweight.
...
To attract your perfect weight and body using the  Creative Process,
follow  these steps:

Get  clear  on  the  weight  you  want  to  be.  Have  a  picture  in  your 
mind  of what  you  will  look  like  when  you have become  that  per-
fect weight.  Get  pictures  of  yourself at your  perfect  weight,  if  you 
have  them,  and  look at them  often.  If not,  get pictures of the body
you  would like  to have and  look at  those often.

You  must  believe  you  will  receive  and  that  the  perfect  weight  is 
yours  already.  You must  imagine,  pretend,  act  as  if,  make-believe, 
that the perfect  weight  is yours.  You  must see yourself as  receiving 
that perfect  weight. 
Write out your perfect  weight and  place it over the readout of your
scale,  or  don't  weigh  yourself  at  all.  Do  not  contradict  what  you 
have  asked  for with your  thoughts,  words,  and  actions.  Don't buy
clothes  at your current weight.  Have  faith and  focus on  the clothes
you  are  going  to  buy.  Attracting  the  perfect  weight  is  the  same 
as  placing  an  order  with  the  catalogue  of  the  Universe.  You  look 
through  the catalogue, choose the perfect weight,  place your order,
and then  it is delivered to you. 

Man this is some good shit:

http://www.newsweek.com/book-excerpt-rhonda-byrnes-secret-104953

A person cannot think "thin thoughts" and be fat. It completely defies the law of attraction.
...
The most common thought that people hold, and I held it too, is that food was responsible for my weight gain. That is a belief that does not serve you, and in my mind now it is complete balderdash! Food is not responsible for putting on weight. It is your thought that food is responsible for putting on weight that actually has food put on weight. Remember, thoughts are primary cause of everything, and the rest is effects from those thoughts. Think perfect thoughts and the result must be perfect weight.

Let go of all those limiting thoughts. Food cannot cause you to put on weight, unless you think it can.

[Teneb]

I think the best part is all of this implies that all your problems are your fault. Have cancer? It's your fault for thinking cancerous thoughts!

[Trekkin]

I think the best part is all of this implies that all your problems are your fault. Have cancer? It's your fault for thinking cancerous thoughts!

Which would be why it's so popular; it plays directly into certain demographics' fantasy of a just world.

[TheDarkStar]

Well thats bananas

[Dunamisdeos]

A lot of the people who call me at my call center are convinced that if they want something they can simply demand for it to be so.

Lotta people have internalized this concept to some degree or another.

[TD1]

Well thats bananas

No. NO! Don't say that!

*We are all crushed by a mountain of bananas.*

[overseer05-15]

Well thats bananas

No. NO! Don't say that!

*We are all crushed by a mountain of bananas.*

Well thats mangoes

[heydude6]

I knew The Secret was bad but I didn't know it was this terrible. Ignoring the pseudoscience bullshit, here are my thoughts on the law of attraction.

A lot of things in life are influenced by your attitude. Making friends and acing job interviews are significantly easier to accomplish if you have a positive attitude for example (no one likes a party pooper as I've learned the hard way). These two examples right there actually cover a lot of the typical goals people have (making friends let's helps you find a nice wife and start a family, acing the job interview gets you the dream job as well as the income required for a life of luxury).

Even things that are simpler need some measure of positive attitude to accomplish (eg. Incredibly depressed people sometimes have difficulties accomplishing the task of getting out of bed and feeding themselves).

And in addition to this, there is passion. A person who is passionate about his work generally does it better than someone who isn't. With enough passion and determination, you can overcome obstacles that stopped others and get your goal done.

But!!! In spite of all of this, a positive attitude is not magic. Happy thoughts are not what made you accomplish your goals. It was the hard work that your happy thoughts inspired you to undertake that lead your success. Simply wanting something and smiling all the time is not going to do jack. You need to take action.

Whew, that was weird. I feel like I just channeled my inner mom while writing this. There is more to it of course, such as the significance of privilege. If you are the child of a wealthy family for example, you'll be more likely to end up wealthy than a poor guy with a positive attitude. In my opinion, I think privilege has a stronger effect on your chances of success than "The Law of Attraction"

[scriver]

I think the best part is all of this implies that all your problems are your fault. Have cancer? It's your fault for thinking cancerous thoughts!

The Secret doesn't work? It's because you been thinking unsecretive thoughts!

[EnigmaticHat]

A teacher just saw me on a trans subreddit via Lanschool thingy...

'ight...

~not sure whether or not to scream internally~

EDIT: A bit more info, my community is pretty supportive, I'm just not sure if I am trans yet and would like some privacy to figure it out.

Well that's a bit invasive.

That being said, if a teacher disclosed that you're trans and then something happened (even just like, regular bullying), that's the kind of shit teachers would be afraid of losing their job over.  Teachers are used to treading carefully every day, mainly because of accusations of child molestation but still, lot of missteps can hurt their careers.  So its unlikely anything would happen IMO.

Just curious, which grade level are you in and how hostile of an area?

Edit: Ah, gotcha.  I will say, if you want to cover your tracks/be funny, you could get caught a few more times viewing some other random things.  I know I looked up plenty of stuff relating to sex, gender and sexuality when I was younger out of nothing more than curiosity.

[pisskop]

Ive got a lot of anxiety lately.  Today, but its been building up over the past ... few weeks?  month or so?

I actually stopped working out at the gym in the middle of an exercise and hide away to computer around.  I dont want to see people.  But then I desperately do.  But then I know I should wait until I dont feel so springy.  But then I need to wait for some things to resolve out.  Which is a pain because they take time.  A lot of crap is in the air right now, and then I keep trying to lay out my plans and not knowing whats happening now affects my immediate plans and then my longer term ones change as a result.

I hate this.  I want to push against it all, both physically and emotionally, and yet I dont.  gaaaah.