It was 2006 when The Secret came out, and suddenly everyone seemed to believe that your thoughts were basically placing orders with the universe. Think positively and good things will come. Visualize what you want. Feel it. Believe it. Attract it. Apparently the universe had a customer service department, and all of us were submitting requests with our brains.
Morgan DiPrimo was in middle school — which already felt like enough of a psychological experiment without being told her thoughts might have supernatural consequences. Her mom and her friends were obsessed with The Secret. They bought the book, talked about manifestation, and some of them made vision boards covered in pictures of beautiful houses, beaches, inspirational quotes, and an alarming number of very thin women jogging joyfully in the sunshine.
Then Oprah did an entire episode about The Secret, which in 2006 was basically the equivalent of the federal government issuing a new policy. Morgan’s mom sat her down to watch it. Rhonda Byrne started talking about the law of attraction — like attracts like, what you think about you attract into your life, our thoughts are powerful. Oprah agreed. The audience applauded.
And Morgan’s twelve-year-old brain went: Wait. What the fuck?
Because her thoughts were bad. Not bad like Ugh, I hate math class — bad like What if my mom dies? What if my dad gets sick? What if I get cancer? What if something horrible happens because I thought about it? And now Oprah Winfrey was telling her the universe was listening. Her heart started racing. Her breathing got shallow. She started pinching her skin, trying to calm herself down. Rhonda Byrne had just handed her anxiety the nuclear codes.
The post traces how “positive thinking” culture — the idea that your thoughts are creating your reality — is particularly cruel for people whose brains generate unwanted, scary thoughts involuntarily. The problem, as Morgan puts it, is that the message assumes everyone wakes up thinking I am abundant. I am attracting joy. Her brain woke up like: Good morning. Everyone you love could die today.
Originally published on morgandiprimo.substack.com.
