I recently did a post about the Love Languages in which I mentioned I’d do a future post on another self-help book that has been pretty popular in LDS circles, Rhonda Byrne’s 2006 book about what she calls the “Law of Attraction,” her best seller The Secret. You couldn’t board a flight between 2006 and 2010 without seeing someone reading this book, I swear. The premise behind her book is that your dominant thoughts are emotional state will broadcast a frequency to the universe which will then mirror those same energies back to you. Have you heard the youths say things like “Manifest!” when things go well, or use it as a verb: “I’m going to manifest that trip/job interview/promotion/relationship into being.” According to Byrne, the anthropomorphized universe doesn’t process negatives like “no” or “don’t” (in which case the universe is exactly like my kids were–if you said “don’t do that,” all they heard was “do that”), and your emotional state dictates whether you will get positive outcomes or negative ones.

The process she outlines in the book is:

Ask: Clearly define what you want and sent that desire to the universe.

Believe: Act, speak and feel as though your wish is already granted.

Receive: Open yourself up to accept the outcome with joy and gratitude.

When this book was all the rage, I remember sitting next to a woman in Relief Society who was talking about it. She said, “Well, it’s nothing new really. It’s just the same as the gospel, right?” and given my opinion of the book’s wishful thinking approach, it gave me a moment of pause about just what we were meant to believe as church members.

I had a very weird experience related to this book at the time. Like everyone else, of course I had read it. There were some interesting ideas: positive thinking being contagious, being clear about your objectives and goals, and so forth. But then the book really steered heavily into some magical thinking, assuming it had the same gravitas and legitimacy as the preceding ideas about goal setting. My job at this time included doing site visits of the different offices that reported to me, and often one of the mid-level employees would drive me to and from the airport, so they got some “face time” with a leader. As we approached the drop-off at the airport, the manager who was selected to drive me to the airport in one of our B cities (a location that the employees didn’t know was slated for closure within a few months) started enthusiastically repeating the words to her steering wheel: “I will be the next site director. I will be the next site director. I WILL be the next site director.” I was honestly starting to think I was about to be kidnapped. While I agree that having clearly stated goals is good, that doesn’t mean you can chant your way into it, particularly not when you are unaware that you and everyone are about to be laid off due to forces outside of your control.

You might think that she was just being a weirdo (I never thought she was before this incident), but the book literally describes “wishing” checks into your mailbox. That’s purely magical thinking. Of course it’s true that our attention, expectations, and attitudes influence our behavior and our lives, but it’s not also true that you can literally control everything that happens to you using your emotions and vibes. That’s not self-help. That’s self-delusion.

Here is a quick rundown of the main criticisms of Byrne’s theories in the book:

  1. There is no scientific backing to the idea of the “law of attraction” as mentioned. None whatsoever. Sorry, folks, but the premise is just made up. She literally wished it into being. So, wait. . .maybe it is real!
  2. This theory turns correlation into causation. “I visualized success, and then I succeeded” doesn’t mean that the act of visualization was what led to the success. For example, when the employee in my story above visualized her success, it was never going to happen (due to the impending layoff), but her actions in that car would have adversely affected her success if such a position were to become available. She seemed unhinged, not like a trustworthy, stable person ready for leadership.
  3. The theory results in victim blaming. If you aren’t succeeding, well it’s YOUR fault for not having the right energy and vibes. The theory implies otherwise, but face facts: people with positive attitudes still get cancer or laid off or divorced or suffer tragedies. They didn’t cause those things with negative attitudes. What if their positive attitude helped the cancer grow instead of their immuno-defense system? (Are we all seeing the medieval-level magical thinking here?)
  4. Structural problems are treated as individual problems. If you are underprivileged, marginalized, or mistreated, that’s your fault and not due to systemic limitations or multi-generational setbacks.
  5. It turns optimism into magical thinking. Sure, a positive attitude and cheerful demeanor will improve your results and relationships. But it won’t actually make physical checks appear in your mailbox.
  6. It discourages realistic thinking. Sometimes you do need to be aware of negative potential outcomes. Rather than wasting her time telling her steering wheel she wanted to be the next site director, this employee could have asked more questions about how the site was performing or about the future plans for the business. She could have become better prepared if she had wondered more and daydreamed less.
  7. It can be very dangerous when applied to money matters. The book talks a LOT about the path to wealth being attainable through good thoughts rather than the more realistic path of skills + opportunity + hard work + relationships and networks + capital + luck + market factors + persistence + health = possible success. There are many things that can prevent success, and many that contribute to it, but you can’t get there solely through wishing it so.
  8. It reinforces its own premise. The crazy thing is that the author is basically just bullshitting here, and in so doing has amassed wealth and riches. She’s selling what she did, which is both ironic and insidious. The more you follow her advice, the more you want to follow her advice. Sound familiar?
  9. It’s fertile ground for confirmation bias. If something good happens, you immediately believe “I manifested that,” and if something bad happens you must have had negative thoughts. If nothing happens, you just didn’t believe strongly enough. Every possible outcome is a confirmation that the system works as she described it.

And you know what, I think my friend in Relief Society was onto something. There’s a whole lot about The Secret that is very much how the gospel is supposed to work. What is praying for things other than visualizing what you want? And if you get the thing you prayed for, prayer worked. If you don’t, that was your fault. Or you weren’t ready for it. Or you had to have faith to be denied what you wanted. That’s just confirmation bias.

Studies also show that prayer for others (aka intercessory prayer) does not work beyond some vague placebo affects. In fact, even when people knew they were being prayed for, 59% of them had more complications, not fewer. Perhaps all that extra pressure to get well to prove that prayer works isn’t ideal for health.

  • Did you read this book? Did you see gospel / church parallels?
  • Do you think this is how the gospel is taught to members?
  • Do you find the advice useful or not?

Discuss.