Shannon Barbare makes a few pithy observations about The Secret in yesterday's Denver Post:

Where's compassion in "The Secret"?

... "The Secret," you see, is like a mail-order catalog. As marketing specialist Joe Vitale happily informs readers, "You flip through it and say, "'I'd like to have this experience and I'd like to have that product, and I'd like to have a person like that' ... it's really that easy." ...

Suppose I am overweight, and I wish to be thin. "The Secret" tells me that it is not the fatty foods I consume but the fatty thoughts I think, that make me overweight. So, I can whip out my catalog, order up the perfect weight, and it will be given to me.

Furthermore, if I see people who are overweight, I am advised, "Do not observe them, but immediately switch your mind to the picture of you in your perfect body."

It's the same when I confront a sick person. If I listen to someone talk about an illness, I could tune in to that frequency, focus on sick thoughts and attract sickness to myself. If I want to help that person I should "change the conversation to good things, if you can, or be on your way."

These New Agers contend that the victims of mass tragedies were "on the same frequency" as the event. In other words, if people think they can be in the wrong place at the wrong time, those thoughts "can attract them to being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

In challenging times, we all want to know the secret. But let's be clear about some of the concepts in "The Secret:" Victims of horrific events somehow brought it on themselves. Turn away from those who are less than your idea of perfect. Shun the sick.

Here's what I want. As humans, we remember compassion. I'm placing an order now.

This is nothing new: Several decades ago, new-age promoter Shirley McClain admitted that she believed people were poor because they had chosen that experience in their pre-life.

Going even further back, Hinduism took the idea one more logical step, stating not only that people were born into low castes because they deserved it (due to misdeeds in a previous life) but that it was a violation of Karma for them to try to improve their lot in this life. And just as in The Secret, society's undesired members are to keep away from centers of life so the better-off members will not have to look upon them -- or even have their shadows touch!

Differences in status are traditionally justified by the religious doctrine of karma, a belief that one’s place in life is determined by one’s deeds in previous lifetimes.... The Dalits are described as varna-sankara: they are “outside the system”—so inferior to other castes that they are deemed polluting and therefore “untouchable.” ... Although “untouchability” was abolished under Article 17 of the Indian constitution, the practice continues to determine the socio-economic and religious standing of those at the bottom of the caste hierarchy. Whereas the first four varnas are free to choose and change their occupation, Dalits have generally been confined to the occupational structures into which they are born. [1]

The viewer hears that Untouchability is an urban phenomenon as well, inflicted upon a leading medical surgeon and in such hallowed institutions as JNU, where a Brahmin boy builds a partition so as not to look upon his Dalit roommate in the early morning. [2]

The teaching of bad karma in a past life kills the spirit of individual generosity and philanthropy which is why there has never been a robust philanthropic culture in our nation. Why engage in philanthropy if people are getting their just deserves for sins in a past life or sins in this life? Even in the recent economic boom where many an Indian has attained great wealth in the West, we have not seen a comparable rise in Indian social philanthropy. [3]

Study India, particularly as it existed before Westerners arrived, and you'll see the result of thousands of years in "New Age" philosophies, including "the secret" (which is an introductory step towards belief in maya). As Shannon Barbare remarked, taken to it's logical conclusion, "the implications are frightening." Poverty, racism/classism that make the West look almost noble by comparison, and little impetus (or ability) to improve one's own lot in life.

I don't want to live under that philosophy -- yet so many other Westerners are busy rejecting the tremendous heritage they have for something like this.