Customer Reviews

Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms

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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.

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.

With all of the pop psychology and positive visualization books currently on the market thriving on the large demand for spiritual and material searching, having a book that compares and critiques the most popular ones seems timely and relevant. I was disappointed that this book was not more academic and was turned off by the author's extreme use of ad hominem attacks, which I found to be distracting. He did make some worthwhile comparisons and similarities between different philosophies, at least superficially. He seems to have some personal agenda which I wasn't able to quite figure out, but I don't intend to spend any more time or money on any other of his writings.

Nietzsche associated the joy of Homer with a view of the gods that became standard for Greeks and Romans. As exceptional as ancient thinkers were, the society was too advanced to accept subsequent Greeks as the founder of a religion. Since America had some religious origins and a limit on official religion, it is not surprising that modern Americans aspire to know things in ways that the technocratic commercial interests do not endorse. My father was a minister, but I seemed to be called to make a big deal about certain weaknesses in the thinking of existing institutions. I was thinking about David Koresh as an alternative kind of religion before this book was written. I think most Americans are living in involuntary unBranched Davidianism. The Bible babble that the FBI negotiators did not attempt to decipher had a road map for the end of the world that becomes more interesting with each retelling.

The government is not interested in learning about fantasies that provide limitations on government activities. The dynamics of fate is clear in Top Secret/The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms (2008) by Robert M. Price.

Needless to say,
the third party specialists
must not be used
by the authorities
as a front
and a cynical stalling tactic
as happened at Waco,
where a theologian was having
a good-faith dialogue with Koresh
and thought he was getting somewhere
but then got blindsided by the FBI assault
when they decided they were tired of waiting. (p. 342).

The point of view of the cult can live on as a thorn in the side of people who share the sense that theology has more godlike qualities than government action as a last resort. I quote again:

The guru goes out in style,
charisma intact.
In fact,
his charisma may only increase once he becomes a martyr.
This, obviously,
is why governments prefer not to make rebels into martyrs,
lest they become even more of a thorn in the side
after their deaths.
That certainly happened in the case of David Koresh,
since, not only did someone continue
to circulate epistles in his name,
claiming he had survived,
but Timothy McVeigh blew up the
Oklahoma Federal Building
to even the score for Koresh's
martyrdom at Waco. (p. 340).

I refer to Annie Oakley's review, especially the point made regarding ad hominem attacks and a point made toward the comment that Mr. Price has an "agenda". I agree with your criticism. Price's ad hominem attacks in this book are not the product of scholarship nor objective analysis and this sort of criticism does not belong in any scholarly work. I think I understand his personal agenda. He appears to suffer from enormous anger and disappointment, the result of his scrutiny of those beliefs upon which his entire scholarly life was built. I can draw this conclusion because I, too, have experienced a terrifying reevaluation of my "spirituality" after years of study: the discovery that the underpinnings of scripture are myth, midrash, intuition. However, there are further steps to be taken on this journey -- myth and intuition are part of human culture and consciousness. Myth does not translate into "nonsense", midrash or parables are not unworthy of examination and intuition not only exists but is a powerful manifestation of consciousness. Unlike Price, I was fortunate to not get locked into my anger/fear/horror. I was able to transcend it. I agree with Price's evaluation of certain belief systems ("Conversations with God" et al) but that does not mean I am able to determine the nature of, let alone the existence of, a "creator". Mr. Price, you've missed the bus. There's much more of this journey but you seem stuck in a dark place. I suggest you attempt to get past your cynicism. One does not have to believe the obvious (at least to some) nonsense being purveyed by these "gurus" of enlightenment to catch a glimpse of the extraordinary in this creation for which there are not even sufficient words. Even though you have spent an enormous amount of time and effort pursuing your atheism, it's not too late to step around this stumbling block and well worth the effort, no matter how frightening.

Millions have or have read THE SECRET, a spiritual survey that captured American attentions. But what is the secret within The Secret? Robert Price blends his knowledge of theology with spiritual wisdom and biblical criticism to analyze Rhonda Byrne's best seller plus other popular spiritual books that have promised American spiritual revitalization. From old traditions to new doctrines and the differences between them, TOP SECRET is a fine pick for both new age and spirituality collections.

I had mixed feelings while reading this book. For one, Price is an incredibly knowledegable scholar who has a broad and deep knowledge of many religious systems as well as philosophy. He has a sharp wit and can elicit a chuckle as he points out the flaws in some of the guru's systems. And pointing out the flaws is something that he is very good at, particularly at dismantling some of the notions passed on as truth by the targets of his book, among them Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson and Joel Osteen. As a mainstream Christian, for me this book contains a lot of powerful refutations against some of these purveyors of New Age and New Thought beliefs. In addition, reading through some of the text is like taking a mini, high-level course in comparative religion and philosophy, as Price covers some key teaching from Hinduism, Bhuddism and others. At the same time, I am afraid that Price probably loses a lot of his audience as he writes matter-of-factly about terms like nondualism and other religious and philosophical technical terms. Price is also objective as he notes some of the positives in the belief systems that he is criticizing.

On the other hand, Price does not let the reader know that he is something of a strong agnostic bordering on atheist. It's not really clear what he ultimately believes, but that's the best I can muster from viewing his web site and reading testimonials from his supporters. He's written a book that apparently argues that Jesus didn't exist and he is a member of the Jesus Seminar, which, as I understand, is an organized effort to refute much of Christian "organized religion". I mention this because as you are reading along, absorbing the critiscisms of his subjects, Price suddenly whacks you with an anti-Christian left hook to the head. You feel somewhat betrayed and a little guitly, as you are enjoying Price taking down Chopra and others, when he brings you down as well, not hurt by the shrapnel of his attacks on the others, but by a direct hit. I think it would have been more honest if the author, editor and publisher had put Price's worldview up front, so as to at least be prepared for his treatment of mainstream Christian beliefs. If you are strong in your Christian faith, I don't think that Price's attacks will more than shock you, so that the critical material of the other views that he covers is worth reading.

I thought the book was very interesting. I thought I would agree with everything Dr. Price would write, but here I found I did not agree with his evaluation of all his points. That is okay. Most of his other books I enjoyed as well.