My story starts on February 9th. My family was plunged into horrendous, indescribable darkness that day. My father was kidnapped and held for ransom. Although I will never know for sure, I believe the kidnappers took the wrong person. We are a very average family and the amount of money they asked for him was way, way above our means. For weeks the kidnappers phoned and sent messages demanding the money, but we could not pay, we did not have the amount they wanted and what we offered they did not accept. They did not change their demand.

They kept sending occasional voice notes or videos of my father, so we knew he was still alive. The police called this “proof of life.” On March 1st, we received another voice note from my father, followed by another nine days of demand calls from the kidnappers and then silence. Nothing. No calls, no messages, nothing. The silence was unbearable.

On Friday, 22nd of March, six weeks after my father was taken and three weeks after the last proof of life, the police said that we have to prepare ourselves for the possibility that my father may no longer be alive. They wanted to wait and see if anything would happen over the weekend, but they had a very bad feeling because of the silence from the criminals.

I am usually a very emotional and very high-strung person, but throughout the whole ordeal, I remained uncharacteristically calm. I heard what the police said, and I understood, but I did not believe my father was dead.
The situation was extremely tense. I usually love reading and watching crime and mystery novels, but during that time I could not bear to watch anything like that. I needed positive things in my life. I ended up revisiting a meditation program I had subscribed to a long time ago, which focuses on love and gratitude, and I tried to meditate on and off – not very well, I may add, but at least I tried.

On that weekend, while anxiously waiting for a call from the kidnappers, I needed something to help me get into a better frame of mind. I looked through my audiobooks but couldn’t find anything that appealed to me. I went online to browse, and “The Secret” popped up. I had never seen The Secret movie, never read The Secret book, and I didn’t even know what it was about; it just didn’t fit my usual genre of books. I read the summary and thought I would try.

It was a game-changer! I listened to it over and over, and of course, I asked that my father return safely. I imagined how it would feel to hug him when we were finally reunited, and I was grateful for his safe return.

On Monday morning, one of the detectives came to our house and said that the police wanted to change the case from “kidnapping” to “missing person,” which is the procedure when there are no more demands made, and thus the victim is “missing” rather than kidnapped and that I must realize that my father is no longer alive. He clearly saw in my eyes that I could not accept the situation. He took me aside and talked to me for a long time, but it did not change my belief. I can not say why I was so sure that they were wrong; I just knew.

That evening, we received a call from the kidnappers, and my father was put on the phone. Four days later, on Friday night, it was Good Friday, and my father was released by the criminals in an open wetland area. A group of people who had gathered there to pray by the river saw him being thrown out of a car and came to his assistance. Despite his age and the fact that he was kept tied up for seven weeks, he returned in good physical condition. When I hugged him it felt exactly like I imagined it would.

I must have played The Secret at least ten times that week, and I listened again and again and again. I had asked. I really and strongly believed. And I received. I also believe that the love and gratitude during the meditation, as clumsy as it may have been, was what attracted or sent “The Secret” to me.

I really can not thank you enough for this book. Of course, I am applying the law of attraction to other things now, happier things for sure, but the safe return of my father was truly a miracle. I am still listening to “The Secret” almost on a daily basis, and I have purchased “The Power” in the meantime, but “The Secret” is my favorite.

With deepest Gratitude
Gaby