Which one of them sends out the more positive vibrations?
Actually I’d definitely watch a 2 hour televised psychic showdown between them. 
My neighbor came up to me a week or so ago going on and on about The Secret. She seemed really disappointed when I said “What, you mean Creative Visualization?” (as mentioned above)
She seriously seemed disappointed that I’d heard of it at least 10 years prior. Whatever, I personally believe that there is merit to the theory, but it’s something Oprah “discovered” by any means.
I have insufficient evidence even to begin to address “reality.” All I know is three lines in People magazine. I do not believe that one can “cure” vision problems just by willing oneself not to need glasses. But I don’t know what, if anything, was wrong with her vision before. I don’t know what, if anything, caused her problem. Maybe she was really, really stressed, and she had vision problems and headaches, etc., and by solving the root cause (i.e., eliminating the stress) her vision problems resolved themselves. I frankly have no idea.
But the facile explanation – “I just thought about it and fixed my vision!” – sets off all sorts of warning signals. I think you’d have to be pretty credulous simply to accept that at face value.
And that’s precisely the problem. Putting vision boards on the wall is to curing vision problems as doing good deeds for the invisible man in the coulds is to justifying all sorts of violence and mayhem. If we knew how to guide people into staying on the “safe” side of the line, then I’d be less concerned with the snake oil salesmen.
It doesn’t invalidate the rest of your statement in any way, but I for one think Freud was a complete bullshit artist.
Who started this stupid practice of referring to strangers by their first names, as if they were close acquaintances? The woman’s name is Winfrey. “Dr. Phil” is Dr. McGraw; combining an honorific with a first name really sounds silly.
To the OP: is Winfrey really that stupid? She’s always seemed reasonably intelligent to me, but apparently a lot of people can be quite lucid and logical in most of their lives, then adopt something totally irrational without feeling any conflict. I remember a sex therapist I used to hear on late-night radio. When a naive teenager would call and ask whether she could get pregnant if a boy ejaculated near her while she was swimming in the ocean, the therapist would ask her, “Now, how would that work exactly?” and patiently explain the physical realities involved. But the same therapist was literally gasping in astonishment when another caller listed the “eery similarities” between Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy – and she was completely credulous about Edgar Cayce.
Um. Oprah herself who has named her show and magazine ‘Oprah’. I imagine some people may not even know her last name.
My mom went a little loopy around menopause time. Oprah’s right at that awkward age 
True. And if I’m remembering accurately my misty memories of the grocery checkout line, the magazine (upon whose cover the woman herself has ever-so-modestly appeared, every single month since its inception) is actually called ‘O’. I suppose ‘W’ would’ve had some potentially unpleasant connotations if she’d gone that route—but she’s pretty much founded her whole image and career on the illusion of first-name familiarity with her unseen national audience.
The magazine is actually one of my biggest problems with Oprah. I’m sure it’s just a moneymaking engine, but… I just can’t fathom the enormity of ego required to publish a magazine about you, named after you, where every cover features a picture of you. Even in a parallel universe where I were rich, charismatic, and popular, I don’t think I could ever consider the idea of founding “VT: The Vinyl Turnip Magazine,” packed with my sage advice, with my Photoshop-veneered face on the glossy cover of every issue, without collapsing into hysterics.
Of course not–you’d have collapsed into hysterics first.
See, now doesn’t that explain everything? Poor Ms. Winfrey snapped.
What if those mean bad people will visualize mean and bad things? Giving them the “secret” might bring down civilization.
I like Oprah (and frankly some of these Oprah-fucking jokes are a bit offensive and dare I say sexist. She’s not positioning herself as a sexpot. Thread title aside, her fuckability is not the issue here). That being said, every show she does on angels or ghosts makes me want to vomit. I only caught the tale end of the supernatural one the other day, but she told a woman who didn’t believe in ghosts that she hoped her deceased relative would visit her that night. Ugh. As bad as horoscopes in women’s magazines.
Creative visualzation is a fine tool for many people. But just out of curiosity, is there anything in The Secret about, uh, taking any action of the non-mental kind?
Sorry about that. For balance, if someone starts a thread titled (just for example) “fuck Larry King,” I vow that my jokes therein will be equally juvenile and offensive.
<hijack>
Can I just say that if I were the recipient of this “good news”, I would probably lie awake for days wondering about the form in which my dead relative might appear?
Ghost…I can handle…some indefinite spirit is OK. Now, if it were a Mummy or Zombie…that’s another story!
-Cem
That sounds more like a threat than a message of hope. “Yeah, I hope DEAD PEOPLE come and visit you tonight! Muahahahahaha!”
As for the Secret, meh. I know a lot of people who are into it, and I can see the power of positive thinking and visualizing and staying focused on your goals. What I can’t buy is the mystical mumbo jumbo surrounding it.
And if you did, it certainly wouldn’t be “GLAD Wrap”…
But NOT 10,001 or the Cosmos will decide you’re being too pushy.
No, GLAAD wrap.
Well, you couldn’t call it just Vinyl. People would assume it’s some kind of fetish rag.
Though I haven’t heard of The Secret outside of this thread, I’m just starting to get involved in the local reggae scene and I’m meeting a number of people who seriously buy into the “vibrations” stuff. Though I can’t buy it as a literal explanation, it fits well with my experiences in a metaphorical sense.
People didn’t read books before Oprah? I read books.
Did book sales suddenly grow at a faster rate when Oprah came along?
Bump!
Yesterday at the local video store, I saw that the owner had put up this article* by the register. I laughed and said, “So, is this your compensation for having to sell The Secret?”
He got a huge grin on his face. “I LOVE The Secret!” he said. “It makes me a shitload of money!” And then he went off on a happy rant about its idiocies and idiotic fans and how he was raking cash in hand over fist from them.
Well, hey. More power to him. It’s the best thing I’ve ever heard about the movie!
Daniel
- The link is broken right now, but hopefully it goes to the right article.