Oprah Winfrey's Living Her Best Life (By Giving America Her Worst Discoveries)

How Important Are Five Years To Knowing The World?

"'California’s affluent Marin County, just north of San Francisco,' is what? Another NewAge 'power spot', filled with 'rich people', just like Sedona, Arizona. Stupid, gullible, and easily-led rich people - if you ask me - and they're all hurting other people by acting on their NewAge beliefs." 

 - TMR, October 23, 2009

"Sedona, Arizona has been kind of a magnet for groups called cults,...Demographically, there are a lot of people there who have extra money.  They have money to spend.  It's an affluent area and there are a lot of groups that are set up there, most notably James Arthur Ray,..." 

 - Cult expert, Rick Ross, Apr 28, 2014

 

James Arthur Ray Is Back (To Being James Arthur Ray)

The Death Dealer

'Secret' guru James Arthur Ray led three people to their deaths... and now he's at it again

TMR's Year In Review: New Age Began Showing It's Age

TMR really got taken for a ride this year, with racial cultism dominating the blog for most of the last quarter, because there was simply no way for my post-racial ass to ignore the fact mulatto America's two biggest cults are (gulp) blacks and whites. 

That left NewAge - TMR's main focus - hanging a bit during, what should have been, a pretty triumphant year.

For instance, I'd already told you, the previous year, Mitt Romney was selling worthless supplements. And this year - BAM! - supplements, like Mitt Romney on the stump, were found to be less-than-worthless, for anything, but raising money for criminals.

Excuse me, did I say "criminals"? I meant, "the best human being to run for the White House in quite a few election cycles." 

Yes, I still find it amazing that anyone willing to write that about Romney couldn't also be bothered to report on the ramifications of Mitt's deceptions, or that Instapundit's readers (who are supposed to be smart) didn't demand to know how they were duped. But - Hey! - that's the always-reliable, and oh, so trustworthy and informative conservative blogosphere for you!

   

 In order to see what "real conservatism" looked like this year, you had to begin again - from the blog of a real professor, Edzard Ernst (MD, PhD, FMedSci, FSB, FRCP, FRCPEd and Yabba Dabba Do). Though started last year, Prof. Ernst has been gloriously knocking down one "alternative" medicine fallacy after another using science, and - not only did he invite TMR to write a guest post (which - though many would doubt it - I graciously declined) but, this year, he also started including cultism into his mix of factors that have kept the hippie's silly belief system, and practices, alive. 

 In other words, 2013 was the year Edzard Ernst stopped playing nice, and I, for one, want to thank him - specifically - for stepping into the breach and becoming MY big ol' bear. 

And, from the bottom of my blacker-than-black heart, I also want him to know this fact:

TMR has totally got "Fast Eddie's" back in 2014. 



Of course, when covering NewAge, I can go into so many directions it might make some wonder where the parameters are (if you're new, you'll just have to watch these videos, above and below, to learn how to spot believers or - to get my take and understand what they're up to - the rest of the blog).

Anyway, though I found an unusually large number of psychics, gurus, life coaches, "prayer warriors," and yoga instructors, etc., busted this year - and even with murderer James Arthur Ray getting out of prison - the biggest NewAge story of 2013 was, easily, the death of Sylvia Browne, scam artist extraordinaire.

I don't care how gullible I know mankind to be (see the videos above) that anyone allowed that ugly, crazy, deceitful bitch to convince them of anything is beyond me. But, she got away with it, and - with her death - still, somehow, left the world a better place. 

As Martha Stewart says, in the end, it's "a good thing".

I would say that, though:

Sylvia dying probably saved me a murder conviction, myself.

When I plan on watching NewAge die,...

The Dry Husk Of My Glorious Future America's Provided

Instapundit "Got" An Honorable Mention As 1 Of The 25 Most Influential People On The Right (As He Gets "Got")

Stick with me, kid, you'll,...something.

Away we go:

This morning I noticed Glenn Reynolds said, "I think the GOP can win even by losing," which I identified as con artist patter - and, Good Golly Miss Molly, what do you know?

It IS con artist patter! Straight from The Atlantic:

Now is the time for all good men to fail. Good women, too. Fail early and often, and don’t be shy about admitting it. Failing isn’t shameful; it’s not even failure. Such is the message of a growing body of self-help and leadership literature. 

...Given this growing cultural fixation on failure, it was probably inevitable that politicians would begin clambering aboard the pro-failure bandwagon.

There it is - our buddy - good ol' Self-Help to the rescue!

Are you listening, y'all? You can't hear it:

Glenn Reynolds is in the NewAge world of Billary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey/Tony Robbins/James Arthur Ray/Louise Hay Grade-A bullshit, and he's delivering it to your door as political wisdom without the slightest clue how he's being played.

As a matter of fact, back when Reynolds used to post TMR and it was almost All-NewAge-All-The-Time, that's what his last email to me indicated:

Hey, I've got nothing against you, Crack.  But I really don't get your blog, and God knows I've tried.  Sorry.

Think about that for a second:

Glenn Reynolds has been seen to "get" a Mormon for president - who devoutly believes he'll get his own planet. Glenn can "get" that you can relearn to breathe with Laughing Yoga, all the many bogus concoctions, preparations, and devices in Quackery - and even inserting vapid win-from-losing Self-Help nostrums (I know you don't think I "get" it but I got it) into our supposedly serious game of politics - but he doesn't "get" why a conservative blogger, versed in NewAge solipsism, would be skeptical of the whole election-losing Instapundit enterprise.

Why wouldn't I point it out?

This flaw in conservative reasoning needs addressing and now:

I've got nothing against Glenn. What I really don't get will be conservatives losing through NewAge, and God knows I've tried. 

O.K., there is no God, but - even for that - I am really and truly sorry,...

 

James Arthur Ray: The Sweat Lodge Killer's Evolution From NewAge Master Of The Universe To Dirty Hippie

Ray at the height of his fame, after doing Oprah, and The Secret, and killing people.

And here's our boy after he got busted for three deaths in (where else?) that hot bed of NewAge gullibility spirituality, Sedona Arizona.

This is Jay Ray during his trial, totally stressed, after he'd spent every dime he scammed on a defense that netted him only two lousy years in prison.

And this was the guru in July - released on probation, to scam and/or kill again,...

 

Cultism: You Know You Want It (Why's It Everywhere?)

Of course I'm going to see The Master tomorrow, and Wired Magazine knows why:

Beautiful to look at, strangely hypnotic and utterly original, The Master examines cult dynamics through the ’50s-era misadventures of a violent ex-sailor with horrible posture and zero impulse control. 

Filmmaking artistry aside, writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson‘s picture hits home as a period-perfect examination of a perpetually recurring truth: When people hanker for a know-it-all authority figure who will tell them what to think, self-appointed “masters” will be more than happy to oblige. 

Anderson brings cult behavior into fascinating focus by examining the bond between two characters portrayed by extraordinary actors: the accidental, alcoholic seeker Freddie Quill, played by Joaquin Phoenix, and the suave, all-American swami Lancaster Dodd, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. 

The Master casts its own weird, R-rated spell not because it yields shocking revelations or clever plot twists… 

Instead, The Master resonates because its peculiar particulars illustrate why people like Dodd continue to proliferate with near-tragic frequency. Consider such characters as the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who picked spouses for his followers; California Coptic priest Zakaria Botros Henein, whose devotees made the Innocence of Muslims video; and positive-thinking guru James Arthur Ray, whose eager-to-please acolytes sat in a sweat lodge until they died. 

Factor in Vanity Fair magazine’s recent report about Church of Scientology matchmaking practices for Tom Cruise (denied by the organization), and it seems clear that the top-down command structure depicted in The Master remains in full force six decades on. 

Anderson, who’s earned five Oscar nominations for previous obsession-themed films including There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights and Magnolia, situates The Master at a comfortable remove from contemporary cult dysfunction,… 

For all its genteel period touches, The Master strikes a chord with contemporary audiences by probing the feral impulses that fuel groupthink then and now. Anderson strips the cult dynamic down to its rude essence,...The men turn on each other. 

“Nobody likes you Freddie,” Dodd says calmly. “I’m the only one who likes you.” 

Freddie, who’s just finished pounding his head against a bunkbed in a fit of inarticulate rage, finally screams the forbidden notion that everyone in the audience has surely already considered: “You’re making this shit up!” 

In The Master’s portrait of cult dysfunction, the misfit and the mumbo-jumbo man share a toxic alchemy more dangerous than any mad cocktail that Freddie could dream up.

Or me - don't leave me out: 

I seriously had no idea how fucked up y'all are out there,...

 

Lying To The Public: The Oprah Winfrey Show's Ultimate "Secret" To Living Your Best Life Evah!

Oh man, Michael Hamilton, co-owner of the Angel Valley Spiritual Retreat Center where James Arthur Ray held his sweat lodge was on the stand in Ray's manslaughter trial:

Having seen the often-chaotic aftermaths of the Ray-led sweat lodges on his property, Hamilton said he was nonetheless chagrined when he heard and saw, from his office on the property, medical helicopters landing near the sweat lodge. He then received a call from his wife.

"My wife Amyra called me," he said. "She said, 'He did it again.' "

Ray certainly did. Put the guy away, and then amuse yourself with wondering why Oprah ever brought him to the fore.