Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms [Hardcover]

Robert M. Price (Author), Julia Sweeney (Foreword)

Book Description

Release date: March 1, 2008

America may be the land of plenty, but in the midst of our Walmarts, enormous supermarkets, and other signs of material surfeit, it seems that many are experiencing a gnawing spiritual hunger. New religions, spiritualities, and religious therapies attract throngs of believers to megachurches, Yoga classes, and the bestseller bookshelves. The latest popular fad in spirituality is Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret, which promises both success and spiritual fulfillment, and is endorsed by no less than Oprah Winfrey.

If you’re trying to make sense of all the offerings in this confusing spiritual wonderland, Top Secret is just the book for you. Noted religion scholar Robert M. Price examines the historical roots and the current appeal of today’s pop mysticisms. Critical and appreciative at the same time, Price applies his impressive background in theology and biblical criticism to put these trends in perspective. Among other popular movements and books, Price discusses:

Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret and New Thought
Helen Schucman’s A Course in Miracles and the popular works of Marianne Williamson
Deepak Chopra’s How to Know God
James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy
The Jewish Kabbalah, recently made popular by Madonna
Joel Osteen’s Prosperity Gospel and his popular Your Best Life Now
Diedre Blomfield Brown (AKA Pema Chödrön) and American-style Buddhism
Whether you’re a skeptic looking for a rational approach to understanding current religion or a seeker in search of a deeper, more informed understanding of popular spiritualities, Top Secret has much to offer.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert M. Price, Ph.D. (Selma, NC), professor of scriptural studies at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, is the editor (with Jeffery Jay Lowder) of The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond the Grave and the Journal of Higher Criticism. He is also the author of Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today’s Pop Mysticisms; The Paperback Apocalypse: How the Christian Church Was Left Behind; The Reason-Driven Life: What Am I Here on Earth For?; The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man; and Deconstructing Jesus; among other works.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 370 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (March 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591026083
• ISBN-13: 978-1591026082
• Product Dimensions: 1.1 x 6.3 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,299,673 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert M. Price (Selma, NC), professor of scriptural studies at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, is the editor (with Jeffery Jay Lowder) of The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond the Grave and the Journal of Higher Criticism. He is also the author of Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms; The Paperback Apocalypse: How the Christian Church Was Left Behind; The Reason-Driven Life: What Am I Here on Earth For? and many other works.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

116 of 117 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent New Age Critique May 6, 2008

By Jay Young

Format:Hardcover

Most of you have seen popular spiritual books that top the best-seller lists, such as "The Secret," "How to Know God," "The Power of Now," and others. Unfortunately, there really isn't an effective guide that examines these books for the uninformed reader, until now. Biblical scholar Robert M. Price examines today's popular spiritualities critically and sympathetically. Of course, he is more sympathetic to some than to others. The books/spiritualities Price looks at are:

* Rhonday Byrne's "The Secret." Oprah devoted several shows to this book. Basically, Byrne's work is an outgrowth of the "New Thought" movement, which asserts that there is an invisible force in the universe which people can manipulate and use to their advantage. Byrne uses a distorted version of quantum physics to back this up. So if you believe you will find a job, right now, then it will happen. Price agrees that the attitude one takes can influence the outcomes in one's life, but he finds the metaphyiscs behind "The Secret" to be just silly.

* Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now"- Price generally likes Tolle's work, which has its roots in the Zen idea of believing that the conscious self is an illusion. Tolle believes that one should neither have anxiety about the past nor the future, but focus on the present moment. Although Price thinks that Tolle has some eccentric ideas, he generally believes that his work contains great wisdom.

* The work of Pema Chödrön- Price discusses the work of this contemporary Buddhist guru, to which he is generally sympathetic. He goes into a lengthy discussion about her variety of Buddhism, and other varieties of it; you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know!

* Deepak Chopra's "How to Know God"- Chopra does not come off well in Price's analysis. Chopra's "God" is part of the quantum world, which one can use to do such things as end aging and achieve success. Price takes Chopra to task for what he sees as a "blame the victim" approach- if one can't end aging or achieve success, then that person doesn't have enough faith.

* Helen Schucman's "A Course in Miracles"- Price is very hard on this cornerstone of the New-Age movement. He doesn't even think it has much literary value. Price shows the absurdity of claiming that "Course" was divinely dictated to the author, despite the human character being very evident.

* Marianne Williamson's "A Return to Love"- Essentially, Williamson explains "A Course in Miracles" better than the original author did. Price says that Williamson is advocating a selfless love which does not allow for any kind of boundaries; if you dislike something someone did, then you must change your own perception of the other person. This, Price says, is unworkable on a large scale.

Neale Donald Walsh's "Conversations With God"- This is also a key book in the New-Age movement. Price criticizes Walsh's double-standard of him believing that the bible should not be considered a revealed text, but that his book should.

Joel Osteen's "Your Best Life Now"- Osteen is an advocate of a prosperity-style gospel, which Price strongly criticizes. Osteen's theology is a variant of New Thought. According to Price, if you believe that God wants you to get a particular job, then you will. And what if you don't get the job? You just didn't have enough faith!

Price also includes an appendix on how to spot a dangerous cult. I found "Top Secret" to be well-written, witty, and informative, and I believe readers wanting a guide to the "pop mysticisms" will too.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars New Age, Same Old Stuff November 9, 2008

By mrliteral TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Similarly, when it comes to dealing with the problems in life, there are no easy answers. In the cold, cold world, it's not surprising that some people are spiritually hungry, and there are plenty who are willing to feed that hunger. Unfortunately, many of these people offer the equivalent of junk food, briefly tasty and filling but with little long-lasting positive effect.

In Top Secret, Robert Price deals with such junk food vendors, starting with the most popular one of the moment, Rhonda Byrne and The Secret. As with many of the works, Price sees a little value in Byrne's book, but overall is very critical of it and its central thesis that we can affect the physical world through positive thought and that if negative things happen, it's the victim's fault: he or she was asking for it, if even subconsciously.

Price treats Deepak Chopra as little more than a con artist, James Redfield (The Celestine Prophecy) as a hack writer and Helen Schucman (A Course in Miracles) as an author of boring claptrap. All the works mentioned offer those easy answers, but they accomplish little. In fact, soon enough, most people go on to the next guru when the present one fails to satisfy anymore.

In an interesting and lengthy set of appendices, Price deals with cults, first defining them (and contrasting them with churches and sects) and then showing that they are not necessarily as dangerous and evil as people perceive them (although there are notable exceptions). I'm not sure how well this section fits with the rest of the book, but it is interesting and counters the preconceptions many people have about cults.

Price is a knowledgeable person and has a substantial background in studying religions. Unfortunately, he is almost too knowledgeable at times, as the information he presents interferes with the flow of the writing in places. He is almost the opposite of a Carl Sagan or Martin Gardner, who may not have Price's expertise in theology, but are more skilled with communicating their ideas. Nonetheless, the message of Top Secret is important, though I doubt that those who most need this message will ever get it.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars New Age gurus January 31, 2013

By Joel Bjorling

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is a critique of several New Age gurus and spiritual luminaries, including Rhonda Byrne (THE SECRET and THE POWER), Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, A COURSE IN MIRACLES, Neale Donald Walsch (author of CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD), Michael Berg (Kabbalah Center), THE CELESTINE PROPHEY, and Joel Osteen, among others. There is a degree of skepticism about any of these books, but the "truth" of them, ultimately, is with the reader, listener, or seeker. Another critique of THE SECRET is THE SECRET OF 'THE SECRET' by Karen Kelly (St. Martin's, 2007).