The Secret is a 2006 film and book by Rhonda Byrne that presents the law of attraction: the claim that your thoughts and feelings draw matching experiences into your life. It became a worldwide phenomenon, and it also drew serious criticism. This page summarises what it says, why it spread, what is fair to criticise, and which ideas are still useful.
What The Secret is
Rhonda Byrne, an Australian television producer, released The Secret as a film in 2006 and followed it with a book later the same year. Both present one central idea, which the film calls the law of attraction. In this telling, like attracts like: what you think about and feel most strongly is drawn toward you, whether that is money, health, love or trouble.
The project pulls together interviews with speakers, authors and teachers, and it wraps their ideas in a simple story. There is a hidden truth, it says, that the successful have always known, and now you can use it too. If you want the general background on the idea, the law of attraction explained covers the wider tradition, and this page focuses on Byrne's version. The makers keep information on the project at thesecret.tv.
What it teaches, step by step
The book gives a memorable three-part process, and it fits on a sticky note. The table shows each step, what the book means by it, and a plain-language gloss.
| Step | What The Secret says | A plain reading |
|---|---|---|
| Ask | Decide clearly what you want and state it to the universe | Set a specific goal |
| Believe | Act and feel as though it is already yours | Practise confidence and imagine the result |
| Receive | Feel good, be grateful and stay open to the outcome | Cultivate mood and gratitude while waiting |
Alongside those steps, the teaching leans on gratitude, visualisation and the claim that your feelings act like a broadcast signal. Feel joyful and you send out joy, the reasoning goes, so joyful events answer. Feel fear and you draw more fear.
These are the book's claims, presented by its makers and contributors as a law of nature. They are best read as a belief system, and it helps to keep that label in mind as you read.
Why it spread so fast
The Secret arrived at a moment when online video and word of mouth were beginning to move faster than traditional media. The film reached people through the internet and DVD, and the book followed. In 2007 it received a large boost from talk shows, including a well-known appearance on Oprah Winfrey's programme, and sales grew rapidly. The maker's site is the place to check current figures for copies sold and languages translated.
Its appeal is easy to understand. The message is short, warm and flattering: your mind has power, and a better life is one shift away. There is no jargon and no homework beyond thinking well. For someone in a hard season, the idea that they hold a lever can feel like relief.
It was also packaged beautifully. Soft music, a mystery framing, famous speakers and a sense of insider knowledge made it feel like a discovery, well apart from the usual self-help shelf. Many of the ideas were much older, and the same themes appear in New Thought writing from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Byrne has said that an older book from that tradition inspired her.
Reactions split sharply. Plenty of viewers found the film uplifting and said it lifted them out of a low patch. Others felt uneasy, or angry, especially those who had lived through illness, loss or hardship and heard the implication that they had somehow drawn it. Both responses are understandable, and both are part of why the film kept being discussed long after its release.
The fair criticisms
Critics have raised several points, and most are worth taking seriously.
There is no evidence for the mechanism. No study shows that thoughts broadcast a signal that rearranges events. Researchers who look at the topic tend to find that attention, motivation and behaviour explain what people experience. The article on whether manifestation works goes through what the evidence does and does not support.
It can blame people for their misfortune. If thoughts cause events, then illness, poverty or abuse must have been attracted. This is cruel and untrue. People do not cause cancer, layoffs or violence by thinking badly, and structural factors such as income, health, discrimination and luck play a huge role in outcomes.
Action gets little weight. Many readers come away believing that effort is optional, or even that worry about a result blocks it. Psychologist Gabriele Oettingen's research suggests that dreaming only about a happy future can lower the energy people put into reaching it, while pairing the wish with a realistic view of obstacles helps. Her work is summarised at woopmylife.org.
It can push people to fake positivity. Telling yourself you must feel good or lose the wish makes ordinary sadness feel like a mistake. Toxic positivity versus manifestation looks at how to keep hope without denying feelings.
Worth remembering. If you ever feel that a hardship in your life happened because your thoughts were wrong, that belief is unsupported and unfair to you. Difficulties are not evidence of a mistake in your mind. If you are struggling, please speak with a doctor or licensed therapist.
What is worth keeping
Throwing out the whole thing would miss some genuinely useful pieces. Several of them stand on their own once you take away the cosmic claims.
Gratitude. Regularly noticing what is going well has support in psychology for lifting mood, and it is an easy habit. The prompts in gratitude journal prompts are a gentle start.
Clarity. Deciding what you want, in detail, is half of any plan. Writing a wish down with a few specifics turns a vague hope into something you can move toward. Intention setting for manifestation shows one way.
Imagery, used well. Picturing a day in your goal can boost motivation and rehearse a first step. It works best when it includes the obstacles and the actions, as in the visualization techniques for manifestation.
Hope and a sense of agency. Believing that your choices matter is linked to acting on them. Keep that and drop the promise that thought alone delivers results.
A practical way to sort the useful from the unproven is to look at what each idea asks you to do. Gratitude asks you to notice, clarity asks you to decide, and imagery asks you to rehearse. All three are within your own control and can be tried at no cost. The claim that the universe rearranges events to match your mood asks you to trust something you cannot check. You can leave that part on the shelf without losing the rest.
The Secret and other teachers
The film borrowed voices from a crowded field. Some speakers were coaches and authors of motivational books. Others drew on channelled teachings, a lineage that includes Esther Hicks and the Abraham material, which you can read about in Abraham Hicks teachings. That tradition and the Neville Goddard material, explained in the law of assumption explained, take related ideas in different directions.
Comparing them is instructive. Some emphasise feelings and alignment, others emphasise assumptions and imagination, and a few emphasise action. If The Secret felt too thin, one of these might suit you better. If it felt too heavy, you can leave the metaphysics and keep the habits.
How to read it today
If you pick it up now, read it as a piece of cultural history and a motivational text, and leave it out of the category of instructions for controlling reality. Notice which lines make you feel steadier and which make you feel anxious. Keep the first kind.
A useful test is to ask what a passage would look like as an action. "Feel grateful" becomes a two-minute note at night. "Ask for what you want" becomes a written goal and one email. "Believe" becomes a small act of confidence, like speaking up in a meeting. When you can translate a teaching into something you can do this week, it earns its place.
Where manifestlings fits
Some readers finish The Secret wanting a gentle way to practise gratitude and clarity every day, without the heavy promises. manifestlings is one option. It is a virtual pet, a dreamling, that grows on what you practise. Around it sit a wish you can look at again, a short game made from your words, small rituals, care on the real clock, and a guided meditation with 4-2-6 breathing.
It suits the habits worth keeping from the book, a few calm minutes a day, and it makes no claim that thoughts control events. It is coming soon to the App Store for iPhone, with Android later. You sign in once, and every new account starts with 7 days of Premium free, followed by a free core. What happens in your life still depends on the steps you take and on things nobody controls.
Questions people ask
What is The Secret about?
The Secret says that positive thoughts attract positive events and negative thoughts attract negative ones. It presents this as a law of the universe and offers a simple process of asking, believing and receiving.
Is The Secret real?
There is no scientific evidence that thoughts attract outcomes as a law of nature. Some of its practices, such as gratitude and clear goals, do have support in psychology for mood and motivation.
Who wrote The Secret?
Rhonda Byrne, an Australian television producer, made the film in 2006 and wrote the companion book the same year. Several speakers and authors appear in the film to explain the ideas.
Is The Secret the same as the law of attraction?
The Secret is a popular presentation of the law of attraction, and it did not invent it. Older sources, such as New Thought writers, taught related ideas long before 2006.
