The Secret explained: what Rhonda Byrne’s book and film teach, and what critics say

What is The Secret?

The Secret exists in two forms that share a message: a film first released online on March 23, 2006, with an extended edition on October 1, 2006, and a book published later that year. Rhonda Byrne wrote the film, which was directed by Drew Heriot and made by a Melbourne production company. The film features interviews with roughly 55 teachers and authors; the extended version uses 24 of them.

Byrne has said that the project began after a hard stretch. Her father died in 2004, and she became deeply depressed. Her daughter Hayley suggested she read The Science of Getting Rich (1910) by Wallace D. Wattles, and that book led her to start work on the film.

The Secret presents itself as the rediscovery of a hidden truth known to great figures of the past. As later sections show, that framing does not hold up to checking. Still, the commercial success was enormous: Wikipedia reports that the book had sold more than 30 million copies in 50 languages, and that the book and film had grossed around $300 million by 2009, helped by two appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show in February 2007.

What The Secret actually teaches

The Secret’s central idea is the law of attraction: like attracts like, so the dominant thoughts you hold will draw matching circumstances. Our law of attraction page covers the wider tradition. A note on sourcing: the following summary of the three-part practice (ask, believe, receive) and the role of gratitude and visualization is my general understanding of how the book is usually described. I did not re-read the book for this page, and the phrasing below is paraphrase, not quotation.

The three-part practice

1. Ask. Decide what you want and ask the universe for it, clearly.
2. Believe. Act and feel as though you already have it.
3. Receive. Get ready to receive it, with the right feelings.

The tools

• Gratitude: being thankful now is presented as a way of attracting more to be thankful for.
• Visualization: imagining the outcome in detail, often with a strong emotion attached.
• Vision boards and affirmations: the book popularized these everyday practices as ways of keeping the goal in view.

Each of these tools shows up elsewhere in this library: see visualization, vision board and affirmations. The difference is that this page keeps the practice and drops the claim that it bends reality.

Where The Secret’s ideas actually came from

The Secret was marketed as a secret, but its sources are public and well documented. The law of attraction is a thread running through the New Thought movement, which began in the 1800s.

Wikipedia notes that Rhonda Byrne and Wayne Dyer have said Neville influenced them, and the film’s extended edition drew on a long list of teachers. John G. Stackhouse Jr. summarized the book’s place in the tradition by saying that it “isn’t new, and it isn’t a secret.”

The “secret teachers” list

The film and book implied that famous historical figures knew and used the secret. Skeptoid’s Brian Dunning checked and concluded that the list is false: most of the people named lived before the law of attraction was ever formulated, and there is no evidence that they knew of it. This is one of the cleanest examples of a checkable claim in The Secret that does not hold up.

Who was in the film, and what happened to Esther Hicks

The film’s cast is a mix of self-help authors, speakers and, in some cases, financial advisers. Bob Proctor said that no “secret teachers” other than Esther Hicks were paid for their appearances.

Esther Hicks, the Abraham channeler, was the 25th teacher in the first edition of the film. Her footage was removed from the extended edition after a falling-out with Byrne, and Wikipedia reports that Byrne rescinded the contract covering her participation. Accounts differ on why. Her material is its own subject: see the page on Abraham Hicks teachings.

Disputes around the production

Wikipedia’s entry on the film records several disputes: an Australian author, Vanessa J. Bonnette, claimed that around 100 instances of plagiarism existed and was met with a lawsuit to restrain her; the Australian regulator ASIC investigated the business activities of David Schirmer, a featured investment guru; and in 2008 a newspaper reported a pay dispute between the director, an Internet consultant and Byrne. I mention these only as a reminder that this was a commercial product with commercial stakes, not as a verdict on the ideas.

The criticism, in fairness

The Secret attracted unusually strong criticism from scientists, journalists and religious writers. These are the main objections and who made them.

1. It misuses science

Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, writing in The New York Times, and the Harvard physicist Lisa Randall rejected the book’s scientific claims, particularly those about quantum physics. A March 2007 Skeptical Inquirer article by Mary Carmichael and Ben Radford said the central idea has no basis in scientific reality despite invoking scientific concepts. Skeptoid’s 2008 critique made the same point: the book’s idea of “thought energy” has no real connection to quantum physics.

2. It blames victims

Carmichael and Radford noted the “ugly flipside”: if your thoughts cause what happens to you, an accident or disease is your fault. Skeptoid argued that the book’s logic extends to disaster victims, which it called profoundly offensive.

3. It encourages risky thinking about money

Financial advisers see the promise of material goods from the universe as a baseless get-rich-quick scheme, according to Skeptoid. Barbara Ehrenreich called the DVD a “gimmick” and “disturbing,” like being indoctrinated into a cult, and argued in Bright-Sided (2009) that this style of self-help can promote political complacency.

4. It can displace real help

Doctors criticize the idea that positive thinking can replace medical care, such as trying to wish away cancer. This is the most serious practical risk: if you are ill, depressed or in debt, positive thinking cannot replace treatment, therapy or financial counseling.

5. It claims to be new

Valerie Frankel of Good Housekeeping found some helpful advice but said it was “nothing you don’t already know.” Mark Manson was harsher, calling it full of “misplaced clichés” and a “playbook for entitlement and self-absorption.” These are opinions, not findings, but they are common.

What does the research say?

No controlled study has shown that thinking about a thing makes it more likely to arrive. A few studies bear on parts of The Secret’s advice, and they point in an interesting direction.

Positive fantasies can sap energy

Heather Kappes and Gabriele Oettingen ran experiments in which participants imagined an idealized future. Those who did so reported less energy afterward. This is the opposite of the book’s promise that vivid imagining pushes you forward, and it helps explain why visualizing without a plan can leave people feeling done too early.

Affirmations help some people and hurt others

Joanne Wood and colleagues found that people with low self-esteem felt worse, on average, after repeating “I am a lovable person,” while people with high self-esteem felt slightly better. The Secret’s “act as if you already have it” advice has the same limit: statements that feel like a lie can make you feel worse.

Planning does help

The most reliably supported goal tool is an if-then plan. In a meta-analysis, Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran found that specifying when and where you will act helps people follow through. Gratitude writing also has some support. Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough found, in a set of studies, that people who listed things they were grateful for reported better well-being than comparison groups.

Manifestation beliefs and bankruptcy

A 2023 paper by Lucas Dixon, Matthew Hornsey and Nicole Hartley in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin studied belief in manifestation across three samples (306, 348 and 375 American adults). Believers rated themselves as more successful and expected more future success, but in the first study they were no more successful in income or education. They were more likely to endorse “get rich quick” beliefs, to own cryptocurrency and to report having been declared bankrupt, and the study found stronger belief linked to support for Rhonda Byrne and Oprah Winfrey. The study is correlational and used self-reported success, so it cannot say that the belief causes bankruptcy.

For a plain summary of the broader evidence, read does manifestation work?

What is still worth keeping from The Secret

You can reject the claim that the universe delivers on request and still keep several habits the book popularized. They work for ordinary reasons.

• Get specific about what you want. A written goal is easier to act on than a vague wish.
• Practice gratitude. The research here is modest but real, and the habit takes two minutes. Try the gratitude journal prompts.
• Rehearse a scene. Picturing an ordinary day in the life you want can make a goal feel concrete, as long as it leads to action.
• Notice your self-talk. The book’s emphasis on thought has a core of truth that cognitive therapy shares: how you interpret events shapes how you act.

A grounded version of “ask, believe, receive”

Our how to manifest guide gives a fuller version, and the manifestation for beginners page is the gentlest entry point.

Common mistakes if you try The Secret’s methods

If this happens, try this

You feel worse after watching or reading it. Take a break and write down one thing you can do this week that does not depend on the universe. If sadness, anxiety or money stress is heavy, please talk to a doctor, therapist or financial counselor.

You tried it and nothing happened. That is the usual experience, and it is not a personal failing. See manifestation not working for what to check.

The Secret and its successors

Byrne followed the original with several books: The Power (2010), The Magic (2012), Hero (2013), How The Secret Changed My Life (2016) and The Greatest Secret (2020). A film, The Secret: Dare to Dream, appeared in 2020. In 2007, Byrne was named to Time’s Time 100 list.

Many later movements share the same family tree. The law of assumption, discussed on our law of assumption page, and the TikTok-era methods like the lucky girl syndrome are, in Wikipedia’s framing, modern versions of the idea. If you want a gentler, evidence-aware version of the practice, Kaizen is built around a five-minute daily ritual of journaling, a short manifestation story and gratitude. It is a personal-development tool, not a way to bend reality, and you can do the same thing with a notebook.