Has The Secret To Happiness Been Discovered?

In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.Here’s this week’s question:Dear Dave and Tom, A number of my friends, Christians and non Christians, are very excited about a new book and DVD they were introduced to through the Oprah Winfrey Show.They were told about an ancient secret by a panel of guests who understood and used “the secret” to bring health, wealth, love and peace into their lives.Since I didn’t see the program, and I’m a very skeptical person, I was wondering if you had any information about it.

Tom:

Well, actually we can bring a little information.We have the DVD, the staff looked at it, Dave, you watched it for about 10 minutes, which is about all you could handle—well, you’re a busy guy!But nevertheless, the reason it only took 10 minutes for you is, this is not some “secret” that they just unearthed months ago or even a year ago.Dave, I was thinking about The Seduction of Christianity, written 21-22 years ago, and we dealt with all of these issues.This is nothing more—“The Secret”, folks, is nothing more than a rehashing of the old mind science, prosperity healing techniques that have been around for—well, so we could go back to Mesmer, right?

Dave:

It’s the same lie that Satan gave Eve in the garden, it has gone under many labels.Too many years ago it was New Age, it’s called, sometimes, the human potential movements, positive mental attitude, success motivation, all of these have seminars on it, and the basis idea is that there is a power inside that you can tap into.And I can remember when the New Agers were saying, You know, if we could just all find this, if we could all get into this, and Tom, remember, I used to say, That wouldn’t make me happy, that would make me frightened if every Tom, Dick and Harry and Jane and Joanne out there in the street has got some kind of a super power that they can zap one another.I mean, it would just turn us into a bunch Darth Vader’s and Obie Wan Kanobies zapping one another with psychic power.

Tom:

Yeah, but Dave, they talk about healing and prosperity—

Dave:

Oh, sure, all of that.

Tom:

And they say there is plenty to go around.

Dave:

Yeah, but you know how selfish people are—I want my power to be stronger than your power, Tom, cause I want to get what I want to get andyou’re trying to get your fingers into it.

Tom:

Now Dave, the people that they mention here, this woman that authored the book and actually put these people together, Rhonda Byrne, I guess it’s pronounced, she dedicates the book to Charles Filmore.Where do you know that name?

Dave:

Well, Charles Filmore is the founder of Unity.

Tom:

UnitySchool of Christianity, so far removed from Christianity it’s a bad joke.

Dave:

Norman Vincent Peale gave him credit for much of what he taught.Peale said he got it from him, and Peale gave a talk there at Unity Headquarters, at Lee’s Summit, Missouri, and so did Robert Schuller.And by the way, Tom, I don’t know if I’ve been through this before but we have a copy of that talk that Robert Schuller gave there.I got it from them at Lee’s Summit, Missouri, now they deny—of course they have done away with it, maybe under pressure from Schuller, I don’t know, but now they deny that he was ever there or made this tape, but we happen to have it.But anyway, this is not Christianity, this is New Age.

Tom:

One of the guests on the Oprah Winfrey Show, but also included in the DVD, is a guy named Bob Procter.He says:The Secret, as of late, came from great teachers.He says, Andrew Carnegie, and then he says, who passed it on to Napoleon Hill.Who passed it on to Earl Nightingale, and so on.

Dave:

But Tom—

Tom:

Didn’t Napoleon Hill die penniless?

Dave:

Now that I don’t know, but I know that Napoleon Hill told us he didn’t get it from Carnegie.He said that he got it from a spirit being, and it entered his study and in a vibrant voice said:You have been under the guidance of the GreatSchool for many years, and we’ve come here, you know, to give you “the secret.”Look, he called it the secret of success, what you can conceive you can achieve.In other words, it’s the power of the mind.

Tom:

Sure.Dave, another individual here who promotes this, you know, he’s dead, but promoted this W. Clement Stone, who really funded Robert Schuller and his book,Self Esteem, the New Reformation.So, this is mind science.

Dave:

How did he fund him?To send out about, I think it was about 250,000 free copies of this book to Christian colleges, Christian seminaries, evangelical Christians.

Tom:

Pastors and so forth.

Dave:

Right, yeah.

Tom:

So, Dennis Waitley, another individual in here, again it’s positive thinking, positive mental attitude, this is, as I said at the beginning of this segment—you know, I got to help you with a book called, The Seduction of Christianity, and this is rehashed Gnosticism, mind science, and so on, and we saw it in the church through the positive confession promoters like Kenneth Hagan, Kenneth Copeland, Fred Price, and so on, so this is not new, it’s not a secret.

Dave:

It’s the same old thing repackaged.

Tom:

But you know, Dave, what is effective about it—

Dave:

It’s all promoted.

Tom:

Well, you saw the DVD, I mean, it comes on like The Divinci Code.I mean we’re talking about marketing and packaging that—I will tell you how successful it was.Once it was on the Ophra Winfrey Show, Walmart sold completely out of the DVD’s and the books all across the country.