What do you think of Wayne Dyer?

[ExMinister]

I have the book that is referenced above and Wayne does not refer to the story as himself. His book reads "Tommy" comes home from school.

Thanks, OJMo. That's interesting, too. I wasn't actually referencing a book. I'd heard him tell this story many times over the years on tapes and at lectures and could swear on my fallible-human-memory that the times I've heard it he has told it about himself - but since I can't at the moment point to a tape or specific lecture, I'll concede that I might be wrong. I don't have time to go back and listen to those tapes.

Thanks for pointing this out, though. It does make me curious now about whether or not he has always told the story in the third person. If I do have time to go back and check at some point, I'll post here for completeness' sake.

 

[kyra1985]

He is a big supporter of Sai Baba (the pedophile), Esther and Jerry Hicks (the Amway distributors turned charlatans), and Louise Hay (the woman who claims that you can heal your body of any ailment through her mental work). I consider him dangerous in his support of these people. He's kind of like a gateway drug into deeper, more deluded materials--especially since he actively supports many of them (esp Hay and Baba). Though I like to think he is just one of the deluded, in recent years he was diagnosed with leukemia. I suppose all his fine affirmations didn't do the tHe is a big supporter of Sai Baba (the guru pedophile), Esther and Jerry Hicks (the Amway distributors turned charlatans), and Louise Hay (the woman who claims that you can heal your body of any ailment through her mental work). I consider him dangerous in his support of these people. He's kind of like a gateway drug into deeper, more deluded materials--especially since he actively supports many of them (esp Hay and Baba). In recent years he was diagnosed with leukemia. I wonder what he thinks of having done all this spiritual work now. I suppose all his fine affirmations and positive thinking, particularly under the "You Can Heal Your Life" banner, didn't do the trick. I actually hope that he is a wake up call for many who are involved in New Age woo. Of course, most likely not, because they have rhetoric and mumbo jumbo to safeguard against such occurrences.

 

[ExMinister]

Yes, he has changed his tune a little since the leukemia diagnosis, it seems.

I remember him saying things like, "I don't do Alzheimers. Alzheimers isn't part of my consciousness so I won't get Alzheimers."

Instead of saying, "I don't do leukemia," he's saying, "I am going to accept it and not fight it to give my body the best chance of healing." It has a nice sound to it, except that it is very benign compared to what he's said before.

 

[ferd burfle]

I first learned of him when his book "Your Erroneous Zones" came out. I didn't read it because it seemed like just the latest pop psychology offering as well as using a cheap marketing ploy that sought to captialize on the popularity of the contemporary book titled "Your Erogenous Zones".

I know him now mostly from his appearances on US public TV broadcasing (PBS) fundraisers. What I see is that he is constantly repackaging himself to promote, I assume, his latest book. One time, he's dressed conventionally, spewing quantum pseudoscience similar to that of Deepak Chopra. The next time he's barefoot and dressed in black cotton, spewing the same platitudes but couching them in Buddhist buzzwords. They always include shots of his auditorium audience members, nodding in agreement at his banalities or gazing at him in slack-jawed adoration.

I see him as a mostly harmless self-promoter except when he ventures into medicine and science.

ferd

 

[RenaissanceBiker]

You start a conversation you can't even finish.
You're talking a lot but you're not saying anything.

That pretty much sums it up.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

http://bolstablog.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/dyer-interview/

My 2002 Interview with Wayne Dyer
By Phil Bolsta

DYER: Well, when you walk into the presence of people who calibrate at the very highest energy levels, just being in their energy field, everything that is diseased or in disharmony is healed. When you bring a higher and a more loving energy to the presence of disorder or disharmony or disease, you are really bringing a healing energy. And that’s what healing is involved with: it’s no longer allowing yourself to wallow around in a process in which you tell yourself that you don’t have the capacity to be able to transcend whatever it is that’s bothering you or hurting you or killing you. And that you take total responsibility for what you have without any guilt, whether it’s cancer or arthritis or whatever it might be. You can say, ‘I take responsibility for it and I’m going to bring as much higher energy to it as I possibly can; I’m going to dissociate myself from identifying myself as this body that might have some things going on that are incompatible with perfect health.’ And as you detach from it and get outside of it, you have much more of an opportunity to bring love to it and divine energy and even miracles. And miracles can occur when you are in that state of detachment.

I could say something nasty but I can't bring myself to do it.

 

[ExMinister]

It makes me wonder how many cancer patients died feeling guilty for not having raised their energy high enough to transcend their disease.

Dyer has leukemia now himself, and that's very sad. But he also got very rich saying things like the above, however well intentioned he might have been.

 

[Emet]

Yes, he has changed his tune a little since the leukemia diagnosis, it seems.

I remember him saying things like, "I don't do Alzheimers. Alzheimers isn't part of my consciousness so I won't get Alzheimers."

Instead of saying, "I don't do leukemia," he's saying, "I am going to accept it and not fight it to give my body the best chance of healing." It has a nice sound to it, except that it is very benign compared to what he's said before.

Everyone knows he was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, yes?

link 1

link 2

CLL Treatment

Watch and Wait
Drug Treatment
Supportive Care

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Everyone knows he was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, yes?

link 1

link 2

And then you die in 5 years or 25 years depending on the type you have.

 

[kyra1985]

I heard Dr. Christiane Northrup interviewing him after his diagnosis, talking about how the more enlightened you are, the more likely you are to get the really really bad diseases (paraphrasing, of course). That's the kind of mentality that gets passed around circles like these to justify disease in top gurus. Jane Roberts (Seth Materials) died of an auto-immune disease, Mary Baker Eddy (founder of Christian Science) had a major kidney stone problem, Lynn Grabhorn (author of Excuse Me Your Life is Waiting) killed herself, Helen Schucman (of A Course in Miracles) lived in a psychotic depression for the two years before her death. All sorts of interesting stories have been concocted about them to justify these peculiarities. For instance, Mary Baker Eddy blamed her problems on her enemies "mentally" attacking her. Seth followers acknowledge childhood beliefs that Roberts didn't clean up that led to her ultimate demise.

No matter what happens to gurus, there is always a mystical explanation that will let them off the hook.

 

[Newbeak]

Dyer and flakes of his ilk, really annoy me,especially when PBS dotes on types like him,instead of airing REALLY worthwhile programming.Or have they just run out of quality material?

 

[Macgyver1968]

Dyer and flakes of his ilk, really annoy me,especially when PBS dotes on types like him,instead of airing REALLY worthwhile programming.Or have they just run out of quality material?

I'm with you on PBS. Seems like every time they go into pledge drive mode...they play the hell out of his self-help BS. I haven't watch much of it, but he uses alot of words to say a whole lot of nuthin'. Give me Nova, American Experience, and Antiques Roadshow instead.

 

[Newbeak]

Yes,Nova is my idea of quality programming.The problem is,there are a finite number of shows like that.What do you do when you have seen them all?

 

[pakeha]

It seems the good doctor has been healed of his leukemia by John of God.
http://spiritube.com/wayne-dyer/leukemia-john-of-gods-healings-on-wayne-video_02d6fa6cf.html
http://www.sugarshockblog.com/2012/...john-of-god-healing-and-wishes-fulfilled.html
http://www.skepdic.com/johnofgod.html

 

[Newbeak]

It seems the good doctor has been healed of his leukemia by John of God.
http://spiritube.com/wayne-dyer/leukemia-john-of-gods-healings-on-wayne-video_02d6fa6cf.html
http://www.sugarshockblog.com/2012/...john-of-god-healing-and-wishes-fulfilled.html
http://www.skepdic.com/johnofgod.html

Randi's view of John of God sums it up completely.I will keep an eye out for CNN announcing the passing of Dyer. The faith healing woo brings to mind a sad story I heard a few years ago.A woman working in my company,very nice person,was diagnosed with ovarian cancer,and rather than taking conventional treatment,opted for alternative medical treatment.She subsequently died from the cancer.

 

[hopkinsworld]

Most of the self-help gurus use tricks that depends upon the scientific illiteracy of their audience.

Richard Wiseman has done an excellent job of debunking the self-help industry in his book 59 seconds.

http://www.amazon.com/59-Seconds-Little-Change-Borzoi/dp/0307273407

 

[Newbeak]

Thanks for the link.My library has it,and nobody is ahead of me in the request queue.

 

[Bluto]

What is with PBS and their fascination with woo-peddlers of any stripe?

Andrew Weil, the guy who advised eating no fat of any kind (I've forgotten his name), Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, and the list goes on.

How can they have some of the greatest shows (Nova, Frontline, The American Experience, N.D.G. Tyson's show (National Geographic something or other) and then balance it out with Dr. Feelgood's Medicine Show? Oh, and don't get me started on the English sitcoms (as if speaking with an accent somehow elevates the material - hint: It doesn't).

I think it's all a moot point anyway, as our local affiliates are broadcasting "Alone in the Wilderness" on a continuous loop now it seems...

 

[hopkinsworld]

Why is Deepak chopra cited by people in hundreds ?

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=deepak+chopra&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5

 

[Newbeak]

What is with PBS and their fascination with woo-peddlers of any stripe?

Andrew Weil, the guy who advised eating no fat of any kind (I've forgotten his name), Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, and the list goes on.

How can they have some of the greatest shows (Nova, Frontline, The American Experience, N.D.G. Tyson's show (National Geographic something or other) and then balance it out with Dr. Feelgood's Medicine Show? Oh, and don't get me started on the English sitcoms (as if speaking with an accent somehow elevates the material - hint: It doesn't).

I think it's all a moot point anyway, as our local affiliates are broadcasting "Alone in the Wilderness" on a continuous loop now it seems...

Are you thinking of low fat guy Dean Ornish? He has published articles in JAMA and The Lancet to back up claims of slowing and even reversing coronary disease,so he is legit.
Another one of the self-help guys who used to get a lot of exposure on PBS was Anthony Robbins,god,that guy really bugged me.
My theory,and correct me if I am wrong, is they have excellent nature/science shows and then populate the rest of their time slots with self help types because as a public tv broadcaster,they are big on political correctness,which is partly about pumping up everybody's "self-esteem",which in turn seems to go hand in glove with self help "experts",who are more than willing to get plenty of free publicity on PBS.
I don't follow sitcoms,at least not since Married With Children was on.Maybe PBS gets a special rate on Brit sitcoms.I have watched the odd episode of Faulty Towers,which isn't half bad.