Listen -- do you want to know a secret?

Now that the arguably facile and materialistic musings of one Rhonda Byrne have been embraced by Oprah, you know that Byrne’s Secret truly has become a licence to print money.

The Secret, if you haven’t heard about it is a book, film, and DVD designed to enable all of us to have much more agreeable lives if only we would embrace the wisdom of such ancients as Aristotle. Now, that Aristotle was a really smart guy and if he had tapped into the Secret, then you know it must work. Talk about a testimonial. But, Ms. Byrne not to just rely on the musings of a lone ancient Greek also throws Plato, Isaac Newton, Martin Luther King and Tom Arnold into the mix. Oh, sorry, not Tom Arnold. I must have misread the testimonial list. I always get his name confused with that other Tom – you know, Edison.

Ms. Byrne (especially notable to me because she bears the same surname as my wife, who always ends up getting her name spelled B –‘RY’-ne on official documents) hails from Down Under. In 2004 she discovered the Secret, and in a trice others sought the wisdom she had discovered, and many people sent up the plaintive cry: “Help me, Rhonda! Help-help me Rhonda.

So, what exactly is the Secret? It’s sorta like this:

‘It is our Powerful Intention to create the most fertile community in the world for people to manifest their Intentions!
Your intentions may be about anything you desire.”

See, it’s revolutionary. In essence it’s based on visualizing something that you want; that you really-really want. Then you visualize it, and visualize it and visualize it until the cows come home. Say you want a BMW convertible. Well, visualize that Beemer ragtop until the cows come home. And, you’ll either get the BMW, or you’ll get cows. In either case you won’t lose – unless you get the cows and you are a) a vegan or, b) a member of PETA.

There’s a sort of quantum physics about the whole thing. I’m not quite sure how, since I know little about quantum physics, but evidently there is.

Anyway, Ms. Byrne is not without her critics. There are those who suggest her concept of
visualizing what we want is based on the crassest of materialistic quests. I say there is nothing wrong with that. But, I do suggest that Ms. Byrne’s prescription for success is not really anything new. Of course she says that herself, by her references to the ancients. But, I think you only need to go back a very few years to find the same thing.

Back in the 1920s there was a Frenchman by the name of Emile Coue who advised his followers (and they were legion in the days of bathtub gin and flappers) to look in the mirror each morning and repeat this simple mantra: “Every day, in every way I am getting better and better.” I don’t know if it worked, but as long as folk fell into line, M. Coue got better and better and richer and richer.

A few years later a pastor by the name of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale presented a concept called the Power of Positive Thinking. Dr. Peale said that the key to success in life, at all levels, including the spiritual, was to look at life optimistically. Frankly, I agree. Negative thinking begets negativity.

And, I agree with Ms. Byrne in that regard. Anything that calls for a positive approach to life is a good thing.

But, I must also suggest that, for heaven’s sake, there is nothing new or unique about what she is suggesting and making a great deal of money from, and getting to kiss the Oprah ring as a result. Nothing new or revolutionary.

Damn it all. I wish I’d thought of it first.