The Power of 'The Secret'

Zadar Croatia only has a tiny handful of bookstores, and they in turn only have a tiny handful of titles -- even in Croatian. These people are not big readers.

However, even in Zadar, bookshops carry copies of the worldwide bestseller, The Secret, which is a much-hyped redo of many, 'new age' tomes of the past, in particular Shaki Gawain's Creative Visualization. The Secret's premise is that if you visualize what you'd like to have in your life as though it's already there and you feel joy and gratitude for this fact, then pretty soon that item will appear. The universe bends to the power of your emotion-laden will.

The good news is, this is not all hype or new age mumbo jumbo. As much of advanced quantum physics and Lynne McTaggart's footnote-heavy book The Intention Experiment reveals, many scientific studies have been successfully conducted showing mind-power affects the "real" world.

All of which goes to explain why when I was a little stressed out about money recently, I decided to take action by visualizing a check for my lucky number five million in my hand. What's not to lose?

Lo and behold a few weeks later, my husband, to whom I did not reveal my secret get-rich plan, walks in the door crowing, "I've got a present for you!" Yes. A five million dinar bill from the craziest inflationary days of old Yugoslavia.

Which goes to show. The Secret does work, but you must be very specific about that which you ask for. As in currency that's legal tender.