Ah...so if you were looking around at skeptic websites and DOUBTING then you were not really into New Thought 100%!
You needed to believe harder!
:-)
(kidding)
That is the trap, of course. The only way, they say, you can really get it to "work" is to Believe 100%, otherwise, just that shred of doubt will create itself. (which is bullshit).
So if a person really really really wanted to go for New Thought 100%, then you have to FORCE yourself to Believe 100% 24/7.
Which is impossible...so then you go mental, basically. Or delusional.
Or wake-up.
Or if the person makes money off it as a Practioner...you just pretend you Believe 100%.
But I think since Oprah is a famous Billionaire, it must seem like some of its true for her.
But Oprah put on a bunch of weight this year...if New Thought were true, that should be "easy" right? To not over-eat?
So people Delude themselves.
The Jon Stewart show last night showed a clip of Oprah doing her fake-hype-job 10x for all sorts of products...and compared it to her political hype now.
Oprah is a fantastic salesperson.
One wonders if her Oprah school might also be a New Thought "experiment" to see if they can get children to believe that stuff 100%? One hopes not, that has been tried many times, and it FAILS EVERYTIME. It screws the kids up. Talk to kids who grew up Christian Scientists.
I bet many of those people crawling those New Thought web-boards all had websites, and were looking for people to "Facilitate" others for a mere $100 a session..
Ernest Holmes and Science of Mind I found to be the least "negative". but the entire Religious Science thing-in-itself is built on a false assumption...Monism. He just states..."All is Mind".
Well, says who?
What if All isn't Mind?
Well, then you're screwed!
But a fun positive thing to do AFTER New Thought...is that a person can still keep most of the good ideas...just keep them as Metaphors, and myths, like the Joseph Campbell stuff.
For example, some of the ideas and images of New Thought, can be flipped into scientific Transhumanism, and what Carl Sagan talks about in Pale Blue Dot.
So a person can still imagine cool future-stuff for fun...but you just know its Imagination, and not objective reality! Big difference.
Also, the idea that Thought Creates Reality, can still be used somewhat. Cognitive Psychology shows that Thoughts do create INTERNAL reality. Big difference.
And then those internal beliefs influence our external reality through our behaviors.
And if a tree-branch false on our head...no, we didn't create it, we just got randomly bonked on the head...
So its much better than the silly fake-Secret that doesn't work.
So just those 2 things...take the Big Vision of New Thought, and just treat it like a mythological metaphor, and the idea that Thought creates internal reality...Constructivism...and we can influence our lives through our behaviors which stem from our Beliefs, and there is randomness in the universe so lets get over it!
Then you keep some of the good stuff, and get rid of the bad stuff.
also, the idea that humans will become like New Thought GODS is a recipe for MISERY. Impossible goals make humans miserable.
Instead, its better to embrace Humanism, and just be happy being a goddamn normal human being! What is wrong with being a human, and strive for healthy excellence and self-acceptance, etc? Isn't it ironic that their unhappiness comes from them not accepting that they are a human? And their solution is to try and become a God by MindMagic? Which will only make them more miserable and in Denial.
So its ironic, that doing all the New Thought stuff, will make people more unhappy, and less successful and less-competent in life.
As far as I can see, it does the opposite of what they say it does.
I think its mainly the Confirmation Bias that traps people.
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skepdic.com]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2008 09:50PM by The Anticult.