Why 'The Secret' is Wrong (or, Why You Can't Change Your Life With Your Thoughts)

We’ve been bombarded with books about the law of attraction and manifestation over the last few years. ‘The Secret’, by Rhonda Byrne has sold millions of copies worldwide as people try to create a life of abundance where all their dreams come true.
The premise to all of this ‘wealth consciousness’ is basically ‘change your thoughts and you change your life’. To quote from the book itself, “Your thoughts are the primary cause of everything. Everything else you see and experience in this world is effect, and that includes your feelings. The cause is always your thoughts.” (Page 30)

I had to put the book down after reading this because it is blatantly wrong! Unfortunately, the idea that thoughts are ‘things’ and that thoughts cause our feelings is so inherent that even the government is suggesting that CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is the answer to all our emotional/psychological problems. How misinformed they are!
There is something much deeper going on, something that happens on an unconscious level before your thinking even takes place. And it makes no difference if all your thinking is 100% positive (which it couldn’t be anyway), if there is an unconscious pattern seemingly ‘sabotaging’ your ambitions.

Let me explain what I mean by patterns. The brain is a pattern-matching machine. We come into the world, not with a blank slate but with instinctive templates already in place (laid down in the womb). This is how a baby knows to look for food, cry when it needs attention, etc. But the template in the brain is only partly complete. It becomes complete when the baby matches up the pattern in the outside world by actually carrying out the behaviour. This is the same for all species. It’s how birds instinctively know how to build a nest. So, the instinctive template is already in place and the brain is always scanning for an opportunity to complete the pattern (that matches up with the template).

As we go through life other patterns are laid down. One experience of trauma can be so intense that the incident continues to cause stress long after the event itself. The brain has somehow matched (seen a similarity) in a current event to the original event, causing an emotional reaction. Importantly, the pattern-match doesn’t have to be an exact likeness. Anything that resembles it in some way will do. (If our ancestors had a run-in with a tiger the brain would assume that all other big cats, such as lions, would also be dangerous).

Thus, the most fundamental pattern is the fight/flight response that is triggered when our brains perceive something in the environment that is potentially life-threatening. At that point you automatically run or fight for your life. You don’t stand around thinking about it. And this is the key point. The pattern (and the ensuing emotion, be it anger or anxiety) comes before thought. It happens unconsciously. This is why CBT takes too long to have any effect; it’s back to front.

The fact of the matter is that you can’t change unconscious processes by just changing your thoughts because those processes are happening before you are even aware of them taking place! This is why you can sometimes feel a certain way but not know why. It’s because your brain has pattern-matched to something. Perhaps you’ve seen someone in the street acting slightly aggressively and soon afterwards you feel anxious because, on an unconscious level, it’s triggered memories of other similar incidents in your past, with all the accompanying emotions. Why do you feel nervous when going for a job interview or on a date? Because an unconscious pattern is in place, based on all the other times you felt you were being judged, questioned, analysed and potentially rejected.

So, when it comes to the law of attraction, if you’ve been told repeatedly that money is hard to come by, that ‘it doesn’t grow on trees’, that you have to work hard for it, this too can set up a template or expectation in your mind. A template of 'lack-consciousness' is laid down and your brain keeps trying to complete the pattern by creating scenarios that match the expectation of loss and lack-of. And this is where ‘The Secret’ and every other wealth consciousness book I’ve read, is wrong.

If an unconscious template based on lack, fear, loss etc. is running the show, no amount of positive thinking will change it. Thoughts are not the primary cause of everything. Emotions come before thoughts. And prior to emotions is an unconscious pattern.

So, if you’ve been reading all those wealth creation books and haven’t yet made your millions, more than likely it is because an unconscious template needs updating. Thoughts alone can’t do it. You have to engage the instinctive part of the mind to change unconscious/instinctive patterns, the same part of the brain that creates them. This is where hypnosis comes in.
Hypnosis enables us to connect with that unconscious/instinctive pattern and, with special techniques, can update the program/expectation and remove the old template entirely. Phobias can be removed in a matter of minutes because, through a specialised hypnotic technique, the brain stops pattern-matching to the feared stimulus. The same goes for panic attacks, post traumatic stress, lack of confidence in certain situations (such as tests and public speaking) and so many other ‘problems’ when you realise that the brain is a pattern-matching machine. When those patterns have changed maybe then the law of attraction will start working for you?

For more on pattern-matching and to find out what happens in the brain take a look at my ‘stress’ report at www.stow-hypno.co.uk/page4.htm or visit www.hgi.org.uk/archive/APET-model.htm