Misfits of Science - The Real Blasphemy

The Secret teachers and their supporters are now comparing skeptics of the law of attraction to those who chastised and condemned scientific luminaries such as Galileo, Copernicus and Newton.

For example, when asked if he was surprised at all the furor, pro and con over The Secret, James Arthur Ray (a Secret teacher) stated on the March 8, 2007 episode of Larry King Live :

"I'm really not Larry, because, as I said earlier, when a new idea comes to the fore -- I mean you go all the way back in history to when Copernicus said that we revolved around the sun. He was condemned to hell for that, at that particular time. And yet now, today, it's accepted as self-evident."

Pat O'Bryan, a close friend and disciple of Joe Vitale, commented in a blog entry on March 12, 2007:

"Just remember that Galileo damn near got burned at the stake for suggesting that beliefs held by the church were, in fact, not supported by objective observation. He tried to change a belief with logic."

"Damn near killed him."

"The people who wanted to burn him, or their intellectual progeny, are still around- and are still quite capable of unpleasantness."

(Pat - who is considered by many to be a sincere and decent guy -- also recently referred to critics of The Secret as "America haters" in his March 8th, 2007 blog post. But that's another story altogether.)

Characterizing The Secret's critics as zealots and naysayers may make sense to law of attraction fans, but the real blasphemy is implying that the law of attraction deserves recognition alongside the great scientific contributions of Galileo, Copernicus and Newton.

We've come a long way since the days of the Inquisition. As far as I know, no one is calling for a ban of The Secret or asking Rhonda Byrne to stand trial for suspicion of heresy. The comparison between critics is a poor one and it is simply just another smokescreen designed to divert attention away from the real issue:

...lack of evidence to support the underlying assertions made in The Secret.

To continue to suggest that the law of attraction is a universal scientific law like gravity, without offering a shred of verifiable evidence as proof, is in and of itself a mockery of science's greatest men.

Unlike The Secret's teachers, Galileo, Copernicus and Newton were bona fide physicists, astronomers and mathematicians. They were REAL scientists. Their works included laborious quantitative experiments whose results could be analyzed and replicated with mathematical precision.

When asked by a caller if he had done any research that was published in peer reviewed journals to support his claims that the law of attraction actually works, John Assaraf stated the following on Larry King Live:

"I was retired for the last six years and I did my own research on books that were published, reports published, white papers that were published to understand what was happening in my life, what was happening in the lives of our clients and how we were able to achieve the success we were achieving. I studied other people's works. I read voraciously, I research voraciously other people's works. And there is more than enough evidence, scientific evidence at a quantum physics level or physics level and neuroscience level to suggest this is true."

In other words, no --Assaraf could not point to a particular piece of evidence or research finding to back up his assertions. Instead, what he really said was that he basically read a whole bunch of documents and white papers and simply drew his own conclusions.

And this "fuzzy science" seems to be the prevailing consensus among teachers and supporters of the so called "law" of attraction.

As Bob Collier points out in a post on The Secret Versus Science forum:

"Unfortunately, proponents of the 'Law of Attraction' appear to be very reluctant to allow logic into the debate, or such ideas as Occam's Razor, so, as you may have noticed, most arguments on the subject are really arguments of perception or belief."

And The Secret is full of it; perceptions, beliefs, opinions. It's one of the fundamental reasons why so many individuals take issue with the law of attraction and The Secret.

If the law of attraction can be proven to work even some of the time, I would embrace it wholeheartedly. Of course, I only speak for myself, but I'm willing to bet that many other critics of The Secret would do the same as well.

This isn't about religion, fanaticism, or skepticism for the sake of skepticism. It's about honesty, integrity and the search for cold, hard, facts.

The Secret and its teachers have a vested financial interest in promoting the law of attraction. According to some reports, there are more than 5,000 copies of The Secret DVD sold each and every day.

Why not divert some of those huge profits into conducting an independent study to see if the law of attraction can stand up to scientific scrutiny? If it does, then even more units will probably be sold per day.

As Galileo said:

"Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so."

I'm certain that if Galileo, Copernicus or Newton were alive today, they too would want to see proof of the science behind The Secret.

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"If drudgery is not found somewhere in a book or course, it isn't worth reading. Of all great works nine tenths must be drudgery."
-- Russell Conwell

Calista McKnight
The Secret Lie
http://www.thesecretlie.com/