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Book Review: by Lang Reid

The Secret

Is this the self-help book to end all self-help books, jumping up and down saying “Buy me, buy me” on the Bookazine shelves? “The Secret” (ISBN 9-7818-4737-0, Simon and Schuster, 2006) compiled by Rhonda Byrne is supposed to have it all. “You hold in your hands a Great Secret,” proclaims the back cover. A secret passed through the ages and “understood by some of the most prominent people in history: Plato, Galileo, Beethoven, Edison, Carnegie, Einstein – now The Secret is being revealed to the world.”
Not only is it revealed, but according to the compiler Rhonda Byrne “You will come to know how you can have, be, or do anything you want.” Since the dreams of bedding Julie Christie in my youth, to the hopes of a fling with Angelina Jolie in my dotage, have been a couple of items I have wanted (or lusted after if truth be known) this book should have to be the book for me.
The list of those who have produced gems of enlightenment for the reader is very long, with 29 visionaries giving the reader every opportunity to improve themselves. Some of the hallowed 29 are dead, so their words have outlived them. Nice. They are a motley bunch, including such luminaries as Neale Donald Walsch who is described as an author, international speaker and spiritual messenger, whose Wikipedia notes include the following: “This article may contain improper references to self-published sources. Please help improve this article by removing unreliable sources.” Let us hope nobody is shooting the (spiritual) messenger!
The Secret, writes Rhonda Byrne, came to her in a 100 year old book which her daughter gave her. After research, which she believes shows that The Secret has been known to a select few for over 3,000 years, she decided that her goal in life was to make The Secret available to everyone (and make a few bucks on the side).
Subsequent to that, she gathered her teachers around her who could put The Secret into words that would be understood by the masses who had never had their ears whispered into. The Secret is the law of attraction and apparently when you are thinking about what you want, you put out vibrations which will bring that thought into reality and into your grasp. (Obviously Angelina Jolie has had the ring tone on her phone turned down too low! Damn!)
‘Wealth specialist’ David Schirmer uses The Secret to get himself a parking space exactly where he wants it. He does admit that this only works 95 percent of the time. I must try that tomorrow at Tesco’s.
I thought the mention of famous names in history who all knew The Secret was interesting. Galileo ended up being imprisoned, Einstein died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm, Beethoven had bi-polar disorder and went deaf and Edison also went deaf so perhaps The Secret did not work for everyone. However, having read the book, I am now waiting for a call from Angelina Jolie. I hope I do not have to wait too long, as at B. 595 that was quite an investment in my future.



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