Oh Good Grief, I turn on PBS and here you have Wayne Dyer running an LGAT ALL AFTERNOON on Sunday!
Not only does he run the LGAT, but he also is there in between to sell and hawk his endless books, tapes, dvd's, CD's, and other tools of persuasion.
Dyer is running a personality cult, an LGAT, and even a religion at this point.

Obviously, he must produce memberships for PBS, as they keep using him.
But again, NOT ONE SINGLE CRITICAL QUESTION IS EVER ASKED OF THE GUY. NOT ONE.
No one iota of skeptical inquiry is allowed.

Wayne Dyer is running a very convoluted and bizarre series of beliefs. I once heard him "hint" that he "manifested" a pair of needle-nose pliers using the power of his Mind!
What is interesting, is that Wayne Dyer appears to have had a cocaine addiction while he had been preaching all of his yuppie faux-Enlightenment stuff.
Also, he is linked up with some Indian Guru, and is selling Meditation as well.

Perhaps PBS is blown away by the legions of credulous people that just phone in when a guy like Dyer starts making his sales pitch.
Of course, this is great for Dyer, and gives him lots of credibility.
Now, even Dyer's co-host from the PBS station is using Dyer's Newspeak, about "Intention" and all of his other code-words.
Credulity sells. That is why all these tv networks love it.

Coz

(James Randi weighs in)
[www.randi.org]

----------------------- (you can see many of the techniques and "code-words" he is using in this blurb)--------------------

December 19, 2004 at 2:00 PM
Dr. Wayne Dyer: The Power of Intention

As a follow-up to his blockbuster 2001 pledge lecture shows, public television's favorite teacher of transformational wisdom turns his focus to a new definition of the concept of intention. In Dr. Wayne Dyer's newest public television special, Dr. Wayne Dyer: The Power of Intention, he transforms conventional thinking about making things happen in our lives into a profound understanding of how each person possesses the infinite potential and power to co-create the life he or she desires. Based on his new book of the same title, Dr. Dyer takes us from an examination of our usual approach to intention - a self-achievement orientation that is based to a great extent on the ego - to an exploration of intention as seen through his fresh interpretation of scientific and metaphysical thinking. Many great thinkers from an array of disciplines - renowned anthropologist/ spiritualist pioneer Carlos Castaneda, Nobel physicist Max Planck, Albert Einstein and the writings of the Bhagavad Gita, as well as the Bible - speak of a force that intends things into the material world and animates all life. Planck, in his speech accepting the Nobel Prize, called it "the matrix of all matter." Dr. Dyer introduces the audience to these philosophies and, based on these writings, explains that intention is better understood as a field of energy to which every person is connected - and from which every one of us is able to harness its infinite potential. Understanding the qualities of this remarkable field and learning to be in rapport with this universal force is the key, explains Dr. Dyer. The question, we are told, is not whether you are connected to the field of intention, since that connection already exists; the question is how capable are you of keeping your "link" to the field open and ready for what awaits you? "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change," is one of the foundation blocks of Dr. Dyer's presentation. What better way to understand that powerful statement that to see what the field of intention looks like? To accomplish this, Dr. Dyer takes the audience on a journey through the seven faces of intention, each paired with an empowering statement: Creativity -- I intend to live my life on purpose; Kindness - I intend to be at peace with everyone in my life, including my relatives; Love - I intend to respect myself; Beauty - I intend to live a stress-free life; Expansiveness - I intend to express the genius that I am; Abundance - I intend to feel successful and attract abundance; Receptivity - I intend to attract ideal people and relationships. Throughout the program, Wayne Dyer illustrates his points with signature stories that move the audience to tears - as well as abundant laughter. The program ends with The Dyer Dozen For Connecting to Intention - a recap of 12 key steps to opening the link to the field of intention: want more for others; think from the end; be an appreciator; be in rapport; be aware of resistance; contemplate yourself surrounded by the conditions you wish to produce; practice the art of allowing; practice radical humility; understand that you can't resolve a problem by condemning it; play the match game; meditate. The program was taped in front of an audience of almost 1000 fans at The Emerson Cutler Majestic Theater, a 100 year-old jewel in Boston's historic theater district.
Duration: 03:59:30 TVG CC STEREO

I saw the same as you, and could only stomach a few minutes of it as well. It is rather fascinating watching it, and quite frustrating. Mostly because it was indeed a huge sales pitch (so much for PBS being commerical free), but also because while he did make sense sometimes, on many ocassions he is just spewing nonsense, and there is nothing there to counter him, or stop him.

I know nothing about the cocaine addiction, why did you bring this up by the way? Rick Ross once did something stupid in his youth, re-paid his debt to society, and I can forgive him for that. What did Dyer do regarding cocaine, and what does this have to do with your rant?

Other than that, I completely agree with you, and found the fact Dyer was even on there absurd, aggrivating.

Thanks for the link to Randi. I completely agree with him, and plan to write to PBS about this as well. I sometimes find Chopra interesting, perhaps it's the Harvard MD in him, but it upsets me just the same when he, or anyone hawks stuff on PBS like this. I can almost put up with Rick Steves, as he's a harmless travel sales guy. But the "mind experts" are nothing more than snake oil salesmen. :evil:

My reason for bringing up things like cocaine abuse, is to point out the hypocrisy of these people.
He was allegedly involved with this cocaine, not that long ago, at the same time preaching all of his stuff about how we can control our personal universe by our Thoughts and New Age Magick.
The guy talks about how with the power of our GodMinds we can do All Things, and become like Christ, etc.
Well, if that is the case, why is the guy bald? Why not grow some new hair?
If he can "manifest" some "pliers" by his "intention" why not grow some hair, get rid of his gut, or stop taking cocaine, or whatever?
(he talks many times about as he grows older his hair has fallen out of his head, and is now growing out of his ears. Do you see how he is saying two things that completely contradict each other? Its called "Programmed Confusion").

I am just pointing out his obvious hypocrisy, and the ridiculous absurdity of his claims.

Its like when Tony Robbins sells zillions of tapes on how to have a "wonderful marriage", and then is busted for lying about his marriage, has an ugly divorce, with his ex-wife getting a financial restraining order against him, as he bought his new girlfriend breast implants with company money.

These guys set themselves up to be harshly criticized by their own lies and distortions.
If they were more honest, they would reveal their own fallibilities, but that would wreck their salespitch.

Nothing wrong with having a cocaine addiction, or having an ugly divorce. But when some "Guru" is lying about it, and making money off these lies, then they deserve to be criticized.

Deepak Chopra is worse than Dyer, in my book. I believe he is not even an accredited doctor anymore. Chopra is preaching the same New Age Christ-Krishna Consciousness thing, meanwhile he is just getting extremely rich.
His health views are basically prescientific superstition.
Also, Chopra totally abuses the name of Science, and Einstein, by taking some legit terminology, and then perverting it to his own ends. Just because the guy can pronounce a few big words doesn't mean he is not full of BS!
Don't get me started on Chopra!!

Dyer is just a real SMOOTH public speaker, and a World-Class BS artist.

These guys are just out for their own personal enrichment.
But of course, that is because the Cosmos is SUPERABUNDANT, so they DESERVE INFINITE RICHES, even if they have to stretch the truth, or invent it, to close the sale.

Coz

You're kind of preaching to the choir there reverend! But a rather extensive search on the web about Dyer and cocaine only got me to a few other un-substantiated rumors. I could find nothing legit. Can you get me a more accurate link?

Now, believe me, I am NO supporter of Dyer, or any of these other salesmen, and that's all they are.

I was unaware that Chopra was no longer accredited. When I first heard of him (over a decade ago, he was on Donahue, the old Donahue!, his first appearance there, plugging his first book) I thought he had a lot of good to say. But now he's just turning into a money grubbing guru. Not too different than Ramtha for that matter. I'm also worried that Andrew Weill, whom I've always respected, is turning salesman as well.

I think what irks me most is that Dyer is allowed to go on PBS, for hours at a time, with not one question, not one counter point, not one dissention. No one questions what he is saying. I generally don't like talk radio for example, whether that be Rush or Air America, because of their one sided demogogoury, but at least those people do allow some dissent in discussion from callers or guests, even if they always get the last word. But with shows like this infomercial of Dyer's on PBS, no such thing.

Deleted

Chopra was originally w/ the TM movement, his first book "Return of the Rishi" was written while he was still w/ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (MMY as we'd called him). Chopra and MMY had a disagreement as to the distribution of the funds from Chopra's future writings. MMY wanted all funds cont'd with the TM Movement. MMY was "bringing out to the world" various Ayurvedic teachings at the time -- have to have a new spin to keep things exciting and keep the money flowing in. Chopra helped MMY design the "Maharishi Ayurved" program - clinics, practitioners, products, etc.

So Chopra left, copied all the TM advanced techniques and sold them for a lower price than MMY was charging. He also made the Ayurvedic stuff look more appealing to ALL folks - not just MMY's devotees. Of course all of 'us' (at the time) folks in "The Movement" thought it was such a shame that Chopra had succumbed to greed, was taking this for himself rather than helping to spread Enlightenment in the world. oh sheesh....! That was about 20 years ago.

I still chuckle when I recall the story of how one of these two pseudo-guru's called their roadside assistance center for a problem with their luxury auto. He was rude and demanding, expecting immediate service because of his celebrity status. He had spilled his cola into the console.

r.e. the rudeness in reaction to auto problems :

Guess the person just needed to take another advanced meditation course, or learn a new technique to become free of Maya / The Illusion. Just keep going deeper, into the Self (capital "S"), vs the selfish nature of one. If they dontated 10% of all their income, that would also free them up from the negative karma that caused the cola to spill on the dashboard.
oh no!... but then they'd have to give money to someone ELSE!

I like Glen's idea... somewhere else on these threads... let's just start our own LGAT. After all, years ago, Chopra's retail store display was a near exact copy of a layout for a spiritual store that I'd manged for the TM movement.
When these western gurus saw through the other charlatans, they didn't exposte them or work on their own mental health. They just copied for their own fortune. Glen's right - it's our turn! :wink:

Also, when Chopra left TM, (so he could make his own millions) then TM had Chopra completely EXPUNGED from the TM record. They removed every word about the guy.

Mike Myers told a funny story about Chopra. He went to one of his lectures, and then of course Chopra asked him out to dinner. Myers tells a VERY funny story about how Chopra took him to Fudruckers. (its a long schtick he does).

What Myers does with his story is to show that these guys that people worship as Guru's, can really be just a ship of fools, and how terribly fallible these people are.

Dyer, Chopra, etc. are just smooth-talking, snake-oil selling, BS-ing storytellers, who are a disgrace to the title "Dr.".
But also show just because someone passed their tests and got a PhD/MD from somewhere, does not mean they are not full of crap, and out to scam you, by telling you what you might WANT to hear.
There are TONS of greedy PhD/MD's out there, selling all kinds of crap. A title behind someone's name MEANS NOTHING in and of itself.

Dr. Coz, Phd, Esq.

Coz,

What surprised me about fakes with titles is that they took the time, money and effort to attain advanced degrees, since they are so well at taking advantage of people, and getting favors, things for nothing. Do you think they paid their school loans back????