The Secret of "The Secret"

The Secret of “The Secret”

“The Secret” spread like a virus across the developed nations.  Yes there is a law of attraction, but it has nothing to do with your conscious mind. If it did, all the new age gurus would be rich without working, thin without dieting, have muscles without working out and in love with a perfect mate without having to use any relationship skills. Study your new age gurus; see what you can learn about their biography if they haven’t already altered it to make them look good. I promise that what you will find will not be the life they are selling, because it simply does not exist. The conscious mind (your wishful thinking, your conscious desires and appetites etc.) does not run your life, even mainstream psychology knows this.

Famous Austrian psychoanalyst and neurologist, Sigmund Freud popularized the concept of the unconscious mind and believed that it was a repository of thoughts, memories, feelings, etc., which our conscious mind is reluctant to accept. Sigmund Freud's theory of personality divided the human mind into 3 levels: the conscious (10%), subconscious (50 - 60%), and unconscious (30 - 40%) minds. The conscious mind is only 10% !!!

While unconscious is reckoned as a synonym for subconscious, the two are, in fact, quite different from each other. Firstly, when Sigmund Freud used the term 'unconscious mind', he was referring to that part of our mental being that was responsible for making people ill. The theory that he developed was posited on the belief that the thoughts, feelings, ideas, and memories that were loathsome to the conscious mind were all locked away in the unconscious mind. These mental contents weren't accepted by the conscious mind fully because of their disturbing nature, and hence, they are deliberately made unconscious by the conscious mind, which Freud thought had the potentiality of affecting us. These mental contents stored in the unconscious mind are not necessarily negative, but definitely powerful which, however, cannot be procured after a little prodding like that of the subconscious mind. What is really fascinating is that these mental contents, despite being unacceptable aren't discarded from our mental being altogether and continue to influence us on a subliminal level. Likewise, Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Gustav Jung too, believed in the concept of the unconscious mind and further divided it into personal unconscious and collective unconscious, where the former made the feelings that were once conscious but forcefully subdued, and the latter comprised the accumulated genetic information and experiences (meaning the ancestral history of your family that you carry with you).

The subconscious mind is the part of conscious mind that stores information continuously and gives out reactions based on our experiences and emotions associated with someone or something. Meaning the present time incidents, events and relationships can trigger you based on what is unknown to you in your subconscious mind.  The subconscious mind is that part of the mental being that holds information, however deep, yet approachable. It is something as easy as remembering your address when you are not even thinking about it. You are able to remember your address as you direct your focus on it. However, this is not the same for the unconscious mind. The subconscious mind can be brought forward for healing both via mainstream psychology as well as via some forms of Spiritual Practice. Both in psychology as well as Spirituality there are practices that focus on bringing forward the “positive”. In some cases this is appropriate as a first step for addressing some issues such as addiction or depression.

The conscious mind is always ruled by the subconscious and both are ruled by the unconscious mind. You cannot access the unconscious mind with conscious efforts such as affirmations, creating intent, or trying to manifest. Therefore the nonsense promoted by The Secret might be able to work for a bit, like a pain killer might work for a temporary fix on a wound, however over time, the unconscious mind, your unhealed wounds and unidentified karma, will continue to surface and run your life. The unconscious mind can only be addressed through techniques such as deep hypnosis or profound meditation practices. Practices to “feel good” or to calm yourself etc. will work, but only for a small amount of time.  You can get addicted to feel good practices and this is one of the reasons why cults “work”. Cults provide endless exercises, events, inspirational talks and practices to get their practitioners to “feel good”.  Cults are painkillers and the new age industry has become cult-like in its offerings of feel good events and “do this and this will happen” offerings. Ultimately, the unexamined and unhealed material in both the subconscious and unconscious mind will rise again, and rule you, your decisions, your choices and preferences, your emotional reactions, your life.

The real secret is that Source, the Universe, will give you what you need. This means sometimes you will “attract” lessons (meaning be given to you by the Universe because you are now ready for it) and sometimes you will “attract” comfort and/or encouragement. If you hog tie the Universe with affirmations, intentions and manifesting the Universe will be forced to send you what you need, in the form you insist upon. If you need a lesson in intimacy and are busy manifesting it, describing what you want down to the last detail, praying for it, making a vision board etc., your love mate will be given to you, exactly as you described. However you will soon discover as you bite into the candy, the lesson buried inside.  New age fanatics will spin a narrative about this where as those on a Spiritual Path lead by Source, not lower body desires, will always examine what happened in order to learn, not save their ego or impress others. The reality is if you pursue a Spiritual Practice and Path that works with acceptance and surrender of Source as your Guide (not spirits that talk to  you in regular albeit impressive conversations) your lessons will roll in with a great deal of harmony, be smoother and easier to handle with lots of Guidance. Why is that? Because you are not insisting on getting what you want which forces Spirit to package the lesson in the form you demand (a soul mate, a “career” as some kind of new age healer or teacher, etc.).

There are psychological therapies that offer profound work however they do not touch on the Spiritual aspects of development meaning Soul Evolution. Soul Evolution occurs every lifetime whether you embrace the work of Soul Evolution or not, it still occurs, like aging. The only question is how. Some people for example like to work on their health, others let health “happen” and deal with it when forced to do so often via trauma or when forced to take medication or have surgery.  Some of us choose to pursue Soul Evolution rather than let it happen. If you are one of those, you will need to work with energies above your current level of consciousness, energies that your conscious mind simply cannot access.

Journey On