Louise Hay: The Queen Of The NewAge & NPR

Looking for more information about the fall of NPR, I ran across this question in The New Yorker:

The focus of many conversations has been on how to free NPR of federal funding, so it can avoid this kind of circus in the future. But to serve the public, a news organization must be insulated from the will of its donors—individuals, foundations, corporations. Seeing this video of Ron Schiller disturbs me, but maybe not as much as imagining other meals with other prospective donors. What do they think they’re getting for their contributions?

That's easy to answer since, long ago, I did a few posts on Louise Hay - the so-called "Queen of the NewAge".

Hay is one of The Secret's crew of "Law of Attraction" phonies (collected by Rhonda Byrne and promoted by Oprah) along with this now-infamous "sweat lodge" favorite:

By the way, now that a light's on him, James Arthur Ray is looking more like this these days:

Which is what all NewAge cons look like when you truly "see" them.

Anyway, the first post I did on Hay reminded us:

"Though you may not know it, you live in Louise Hay’s world. Are you a black man who thinks psychics are nonsense but reads the affirmations of Tavis Smiley? Hay House has a special imprint just for Smiley. Are you a TV-loathing snob who occasionally condescends to watch PBS? The pledge-drive specials that Hay House has produced for Wayne (“Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling”) Dyer have helped raise more than $100 million for public television — they are one of PBS’s most-successful fund-raising tools."

NPR's Muslim Brotherhood connection becomes more understandable when you see the second post we did on Hay, because this producer for PBS programming admitted to thinking the Jews brought the Holocaust on themselves, and it was also revealed her publishing arm, Hay House, "was not, in the beginning, very well run, the staff was a cult,..."

I knew, one day, that was going to come back to bite her and PBS (why it didn't when it was first revealed will have to be left for another day,...)

Now, of course, I can hear you saying, "But Crack (and then thinking, "Butt Crack") that's PBS and this sting is on NPR."

I'll remind you that, as you can see in the first example (with Smiley above) something else Louise Hay got for her donations and participation with PBS was influence over what they covered - resulting in a three-night program like "PBS Tackles Happiness In 'This Emotional Life'" - as well as insertion in those programs, and their promotional spots, on NPR. Think about that:

An acknowledged NewAge cult leader getting airtime on government paid-for broadcasting.

Unfortunately, except for name recognition and promotion, it didn't seem to do her much good in certain quarters. Here's a conversation between Daniel Gilbert, the host of PBS' "This Emotional Life", and NPR host Madeleine Brand:

BRAND: You also delve into the multibillion-dollar self-help industry, and you interview a woman who is the - I guess the dean of it. Her name is Louise Hay, and this is what she says is the secret to happiness.

Ms. LOUISE HAY (Self-help movement founder): Happiness is choosing thoughts that make you feel good. It's really very simple.

BRAND: What is your response to that?

Mr. GILBERT: Well, I agree with her that happiness has something to do with choosing thoughts that make you feel good. I don't agree it's very simple. Long before Louise Hay, this is the basis of cognitive behavioral therapy, the most widely practiced kind of psychotherapy, that if we can change our thoughts, change our cognition, then we can also change the way we feel about the world.

I had to part company with Louise Hay, though, because she has more extreme beliefs than I do. She believes, for example, that we can cure illnesses like cancer, AIDS, leprosy, simply by changing the thoughts we think. And I don't see any evidence whatsoever for that. When I asked her about how she felt about the scientific evidence, she said she didn't think that much of science. So we have to part ways there, too.

BRAND: Um-hum.

Um-hum. But that, plus a background in NewAge cultism - and the stench of death from all the AIDS patients she gave wrong-headed information to - was never enough for PBS, or NPR, to get away from Hay. A cult leader. A NewAge fruitcake. She blames the Jews for being murdered. She oversaw the deaths of AIDS and cancer patients as she gave them bogus information. She doesn't "think that much of science".

Oh, what an important void PBS and NPR filled for the American public with this woman's input, huh?

Well, once they lose public funding, they're going to need her more than ever.