You might be thinking “why?”  You might not.  I attended because it was free.

I attended primarily for two reasons; first, as I said, the price was right; and second, it was an opportunity to learn more about the internet and marketing on the internet.  One of the most fascinating things I learned from the workshop was the marketing power of the word ‘free’.  The single most keyed in word on the internet is free.  We all want something for free.  Garage sales, discount stores, super sizing, lotteries and anything else with the idea of free in it; they grab our attention and bring us in.

Recently the movie “The Secret” hit the markets and became an overnight success thanks largely to the internet and word of mouth marketing.  What is the appeal of “The Secret” and other books and movies like it?  It offers something we perceive as free, in this case a millionaire lifestyle.

“The Secret” reintroduced the public to the law of attraction, more accurately the law of correspondence.  It did a very good job at providing just enough mystique to catch most peoples attention. It availed itself of a few of the greatest inspirers of our time who eloquently explained some basic steps to the creation of wealth, health, happiness and creative fulfillment.  The movie never suggested any of this was free.  In fact I am quite sure none of the documented teachers would have suggested that in the practice of their philosophy you could get anything for free.  That was not the focus of the movie any more than the idea of payment was a part of the movie; it simply didn’t go there.

Yet at some point there is where most of our society will go. 

The hard and fast rule is that nothing is free!  And something inside of us hopefully shouts “Yes but…”.  So I simply say one more time “Nothing is free.”   There is always a price to be paid.  The one who likes to argue in you is even now saying such things as “What about the inheritance I received?” or, “What about the welcome wagon gifts?”, “…the birthday and Christmas presents?” and so on. 

We get absolutely nothing for nothing, there is always a coin to be paid.  This is one of the laws of the universe, as sacred and utterly reliable as the law of attraction.  It is the law of reciprocity. 

So why when the narrators of “The Secret” stand up and explain the law of correspondence (or as they call it in the movie ‘the law of attraction’) do we automatically think we are being offered something for nothing? 

The reason is exactly the same as the reason we get so few consistent results when we try to practice what they teach.  We do not value the energy of thought; the average person is completely unconscious of their moment to moment thinking.  In fact the average person remains unconscious of their thought tendencies until they show up in some, usually unpleasant, ways. 

What ‘The Secret’ teaches indirectly is that we pay for the life we have by the attention we give to it, or as the great Anonymous once said: “What we think about, comes about.”