The secret swept the country. What it referred to as “the secret” is the Law of Attraction – that our thoughts attract or draw to us what makes up our lives.

The main value in proposing the Law of Attraction is that it affirms the fact that people actually create their own lives, that thoughts take form, and that if we desire to change our lives we must change how we think.

What isn’t generally recognized or explained in the film or book is that the Law of Attraction operates from two importantly different but similar directions. Of the four presenters in The Secret two are motivational speakers who tend to approach the law of attraction objectively. The other two, whose followers are on more of a spiritual search, propose a more subjective application of the law.

Almost everything in The Secret is accurate at the level it represents, but because the difference between the subjective/spiritual and the objective/mental approaches was not pointed out or defined, the two have become so intertwined as to be indistinguishable; many, therefore, have mistakenly ended up believing that they are the same.

Today, as we close the gap between the material and the spiritual, we can have the best of both worlds when we understand and are aware of the principle underlying The Law of Attraction and how it applies at each level. We can be equally successful going from the outside in or the inside out.

From the outside or objective approach, one can arrive at the answer by analyzing visible results in order to arrive at an awareness of the inner consciousness that has created them, or, from the inside, one can discern the presence of a state of consciousness and from that know what material effects will result on the outside.

Thought is a necessary tool. I am not saying that the mental is not of the utmost importance. But, like any tool, we must know what it can do and how to use it properly and harmlessly without letting it blot out the significance and guidance of intuition.

When properly utilized, the mental approach can rightly be a precursor of the spiritual and a stepping stone leading to a mystical experience. When we are conscious of the difference between the mental and the mystical and how and when it is the time for each, confusion is replaced by consistency as we successfully create our lives.

The difference between the mental/objective approach and the subjective/spiritual one is simple. The objective level is personal. It outlines and specifies a specific thing, condition, or situation that one wishes to attract to one’s self, and relies on one’s intelligence or value system to judge what is desirable and what is not. On the other hand, the subjective/spiritual approach is impersonal. It does not personalize results in specific terms. Its goal is to activate spiritual principle and be guided by higher consciousness, not in terms of specific or material appearances.

The underlying difference between the approach in The Secret that has caught the attention of so many and the one that I am illustrating is that the Law of Attraction implies we draw to us things that previously existed, as though they have already been created and are waiting to come to us. It suggests that our thoughts are like magnets that draw things to us.

Those of the motivation or mental approach believe that we should materially envision what we specifically want, draw a picture of what we wish to have, or specify the exact amount of money we believe we need to accomplish our desired results. This objective approach has a particular pre-conceived object or goal in mind. What’s more, it works! It is proved that we can mentally draw to us what we want.

However, such an objective approach is limited. It is based on trusting one’s ability to mentally judge the difference between what is good for him or her to have and what may be evil. Someone may want a sporty BMW convertible. He or she can image it. See how it looks, picture the details, and, sure enough, they may manifest one. They may also drive down to the corner, get in a wreck, and kill himself or herself.

At those times when intuition backs up one’s mental judgment the visualizing technique might work out for the best, but the spiritual approach is less fallible. When we impersonalizes the situation, go beyond a sense of good and evil, and turn the situation over to our higher consciousness, or whatever God is to us , the result is bound to be for our ultimate good.

Surprisingly, today, Quantum Mechanics supports and scientifically explains the spiritual approach as it is outlined in the beginning of the Gospel of John, which says, “In the beginning is the word … and the word becomes flesh.” In doing so, Quantum physics proposes that consciousness is the substance of all that is, that consciousness creates everything in our lives rather than our having drawn things to us from outside. Thus we do not attract things to us, but rather we ourselves create our lives and all that is in them.

We materialize our perceptions. The quality of the forms our lives take is determined not by what we think superficially but by what we perceive as reality. Our perceptions manifest our reality. Among other affirming statements of this approach, The Secret was on target by quoting Winston Churchill “You create your own universe as you go along.”

There are no accidents in life or laws working against us that we do not empower. We, as primarily thinking people, do not know what is needed or in store for our growth and well being. What we think we want to attract may be the thing that destroys us in the end. On the other hand, when we entertain and put energy into subjective (spiritual) ideas or ideals and do not outline them in specific terms (objectively), we initiate the same principle that is in the Law of Attraction; however, rather than drawing to us what we humanly think we desire, our divine inner selves creates that which will be harmonious for us and in divine order. This is the secret in The Secret.

This is how it works. Spiritually, when we want companionship, if, rather than our trying to attract a particular person into our life who may or may not end up being what we expected, we turn it over to spirit and consciously set in motion the consciousness of manifesting perfect companionship, when the time is right, that is what we will have. Subjectively, if, instead of praying for a thousand dollars, we open ourselves to life’s abundance knowing our needs will be well met, they will and with baskets full left over. Subjectively, if, instead of trying to draw forth a specific automobile, we open our consciousness to the best and most appropriate transportation, that is what we will receive.

I promise you, when we trust the process and set subjective goals for ourselves we will be shown how to create them or they will appear, and will do so without any down side. There won’t be any crooked places that need to be made straight, and our rewards will be the result of our trust in the process and our perception.

Having pointed out the two approaches let me add that both are valid and necessary at one time or another. It is not a matter of either/or. When we are sure that our inner guidance outlines a specific desired result, it can be expedient to apply the law of attraction mentally by outlining our goals. However, priority is the secret of success.

When we were given the two commandments, to love God and to love our neighbor as our selves, which is to say to love the subjective (cause) and the objective (result), we were also given an all to important and often overlooked priority, “Take no (anxious) thought saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For your heavenly father (your higher consciousness) knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added onto you.”