The Secret, a book by Rhonda Byrne, is causing a sensation. The DVD, website, and message of The Secret were promoted on Oprah Winfrey in February [of 2007]. What is the secret? According to Rhonda, she discovered “the secret laws and principles of the universe” near the end of 2004. Wow! Really? Yet, actually what she teaches is more of a New-Age false gospel. Before I reveal the secret, let me give you some examples of her ideas about people and spirituality (1).

By the end of the book, the reader has been taught that he / she is “God in a physical body”, part of the “One Universal Mind”, the “One Consciousness”, the “Divine Mind”, and that all major religions, including certain occult traditions and Feng Shui, reflect the truth about the secret. We also learn that sacrifice for others is, in her words, “Wrong” because it does not “feel good” (2).

Of course, there are positive things that she teaches which draw people, including Christians, to her book. Byrne writes about the power of love, the importance of gratitude, positive thinking, visualization, blessing and praising, and the faith promoted by Jesus to ask, believe, and receive. Yet, no where in the book does she mention the divinity of Jesus Christ, His sacrifice on the cross, the need for repentance, God’s grace, or a life of purity from sin. 

So what’s the secret? It is primarily what Byrne calls the “Law of attraction”. This law responds to our thoughts (inner feelings) and there is a magnetic power within us that draws whatever we think about. This is not just a repackaging of meditating on things praise-worthy; it is a total reorientation of thinking based upon the nineteenth century teachings of New Thought, Divine Mind and Christian Science. The Universe responds to your thinking. So if you think on wealth, you will magnetically or magically be drawn to wealth; on poverty, to poverty, etc. Interestingly, this type of teaching is also at the heart of white magic. In A Treatise on White Magic, Alice Bailey suggests that “control through magnetic force energy and the attractive force in the spiritual eye” is the dominant factor in “magical work” (3).

Byrne teaches that anybody who has ever suffered, even masses of people who lost their lives, did so because their “thoughts of fear, separation, and powerlessness,” attracted them “to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” She also writes, “Nothing can come into your experience unless you summon it through persistent thoughts.” I wonder what she would say to the Jews who suffered through the holocaust (4)?

Yet, there is good news for junk-food lovers. According to Byrne, “Food cannot cause you to put on weight, unless you think it can.” The Secret does contrast with Christian Science in the view of medicine. Whereas practitioners of C. S. have at times ignored medicine or hospitals, believing that life is illusion and it’s mind over matter, adherents of the secret law are to see healing through the mind working harmoniously with medicine. That’s good! But, on the other hand, she says “beliefs about aging are all in our minds.” Seek health and eternal youth (5).

The early church fathers refuted Gnosticism, which taught that there was certain secret knowledge necessary for salvation. So Byrne’s message is not really new, but it is still faulty. One of the glaring problems in The Secret is that it is all about self. Because God is viewed as an impersonal, cosmic mind, there is no focus upon worshipping the person of God Almighty. The teaching of The Secret is the cult of Self to the extreme. Perhaps this is why the author disagrees with the noble notion of sacrifice for others; it takes the focus off of self. But Jesus told us that laying down one’s life for his friends exhibits great love (John 15:13). The Secret does pay token respect to the concept of love, but it ignores the greatest biblical commandment regarding it: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Mt. 22:37). Why are we even able to love God? Because “He first loved us” (1st John 5:19). 

Speaking of secrets, was there a great biblical secret? Yes, the Bible does tell of a mind-transforming secret that was revealed. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 16:25 that the revelation of the mystery regarding Jesus Christ was kept secret since the world began. But now Jesus Christ has been revealed. The truth of Jesus Christ is what can set men free. There is not some magical formula of thinking that will do it; rather, it is relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is relationship with the One who can transform your mind (Romans 12:2) by renewing it in Christ. 

Byrne writes a false gospel about seeking eternal youth, but the true gospel tells us of Jesus who died on the cross, rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will one day return to give eternal life to those who have asked Him to be their Lord and Savior. I hope for Rhonda Byrnes’ sake that she keeps seeking truth until she finds Jesus. He sacrificed His life for her and all! 

 1) The Secret www.thesecret.tv, under “A Brief History.” 

  2) Rhonda Byrne, The Secret (New York: Beyond Words Publishing, 2006), 114, 118, 157-164. 

 3) Alice A. Bailey, A Treatise of White Magic (Albany, NY: Fort Orange Press, 1970), 215. 

 4) Byrne, 28.

 5) Ibid., 59, 139.