Love that Bob!

Last night, ABC News Nightline attempted to tackle The Secret. Since Secret creator Rhonda Byrne is apparently interview-shy right now (goodness, I hope she’s not too brokenhearted over the disappointment about Tilak)*, Bob Proctor graciously agreed to sit down and talk to Cynthia McFadden about the criticisms leveled against The Secret and the Law of Attraction.

As you probably know, Bob, who is identified as a "philosopher" in The Secret, was one of the Three Amigos at the helm of that now-infamous $1,995 MLM briefcase scheme, The Science of Getting Rich. When I clicked on the web site just now, however, there only seemed to be Two Amigos; missing in action is the Reverend Beckwith. I certainly hope the guys didn’t have a fight or something. I don’t see why they would; after all, the Universe is a fount of endless riches, and there’s enough for everyone!

In fact I was all prepared to fork over $1,995 to get in on the briefcase scheme myself,** but alas, the SGR site seems to be closed down for the moment, with this explanation: "We had what is termed a ‘soft launch’ for this SGR program and we gathered a tremendous amount of feedback; data and information that is going to improve the program for everyone involved. In order to implement these changes, we have shut down all of the sites down for the next 24 to 48 hours to do the work that is necessary."

I'm thinking that at least some of that work would involve satisfying the demands of attorneys for Rhonda and gang's company, TS Productions, LLC. Just a wild guess. In the New-Wage world it always pays to read between the lines – you almost have to – and I'm thinking that "soft launch" is internet hustledork-speak for "Oops!"

But never mind that. Let’s focus for the moment on Bob Proctor, who has met the criticisms against The Secret head on and has come out on top.

"I find it amusing that anybody would criticize it," he told Cynthia McFadden. "Do you know, it's always been around? The law of attraction is always working. That's like saying the sun's not shining. The sun's always shining. You may not see it, but it's always shining. The law of attraction is always working." He went on to explain LOA to Cynthia, and gave an illuminating example:

CYNTHIA McFADDEN
And the law of attraction is…
BOB PROCTOR
Well, the law of attraction is based on a law of vibration. You’re, you’re a mass of energy on a high speed of vibration. And the vibration you’re in is controlled by the images that are in your mind, that are fixed in your mind or the thoughts that you’re thinking. And the controls the vibration you’re in. That dictates what you’re going to do. It also dictates what you attract to you. You’re not going to attract something to you that you’re not in harmony with.
CYNTHIA McFADDEN
Now, do you mean literally attract?
BOB PROCTOR
Absolutely, just like a magnet. You felt – well –
CYNTHIA McFADDEN
[OVERLAP] But I thought, I thought magnets attracted their opposite.
BOB PROCTOR
Well, magnets complete a chain.
CYNTHIA McFADDEN
Okay.
BOB PROCTOR
It, it keeps a circle going. And, but if a person is very positive they’re not going to feel comfortable around people that are very negative, are they? They’re going to be repelled from them. They’re going to be attracted to other people who are very positive. Like attracts like. You’ll find poor people all living in the same neighborhood. You’ll find wealthy people all live in the same neighborhood. They’re attracted to situations.
CYNTHIA McFADDEN
Yeah, but poor people can’t afford to live in the wealthy neighborhoods and the wealthy don’t want to live in the poor neighborhoods.
BOB PROCTOR
[OVERLAP] Well, that, that’s, that’s the obvious answer but that isn’t the real answer. You’re going to find that almost all people in poor neighborhoods are fourth, fifth generation welfare recipients. And that is because this thinking has been passed along in the genes. It’s a genetic conditioning. It’s not only genetic. It’s environmental. When you arrive on the scene why do you think you look so much like your relatives? Do you think it’s an accident? It’s all programming. It’s genetic programming...

Well, I don’t know about you, but that clears a lot up for me! Now I know why there are so many poor people on welfare. It’s not just environmental; it is also in their genes!

In researching Nightline story, ABC spoke to several experts on medicine, physics, finance and religion. One of the medical experts was Dr. Richard Wender, president of the American Cancer Society, who was concerned about the implication that we can create disease or heal ourselves with our thoughts. He told Cynthia, "I want to be very clear that there is no evidence that people attract cancer by their thoughts." When Cynthia confronted Bob with Dr. Wender's remark, he declared that the doctor was "not well informed in this area."

You tell 'em, Doctor Bob!

To address those burning quantum questions, Nightline went to Brian Greene, Ph.D. a renowned physicist at Columbia University. Dr. Greene said, "If by law of attraction, they have this notion of having a thought and it attracts like thoughts, I can assure you that quantum mechanics has nothing to say about that." He also added that even though he’d never met Plato, Edison, Galileo or Einstein, "I have zero evidence that any of them would’ve held on to any fundamental secret about the world and not shared it." When Cynthia mentioned all this to Bob, he answered that having a doctorate*** doesn’t necessarily make a person knowledgeable about these matters.
Knock ’em dead, Scientist Bob!

I could go on and on, but I’d rather let Bob speak for himself. Only a small snippet of the lengthy interview made the cut for the Nightline segment. (And, to be fair, Bob did say that he personally would not recommend that people who have cancer refuse medical treatment. Yet when Cynthia confronted him with the point that The Secret appears to be telling folks to eschew medicine, he insisted that anyone who got that message from The Secret was misunderstanding it.) Anyway, for a complete transcript of the interview click here.****

* OK, she's probably over the heartbreak by now. Bob Proctor speculated she's probably just a little overwhelmed by all of the negativity that now surrounds The Secret. Shame on us critics!
**Not really. Do you really think I am that stoopid? Wait, don't answer that.
***He could have qualified that and said, "Even if it’s a real doctorate, like Brian Greene’s."
****Note: It is a 107-page PDF file, so it may take a little while to load.

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