''The Power'' is a 2010

self-help Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement''APA Dictionary of Physicology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a subst ...

and

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

book written by

Rhonda Byrne Rhonda Byrne ( ; née Izon; born 1951, Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian television writer and producer. Her book '' The Secret'' is based on the belief of the pseudoscientific law of attraction, which claims that thoughts can change a p ...

. It is a sequel to the 2006 book '' The Secret''. The book was released on 17 August 2010 along with an audio-book based on it. ''The Powers mission statement is, "The philosophy and vision of the Secret is to bring joy to billions. To bring joy to the world, the Secret creates life-transforming tools in the mediums of books, films, and multi-media. With each creation from the Secret, we aim to share knowledge that is true, simple, and practical, and that will transform people's lives." The "Power" of the title is the power of love, the mainspring of the universe. A large portion of ''The Power'' describes how Byrne greets each blessed moment with overwhelming love and gratitude toward all creation. The book is based on the law of attraction and claims that positive thinking can create life-changing results such as increased happiness, health, and wealth. Byrne describes this as a fundamental universal law akin to

gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...

The Law of Attraction

The law of attraction states that whatever someone experiences in life is a direct result of their thoughts. Byrne's states that it really is that simple. According to ''The Secret'' and ''The Power'', one's thoughts and feelings have "magnetic properties" and "frequencies". They vibrate and resonate with the universe, somehow attracting events that share those frequencies. The three rules of the Law of Attraction, according to Byrne are the following: "Ask", "Believe", and "Receive". As Byrne says, it means that: "Like attracts like. What that means in simple terms for your life is: what you give out, you receive back. Whatever you give out in life is what you receive back in life. Whatever you give, by the law of attraction, is exactly what you attract back to yourself." In other words, if you want good things to happen, be a good person, think positive thoughts.

Criticisms

The claims made by the book are highly controversial, and have been criticized by reviewers and readers. The book has also been heavily criticized by former believers and practitioners, with some claiming that the concept of the "Secret" was conceived by the author and that the only people generating wealth and happiness from it are the author and the publishers. Critics contend that the book is based on a

pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...

theory called the "law of attraction"—the principle that "like attracts like". In a harshly critical 2010 review, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' stated: "''The Power'' and ''The Secret'' are larded with references to magnets, energy and

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...

. This last is a dead giveaway: whenever you hear someone appeal to impenetrable physics to explain the workings of the mind, run away—we already have disciplines called '

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

' and '

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

' to deal with those questions. Byrne's onslaught of pseudoscientific jargon serves mostly to establish an 'illusion of knowledge,' as social scientists call our tendency to believe we understand something much better than we really do."

Jerry Adler Jerry Adler (born February 4, 1929) is an American theatre director, producer, and film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his films ''Manhattan Murder Mystery'', '' The Public Eye'', '' In Her Shoes'', and ''Prime'', and for hi ...

wrote in ''Newsweek'' that ''The Power'' offers false hope to those in true need of more conventional assistance in their lives.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Power, The 2010 non-fiction books Australian books New Age books Quantum mysticism Self-help books Atria Publishing Group books