Sorry I got to this post too late for the debate. But I’d still like to say something. Not only is this statement offensive for actively encouraging bigoted practices, and for representing fat people as grotesque, obscene and contaminating (rather than examining a culture that attributes this status to fat), it bizarrely champions repression and denial. It seems to suggest that by turning a blind eye, and shutting out the world, a better world can be achieved. If this person is trying to talk about having “vision”, such as you might attribute to Gandhi or someone, then they have a very poor way of communicating.

The advice reminds me of the experiences that are related in some narratives of abused children. Some survivors of childhood abuse talk about experiencing something so bad that they shut it out and create another experience for themselves. Only years later can the traumatic memory be recovered, at great personal cost. From hearing accounts of people who have used this technique as a survival mechanism, it seems unadvisable to follow this procedure. To trivialize the experience of these survivors by adopting it as a strategy for “the perfect body” seems unfortunate. And regardless of what outcome is sought – the perfect body/relationship/house etc, it seems to foster ignorance to suggest that a successful strategy is one which rules out diversity or doubt.

I just love how things that are considered disordered for thin people (visualizing skinny people, restricted calorie diets) are considered perfectly acceptable for the overweight.

I think visualization can help in sports–maybe it has something to do with kinetic memory. I also think optimistic people tend to be happier. BUT, there’s a limit to how much your thoughts impact your life. “Keeping your eye on the prize” might give you focus to achieve goals you’ve identified for yourself. But, it’s a gross oversimplification to assert that you can wish a bike into your possession. And, suggesting that you should shut out even the sight of something incompatible with your goal is ridiculous. If Abraham Lincoln was so into The Secret, did he have to look away from anything that contradicted a unified county and the abolition of slavery? Yeah, right. I think the other possibile outcomes of his presidency were in the forefront of his mind. Shutting your eyes and plugging your ears seems to be the tactic of another, less effective, president. Sorry to get political. I just think it’s unproductive to encourage denial or to blame the site of other people for your problems.

Oh wait…

Although, I’ll also say that I’ve read more of the Abraham-Hicks books on it, and they are nowhere NEAR as offensive as the anti-fat bias quoted here from The Secret people. That’s actually pretty messed up. I would think that if you practiced what’s quoted above, you would attract a whole load of shallowness into your life.