Money for nothing
In all the psychobabble about love, Byrne appears to forget the most important ingredient – reason.
The blurb on the book flap of The Power reads: “Rhonda Byrne’s intention is: joy to billions”. More like ‘make billions’. After all, Byrne’s new installment is the sequel to her bestselling book cum DVD The Secret, which promised “Everything is possible, nothing is impossible. There are no limits. Whatever you can dream of can be yours, when you use The Secret”. Surely Byrne had already provided all of the answers to a perfect life — what more could there be to say?
It turns out, Byrne, like renowned philosopher Celine Dion, had something to add about “the power of love”, and sets out to do so over 250 pages, which turns out to be 249 pages too many. The central message, the Power= love= an amazing life, could have fit quite easily into a fortune cookie, but Byrne takes the more lucrative approach of stretching this into repetitive read of epic proportions.
The Power, like Byrne’s previous self-help bible, is concerned with the notion of feelings, and the idea that positive and negative feelings will directly impact the practical outcomes of one’s life. Her hypothesis, if one can call it that, is based on the “Creation Process” — imagine, feel, receive. Readers are urged to imagine and feel that they have what they desire because the “law of attraction copies whatever you give”. Is Byrne propagating the delusion that if your imagination can create the life you dream of? Unfortunately, yes. But you’ll be relieved to know it’s not pure conjecture or anything, Byrne’s claims are supported by damning evidence; rigorously sourced anonymous case studies. “I know of a woman” and “one particular woman” appear enough to Byrne to prove her universal claims on “the power” of love, as well as quoting historical heavyweights such as Mahatma Gandhi, albeit abhorrently out of context, but what does that matter?
In all the psychobabble about love and its power to generate money or completely transform broken relationships, Byrne appears to forget the most important ingredient – reason. The Power appears to defy logic, and takes on a supernatural form given Byrne’s claim that putting love first can lead to a healthy and wealthy life. The degree of power negative and positive thinking is given in the book ranges from ridiculous to dangerous. On the one hand, Byrne claims “Ancient texts say that people once lived for hundreds and hundreds of years. So what’s happened? People changed what they believed”, implying it is an increasingly bad attitude which leads to earlier death these days, which is hard to stomach considering the recent flood catastrophes; so it’s because of half hearted and negative thinking that such a great tragedy has been suffered by thousands of people? Moreover, The Power should come with a safety warning of “Do not take seriously”, since the more gullible among us may in fact fall for Byrne’s claims that love can act as a medicine, citing the case of a young woman who suffered from a rare heart disease, who from merely placing her right hand on her heart daily and refusing to entertain negativity, managed to cure herself from her ailment.
Admittedly, it is always more beneficial to think positively than negatively because let’s face it nobody wants to be a misery guts, but the outrageous claims made by Byrne make one question whether an “amazing life” is really worth giving up one’s sanity for.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 5th, 2010.
It turns out, Byrne, like renowned philosopher Celine Dion, had something to add about “the power of love”, and sets out to do so over 250 pages, which turns out to be 249 pages too many. The central message, the Power= love= an amazing life, could have fit quite easily into a fortune cookie, but Byrne takes the more lucrative approach of stretching this into repetitive read of epic proportions.
The Power, like Byrne’s previous self-help bible, is concerned with the notion of feelings, and the idea that positive and negative feelings will directly impact the practical outcomes of one’s life. Her hypothesis, if one can call it that, is based on the “Creation Process” — imagine, feel, receive. Readers are urged to imagine and feel that they have what they desire because the “law of attraction copies whatever you give”. Is Byrne propagating the delusion that if your imagination can create the life you dream of? Unfortunately, yes. But you’ll be relieved to know it’s not pure conjecture or anything, Byrne’s claims are supported by damning evidence; rigorously sourced anonymous case studies. “I know of a woman” and “one particular woman” appear enough to Byrne to prove her universal claims on “the power” of love, as well as quoting historical heavyweights such as Mahatma Gandhi, albeit abhorrently out of context, but what does that matter?
In all the psychobabble about love and its power to generate money or completely transform broken relationships, Byrne appears to forget the most important ingredient – reason. The Power appears to defy logic, and takes on a supernatural form given Byrne’s claim that putting love first can lead to a healthy and wealthy life. The degree of power negative and positive thinking is given in the book ranges from ridiculous to dangerous. On the one hand, Byrne claims “Ancient texts say that people once lived for hundreds and hundreds of years. So what’s happened? People changed what they believed”, implying it is an increasingly bad attitude which leads to earlier death these days, which is hard to stomach considering the recent flood catastrophes; so it’s because of half hearted and negative thinking that such a great tragedy has been suffered by thousands of people? Moreover, The Power should come with a safety warning of “Do not take seriously”, since the more gullible among us may in fact fall for Byrne’s claims that love can act as a medicine, citing the case of a young woman who suffered from a rare heart disease, who from merely placing her right hand on her heart daily and refusing to entertain negativity, managed to cure herself from her ailment.
Admittedly, it is always more beneficial to think positively than negatively because let’s face it nobody wants to be a misery guts, but the outrageous claims made by Byrne make one question whether an “amazing life” is really worth giving up one’s sanity for.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 5th, 2010.