Well, Dear Ones, it's the weekend already, and I have a couple of half-finished blog posts in the pipeline, at least one of which I hope to get up today or tomorrow, as I have been promising some of my inner circle of snarky pals for the past few days. Meanwhile, however, I felt compelled to share a couple of quick "secrets"...The other day I celebrated the birth of another sequel to The Secret (fourth item down, "Scientist Bob is at it again!"). That one, Beyond The Secret, seems to be little more than another Bob Proctor Ponzi-like scheme, but never mind; it's for the good of humanity. Now comes word of – who would have ever imagined we would have witnessed such a thing in our lifetime? – yet another Secret sequel.
Behold The Meta Secret, which will feature some of the "stars" of the original New-Wage moviemercial, such as Scientist Bob Proctor and "Dr." Joe Vitale (who spent part of his time in San Diego the other day being filmed for his bit. He says it's the eighth "movie" he's been in.).
The site for this latest master work has the look and feel of the official site of The Secret, so if Rhonda Byrne's lawyers aren't on this one like maggots on a festering sore, we'll have to either assume that she and her cohorts are "secretly" involved, or that her attorneys are just too busy with all of those other lawsuits (more on that in a moment). So far, the actual official sequel to The Secret, which was announced a couple of years ago, has not seen the light of day. As one of my readers suggested the other day, it might have something to do with all of those little legal issues.
So just what is The Meta Secret about? Well...hold on to your hats, because this is going to come as a huge surprise... but The Meta Secret takes up where The Secret left off! Who would have ever guessed? Here's the scoop:
The Meta Secret takes off where the original Secret movie left viewers. It delves deeper into the Law of Attraction, featuring Step-by-Step, "How-To" Techniques of Manifestation which will enhance your levels of Abundance, Love, Health and Happiness.
Some of the original Secret Teachers return to delve deeper into the Law of Attraction and the mysterious workings of the Universe. In addition, various authentic Metaphysical Teachers and Enlightened Wisemen of the East add a further dimension to the movie.
For the first time ever, the secret wisdom of the East and the latest technological and philosophical discoveries are synthesized and brought to the consciousness of the layman.
The movie has been shot directly into High Definition DVD format, as in the original Secret Movie.
Now You Can Get A First Hand Look And Discover Where NO Man Has Gone Before!
And....
"This movie is a Rapid Step-By-Step
Approach To Unleashing 'The Secret'
Law of Attraction to Help You Manifest
Massive Abundance, Love, Health and Happiness
In YOUR LIFE!"
Here's the Meta Secret cast so far, as listed on the web site (the quotation marks are theirs, not mine):
- Dr. Mel Gill: "Psychologist"
- Bob Proctor: "Philosopher"
- Dr. Joe Vitale: "Metaphysician"
- Jack Canfield: "Chicken Soup for the Soul"
- Dr. Masaru Emoto: "Messages From Water"
- Charlie Jones: "Tremendous Jones"
- T. Harv Eker: "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind"
- W. Mitchell: "Miracle Survivor"
- Ajahn Brahm: "Meditation Master"
- David Riklan: "SelfGrowth.com"
- Vikas Malkani: "The Enlightenment Specialist"
As most of us know, according to The Secret mindset, the Law Of Attraction is an immutable law of the Universe, and if you just follow the advice of the Secret teachers you, too, can have unlimited wealth, health and happiness. Even so, the Meta-Secret people still saw fit to add the obligatory Disclaimer and Legal Notice:
The author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents of this website...
...They disclaim any warranties (expressed or implied), merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The authors and publisher shall in no event be held liable for any loss or other damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. As always, the advice of a competent legal, tax, accounting or other professional should be sought...
...We cannot guarantee your success, in any particular endeavor. What works for us, or our associates, may not work well for you. This is a fact of life, and one that you should be fully aware of when you act upon our advice.
As for the Secret lawsuits alluded to above, don't say I didn't warn you about this one last December, though I wasn't at liberty at the time to do anything more than hint about it. By now just about everyone knows about the lawsuit filed by Drew Heriot, the original Secret director and co-writer. I told his story in my December blog post. Well, now the other shoe has dropped, and the original Web strategist, Dan Hollings, whose story I also told, has now filed a lawsuit as well. Seems that Gollum... er...Rhonda and company stiffed both of these gentlemen, and is now being called to account for it. And no telling who else Rhonda may have Byrne'd, and what other lawsuits will develop as time goes by. That's truly the Law Of Attraction in action!
PS added on Monday, 25 August ~
Kids! Order your decoder rings today!
Just in case you are not quite sure about the true nature of The Meta-Secret, take a look at some of the planned Meta-Secret merchandise, from the "Meta-Secret Store" page:
The Meta Secret Posters
Created with NeuroActive Technologies, the Meta Secret Posters are psychrtronically [sic] charged, enhancing your energy levels and manifestation ability.**Each poster is beautifully crafted and designed with corresponding Meta Secret quotes.
Perfect for turbocharging your room with the Power of the Meta Secret!
The Meta Secret Cards
Created with NeuroActive Technologies, the Meta Secret Cards are psychrtronically [sic] charged, enhancing your energy levels and manifestation ability.Each card is beautifully crafted and designed with corresponding Meta Secret quotes.
"Perfect for turbocharging your room?" Not "your home," not "your office," not "any room in your home"... but your room? Are they marketing to kids (or to grown-up slackers who still live with their parents)? More importantly, when is the Meta-Secret Crunchy-Chewy Cereal coming out? And Meta-Secret Barbie? The marketing possibilities are so exciting that my hands are shaking...
** All I can say is that it's simply amazing what technology can do these days. Not only do we have "psychrtronically" charged posters and cards, but we have web sites that are specially designed to "clean" you while you're browsing...
PS added February 2009: The Meta-Secret links above no longer work. Apparently the site has been moved and revamped; it's now at http://themetasecret.org/.
PS added January 2010: Once again the links have changed (and several of the links above no longer work, so you'll just have to trust my quotations. I swear I didn't make them up). Anyway, it seems the main site is once again http://www.themetasecret.com. I wish they'd make up their minds.
Well Connie, you have outdone yourself again. Nothing says it better than this paragraph copied from the court documents:
ReplyDelete"The terms of the agreement between Mr. Hollings and Defendant Byrne are memorialized in a series of email correspondence which sets forth Defendant Byrne’s desire to maximize the profit potential surrounding this project and the amount of revenues that could be captured through the web-based marketing campaign."
Nothing more to be said really. The whole lot of them were a bunch of greedy bastards from the very beginning and now that blessed universe is coming back to haunt them. Isn't it just beautiful.
You're spot-on, Farrell. The Law Of Attraction really does seem to be working, though perhaps in ways not foreseen by Rhonda and company.
ReplyDeleteThese people will be known for something and I very much doubt it will be as they wanted it. I get the distinct feeling that they like to write their own scripts and have no accountability to anyone for anything.
ReplyDeleteI can see that Schirmer guy from Australia coming out with a Meta Program soon just to piss Proctor off because he's joined up with Dr Joe. He won't be able to help himself. They are like a bunch of school kids, bitching about whose it what and what is whose and basically getting nowhere in life. A circus that is fun to watch.
ReplyDeleteThe Thecret is thstuffed....
ReplyDeleteAnon 7:58 PM said: "I get the distinct feeling that they [selfish-help gurus] like to write their own scripts and have no accountability to anyone for anything."
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly right, Anon. Sooner or later they are called on it, in one way or another, but most of them manage to squirm away and carry on as usual.
Knowing1, word has it that most of the "Secret" stars want nothing to do with Schirmer any more. I don't know if this is true of "Dr." Joe (who isn't a real Ph.D. or any other kind of doctor), but I do know Joe has been buds with Proctor for years, long before "The Secret" was even a gleam in Rhonda's eye. Proctor wrote the introduction to Joe's book, "Spiritual Marketing."
ReplyDeleteAs for Schirmer, he was "disowned" by Proctor but apparently is still trying in various ways to exploit that former connection, against Australian federal court order.
All of these guys have skeletons in their closets, but to date, Schirmer's "skeletons" are the only ones that have been made public. As I've noted before, that's largely because Schirmer was working in areas (stock market, finance) that are subject to government regulations. Now he is trying to make a living in more abstract areas, and supposedly is trying to get a foothold in the US market. We'll see how that goes...
Jason wrote: "The Thecret is thstuffed...."
ReplyDeleteLOL... The Secret may be stuffed, but the public's appetite is apparently not yet sated. They keep opening their mouths up for more, and the selfish-help/New-Wage gurus keep shoveling it in. Junk food is neither nutritious nor particularly satisfying, but it does reportedly have those additives that keep you craving more...
Hi Connie,
ReplyDeleteI must say you've got me right on the spot with this one...ther's this friend of mine. A good guy and pretty damn talented at that. He told me that he was working on a project known as The Meta Secret and I probably think it's this one. He doesn't talk much about it but he mentioned to me once that working on the project was the toughest thing he's ever done and he doesn't look pretty happy about it. He's a colleague of mine and quit a very comfortable job to work on it. He's full of beliefs on doing good and that many people would appreciate his contribution but I guess now that's not gonna happen you think? Oh what a waste of talent he will be if this projects gonna blow like hell. How come good messages like this are made out of hell? hmmm...I better ask him more details then. Thanks for the blog! I'm not gonna show him this though.poor guy
Anon 1-30-10 (3:06 AM): Are you saying that your friend is Dr. Mel Gill? (Or are you Dr. Mel? :-))
ReplyDeleteIt's now January 2010, and at the time I first wrote this blog post -- which was nearly a year and a half ago -- the Meta-Secret web site (which has changed a few times in the interim) didn't seem to have any info about who was actually behind the film.
When I visited the current site just the other day, however, the contact page listed these contacts:
Pandora Publishing House USA
205 East Butterfield Road
Suite 138 Elmhurst, IL 60126
Tel: Chicago (312) 238 9303
New York (914) 827 5819
and
Pandora Publishing House Asia
16 Arumugam Road, Lion Building D,
#05-01 Singapore 409961
Tel: (65) 6846 6168
Fax: (65) 68466179
Email: enquiries@pandorapublishing.com
From there it was easy to find Mel Gill's name, and more information about him (this is a PDF of an article written in 2007):
http://tinyurl.com/yk2o972
According to that article, even back then "Dr. Mel" was apparently planning a sequel to "The Secret." At that time he was supposedly planning on calling it, "Beyond The Secret." But I guess that name got taken by someone else in the flurry of movies that promised to take the viewer beyond "The Secret." Who could have taken it? Could it be... Bob Proctor?
Yes, "Scientist Bob" was apparently heavily involved in a moviemercial called "Beyond the Secret."
http://www.beyondthesecretdvd.com/
(Note: The "Beyond The Secret" link in the body of this post is apparently no longer operational, but it was in August of 2008 when I wrote this.)
The fact that "The Meta-Secret" was announced at least a year and a half ago but still hasn't been released leads me to believe that Dr. Mel ran into numerous obstacles. He got all those big names behind the project... what happened?
At this point I would think the market is getting absolutely saturated with this kind of "movie," but folks keep churning 'em out anyway, so what's to stop Dr. Mel? The people who like this kind of thing will probably like his moviemercial. Predictably, some will rave about it if there's something in it for them (e.g., affiliate $$). U.S. bloggers may have to be a little more forthright about their affiliation, though, thanks to new FTC regulations.
The folks who don't care for the New-Wage moviemercial probably won't like it or won't even be interested enough to watch it. And so forth.
Dr. Mel may very well be truly idealistic and have a deep desire to do good with this movie. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt here. So what's stopping him? I'm not. (No one reads this blog anyway, according to one of my critics.)
But I strongly suspect that not one of these types of movies that has been released since "The Secret" has been nearly as successful as "The Secret." The New-Wage hucksters keep agreeing to be in them, though, because it's free publicity for them, and they can blog and Tweet about how they were in "yet another movie." And they can get in on those affiliate $$ too if they wish.
In any case, if the beleaguered Dr. Mel's project is not as successful as he hopes it will be, you're going to have to look somewhere else besides this little blog for the blame. A saturated market would be the first place I'd look. Unreasonable expectations on Dr. Mel's part would be a close second.
I was about to sign up for a Science of Getting Rich class under Dr Mel Gill and his associates Graham Wayne Smith and his wife Dora (I think) Smith a few months ago. I had met Dr. Gill once through my friend and I must say, he was a very engaging and charming man. Due to a conflicting schedule, I didn't attend. I had just remembered him just now so I decided to google him and his latest "movie" The Meta Secret (which my friend had viewed in it's "premiere" in the Singapore office) and she said it was "ok" (so I guess it is finished). If I was going to sign up for a seminar, I would at least like to know the background of Dr. Mel Gill and the company he keeps. With the power of google, I had unearthed other shady and disturbing details about the other people involved in producing the movie with him. I had also discovered your blog! Am I glad I did. Now I will not attend his seminar. This whole feel good philosophy preys on people who sincerely are searching for the truth. So sad.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insights, Anon 8:13. I really don't know who else was actually involved in the production of the movie besides Mel Gill, though this site that I just now found when doing some more Googling might reveal more:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dmgcc.com/aboutus.html
Being easily sidetracked, I took a moment to visit their "affiliates" page...
http://www.dmgcc.com/affiliates.html
...and found out about a few other companies that Dr. Gill apparently owns or is affiliated with. F'rinstance, I saw that besides the above-mentioned (see my previous comment here) Pandora Publishing, another "affiliate" of DMGCC.com is something called The Meta Posters Company. Here's the description:
"There are more than 360 designs currently made available by this company which owns the patented and proprietary rights to the technologies that are heavily employed in the manufacture of these truly 21st century innovations in Bio-Plasmic field Resonators. Also known as Psychotronic Generators, a technology created by the Russians in their super secret findings on Human Bio-engineering and Plasma Field research, these Energy 'Amplifiers' will enhance the Vitality and Optimism of people in the vicinity of these posters. As well, there is embedded within the posters subliminal Micro-text which are more than 50 Positive sentences designed to subconsciously Encourage and Empower viewers. There are more than 100 categories of posters in production now and by the end of 2010, the Company expects to see 2,500 poster designs in circulation world-wide."
That just *screams* credibility, in my book, LOL. As you'll see, I respectfully mentioned these posters in my original post, even though the link I listed has gone 404 on us. But hey... maybe there really is something to these posters, huh? After all, as another metaphysical-type guru said, "What if it works?"
But I digress.
What originally caught my eye re The Meta-Secret (besides the fact that it was exploiting one of my favorite snark targets, The Secret) was the fact that I am familiar with many of the "teachers" who star in it, and that's enough of a red flag regarding credibility, as far as I'm concerned.
I will not go so far as to accuse anyone involved in the making of the film of shady dealings, because I just don't know. I'll leave it to people like Salty Droid to do the real digging if such a thing interests them. I am just observing that the motivations of people who make and star in "movies" like The Meta-Secret seem far more mercenary than altruistic.
I will say, though, that there is at least one credible person in the latest line-up in The Meta-Secret: Dan Poynter, whose work in teaching people about self-publishing I have always respected. But those who are interested in learning from Poynter -- who, by the way, was NOT listed as a teacher when this moviemercial first came to my attention -- can go to his own web sites and skip all the mystical, meta-secret-type mumbo-jumbo.
HI Connie!thanks for the elaborate reply. I didn;t expect it;) Anyway, am not doc mel's gill...if that's his name but as I've said am not related to any of this except to this friend of mine who's by the way pissed at me for writing up. He made me promise I wouldn't write any further but he'll never know anyway. He worked on post(VFX) requirements for the movie and he said it looked really good but he's not too keen on telling me the details. I wrote here because I was actually thinking of asking him if I could get in on the project and he said I'm lucky not to get involved. Why though? So at least thanks to your blogsite I'm beginning to see the light. I've checked on the websites you attached and it looks pretty normal...to me at least. I'll try and squeeze some more juice if I can. Thanks again and you do by the way have posts.
ReplyDeletehave -great- posts. I missed that word.unbelievable.sorry my bad.
ReplyDeleteI know that this film has been in the works for like 2 years. Last December, I was able to watch the finished product in a "premiere" held at their Arumugam office. I think they're planning a big worldwide launch this year.
ReplyDeleteAbout the movie- it was just like The Secret. A bunch of "experts" interviewed. Content wise- it was good- feel good messages one after the other. Thing is, the least credible looking person in this film though would be Dr Mel Gill himself. He had parts in the film when he explained the different "Laws". He sounded like he was fumbling with words and was making up answers along the way.
Well, Anon (Feb. 4 2010), it looks like the great work has finally been released. Mr. Fire -- who of course is in the thing -- tweeted about it today (June 14 2010), saying it's already a bestseller in Italy. Kind of makes you wonder about Italy.
ReplyDelete