The secret about The Secret is that there is no secret.
It’s a clever idea to publish something worldwide and call it “The Secret.” That’s like selling a perfume called “Obsession.” It isn’t really secret, and you’re not healthy if you buy an obsession. Things are not what they seem. Call it advertising by any other name.
Someone asked, do I believe in ‘the secret’? Well, other than the fact that it’s advertising — like all other brands and products — actually I first came across this idea that we create our own reality, to a certain extent, through Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain. I read it during the Iowa Writers’ Workshop as a way to free up my creative, fiction-writing self. And it’s no surprise that our minds have tremendous power. Hence the use of meditation, visualization, guided imagery for healing.
But the notion that we create our own reality is only one side of the coin. There is a balance. We can create a lot of possible futures for ourselves, in our personal lives, and for the planet. But then some things are given. Call it karma, destiny, or read God’s answer to Job from the whirlwind–I myself have never created a Leviathan, not yet at any rate, although nanotechnology may make this possible some day–there is a counterpart to this notion of self-effort which we also call grace, surrender, allowance, divine will.
The secret is that there are hundreds of millions of theologies out there, and it is just too easy to reduce one to a simple recipe. Simplicity has elegance, but only when it encapsulates a much deeper complexity that is part of the rhythm of wisdom. Or just put another way: The Tao that can be Sold [(told)] is not the real Tao….The ten thousand catch-phrases rise and fall; the Tao remains.
Whatever that means. If I knew, you would only know by spending time with me in silence. Don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret.
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The Law Offices of Michael H. Cohen offers corporate legal services, litigation consultation, and expertise in health law with a unique focus on holistic, alternative, complementary, and integrative medical therapies. The law firm represents medical doctors, allied health professionals (from psychologists to nurses and dentists) and other clinicians (from chiropractors to naturopathic physicians, massage therapists, and acupuncturists), entrepreneurs, hospitals, and educational organizations, health care institutions, and individuals and corporations.
Michael H. Cohen is Principal in Law Offices of Michael H. Cohen and also President of The Institute for Integrative and Energy Medicine, a nonprofit organization exploring legal, regulatory, ethical, and health policy issues in the judicious integration of complementary and alternative medical therapies (such as acupuncture and traditional oriental medicine, chiropractic, naturopathic medicine, homeopathy, massage therapy, energy healing, and herbal medicine) and conventional clinical care. Michael H. Cohen is author of books on health care law, regulation, ethics and policy dealing with complementary, alternative and integrative medicine, including Healing at the Borderland of Medicine and Religion, Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Legal Boundaries and Regulatory Perspectives (1998), Beyond Complementary Medicine: Legal and Ethical Perspectives on Health Care and Human Evolution (2000), and Future Medicine: Ethical Dilemmas, Regulatory Challenges, and Therapeutic Pathways to Health Care and Healing in Human Transformation (2003).
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Health care and corporate lawyer Michael H. Cohen has been admitted to the Bar of California, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington D.C. In addition to qualifying as a U.S. attorney, he has been admitted and to the Bar of England and Wales as a Solicitor (non-practicing). For more information regarding the law practice of attorney Michael H. Cohen, see the FAQs for the Law Offices of Michael H. Cohen. Thank you for visiting the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Law Blog.
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