View source for Unanswered Questions about The Secret

Since the release of The Secret its author and proponents have been asked a wide range of questions that go beyond the immediate scope of the method. How does The Secret explain tragedies like September 11th and Katrina? Can you use the power of The Secret to harm someone? Do luck and chance exist? What happens when two people both apply The Secret to achieve the same goal, such as the same elected office? Can you prolong life by means of the law of attraction? If the law of attraction is so important, why are so many people attracted to other people that are their opposites? On these and similar points The Secret is either silent or ambiguous. The remainder of this article discusses these and other questions in an effort to present a complete and comprehensive knowledge of how and why the method advocated by The Secret works and can be made to work faster and better.

==How long will it take to achieve?==
No clear explanation was given in The Secret regarding the time required to accomplish the goal. The answer depends on what you aspire for, how intensely you aspire, and how completely you fulfill the other conditions. Time is an extension of mind. It is the seriousness of the mind that determines the duration taken. Each person achieves according to strength of his or her personality. 

This does not mean that very great achievements necessarily take many times longer to be fulfilled. The time which the mind thinks necessary to achieve the goal is clearly an important determinant factor. The sooner a person believes he can achieve, the faster he will achieve. Great things take longer because we think they should or feel that they must. When I apply The Secret for a small gain, I believe it can be immediately achieved, so it is. When I apply it for something great, I expect that it must take much longer and so it does. 

==Does The Secret work for everyone?==

What happens when two people both aspire intensely for the same goal, such as the same elected office? Someone called in this question during a discussion of The Secret on Larry King live, but the reply given was vague. The law of attraction works equally for all. But not everyone applies The Secret equally. The result depends on the intensity of our aspiration and our application. Rarely will two people be evenly matched in these areas. There is an actual case in which two distinguished politicians vied for the Presidency of India in the early 1970s and both sought the support of a higher power to fulfill their aspirations. One of them was immediately elected. The second one was elected the next time around. 

==Can the Secret be used for harm?==

Intentional evil is a fact of life. No one can deny the fact that bad people often succeed, at least temporarily, in achieving what they aim for, even if it is at the expense of other people or directed to harm other people. Some people do actively wish for and act to harm other people. The results they achieve are also the results of a process. It is the same process of creation. The only difference is that they consciously direct the power they possess for wrong purposes. 

However, there is one difference. Those that apply the process positively by concentrating only on positive results and positive feelings, attract more and more of those positive vibrations into their own lives. Their lives continue to expand and flourish as a result. Those who apply the process for negative purposes attract more and more negative vibrations into their own lives and ultimately lead to their own self-destruction. 

==What does The Secret tell us about the nature of the Universe?==

The Secret portrays the universe as a helpful, benevolent force for good. Our conclusion in the previous section suggests that the universe is also capable of delivering harmful results. Which is it? The answer is that it depends very much which aspect of the universe you relate to. 

This is most easily understood if you think about how society is organized. Society is a multi-layered universe consisting of many different types and levels. At the highest level are ideas and forces of idealism working to create a better world – principles, organization and individuals dedicated to promoting peace, freedom, prosperity, equality, knowledge and well-being for all humanity. At the other end of the spectrum are forces working for selfish aggrandizement regardless of the impact on other people – criminal forces, violent destructive elements driven by hatred and seeking revenge. Naturally, we seek to relate to that aspect of society which is most supportive and conducive for our fulfillment and avoid that part which is dangerous and threatening to our very survival. 

The universe is organized in a similar manner as a hierarchy of levels of consciousness. The highest levels are above our normal consciousness – superconscient to us. They represent benevolent forces working for our upliftment and future evolution. The lowest levels represent forces lodged deep in the collective subconscious – relics of our animal and primitive past – working in the very opposite direction. These are the forces unleashed by war, genocide, hatred, and brutality. In between are forces that represent the current social consciousness of society in general, which work to fulfill the current aspirations and values of society. 

In the past society was repressive and tried to keep each individual in his pre-assigned place. Today society supports and even encourages people to rise up. It ensures fundamental rights, provides opportunities for education and training, encourages people to start new ventures and celebrates their success when they rise. It protects minorities and aids the disabled. The ‘universe’ that many people appeal to when they invoke the method of The Secret is the consciousness of this supportive social environment which is a very real and tangible power answering to human aspirations. In other words, when our goals and are motives lie within the framework of current society, society is a collective force that can respond consciously or subconsciously – through its laws, institutions and programs or through what appears as chance or coincidence – to aid us in our endeavor. 

But that is not the highest or most powerful level of the universe that can respond to human aspiration. Above the social plane are universal powers that work for the future evolution of society, for an evolution of human consciousness into something higher. Those with faith in a higher power and a greater good can invoke it to act in their lives for personal benefit or for the common benefit of humanity. In the measure their personal aspiration is in line with the conscious progress of humanity, these higher forces can and do respond even to very personal aspirations. When an individual aspires for extraordinary individual achievement, that too is a contribution to wider human development because it makes other people aware of the unlimited potential of the human spirit and the unlimited capacity of the universe to support higher accomplishment. 

At the very highest levels, the universe responds most powerfully to aspirations, which are unselfish and impersonal, rather than targeted for immediate personal gain. This is the spiritual plane where the original and final intention of the Infinite Consciousness is revealed. The universe itself is evolving spiritually and becoming more conscious of its source and true nature. The aim of this highest level is nothing less than the [[spiritual evolution]] of humanity and the entire manifest universe. Whereas in the past it was very difficult for human beings to invoke the power of this highest plane, the descent of what [[Sri Aurobindo]] calls the [[supramental force]] has now brought that highest power within reach of humanity where it is actively working behind appearances to accelerate the evolution. 

==Why has ''The Secret'' become popular now?==
# If ''The Secret'' has always been known to humanity, then why only now has it come to public attention? The Secret has been revealed by many teachers in the past. Now more people are ready to listen. In the past, society has been organized to preserve the status quo and keep each person in his or her original place. Even spiritual knowledge was preserved for the few and concealed from the public-at-large. Today humanity has advanced to the point were it seeks the development and flowering of each person as an individual. It has replaced insistence on personal status with a more impersonal attitude applicable to all. The knowledge offered by ''The Secret'' may be applied personally, but it is essentially an impersonal knowledge meant to benefit all equally. It can flower only in a social climate that supports the welfare of all.  Because society has become more impersonal in its motives, those who offer that knowledge receive greater support and encouragement. At the same time, society has now developed instruments for disseminating knowledge to everyone.
# We live in an age where individuality is emerging. The individual does not want to learn from another person. He wants to discover knowledge by his own effort. The publication of ''The Secret'' as a DVD and a book enables each person to acquire and master the knowledge for himself. The strategy for communication is well suited to the values of our time. 
# ''The Secret'' is being heard today because the people who speak about it are those who have applied it successfully in their own lives. It is not merely a philosophy or belief system for them. It is a lived reality. Therefore, it carries conviction.
# Human consciousness has finally evolved to the stage where it is able to imagine and believe in a life that is positive and plentiful. Imagine telling someone a few hundred years ago that a time will come when we can produce more than enough food to feed a population six times greater than it was in 1800. That slavery will be eradicated. Monarchy and autocracy will be replaced by democracy. Everyone will vote, including women. Women will have equal rights and equal status in society. Education will be universal and free. The average person will live twice as long, enjoy better health and have ten times greater comforts and conveniences than the wealthiest class did at that time. That may not be a reality for everyone today, but it has become reality for a at least 1.5 billion people, which is 50% more the total world population in 1800. With the rapid progress of China and India, another 3 billion will achieve achieve that status within a few decades. It is now conceivable to us that nearly all humanity will achieve it within 50 years. In other words, our experience during the past century contradicts the experience of the past five thousand years of human history. Today humanity firmly believes in progress. Human beings can now at least conceive of a positive world free of poverty, tyranny and suffering. According to ''The Secret'' our increasing capacity to believe in this positive world is the real explanation for how we have achieved it. Our aspiration and positive conception has been realized as material fact. It is only natural that some portions of humanity for whom this positive world is already a personal reality, should begin to conceive of a further stage in human accomplishment which offers personal fulfilment of whatever the individual aspires to achieve and become. ''The Secret'' represents the emergence of a more positive consciousness in humanity which is based on the knowledge that consciousness is power and that we have the power to create our own future. '''The fact that ''The Secret'' has now become popular indicates that humanity is ready to move to that higher consciousness just as it moved to the freer, more creative consciousness of the Renaissance, Reformation, Enligthenment, the French Revolution and the modern era.

Raise questions about ''The Secret'' and provide answers to questions raised by others in '''[[The Secret: Forum]]''' 

Or make comments and raise questions on our blog [http://usingthesecret.blogspot.com/ | '''Using the Secret''']

Or send an email with questions or comments to [[Special:Emailuser/humansciencewiki|'''humansciencewiki@gmail.com''']]

'''''See also other articles on [[Secret behind The Secret Project#Theory of The Secret | The Secret]]'''''


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