For a while last year, only New Age bookstores were
selling The Secret (Atria/Beyond Words, $23.95,
9781582701707/1582701709), and we had the market cornered. At breathe
books, for example, we sold more than 800 copies of the DVD after it
came out in early August and 140 copies of the book, which came out in
November. But now The Secret is no longer a secret and can be purchased
just about everywhere at a 30% discount; in the past month, sales for
us have slowed to a trickle. My goal here is to let you in on the other
secrets of the New Age world before Oprah and Target catch on.
When your customers who have read The Secret ask "What's next?" the
answers can be found in Ask and It Is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks
(Hay House, $14.95, 9781401904593/1401904599), the ultimate book on the
law of attraction, which is what The Secret is all about. As the book
outlines, the Universe is here for our well-being and gives us whatever
we ask for. We just need to know how to receive it. This is the law of
attraction. Like attracts like. And you will attract sales! Ask and It
Is Given is the best book at this time to communicate the message and
includes 22 concrete exercises to help raise your vibrations to what
you want to achieve. We have sold nearly 400 copies of Ask and It Is
Given.
What Rhonda Byrne and others in The Secret don't really say is that the
information they discuss is channeled; it seems they didn't think the
masses could handle the notion of channeled information, and maybe they
were right. By contrast, Esther and Jerry Hicks don't shy away from
their story of how Esther began channeling this powerful source, who
gave themselves the name Abraham (you will hear people ask for the
Abraham-Hicks books often). Bestselling author Wayne Dyer attributes
much of his knowledge to Esther's channeling. (Next time you see Wayne
on PBS, notice the ball of light on the corner of the stage. It's his
"source energy.")
The entire Abraham-Hicks line of books and DVDs is extraordinarily
powerful. If you can, host a screening of segments of the DVD The Law
of Attraction in Action (Hay House, $34.95, 9787407978439) and hold a
discussion afterwards. This is the real secret.
Even the earliest discussions of the law of attraction (written in the
early 1900s), such as Wallace Wattle's The Science of Getting Rich
(Tarcher Penguin, $10, 9781585426010/1585426016), Napoleon Hill's Think
and Grow Rich (Fawcett, $14.95, 9780452266605/0452266602) and James
Allen's As a Man Thinketh (Putnam, $6.95, 9780399128295/0399128298),
all refer to a mystical force in the Universe that matches our
vibration and provides us with whatever it is we are asking for. More
recently, the very accessible Lynn Grabhorn, author of Excuse Me Your Life Is
Waiting (Hampton Roads, $16.95, 9781571745293/1571745297), also teaches
the law of attraction.
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If this is too New-Agey for your customers, you may want to look to
some people here on earth who are dispensing similar information.
How to be Happy All the Time (Crystal Clarity, $16.95,
9781565892156/1565892151) is a beautiful book by Paramhansa Yogananda,
a renowned yoga master of the 20th century (as you may know, yoga is
more than a series of movements--it is a philosophy of living based on
ancient Indian teachings).
Yogananda (1893-1952) is best-known for his classic Autobiography of a
Yogi (Crystal Clarity, $14, 9781565892125/1565892127). This slim,
non-intimidating collection of teachings reveals that happiness is
closer than you think. In fact, it's inside you. Happiness is
the foundation of all we do, he continues, and one can choose to be
happy in any circumstance. This is a wonderful gift book or a good
place to start for someone who is interested in yogic teachings.
Another easy place to start on the path to enlightenment is with Pema
Chodron. Your customers will find this Buddhist nun's teachings easy to
understand, in part because her background might resemble that of some
of your clientele's: Chodron, formerly known as Deirdre
Blomfield-Brown, hails from New York and was educated at Berkeley. In
1972, she was a housewife and mom when she came across the Buddhist
teacher Chogyum Trungpa Rinpoche--and changed her life. Her
down-to-earth wisdom is refreshing, logical and comfortable.
If your customers aren't familiar with Chodron, have them begin with
her classic Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living
(Shambhala, $12.95, 9781570628399/1570628394). She writes in a clear
voice on compassion and awareness and how to end your own suffering and
unhappiness so that you can help others. People from all walks of life
can relate to her teachings. This book will open the door for your
customers to Buddhist-American thought, and Chodron has a huge backlist
as well as meditation CDs you'll want to stock up on.
Another favorite of mine is Christel Nani, who worked for years as an
emergency room trauma nurse before devoting her talents to being a
medical intuitive. Her innate abilities to "see" what's wrong with
people led to her first book, Diary of a Medical Intuitive (L.M. Press,
$13.95, 9780974145020/0974145025). In her new book, Sacred Choices:
Thinking Outside the Tribe to Heal your Spirit (Harmony, $23,
9780307341655/0307341658), she hones in on what holds so many of us
back from living our dreams. By resisting our true nature, she says, we
create illness in our minds and bodies.
Through case studies and personal experiences, she communicates ways to
break out of social expectations and "tribal language" (notions such as
"taking care of yourself is selfish" or "if you have a secure job,
don't leave it") to reconnect to your soul and your true desires and
move forward with the life you want to live.
All these writers encourage you to take control of your life, live it
as you want and be happy. By listening to your inner voice or higher
self, you will hear what's best you. So how do you hear that inner
voice? The key is meditation . . . in my next column I'll tell you
about the best meditation books and CDs on the market.--Susan L. Weis
