"The Secret" author Rhonda Byrne's new book pimps "attractive force of love that moves all money"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

This is rich: Byrne divulges a new 'Secret' in 'The Power'

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2010-08-17-byrnerev17_ST_N.htm



By Deirdre Donahue, USA TODAY
Mark your calendars. On Tuesday, the economic downturn ends.
Why? Self-help priestess Rhonda Byrne returns with The Power and a novel solution to our money woes.

It's not a faltering economy or Wall Street that are at fault, it's our feelings. "It's the attractive force of love that moves all the money in the world, and whoever is giving love by feeling good is a magnet for money," Byrne writes.

So stop worrying about that foreclosure notice or the 29% interest rate on your credit card and perk up, people! "You can tell how you feel about money, because if you don't have all you need, then you don't feel good about money," she writes.

But before you snicker and Google that P.T. Barnum quote about suckers, remember that Byrne's previous opus, 2006's The Secret, sold more than 19 million copies in 46 languages. Oprah Winfrey, among others, embraced the Australian TV producer's revelations about the "law of attraction." Boiled down, the idea is to open yourself up to life's goodies — big house, wonderful relationships, fabulous health, all-round happiness — and you'll get them.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2010-08-17-byrnerev17_ST_N.htm

[NC_Nurse]

1. What kills me is that this stuff has been out there FOREVER! So wheres

The secret in that? And I'm sure this "power" crap is recycled too. Amazing. She's like the Glenn Beck of positive thinking. Laughing all the way to the bank, I'm sure.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

4. "The Prosperity Bible"

I own this. It includes the original version of Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" and about 20 other books from the early 1900s. This is where Byrne did her...ahem..."research."

You're right...the material has been in print for around a century or so. All Byrne did in "The Secret" was to regurgitate material that has been freely available for all that time.

There are differing opinions on which specific work Byrne stole most freely from. Some say it's Wallace Wattles' "The Science of Getting Rich," others say it's Robert Collier's "Secret Of The Ages." Both books are in "The Prosperity Bible."

All Byrne is doing is playing to the fear and aanxiety people have over money in this recession / depression / whatever. She's the ultimate opportunist, a true bottom feeder. My guess is that the new book will be a recycling of her previous recycling effort and will be followed by a similar avalanche of DVDs, CDs, and other nick-nacks designed to fatten her already obscenely fat bank account.

However, if people are stupid enough to pay for it, that's their business, not mine.

The Prosperity Bible: The Greatest Writings of All Time On The Secrets To Wealth And Prosperity



http://www.amazon.com/Prosperity-Bible-Greatest-Writings-Secrets/dp/1585426148/

The Prosperity Bible is a one-of-a-kind resource that collects the greatest moneymaking secrets of authors from every field-religion, finance, philosophy, and self-help-and makes them available in an attractive, keepsake edition. This is a book to treasure and return to again and again for guidance, ideas, know-how, and inspiration.

Here is the only single volume where you can read success advice from Napoleon Hill, P. T. Barnum, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Fillmore, Wallace D. Wattles, Florence Scovel Shinn, and Ernest Holmes-along with a bevy of million-copy- selling writers who have one key element in common: a commitment to understanding and promulgating the laws of winning.

These are the beloved teachers and writers who created the idea of a mental formula for success. Their principles, comprehensively collected in nineteen selected writings, have been proved in the experience of millions of men and women who have cherished their works from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Now they are enshrined in this all-in-one treasury-complete in a handsome display box with a ribbon bookmark.

[hatrack]

2. Oh, fucking STOP IT!!!!!

:banghead:

[Lorien]

7. Truly.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113758696

[Amerigo Vespucci]

9. An excerpt from your link...

There is an anxiety, as you can see, right here in the heart of American positive thinking. If the generic "positive thought" is correct and things are really getting better, if the arc of the universe tends toward happiness and abundance, then why bother with the mental effort of positive thinking? Obviously, because we do not fully believe that things will get better on their own. The practice of positive thinking is an effort to pump up this belief in the face of much contradictory evidence. Those who set themselves up as instructors in the discipline of positive thinking — coaches, preachers, and gurus of various sorts — have described this effort with terms like "self-hypnosis," "mind control," and "thought control." In other words, it requires deliberate self-deception, including a constant effort to repress or block out unpleasant possibilities and "negative" thoughts. The truly self-confident, or those who have in some way made their peace with the world and their destiny within it, do not need to expend effort censoring or otherwise controlling their thoughts. Positive thinking may be a quintessentially American activity, associated in our minds with both individual and national success, but it is driven by a terrible insecurity.

And that, in a nutshell, is the intention behind my post...to acknowledge that Byrne is fully aware of that fundamental "terrible insecurity" and is exploiting it for her own financial gain.

:patriot:

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. I've never heard a guy say this. n/t

[AspenRose]

5. Attempting to capitalize on other people's economic misfortune

is pretty evil.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. She's living on the dark side of "Sales 101."

I've mentioned that on DU recently in another context.

One of the fundamentals of selling that can be used for good or evil is to determine the source of the prospect's pain.

Once you determine that source, you amplify it, make the prospect feel it acutely, and position yourself as the healing phsician.

I believe that great things in life are accomplished with a compbination of focus and effort. The greater quantity of each, working in unison, the greater results.

But that's not what the whole "Law of Attraction" industry is about. It's about all of these mind games, thinking happy thoughts and becoming a money magnet.

If you look at Napoleon Hill's "Think And Grow Rich" or Earl Nightingale's "The Strangest Secret," they place a major emphasis on the fact that no one is going to get rich by sitting on their ass and thinking happy thoughts.

But Byrne is playing to the same human weakness that draws lemmings into 7-11 every week to buy scratchers and Lotto tickets. The degree to which people can conquer their desire to receive "something for nothing" is the single most critical factor in determining their success...or lack of it.

Byrne is playing to the cheap seats and making an ass-load of money, laughing al the way to the bank.

[Lorien]

8. So the "attractive force of love" is what motivates Goldmann Sachs, Halliburtan

and overpaid hedge fund managers and banksters? Um, don't think so.

[NC_Nurse]

10. LOL. Good point! Of course, according to Blankfein they're "doing God's work"

:puke:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. I wonder what her son, Grendel Byrne, would have to say about that.