DVD Review: “Beyond the Secret” Is it Any Good? (Quick Answer: NO)

If you’re like me, you watched The Secret several years ago and it changed the way you look at the world. Sure, I read Think and Grow Rich and I know the message of The Secret (you tend to get that which you focus on) is essentially the same. The power of The Secret, though, was in the dramatic story-telling, the insightful commentary and the beautiful production values. Altogether, it made for an entertaining and highly watchable movie.

(Photo: seanmcgath)

Ever since watching The Secret I’ve looked for other movies that expand on the ideas taught in it. There are good ones out there, including the thought-provoking What the Bleep Do We Know!? which I certainly recommend.

Beyond the Secret, though, isn’t one of the good ones.

I’m afraid a lot of people will watch Beyond the Secret thinking it’s The Secret Part II. It’s a shame that the title gives that impression. Beyond the Secret has none of the power or significance of The Secret and is really just a lame rip-off.

I watched the whole DVD–which, believe me, was a challenge. I didn’t learn anything new and that’s not because Beyond the Secret is just a rehash of The Secret. It’s not even a very good rehash.

The movie opens with an introduction from Holli Walker–someone I’ve never heard of but I guess she’s a life-coach or something like that. The way the rest of the movie works is this: Holli reads part of a letter she received from someone looking for help or guidance with a life issue and then for the next 20 minutes or so a series of motivational gurus take turns expounding on philosophical ideas supposedly related to the question. Then Holli asks another question and the process repeats.

Part of the problem with this movie is with the gurus themselves. Sure, I recognize Bob Proctor and Les Brown. But who are all these other people: Mary Morrissey, Ricky Byars Beckwith, Mark Moffitt, Steve Siebold, Marcia Wieder, Christian Simpson and Paul Martinelli? I imagine they are life coaches, authors or motivational speakers but they had nothing special to offer, just the standard “everything you look at was created twice”, “write out what you want over the next 6 months”, etc.

Another major problem was the editing. The gurus would each speak for 5 to 30 seconds and then we’d see another guru say something different but related, and so on. Even worse, one guru would start to tell a story only to be interrupted by 2 or 3 other gurus talking about something else. It all felt very disjointed and confusing. I quickly got hypnotized by the non-stop philosophical ramblings.

The only good news is Les Brown kept waking me up: “You’re bigger than your excuse!” I was grateful to have him there to keep me from slipping into a coma. Bob Proctor is always good: “Whatever you resist persists”. But I couldn’t help but wonder what Les and Bob were doing in an otherwise low-quality movie.

Perhaps Les and Bob’s appearance fees ate up the entire production budget because the production quality was terrible. All the gurus were simply talking heads in front of a green screen with the same boring floating background. The only amusement factor of the whole movie was how the heads never seemed to be the same level–some were shot from the chest up and some were barely from the neck up. There clearly wasn’t much effort made to align the heads with each other.

Every once in a while interspersed between the talking heads there would be some unrelated, generic stock footage of landscapes, people reading, people in business meetings and other boring things. In The Secret we saw dramatic scenes portrayed by actors that enhanced the message of the movie. In Beyond the Secret we get stock footage of sunsets.

This all made for a boring, tedious and ultimately draining movie.

I’ve watch The Secret many times, each time appreciating it a little more. With Beyond the Secret I forced myself to watch the entire thing just in case it got better. It never did.

I was glad when it was over.

Instead of watching Beyond the Secret, watch the extended version of The Secret or What the Bleep Do We Know!? if you haven’t already:

Have you watched The Secret, Beyond the Secret or What the Bleep Do We Know!? What did you think? What other movies do you recommend?

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This article originally appeared in my blog Health Network Marketing.