Healthy Living Books Books

Rating: - Brilliant
I am so shocked at the bad reviews given to this book. It is fantastic and has changed my life. Byrne does name the 100 year old book if you listen (CD) or read carefully. It is a great book to get you thinking about all the positives in life when it is so easy to be taken down by all the negativity we face daily. I have bought 8 copies of the audio CD for friends and family and will be recommending it to everyone I know as I think it is the best book I have ever read. My way of thinking has been transformed and I will never again wallow in negative thoughts again. Make up your own mind about the book. I have found the audio book much more powerful in getting the message across and I have listened to it about 50 times. Each time I get something more from it. I hope Rhonda Byrne makes her fortune from this and other other products related to it because she deserves it.

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Rating: - The only people making real big money from this, are the ones behind it!
The Secret is just the latest in a long line of Law of Attraction books that have been published through the years. I've read most of them, this one is a huge seller and made the author a millionaire because of the way it has been marketed. And it's a cynical marketing ploy too, and ruthless in its determination to be unopposed by any dissenting voices. When I first heard about the LOA (Law of Attraction) I truly believed I had found the answer to everything and totally believed in its validity, only to look around many years later and see that nothing had actually changed. I didn't manifest the things I believed I would and don't know anyone else who has done so either. One friend who was singing the praises of The Secret when he first read it two years ago, has now given it away, completely disillusioned and feeling worse than he did before he read it and started following its 'advice'. When all the affirmations, visualising, asking, believing, etc, doesn't work, or only in very limited or small ways, then the person who had grasped onto what seemed like the answer to their prayers, ends up feeling betrayed and without the false hope they had been given by this money making spinner for the people selling it to gullible and vulnerable people, who, by their purchasing of the book, the CD, the DVD, the follow up books about what to do when it doesn't work or things go wrong(!) are putting money into the bank accounts of the people responsible for this 'spiritual marketing' as it is known in the trade. When I see people unhappy because they believed in 'The Secret' only to find out much further down the line that it never delivered, then it makes me want to warn others not to be sucked into it through them giving even more money to already extremely wealthy people. And make no mistake, when it doesn't work out how you believed it would, then they will tell you that you have done something wrong, or you must have blocks somewhere in your subconscious that need removing, (you can then buy more books to 'help' with this) or you need chakra clearing, (more books, and CDs too to buy!) or it must be that you need to love yourself more, because you can't love yourself properly or it would work for you, then you get told that you need to stop wanting anything and be 'spiritual' instead and believe that you have it all already, because once you get to that stage then you will be so content that you will realise that you have all you want already and won't need any more, because if you continue to want things, or conditions, then you just continue attracting more things or conditions to want, therefore you mustn't actually want anything! And so it goes on. I could say more and believe me I have long experience of dealing with these kind of people so I know what I'm talking about, but knowing how they operate, this would just get removed, as they are very protective of their money spinner and try to stop anyone from questioning it. Just believe in yourself and try to think positive thoughts, (worrying unduly about anything doesn't actually change whatever it is you're worrying about) building up self confidence and loving yourself truly and looking for anything at all you have to be grateful for, no matter how small, is the best advice I can give you, and I'm not charging anyone anything for saying that, or spinning it out into a whole book and marketing it in such a way that people will be sucked into buying it and making me very rich as a result of appearing to answer a need in people who are struggling.

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Rating: - I'm the Creator!
"The Secret" is truly a gift to readers. I see how I create my reality with my thoughts. I am excited to practice the suggestions in this book, as I focus on what I want to create in my life, instead of focusing on what I'm resisting in my life. As "The Secret" mentions, "what I resist persists".

Authors Ariel & Shya Kane also mention this principle in their books, "Working on Yourself Doesn't Work" and "How to Create a Magical Relationship". The Kane's books work hand in hand with "The Secret" as I continue to discover the magic of living life presently & creating a wonderful life full of infinite possibilities. I highly suggest Ariel & Shya's books if your interested in fueling the magnificence of "The Secret."

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Rating: - The Secret to Making a Quick Buck
I'm sure this book only exists thanks to The Da Vinci Code. Sensing a public interest in ancient "secrets" passed down to modern times, the publishers of this awful piece of self-help decided they could market Rhonda Byrne's book and make a killing. They were not wrong. In Brasil, it's spreading like an Old World plague: the film tie-in is always rented out in videostores, and the book is in the top 10 bestseller list. Swept up by its popularity, my mom brought a copy home.

Much like George Bush Jr., this book is equal parts stupid and disturbing. The stupid part comes in its mind-boggling belief that anything you ask from the Universe will become true, that everyone deserves (and should) pursue their most selfish desires in order to be happy. Want big boobs? Ask the Universe and you will get it. Want a great parking space at the shopping mall? The Universe will help you like a genie in a bottle. Knowledge found in Eastern religions such as Buddhism (e.g. Karma) are simplified and described as a "secret" that only the elite are aware of.

The disturbing part comes in statements such as the one, early in the book, that says people killed in disasters or crimes brought it upon themselves. According to this book's reasoning, if you find yourself gassed to death with millions of other people it's because you were following negative thoughts and unable to see the Universe's path to your salvation. This is, at least, the conclusion I draw from the book's teachings. It shifts blame from other people, or life's chaos, onto yourself. Contracted cancer? Your fault. Robbed and shot in the head? Your fault. Became a millionaire? You are in tune with the Universe.

Much like The Da Vinci Code I couldn't make it past page 60. Be very wary of anyone that likes this book.

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Rating: - From the creators of "because you're worth it"
I'll follow suit of some of the reviewers and dump this book. As a matter of fact, I'm debating with myself whether I should put it in the trash whole, shred it first, or go to the zoo and throw it inside the monkeys' cage and watch them turn it to spaghetti.

This book takes a few well-known phenomenon (mind-over-matter at times of emergency, among others), and uses them as proof of the validity of its theory. Sirens went off in my mind when I read most testimonies of the "enlightened souls" who provided their proof of success and gems of wisdom, when they said "I got ..... and was the ENVY of everybody", whether a wife-mansion-car, you name it. Just how people who boast of becoming the source of envy for whatever they acquired can be models of enlightment is beyond me. Using the "because you're worth it" pitch, and with contents that are just as worthless, the book joins many that feed on the discontent-sadness-frustration of the average human, but, unlike the few which offer something of value, this offers unmitigated crap. Not just is it a book that confirms "money-mansion-Ferrari-wife-the-envy-of-all-men" as signs of "being there" in the world of "light", but it also asserts that whatever fate befalls anyone is the result of the negative thoughts of their very own mind. What about children that are kidnapped-murdered? earthquakes? Tsunamis? Holocaust? The list of tragedies can be very long...If the premise of this book were true, wouldn't the logical conclusion be that we should not have prisons or punish "criminals", for, whatever they did was, in truth, the doing of the mind of the person they did it to? (And, by the way, why do these very enlightened souls go to doctors, and take whatever prescribed pills every day when the real source of all illness, according to this book, and the source of all cures, is their own mind? Why do they themselves say things like "oh, but this is something else"?) And, beside every "success story" of someone who wished himself an object that made him "the envy of others" and actually got it, how many others have wished just as strongly and got nothing? But I can guess the answer, "you did not wish it correctly/strongly enough", etc and, just like the "scratch and win" cards where you never win, there is always the thought, and the wish to believe that, yes, it does work, only it is on some other card, that some day you, too, might possess...