Summary: The Secret

The GIST

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne is one of the most successful self-help books ever published. Byrne, an Australian television writer and producer, first released it as a film in March 2006 and turned it into a book later that year. The seed was planted in 2004, during a painful period in her life, when her daughter gave her Wallace Wattles' 1910 classic The Science of Getting Rich. What Byrne took from it became the book's one sweeping claim: the universe runs on a single principle, the law of attraction. Under that law, like attracts like, and your thoughts and feelings pull matching people, events and circumstances into your life.

Boosted by Oprah Winfrey, who said its message was the one she had been sharing on her show for 21 years, the book has sold more than 30 million copies in 50 languages. By 2009 the book and film together had earned around $300 million. It has also been fiercely criticized. Scientists reject its borrowings from quantum physics, and historians place it squarely in the older New Thought tradition. Knowing what the book actually teaches helps explain both why millions call it life-changing and why so many readers push back.

The Big Ideas

1. You are a magnet, and your thoughts are the signal

Byrne starts from the idea that everything, including you, is made of vibrating energy. Each thought, she argues, carries a frequency. When you think, you broadcast that frequency like a human transmission tower, and the universe sends back things that match it. She reaches for vivid images to make this concrete: you are a magnet, your life is a mirror of your thinking, and the universe is a genie that answers every request with "your wish is my command."

The catch is that the law is completely literal. It does not care whether you want something or dread it; it only responds to what you focus on most. Someone who keeps thinking I don't want to be in debt is still dwelling on debt, and so gets more of it. The law also picks up subconscious beliefs. If you say you want money but secretly feel you don't deserve it, the doubt is what gets answered. The book's hardest claim follows from all this: in Byrne's view, you attracted everything in your life, good and bad.

To lend the idea weight, Byrne mixes her own voice with a chorus of modern teachers and with quotations from figures such as Einstein, Jung, Emerson, the Buddha, Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry Ford. She also draws on the 19th-century writer Prentice Mulford.

2. Your feelings tell you what you're thinking

Nobody can police every thought; the book puts the daily total at around 60,000. So Byrne offers a shortcut. Your feelings act as a built-in guidance system. She says you cannot feel good and bad at once. If you feel good, you are holding good thoughts and drawing in more of the same. If you feel bad, that is your cue to change your thinking right away.

Feelings also act as an amplifier. Thoughts charged with strong emotion send out the strongest signal, which is why, in her telling, what you resist persists. The book reassures readers that a stray negative thought won't wreck their lives. What shows up most reliably is sustained, emotional thinking, and positive thoughts are described as far more powerful than negative ones. For low moments she suggests Secret Shifters: a favorite song, a happy memory, or someone you love, used to lift your mood fast.

3. The Creative Process: ask, believe, receive

The practical heart of the book is a three-step method Byrne calls the Creative Process. She bases it on Matthew 21:22: "Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive."

• Ask. Get completely clear about what you want. As Byrne puts it, "You get to choose what you want, but you must get clear about what you want. This is your work." Summaries of the book describe placing your order much like ordering from a catalog, framed positively and in the present tense.
• Believe. Act, speak and think as though the thing is already yours. Worrying about how it will arrive counts as doubt. Your job is faith, and the universe handles delivery. One of the book's metaphors captures this: you drive at night seeing only the stretch of road in your headlights, yet you still reach your destination.
• Receive. Feel now the way you will feel when your wish comes true. "Feeling good now puts you on the frequency of what you want."

Byrne does not rule out effort, but she recasts it as inspired action. This means intuitive steps that feel joyful and easy, like paddling downstream, as opposed to forcing and struggling.

4. Gratitude and visualization are the power tools

In the chapter on "Powerful Processes, two practices stand out. The first is gratitude, which Byrne treats as the fastest way to shift your energy. Being thankful for what you have and for what is coming tells the universe to send more. She is emphatic: If you only do one thing with knowledge of The Secret, use gratitude until it becomes your way of life."

The second is visualization: running vivid mental movies of the life you want and feeling them as real. She recommends vision boards, rehearsing the day ahead each morning, and replaying the day each evening the way you wish it had gone. She also stresses the power of expectation, the idea that you should expect what you want rather than merely hope for it.

5. The same law applied to money, relationships, health and the world

The later chapters turn the framework on specific areas, and the advice is always to stop feeding the problem. For money, focus on abundance instead of debt, be grateful for what you have, and give generously as proof that you believe more is coming. For relationships, dwell on the good in other people and drop negative talk about them. For health, focus on perfect health and lean on laughter and gratitude.

The closing chapters widen the view to the world and to your own nature. Byrne warns against a competitive mindset and argues that there is more than enough for everyone. She cites Mother Teresa's remark that she would never attend an anti-war rally but would go to a peace rally, an example of focusing on what you want rather than what you oppose. She also argues that filling yourself with joy is not selfish, because it makes you a positive force for everyone around you.

Putting It to Work

• Name what you want, not what you fear. Turn "I don't want to be late" into a clear, positive statement of the outcome you're after.
• Check in with "How am I feeling?" Treat a bad mood as a signal to redirect your attention, and keep a few personal mood-shifters ready.
• Start and end the day with gratitude. Even skeptics, including a Good Housekeeping writer who tested the book for four weeks, found that counting blessings lifted them.
• Visualize with feeling. Picture the result in detail and let yourself feel it. It sharpens your sense of what you really want.
• Follow the nudges. Act on ideas that feel alive and natural.
• Keep your critical faculties switched on. Critics such as Barbara Ehrenreich (Bright-Sided) and Mark Manson argue that the book's promises encourage complacency and entitlement. Physicists including Lisa Randall reject its science. Many readers find its claim that people attract illness or tragedy harmful. The kindest reading keeps the gratitude and focus and leaves the blame behind.

Who Should Read It

This book is for readers who want a burst of hope and a simple, spirited method for focusing on what they want, especially people drawn to manifestation, affirmations and New Age spirituality. It is also worth reading for skeptics who want to understand a genuine cultural phenomenon. Readers going through serious illness or hardship should approach it gently and take its message of total responsibility with a large grain of salt.

This has been a summary of The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, giving you the GIST so you can decide if you want the REST.