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All of a sudden, a book and DVD called The Secret have been getting attention in the mainstream media for the simple reason that the book is a bestseller and Oprah featured it on two episodes of her show.

The Secret's premise is something called "The Law of Attraction," which is succinctly described on this web site from someone trying to ride the Secret's surprise success.

The Law of Attraction simply says that you attract into your life whatever you think about. Your dominant thoughts will find a way to manifest.

Spend time each day thinking about this intention. You can write it down, post it on a wall, recite it aloud, memorize it, visualize it happening, sing it, express it artistically, blog about it, discuss it with others, meditate on it, pray it, or otherwise put some positive thought energy behind it. Tell the universe to "make it so" in whatever way you feel is a good fit for your current belief system.

The Law of Attraction says that if you focus on something you really, really want you will get it. In other words, wishfull thinking works.

I'm not going to read this book or watch the DVD, but Lons and Skeptico examine The Secret's content in greater detail.

It appears that The Secret deliberately steers clear of any suggestion that it is inspired by any major religion. That's really a very shrewd move, because the Law of Attraction is really just a secular form of prayer. You no longer pray to God for him to grant your wishes, you ask the Universe to fulfill them. Combine that with the fact that many of the participants in The Secret are get rich quick hucksters who promote slogans like "You Were Born Rich" and you have the ultimate American fantasy that acknowledges that most people are insecure in their belief in God, judge the value of their lives by their material wealth and believe they can get something for nothing.

If you spend your money on The Secret, it will teach you some enormously valuble lessons, though they aren’t the ones its creators are promising. Lessons like these. Short of being the beneficiary of good fortune, all good things do not come to those who wait. They come only as a result of discipline, effort and skill and sometimes not even then. Life is unfair, and in the words of The Unforgiven’s William Muny, “Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it.” The lesson that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

The Secret also teaches us a sad fact about how capitalism transforms culture. In a capitalistic system, nothing has any inherent value. Its only value resides in someone's ability to sell it to someone else and make a profit from doing so. This is exemplified by the publication of a book like The Secret by Atria, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.