Spirituality/General: "The Secret" Has Roots in a 100-Year-Old "New Thought" Philosophy

New website formed by screenwriter Ron Peer explains the link between the movie and book "The Secret" and the New Thought Movement which began over 100 years ago by such writers as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mary Baker Eddy, Thomas Troward, and others. That is the secret of "The Secret."

No doubt you've heard of the self-help movie and book The Secret that is sweeping the nation. This Law of Attraction philosophy has been discussed on Oprah, Larry King, Ellen DeGeneres, CBS, and in scads of magazines and newspapers. What was once a little cult movie that premiered on the Internet in March 2006 has now blossomed into a mainstream hit: more than 1.5 million DVD's have been sold and over 1.2 million copies of The Secret are in print.

"The Secret does a great job of explaining the Law of Attraction to the masses but the principles illustrated actually harken back to the New Thought Movement which began over a century ago," says screenwriter and New Thought practitioner, Ron Peer, who has just developed a website, Secrets of The Secret, which details the link between New Thought and The Secret.

In the film, Rhonda Byrne, producer of The Secret, mentions being inspired by a 100-year-old book to begin a life-transforming journey and create the movie, but she does not mention the title or author. Later, in interviews, Byrne confesses the book is called The Science of Getting Rich and is written by New Thought Author Wallace Wattles (1860-1911). To Byrne's credit, six months later in the book of The Secret, she does acknowledge Wattles contribution to her ideas, as well as the works of Charles Haanel and Genevieve Behrend, both early 20th century New Thought authors. Peer offers free downloads of The Science of Getting Rich and The Master Key System (by Haanel) on his website.

New Thought is a philosophy which states that thought is evolutionary and unfolding, and that one's thinking and beliefs create a person's experience of the world (in essence the Law of Attraction). The movement places great emphasis in positive thinking, affirmations, meditation, and affirmative prayer. "Change your thinking, change your life," is the motto of the popular New Thought magazine, Science of Mind.

According to Peer: "A tenet of New Thought is that there is one supreme power, one God, and that if we align our consciousnesses with that Divine Mind, then we will achieve greater levels of peace, success, abundance, harmony, etc. As The Secret suggests, this can be done through visualization, meditation, and aligning one's feeling with one's desires. The trick is to believe that these desires have already manifested and to hold complete faith in their reality. That is how true creation occurs."

Peer says he unconsciously used this process to sell his first screenplay Goodbye Lover, made into the film of the same name starring Patricia Arquette, Ellen DeGeneres and Don Johnson. During the years when he owned a bookstore in Phoenix, in the 1990s, Peer was deeply involved in reading books by New Thought authors. Subconsciously these teachings seeped into his own personal system. "I was vibrating at such a high frequency while in the writing process -- it was total joyous fun! -- that the script sold without any effort. It was my first screenplay sale and the movie went into production almost immediately. I can tell you, no one was more surprised than I!" recounts the screenwriter.

Peer says that the New Thought Movement hit its apex in the late 1930s with Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, then dwindled as America became absorbed in the rise of World War II. "The New Age Movement of the '80s reawakened some New Thought philosophy, but the focus on channeling and extraterrestrials may have hindered the comeback of New Thought," continues Peer. "But in the last ten years, New Thought, as exemplified through churches like Unity and Religious Science, has really picked up momentum and the release of The Secret has brought it to the forefront again."

In fact, many of the presenters in The Secret have New Thought backgrounds. Dr. Michael Beckwith, featured in the movie and on Oprah, is a founder of the Association of Global New Thought and is the director of one of the largest New Thought churches in the country -- Agape International Spiritual Growth Center in Culver City, California, with over 10,000 members. Jack Canfield, also starring in The Secret, attended a Religious Science church in Huntington Beach, California, for a number of years. Dr. Joe Vitale wrote his master's thesis on a type of New Thought affirmative prayer called "treatment." More about New Thought Movement and its relation to The Secret can be found at Secrets of The Secret. Peer, in conjunction with Dr. Patrick Porter, has also just released a creative visualization to help people achieve their goals based on the three-part "Ask, Believe & Receive" process of The Secret at http://SecretVisualization.com.

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