Let me try this one more time

Some people are apparently very confused about why I’m so against all this Law of Attraction nonsense.

Let me clarify:

I love self-help materials. Have for over thirty years. And from what I can tell, I will always love them. And when I find good ones, I may promote them.

However, I have a huge problem when I believe the way someone markets them is likely to cause more harm than good, from the consumer’s point of view.

Ironically, these same methods stand to do much more good than harm from the marketer’s point of view.

Since this description is abstract, let me be more specific:

1. I do not believe something should be marketed as a universal law unless it is generally accepted by the scientific community to be one.

If someone wants to market something as a “spiritual” universal law, fine, but disclose that fact up front.

To say something is scientific because they can find a handful of scientists to support it, is, in my opinion, misleading at best.

If a marketer truly believes what they are selling is a universal law they should demonstrate their conviction by removing all disclaimers from their marketing materials.

After all, if it works every time for every one in every circumstance, there is no need for disclaimers, right?

2. I believe people who only begin to make real money by telling other people they can make real money by telling other people they can make real money should be exposed.

Yes, you read that correctly.

This is nothing more than a psychic pyramid scheme where you only make money by selling others the opportunity to make money.

That’s pretty much it. Make sense?

Posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 at 12:45 PM

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(13) Reader Comments about Let me try this one more time

Cosmic Connie says...

Makes perfect sense to me, Blair. I am privately communicating now with a person who is the president of the company that markets one of the products I made fun of on my blog recently. (He is being a very good sport about my lampooning, by the way.) I told him that it wasn’t even the product so much as the hype-y marketing I am making fun of.

Yet most of the defenders of “The Secret” cannot seem to make these distinctions. And they accuse *us* of being closed-minded. I am now getting comments on some of my “Secret"-related blogs that are absolutely unprintable. I’m sure you are too.

Posted on 02/28/2007 at 12:55 PM

Blair Warren says...

Hey Connie,

I’m glad to hear at least someone involved with this stuff is a good sport.

And I agree with you about it being the marketing more than the product.

Maybe this wouldn’t be such a big deal if there weren’t folks shelling out big bucks and placing their hopes and dreams for the future on all of this.

I heard from one young man the other day who is out over $10,000 by investing in one of these “programs” and has nothing to show for it.

As for unprintable comments, mine are all coming in via e-mail, but I am getting some.

Given that the New Age crowd is always so loving, they remind me of the old saying from the 1960’s:

Make peace not war, or we’ll kill you.

Posted on 02/28/2007 at 01:14 PM

Bill says...

2. I believe people who only begin to make real money by telling other people they can make real money by telling other people they can make real money should be exposed.

Blair,

If this was followed the internet and a few publishing companies would go out of business.

Bill

Posted on 02/28/2007 at 01:54 PM

Colin MacKenzie says...

When I first heard the title of the DVD I thought right back to one of Blair’s keys to persuasion – having a crack at something not everyone else knows about. It’s the kind of title that gets some people salivating and going ‘Me, too! I wanna know it. I wanna get rich.’ It does not work that way, though. I must confess to buying the original when it came out.

They do not focus nearly enough on action. Take Bill Harris, for example. He only got a short shot in the DVD, but if you took his online courses that he discussed in this segment, as I have, he goes CRAZY over the kind of magical thinking that sitting and intending gets you what you want.

Based on what I have studied about the brain, NLP, and people I respect like Blair, Kevin Hogan and Bill Harris, I believe this need to act is true, but I will be damned if I would hype it and call it a “Law”.

At the same time, there is more going on in the world than we can fully understand or explain. Like Blair, I enjoy the writings of Colin Wilson such as The Occult. I believe there are things happening we need to learn more about.

My bottom line is I want to learn more about subtle influences because I’m interested in them, not because Ms. Byrne or Abraham says they’re “Laws”.

I want to see shams get slammed.

I want to share what I feel compelled to share that I believe will help other people and let others take what they can from it.

And to hold to the idea that I AM STILL THE ONE RESPONSE-ABLE FOR WHAT HAPPENS IN MY LIFE. That does not mean I can control all of it – I don’t know how many of you will agree with me who read this, even though I believe it – but I can take the time to get my feet wet and see where the tracks lead.

Posted on 02/28/2007 at 02:05 PM

Blair Warren says...

Bill said, “If this was followed the internet and a few publishing companies would go out of business.”

Yes please.

Seriously though, there are many, many successful people who have made their success outside the “success” field.

When these folks write a book, like Gene Simmons’ book - Sex, Money, KISS - I pay attention.

Are people like this going to make money from their books?

Absolutely.

But the bulk of their success came elsewhere so their ideas carry much more weight with me.

Posted on 02/28/2007 at 02:07 PM

Lana says...

I tell ya, the posts and comments here are like a breath of fresh air. I’m glad I’m not alone!

One of my blog posts was cited in a CBS column yesterday.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/27/blogophile/main2519884.shtml

Unfortunately, the quotes are out of context. But at least my blog visitors can be exposed to people who are calling for critical thinking.

I’m running out of brain cells. Would you mind if I sent them over here!?

Lana
http://www.you-unplugged.com/blog

Posted on 02/28/2007 at 04:48 PM

Bill says...

I do not believe something should be marketed as a universal law unless it is generally accepted by the scientific community to be one.

Blair,

Is the existence of GOD ( by what ever name you choose to use ) accepted by the scientific community?

Posted on 03/01/2007 at 12:47 PM

Blair Warren says...

Bill,

As for what the scientific community believes about the existence of GOD, I assume it would depend on what you mean by the term GOD.

If by GOD you mean a guy with a white beard in the sky, I doubt it will get much support.

If by GOD you mean some sort of “universal energy force,” it will probably get quite a bit more.

And your point is?

Posted on 03/01/2007 at 01:21 PM

Sean Woodruff says...

Blair, your comment to Bill prompted me to observe this law (Ok, I just made it up)…

The Law of Multiple Perceptions (LOMP) states that when two or more individuals discuss a concept you will get two or more understandings of the concept.

The LOMP is demonstrated daily in places like Iraq. I think Iraq may be the scientific proving ground of LOMP.

Posted on 03/01/2007 at 02:27 PM

Tom says...

Although the creators of “The Secret” don’t reveal the sources that inspired them to ‘do us all a favor’ and sell us our salvation, there are clues.

One of the people images they used in their promo material was Charles F. Haanel, a successful businessman from the last century.

He wrote a book (yes, you can see passages from that book in the promo material) called “The Master Key System”.

That book is now in the Public Domain and you can read it online right now.

Find out Mr. Haanel’s description and use of the LOA for FREE… really. (Like air, any truly life changing ideas should be freely available to everyone, right?)

Or you CAN pay for the over-hyped, glitzed-up, re-packaged version of the same ideas and buy “The Secret”.

Find it here ---->
http://www.psitek.net/pages/PsiTekTMKSContents.html

BTW - I have no association with this Website or the owners in any way.

Posted on 03/02/2007 at 03:24 AM

Bill says...

I agree the Charles Hannel book “THe Master Key System” is a excellent book and does a much better job of explaining “Law Of Allowing” than “The Secret”. The Secret DVD references the Wallace Wattles book “The Science of Getting Rich” at the begining. This book is also public domain and is available at http://www.scienceofgettingrich.net/

I have no association with this web site.

Posted on 03/02/2007 at 06:36 AM

Blair Warren says...

Though not too many supporters are taking the time to comment on this post I am getting quite a few who comment when they unsubscribe from my list.

Here is the gist of their complaints:

These ideas work for me so nothing else matters.

It doesn’t matter if they are misrepresented.

It doesn’t matter if they damage anyone else.

It doesn’t matter if some people are being taken for thousands of dollars on the backend only to be left with nothing.

To hell with everyone else. They’re working for me.

Sounds pretty spiritual to me.

Posted on 03/02/2007 at 12:34 PM

Sean Woodruff says...

Imagine the people they are “attracting” into their lives with those attitudes.

What an attractively combative, lonely life they must live due to the “law.”

Posted on 03/02/2007 at 01:27 PM