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Produced by Prime Time Productions, The Secret is a feature length film showcasing tenets of New Thought movement via a number of interconnected vignettes focusing on "The Law of Attraction." Acted tidbits of drama intermingle with sit-down interviews to drive home points made in film. Although originally billed as a self-help aid, The Secret soon began to draw heavy criticism and the producers found themselves under fire from a variety of different sources.

Making the circuit of media greats, film's participants were soon featured during publicity campaigns with Oprah Winfrey, Larry King and Montel Williams. Using its dramatic presentation, The Secret showcases that "The Law of Attraction" has great bearing on everyday life, and thus the actual secret that is revealed is the applicability of this law. To demonstrate veracity of this century old claim, producers enlisted help of spiritual experts, personal coaches, master of the art of feng shui, and also motivational and moneymaking experts.

The goal of The Secret is to sound alert that a person's feelings and thought patterns indeed attract tangible results. While this may be a simplistic explanation of "The Law of Attraction," film attempts to show this law in action to those who might never have been exposed to it before. While it doesn't matter if an individual understands this law or even believes in it, film asserts that her or his emotional as well as physical health, interpersonal relationships, and professional persona are all affected by it. Going a step further, The Secret claims that veracity of "The Law of Attraction" has been closely guarded by those in know, lest population at large were to catch on to something this potentially powerful and liberating.

To understand the scope of mind change that needs to occur, the film presents three actions that must be taken prior to any transformation:

1. One must ask.

2. One must believe.

3. One must receive.

Utilizing power of the spoken word via interviews as well as energy of the dramatically presented truths picture has to offer, the film's producers capitalize on showcased individuals' reputations, mastery of their respective fields, and ability to present reality of "The Law of Attraction" as they see it played out as either physicists, metaphysics gurus, coaches, philosophers, finance experts, psychologists, physiologists, and feng shui masters.

Questioning what universe can do for individual rather than other way around, quotes of history's greatest and most creative minds are offered: we may hear words from Buddha, Aristotle, Plato, Sir Isaac Newton, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and musical genius Ludwig van Beethoven. This brings film full circle to an exploration of New Thought Movement which was thought to have begun in the mid to late 19th century.

To uninitiated notion that The Secret seeks to reveal is a bit odd and smacks on the mysterious and as such is considered removed from mainstream. Yet with the gain in popularity that the New Thought movement has received in recent decades, it's not surprising to see principles of film embraced by a number of individuals who are featured. Claiming to have used information thus far withheld, they promise that personal and professional success and happiness in this world no longer need to elude viewer -- once she or he understand that whatever they release into world they'll also receive back.

The skinny on "the secret"

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