…and this is a 
I got email just now from Evolutionary Leaders. The source sounds promising on the surface, so I opened it. Big mistake. Bad for my blood pressure.
Are you tired of sitting around while our environment is being destroyed?
Yes! Yes, I am!
Do you feel helpless, angry or powerless to make a difference as you watch millions of gallons of oil pouring into the Gulf every day with no end in sight and thousands losing their lives and their livelihoods?
Yes!
Join The Gulf Call to Sacred Action!
Yes! Wait…"sacred" action? Huh?
The Evolutionary Leaders: In Service to Conscious Evolution have joined together to be a loud and important voice for all who feel powerless.
The People Need You ~ The Gulf Needs You
And then there's some fol-de-rol about working via telephone and internet with tens of thousands taking action and making a "powerful impact for the good of humanity" without any of explanation about what will be done. Until we get to the meat of the story.
We begin by setting our collective intention. Join Deepak Chopra to set our powerful vision and participate in a worldwide Intention Experiment with renowned author and scientist Lynne McTaggart. Explore how our collective intention, our voice and our commitment can impact the cleanup of the oil spill. And then we will be graced by Jean Houston who will share with us why this time matters and why we matter.
Jebus. Deepak Chopra. They're going to get a bunch of people to sit around and wish the problem away. These people are Newage dead weight.
Our collective prayers and thoughts have the power to cause a profound shift on the planet. Pray with some of the most powerful spiritual thought leaders -- Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith, Joan Borysenko, James O'Dea and more. Together we discover that we have the power to change the world.
Prayer will never, ever change the world. Prayer is an excuse to lie about doing nothing and pretend you are making a difference.
Open up and connect to the deeper heart of our planet where we hear our individual and collective call to action. Together with sacred activists Barbara Marx Hubbard, Gregg Braden, and Andrew Harvey, we will take back our power and move into powerful action that will forever change our lives and the lives of generations to come.
Demented fuckwits, every one. You know, none of these cretins are fundamentalists, they probably smile a lot, and what they all propose is absolutely harmless, in the sense that it doesn't do anything, anything at all…but they are the killers, the mind-rot, the lazy brained lotus eaters who will watch civilization crumble away while chanting that we're becoming closer and closer to Mother Nature. I'm less worried about the ranting theocrats and openly anti-science thugs than I am these numbing, mindless, happy-talking liars who lead the gullible down an easy, cheerful path to destruction. At least the fundie kooks do their best to make their way look really hateful and hideous.
Get in the feckin' sack, Newage know-nothings.
There. Dara O'Briain always makes me feel a little better.
Comments
Posted by: zach314159
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June 23, 2010 9:45 PM
At least It isn't worse than nothing. It is nothing.
Posted by: Caine, ghetto féministe
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June 23, 2010 9:46 PM
Evolution is conscious? It has a brain? Where does this fantastical critter dwell?
The planet has a heart? Where? Does it have a brain and consciousness too?
What absolute twittage.
Posted by: Givesgoodemail
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June 23, 2010 9:51 PM
Don't you just love it when religionists/newageslackwits try to influence the world by sheer will?
Or is it sheer won't?
Posted by: Kirk
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June 23, 2010 9:51 PM
I have intentions all the time.
Probably other people do too.
Probably a good thing to have intentions. Otherwise, what would you do? Just sit on your ass?
This has to work out for the common good, or maybe the specific good.
Deepak is right on the money.
Posted by: monado
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June 23, 2010 9:54 PM
"Newage"—rhymes with "sewage"?
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, OM
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June 23, 2010 9:54 PM
But...but...but...Deepak uses quantum something or other. He's totally into sciency shit and stuff like that. You should be thanking Dr. Choptra for taking time from his busy schedule to fix a minor problem like the Gulf oil spill. He's, like, WOW!
Posted by: Glen Davidson
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June 23, 2010 9:55 PM
Tell them that my crystal quantum benevolent thoughts are headed their way.
Although, if they were what they claimed, they'd know that already.
Glen Davidson
Posted by: AJ Milne OM
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June 23, 2010 9:58 PM
Ah, Chopra. What a waste of perfectly good heavy elements...
I mean, when ya reflect that it takes a good-sized star to get together much of the stuff he's made of... and then it winds up in the bones and tissues of such a useless sack of rotten meat as that shameless huckster...
Well, it does make one thing clear: contrary to at least one bit of new-agey woo, the universe sure as hell ain't conscious.
(/Either that, I guess, or it has a sense of humour best characterized as obscene.)
Posted by: mistereveready
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June 23, 2010 10:02 PM
birth control is also a form of quality control. the parents of those who did that email would be wise to start doing recalls.
dara obriaian is hella funny. he has a very odd take on evolution
Posted by: Mattir-ritated
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June 23, 2010 10:02 PM
I know a lot of such folks and yes, they drive me up a freaking tree. The only good news is that they aren't aggressively harmful - they usually don't drive SUVs, try to redo the Texas educational standards, or announce that it's a good thing to use up all the natural resources and kill the endangered species because Jebus will be back soon. And sometimes they do good volunteer work.
But yes, especially in Deepak's case, a waste of a star. At least the elements will get to be in something else at some point...
Posted by: Zeno
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June 23, 2010 10:11 PM
I have a modest suggestion: These highly motivated intentional prayer people should vow to remain in sequestered prayer until the Gulf is fully restored to a completely pristine condition. Even if their prayers fail to restore the Gulf (no surprise there), we still benefit from the reduced intellectual pollution of their New Age drivel.
Posted by: grudgedk
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June 23, 2010 10:13 PM
Eureka! We can stop the Deepwater Horizon incident, if we simply plug the hole with Deepak Chopra's massive ego!
No need to thank me, all in a days work...
Posted by: Marella
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June 23, 2010 10:18 PM
Interesting that 'evolutionary' is a word they wish to be associated with, I wouldn't have expected that. Quantum yes, evolutionary no.
Posted by: McCthulhu is taking ∞ to eat all the pi
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June 23, 2010 10:18 PM
PZ: Are you sure this is legit and not just someone yankin' yer chain? It's sounds so over-the-top stupid and with Pharyngula's favorite whipping boy, Kneeslap Cokehead, or wha'ever his name is.
Posted by: Insightful Ape
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June 23, 2010 10:19 PM
So, is that why there was the accident today at the site of the leak, which lead to malfunction of the containment cap, making the spill much worse?
Press on it, guys. You haven't been praying hard enough.
Posted by: Wild Turkey
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June 23, 2010 10:21 PM
We wished ourselves into the crisis in the gulf and now we're trying to wish our way out.
http://coyotesings.wordpress.com/
Posted by: csreid
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June 23, 2010 10:21 PM
It's been a long day, and I read that as "to cause profound shit."
I like mine better.
Posted by: Lynn Wilhelm
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June 23, 2010 10:26 PM
Was that email from Barbara Marx Hubbard?
I used to be on a mailing list from her crazy group, The Foundation for Conscious Evolution.
For a long time I wondered why I didn't get her woo. I never get that namby pamby spiritual crap, never did. I used to think there was something wrong with me. I didn't fit in with the religious, or the apparently less religious "spiritual" types.
They always make you feel as if there is something wrong with you if you don't "get it". Keep hanging in there and eventually you'll get it. Oh, and send us some money while you wait for the woo to kick in.
I eventually unsubscribed to those emails, never sent them money.
Posted by: Cerberus, unnatural product of en-OMnomnom-ification
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June 23, 2010 10:26 PM
He's using the horrific problem in the Gulf Coast to get people ordinarily into direct action to stop what they are doing so they can attend an online seminar where they can be sold a bunch of useless books and further seminars on how not to do anything and feel smug about it?
Fuck him.
No seriously, fuck that con artist conscienceless sheep rapist. I wouldn't mind as much if he was organizing a massive clean-up that also happened to pimp his books or if he was trying to organize people to donate money, but this?
Hey kids, drop what you are doing to hear us babble and slip in our sales pitches at the same time so you can feel like you've made a fucking contribution other than sitting on your ass hating BP?
And that's before I even get into the whole "intentionalist" movement. It's just as toxic as the fundie "stay with your abusive husband" shit because it also completely robs you of power and also tells you you are fucking destroying the planet if you ever think bad thoughts about whoever abused you or raped you.
Fuck Deepak Chopra.
Posted by: recovering catholic
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June 23, 2010 10:28 PM
Newage sewage
Posted by: McCthulhu is taking ∞ to eat all the pi
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June 23, 2010 10:36 PM
Best part of Dara's stand-up routine, 'Well science knows it doesn't know everything, otherwise it would STOP!'
...and "Get in the feckin' sack!" should be the the new official Pharyngula tagline, right under the PHARYNGULA logo.
Posted by: shorter
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June 23, 2010 10:48 PM
Simpsons Dr. Nick
There's a crazy man in ER with a scalpel, he's demanding to see a quack!
Posted by: scribe999
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June 23, 2010 11:02 PM
Anyone know why Lynne Mactaggart gets to be called a "scientist" in this? Some slackjawed new ager on HuffPo said the same thing about her, and I can't seem to find any evidence to support this claim on the Intertubes.
Posted by: Zoot Capri
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June 23, 2010 11:05 PM
I never could understand what "spirituality" really was. I saw that Deepak guy on tv and he was saying all this stuff and I did not understand one thing he said. I understood his words, they just made absolutely no sense at all. Maybe no one understands him, but people are too embarrassed to raise their hand and say "Uh, Deepak, what the hell are you talking about anyway?" Maybe those people want to be "in the in group" the "spiritual" group. So maybe they just PRETEND to understand all that new age crap. It is like the emperors new clothes. I want to watch them all think/pray what ever they do REALLY HARD and see if it does SHIT for the catastrophe in the gulf. I hope they have a bunch of tv reporters to report on this hoax. And when all this wishful thinking does nothing, I hope they laugh that Deepak guy back into the hole he crawled out of.
Posted by: Ian
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June 23, 2010 11:17 PM
Unfortunately, Zoot, it rarely works out that way. It tends to be more like this:
CHOPRA: Let's pray, guys!
1) Something happens immediately
CHOPRA: Proof that wishes work!
2) Nothing happens immediately, but happens later
CHOPRA: Proof that wishes work!
3) Nothing happens, or things get worse
CHOPRA: You guys weren't praying hard enough!
Posted by: Steven Dunlap
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June 23, 2010 11:28 PM
The comments in YouTube for this video are good too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIaV8swc-fo
One that I'm going to use first chance I get:
Posted by: MolBio
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June 23, 2010 11:43 PM
The Deepak Chopra method:
Step 1: Hope it gets better.
Step 2: Wish it gets better.
Step 3: See if it gets better.
Step 4: Pretend it got better.
Step 5: Use delusion of step 4 to affirm validity of all previous steps.
Step 6: Buy the book...
Posted by: bcstractor
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June 23, 2010 11:56 PM
So why not go to the site and add some helpful comments.
Like "Get off your butt and do something"
Posted by: bandtheory000
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June 24, 2010 12:10 AM
Its getting worse. They have "peer-reviewed journal."
http://www.explorejournal.com/current
I can't believe they are listed on Elsevier. It is edited by quacks who write for HuffPo.
Posted by: Jonathan Figdor
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June 24, 2010 12:31 AM
I graduated from divinity school this year and even I have no idea who these schlubs are:
"Pray with some of the most powerful spiritual thought leaders -- Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith, Joan Borysenko, James O'Dea and more."
Posted by: DLC
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June 24, 2010 12:43 AM
hell with the sack. if Chopra and his gang of crooks and flim-flammers want to do something how about we toss em down the pipe and see if they manage to block the oil flow ?
At least then they'd be some actual use.
Posted by: https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnxfnEuPaHGLGqGpKo5Hq5kS53KE4UZhD8
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June 24, 2010 12:46 AM
"Prayer will never, ever change the world. Prayer is an excuse to lie about doing nothing and pretend you are making a difference."
PZ--you should put this in your own "random quotes" section.
Posted by: baryogenesis
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June 24, 2010 12:52 AM
Jean Houston. Well, I sort of understand where she was trying to come from, having gone thru years of newage stuff. But, crap she was embarrassing ...she was very lost in that debate with Harris and Shermer and Chopra. ( http://tinyurl.com/2b27l67 )
Anyway, including someone as an authority who seems to have taken way more acid than me is laughable.
Posted by: hznfrst
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June 24, 2010 12:53 AM
Can anyone explain the last joke from the video, "You look like 'noddy'"? It doesn't compute over here in the States.
Posted by: Usagichan
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June 24, 2010 12:53 AM
Jonathan @30
does this mean you're now a fully qualified Divinity? I have to say a more inspiring name might be in order - something ending in -oth or -us might have the requisite gravitas....and if you're in the Godding business, could you manage something a bit more constructive in the Gulf? (or was it a traditional smitin' and vengeance course? No practical benefits to be bestowed upon the mortals!)
Posted by: Shala
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June 24, 2010 12:58 AM
Join Deepak Chopra
My brain is full of fuck!
I really wasn't expecting his name to pop up suddenly like that. It's like opening a box just to find out you've been delivered bullshit, or finding out that the cake you're about to eat is actually a spy ready to backstab you.
Posted by: Weed Monkey
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June 24, 2010 1:07 AM
hznfrst #34, someone asked it on the 'tube comments, so here:
I sure didn't get it either.Posted by: baryogenesis
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June 24, 2010 1:14 AM
@34
Noddy was an Enid Blyton doll-like character in children's books beginning in the late forties. I read most of the series to my daughter in the 70's but had to scan them before buying. Some of the early ones unfortunately could be construed as a tad racist.
Posted by: Rey Fox, Bird Caller Guy
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June 24, 2010 1:20 AM
Are they going to try to levitate the Pentagon later?
Posted by: Rutee, Shrieking Harpy of Dooooom
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June 24, 2010 1:21 AM
Deepak Chopra got his medical training from video games. I may have considered figuring out my Shadow an interesting mental exercise while playing Persona 4, but that doesn't mean it exists as a discrete being that hates that I don't accept it.
Posted by: McCthulhu is taking ∞ to eat all the pi
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June 24, 2010 1:27 AM
#34: Noddy is back in animated form on the PBS Sprout channel for kids that I watch with my daughter. That's why I snorted root beer out my nose when he said that. Picturing this elf head sticking out the top of a little car and saying you look like that because your arse is way too big for the thing...it was the perfect allusion.
Posted by: Ichthyic
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June 24, 2010 1:29 AM
Pray with some of the most powerful spiritual thought leaders
If power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely...
what does imaginary power do?
Posted by: Ichthyic
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June 24, 2010 1:32 AM
I really wasn't expecting his name to pop up suddenly like that.
Yes, know your associations:
when you see the logo "Evolutionary Leaders", that is all Deepak fuckhead.
has been for a while now, IIRC.
Posted by: Ichthyic
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June 24, 2010 1:40 AM
btw, the Evolutionary Leaders company is these guys:
http://evolutionaryleaders.net/acalltoconsciousevolution/
Posted by: baryogenesis
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June 24, 2010 1:51 AM
Ok, I just wasted some time reading the comments over at Evolutionary Leaders. Crap, now I'm all sticky with brain syrup.
Posted by: jcmartz.myopenid.com
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June 24, 2010 2:17 AM
Of course Chopra's Quantum BS won't work. However, it's worth noting that these quacks/snake oil salesmen aren't the only ones trying to pray (wish) away the oil leak.
Posted by: Ichthyic
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June 24, 2010 2:27 AM
Crap, now I'm all sticky with brain syrup
you knew the job was dangerous when you took it.
Posted by: Weed Monkey
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June 24, 2010 2:47 AM
*hands out a thimble full of brain bleach and four pipe cleaners*Made the same mistake so sorry, that's all I've got left.
Posted by: Sioux Laris
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June 24, 2010 2:50 AM
"Slimebags"????
You're going way too easy on them.
Posted by: mikee
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June 24, 2010 2:50 AM
I thought fasting often helped with prayer. Perhaps Deepak's and his group of new agers could fast until the oil stops flowing :-)
Posted by: KingUber
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June 24, 2010 2:55 AM
This will only work if they get Haruhi to join them
Posted by: Alice Bluegown
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June 24, 2010 3:17 AM
KingUber @ #51 - great reference! I love that show!
Posted by: ConcernedJoe
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June 24, 2010 5:28 AM
In atheist's time of need:
Casual Acquaintance "I'll pray for you"
Atheist Inner Thought "Sweet of you to think of me - BUT I really need ________." (fill in blank - e.g. `a good paying job`, or a `doctor that has found the cure`, or `someone to mow my lawn while I golf`)
Regular Relative or Friend "I'll pray for you and put you on my church's prayer list; call me if you need something."
Atheist Inner Thought "I'll probably need help wiping my ass a bit later but I'm sure you'll be ________." (e.g., `too busy doing something important like praying to help me`)
Close and Valued Relative or Friend "I'll pray for you and put you on my church's prayer list; now here's what I will do to help - you are not alone - ______." (e.g., `call my friend - here is his number - he needs someone and I told him all about you`, or `we're going to that doctor together - he's got to take you more seriously`, or `I'll send Johnny over to take care of the yard - don't worry`)
Atheist EXPOSED Thought "Thaaaannnnk you Jesus!!"
Posted by: elzoog
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June 24, 2010 5:45 AM
This would be a good scam. Ask people to send you $15 and you will have the big names (Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra, etc.) pray for the oil spill to go away. Of the money you get, send 10% to the big names with a letter asking them to pray and keep the 90% yourself.
Posted by: Moggie
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June 24, 2010 5:56 AM
Ok, prayer hasn't worked throughout history, but every bad gambler knows that the longer the losing streak, the more likely it'll end on the next hand. They'll win big this time, just you watch!
Posted by: Weed Monkey
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June 24, 2010 6:00 AM
I like the way you think... "What would Deepak do!"Posted by: Andrew Hall
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June 24, 2010 6:19 AM
If Deepak is so volunteery he should be on the beaches cleaning up.
http://laughinginpurgatory.blogspot.com/
Posted by: christophe-thill.myopenid.com
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June 24, 2010 6:37 AM
Chopra is well known, but Lynn Mc Taggart is a rather good nutcase too. Intention, curing your diseases through wishful thinking, Masaru Emoto, etc. That kind of stuff.
Posted by: vanharris
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June 24, 2010 7:10 AM
WTF? Someone please tell me that the Harvard Medical School is a feckin' bible college & is not associated with Harvard University. No, no, nooooooooooo. How can this happen? Okay, i guess mental illness can strike anyone.
Posted by: neon-elf.myopenid.com
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June 24, 2010 7:35 AM
Preach it, brother!
They are the really dangerous ones because they don't look dangerous, and attract the gullible like flies. And they inevitably become fascists in the long run once they gain enough of a following.
I'm always reminded of the novel Fallen Angels by Michael Flynn, Larry Niven, and Jerry Pournelle, where the fascist green government, dedicated to saving the environment from the evils of technology, has screwed everything up and precipitated a new Ice Age.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp
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June 24, 2010 7:59 AM
Turns you into Deepak
Posted by: heff.myopenid.com
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June 24, 2010 8:14 AM
Nothing.
Posted by: Cannabinaceae
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June 24, 2010 8:18 AM
I would say that power attracts the corruptible, absolute power attracts the absolutely corruptible.
In that vein, I am trying (unsuccessfully) to come up with a word relating to imagination the way abominable relates to abomination, to sort of convey corrupted imagination. Perhaps something will hit me on my coffee walk, but after that I really need to apply myself to work related tasks.
Posted by: heff.myopenid.com
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June 24, 2010 8:21 AM
I have very few intentions. I used to have more, but I paved a road (three souls wide) 82% of the way to Hell, when I realized that I was going to run out.
Posted by: Gregory Greenwood
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June 24, 2010 9:07 AM
Dara O'Brian has already come up with the perfect terminology for a circumstance such as this.
Bearing that in mind...
Deepak Chopra; get in the fekkin' sack!
I wonder if his 'spirtual power' would help him fend of the effects of good 'ole physics when we start whacking the aforementioned sack with sticks...
Actually, I have a better idea. Lets compress a bunch of these newage-y types along with the fundies who want to pray the oil away (presumeably along with praying teh ghey away) into a tight wad of delusion, and fire the lot of them into the ruptured pipe. Shredded tyres were not up to the job, but they did not have any 'spiritual power' on their side, now did they?
It probably wouldn't stop the leak (unless raw, undiluted ego repels crude oil), but it would still amount to cleaning up pollution, albeit of a different kind...
Posted by: Moira Manion
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June 24, 2010 9:11 AM
Oh, Jean Houston is going to explain why "this time matters." Hope she explains why it's all never worked before. I imagine it'll be along the line of "People didn't believe hard enough."
Maybe they weren't sincere enough. Makes me think of Linus and the Great Pumpkin. http://justshutupandtrain.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/11/24/linus_great_pumpkin_2.jpg
During the civil rights period of the 50s and 60s, religious people sat at lunch counters, were attacked by bigots, water hoses, and police dogs. They prayed for their cause, but they worked, bled, and died for it, too. I can't picture "spiritual" Deepak putting on so much as a pair of Wellies and wading out with a bucket for this cause.
Posted by: Gregory Greenwood
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June 24, 2010 9:17 AM
I suppose that this plan is not fair. We should give Chopra and his ilk a fighting chance.... Hmmm, what to do, what to do...
Eureka!* Let's arm them with homeopathic firearms!
You take a gun and some ammunition. You shave off a tiny fraction of each and dilute same with several gallons of water. You then take one drop of that water and dilute it again. You repeat this process, say, fifty times.
Once completed, you carefully hand Chopra and his followers the Worlds Deadliest Water Balloons(TM).
Thus armed, they are surely safe from the machinations of we evil atheists.
No one can say that we did not try to level the playing field...
*Imagine a lightbulb coming on above my head here.
Posted by: Shala
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June 24, 2010 9:27 AM
I may have considered figuring out my Shadow an interesting mental exercise while playing Persona 4, but that doesn't mean it exists as a discrete being that hates that I don't accept it.
Don't worry, I think Deepak's shadow would look pretty similar to Mitsuo's anyway...
I wonder if mine would be like Kanji's. It makes me feel fabulous just thinking about it!
Posted by: Alice Bluegown
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June 24, 2010 10:00 AM
Does anyone know what ConcernedJoe @ #53 is going on about? It looks to me like a word puzzle gone badly wrong (nice Kurt Warner quote at the end, though)
Posted by: Lissamphibia
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June 24, 2010 10:05 AM
My environmental activist friends invited me to a similar "Interfaith Healing Service for the Gulf of Mexico" -- and even though I feel like they have better intentions than Palin's evangelical prayer vigils, I felt obliged to post this on the Facebook wall of the event:
And then I linked to one of the previous Pharyngula posts on gulf prayer vigils.
Posted by: Rorschach
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June 24, 2010 10:42 AM
It's been tried before.Nothing shifted.
Exactly.The feel-good mother nature types are more acceptable for many people because they are so "nice", when instead they produce the same brain-numbing nonsense.
Posted by: ConcernedJoe
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June 24, 2010 11:04 AM
Alice #69
Hey - I never said I was a certified comedian -- I have a day job even though semi-retired and I won't give it up - alright already!!
#53 example of inner thoughts when someone says "I'll pray for you.." in times of need - running the gamut of types - with a hat tip to those that actually do something and who can be valued.
I amuse myself perhaps sometimes - but what the hay - I am otherwise harmless.
Posted by: Poor Wandering One
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June 24, 2010 11:04 AM
Wait... Wasn't it PB/Deepwater/Haliburton trying to "Open up and connect to the deeper heart of our planet" that caused the mess?
Or have I just been sniffing the gulf again.
~will
Posted by: Ing: PhD Trollologist
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June 24, 2010 11:08 AM
Hey why don't we all think really hard and pray that Darth Choopka's head turns into a giant beetle?
Posted by: https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmqD_mcUIrSfOTlK3iGVsnEDcZmI43srbI
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June 24, 2010 11:15 AM
A "profound shift on the planet"?
Is he talking about Boobquake?
Posted by: Erulóra (formerly KOPD)
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June 24, 2010 11:35 AM
PZ,
Thanks for the video. That rocked.
Posted by: Sastra
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June 24, 2010 12:14 PM
Rorschach #71 wrote:
New Agers don't get this; they can't understand why anyone would criticize the methods, if the heart is in the right place. It's fine to criticize Pat Robertson for saying that a hurricane was caused by God being angry over gay marriage. But why would even an atheist criticize a spiritual leader for saying that a hurricane was caused by the Spirit of the Earth being angry over Pat Robertson? Don't you like the basic message?
I suspect this is how they pick and choose their own beliefs, and their own epistemology. Which one arrives at "nicer" outcomes? The ends, justifies the means.
By the way, it's not in the least surprising that New Agers co-opt evolution as their own. Look at the term itself, "new age." They believe that life is involved in a spiritual progression -- an evolution -- through various stages and, as the result of a small but significant number of people growing in inner wisdom, we are about to enter a "new age" of enlightenment, a new stage in the development of the collective human soul.
They think that's like biological evolution, or the same thing as biological evolution. As they see it, not only do they support evolution as much as the scientists do -- they support it totally, because they understand its spiritual dimension in a way the materialistic reductionist scientists do not.
Posted by: Ing: PhD Trollologist
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June 24, 2010 12:55 PM
"They think that's like biological evolution, or the same thing as biological evolution. As they see it, not only do they support evolution as much as the scientists do -- they support it totally, because they understand its spiritual dimension in a way the materialistic reductionist scientists do not."
Except in doing so they reduce their understanding to that of a bad Trek writer.
Posted by: MrFire
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June 24, 2010 1:32 PM
So...is this, like, their biggest undertaking so far?
Why haven't they been spending every minute of every day up to this point cross-legged, squinting real hard, and astral-projecting their best intentions into solving poverty, disease, war, and oppression?
Imagine all the oil his books could soak up!
Incidentally, a Deepak Chopra book materialized this week on a shelf near my work area, and nobody knows how it got there. Spooky.
Posted by: https://me.yahoo.com/a/K2PNji0at.txAjzTShOlxwLuFcVVFwbnng--#bd813
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June 24, 2010 2:03 PM
Even as a nominal pagan, I really can't see how this could work. If it did, we could think away excess CO2, other pollution, and maybe 'think' a space ship to Mars with out those expensive, noisy rockets.
Posted by: https://me.yahoo.com/a/O.jullMj0I2VvJaxMMVeNKSfOPf73voLSxJAe9PdlOWwi8Y-#258ec
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June 24, 2010 2:05 PM
If power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely...
what does imaginary power do?
Hope to be corrupted?
uncle frogy
Posted by: Alice Bluegown
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June 24, 2010 2:32 PM
ConcernedJoe @ 72 - fair enough: possibly a sense of humour failure on my part (rather a shitty day at work), although I still can't imagine any scenario in which I would invoke the Kurt Warner cliche, even subconsciously (seriously, you have some annoying godbot athletes in the US, but he's damn near the top of that partcilularly unpleasant tree)
Posted by: Alice Bluegown
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June 24, 2010 2:34 PM
~ particularly ~ (dammit!)
Posted by: https://me.yahoo.com/a/KI9.4t8P0eWdP3v7Axw3LdtrXw--#48285
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June 24, 2010 6:06 PM
aka No Gurus,
No comments yet on the moral aspect, so please allow me to shred the notion that they are doing something "good" and well "intentioned." What they are doing is profiting off of a disaster, by circling like vultures over a bleeeding carcass. Don't send money that would actually help the crisis, waste it on their chicanery. Don't volunteer to help, sit on your ass and do nothing. The whole idea of it is contemptible, morally and ethically. Just what the people of New Orleans need, more phony, empty promises.
Now, I can prove with a very simple example that what they say doesn't work. I want the reader to imagine that he/she is hungry and would like a sandwich. I want the reader to sit there and imagine with all their will, heart and mind that a sandwich will materialize in their hand as they sit there hour after hour after hour after hour imagining it. No work required. Nothing to eat either. Even a five year old child would not beleive this is possible, yet millions of people beleive this nonsense.
Now another example about thoughts being "real." Imagine your child is having a nightmare that a pirate is making him/her walk the plank. Now imagine a kindly parent coming into the room and telling the child "Your thoughts are real. There really is a pirate coming to kill you. Thoughts are real! Sweet dreams." Then the kindly parent kindly turns his/her back on the child and walks away. Even a five year old child would know this is not "good."
Yeah, these guys do a lot of "good" with their "intentions." Contemptible and terribly sad.
Posted by: hznfrst
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June 25, 2010 1:12 AM
Thanks to all who explained the Noddy reference!
Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline.
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June 25, 2010 9:19 AM
According to Randi, yes.Posted by: MarioneTTe
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June 25, 2010 2:04 PM
Actually, it is worse than nothing, because it is nothing while believing it is more than nothing.
At least for myself, a person who does nothing, but thinks they are doing something, is far worse than one who simply does nothing, period.
Posted by: Steven Mading
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June 25, 2010 3:46 PM
@ Sastra #77:
I agree with your post. In general the problem that both new-age fuzzy-headed people and conservative fundie fuzzy-headed people share in common is their inability to distinguish belief from desire. They mush the two together so that believing a thing to be true and wanting that thing to be true become the same mental process. At it's root. that's what faith is really all about. And this is why they often dishonestly mix up proponents of teaching evolution with proponents of eugenics. They can't comprehend that teaching a thing happened is different from endorsing that thing as an admirable thing to emulate. It would be as if they thought that if you don't like killing Jews, then you have to stop teaching that the Halocaust happened. This inability to distinguish observing X from endorsing X, for any X, is the core of their problem with reality.