Quote
The Anticult
Saw some of the Oprah with Tom Cruise show.
It was just media-counter-SPIN-persuasion for Cruise to try to get his image back.
FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE.
Fake laughter, fake humility....



Cruise all soft-spoken, Oprah lobbing him softball questions...ignoring the facts of the Scientology, and letting Cruise get away with saying anything he wants.

Now she is going to have a Part2 with Tom Cruise, full of celebrities...to try and bring Tom Cruise back into favor.

You can also tell Oprah is using this to try and get her own image back too. Oprah has gotten tons of flack over the Tolle religious cult stuff. So she probably feels that her and Cruise have to both "hide" their culty religious stuff from now on. Cruise said that he has to be more careful in his communications, and Oprah nodded knowingly as she listened...
So they are just going to tone it down a bit, and get sneakier?

This applies to Eckhart Tolle.
Even if ET were involved with a horrible group like Scientology which has hurt thousands, its all OK with Oprah. Its fine with her.
So Eckhart Tolle would have to be WAY WORSE than Scientology, to even get criticized by Oprah?

So in terms of culty New Age religions...Oprah is not just a bad joke. She is dangerous, due to her credulous and uncritical promotion of them.
I think Oprah sees what goes on, but just dumbs it down for her audience.
Hey, its all great for those at the top, Oprah, Cruise,Tolle...its good to be the king.

Oprah is not just a bad joke in her culty New Age propaganda...she's very dangerous.
She ended the show with Cruise hugging and kissing him on a mountaintop.
She is doing the same thing emotionally with Eckhart Tolle.

She and her producers are the modern masters of TV persuasion-spin,and counter-spin.

Her show about Tom Cruise ended like the old propaganda movie Triumph Of The Will began...high in the clouds with The Godmen...and now Godwomen...

(photo of the New Celebrity Godmen+Oprah on the Mountaintop.)
[ap.google.com]

Hi Anticult; yep, i TOTALLY agree, I watched Part 1 and I thought the same thing. So soft spoken and weird!!! I have to admit i just tuned in out of curiosity; i really do not like TC (as his friends call him, lol) and i'm not one to gossip BUUUUUTTTT (I will anyway) he always seems to me to be a bit faggy (not in a good way, rather a closet gay - too ashamed to live his truth... i'm sorry but i just don't believe that sweet new 2 year-old girls is really biologically his - hence all the secrecy around her birth - what a great big phoney he is) Then today, because i had nothing better to do and i was really tired i tuned in and he just creeps me out so much i only watched for about 15 minutes then turned the t.v. off!)

I started to dislike TC when he starred in "An Officer and a Gentleman" - he just turned me right off, i don't know why, but he is such a bad actor. And that clip from "Magnolia", that scene of him crying was just so hammy and over the top it was laughable...i would be embarressed to have that replayed over and over...oh well, there is no accounting for some people's taste, eh?

The whole Hollywood scene is just so incestious -- one big "happy" (yeah right!!) family - happy DISFUNCTIONAL family more likely.

How many wives has TC had? - and now he marries this sweet young thing and typically isolates her in that grand mountain hideaway! Typical control freak.

In about 20 years his "kids" will probably all write books about "Papa Dearest"...wait and see!

Yep, i used to really admire Oprah, but she has really gone over the top...too bad, she did some good things.

I watched Friday's Oprah with the TC interview. With the style of brainwashing that Oprah's been doing over the past few months (or, rather, getting people to do it to themselves), I've been wondering what she's going to do next. I mean, once you wipe people clean, SOMETHING has to go in there. As Anticult said on another thread, "What's the main course?"

I had wondered if it was Scientology, although that didn't seem to fit with the other Kool Aid that Oprah is pushing. I watched the TC interview to see what I could glean from it.

I thought the whole thing was very fake, very staged, very careful, all designed to make Tom look like a nice, harmless, regular guy, rather than the de facto head of a dangerous cult.

I spent a lot of time this weekend looking into the core teachings of Scientology (as well as the damage and abuses that have been inflicted on members, ex-members, and critics) and trying to figure out where Oprah is coming from, just to see if there is some sort of connection. I still think it would be a huge leap to say that Oprah IS a Scientologist herself. Scientology's core is actually a little too far out there for Oprah and, I think, for the public at large to get into. There's probably a thread somewhere on this board about Hubbard's background and his involvement with the kind of stuff Aleister Crowley and his buddies were into...I tend to think that Hubbard wasn't a true believer the way Crowley was, but, rather, that Hubbard got in with this group to glean the teachings and exploit them for his own ends.

The information that I found is freely available on the internet and it isn't that hard to find. What ticks me off is that... I find it hard to believe that Oprah doesn't know about this stuff or that her staff don't know about this stuff. I find it hard to believe that she doesn't have a staff of people who do research about the people she interviews. And if she knows what I know, I cannot fathom how she can excuse it. How she can present it as being 'OK', how she can present it as being what Tom Cruise described as just "a minority religion"? If she knows what I know and can still be so sympathetic, than I can only deduce that Oprah herself may be evil in her own right.

Now that the last Tolle webinar is complete, I wonder what she's going to do next. You have to keep up the momentum with the seekers, they always need 'more', they always need to feel like they are continuing to study and learn and grow [been there, done that, it's like an addiction and it always needs to be fed].

The folks at the Clambake message board have a thread going about Oprah and Tom. In fact, there are a couple of threads.

[ocmb.xenu.net]

[ocmb.xenu.net]

There was a thread on the Oprah message boards about the interview as well.

[www.oprah.com]


And here's a good one...Oprah isn't exactly getting a pass from EVERYONE for her Scientology apologetics:

[www.oprah.com]

Quote
DownToEarth
I watched Friday's Oprah with the TC interview. With the style of brainwashing that Oprah's been doing over the past few months (or, rather, getting people to do it to themselves), I've been wondering what she's going to do next. I mean, once you wipe people clean, SOMETHING has to go in there. As Anticult said on another thread, "What's the main course?"

I had wondered if it was Scientology, although that didn't seem to fit with the other Kool Aid that Oprah is pushing. I watched the TC interview to see what I could glean from it.

I thought the whole thing was very fake, very staged, very careful, all designed to make Tom look like a nice, harmless, regular guy, rather than the de facto head of a dangerous cult.

I spent a lot of time this weekend looking into the core teachings of Scientology (as well as the damage and abuses that have been inflicted on members, ex-members, and critics) and trying to figure out where Oprah is coming from, just to see if there is some sort of connection. I still think it would be a huge leap to say that Oprah IS a Scientologist herself. Scientology's core is actually a little too far out there for Oprah and, I think, for the public at large to get into. There's probably a thread somewhere on this board about Hubbard's background and his involvement with the kind of stuff Aleister Crowley and his buddies were into...I tend to think that Hubbard wasn't a true believer the way Crowley was, but, rather, that Hubbard got in with this group to glean the teachings and exploit them for his own ends.

The information that I found is freely available on the internet and it isn't that hard to find. What ticks me off is that... I find it hard to believe that Oprah doesn't know about this stuff or that her staff don't know about this stuff. I find it hard to believe that she doesn't have a staff of people who do research about the people she interviews. And if she knows what I know, I cannot fathom how she can excuse it. How she can present it as being 'OK', how she can present it as being what Tom Cruise described as just "a minority religion"? If she knows what I know and can still be so sympathetic, than I can only deduce that Oprah herself may be evil in her own right.

Now that the last Tolle webinar is complete, I wonder what she's going to do next. You have to keep up the momentum with the seekers, they always need 'more', they always need to feel like they are continuing to study and learn and grow [been there, done that, it's like an addiction and it always needs to be fed].

The folks at the Clambake message board have a thread going about Oprah and Tom. In fact, there are a couple of threads.

[ocmb.xenu.net]

[ocmb.xenu.net]

There was a thread on the Oprah message boards about the interview as well.

[www.oprah.com]


And here's a good one...Oprah isn't exactly getting a pass from EVERYONE for her Scientology apologetics:

[www.oprah.com]

Hi DowntoEarth;
It was not a surprise to me to see that TC did not actually respond to the two questions posed by women in the audience. The first question he kind of answered, but the second question about his dreams etc. he totally talked around, so even though the questions had most likely been "vetted", he actually did not have really direct answers for.

As far as Oprah is concerned, she has a life-style to maintain, no way she can turn back now. Inspite of all her wealth, she is probably not as "in control" of it, or herself, as she likes to portray. She has definitely "sold out", and is now in the tight grip of the material world. I think she is just caught up in the malstrom of the whole mistique of "OPRAH" and all that her empire consists of. She is NOT the Oprah of the 80s, she has completely morphed into something unrecognizable. You know the old say: "Power Corrupts. Complete Power Corrupts Completely" !!

enuf said,
Shad

Oprah is really being very harshly criticized for all this stuff, especially her embracing of Cruise Scientology without any questions.
But you get the sense at this point she does not care.

I guess we will all find out sooner or later if she is following some Guru who has yet been revealed, ACIM, or maybe if she is going to be her own Guru.

It really is a very ugly turn.
But as they say, Power Corrupts, and here you have a talk show host, who's Celebrity seems to have gone to her head, and all of a sudden she is going to save the world with New Age culty groups?

Well, it looks like the information is out regarding what is next for the Oprah church.

Starting May 12, she is going to present "Oprah's Soul Series", in which "Oprah sits down with leading spiritual teachers, thinkers and authors to talk about matters of the soul". This will be webcast on Mondays.

[www2.oprah.com]

And for the summertime,

"It's Not Too Late to Join
Just starting the book? Our summer session starts June 16, but you can get going whenever you want! Catch up on all of Oprah and Eckhart Tolle's classes using the on-demand archive. Watch the webcasts on Oprah.com or download them at iTunes and take them with you.

Plus, use the exclusive workbook to record your observations, questions and important notes. And, connect with others who are seeking to become more aware of themselves—and the world around them."

[www.oprah.com]

You know, I get the sense that she is actually a true believer, and it looks like she is heavily invested (spiritually) in the teachings of Eckhart Tolle. And it'll be interesting who she chooses for her Monday lineups. (I wonder if at some point the Hicks' and "Abraham" will show up on the roster. Is the public ready NOW?)

The transcript from chapter 10 of the ET webinars is available now, and I see Oprah's first discussion will be with Jill Bolte Taylor, the neuroanatomist who had a stroke and is now speaking about her experiences.

[blog.ted.com]

I think Oprah will find that what Jill says reinforces much of what ET teaches and what Oprah is pushing these days.

"Our right hemisphere is all about this present moment. It's all about right here right now. Our right hemisphere, it thinks in pictures and it learns kinesthetically through the movement of our bodies. Information in the form of energy streams in simultaneously through all of our sensory systems. And then it explodes into this enormous collage of what this present moment looks like. What this present moment smells like and tastes like, what it feels like and what it sounds like. I am an energy being connected to the energy all around me through the consciousness of my right hemisphere. We are energy beings connected to one another through the consciousness of our right hemispheres as one human family. And right here, right now, all we are brothers and sisters on this planet, here to make the world a better place. And in this moment we are perfect. We are whole. And we are beautiful."

" Because I could not identify the position of my body in space, I felt enormous and expensive, like a genie just liberated from her bottle. And my spirit soared free like a great whale gliding through the sea of silent euphoria. Harmonic. I remember thinking there's no way I would ever be able to squeeze the enormousness of myself back inside this tiny little body.

But I realized "But I'm still alive! I'm still alive and I have found Nirvana. And if I have found Nirvana and I'm still alive, then everyone who is alive can find Nirvana." I picture a world filled with beautiful, peaceful, compassionate, loving people who knew that they could come to this space at any time. And that they could purposely choose to step to the right of their left hemispheres and find this peace. And then I realized what a tremendous gift this experience could be, what a stroke of insight this could be to how we live our lives. And it motivated my to recover.

Two and a half weeks after the hemorrhage, the surgeons went in and they removed a blood clot the size of a golf ball that was pushing on my language centers. Here I am with my mama, who's a true angel in my life. It took me eight years to completely recover.

So who are we? We are the life force power of the universe, with manual dexterity and two cognitive minds. And we have the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world. Right here right now, I can step into the consciousness of my right hemisphere where we are -- I am -- the life force power of the universe, and the life force power of the 50 trillion beautiful molecular geniuses that make up my form. At one with all that is. Or I can choose to step into the consciousness of my left hemisphere. where I become a single individual, a solid, separate from the flow, separate from you. I am Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, intellectual, neuroanatomist. These are the "we" inside of me.

Which would you choose? Which do you choose? And when? I believe that the more time we spend choosing to run the deep inner peace circuitry of our right hemispheres, the more peace we will project into the world and the more peaceful our planet will be. And I thought that was an idea worth spreading."

I'm not sure whether or not to add my opinion here. <smile> But I guess I will anyway...While I don't doubt Taylor's credentials or her sincerity and I certainly am no neurologist or expert in the field of consciousness and so forth...I guess the way I look at it is...That this woman's brain has been damaged by a stroke. And anything that messes with the brain's circuitry is no doubt going to produce all kinds of gnarly sensations and effects and perceptions. I personally would not necessarily take this stuff as being the stuff of universal truth and enlightenment. But I'm sure Oprah's followers will.

And of course Tolle is offering ways for people to get 'back in touch with the presence' until the fall session starts up. Retreats, talks, re-reading the book. Oprah says, "We'll be back in the fall. There's no telling what we'll do...There's no telling. This is just the beginning."

Hey, Anticult:

Maybe Tolle IS "the main course" after all, hmm?

Shad,

I only caught snippets of the 2nd TC interview. I was busy around the house and it just looked like a puff piece with celeb endorsements, so I didn't bother recording it. I missed the questions from the audience, but I would imagine the whole thing was carefully vetted.

I also used to really like Oprah, but I always did notice a tendency that she had to put HERSELF into the center of things and make everything about HER. Years ago, she had a guest who had used some sort of illegal drug, and the next thing you know, the show had turned into OPRAH'S tearful confession of how she herself had experimented with illicit drugs in the past. And then THAT'S what the show was, and it even made tabloid headlines.

When Drew Barrymore made that big donation to the food agency and the head of the food agency was actually there in the audience, you know what aired and what was shown on websites? Drew and OPRAH holding the big million dollar cheque. All of a sudden it was OPRAH, OPRAH, OPRAH. Oprah wasn't giving the donation, DREW was, but
Oprah just inserted herself right into the center of it as if SHE were facilitating the whole thing. Why couldn't Drew just cut a cheque privately? And why not have Drew and the UN rep in the photo op? What the heck did Oprah have to do with it anyway? [Yeah, I know I'm ranting, LOL!]

Today I happened to catch a bit of The View (Am rethinking my opinion of THAT show as well after hearing Whoopi describe TC as "a good boy" yesterday...I thought Whoopi was smarter than that!). They showed a clip of Barbara on Oprah and Oprah was doing a little digging about Barb's affair with the married senator. Next thing ya know...There's Oprah talking about how SHE has also had an affair with a married man. "Well, of course you have, dear," I thought facetiously.

For someone who is such a devotee of Tolle's teachings, this woman can certainly be all ego. And yet I DO think she is a true believer and I DO get the impression that she really thinks she has been given this task by God to bring these teachings to the world, that type of thing. She describes herself as "the 'hole' for all of this to go through" as she thanks everyone for being a part of the 10 part webinar. Here's a bit more from the final webinar:

" EKCHART TOLLE: So I wrote this little poem, and I said to Oprah she was a
wonderful hole that energy is moving through her, and the world is listening to this music.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): Thank you for allowing me to do that.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): Thank
you.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): With this magnificent piece of work that you've given to us through
your words. And, obviously, you were the hole also for which Christ's breath, the breath of God, the
breath of all energy and creation flowed through you in order for you to write this. I mean, as I have
read it over and over again, now on my fourth reading, I marvel at how you were able to put these
sentences together in such a way that they connect—have connected to me and to all of you all around
the world. So thank you for this experience.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): Thank
you. And everybody else, of course, is also that in essence. You are the opening for that dimension to
come into this world.
OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): That's right. And anything that we do that is creative or is successful or
is good comes from that source flowing through us.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): Yes.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): It is not of our doing.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): No.

OPRAH WINFREY (HOST): But of the greater doing of consciousness.

ECKHART TOLLE (AUTHOR A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE): Yes."

Well, there's a LOT more, but I think instead I'll just provide the link and you guys can go and read the .pdf for yourselves, if you can stand it. I've just been skimming the last few pages. There's 67 pages in all, and I may or may not read it all, I'm not sure.

[www.oprah.com]

Quote
DownToEarth
Hey, Anticult:

Shad,

I only caught snippets of the 2nd TC interview. I was busy around the house and it just looked like a puff piece with celeb endorsements, so I didn't bother recording it. I missed the questions from the audience, but I would imagine the whole thing was carefully vetted.

I also used to really like Oprah, but I always did notice a tendency that she had to put HERSELF into the center of things and make everything about HER. Years ago, she had a guest who had used some sort of illegal drug, and the next thing you know, the show had turned into OPRAH'S tearful confession of how she herself had experimented with illicit drugs in the past. And then THAT'S what the show was, and it even made tabloid headlines.

[Yeah, I know I'm ranting, LOL!]

Today I happened to catch a bit of The View (Am rethinking my opinion of THAT show as well after hearing Whoopi describe TC as "a good boy" yesterday...I thought Whoopi was smarter than that!). They showed a clip of Barbara on Oprah and Oprah was doing a little digging about Barb's affair with the married senator. Next thing ya know...There's Oprah talking about how SHE has also had an affair with a married man. "Well, of course you have, dear," I thought facetiously.

That's ok, Anticult, rant on...sometimes we need to do that, when faced with this world turning into just a great big herd of mindless SHEEP! -- it is so frustrating, that after all our efforts people just don't want to be critical thinkers, they just want someone to lead them around by the nose!

I know what you mean about Oprah's gigantic ego! -- the actions do not match the words. About 10 years ago, when my young (and smart) child made this observation about Oprah, I of course defended Oprah, but my kid has been proved right, and it is now not difficult to notice that at every opportunity Oprah interjects herself into everyone's accomplishments, as thought they are her very own...at first i think it was just her way of empathising, but now it has just become a bad and annoying habit.

Maybe, one at a time, her fans (like me) will wise up and start to drop away....time will tell! But you know, a thought just occurred to me. She reminds me of a "stage mother", who lives vicariously through her children, and since she has no children of her own, she has embraced all the worlds "orphans".

Quote
thunderbyrd
here's Oprah's newest thing:

[kimolsen.wordpress.com]

i hope i'm not the only one here who finds this disturbing. and while we're at it, why does the world pay so much attention to this woman, anyway?

Hi thunderbyrd;
yes indeed, it is disturbing, but what is more disturbing is that the world is so ripe for all this...people ARE so lost and confused in this material world of over-controlling mega Corporations who are slowly stealing our souls...we have to try to move to a simpler kinder time...i think this is what people are looking for, and Oprah et all know this, and these poor lost souls are RIPE for the picking...that is what is so disturbing....

the world of FULL of Charlatans, how do we fight them?

regards,
Shad

This Right brain, left brain thing is decades old, and is being misused, of course.

For example, some people with epilepsy, have their corpus callosum cut, and thus seperate their left-right brain. Are they enlightened? No.

I see it as "code" to...STOP THINKING and just believe me, and buy my stuff!
Turn off your Left Brain...Thinking...

Well, if it were not for the so-called "left-brain" we would not have anything of the modern world.

Some people seem to be so lost and confused.
You don't need drugs, booze, or New Age books to experience your Right Brain.
Look at art, music, dance, creativity...have fun...draw, paint, write, etc.

Its just a ruse to SELL Self-Help BOOKS, in my opinion.
They all say they have the Secret to Eternal Happiness.
NIRVANA. She is selling Nirvana.

They are all selling the same thing.

I give up on Oprah. She has jumped the shark, and jumped the couch.
She is dealing to the New Age Self-Help Addicts like a crack-dealer.
Maybe if she keeps it up, her rating will fall enough to go off network TV.