'The Secret' to Success?

The Secret to Health

Perhaps the most controversial claim in "The Secret" is that the mind wields enormous power over our health.

"I've seen kidneys regenerated. I've seen cancer dissolved," said Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder of Agape International Spiritual Center.

Byrne told ABC that she wouldn't even get a flu shot because "if you're feeling good, how can you attract any illness to you?"

"Disease cannot live in a body that's in a healthy emotional state," Proctor says in the film.

"That's a pretty strong statement," said Dr. Tanya Edwards, medical director of the Center for Integrative Medicine of Ohio's Cleveland Clinic, where meditation, deep breathing and guided imagery are used to treat patients.

"I believe it in my heart, but I don't know that I would be able to say that scientifically" without multiple randomized control trials, the gold standard in medicine, Edwards said.

Coincidentally, Edwards screened "The Secret" just days before she talked with ABC.

"I encourage my patients to live these principles if they're open to it," Edwards said. "Whatever it is that's going to help them on their path toward healing … is of utmost importance."

Edwards says there is a proven mind-body link in medicine.

If we're consistently negative, then "negativity will be what we will get. … Observe yourself and if you find that you are automatically going to the negative, then let's work on steering you back and breaking that automatic negative habit."

'Greatest Case Study of Viral Marketing'

"The Secret's" popularity continues to grow without the benefit of TV and magazine ads or distribution in theaters.

Sales are in the hundreds of thousands including DVD sales and direct online downloads from the film's Web site www.thesecret.tv, according to the producers.

Vitale told ABC, "I think the marketing campaign behind 'The Secret' is going to go down in history as the greatest case study of viral marketing ever done. … Anywhere."