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I don’t want you to think I’m telling you not to think positive. Thinking positive is a good thing. Making yourself happy, I’m all for that.

But this thing called “The Secret” just gives me the wiggums. Apparently the way it works is that you think positive and, “Wham” your life will get better. And I’m not moaning about that, I’m moaning about things I read like this the author encapsulates what her DVD is about. Of course thinking positively is going to make you feel better. But this DVD operates on a slightly different mindset.

“The law of attraction says that like attracts like, and when you think and feel what you want to attract on the inside, the law will use people, circumstances and events to magnetize what you want to you, and magnetize you to it,” Byrne said in an e-mail in response to several questions posed by The Associated Press.

Okay. fine. No problem with that even though it seems a bit simple to me. But then when you get further into it, because Oprah has touted it so that means an author is going to sell a million-thousand-cajillion copies of her work, you find stuff like this that makes me a bit queasy. My initial thought was, you know people don’t fail, events do. But if you aren’t privy to “The Secret” then does that set you up into not feeling worthy because you didn’t get in on it. I mean, the mantra is The Secret lists three required steps—“ask, believe, receive”—as the essence of the Law of Attraction.

Confusing stuff. But just because you ask doesn’t mean you will receive. I would like to think in a furry, happy, bunny world that would happen, but just because you want something won’t make it so. I want to work at Weekly World News and for Antonio Banderas to become my man about the house, but that ain’t going to happen, campers.

I’m not the only one questioning this. And some of what I’ve read I seriously wonder about.

However, the fear that “The Secret” will lead to a blame-the-victim mentality is a serious claim of critics.

For example, the book dismisses conditions such as a genetic predisposition to being overweight or a slow thyroid as “disguises for thinking ‘fat thoughts.’” And during times in which massive number of lives were lost, the book says, the “frequency of their thoughts matched the frequency of the event.”

Psychotherapist and lifestyle coach Stacy Kaiser said that after reading “The Secret,” several patients have worried that it was their fault they were abused, or laid off from their jobs. Others seem to expect everything in their lives to change overnight, she said.

The Los Angeles-based Kaiser joined several other therapists who praised the positive thinking espoused in “The Secret,” but who question its failure to discuss action.

“People start to think that they don’t have to use their free will, that they don’t have to have power anymore, that they don’t have to make choices,” Kaiser said. “They don’t realize they have to do the work. And that’s the conversation I keep having to have with people.”

Although Maureen Dowd made me laugh when she said if “The Secret” would work for a change in the White House before the last election. Not soon enough, I’m afraid.

Now go back to that second graph. Fat thoughts. Oh for crying out loud. Yeah, go read it again. I’m waiting. This is where I get off the boat. “The Secret” doesn’t believe in genetic predisposition? and then this preposterous statement “And during times in which massive number of lives were lost, the book says, the “frequency of their thoughts matched the frequency of the event.”

I call BS on that, sorry.

Now, if you dig “The Secret” I’m not raining on your parade. If it changes your life for the better, I applaud you. Do what you have to do.

There are tons of self-help books out there that ran their course. There are some that stick around. Norman Vincent Peale wrote “The Power of Positive Thinking” who was criticized himself back in the day but coined the phrase:

• Change your thoughts and you change your world.

I’m waiting for the “Save The Cheerleader, Save the World” obligatory comment so I’ll just do it for you.

Now, If it was such a “Secret” then why was Peale writing this a half a century ago. Wait, it’s a DVD, that makes it all better and bright and shiny and new. But I see the potential for a lot of victim blaming with this concept and that “The Secret” seems to be something on the lines of Anthony Robbins, who at least was a bit self-deprecating when he was made fun of. What happened to him? hmmmm…

These books/films to improve your life aren’t new by any stretch of the imagination. It’s most likely helpful to be able to read a book and feel like you can change your life for the better because someone told you what to do. I’ve bought some of these books, I understand the quick fix. But just because you want something doesn’t mean you are going to get it. Sorry campers. The bottom line, in my opinion, is you have to take action in your life to get to the next stage.

Just writing it down on a piece of paper and thinking “Make it So” just isn’t going to work.

Back to your regular scheduled programming of Newscoma, who would really like a pony.