Chapter One: The Secret Revealed, page 1

The Secret is the Law of Attraction. Translated into New Church language we might say that the Secrets of Heaven (or Arcana Coelestia) are Love to the Lord and Love to the neighbor. The Law of Attraction is Love. This is not hard to grasp.

Arcana Coelestia 8604:3 says “The life which is from the Lord has a power of attracting, because it is from love, since all love has in it this power.”

“The source of human attraction and repulsion is feelings that emenate from people’s minds. These feelings attract other who have similar feelings and repel others who do not. Although these emenations are countless and are not picked up by any physical sensation, they are perceived by the sensation of our soul as a single thing. In the spiritual world, all connections and associations are formed on the basis of them.”
(TCR 365:4)

“Whenever I have been reading the Lord's prayer, I have plainly perceived an elevation toward the Lord which was like an attraction, and at the same time my ideas were open, and from this there was effected a communication with some societies in heaven; and I noticed that there was an influx from the Lord into every detail of the prayer, thus into every idea of my thought that was from the meaning of the things in the prayer. The influx was effected with inexpressible variety, that is, not the same at one time as another; hence also it was made evident how infinite are the things contained in the prayer, and that the Lord is present in every one of them.” (AC 6476)

“[The Lord] attracts all people toward Himself, but because they are finite, angels and people are unable to follow that current of attraction except to a limited extent. The force of attraction toward infinity persists all the same.” (TCR 350)

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The book says that the Secret “began at the beginning of time.” This makes perfect sense if we think of the Secret as the Lord’s Love. The book also includes a list of famous thinkers who knew the Secret. I believe that we could add another name to that list: Emanuel Swedenborg.

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The Secret is a way of thinking. We might extend that idea and say that it is a way of praying as well. When we think good thoughts, good will come to us. When we think evil thoughts, evil will come to us. Sometimes we might not even realize that we are not thinking or praying correctly. One of my favorite quotes is from the Christian minister Joel Osteen: “Don’t tell God how big your problems are, tell your problems how big your God is.” What is the difference? It’s about attitude. It’s about faith. If we pray to God and just constantly tell Him how bad our lives are, we’re really just complaining to God. That negative attitude doesn’t open our minds to being receptive to God’s goodness. In fact it opens our minds to being receptive to evil spirits who love to complain. But if we have faith that God is constantly bringing good into our lives, and we pray with that trusting, grateful attitude, then we are opening our minds to being receptive to God’s goodness.

It might be hard for us to grasp how powerful a change in attitude can be, but that is the power of the spiritual; the power of the Secret. And with what we know from the Writings, we should expect the spiritual to be more powerful than the natural. And attitude is the realm of the spiritual.