With all of the hub-bub over “The Secret” and the effects of The Law Of Attraction on ones life, and the unconscious pressure that people put on others if they see that ones life is not what they think it should be…
I have to ask what about peoples who’s life experience we have not lived?

Yes there are laws of the Universe such as gravity and the laws of physics and they do effect all of us.

Yet, when it comes to “The Secret” we need to understand that the part of the brain which is to be consciously called upon into thinking positive thoughts and the part of the brain from which we elicit the ability to be in the “feeling of” the positive are not consistently within access to everyone.

There are people who’s brain functioning is so significantly impacted by trauma and stress disorders that the basic functional relationship between the three parts of the brain does not work in the manner that other peoples do. For people in this predicament it is not as simple as think and feel good thought and all will be just fine.

Wisdom becomes knowledge when it is personal experience.
- Unknown

Here is a simplified explanation of how the brain works. We have three basic parts in the functioning of the brain.

1. The rear or reptilian brain, which act on survival instinct. I does not think, it does not speak. But if it could it may say something like, “Uncomfortable!!!!!” And it prompts the body to react to the perceived discomfort. So the system goes into full alert, which is a fight or flight response. The stress hormones start flushing through the many systems, the brain is flooded with neurotransmitters and hormones, the eyes and vascular dilate and heart starts pumping, everything looks, smells and feels like danger.

2. Next is the mid-brain, which is responsible of a bit more. It can identify that the body is not comfortable and identify some of what the challenge or danger is. It is capable of saying “Hmm…uncomfortable. Hot!” The mid brain with out thinking automatically regulates systems like digestion and elimination, internal temperature control and sleep cycles. It works on input from the rear and fore-brain.

3. Then we have the fore-brain. This is the part of the brain which navigates the detail of out internal and external world. It word finding is the part that deals with tasks like thinking, problem solving, space and distance navigation, reading and manipulating numbers word finding. It is the part of the brain that receives the messages from the other parts of the brain and deciphers the information and makes decisions on what to do ..or.. how to significant the “Ha..uncomfortable. Hot” is.
It is able to interpret “Oh this looks hot. This is from something external. I see fire!….Oh, not to worry it is just on the TV screen. Nothing to worry about. This heat must be something else. I’ll just go check the thermos stat. No need to run for my life”

Ideally the three parts of the brain modulate information back and forth freely. But when one live with a traumatized brain, they are living with a brain that much of the time has shut down the nonessential systems (the mid and fore brain) to send all chemical and electrical impulses to the rear, primal survival brain to be able to flee and thus stay live.

Thus to tell an incest or rape survivor, someone who has been in a horrific accident or a traumatized war veteran to just think and feel happy thoughts in the midst of a flash back is dishonoring. To insist that thinking positive thoughts is fully within in their control is not accurate. To blame the victim shuts the systems down even more. And it does not allow for the truth of what that person is experiencing.

Yes over all it is helpful to keep an eye (or two) on the positive. This does effect the outlook and thus the chemical balance in our body. But making someone wrong by insisting that they are not trying hard enough to see the positive is really missing the mark.

How we can help a person in this situation is to understand what they are experiencing when the rear-brain is in rampant terror and catastrophic thinking and reaction. It is important to understand that at that moment the rear-brain is in fact doing is its job. It is biologically wired this way to keep the species alive. And to understand that this person can not at that moment choose to pull him or her self into positive thinking is very important.

In Polarity we call this pacing. Being with the energy of what is. This does not enable or become codependent with the traumatized person, rather it resonates with the the state of their current being and releases the isolation. It frees them to come into the here and now, even if only for a moment.

From my point of view ideas in “The Secret” is great stuff. But when it is pushed upon others by well meaning enthusiasts, and the expectation of everyone being “able” to access any higher level of thinking and redirecting this part of the brain into the positive is shaming and can be harmful.