THE POWER – RHONDA BYRNE

Published August 2010
Review by Barry Seabourne

Rhonda Byrne shot to fame in 2007 after the release of her book and the DVD film called the Secret. In the same year she sold over 4 million copies of the book and 2 million DVD’s. She was in Time magazine’s top hundred most influential people in the world.

The answer to The Secret was that we can have whatever we want by thinking what it is we really want. By this process we attract into our lives that very thing. She called this the Law of Attraction.

Her new book, The Power, was released in August 2010. In both these projects she has been criticised for producing ideas that are far too simplistic and materialistic. But one of key ‘Points of Power’ says “All the riches in the world cannot come close to the most priceless gift in all creation – the love inside you.” 

  In The Power she refines the idea contained in The Secret into living our lives in love.  The central tenet of her latest book is that we should allow our lives to be centred in love itself. In everything we do we should ensure that we are immersed in love.

To support her thesis she lists ‘points of power’ throughout the book with additional quotes from many of the most famous figures in human history from every walk of life and culture. These include Christ, Buddha, Einstein, Newton and Lao Tzu.

Appearing alongside these famous authorities she also includes many sayings from the world of New Thought authors and philosophers reflecting the philosophical background from where her ideas and beliefs emerge. Rhonda is essentially part of the New Thought movement that emerged in the USA around 1900.
It is how and what you think and feel that creates the world that you inhabit. Identifying your core with deep love, she believes, will transform and heal the life of an individual.

No account or importance is given to outside agencies or influence; no importance given to inherited aptitudes or predispositions; no importance given to the rebirth of a soul affected by the karma of past lives; no importance given to the advances of science; and no importance given to the rational intellect. All is love and intuition and trust in the divinity of the flow of life and one’s supreme belief and trust in the true and optimistic, positive life force of the individual.

It is the religion of panentheism.

Rhonda’s stated aim is to bring ‘joy to billions’? She was an advertising film writer and producer. She brings her flair and selling skills to her two main books and one DVD – The Secret and The Power. If you missed the first promotional film to sell the Secret just have a look at her latest promotional film to sell The Power. Although Australian her creative works are very professional and utilise the same high quality imagery and skilfully written and presented copy we are accustomed to in the hard sell world of American consumer culture.

 But Rhonda actually lives her hype. She radiates a confidence and a trust that all is being handled perfectly by the Universe. She keeps moving forward with a belief in herself and her perceived mission that is infectious. As Jack Canfield says “The way she was living her life and approaching her work was teaching me even more about how to live in harmony with her Law of Attraction than her movie or book.”

The Power is intellectually naive in some ways and at times almost superficial in its childlike faith in the power of just thought without a reality check. It could be mistaken for another superstitious approach to living.

We live in a sceptical society and world, especially in the UK. We have a tendency to be suspicious of genuinely happy, positive people who emit joy and love to others without discrimination. But taking the book as an offering of a certain type of approach to life and living that proclaims aloud the importance of feeling and love in such an effective and effusive way is worth a read.

Many people attempt to give us blueprints on how to live our lives. But when someone actually lives the life they are describing then we enter another level of experience. This book doesn’t really provide an ultimate philosophy for life but it does provide an energy and directness that is refreshing in a world where the complexity of too much politicising and intellectualising can get in the way of being oneself.