The Canon / Living / Manifestation & Law of Attraction
Living · 2006
The Secret
Modern Internet EcosystemThe Secret popularises the "law of attraction," the claim that thoughts and emotions attract corresponding circumstances, framed with the conceit of a long-suppressed knowledge known to history's elites. Seeded by a reading of Wattles's The Science of Getting Rich, it compresses the idea into a single, frictionless message.
The doctrine is reduced to a three-beat formula — ask, believe, receive — stripped of theological complexity and of the disciplined action present in earlier authors, and foregrounds vibrational and emotional matching, the notion that like attracts like, as the everyday mechanism. The material was delivered first as a documentary film and then a companion book.
Its historical significance is as the most effective popularisation in the tradition's history rather than as original theory. Selling in the tens of millions and amplified by major media, it reintroduced New Thought metaphysics to a global twenty-first-century audience and primed the social-media manifestation culture that followed.
In its words
Feeling is the secret.
Assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled.
Remember that your thoughts are the primary cause of everything.
Ask once, believe you have received, and all you have to do to receive is feel good.
What we do, what we are, what we have, all depend upon what we think. We can never express anything that we do not first have in mind.
The absolute Citi of its own free will is the cause of the Siddhi of the universe.
By the power of her own will (alone), she (citi) unfolds the universe upon her own screen (i.e. in herself as the basis of the universe).
Citi (universal consciousness) itself descending from (the stage of) Cetana becomes citta (individual consciousness) inasmuch as it becomes contracted in conformity with the object of consciousness.
The real you, the inner you, is pure, very pure. It's loving and it's magnanimous. It understands. It has patience. It is tolerant-it will wait forever while your ego trots all over everywhere trying to figure life out.
Philosophy is the science of estimating values. The superiority of any state or substance over another is determined by philosophy. By assigning a position of primary importance to what remains when all that is secondary has been removed, philosophy thus becomes the true index of priority or emphasis in the realm of speculative thought.
Man's status in the natural world is determined, therefore, by the quality of his thinking. He whose mind is enslaved to his bestial instincts is philosophically not superior to the brute; he whose rational faculties ponder human affairs is a man; and he whose intellect is elevated to the consideration of divine realities is already a demigod, for his being partakes of the luminosity with which his reason has brought him into proximity.
Simple ignorance is an ever-active agent, urging the soul onward to the acquisition of knowledge. From this virginal state of unawareness grows the desire to become aware with its resultant improvement in the mental condition.
The old philosophers taught that physical birth is an accident, for men are born into various races and nationalities according to the laws of generation; but there is a second birth, which is not an accident; it is the consequence of a proper intent. By this second birth man is born by enlightened intelligence out of nation and out of race into an international nation and an international race.
"I" and "you" are but the lattices, In the niches of a lamp, Through which the One Light shines. "I" and "you" are the veil Between heaven and earth; Lift this veil and you will see No longer the bond of sects and creeds. When "I" and "you" do not exist, What is mosque, what is synagogue? What is the Temple of Fire?
In the empty heart, void of self Can be heard the echoing cry, "I am the Truth." Thus is man one with the Eternal, Travelling, travel and traveller have become one.
If He sheds His Light on you, You become near to Him And far from your own existence. For by nearness to Him You become far from yourself.
Your eye has not strength enough To gaze at the burning sun, But you can see its brilliant light By watching its reflection Mirrored in the water.
Drink this wine and, dying to self, You will be freed from the spell of self. Then will your being, as a drop, Fall into the ocean of the Eternal.
Cast away your existence entirely, For it is nought but weeds and refuse. Go, clear out your heart's chamber, Arrange it as the abiding-place of the Beloved. When you go forth, He will come in, And to you, with self discarded, He will unveil His beauty.
Rise above time and space, Pass by the world, and be to yourself your own world.
Death occurs to man in three ways: First he dies every moment by his earthly nature; Then, when his will perishes, he dies again; And lastly at the separation of soul and body.
Thought is passing from the false to the true.
The ideas it carries
Practices it teaches
Collier's Formula for Successful Prayer — the four-step sequence: picture, faith-reminder, thanks, believe-you-have-it
This is Collier's single most explicit, numbered procedure — what he calls "my own formula for successful prayer" (The Secret of the Ages, Vol. II, "The Magic Secret" / "The Soul's Sincere Desire").
Collier's Perfect-Image Health Treatment — the night-and-morning 'perfect model' formula for the body
This is Collier's specific mental treatment for the body, from the health chapter of The Secret of the Ages. The method renders his general principle into a fixed, repeated routine: night and morning, on one organ…
QE Intention — releasing a desire into the aware stillness
QE Intention is Frank Kinslow's approach to wanting something — and it inverts the usual effort. Where Law-of-Attraction practice tells you to intensify desire (visualise hard, feel it strongly, hold the focus)…
The Ha Prayer-Rite — Accumulating Mana and Sending a Thought-Form to the High Self
This is the central practical exercise of "Huna" as systematised by Max Freedom Long: a short prayer-rite combining deep breathing with deliberate mental imagery.
Cultivating Receptivity to the Inner Energy — Muktananda's Shaktipat Path (Self-Practice)
In Siddha Yoga, shaktipat is the transmission — the "descent of grace" — by which an awakened teacher is said to awaken the inner spiritual energy (Kundalini-Shakti) in a disciple.
The Creation Process — Visualize and Feel It as Now
This is Byrne's emphasis that the feeling is the operative ingredient in manifestation — visualization matters not for the picture but for the emotion of already having it that the picture is meant to produce.
Collier's Magic Secret — focusing scattered wishes into one dominating desire
Collier opens his treatment of desire with what he calls "The Magic Secret": the reason most people, full of wishes, get nowhere is that they have "never focused [their] desires into one great dominating desire."…
Finding the Eufeeling — noticing and favouring the quiet wellbeing in pure awareness
The Eufeeling is Frank Kinslow's distinctive contribution. When attention settles into pure awareness (the silent "nothing" of Quantum Entrainment), a subtle, pleasant felt-tone tends to surface — Kinslow describes…
OBE Affirmation & Target Technique — verbal intention + a destination point
William Buhlman's core induction is verbal and intention-based. Rather than complex visualisation, he has people repeat a single, present-tense affirmation of being out of body until it floods the drifting mind…
The Creative Process — Ask, Believe, Receive
The "Creative Process" is Rhonda Byrne's signature three-step formula for manifestation, popularized in The Secret (2006).
Collier's 'Man Inside You' — handing the problem to the subconscious at the moment of falling asleep
This is Collier's sleep-onset method for reaching the subconscious. In the chapter "Aladdin & Company" he teaches that "whatever thought, whatever problem you can get across to your subconscious mind at the moment…
Collier's See Yourself Doing It — the clear, detailed mental picture of the thing already yours
This is Robert Collier's core visualization practice, set out in the chapter "See Yourself Doing It" (The Secret of the Ages, Vol. III).
Living in the End — Assuming the Wish Fulfilled as a Constant State
"Living in the end" is Neville Goddard's instruction to assume the wish fulfilled as a continuous state of being — to think, feel, react, and move through the day from the standpoint of already having what you…
The Mental Movie Method
The mental movie method is the practice of constructing a short, vivid mental film of your goal already accomplished and replaying it in imagination — typically in a relaxed, pre-sleep state — until it feels real…
What Am I? — Self-Knowledge as the Door (Shabistarī)
Gulshan-i Raz ("The Secret Rose Garden") was composed by Maḥmūd Shabistarī around 1311 as a verse reply to a set of questions about Sufi metaphysics.
Going into the Silence — Seton's concentration practice
Julia Seton's signature inner practice from Concentration: The Secret of Success (c.1912): a disciplined use of breath and concentration to gather scattered mental energy and pass into "the Silence" — a poised…
Quantum Entrainment — becoming aware of awareness itself
Quantum Entrainment (QE) is the core practice of Frank Kinslow, an American chiropractor who developed it in 2007.
The World Is a Mirror — Contemplating the One in the Many (Shabistarī)
At the heart of Gulshan-i Raz (1311) is Shabistarī's signature image: the cosmos as a mirror. "Know now the world is a mirror from head to foot, / In every atom are a hundred blazing suns," he writes; and again…
The Vision Board — Assaraf's emotionalized version
This is John Assaraf's specific, much-retold version of the vision board: a board of cut-out images representing his goals, looked at briefly twice a day while generating the emotion of already having them.
The Vision Board
A vision board is a visual collage of one's goals and desired future — images, words, and symbols representing the relationships, work, possessions, experiences or states a person wants — assembled on a board (or…
Gratitude Practice — Journaling Thanks (and 'Gratitude as Already-Received')
Gratitude practice is the deliberate cultivation of thankfulness — most commonly by journaling what you're grateful for.
Collier's Give Thanks, Then Release — advance gratitude as proof of belief, then 'don't dig up the seed'
This is the gratitude-and-letting-go move Collier builds into his practice — the third step of his prayer formula ("Don't forget to be thankful… for the granting of this favor you are now asking") plus his repeated…
Collier's 'Open Sesame!' of Life — relaxed, confident calling on the inner 'Life Principle' at need
"The 'Open Sesame!' of Life" is the title of an early section of The Secret of the Ages (Vol. I), and it names Collier's practice of the magic-word claim of supply: in a moment of need you stop asking whether it…
The Empty Heart — Turning From Self-Existence (Shabistarī)
Gulshan-i Raz (1311) repeatedly turns on the falling-away of the separate self. Shabistarī teaches that "Not-being is the mirror of absolute Being" — the contingent self's "highest perfection is to be conscious of…
Going With the Grain (Wu Wei) — effortless action through Cook Ding's blade
A way of doing drawn from Zhuangzi's most famous parable. Cook Ding carves an ox so skilfully that his movements become a dance and his blade, after nineteen years, is still "as if fresh from the whetstone"…
Brunton's 'Secret of the I' — Tracing the I-Thought to Its Source
Paul Brunton (PB) gave Western readers a careful, staged version of self-inquiry — his expansion of Ramana Maharshi's "Who am I?" (atma-vichara), which PB had met first-hand in India.
The 'Hello' Centering Exercise — Finding the Seat of Awareness (Singer)
A tiny, instantly doable exercise from Michael A. Singer for finding what he calls the seat of consciousness — the still point of awareness from which you experience everything.
The Ha Rite — Surcharging Mana by Deep Breathing
Max Freedom Long taught that the body runs on a vital force he called mana (the kahuna word; Long equated it loosely with "vital electricity"), and that you can deliberately build up a surplus charge of it.
The Three-Self Huna Prayer — Planting the Seed and Sending It to the High Self
Long's central practice. In his "Huna" model a person is three selves: the low self (unihipili, subconscious, holds memory and makes mana), the middle self (uhane, the conscious "I"), and the High Self (Aumakua, a…
Going into the Silence — Cady's 'Finding the Secret Place
H. Emilie Cady — a New York homeopathic physician, student of Emma Curtis Hopkins, and author of Unity's foundational course Lessons in Truth — taught a distinct contemplative practice she called "sitting in the…
Lineage
The author
Rhonda ByrneMass-market Law of Attraction
Full voice →
Key terms
Kindred books