The Power of Delusion

I was flicking through a selection of new books recently and came across a small and curious tome confidently titled 'The Power'. On further inspection I discovered it was (and still is) Rhonda Byrne's sequel to her pseudo esoteric 'money factory' 'The Secret.' In brief, Rhonda's core message is that you can be, do or have anything or anyone you want in your life. If you believe then you'll achieve. All you have to do is focus on the power of your intention, send your wishes out into the universe and abundance will come your way.

Naive, magical thinking?

Maybe.

I read a few pages of the book and then abandoned it. I then came across this article in The NY Times .

Now, I"m not entirely negative towards aspects of Byrne's perspective and approach in principle. A little positive self delusion can be very helpful, providing there is an underlying understanding and acceptance that our life's events are often a fragile combination of the chaos of randomness, luck and the power of our intentions expressed in behaviour. When things work out it is usually the coming together of these elements in the right place at the right time with the right people.

I am also a great believer in the idea that if we can find a way to 'creatively' respond to the given circumstances of our day to day existence we may survive and conquer many of life's challenges and even do very well. If we have high levels of energy and are contagious enough we might even be able to make some of the things we dream about and desire happen. But to deny that there are limits to our ability to have everything and anything we want is dangerously delusional.

If we use the analogy of an artist painting on a canvas we can view the undeniably influential objective reality of the world in which we live ( matter, bacteria, genes, atoms, planets, rocks, trees, gravity, weather etc) as the canvas on which our minds paint images and create our individual interpretations of the world. All will be fine..... providing we stay on the canvas. Once we start painting outside the frame we enter the world of imagination. I really like this place and spend much time painting off the canvas. However reality bites hard and we have to find a way to balance fantasy and reality. Otherwise we can begin to totally delude ourselves and at worse, take others with us.

Books like 'The Secret' and 'The Power' may reveal a partial truth about our circumstances and the human condition. But if we believe (as Byrne and her ilk suggest) that these ideas are the whole truth.....Well, some of us may never recover from the dissapointment.