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I was asked the other day why The Secret was not in the Library, and the short answer is that it is not a book that changed my life.

I do, however, believe in the concepts behind the book,  specifically the law of attraction.

At the time the book came out I had already read Ask and it is Given, which is based on the teachings of Abraham, so I felt I knew the concepts already. 

The premise behind Rhonda Byrne’s book is based on optimism or positive thinking: change how you see life and life will change, which is exactly what Dr. Wayne Dyer promises in his book The Power of Intention. 

The Secret is not a new or ground breaking discovery, but Byrne has taken that concept and repackaged it. If the author’s own success can be used as a benchmark, then the concept clearly works.

Like all clues, or pieces of a jigsaw, collect enough and you will eventually get the full picture. The order in which you find the clues simply determines how long it will take you to solve the puzzle. For everything in life, there are short cuts. For some The Secret, and its sister The Power, might be the perfect route; for others it might not work.

The beauty about personal development is that it is personal. There is no right or wrong way to go about working out what works. No right or wrong book; no right or wrong teacher; and no right or wrong answer. There is no judge or exam. There is just the quality of an individual’s life experience trying out what works for them at that moment in time.

What I do love about The Secret, and indeed The Celestine Prophecy, is the idea of a mystery that is as old as time; very Indiana Jones. But what The Celestine Prophecy has, which is why it worked for me, is that it is a story, an adventure, and not just a collection of interviews as is Byrne’s style with The Secret.

Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist is similar; if you are not ready to see beyond the words on the page, you can still read and enjoy the story, which in essence is a fable about following your dream.

The Secret is based on the concept that everything one wants/needs may be accomplished by wishing it and believing in it. My reservation with the book and the subsequent film—which is why it is not in Library—is that it focuses too much on the material side, masking the spiritual concepts that make these Dreams come true.

It is not that Byrne does not know the spiritual concepts. In fact her note book, The Secret Gratitude Book, is an excellent little tool to assist the novice in cultivating the habit of gratitude. But success sells, which is why these stories and examples are so powerful.

But giving less weight to the spiritual concepts in comparison to the materialistic examples of success, is misleading and has left a few people I know disillusioned. They feel that they have less than they had before. In fact talking to them in detail it turns out  all they have done is focus solely on material dreams, such as homes, cars, clothes and holiday destinations, making their current status seem like a failure.

For me the missing element of The Secret is the idea that we are all unique, with unique skills that we are here to use in our unique life purpose. I personally believe that if we ask for what will help us to get closer to that life purpose, our dreams will materialise.

If, however, we ask for something that will take us further away it is less likely to. Or as a few people I have met have found, they do manifest their desires, but with unwanted side effects.  Often these side effects feel like a Groundhog Day existence as the same issues re-appear again and again.

In my current belief system, and the premise underpinning The Life Detective is the individual’s quest for their life purpose. Once someone has isolated this little secret: that of the quest for their life purpose, I believe then asking for what one needs to achieve it is a much simpler process; mainly because it comes from the soul and not from the ego.

For me, an even more important little secret, is knowing, or allowing yourself to believe that what you do get, is exactly what you need in that moment in time. It is one of The Four Principles of Spirituality.  I believe that the real secret of successful manifestation is for the requests to be aligned to life purpose. Once the Intention is set, it is important to let go of the outcome and enjoy the journey, according to Srikumar Rao, author of Are you ready to s0ucceed.

This is more clearly illustrated from my own personal example. A few years ago I was given the DVD of The Secret, which I watched, hoping that it would change my opinion on the book. As I sat there watching example after example of material wealth success stories, my post arrived and with it a government savings bond certificate, where there is a lottery like payout instead of interest.

Keen to try out the book’s theory, I followed the processes described and set the Intent for wealth and desired a big win. I visualised the outcome of a £1 million win, the maximum jackpot, then I put a Post It Note with the date on the certificate and pinned it to the cork board, where I kept my dreams.

One day, eight or nine months later, having totally forgotten my experiment with manifestation, I received a cheque for £100. The serial number of the certificate matched the number on the cheque and I laughed.

I knew instantly that for me to follow my purpose, I had to learn about and believe in the laws of attraction, the concept of manifestation, and the process of setting an intention; but at that moment in time in my case, winning £1 million in 2006 would have taken me off track.

The Power, which is also a compilation of interviews, is simply about loving; exuding love and light, rather than any other negative emotions.  Once again, right idea repackaged for those that like concepts delivered that way.

But as my first Yoga teacher found out recently, exuding love does not stop one attracting darker forces. Key is knowing ourselves well enough to handle the darker moments of life when they hit us. That is why there is no one book that can solve everything that life throws up. If a book one encounters resonates with the values and beliefs we hold, then this book is a teacher at that moment in time; best seller or not.