The Greatest Secret summary

Here’s another question to get you thinking: Are you aware?

There can only be one answer to this question. You must be aware because if you weren’t, you wouldn’t be aware of the question itself. And you have always been aware, from your childhood all the way up to this very moment. Your awareness is the one thing that remains constant, even as your body changes, your personality shifts, and you experience new sensations and emotions.

To stay as Awareness, the author uses something called the Awareness Practice. It consists of three steps.

The first step is to ask yourself, Am I aware? But don’t try to come up with an answer using your mind. Instead, just feel the presence of Awareness when you ask the question. If your mind tries to intrude with an answer or a thought, just ask yourself the question again. And don’t desperately try to hold onto Awareness, either. Just sense the feelings of relief, peacefulness, and happiness that come with it.

Did you know that you have a computer program inside of your head? Yep, that’s right! It’s called your mind, and you probably still give it far more authority over your life than it deserves.

Your conscious mind –⁠ your thinking mind –⁠ accepts everything it sees. All of that material ultimately gets stored in your subconscious, which acts like a container for all of your experiences. The subconscious recycles that material and turns it into beliefs, which may be true or untrue. Those beliefs then get converted into thoughts, which are just programs that run in your head on a loop. And far too often, these thoughts are limiting thoughts –⁠ things like I don’t have enough money or That person doesn’t approve of me.

When you feel good, it seems like you’re on top of the world. Your energy is limitless, and yet, miraculously, you’re also relaxed! This good feeling is your true nature because Awareness is your true nature, and positivity flows from Awareness.

Negative feelings, on the other hand, stem from resistance to a situation or event. When something happens and you react negatively – “No! I don’t want this!” – it creates tension and resistance in your body and mind. This causes the negative feelings to stick around even longer. 

Beliefs are very similar to thoughts. Actually, beliefs are just thoughts that you’ve had so often that you now consider them facts. 

Consider the thought: The only way to make more money is by working longer hours. The first time you hear this sentence, it comes from someone else. Then, you start repeating it yourself. Before long, you’ve accepted it as fact. And then you start seeing evidence of it everywhere.

The world is often a turbulent, violent place. Wars rage, people go hungry, and poverty causes desperation. Yet mystics and sages proclaim that all is well.

How can they possibly think that when there’s so much bad? It’s because they know a truth that’s difficult for most people to grasp: everything is an illusion.