The Secret
Good Fit
- Readers interested in the "law of attraction" and positive-thinking philosophy
- Anyone who has watched "The Secret" documentary and wants to explore the subject further
- Readers wanting to apply motivational and visualization techniques to daily life
Not a Fit
- Readers seeking scientifically proven claims, or skeptical of pseudoscience
- Readers facing a serious financial, health, or emotional crisis who need concrete, practical steps (a doctor, a financial advisor) — this book cannot substitute for that
- Skeptical readers unwilling to accept claims like "attracting outcomes through thought alone" without critical scrutiny
In the foreword, Byrne explains how, during the hardest period of her life — her father's sudden death and the collapse of her work and personal relationships — her daughter Hayley gave her a hundred-year-old book that put her on the trail of "The Secret." She begins researching figures she believes knew this secret throughout history: Plato, Shakespeare, Newton, Victor Hugo, Beethoven, Lincoln, Emerson, Edison, and Einstein.
The research process is described as a "magnet effect" — finding one teacher would draw the next one toward her. Byrne stresses that once she discovered the secret, she had to teach it to her entire production team, since it would have been impossible to make the project without knowing it.
The book recounts its own origin story — Byrne moves from Australia to the US, films 55 "teachers" for over 120 hours, and eight months later "The Secret" documentary is released. The book draws on that material, combining the messages of 24 teachers with Byrne's own "miraculous" story.
In Bob Proctor's words, the book offers its first answer to "what is the secret?": the law of attraction — presented as a universal force, comparable to gravity, whereby the thoughts and images we hold in our minds "attract" corresponding events into our lives, regardless of where we are.
- The book is structured as a collage of quotes from various "teachers" around a single theme, more a chorus of voices than a single consistent authorial voice
- A personal story (Byrne's own life crisis) is woven together with claims of "universal truth" to give the reader emotional persuasiveness
A classic self-help book based on a similar positive-thinking/auto-suggestion philosophy
A similarly popular book promising material success through a shift in mindset
After the opening chapters, the book moves to applying the law of attraction to specific domains — separate chapters titled "The Secret to Money," "The Secret to Relationships," and "The Secret to Health."
Later chapters, under headings like "The Secret to the World" and "The Secret to You," present the concept's personal application and daily "visualization" exercises, and the book closes with the teachers' biographies.
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