also, her website does directly promote all the New Wage LGAT crap, starting with Landmark dis-Education. hmmm....that would be a brilliant angle. Promote Landmark using comedy and ironic criticism, yet at the same time still promoting its goals, and directing people to it. That would be extremely crafty. Just look at that list of junk...Landmark, Byron Katie, Eckhart Tolle, Ramtha... It rea
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

This reminds one of the old phrases of the salesman... If you can't confuse them with the facts, then baffle them with bullshit. Every salesperson knows that one, they all do it. Car salesmen/saleswomen will do it to people who don't know anything about cars, same with real estate, computers, etc. Even the current US financial crisis seems to be along the same lines...take someth
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

as far as hypnosis, it can all get very complicated, but in the end, hypnosis is simply "inward focussed attention". So any type of storytelling/myth is a form of hypnosis. All of the old-style hand waving, swinging watches, and the rest of it, is all superstition, and is not needed. What is needed is LANGUAGE and IMAGES. So that is literally all Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle do t
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

PS: of course there are many good folks who are victimized by these cults and groups, that goes without saying. I generally focus on the weasels like Katie and Tolle, and their senior people who are doing the exploiting, and use "service" as a way to trick kind hearted people into handing over their money and time to them. As a matter of fact, it appears that is exactly how Byron Katie
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I bet that is very common, and that is why Tolle picked that name. We tend to project those types of things on these Guru's, which is why they do it! I find Eckhart Tolle planned things out quite carefully in terms of his marketing. As far as the ME ME ME factor, I do think that has some relevance, even with people who commit to so-called "selfless service" sometimes. (of course
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Actually, Eckhart Tolle does shill for his own speeches which earn him a fortune for each appearance, literally a few speeches bring in a million dollars in profit. Eckhart Tolle is an entrepreneur and serious moneymaker, and always has been. Also, Eckhart Tolle shills for his own personal network marketing style Church Of Tolle, in that he has people set up home meetings where they watch Eckh
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

yeah, Carol Skolnick is a real trickster, probably learned a lot of stuff from her past cult experience, and then from Katie herself. That is a double-trick. The first trick is Katie trying to lure people in with confusing statements, that is used in hypnosis to create confusion before a Suggestion. Then Carol Skolnick promotes the statement, and uses questions to lure people in. One can
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Byron Katie is a very slick operator. Its all just word games. So she can say...I can cry and have tears, but not feel sad. Maybe that is just a silly word game. Or maybe she is a psychopath? Psychopath's can cry crocodile tears to manipulate people and feel no sadness, even when their own mother dies. Clearly even Oprah can see this woman is full of hot-gas, when she says she has NO
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Haven't listened to the interview yet, will do so later. But its very interesting that Byron Katie says The Work "alleviates depression, decreases stress". That is due to this thread on the Rick Ross Forum. Byron Katie (the Work) Complaints, California Board of Psychology, FTC (as of March 03, 2008, they have reposted and CHANGED at least 6 CLAIMS) Before this thre
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Well, I will just give my common sense impression. First off, its a salespitch. He is saying that Dan Brown's Mahamudra is going to make you Aware...so come to his retreat-seminar, which one assumes costs money, and is Dan Brown's source of income. (it probably is a type of LGAT seminar too). So the first part sounds like an internet advertisement. Also saying "Dan claims&q
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

also, notice how much more clever Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle are than all these folks? BK and ET both know listing all your past affiliations, seminars, and guru's and former cults, etc, carries a lot of baggage. So they went and suppressed all of their past affiliations, and just pretended that a cockroach and a park bench done it. Very clever indeed. Who was the first big wester
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Its only a matter of time before some articles come out exploring and criticizing Tolle and Oprah, and the rest of it. Its just that the media is so degraded these days, just recycling celebrity news to cut costs. But even with criticism, they will still make their money selling fake-enlightenment illusions to the mass public. Irony upon irony. Also, an above post reminded me of the axiom th
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

That is a great point. Of course Harpo-Oprah would never hire Tolle or Byron Katie, as they are not bondable, and could not sign all the non-disclosure contracts, etc. They have a concocted past history, and thus are not trustable. No normal person can get employment talking about living on park benches and cockroach motel conversations. Except multimillionaire hypnotic Gurus. That is truly bi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Its interesting about Ramana Maharshi, its hard to know what's true or not due to the time frame, etc. But one amusing thing I read is he apparently did not ask for money. Compare that to what came after, when they charge $5,000 to attend a mass seminar. There may be some type of Papaji connection with some of these folks, even just in terms of writings and meetings. Its almost funny ho
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

In the banned Byron Katie book...Losing The Moon...(very important book, which is why it was shredded)... ...there are links between Byron Katie and a Guru in Germany named Isaac Shapiro. Byron Katie: "Isaac Shapiro - He is my friend, I am his." One has to wonder if his organization is involved with the Byron Katie LGAT seminar tour in GErmany and Europe? Isaac Shapiro...one w
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Solea, your post above is extremely helpful. Having those kinds of posts from those recently "inside" these types of groups helps a lot of people. Today, next month, next year, some people will read those posts and maybe they will start to connect the dots for themselves. Lying: in the LGAT field, they all believe that "all beliefs are lies". There is some truth to that
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi solea23, you probably have read my posts and know I can be blunt, so forgive me in advance. I don't buy it. If I had the Answer to the Cosmos, the last thing I would want was someone to submit to me like a slave. That is sick. Let them ask questions and challenge. Does a great university professor want ass-kissers? No, only a crummy one does. So the short answer, is I don'
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

here is a clip with Werner Erhard talking about how he was "Transformed". Sounds exactly like Byron Katie...exact same script. Same as Eckhart Tolle as well. I am going to use some adult language here. One hopes people can realize that people like this are goddamn fucking liars. Its hard for the average person to believe people can get up and lie lie lie lie, and just make stuff u
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I did not read the link about about Dr. Albert Ellis, so I don't know the context. But he also wrote a good book called... Anger: How To Live With And Without It ARISTOTLE on Anger: "Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within e
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

"csp" would have been banished, shunned, uninvited from a Eckhart Tolle Group long ago. In those groups, you follow Tolle's "format", so he can "reformat" your brain. - 20 minutes of silence, puts you into a very Deep Hypnotic Trance. - then you watch Eckhart Tolle on the bigscreen TV for 90 minutes, and that goes very deep, as you are in a Trance. - then
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

also... Notice how Oprah's company struck deals with various companies to promote Tolle? They all paid serious money for that PR, for example, Skype would have paid a bundle to get mentioned, as well as that plastic pen company, etc. Notice how Eckhart Tolle is with the Hay House publisher? And basically all of Oprah's current New Wage authors are also from Hay House? So its
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I have not found the Apologists for Eckhart Tolle convincing in the least. As a matter of fact, they seem to take the Tolle Tactic of word-reframing as their main defense. Just like Eckhart Tolle when he says..."When Jesus said ________, he meant ______". Well, says who? Thus Spaketh Eckhart Tolle? I doubt many people would have a problem with Eckhart Tolle if he wrote a couple o
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

by the way, there appear to be dozens of "shills" on Amazon.com for the Eckhart Tolle book. Either they are shills, or they are all singing from the same songbook. They usually say something like... - Wow, this book is so fantastic, I am "sharing" it with all my "yoga students" , and anyone else who will listen, and have "given away 5 copies", blah
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Its interesting the different ways people can perceive things if they have a personal iron in the fire. For example, I have not seen anyone criticize the valid idea of "Mindfulness" on this site. Mindfulness is a legit thing, and it is being studied. MBCT, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy is already being developed. But Eckhart Tolle is NOT teaching Mindfulness, and certainl
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

It is truly amazing how these alleged "spiritual" people are so dishonest and unethical. Any reasonable person, and any decent intellectual or proper thinker, would feel its their moral and ethical responsibility to engage in open, moderated debate. That is healthy. But now what they do is hide, and at best, they engage in a false pretence of debate, which is staged. That is all E
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

One thing that is interesting about the religious aspects of this... Oprah and Eckhart Tolle say that Tolle's ideas do not conflict with traditional Christianity as practiced in the USA. Well, that is false, and it is consciously deceptive. If they were to say...its compatible with Gnostic Christianity or the Atman in Hinduism, or Pantheism, then that would be more intellectually hone
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Here we go again. Remi is "playing dumb". "Training" is another name for LGAT, and those can be EXTREMELY DAMAGING. Also, Eckhart Tolle's methods can cause very serious damage to people, and even lead to suicides, if not just severe depression. Eckhart Tolle is attacking the human mind and Self, and trying to extinguish it to stop the emotional pain people have. Its
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I wrote the other day that Eckhart Tolle's methods would logically lead to people falling into depression after a period of time, and a new poster has made a comment along these lines. Hopefully they will share more info if they want to. Eckhart Tolle and depression I also think a lot of people who would get depression from Eckhart Tolle's methods would blame themselves for it,
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi "floater". Would you consider posting some of what happened in the Eckhart Tolle thread? I actually just wrote the other day how it seems logical that those who fall into the Tolle Trap might fall into depression after a while, and "crash and burn". Eckhart Tolle is certainly a type of New Age culty practice. Please consider posting some info in the Eckhart Tolle
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

That list of the Soul series is interesting. Notice how Wayne Dyer has done business deals with Byron Katie before, so they probably have a publishing deal. Who knows, maybe most of those people on that list are all from the same publisher, who might be PAYING the Oprah show to promote their New Wage writers? Also, The Oprah program did a show about the Warren Jeffs FLDS cult, and it was p
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups