Harmonic Wealth and The Secret

Personal Development, The Secret | Sandra | April 5, 2007 at 13:46

I took some days out of my life and traveled to San Francisco to experience a James Ray Harmonic Wealth Weekend. I had seen Ray here in Las Vegas at a two hour free seminar and wrote an article, which plainly expressed reservations about his personality. But as fate would have it, a friend called at the last minute with an extra ticket at bargain prices, and driven by curiosity, I took the leap.

I’m still processing those two 16-hour days. I could say a lot about cult figures and group think, but there is no denying that people are starving for a recipe for a fulfilled life, that they have dreams and goals, but not a clue how to go about getting them. Herein lies the appeal of "The Secret" and of the various mentors that have become household names as a result of more than 700 million viewings of the DVD. These "life coaches" are offering SOP’s, standard operating procedures, which followed, will lead you out of the morass of yesterday’s thinking and belief systems and into a tomorrow of self-actualization and empowerment.

This sounds like a big deal to some people and no deal to others. If you talk to the go-getters and achievers of the world, they will look at the methods and say, "I’ve always been doing that. What’s the big deal?" Oprah’s comment on the "The Secret" was, "What’s the secret? I’ve been living this my whole life."

Well the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. Look where Oprah came from and look where she is today. Is that an accident? Is she just lucky? I don’t think she would be happy hearing that. Her entire life has been one of focus and hard work and she is reaping the results today before witness of the whole world. But the truth is that most of humanity just doesn’t come programmed with the steel spine mental clarity required to attain such high levels of success. Some of us need help.

Enter The Secret, enter the personalities personal development industry mushrooming as a result of this 90 minute spirit-mmercial and you have a new religion, based on the idea that man and Universe are all one and that all can be manifested if energy is concentrated in the correct way. Great idea, but what do you actually do with it? Certainly sitting around visualizing is unlikely to get you what you want. Action is required.

The truth is most people live their lives on autopilot. They have jobs that they fall into, relationships that are there from habit; they carry around extra weight that just creeps up over the years, credit card debt and too high mortgages and car payments that consume their paychecks and leave them next to no wiggle room for anything out of the daily routine of survival. It sounds pretty depressing, and not a little self-indulgent. When you think of the multitudes on the planet who truly struggle for survival, our stressed-out lives are not much to complain about.

But we live in our own worlds. Our personal issues are the biggest in our universe. There are very few of us who can transcend that. But that very world-vision is one of the sweetest fruits of the self-empowerment harvest. When we have our lives in order, when we are successful emotionally, spiritually, physically and financially, we have excess to reach out and touch someone, or many.

I’ve done a fair amount of research interviewing strangers about life goals and how they could use surplus money. I found invariably that when asked what they would do if they had more financial resources, the list always includes helping others. Others might be family, parents, children – or extend to church, community, even nations and suffering populations far from home. That says a lot about the nature of humanity, that in spite of the awful stories of war and hatred and atrocities, most of us care a lot about the other human beings sharing this earth. And when a new hope is introduced, like the message of The Secret, a philosophy and way of living that is uplifting and promises rewards you don’t have to die to reap, why shouldn’t it catch on like wild fire?

Related James Ray & Larry King Live! online, James Ray’s Secret to Harmonic Wealth, What is the Secret?, Magic Mentoring, The Secret and featured on the DVD, enter the vast