Since I've been very critical of The Secret, every once in a while I will poke around Joe Vitale's blog and comment here or there. (I will also freely acknowledge that his blog gets a lot of traffic, and posting there is a bit of guerrilla marketing on my part.)

Joe, as you might remember, was the guy in The Secret who likened the universe to one big cosmic catalog that you could order a Ferrari from at will. He recently wrote a post in his blog, Thresholds: Is it serving or selling? Here, he gives the typical response to people who criticize the materialism of The Secret, suggesting that those who have a problem with it are just feeling "undeserving."

The ongoing and seemingly never-ending pet food recall is pretty scary if you have an animal. I hope all your four legged critters are happy and healthy.

I have been using some pet food for a while now that my cat loves, and because it is holistic, it has not been affected by the recall. The company offers cat and dog food, and you can buy it at Trader Joe's or get it home delivered. It is not the Trader Joe's brand food...it is the Bench & Field brand. The food comes in plastic canisters as well as large bags:

http://benchandfield.com

Note: I wrote this entry before news came out that Cho Seung-Hui was the shooter. In light of the recent information about his motives, I feel what I wrote below is eerily on target, but perhaps just scratches the surface of the psyches of society's more psychologically disturbed "throwaways."

Once again, a big government entity is attempting to regulate the use of herbs, vitamins, and other supplements through heavy-handed tactics. In this latest FDA push, you may not be able to suggest to someone try a fruit juice, because to suggest that a juice has therapeutic qualities would thus make it a "drug" and subject to regulation.

Can you imagine? If you tell someone to drink their orange juice because it's good for you, you could be arrested for practicing medicine without a license!

by Stephanie Brail

I am a mystic, but I am also a science geek. I used to teach science to elementary school students. I believe in miracles, but I believe these miracles occur within the framework of a very real world that is subject to certain laws of physics. Science is very complicated, and you cannot reduce the way the universe operates down to one simple formula.

Yet, many are accepting the idea that the so-called Law of Attraction is the way the universe works, or, in the least, the way people’s lives work. This idea, now put forth into the mainstream by The Secret, has been called “scientific” by many of its adherents. Yet, this label is not only misleading but downright false.

If you want some inspiration to tackle your clutter, check out the British import How Clean is Your House? The show airs weekdays on BBC America and stars an intrepid duo of two women who tackle the dirtiest homes in all of the U.K.

A few things you'll get from watching the show:

Pat Gundry has started a "6 Month Fitness Project" to provide support for whatever your fitness goals happen to be. She has a blog with daily updates and a mailing list. As of this writing she is almost a week into it. To get your bearings, go here first:

http://www.6monthfitnessproject.com/about_the_project/index.html

I can't even begin to tell you how angry and sick I was to read this story this morning, about a 4-year-old girl who died from her ADHD medication. This isn't just a case of the girl having a bad reaction to the drugs; her parents are being investigated for possibly overmedicating her on purpose.

I'm not surprised. A new study shows that training in music helps you hear better and may just make you all around smarter. I bet it's also good for stress relief too...as long as you don't take it too seriously. We've all heard of the stereotypical messed up creative genius - the craziness probably comes from the pressure, not the music playing itself.

With all this talk about The Secret, I have to say: I really don't want to manifest more stuff right now. I have lots of clutter that I have been clearing out and organizing. Can there be some sort of Law of Repulsion where when I look at my clutter, it will magically fly out the window on its own accord?

How about a Law of Organization, where when I look at my unfiled papers, they magically re-arrange themselves into neatly organized files in my file drawer?