Amid much of the other recent financial struggles came the news about a $50 billion Ponzi scheme run by now-arrested investment manager Bernard Madoff.
 
Rather than defrauding the poor and the (supposedly) financially ignorant, this scheme targeted primarily the rich and educated—people who knew a lot about finance and investing and should have in theory  ‘known better’.  How had this scheme continued for so long, and involved so many rich and (supposedly) experienced financial experts?  One reason is the great appeal of “The Secret”.

Gregg Easterbrook, writing for ESPN, explains:

Madoff had been claiming a super-special investment secret that allowed his fund to return 10 percent per year regardless of market conditions. Sounds fishy, huh? There are no secret investing formulas! Rather than keep clients' funds in a commercial bank or an investment bank, as do reputable firms -- this allows outside auditing -- Madoff set up private accounts that only he could access, and had the account "audited" by a storefront firm that employed a single accountant.

So only a total fool would fall for an investment adviser who claimed a secret formula and who hid clients' funds where they could not be checked on. Only a total fool would fall for this, right? The weird thing about Wall Street con men…is that smart people swallow the snake oil. All con men know you can only make a mark believe what the mark already wants to believe -- and the rich seem to want to believe there are hush-hush insider investing secrets that can only be known to a special few, not to average people.

There are no secret investing formulas.  Safe investing, according to Easterbrook, is fairly simple: "put your money in the bank, buy into a reputable mutual fund that's open to the public and performs about the same or maybe a little better than the industry average."

In a similar way, the world of health products is another multi-billion dollar market that often uses “The Secret” as an allure.  Many magazine and cable TV ads tout revolutionary new products that have “The Secret” to losing weight without diet and exercise.

There are no secret formulas to losing weight.  The best way to lose weight for the vast majority of people is and has always been to exercise more and eat less.   And yet, people who *know* this already, still spend billions of dollars to chase after “The Secret” to weight loss—one that’s ‘special’ and known only to a select few.
 
Can the same principle apply to church matters as well?  I think it can.  Lots of people are allured by “The Secret” to spirituality.

Suppose President Monson got up next General Conference and said the formula for advanced spirituality was:

1. Drink two tablespoons of liver oil in the morning, one immediately before you pray, one after.
2. Wear a blue shirt every Tuesday…but NOT on Thursday
3. Every night before you go to bed, put a raw fish on your head, and spin around three times.

Imagine the run on blue shirts and liver oil this would cause!  This is an exaggerated example, of course, but there are many Church members would rush out the door in an instant to follow some sort of “Secret Formula” revealed by the prophet.  After all, that’s the purpose of having a prophet, to share all the secrets and mysteries of the universe with us, right?

But what if there is no “secret formula” for spirituality?  What if, like investing and weight loss, the real answers are fairly…ordinary.  What if President Monson when he speaks doesn’t share any secret formula, but encourages us to be charitable to others.  Or love your family.  Gee, we could hear that sort of thing from other churches as well.  Even Pres. Monson himself often talked about those exact same things before he became prophet in the first place.  Where’s the “Secret” knowledge from God?

One of the first steps I believe any new member takes is to recognize that listening to a living prophet doesn’t mean we get insider access to the “Secrets of the Universe”.  Most of the time it’s hearing things we already knew.  Things that are basically common sense, anyway, so there’s no mystery to them.  People inherently like secrets and mysteries, though.  Nothing wrong with that, as long as there's the recognition that "The Secret" is often just the secret to making someone else rich...