Being Open To The Possibilities

As some readers know—and anyone can figure out from looking at either of our links—both my lovely bride and I each write our own blogs. I have from time to time written about The Secret, a book and DVD that popularize a very old idea called the Law of Attraction. A day or so ago, she wrote a post on her blog, Old Musings, about The Secret, and the post promptly drew a comment from a guy who basically blasted The Secret as “fraudulent self help.”

Never at a loss for words, my spouse—who helps us earn our living as a freelance writer and was once called the “snake oil lady” on account of her ability to spin the marketing copy she used to write in a previous live—has responded to the comment both directly and in a separate blog post which I urge you to read if this subject interests you.

Frankly, from reading her post, I think she may have gotten just a little bit indignant about the comment. I can relate to that myself, but perhaps for a different reason.

The commenter lumped The Secret into a broad category of “self-help” and then disparaged it along with the category. This guy may be from the school of those who take the poem Invictus literally. Remember William Ernest Henley’s poem "Invictus" from high school? Here it is; it’s pretty short:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years Finds,
and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

When I read this in high school, I really related to the message in it. This was how as a young adolescent I wanted to see myself. The master of my fate. Captain of my soul. Bloody but unbowed. Unafraid of the menace of the years. Oh, how this appealed to my young—and at that time—unbloodied and unbowed ego.

I recall that my English teacher urged us to take a more conservative view of this poem than I was inclined to. She said that while the poem is considered great literature, we needed to read the poems as literature and not a prescription for life. We are not really, she said, masters of our fate. We live in a society that has rules and laws. We live in a world where there are people and ideas and forces greater than ourselves, all of which life gives us no choice but to respond to, react to, and adapt to. Those weren’t her exact words of course—we are talking over 40 years ago—but you get the drift.

Thinking back, I realize now that she was concerned that we not permit Henley’s poem to lead us into the sin of hubris.

As I experienced life all the long years since that day in a classroom situated in a school building long since torn down and rebuilt somewhere else, I have found that my teacher was much more on point about "Invictus" than I ever thought. In the sense that we are responsible for our actions, we are--to a degree--the master of our fate. But there are larger things and larger forces in the world that impact our fate; some good, and some bad. Total mastery of our fate and any sense of having a true “captaincy” of our soul eludes most of us—at least it sure eludes me.

Some of us become really bad captains for our souls. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, chose to read "Invictus" as his "last words" before he was executed at the Terre Haute Federal Penitentiary in 2001. I've never felt the same way about the poem even as literature after that.

Hubris. Big time hubris.

Sometimes we can achieve really substantial things with a little faith and positive thinking. The Secret is not really about self help; its about a adopting a spiritual posture for ones life. Its about visualizing what you really want and need; its about asking the Universe, God, your higher power--whatever you want to call him/her/it but I am referring to a power that is greater than ourselves--for what we want and need, and then opening ourselves up to the possibilities.

I have discovered there are a lot of people who are very negative toward the secret, as was the person who posted on my wifes blog. These nattering nabobs of negativity scorn The Secret, and in so doing, they scorn the spiritual power that makes The Secret work.

"Don't need no stinking Secret," you can hear them thinking

A bit of hubris, I say.

The Secret won't work unless we are open to it. And to be open to it, we have to recognize and embrace the notion that there is a benevolent force for good--a power--in this world that is bigger than we are and that is willing, able, and indeed wants to help us.

The spiritual power inherent in The Secret requires that we seek it out and be open to its operation. If hubris blinds us to the power of the Secret, we can never benefit from it.

* * *

My wife and I write about The Secret from time to time because the principles of it--as written in its forerunner, the Little Red Book--have worked in a positive way in our lives. We are testifying to the fact that it has worked for us in the hope that some readers may beneficially share in our experience.

Take it or leave it. After all, you are the master of your fate and the captain of your soul.