Hi JOL,
if my emoticon worked it would show a little yellow jiggling face, as in *chuckle*

good point, if somewhat, umm, (can't find the word)..."zennish"?

regards,
shad

when I heard that Oprah was pushing this Tolle guy I immediately thought back to that the big blooper she made with that young fellow who wrote a book about being addicted to drugs, and he turned out to be a big liar...Oprah ended up with egg on her face. The same might happen again; i think her staff are not doing their background checks on some of these people.

I also think, (in my not so humble opinion) that, in spite of all her success and wealth, Oprah still has a big empty spot inside that she is filling up with all her "go go go, do, do do, if you know what I mean: starting her school in Africa, giving money and prizes away, jumping onto every new-age band wagon that comes along. Eventually she will crash, probably in the next few months, when it comes to light that Tolle is just another purveyor of "snake oil"...

but this thread is not about Oprah, sorry that I digress...I am just so alarmed that she is encouraging all these people to log onto her website and join the Fantasy...AGAIN,
buyer BEWARE,

THANKS for your insightful comments shakti and others who have contributed here.

regards,
shad

Oprah is starting an entire online "course" with ET Eckhart Tolle. It looks to be 10 weeks long, and starts next month, or something. She is promoting the hell out of this thing.
[www.oprah.com]
Her catch-line is GET READY TO BE AWAKENED.
That is a line from hypnosis.

Of course, the irony is that ET is the opposite if getting awakened, its putting your mind to sleep.

I have heard some speculation that this could be related to the US election, in the sense of using mass-persuasion to passify her public?
Of course, Oprah has done some good things, yadda yadda.
But this is really going off the deep end. Why does she always promote such garbage? Why not some legitimate critical analysis from accredited people?
Could it be they want to disable the mass-publics critical thinking mechanisms?

The promo for the ET-Oprah "course" tells people to read the book, and "it's ok if you don't understand it all", they will explain it to you later.
That is a classic cultish technique.

Below is an "excerpt" in a teaser for the course, to get you to buy the book, and sign-up to Oprah's World.
(They still have not stated whether or not it is free, or if they charge you. Another cultish technique).

__________________EXCERPT for analysis and educational purposes______________

Read an Excerpt from A New Earth
By Eckhart Tolle
In his insightful look into humanity's ego-based thinking, Eckhart Tolle provides practical teachings for waking up to a new, enlightened mind-set. If you're seeking a more loving self and a more loving planet, A New Earth has the tools to begin your transformation.
--------------------
Is humanity ready for a transformation of consciousness, an inner flowering so radical and profound that compared to it the flowering of plants, no matter how beautiful, is only a pale reflection? Can human beings lose the density of their conditioned mind structures and become like crystals or precious stones, so to speak, transparent to the light of consciousness? Can they defy the gravitational pull of materialism and materiality and rise above identification with form that keeps the ego in place and condemns them to imprisonment within their own personality?

The possibility of such a transformation has been the central message of the great wisdom teachings of humankind. The messengers—Buddha, Jesus, and others, not all of them known—were humanity's early flowers. They were precursors, rare and precious beings. A widespread flowering was not yet possible at that time, and their message became largely misunderstood and often greatly distorted. It certainly did not transform human behavior, except in a small minority of people.

Is humanity more ready now than at the time of those early teachers? Why should this be so? What can you do, if anything, to bring about or accelerate this inner shift? What is it that characterizes the old egoic state of consciousness, and by what signs is the new emerging consciousness recognized? These and other essential questions will be addressed in this book. More important, this book itself is a transformational device that has come out of the arising new consciousness. The ideas and concepts presented here may be important, but they are secondary. They are no more than signposts pointing toward awakening. As you read, a shift takes place within you.

This book’s main purpose is not to add new information or beliefs to your mind or to try to convince you of anything, but to bring about a shift in consciousness, that is to say, to awaken. In that sense, this book is not "interesting." Interesting means you can keep your distance, play around with ideas and concepts in your mind, agree or disagree. This book is about you. It will change your state of consciousness or it will be meaningless. It can only awaken those who are ready. Not everyone is ready yet, but many are, and with each person who awakens, the momentum in the collective consciousness grows, and it becomes easier for others. If you don’t know what awakening means, read on. Only by awakening can you know the true meaning of that word. A glimpse is enough to initiate the awakening process, which is irreversible. For some, that glimpse will come while reading this book. For many others who may not even have realized it, the process has already begun. This book will help them recognize it. For some, it may have begun through loss or suffering; for others, through coming into contact with a spiritual teacher or teaching, through reading The Power of Now or some other spiritually alive and therefore transformational book—or any combination of the above. If the awakening process has begun in you, the reading of this book will accelerate and intensify it.

An essential part of the awakening is the recognition of the unawakened you, the ego as it thinks, speaks, and acts, as well as the recognition of the collectively conditioned mental processes that perpetuate the unawakened state. That is why this book shows the main aspects of the ego and how they operate in the individual as well as in the collective. This is important for two related reasons: The first is that unless you know the basic mechanics behind the workings of the ego, you won’t recognize it, and it will trick you into identifying with it again and again. This means it takes you over, an imposter pretending to be you. The second reason is that the act of recognition itself is one of the ways in which awakening happens. When you recognize the unconsciousness in you, that which makes the recognition possible is the arising consciousness, is awakening. You cannot fight against the ego and win, just as you cannot fight against darkness. The light of consciousness is all that is necessary. You are that light.

Yep "Anticult", the photo of Tolle kind of creeped me out, and then I remembered something about a group in Richmond, BC (an hour's drive from where I live), who were practicing the same kind of rubbish as The Secret and Landmark, taking thousands and thousands of $$ from people. But I wonder if he is just one of the graduates of places like Landmark, Insignt etc. They have to keep changing their names because now people are "on to" them.

I think it will only be time before he is seen in his true light (hopefully). you ask:"could it be they want to disable the mass-public's critical thinking skills" EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING. remember Chompsky's book, "Manufactured Concent"? - about how the newspapers manipulate the news and peoples thinking...now they are using T.V. and the Internet. ....same old same old....

trouble is, we don't want our loved ones turned into a bunch of robots...

regards,
Shad

Joe 23
I know that I am not a "mean-spirited, ill-informed knee-jerk", just as I know that I do not have to swallow arsenic to know that it will kill me!

party on!
Shad

Shad, I think it is similar to Manufacturing Consent, by Chomsky. Its the first step, softening up the mind, fertilizing the soil for the Suggestions to come.

Did anyone read that drivel by Eckhart Tolle above? Its a bunch of manipulative New Age jargon.

Oprah today is having ANOTHER show about "The Secret" and also connecting it to Eckhart Tolle.
Unbelievable, she is ramming this stuff down her fans throats. You would think the US Christians would crucify her for all this stuff??

Sure, Oprah had a tough life, and came from a bad childhood, and all that stuff.
But this constant promotion of pseudo-science and Antiscience, is it ever going to end?

It seems she has a real weakness and get sucked in by these cons...or...
maybe its part of her TV show, to pander to that audience?
Like Montel Williams pandered to the folks that wanted psychics?

Maybe it is just pandering to get an easy sell audience for the advertisers?

Ugh, that Oprah show about Beyond The Secret was painful to watch.
Its interesting that they target women 100% with this stuff. Only one male on the entire show, and it was more of a joke.

The entire show can be summed up with...
The Confirmation Bias. [skepdic.com]
Testimonials [skepdic.com]

Not one shread of real evidence. Zero.

One of Oprah's experts, is Martha Beck. She appears to be a former Mormon, who wrote about book about how to stop being gay with her husband, then they both turned gay! Must be a great book.

Also, she claims to have had Recovered Memories, and all 7 of her siblings have written a statment saying she has fabricated her past.
[farms.byu.edu]

So that is another wonderful Oprah 'expert'.
Anyone can see Martha Beck is just trying to cash in on The Secret, this week, some diet next week.

Oprah may have done some good things in the world, but this hammering of The Secret and Eckhart Tolle and the rest of it is a disgrace.
Its clear its all done deliberately, as they never show ONE real expert who questions or disputes the ideas in any way whatsoever. Its propaganda.
They set up the Wishful Thinking, give some Confirmation Bias and Testimonials, pitch the books and products without any questioning whatsoever.

It really is disgraceful.

Hi Anticult,
yeah, same old drivel, but I suppose it is not surprising that our mass junk-consuming society literally "eats it up"...it is very sad and alarming..

and yes, i agree, it is disgraceful...so many people are such Sheep!

later,
shad

Eckhart Tolle is a fine spiritual teacher.