This is another theory of mine. I know many will disagree, but I believe it nonetheless. From what I've come to believe, the meaning of life is to live with truth and love. But there are countless "demons" (there are many words to describe them but I like that one) that don't want you to live with these. They are constantly confronting you in any form imaginable trying to sway you from the path of truth and love. One of their desired things for you to do is think only of yourself and this material world. So they plant seeds constantly in our heads to strengthen these ideas. Some of these seeds are all the religions in this world, but that's a whole other topic and I'm getting preachy and off-track...

So there is the movie "The Secret". What better way than to have someone create a movie so convincing as to make you believe YOU are the center and creator of your world. You "attract" and create everything around you in your head. And with this great "realization" you can gain all the wealth, power, and all other material goods you want by solely thinking about them all the time. The Secret is that you attract everything you know in your head and can create whatever you want. So be as greedy, self-absorbed, and distracted as your heart desires.

Make the movie so good and credible that people will use it and follow it religiously in their everyday lives. Once the seed is planted the "demons" laugh as they watch it grow and flourish, distracting you from the Light, which is Truth and Love. We aren't the "masters of our universe", there is a "God" that lives inside and is a part each of us and we need only acknowledge "He's" there. But we can't possibly do that if we are the "God" of our universe revelling in material goods and things that benefit us.

That's what I think the real secret behind The Secret is. But decide for yourself, you now have 2 sides of the coin.

Well, I suspect there's a "third side" to this coin. The Secret is like any other marketing ploy, it's simply another way for someone to make money. It's not even a new or unique ploy either. I remember the fellow Tony Robbins (I think that was his name) who sold a type of "power of positive thinking" program back in the 1980s. I suspect that the person who eventually became rich and successful from this program was Mr. Robbins himself!

This isn't some spiritual 'good verse evil' thing in my opinion...it's just another way for the originators of a catchy idea (promoted to the gullible) to make a quick buck.

What if you believe that you are the center of the universe to gain wealth and power so you can spred the word of truth and love? And by the way, Tony Robbins IS the devil.

I recently replied in your topic 'I think I found the meaning of life' so I won't repeat myself too much lol.
So now I'll talk about a different aspect of Buddhism that you just perfectly described when you said there are demons who tempt us and try to sway us from the path of love and truth. (Btw, are you sure you aren't Buddhist? You've really got the whole philosophy down pat.) Also I just want to say that religions aren't really bad themselves, it's the people who follow them and then twist what the religion teaches to their own personal ideas. Fundamentalists, radicals they're called. They misuse their religion and sometimes shed their religion in a negative light (like Islam got a bad name from the terrorists who think they'll go to heaven by killing themselves and infidels and such- which isn't true at all because Islam is a religion of love and brotherhood-the complete opposite of what the terrorists are making it out to be). Religion can be a positive source of happiness and knowledge when used right.

Okay, now what you said about demons:
Christians call these temptors the 'Devil' giving them a single entity. Buddhists call these temptors 'Mara' and Mara comes in the form of greed, hate, jealousy, lust, ignorance and such. But all these things come from people themselves, not from an evil deity. We are responsible for our evil actions, no one else. These temptations come from our own minds because when someone sees a nice car for instance they think to themselves 'wow that's a sweet car my friends will be so jealous if I drive that thing around.' We lust for the car, thinking it will bring us pleasure. But in reality the car is still just a car. It only looks pleasing in our minds. This is Mara in the working. And Mara is all for lusting after material things. People are so focused on these material things just as you said- and I disagreed with everything that movie the Secret said and I agree with what you said about it. Couldn't have said it better myself.
Too bad people are actually believing that crap.
I mean you can't just think about a car you want and it will magically come to you. I do think that your attitude plays a big part in what you can get- but you still have to make actions. So it's silly.

I saw that movie... and, well... let's just say, there's a reason why we all call it a movie...

We can't use our minds to analyse the secret. It either works or not and is basically an extention of the idea our whole universe is a dream and through mental focus we may be able to control it. It did explain all the major coincidences and phases in life which would make sense if only I made them through focusing on them, and I wrote somewhere last week I expected an unknown American to win the Master's golf, and guess what. Zach Johnson. Who? I'm sure he's well known in his own country but not to me. I've been able to do this sort of stuff as long as I remember and until I saw this theory none of it made sense. But if it's just a creation of my own then it makes perferct sense, and it just needs controlling.

And it's no more a crazy idea than God, and plenty more evidence for it as God is meant to be good but life sucks most of the time, and if I can create good or evil equally then it's all my own fault, not any deitys. Makes much more sense if you accept the possibility of a supernatural explanation, as otherwise my life would be completely random and it appears not to be.

Satguru , can you post who will win next years Superbowl?...I would love to go place a bet