Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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378 of 492 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Wisdom of Homer - Simpson, that is!!, 5 Jan 2008
I'm relieved to see so many bad reviews of this piece of nonsense - proving you really can't fool all of the people any of the time. The marketing strategy is so transparent, package the piece of trivia in a cover so obviously inspired by The DaVinci Code, lace the preface with references to "ancient books of secrets" and throw in the names of long-dead geniuses (who are not likely to sue) for credibility and you have - not a book of wisdom, but a book that will appeal to the suicidal browser in need of rescue. But it falls apart under the gaze of even the least discriminating browser - the "ancient" tome which started Ms Byrne on her "quest" is barely a hundred years old. My grandfather was writing Christmas cracker jokes at that time, hardly in the timeline of the Vedas, Bible or any legitimate writings of the sages. Anyway, if this un-named 100-year-old "ancient" volume is so wonderful and inspiring, why can't she name it? Better still, re-issue it in a Dan Brown-style cover and we can all buy it! And who said Beethoven, Moses, Louis Armstrong and the other famous deadies knew "The Secret"? All we have are random quotes completely out of context, with no mention of a particular secret. Then there is the list of Ms Byrne's "teachers", complete with photos showing the biggest array of teeth since The Osmonds smiled and destroyed Hiroshima. All of her mentors are American motivation "gurus" - and if that doesn't stop you in your tracks, nothing will. One of the "essential laws" of The Secret's philosophy is to, wait for it, Do The Thing You Love! At worst this gives carte blanche to paedophiles, rapists, murderers and Robbie Williams fans. At best it promises that if we want it we can have it - so all who want to be Queen of England, you can have it if you buy Ms Byrne's book, she promises...! Now the book I'd rather read is the one which - instead of advising "do the thing you love" - suggest we "love the thing we do", but that's not going to make a fortune for the likes of Ms Byrne and her grinning gurus. P.S. I tried to give it MINUS stars, but Amazon in their wisdom only allow a one to five rating, so everyone's a winner. Rhonda and her playmates would like that!
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177 of 236 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
slightly disappointing, 10 Sep 2007
I agree with the previous reviewers who mention that this book has many excellent aspects but is limited in some significant ways. In particular, I feel it is limited by putting much emphasis on achieveing your desires. Other books - like The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle or Making Time by Steve Taylor - would say that it's more important to try to live in the moment and accept life as it is. So this book needs to be read in conjunction with others. I was impressed with the Power of Now because of its emphasis on how the ego distorts our view of the world, and I liked Making Time because of its emphasis on controlling and expanding time in our lives and how it shows that time is an illusion.
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213 of 290 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The only people making real big money from this, are the ones behind it!, 20 May 2008
The Secret is just the latest in a long line of Law of Attraction books that have been published through the years. I've read most of them, this one is a huge seller and made the author a millionaire because of the way it has been marketed. And it's a cynical marketing ploy too, and ruthless in its determination to be unopposed by any dissenting voices. When I first heard about the LOA (Law of Attraction) I truly believed I had found the answer to everything and totally believed in its validity, only to look around many years later and see that nothing had actually changed. I didn't manifest the things I believed I would and don't know anyone else who has done so either. One friend who was singing the praises of The Secret when he first read it two years ago, has now given it away, completely disillusioned and feeling worse than he did before he read it and started following its 'advice'. When all the affirmations, visualising, asking, believing, etc, doesn't work, or only in very limited or small ways, then the person who had grasped onto what seemed like the answer to their prayers, ends up feeling betrayed and without the false hope they had been given by this money making spinner for the people selling it to gullible and vulnerable people, who, by their purchasing of the book, the CD, the DVD, the follow up books about what to do when it doesn't work or things go wrong(!) are putting money into the bank accounts of the people responsible for this 'spiritual marketing' as it is known in the trade. When I see people unhappy because they believed in 'The Secret' only to find out much further down the line that it never delivered, then it makes me want to warn others not to be sucked into it through them giving even more money to already extremely wealthy people. And make no mistake, when it doesn't work out how you believed it would, then they will tell you that you have done something wrong, or you must have blocks somewhere in your subconscious that need removing, (you can then buy more books to 'help' with this) or you need chakra clearing, (more books, and CDs too to buy!) or it must be that you need to love yourself more, because you can't love yourself properly or it would work for you, then you get told that you need to stop wanting anything and be 'spiritual' instead and believe that you have it all already, because once you get to that stage then you will be so content that you will realise that you have all you want already and won't need any more, because if you continue to want things, or conditions, then you just continue attracting more things or conditions to want, therefore you mustn't actually want anything! And so it goes on. I could say more and believe me I have long experience of dealing with these kind of people so I know what I'm talking about, but knowing how they operate, this would just get removed, as they are very protective of their money spinner and try to stop anyone from questioning it. Just believe in yourself and try to think positive thoughts, (worrying unduly about anything doesn't actually change whatever it is you're worrying about) building up self confidence and loving yourself truly and looking for anything at all you have to be grateful for, no matter how small, is the best advice I can give you, and I'm not charging anyone anything for saying that, or spinning it out into a whole book and marketing it in such a way that people will be sucked into buying it and making me very rich as a result of appearing to answer a need in people who are struggling.
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