"The Secret's" Secret

I don't get The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.

Let me first start by saying that I haven't read it. But I'm ALWAYS skeptical of things that everyone jumps on the proverbial bandwagon to support.

And I hate.
Loathe.
Despise.
Reading what everyone else is reading at the time. I mean, it took me until Sopranos' very last season to start watching it. I've also NEVER read Harry Potter.

Not any of them.
Not even one page.
(and, yes, I own a bookstore)
(shut up)

Haven't seen the movies, either.
Nope.

Anyway...

For some reason, I've always been suspicious (and skeptical) of The Secret that everyone's raving about. I'm all about self-help, self-motivating books. But, hey, what's the big secret? There's some big life secret that I'm only going to be in on if I read this book? I don't think so. Unless the secret is how I can buy a yummy Krispy Kreme franchise for only $10 per month or how I can make it through one more day without my pregnancy boobs growing exponentially, then I'm out.

I was talking to a customer about the book one day. She ordered it for someone else because she had started reading it and just knew that this other person had to have the book. I inquired what was so great about it (don't worry, I divulged that I had not read it). She babbled on and on incoherently (or maybe I just lost interest) and then she said something that made my skeptical little ears perk up again.

HER: It has these phrases that repeat after each paragraph.
Me: Oh yeah? Like what?
HER: Oh, I don't know. Like self-positive phrases. They just keep repeating.
Me: Oh, you mean like drink-the-koolaid-brainwashing mantras?

A week later she brings the book back to trade in for store credit.

Me: So, how was it?
HER: I didn't finish it.
Me: Why not?
HER: After my discussion with you, it did seem a little cultish brainwashing weird. I just couldn't get past the repeating phrases.

HM.

And that's how I learned the secret to The Secret without even reading it.
It's brainwashing.

(It probably also flashes Drink Coke or Visit the Concession Stand for More Popcorn randomly throughout the book as you're reading.)