Letters to the Editor
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Well, poo ...
I can't keep my typing fingers shut here.
No soul? Ah, so do those people come with nametags or would that just be anyone who is poor or sick that doesn't have the, er, soul?
Oh wait! I have to be initiated to find out. Is it only the 'initiated' who have souls?
How does this get parsed out? I'm intrigued by the bullshit. Is it the bullshit that has no soul? If you listen to James Brown, can you get a soul later? Or, at least, some soul, as anyone who loves James Brown certainly does have soul.
Perhaps it's a partial soul. Maybe it could ride on the back of the soul bus.
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Shockingly, one can be spiritual and not be an adherent of The Secret
But I am amazed that there are those who still believe this world is finite. That things just "happen", randomly and for no damn good reason with not the slightest precision and/or miraculous nature.
If this is not clear, I'm not an atheist. I happen to believe in the miraculous, in the power of faith and in all kinds of un-random things.
I have this old fashioned belief that I am not kung-fu enough to know the mind of God, be there six billion paths or no. But that whether you are Buddhist, Hindu, Christian , Muslim, pagan, or atheist, it is self-evident that many very holy people are not treated well by this world, while many very nasty people thrive here. We fuddy-duddy religious types call this The Problem of Evil, another fun conundrum that people have been contemplating since the beginning of time.
The Secret is not "evil" per se, but it is absent of any moral imperative whatsoever. Even if it worked as advertised, it is at best a kind of technology. Attempts to force it into a moral model are dicey at best (deliberately misunderstanding the concept of karma) pseudo-fascist at worst (some people DON'T HAVE SOULS???)
If you have succeeded in life and you are using that success to help others, that's swell, but those are values you brought into your world from elsewhere. There is nothing in The Secret that demands anything of the kind! Even some of it's teachers mention this and express discomfort with it.
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Well said, Anna
Bad science, bad spirituality. It's insulting to thoughtful atheists & thoughtful people of faith alike. It takes no real inner discipline, it relies on wishful thinking, and it looks down its enlightened nose at anyone who won't get with the program.
No souls, huh?
Yeah, that's spiritual, all right ...
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Tim ...
Please stop twisting words. I didn't say it's a sick person's FAULT that they're sick. "Fault" once again, brings in JUDGMENT. There is no judgment with the LOA. That's the whole point. YOU'RE the one who keeps bring issues of right and wrong into this argument. I am conciously leaving them out.
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OK ...
Let's forget about right & wrong for the moment.
You're still saying that people CAUSE what happens to them, due to their negative thoughts. Maybe some people can finesse the hair's space between blame & cause ... but a lot of people don't.
The fact that you want to leave morality out of this entirely is rather unsettling, to say the least. But let's try to do that for the moment.
To the person who has caused his or her own cancer, or crippling accident, or loss of job or spouse -- will your distinction between cause & blame make much of a difference? Most people in that situation, hearing your explanation, will hear "Blame," no matter hwo you sugarcoat it.
And I've heard more than one LOA adherent come right out & blame people for misfortunes that were completely beyond their control. So don't tell me that they don't assign blame. They do. I've seen it. I'll bet plenty of other posters here have seen it too.
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Running to stand still and other curiousities and illusions.
“What a great path your 'therapist' friend chose to bring so much to so many that there would be 600 who showed up at his funeral and sounds like he left a legacy of love. That's grand. “
He wasn’t a “therapist”. He was a therapist. And it is grand. And he still died in agony.
“Don't know how many times I can say, "this is just my experience", without getting so many feathers ruffled…”
Right. A single event does not a pattern make. That’s exactly the point. Angry people die horrible deaths. Peaceful people die horrible deaths. So, clearly, anger and peace are not the dominant determinants.
“ and descent into the exploitives and the anger which is precisely the nature of disharmony and war and suffering in the world.”
This is true to an extent. It’s also true that anger and resistance is what gets people out of exploitive situations.
“I am very careful with my language because while being the least solipsistic person I know, I do believe that each "fuck you" could potentially set off a land mine somewhere and blow up a child's limb."
See, that’s just crazy. On what basis would you possibly think this to be true? What’s the logic? Because it’s not just solipsistic, it’s entirely superstitious.
“No, I haven't won a nobel prize yet, but my life is far from over. And no, my beloved friends' accomplishments don't mean that they are my accomplishments, they are just the people I bring into my world. For a reason."
You’re positing control here. You’re implying that their greatness or accomplishments has something to do with you. It doesn’t. I am curious, though. In what field are you planning to win the Nobel?
“Which seems to escape many here who knowing nothing about ME decide I must be 'high' (not on anything outside myself), or crazy or solipsistic or ___. That's okay. As you've all been keen to point out, I know none of you. There are many, many outstanding people in my life who if they were to say to me, "you've lost it." or "You're full of s***" -- which on occassion at least the latter they have said but rarely and then I pay attention. These are people whom I know and therefore whose opinions I respect. Okay, let me redefine. There is no one here whom I don't respect or care about. Even those who felt so angered or depressed. Es ist nich mein kepeck. It's just not my suitcase.”
Fair enough.
“I wanted to add my two or four or eight cents worth to this discussion because as a woman who has lived alot and magnificently and against many odds..."
What comes through in your messages, which may not reflect well what you intend, that you just think you are the greatest thing ever. It’s okay to be happy with oneself and to be proud of one’s accomplishments. However, this does not make one good or great in all things. Or in anything other than that one success. Which may or may not have been the result of chance.
“I find it humourous and suspect when a male who is likely white and probably decades younger than me or Oprah, whose parents may have paid for him to go to college and was probably raised in a nice neighborhood and after all is a MALE decides that he has something of more value to give to the masses in bashing her.”
White men can have insights, and women of color can be dead wrong.
“ I doubt Oprah cares much about any opinions offered here. I know I don't."
Why? Because you’re above it all? That’s called arrogance.
“For all I know you may all be a group of twenty-somethings brooding in some ivory tower coffeeshop geschrying about your lot in life and how silly Oprah is. Or not. Posting in between sessions with your therapists. Or not. Or a bunch of psychologists and therapists, convinced you are healing all the suffering in the world. Or can't."
In other words, this is what you think we are. But what’s so wrong with sitting in coffee shops or going to psychologists? Lady, you just demonstrated your prejudices.
“Because it's a finite world with events happening randomly from a vindictive and crazy God."
First of all, just because you can’t fathom the number of grains on a beach, doesn’t make them infinite. It just means you can’t count that high. Second, of all, I don’t believe in a vindictive god. I don’t believe in god at all. No magic man in the sky, good or bad.
“I know my life works, is joyous. I know I strive to alleviate suffering and do. I know my life is full of love. I know I am blessed. I know I've created this. And if your life works just as well and you're just as happy (and trust me, I have no idea about this, surely it must be so!) then booyah! Hooray for us all! We're here to have fun. I'm having a blast.”
Yes, dear, you’re a wonderful, evolved very special person who is clearly better than all of us. You used the word “I” ten times. In four sentences. And only in association with hyperbolic positives.
“Hope you are too.”
I do okay, thanks for asking.