How We Really Are Now (Part II: King's Lead Hat)

While discussing (the delightfully named) Pigeon O'Brien's Huffington Post column, on her role in the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter affair, Mickey Kaus says:

O’Brien makes it clear that Hunter has some kind of unreported charismatic power, but doesn’t quite explain what Edwards saw in her that would prompt him to put his campaign (and party) at risk. …

Really? Out of the many bloggers we read and respect, Mickey Kaus is no slouch in the Thinking Department, so it seems odd to us he'd need more help from O'Brien (above) to sort that particular issue out.

Especially when she opened her piece this way:

Lisa Druck was trouble,...Yet we liked her. There was something charming and feral in her aggressive bubbliness. The seedier stuff bothered my prudish self, stories of strip poker and non-monogamy. But I was seeing her ex-boyfriend and if I wanted to keep him out of the riskier stuff, I had to like her. So I did.

Charming, feral, aggressive, bubbly, seedy, non-monogamous, and risky.

If you ask us, that's a lot for Ol' Mickey to work with - even if O'Brien is describing Hunter in the 1980s. Fortunately, she doesn't stop there, and paints a more recent picture of Hunter:

In 2004 I went to a dinner party for the anniversary of [our friend Jay McInerney's book] Bright Lights, Big City in New York, and there she was. She looked and acted nothing like frenetic, drama-dragging Lisa. We became fast friends, again. Lisa -- now Rielle -- was living in Boulder, in the carriage house of her former mother-in-law. I was doing publicity, website design and marketing. She wasn't doing a whole ton of anything, but she had some ideas.

A foundation was the center of the work, which we broadened to a website as a way of marketing her voice and image for a possible TV show, the "MTV guru." Rielle's friends Bob McGovern and Randy would help with logistics. We made a website. She paid for the domain name, I paid hosting. We spent five, six hours a day on the phone, gabbing and working.

She was really good at the guru stuff. Once I was on a miserable, rainy client trip. I moaned to Rielle. She was impatient, not loving my issues. "What are things you want?" she barked. I babbled about wanting prompt payment and value in my personal life. "No," she cut me off. "Money and love. Can you get those today? On this day? In the rain?" "Well, no..." I stammered. "Then focus on today. What's in front of you to do. The path. Don't be attached to outcomes. Don't DO, just BE." Oh. Ok. And the money and love came in time, as they will.

Soon the foundation and the website -- Being Is Free -- spiraled into too many months of fruitless work. I abandoned it. We spoke less, but a few months later, she was back on the beam. She had a crystal clear vision of what she wanted, and had moved to the New York area to stay with her friend Mimi. We rapidly filled in the site: her bio, cringingly titled 'Story of My Life,' a story of awakening called 'Shift Happens,' and 'Kids on Board,' the ever-important board of directors, which was mostly just a list of people helping Rielle. I came and went from this list. It was a fun gauge of how useful I was to old Lisa Druck.

Two sections remained blank: 'Fame I Am Lives Forever' and 'Where the Money Goes.' It's funny how those came in time, as they will.

As she made forays into yoga instruction in New York, there abruptly came a two-day silence. When she surfaced, it was loudly: "I met someone!" Her voice was thrilled. He must be really something. "What's his name?" "JOHN!" she sang. "Does he live in New York?" "No, North Carolina!" North Carolina? I pictured a skinny bearded guy, with enough money or mojo to catch her eye. "He's married," she quickly added, "small kids."

And there you have it. In Part I of this series, "The Safety Dance", we observed the bizarre, yet seemingly deliberate way bloggers discuss religion and spirituality, in an apparent attempt to avoid whatever troubles can arise from appearing to do so. Mickey Kaus appears to be engaged in just this behavior when he suggests that, with the wealth of information O'Brien lays at his feet, he somehow needs more before he can figure out what was going on between Edwards and Hunter.

But, in case we're wrong, let's clear it up for him:

A self-styled guru, spitting mindless pabulum like "Don't DO, just BE" (as in "Be Here Now") and is either into teaching or learning yoga to better bend over for married fathers?

The attraction was NewAge and sex, Mickey, though not necessarily always in that order.

Now before you say that's not enough for Edwards to "put his campaign (and party) at risk", we will remind you only one of them was necessary for Bill Clinton to put his presidency at risk. Also, Clinton, too, has shown a weakness for NewAge psychobabble, working as he has with Tony Robbins, and as his quoting cult leader Ken Wilber proves:



Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also been known to agree with Wilber's "Theory of Everything", as well as cavort with NewAge psychics.

But let's get back to Rielle Hunter and John Edwards:

I struck up a conversation with the woman at the next event, as we waited outside. She told me her name and asked me what my astrological sign was, which I thought was a little unusual. I told her. She smiled, and began telling me her life story: how she was working as a documentary-film maker, living with a friend in South Orange, N.J., but how she'd previously had "many lives." She'd worked, she said, as an actress and as a spiritual adviser. She was fiercely devoted to astrology and New Age spirituality. She'd been a New York party girl, she'd been married and divorced, she'd been a seeker and a teacher and was a firm believer in the power of truth.

She told me that she had met Edwards at a bar, at the Regency Hotel in New York. She thought he was giving off a special "energy."

...I would soon learn that there was no such thing as small talk with Rielle Hunter. She told me that she'd felt a connection to me when we'd first met, that she could tell I was a very old soul. This meant a lot to Rielle. Her speech was peppered with New Age jargon—human beings were dragged down by "blockages" to their actual potential; history was the story of souls entering and escaping our field of consciousness. A seminal book for her had been Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now." Her purpose on this Earth, she said, was to help raise awareness about all this, to help the unenlightened become better reflections of their true, repressed selves.

Her latest project was John Edwards. Edwards, she said, was an old soul who had barely tapped into any of his potential. The real John Edwards, she believed, was a brilliant, generous, giving man who was driven by competing impulses—to feed his ego and serve the world. If he could only tap into his heart more, and use his head less, he had the power to be a "transformational leader" on par with Gandhi and Martin Luther King. "He has the power to change the world," she said.

I had been nodding and sipping my wine through all this. "Do you talk about this stuff with the candidate?" I asked. "All the time," Rielle replied. "I'll lecture him on it when he's getting too much up in here," she said, gesturing toward her head. "He'll see a look on my face and say, 'Yes, I know, Rielle, "Power of Now" says …' "

...She hoped that with her unique eye for Edwards's true potential, she could show the world the real John Edwards and, in the process, help him to become the better version of himself.

So what's our point? We wouldn't hesitate to place a bet that somewhere around a quarter of the Democratic Party is somehow involved in some form of NewAge spirituality or another - and all without the public's notice or understanding of how it influences their leader's choices or what a politician's occult beliefs actually mean.

We'd also be willing to wager, if the public knew these things - and we mean really knew - they'd leave the Democratic Party in droves.

That goes double for blacks.

And it is TMR's contention they have every right to know. That it's about time somebody started speaking the truth about what's going on with the NewAge belief system in particular.

But what, exactly, would we tell them? Consider:

Rielle Hunter saw John Edwards - a white ambulance chasing lawyer and opportunistic politician - as the modern day equivalent of Martin Luther King.

And, since we all remember Bill Clinton was also seen, somehow, as America's "first black president" (until reality set in) we think that's also a pretty good place to start.

To be continued,....

Busted: John Edwards, Rielle Hunter, And Bob McGovern (NewAge Reveals All, Truth Seekers)

We predicted it, and - after a new piece by The National Enquirer's David Perel - we're pretty sure we were right:

John Edwards was exposed by Lisa Druck/Rielle Hunter's "astrologer" and confidant (who also "works with energy in the area of emotional fields") the "intuitive" Bob McGovern.

Here's Perel:

When John Edwards showed up at the Beverly Hilton hotel to meet with Rielle on the evening of July 21, 2008, a large team of reporters and photographers were on the grounds for the Enquirer, and he was photographed secretly as he confidently walked into a side door at 9:45 p.m.

The Enquirer knew what room Hunter was in, as well as the room where her male traveling companion was staying. When Edwards came down to the lobby at 2:40 am the Enquirer was waiting for him, famously chasing as he ran into a public bathroom.

Behind the scenes we exerted pressure on Edwards, sending word though mutual contacts that we had photographed him throughout the night. We provided a few details about his movements to prove this was no bluff.

For 18 days we played this game, and as the standoff continued the Enquirer published a photograph of Edwards with the baby inside a room at the Beverly Hilton hotel.

Journalists asked if we had a hidden camera in the room. We never said yes or no. (We still haven't). We sent word to Edwards privately that there were more photos.

He cracked.

First, the Enquirer "knew what room Hunter was in, as well as the room where her male traveling companion was staying." Who else would know that but "her male traveling companion" - who was Bob McGovern?

Second, Bob McGovern is an astrologer. Has anyone ever heard of an astrologer, mixed up in anything, who didn't immediately try to capitalize on their fame? Hunter's friend, Pigeon O'Brian, was on television as often as she could be, but good Ol' Bob was nowhere to be seen.

Third, McGovern is a NewAger. These people, because of their unstable belief system, have no solid morals to lean on. Consider this loopdy-loop:

Bob McGovern was deceiving/exploiting Lisa Druck/Rielle Hunter, who was deceiving/exploiting John Edwards, as they all were deceiving his wife, the cancer-stricken Elizabeth Edwards - and the press was deceiving everyone else.

Even Louise Hay, the so-called "Queen of NewAge" let it be known that Sylvia Browne - her best-selling author - was a fraud, but somehow, utilizing those values, we're supposed to believe Bob McGovern wouldn't sell out Lisa Druck/Rielle Hunter (AKA “Riddleydoo Spacepod Rainbow.”) for a payoff from the Enquirer? Puh-Leaze. As our friends at Death By 1000 Papercuts said at the time, "it’s likely that the Enquirer pays better than his regular day job in the mystic realm."

Forth, there was no one else who could've been in the room with Rielle Hunter and John Edwards, when the photo of Edwards and the baby was taken, but Bob McGovern.

And last but not least, since Bob McGovern was in the room when that photo was taken, Rielle Hunter had to know what was going on - either during Edwards' visit to see the baby or once the photo was publicized - making her an accomplice in a doublecross. Again:

Another NewAge liar engaged in betrayal - probably to end Edwards' marriage, so Hunter could live out her dream of becoming Mrs. John Edwards, or (since "Being" Isn't "Free") to get a settlement for child support.

So there you have it - Bob McGovern, the man who took out John Edwards, as both were sliding around on snake-oil.

And the destruction of everything NewAge touches continues,...

Seeking Truth? Here: Have A Little Bit Of Mine

My, my, my.

One of the reasons I love following NewAge is to study betrayal. Like the Mafia, once you're involved in NewAge, it's really hard to get out. And one way or another, sooner or later, you know somebody's going to get whacked.

"The psychic business is built on lies. There is no supernatural power. You can't see the future. We're in the golden age of the con. There are people coming out of the woodwork that would love to separate you from your money,...that's the bottom line.

First you've got the belief system, which is a fraud, and thus a betrayal of followers. It is they who must go around, sounding like idiots, because somebody flattered them with some metaphysical jargon that sounded right but, upon any close inspection, is really just vague nonsense that could apply to anyone or, pretty much, any situation.

"They like to imagine I'm in some far off convent but really I'm ironing at home."

Then you've got the evangelicals. But not evangelicals in the Christian sense - where they (for the most part) actually "believe" what they're spreading - but the uniformly cynical, calculating, corrupt, cold, and capricious leaders of the NewAge Movement. They don't "believe" in NewAge - they're con men - to them, the world is here for the fleecing, and, if you're dumb enough to let it happen, then you only have yourself to blame. Again: you betrayed yourself.

But they betrayed you, too.

The difference is they know it.

"I'd try to be compassionate and sound as new age as you can."

Next come the followers. The believers. The saps.

They take the bogus belief system the evangelicals give them and then proceed to wreck havoc with it. Think John Edwards and Rielle Hunter. There they are, talking about "truth" and "compassion", while literally destroying whatever meaning those words hold, just as they were destroying whatever reputations they had previously. Even Rielle's NewAge girlfriend, Pigeon O'Brian, said she didn't think the integrity-ladened woman she knew would betray another woman, with cancer, over a man. Well, think again, Pigeon. Using NewAge, Reille Hunter will betray anyone, and everything she ever said she was about.

What am I saying? She already has!

"Common sense is the same as intuition. In our society we've lost touch with that."

Which brings me to the final victims in this cha-cha-chain of fools: those who find themselves merely in the personal vicinity of a NewAger. Oh, they're going to be betrayed, there's no doubt about it - it's impossible not to happen - the only questions are When? Where? and How?

Think of the baby in the Thomas Sam murder case. He was too young to understand, or hold, a belief system. He wasn't a believer. He died because his parents were saps, who believed in various quack evangelicals, and the homeopathic nonsense they were peddling, nothing more. Another example is the husband who took his wife to hear a friend of Oprah, only to end up divorced. And, of course, those folks who attended the sweat lodge of another of Oprah's friends, James Arthur Ray, only to find themselves dead - and their families crushed.

Gee, thanks, Oprah. You're the moral leader of the nation.

But it doesn't stop there: we can't finish without mentioning the flip-side of the equation - the followers who attempt to get out, and what happens to them.

First, there's probably going to be years of psychological therapy needed to wipe the chuckle-headed ideas from their brain, which is a betrayal of the belief system that told them they were special (or possessed magic powers) all those years.

Then the evangelicals speak ill of them, claiming they're "Suppressive Personalities" or liars or whatever. Now the former believer must fight to re-establish their integrity after possibly decades of saying the opposite was true of what they're claiming now.

Then the other followers come after them. They are abandoned, spoken ill of, attacked as crazy and, in many cases, their lives sabotaged by those same "loving" and "compassionate" people they couldn't live without previously.

And then, once again, there are the poor friends and families that must deal with all the believer has been/is still putting them through. They were totally ill-equipped to deal with the commotion of the believer's supposed revelation, the destruction the belief system wrecked on them (interpersonal and otherwise) or the fall-out once the follower starts to come to their senses.

It's just too big.

Now, multiply all this by the number of believers out there (Millions? Billions?) and then you can start to appreciate the scope of the problem.

How is anything supposed to go anywhere, but down, when we've got this type of mayhem now built into Western culture?

I mean, these people and groups are now part of every aspect of our lives - entertainment, politics, medicine, and science - every one of them working to undermine what we know, with what they want us to believe, and daring us to do something about it.

If you think about it seriously, and use it as context, I think it explains almost everything that's been currently happening in our lives.

And that's the truth.

NewAge: Not The Kind Of Integrity We Have

Unfortunately, you have to go here to hear Pigeon O'Brian's logic for yourself:

Rielle Hunter has "tremendous integrity," but not John Edwards, because Pigeon can't pass judgment on a NewAger who sleeps with a married man - just on the married man the NewAger slept with.

Got that? A NewAger who didn't have the ability to say "no" to a married man; a NewAger who disses the married man's cancer-stricken wife (who she had to know was suffering from cancer for a second time) - the NewAger who actually thinks it's a NewAger's job to sleep with married people because it's the NewAgers who can "help" the married people - and then refuses to reveal the truth of the baby's heritage (though, like all NewAgers, she's claimed to be consumed by a need seek the truth and have it be revealed) still, somehow, she has character. Incredible.

Can't you hear Oprah telling her followers to "make your own truth"? Well, this is exactly what Oprah means. How do you like the way it plays out in the real world?

Like all NewAgers, Pigeon O'Brian doesn't care what "integrity" means (neither do Rielle or Oprah) because NewAgers redefine everything to mean "whatever NewAgers want to do - and to Hell with the fall-out - which will include someone getting burned." Considering everyone who contributed to Edwards's campaign(s), the people John and Rielle burned now number in the millions.

Peace. Love. Integrity. Character. Truth. Good. Right.

These words mean nothing to NewAgers, a group that merely includes Rielle. Those words are completely divorced from NewAgers and, like The Dark Knight's Joker, NewAgers will happily drag everyone down with them to make the point. But there's another point that's made here too - an obvious one:

If you're not willing to "pass judgment" on what these narcissists do (because they give lip-service to being "nice") then you're more-than-willing to be their chumps.

Right, Chumpy?