Oprah Winfrey, Spiritual Guru or Cult Leader?
I have to admit never having been a devotee of Oprah. However, at least 700,000 of you are. That’s how many logged onto the first class of a free 10-week online course offered by Oprah and her latest book club annointee, Eckhart Tolle.
The book is entitled A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purposes and is a hybrid of east-west philosophy. From where I sit, it sounds like New Age goobledigook — mankind’s attempt to save itself.
Apparently, the book is not light reading, which is the reason for the course — to help readers understand the book’s tenants.
Which brings me to the point of this post. Has Oprah gone from being talk show celebrity to some type of spiritual guru, or worse, a pop-culture cult leader? Yuck! Puts a bad taste in my mouth if so. I mean, wasn’t Dr. Phil bad enough?
I’d like to hear from those of you who’ve drank the Oprah Kool-aid. Maybe there’s more here than I’m willing to take time to see. Until then, however, I’m just fine sticking with Rick Warren’s popular tome, A Purpose-Driven Life. Or, maybe even something more widely read, the Bible.
Article Tags: A New Earth | Oprah book club | Oprah Winfrey
Filed under: Personal Opinions, Television Marketing
Tolle’s “teachings” are mind numbing to the extreme.
“…clearly they were wrong when they said St. Francis was preaching to the birds…” well, there’s a difference between preaching and teaching. Tolle’s implying that the chirp of a bird is enough to take you into “enlightenment”. For someone who reminds you of the ineffcacy of words to deliver the full import of his “message”…he certainly uses ALOT of them…again, and again, and again. And again, and again, again. I was sucked into his “teachings” and NOW I have realized just how unimportant they are. He wants you to negate your “story”, your ego, your past, your future. This trend is ALL too common in the “new spirituality”, and I find most of it dehumanizing.