Harry Potter: Phenomenal Books and Films

Harry Potter : From Books to Films

When I read the first Harry Potter book in the 1990s, I thought that if the book’s author, JK Rowling, wrote it for a general audience instead of a target market – children, the book could become a classic at the level of Charles Dickens’s works.

I found the author’s coining of names for the characters, places and objects very amusing – giving the readers a game of guessing the meaning of these words. For example, the name Albus Dumbledore can have several meanings. Albus can refer to Albion, the Arthurian name for Britain. Albus also means white and Dumbledore was a type of hat popular in London in the late 19th century. In film language, White Hat means The Good Guy.

In 2001, the inevitable film version came out amid great media hype. For those who read the book, they can only like the film as it was quite faithful to the source. The screenplay by Steven Kloves included quite a number of lines taken verbatim from the novel. The child actors – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were cute and loveable. But they were unknowns. To support them, Warner Brothers got great British actors Richard Harris, Dame Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, and Robbie Coltrane. And for good measure, British stars John Cleese, John Hurt and Julie Walters had cameo roles.

The American director, Chris Columbus, who made Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone, and Bicentennial Man, is quite adept at working with child actors. The film turned out to be not only humorous but also magical.

Last August, I was having lunch with relatives and friends. I witnessed an animated conversation between two women about the just-released book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Rowling’s latest volume in the Harry Potter series. One was a relative who is in her 40’s, a mother of four and a UP graduate while the other is an American in her 30’s and is pursuing her PhD degree in chemistry. It was strange listening to two adults excitedly talking about a “children’s book”.

While surfing the ‘net, I found several e-groups on Harry Potter. But these e-groups admit only adults – 18 and above. Apparently, the Potter books and movies have now spawned cults even among adults in their 30s and 40s.

If Rowling only wrote one or two Harry Potter books, they probably would be simply “children’s books”. But the series of Harry Potter books – all taken as one text – gives Rowling’s work a quantum leap – from a children’s book to a book for all ages. The books’ content and style, like the characters in them, change with increasing maturity and complexity.

The Harry Potter movies on the other hand, have lives of their own – separate from Rowling’s books.

The first two movies were quite faithful to the books. The American director Chris Columbus gave the two Harry Potter films the distinguishing mark of Hollywood classics – good, clean fun movies.

The third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, veered away from the path created by the first two films. Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron of the Y Tu Mama Tambien fame directed the third film.

Cuaron created a different Hogwarts, Harry Potter’s school. Hogwarts became dark and gothic. The well-manicured lawn of the school became rocky and unkempt. Some of the changes seemed appropriate because Rowling has introduced seemingly dark characters named Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. From their names, one can tell that Sirius is somehow a black dog and Lupin is a wolf. (Sirius is the Dog Star constellation; Lupin comes from the Latin word for wolf). And of course, there are the Dementors, the soul-sucking skeletal entities that guard the Azkababan, the prison for wizard-criminals.

I liked the Time Travel sequence. But I found the replacement for the late Richard Harris wanting. In the books, Dumbledore is described as: "He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt…He was often described as the greatest wizard of the age, but that wasn't why Harry respected him. You couldn't help trusting Albus Dumbledore...”

Michael Gambon, the new Dumbledore is short, fat and not very old. He also does not look trustworthy, especially if one has seen him in his other movies like The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. The credibility of Hogwarts rests on its headmaster. Gambon simply does not have the presence of the great actor that was Richard Harris. Peter O’Toole (Goodbye Mr. Chips) would have been perfect as Dumbledore.

From mid-November 2005, cinema houses in many parts of the globe began showing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth installment in Rowling’s 7-part series.

The Goblet of Fire is a turning point in the Harry Potter saga. The three kids – Harry, Ron and Hermione – reached puberty in the Azkabani episode. In this installment, they are right smack into adolescence. Physically, they are no longer children. This is the time when “hormones” develop boys and girls into men and women. It was too bad that the sexual tension between Harry and Cho Chang, Hermione and Ron, Hermione and Viktor Krum, and Ron and Fleur Delacour was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Newell gives the impression that it is a Harry-Hermione love team all along. The movie was given a PG-13 rating in England and elsewhere because of its supposedly violent content.

I thought that Newell, the first British director in the Potter series, would bring in his Cambridge background, as he did in Four Weddings and a Funeral, to give Hogwarts a more English outlook, if that is possible. Instead, he made it almost like a Hammer Films production. (Hammer Films produced many Dracula films in the 50s and 60s with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.)

Goblet is NOT a stand-alone film. For those who have not read the books or seen the previous episodes, Goblet would not be comprehensible.

Rowling takes care that all the Harry Potter books are stand-alone books. One can read any volume in any order and still would understand the story. In Newell’s film, characters come in and out from nowhere. Any newcomer to Harry Potter would feel lost in The Goblet.
The Goblet of Fire is a finely-crafted book which not only clarified many things from the previous volumes but also introduced new and exciting episodes like the World Quidditch Cup, the Triwizard Tournament and Harry’s first love interest.

Because of the book’s size, the producers wanted to make a 2-part Goblet film but Newell convinced them otherwise. Perhaps Newell did not realize that the Goblet is a part of a series. The Azkaban movie already cut off many parts in the book. The Goblet film contains just more than half of the book. If this trend continues, people who have not read the books might not understand at all the next Potter films – The Order of the Phoenix, the Half-Blood Prince and the still-to-be-written final volume – even if they had seen all the Potter movies.

Cuaron, who is Mexican, said he had not read or seen the Potter series before Azkaban was offered to him to direct. Newell, at 62, mis-read Goblet. He announced that Goblet is basically a thriller and that was what he set out to do. Newell couldn’t be more wrong. Goblet and all the Harry Potter books are basically a fantasy. If Voldemort couldn’t kill Harry the infant, how could he kill Harry the adolescent wizard? Goblet is another excuse to enter the fantastic world of magic – of dragons, mermaids, leprechauns, flying broomsticks, spells, curses and magic wands.

But there is hope for the next Potter film. The new director David Yates is 42 and British. The odds that he has read/seen and understood the Potter books/movies are great.
The issue here is not fidelity to the book or innovativeness of the filmmaker but simply the film’s intelligibility. A good film or book needs to answer the whys and wherefores of its characters and events.

After all is said and done, what makes Harry Potter click? I guess that for one thing, this is the first popular book/film that presents Magic in the contemporary world where anybody can learn to use the forces of nature to manifest one’s desires. Unlike in Bewitched or Charmed, one does not have to belong to a supernatural race of witches and warlocks to do magic. Magic is open to everyone who cares to study it. This is the essence of New Age.

In many parts of the world, including the Philippines, one can go to places like the Monroe Institute in the States to learn how to do astral travel, or attend seminars on how to maximize one’s ESP or even how to do magic. Or one can read books and magazines like Mr. & Ms. to learn more about the Body, Mind and Spirit.
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Published in Mr. & Ms. Magazine January 2006

What The Bleep Do We Know?

This is from my QUANTUM CINEMA column in Mr. & Ms. Magazine, May - June 2008 issue:
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I have just finished watching for the nth time the documentary What The Bleep Do We Know? Enthusiasts of the documentary The Secret, which has since been made into a book, should watch this one as it would give the principles of The Secret more scientific grounding.

What The Bleep Do We Know? had its theatrical release in the United Kingdom in May 2005. But the DVD became a top seller even before that time. Like The Secret, it has now reached the status of a cult film with its followers forming clubs and publishing newsletters. And of course, it has its group of detractors, too.

In order to compete with feature films, documentarists or documentarians have resorted to using dramatizations. This is usually the case now for documentaries in the Discovery or National Geographic TV channels. What The Bleep Do We Know? is a documentary with a narrative segment that illustrates further what the interviewees and the narrator are talking about.

Academy Award- winner Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God) stars in this segment as a photographer who feels like a victim in life. She is a mute who recently divorced her philandering husband and is bored with her job. But one fine day, she experienced a quantum leap.

QUANTUM PHYSICS

Although the film talks incessantly of quantum physics, it does not however explain precisely what quantum theory or quantum mechanics is. Rather, it explains the implications of quantum mechanics / physics. The interpreters of quantum mechanics are physicists, physicians, a theologian and America’s leading medium. Three people directed the film – Betsy Chasse, William Arntz and Mark Vicente.

The film’s intention is to provoke the viewer to think. It begins with a voice over: “In the beginning was the Void, teeming with infinite possibilities—of which you are one”. This is accompanied with images of what could be the Big Bang – the beginning of the Universe, according to scientists.
The narrative segment begins with Matlin at a train station. She boards the train, closes her eyes and as the camera closes up on her face, the narrator says, “Are all realities existing simultaneously?” The narrator bombards the viewers with so-many thought-provoking questions: Why do we keep re-creating the same reality? Isn’t it amazing that we have options and potentials that exist but we are unaware of them? Is it possible that we are conditioned to our daily lives, so conditioned to the way we create our lives that we buy the idea that we have no control at all?

WHAT THE PHYSICISTS SAY

The film’s panel of experts claims that quantum physics brings in a new paradigm of reality, knowledge and meaning.

Dr. Amit Goswami, a Physics professor at the University of Oregon says: “Quantum physics calculates only possibilities, but if we accept this, then the question immediately comes -- who, what chooses among those possibilities to bring the actual event of experience? So, we directly, immediately see that Consciousness must be involved. The observer cannot be ignored.”

Dr. Fred Alan Wolf, physicist and author of Taking the Quantum Leap, asks: “Are people affecting the world of reality that they see?” And he answers, “You bet they are! Every single one of us affects the reality that we see even if we try to hide from that and play victim. We all are doin’ it!” Dr. Wolf is also in The Secret.

Dr. William Tiller, Professor Emeritus of Material Science and Energy at Stanford University says. “Our purpose here is to develop our gifts of intentionality and learn how to be effective creators.”

For Dr. Goswami, an individual’s purpose is “To acknowledge the Quantum Self; to acknowledge the place where we really have choice; to acknowledge Mind.”

THE BRAIN AND PERCEPTION OF REALITY

The film emphasizes that we participate in creating reality. The brain, says the narrator, processes two billion (2,000,000,000) bits of information per second. But we are aware of only two thousand (2,000) bits of information per second. We are unaware of 1,999,998,000 bits of information per second. We perceive only a very tiny portion of what is going on around us.

An optimist will see only the positive side of things while a pessimist will see only the negative side of things. Each individual’s brain becomes very selective in choosing that precious 2,000 bits of information per second that would make up one’s reality.

Also, the arrangement of neural connections in the brain constantly changes. Over 70% of the connections between brain cells change every day. Changing our responses to stimuli changes these connections. We do not have to be victims of our own undoing. We can do something -- we can ensure that these changes in neural connections make us more creative, intelligent, and versatile.

THE NEW PHYSICS

Quantum mechanics is just one aspect of the New Physics which has now united the subatomic world of electrons, photons, neutrinos, positrons, quarks, and the astronomical world of stars, galaxies, superclusters, black holes, quasars, wormholes, dark matter, etc.

Quantum mechanics was formulated in the early part of the 20th century by scientists like Niels Bohr, Max Planck and Werner Heisenberg yet its philosophical implications have still to be grasped by most people. The film - What the Bleep Do We Know?- tries to impart such awareness to the public at large and ends with a challenge: “Don’t just take it at face value. Test it out and see whether it’s true!” (end)

ERAGON and THE FOUNTAIN - Film Reviews

Below is an article Of Dragons, Magic, Immortality and Special Effects from my magazine column, QUANTUM CINEMA in M. & Ms. Magazine, March 2007



Two fantasy films are making the rounds of the world’s movie houses this year – Eragon and The Fountain. One is about mythical beasts in a mythical land which looks like medieval Europe. The other is a story of a man and a woman in three different periods – 500 years ago, today and 500 years later. The first is too juvenile in its simplicity; the other is pointless in its complexity.

ERAGON

It has always been my contention that no writer would ever go hungry in America. Anybody who can write a few coherent sentences can go places, especially to Hollywood. If your parents are publishers, you can even have your own book published even if you are just a high school kid. And with luck, your book could be made into a multimillion dollar movie.

Christopher Paolini was “home schooled” and finished high school at 15. When his parents said he should wait a couple more years before attending college, he wrote a story about dragons and dragon riders. When he was 19, his parents, who happen to be publishers, printed his book. A bigger publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, saw the book and re-published it with bigger promotional budget. It was just a matter of time before Hollywood made the kid’s story into a multimillion dollar movie spectacle.

ERAGON is now a big budget movie helmed by first-time director Stefen Fangmeier. The script is presumably like the novel. It is simply, well, juvenile.

If the authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail sued Da Vinci Code’s Dan Brown for plagiarism, it is a wonder why the authors of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings did not sue Paolini. They would have a better case than the accusers of Dan Brown.

The story is about a boy named Eragon whose cousin had to leave the village. Eragon meets an old dragon rider. The old warrior Brom tells him of the time of heroic knights patrolling the world and teaches him magic and swordsmanship. Eragon goes on to rescue Princess Arya, a beautiful Elf, from the clutches of Durza the Shade, the henchman of the evil King Galbatorix. Brom, the old dragon rider, gave up his life for Eragon, the new dragon rider.

This sounds like the story of a boy named Luke Skywalker who meets an old Jedi warrior, Obi Wan Kenobi who tells him of the time of heroic knights patrolling the world and teaches him swordsmanship. Luke goes on to rescue Princess Leia from the clutches of the evil Darth Vader, henchman of the Emperor. Obi-Wan, the old Jedi knight, gave up his life for Luke, the new Jedi
On his way to Star Wars, Eragon made a detour through Lord of the Rings picking up Frodo’s cousin Bilbo Baggins, who had to leave the Shire; the beautiful Elven Princess Arwen; the arch evil magician Saruman and his demons, etc.

But both Star Wars and Lord of the Rings did not have Saphira, the last of the dragons.
This mighty female dragon comes with the very sexy voice of Rachel Weisz. She is the female version of Dragonheart’s Draco, the last of the dragons and who has the very macho voice of Sean Connery.

The dragons of Eragon’s Alagaësia are unique. The eggs hatch only when they have found their “rider”. The dragon and the rider have intertwined destinies. They not only communicate with each other telepathically, their very lives are connected. When the rider dies, the dragon dies with him but not vice versa. This dragon needs only a day or so to transform from a baby dragon to a giant one and a few more days to become a fire-breathing full fledged adult dragon.

ACTORS YOUNG AND OLD

Imitating Star Wars’ George Lucas, Fangmeier got an unknown, Ed Speleers, to act as Eragon. Like Mark Hamill (Luke) and Hayden Christensen (Anakin), he doesn’t seem to know the very basics of acting. If Star Wars had Alec Guiness, Peter Cushing et al to support the neophyte actors, Fangmeier got Jeremy Irons, Robert Carlyle and John Malkovitch to support the young actors of Eragon.

Irons and Carlyle, naturally, stole the show from the younger ones. But Malkovitch was a disappointment. He practically never left his throne the whole show.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

Fangmeier’s special effects expertise carried the day for Eragon. Fangmeier was the visual effects director of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. The dragon is quite endearing and the final battle between Eragon and the evil shade Durza was excellently done.
Eragon may not win awards like Lord of the Rings which won several OSCARS including Best Picture and Best Director, but with its special effects, it will win the hearts of many youngsters. There may not be any fire-breathing dragons, swashbuckling swordsmen and fighting princesses anymore, but they will forever live in the minds of young boys and girls.

THE FOUNTAIN

The Fountain is the story of a couple of souls in three incarnations. Tomas is a Spanish conquistador who is chosen by the Spanish queen, Isabela, to look for the biblical Tree of Life somewhere in Mayan territory in Central America. In his present incarnation, Tommy is a medical doctor (oncologist) in the US trying to find a cure for the tumor that is killing his wife, Izzi. In the future, Tom is an astronaut circa 25th century. He lives beside a magical tree in a space bubble and is constantly disturbed by visions of a woman, presumably his wife.

Or, this is a story of Tommy, an oncologist, in search for a cure for his wife Izzi’s illness. Izzi writes a book titled The Fountain about a conquistador chosen by the Spanish queen, Isabela, to look for the biblical Tree of Life somewhere in Mayan territory. Because of the stress of the fear of losing his beloved wife and his untiring efforts to find a cure, Tommy hallucinates and sees himself as an astronaut circa 25th century meditating beside a magical tree (like Gautama Buddha) in a space bubble and is constantly disturbed by visions of his wife.

GREAT ACTING

Hugh Jackman proves once again that he is one of today’s better actors. Whether as a Spanish conquistador or a medical doctor or a yogi spaceman, Hugh Jackman performs with great intensity.

Jackman’s counterpoint is Rachel Weisz, whose melodious voice made Eragon’s dragon quite endearing. While she was merely a voice in Eragon, in The Fountain, she has three characters – the regal Queen Isabela, the sweet and dying Izzi and the ephemeral visitor of the spaceman Tom.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

Computer generated special effects saved the day for Eragon. In The Fountain, it is also the Special Effects that are the film’s saving grace. But instead of ordinary computer graphics, The Fountain used special effects in its photography, creating mystical landscapes and emotion-filled images. Although The Fountain is marketed as a science fiction film, its images are more fantastic than scientific.


VISUAL MEDIUM

Eragon and The Fountain prove that films are more visual than verbal. The average person might throw out the book Eragon for being too simple or the script of The Fountain for being too complicated. But the average person can easily appreciate watching on the big screen a fire-breathing dragon battling a ghostly beast or a 25th century Buddha levitating and meditating beside the Tree of Life inside a space bubble.

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Published in Mr. & Ms. Magazine Supermonthly of the Body, Mind and Spirit, Mar. 2007

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The Secret -- Law of Attraction

In my QUANTUM CINEMA column, I reviewed the film "The Secret". The book and the film are quite the talk of the town in the country since it was twice featured in Oprah's show.

In its trailer, it announced that “The Secret has passed through the ages known only to a few men,.. who… harnessed its Power.” This Secret was allegedly used to keep the rest of humanity ignorant and servile. On or after 1909, this Secret was released to the public by the few rich men who knew it. But in 1933, it was again banned. The visuals show a man in cardinal’s robe opening a parchment scroll. “Decades passed…Now, for the first time in history, the Secret is being released in a worldwide event.”

The Introductory part of the documentary follows the theme and visuals of the trailer. It is almost like The Da Vinci Code. The narrator / protagonist is in emotional turmoil. Then she re-discovers “the Secret” through a book. She then researches its history. We see an Egyptian copying the inscriptions on an emerald tablet onto a parchment. Then we see Roman soldiers running after the same man carrying a parchment much like the Dead Sea scrolls, and burying it. Then Medieval Knights (the Templars?) appear followed by a scene with a man in cardinal’s robes reading a scroll. The Secret was coveted. An alchemist is studying the scroll. The Secret was suppressed. Then, we see a present-day corporate board room with men in conference. Then somebody types the sentence: “the Secret will never be revealed to the public”.

The narrator says she couldn’t believe that the Secret was known to so many people including the great minds in history like Isaac Newton and Victor Hugo. Interestingly, Newton and Hugo also belong to another impressive list – those who belonged to the Priory of Sion who knew another kind of secret – the Holy Grail /Da Vinci Code kind.

The dramatic and sensational trailer and introduction of The Secret (2006) may induce people to watch it, but it may also turn people off. It smacks of crass commercialism.

RHONDA BYRNE

Rhonda Byrne, the Executive Producer of the documentary and author of the book of the same title, claims that a year before filming, her life was in shambles – she was burnt out from work, her father died unexpectedly and her relationships were in turmoil. Then, her daughter gave her a 100-year old book (most probably a reprint) that revealed to Rhonda “The Secret”, which turned her life around.

She then got a brilliant idea to make a film out of it so this “Secret” could be revealed to most of humankind. Leaving Australia, she then went to the US to interview scores of “teachers” of this “Secret”. The film was then followed by the best-selling book.

LAW OF ATTRACTION

This “Secret” that can give you the Midas Touch or bring you treasures like King Solomon’s Mines is called the “Law of Attraction.” This is one of the Universal Principles known to many writers, philosophers, astrologers, occultists, and great thinkers throughout the ages. Today’s New Age adherents are familiar with this principle. In its briefest form, this law means “like attracts like.”

If birds of the same feather flock together, then thoughts of the same frequency bond together. If you think rich, you get riches, if you think poor, you get poverty. The “teachers” of the film keep on repeating the essence of this Law: “You become what you think about most. You attract what you think about most.”

In the Bible, Jesus said: “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance. To him that hath little, even the little shall be taken away.” (Matthew 13:12) In other words, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. In the same vein, the wise get wiser, the dumb get dumber.

Rich people naturally think of riches because they are surrounded by abundance while poor people think of poverty because they are always around poor people and wretched circumstances.

Children who are told they are unintelligent will tend to believe it and so get poor grades. They will then have less enthusiasm for anything intellectual. On the other hand, children who are praised as intelligent will tend to study more and attract intelligent friends and elders supportive of their intellectual pursuits.

Bob Proctor, one of the film’s resource persons says, “Why do you think that 1% of the population earn around 96% of all the money being earned?” He says, “It’s designed that way. They understand something. They understand “the Secret”.

NO SECRET

Contrary to the film’s assertion, the Law of Attraction was never a secret. People through the ages have discovered this principle and disseminated it in oral and in written form. This wisdom is found in the Vedas, in the Bible, in the Qur’an and in thousands of books and manuscripts throughout human history.

However, Bob Proctor, Rhonda Byrne and people like them understand but the multitudes don’t. As Jesus said, “…they look but do not see; they listen but do not hear or understand.” (Matthew 13:13) Even with Byrne’s documentary and book, many people would still not understand. Fortunately, this law, according to the film, “is always working whether you believe or understand it or not.”

QUANTUM PHYSICS

When Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr and Max Planck made their discoveries on Relativity and Quantum mechanics in the early part of the 20^th century, the world of Science was turned upside down. The Universe could not be explained in Newtonian terms anymore. Newtonian physics become invalid when it comes to the very big like galaxies and astronomical distances, and the very small like electrons and neutrinos. In fact, the latest theories in physics like Superstrings and the M-theory suggest that there may even be multiple universes.

Yet most of humanity simply cannot think beyond Newtonian physics. Everything is still centered on Mass or Matter; i.e., on materialism. Many people still believe only in things material; i.e., things physical. Yet Einstein proved that Energy is Mass (multiplied by a constant); i.e., all Matter is Energy. Energy is not physical.

THE SECRET MICROSCOPE

In their desire to sound scientific, some of the “teachers” exaggerate. James Arthur Ray, who was designated as a philosopher in the film, says, “You are not a finite body. Even under a microscope, you’re an energy field.”

Bob Proctor, author of the international best-seller You Were Born Rich says, “Your hand looks solid but it’s really not. If you put it under a proper microscope, you’d see a massive energy vibrating.”

I have not heard of a microscope that can enable humans to see bodies as vibrating energy or energy fields. As far as I know, no microscope has yet been built that could magnify atoms or subatomic particles like electrons or protons so that they could be seen by humans.

In fact, I have always been amazed how millions of people do not believe that spirits exist because they could not see them. Yet they believe atoms or electrons exist even if they have not seen them either. Millions of people claim to have seen spirits. Nobody has claimed to have seen by his eyes (using machines) atoms or sub-atomic particles.

Yes, we are energy but that can only be proven through mathematical equations. You can put your hand under a giant microscope, but all you can see are bacteria or cells or even molecular chains. You cannot see pure energy; or even atoms or spinning electrons.

MIND OVER MATTER

In the film, quantum physicist Dr. Fred Wolf says, “You can’t have a universe without Mind entering into it, and that the mind is actually shaping the very thing that is being perceived.”

Another physicist, Dr. John Hagelin says, “Quantum mechanics confirms it. Quantum cosmology confirms it. That the Universe essentially emerges from thought. Ultimately, we are the source of the Universe, and when we understand that power directly by experience, we can start to exercise our authority and begin to achieve more and more.”

In today’s physics, most of the Universe is mental construct. Positrons, neutrinos, quarks, black holes, worm holes etc. – from subatomic to cosmological entities -- are mere constructs which can be validated through mathematics. Nobody knows them in the physical sense. They can only be understood through the Mind.

THE BOOK AND THE FILM

The nuggets of wisdom contained in the book and the film are the same. The format of the film is similar to the documentary What the Bleep Do We Know(?), which was mostly about quantum physics. It consists mostly of talking heads, with some dramatizations. The words of the Secret’s “teachers” are reproduced verbatim in the book, with annotations by the author.

Although the Secret features mostly talking heads, it is not boring at all. The resource persons are great speakers. They are very enthusiastic about the subject. They are all speaking from experience.

In the book, one reads these people’s ideas. In the film, one sees these ideas being presented by real people talking about not just grandiose concepts but about their very own experiences. And most, if not all of them, were self-made people. They re-invented themselves by using “the Secret”.

The dramatizations had good production values and the illustrations used as backgrounds to the talking heads are quite interesting. I just find it funny that Aladdin is Chinese in the film. Don’t these Occidentals know that Orientals come in different shapes and sizes and yes, races?

GREAT PACKAGING

Rhonda Byrne knows the power of media packaging. Getting an idea from a 100-year old book, an idea which is contained in hundreds of books in libraries and bookstores, she packaged it as a “Secret” and made it into an inspirational documentary, a book and a website.

But the fact that the film, the book and the website are all smash hits simply means that the Western (and Westernized) world are now veering away from the purely physical world (The Body) and into a holistic world where the Mind and Spirit are given their proper due in the scheme of things.

Go watch the film. It may change your life.

Published in Mr. & Ms. magazine, Supermonthly of the Body, Mind & Spirit, Nov. 2007

Check out The Secret's website http://www.thesecret.tv

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