ExMinister
RSL Acolyte
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2007
- Messages
- 2,982
What do you guys think of Wayne Dyer? I am having a hard time finding anything skeptical on him. In fact, the only material I found led me back to this forum, where I read a few of the older threads on him (some of the posts written by me!).
He's rich, has a fan base to surpass Sylvia Browne's, and has over the years gone from self-help to teaching material along the lines of The Secret.
What I'm trying to figure out is: Is Wayne Dyer in the category of deluded but sincere, or insincere and in it for the money? Any thoughts?
The reason I'm asking here is because not only do I want to know, but I have a few family members who are big fans of his.
I read Mercutio's cool description of muscle testing and why it would require double-blind testing. That was a great debunking.
Has James Randi ever written about him? I noticed a few people here had known him personally? If anyone has known him personally, what was he like?
I discovered two things that made me question his sincerity. First, he has told a story for years about being in grade school where he comes home to tell his mother (or whoever) that his teacher had called him a "scurvy elephant." The mother then calls and discovers the teacher had said "disturbing element." This always gets a big laugh. Here's the thing - A few years ago I bought a book by Dr. Bernie Siegel (apparently a friend of Dyer's) on raising children. About 2/3 of the way through Dr. Siegel's book I suddenly come across Dr. Siegel telling the exact same "scurvy elephant" story only claiming it had happened to him as a child. Yeah right. What are the odds that these two popular authors/speakers both had childhood experiences involving being called "scurvy elephants," etc. But, to be fair, it might not have been Dyer who stole the story.
Second, in Dyer's book "Wisdom of the Ages" he tells a story about how he, Wayne Dyer, was walking along the beach one day, picking up starfish (I think it was) that had washed ashore and throwing them back into the sea, and someone comes along and says you can't help all of them so what's the point, and Dyer claims to have said, "Well it mattered to that one." Well, having studied a bit of Eastern philosophy, I recognized that as a classic story that has been around long before Dyer. Perhaps it is creative license. But it seemed somewhat dishonest to me.
But that's it. I've otherwise come up blank.
He's rich, has a fan base to surpass Sylvia Browne's, and has over the years gone from self-help to teaching material along the lines of The Secret.
What I'm trying to figure out is: Is Wayne Dyer in the category of deluded but sincere, or insincere and in it for the money? Any thoughts?
The reason I'm asking here is because not only do I want to know, but I have a few family members who are big fans of his.
I read Mercutio's cool description of muscle testing and why it would require double-blind testing. That was a great debunking.
Has James Randi ever written about him? I noticed a few people here had known him personally? If anyone has known him personally, what was he like?
I discovered two things that made me question his sincerity. First, he has told a story for years about being in grade school where he comes home to tell his mother (or whoever) that his teacher had called him a "scurvy elephant." The mother then calls and discovers the teacher had said "disturbing element." This always gets a big laugh. Here's the thing - A few years ago I bought a book by Dr. Bernie Siegel (apparently a friend of Dyer's) on raising children. About 2/3 of the way through Dr. Siegel's book I suddenly come across Dr. Siegel telling the exact same "scurvy elephant" story only claiming it had happened to him as a child. Yeah right. What are the odds that these two popular authors/speakers both had childhood experiences involving being called "scurvy elephants," etc. But, to be fair, it might not have been Dyer who stole the story.
Second, in Dyer's book "Wisdom of the Ages" he tells a story about how he, Wayne Dyer, was walking along the beach one day, picking up starfish (I think it was) that had washed ashore and throwing them back into the sea, and someone comes along and says you can't help all of them so what's the point, and Dyer claims to have said, "Well it mattered to that one." Well, having studied a bit of Eastern philosophy, I recognized that as a classic story that has been around long before Dyer. Perhaps it is creative license. But it seemed somewhat dishonest to me.
But that's it. I've otherwise come up blank.
