This book will have a positive impact for the Church of Jesus Christ. It will educate those who can now be on the look-out for this heresy, and it will help people involved in it (Christian or not) to escape. Like Melissa has said, you’ve probably never heard of it before, but you’ll know it when you see it. After reading ‘Happy Lies’, you will never be able to unsee it.

Melissa Dougherty wrote a book. Here is my review. I liked it. A lot.

I have been looking forward to reading Melissa’s book Happy Lies: How a Movement You (Probably) Never Heard Of Shaped Our Self-Obsessed World1 since I first heard she was writing it. I have been familiar with the New Age movement and even had some freaky New Age/Occultic experiences, but I really had no idea that some of the things I was taught and experienced really weren’t New Age. It was New Thought. As Melissa put it on page five, “New thought ideas can deceive Christians before new age ideas ever will… It has more influence than it has recognition.”

Before I get into this detailed review of Happy Lies, I want to be on record as saying that I believe the Law of Attraction actually works. I took advantage of Amazon’s preorder deal and ordered the book on August 16, 2024 with January 28th 2025 as the estimated time of delivery. I’m telling you that I manifested exactly that for about six months!

Happy Lies arrived on the 28th. I finished reading it on the 29th. I wanted to write a review immediately upon completing the book, but I thought it would be best to write my thoughts and what I’ve learned after I’ve marinated on it a bit. Before you read the book, buy some highlighters, you’ll need them.

I’ve known Melissa since before she had a YouTube presence. I’m familiar with her sense of humor. It is wacky, twisted, warped, out in left field… Where was I going with this? Oh, and Melissa has a beautiful, quick-witted mind that is fully displayed in Happy Lies. Humor is one thing to do in a video, but it takes real genius to pull it off in written format.

And then there are times when you don’t hear MelissaTube voice, you hear a different voice. When you read through all scholarly research and imagine what it took her to compile and organize this information, be prepared to hear the intellectual Melissa. The amount of end notes shows how much research she put into this book. She worked hard on this book. This is a much more serious Melissa than what we usually see on YouTube.

Referring to humor again, I believe people with a good sense of humor tend to be very intelligent. That’s a deadly combination. I know Melissa is smart, but frankly, I didn’t know Melissa was this smart. She is so smart that you will learn new words never heard by mankind before. Terms like, “occult soup, and Metamystigorical”. My spell checker isn’t just red right now, it’s flashing red.

In all seriousness, I learned a wealth of information from Happy Lies. I had no idea how prevalent New Thought is, not only in the world, but also in the Church. It is common to hear TV preachers parrot new thought beliefs, but surprisingly, I’ve heard some of these ideas in evangelical churches as well, particularly mega/giga Churches. There is a difference between seeker sensitive and seeker centered Churches. Seeker centered churches tend to preach TED-Talk like sermons which resemble self-help messages, with a few Bible verses sprinkled in for credibility’s sake.

Melissa makes reference to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research on page 207, which captures the mega/giga culture well.

“According to a study by the Hartford Institute for Religious Research, the reasons people were attracted to a large seeker Church were the worship style, the senior pastor, and the church’s reputation. What kept them there? The worship style, the senior pastor, and the churches reputation.”

If you don’t understand the connection between New Thought and mega/giga churches, read the book.

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