Why we’ll NEVER stop believing in The Secret
Millions bought the original life-changing book. Now, as the sequel is published, we meet the devotees who say their dreams really did come true
You’ve probably heard of ‘The Secret’, even if you don’t know what The Secret is. Those who’ve discovered and practise it say that it is, quite simply, life-changing.
For the uninitiated, The Secret is the Law of Attraction: Ask, believe and receive. It says that our thoughts are the most powerful things on earth, and that the universe will deliver whatever we focus on. Its brilliance, and marketability, is in its simplicity. Think it, and it will be yours.
The book came out in 2006 and went on to sell more than 35 million copies. It became a brand, with an official website, where all manner of Secret merchandise is available.
There are apps, a documentary and a new film, now on Netflix, inspired by the book, The Secret: Dare to Dream, starring Katie Holmes. This winter, with the launch of Rhonda Byrne’s follow-up book, The Greatest Secret, the internet has been thrumming with devotees — women who believe in the importance of creating vision boards depicting the things we want.
People write of how it helped them find love. or wealth. Fall pregnant after years of infertility. Cure illness. or even ensure that they always find a good parking spot.
Here, four women reveal how The Secret — which purports to be a manuscript in ‘how to create anything you want to be, do or have’ — has enabled them to do exactly that.
I CONJURED UP A TALL MAN WITH A BEARD!
Natalie Wright, 35, runs Pr firm NW Communications and lives in Salisbury with husband Oliver, 35, a data analyst, and son Oscar, two. I wAS recently divorced and was spending Christmas 2016 with my
parents, feeling very much like a sad Bridget Jones character, when my mum bought me a copy of The Secret. I was a bit put out at first, believing the veiled message to be ‘sort your life out’. However, I read it, and on my way home from a disastrous trip to visit a friend in New York for New Year — during which I lost my passport and luggage and was admitted to hospital with a saliva gland infection — I decided I had nothing to lose by putting its teachings to the test.
So, on the long flight back, I thought about what it was — if the universe really could deliver anything — that I really wanted.
As I drifted off to sleep, it came to me: I want a tall dark man with a beard. Going with it, I allowed my mind to create an image of him: a country gentleman, in a Barbour coat and flat cap, standing in my kitchen, with his brown Labrador.
A few days later, having forgotten all about it, I was bored watching TV and decided to have a look through my dating apps.
I’m tall, 5ft 10in, so had specified that I was only interested in hearing from men of 6ft 2in or above.
Deciding to be less fussy, I rounded that down to 6ft 1in and, all of a sudden, details of this man appeared on my phone: Tall, dark and the proud owner of a Labrador.
He didn’t have a beard in his photo; however, incredibly, when we went on our first date, he did, having been challenged by his dad, at Christmas, to see who could grow the best facial hair.
Our first date was at the pub where I’d had my wedding reception 18 months earlier. It may seem odd, but it was the only one I knew that was dog-friendly — and, because my vision involved a Labrador, I wanted Raffles to come along, too.
Oliver was, honestly, everything I had hoped for, not just looks-wise, and we hit it off instantly, talking effortlessly for two hours.
I’d arranged to see him in the afternoon as it was my friend’s 30th birthday party that evening and he offered to drop me at the venue.
I’m told I walked into the party with a massive smile on my face telling friends: ‘I’ve found him!’ We sat on the steps outside and I showed them all his dating profile, saying: ‘Look, he’s perfect!’
There was definitely more to it than the way he looked: he was a proper grown up, self- sufficient, with a responsible job — someone who could take care of himself. And, like me, he wanted to settle down, get married and have a child.
It felt like a fairytale ending — and was a bit of a whirlwind, but when you know you’ve met ‘The One’ why hang around?
By the November, 11 months after our first date, we had bought a house together. Two days after that I discovered I was pregnant. We got married in April 2018 and our son was born in the August, 20 months after that first date.
We’ve recently moved from Hertfordshire to be closer to family in Salisbury and I used the Law of Attraction to find the perfect home, a four-bedroom detached house in a lovely village, next door to the perfect school. Both Oliver and I visualised a symmetrical Georgianfronted house — we’d point them out whenever we drove past one — but we didn’t think we’d actually be able to afford a mortgage on one.
Then, last Christmas, my in-laws moved to a village close to my parents and this idyllic home, a minute’s walk from the school, came onto the market and it was within our price range.
When I tell people I visualised Oliver into my life, thanks to The Secret, they say: ‘Oh cool’, though they may well be thinking, ‘She’s dippy’, but I don’t really care.
I’ve always been a very practical, pragmatic person, not an ethereal type, but this worked for us.
As for Oliver, like me, he’d been married before and it didn’t work out, so I think he liked hearing that he was exactly what I had hoped he would be.
He’s not fully versed in the Law of Attraction, but he does buy into the idea that things happen for a reason — and is as delighted as I am with the life we’ve created together over the past four years.
I GAVE BIRTH TO MY LONGED-FOR SON
Julia Fearon, 37, is a business coach who lives in Consett, County Durham, with husband Bobby, 53, a driver, and their son Will, seven. MY HuSBAND and I had been trying for a baby for seven years and almost given up hope when a friend recommended I see a reflexologist specialising in infertility.
She turned out to be a big believer in the power of positivity and visualisation, which are both teachings of The Secret, so as well as working on my feet, she told methat instead of worrying I would never be a mum, I needed to start behaving as if I was already pregnant.
Her advice was to go home and visualise how I’d want my baby’s nursery to look, and what sort of clothes, pushchair and cot I would purchase, as if it was already a reality.
She was so convinced this was the answer to our ‘unexplained infertility’ issues (we weren’t entitled to IVF on the NHS because my husband already had a child with a previous partner) that, far fetched as it sounded, I allowed myself to be swept up in her enthusiasm.
On my second visit, I told her I was due to ovulate and she told me, confidently, that there would also be a new moon that night, a time when women are believed to be more fertile, so to have sex and I would fall pregnant.
Two weeks later, I did a pregnancy test (I had a bag full of them as, ever hopeful, I was always checking) and took a shower.
Rinsing off the shampoo, I glanced over and shrieked with delight when I saw those two lines that I’d waited years for.
Our son, Will, is now seven, but when he was a year old I read The