Where Do You See Selfosophy?

[Bardo Thodol]

Of the various aspects of Selfosophy and its members satirized in the JCDDD episode, what have you yourself observed, experienced, or encountered in real life? Where do you see aspects of such behaviour and thinking in the world?

[Raven Wolf]

Well....Most people see Selfosophy as a jab at Scientology, and that was it's intention. However, I've always seen it more like a jab against new-age psychology. The "If you don't mind, it don't matter" philosophy.

What do you think about that?

[Bardo Thodol]

Interesting. I think you may be correct about the new-age psychology parody. However, I think Selfosophy was at least partly a direct parody of Scientology.

Could you be more specific about which parts of the episode where spoofing what aspects of new-age psychology?

[Guest alpha]

The Selfosophy thing reminded me of a Seinfeld episode where Kramer uses the phrase "Serenity now" whenever he was stressed. Of course by not getting angry all his emotions built up only to be released in a pyschotic fit at the end of the episode.

The point of both shows was that negative emotions must be expressed and not repressed. As one of the characters said "Serenity now, Insanity later!".

[Raven Wolf]

Oh, yeah...And there was this hilarious ep. of "Everybody Loves Raymond", where Robert joined some kind of self-help group where they all wore tropical shirts and it looked more like a cult!

And, as to examples in psychology...all this "If you don't mind, it don't matter", kind of pollianna crap. "Your thoughts create your universe... " Stuff like that.

[Viivi]

This came to mind when reading this thread.. A Finnish actress has been branching out from cinema and theater into lecturing on good health issues. There was an article on her in a magazine a couple of years ago, and as I was reading it I had one of those chilling moments in life when you can’t help wondering ”am I dreaming all this or is this really happening?”

I can’t remember her claims word for word but the fundamental idea was this:

Cancer has its origin in negative thinking. People would not get cancer if they were optimistic and had only good thoughts.

Isn’t that ingenious? :mabiuswoz'ere:

Just one thing that worries me, though.. What should we do with all the useless oncologists now?

Love,

dontbesodark

[Raven Wolf]

Well, oddly enough...there has been extensive scientific reasearch lately on the effect negative language has on water. You should see the movie (more like a documentary) "What the Bleep Do We Know". This is not some tooty-fruity new age theory. On there, you can see evidence, and interviews with some of the world's top scientists.

"Makes you wonder............If thoughts can do that to water, imagine what effect they might have on US."

I'll leave you with this.....

https://www.whatthebleep.com/

[hippyroo]

Most of the infomercials remind me of selfosophy. The rote repititions and false excitement of the plastic looking salesfolks or ex movie starts sound very much like those selling the selfosophy way of life.

The Sienfield epsisode is an excellent tie in. Bottled up steam has to escape.

[hippyroo]

Well, oddly enough...there has been extensive scientific reasearch lately on the effect negative language has on water.  You should see the movie (more like a documentary) "What the Bleep Do We Know".  This is not some tooty-fruity new age theory.  On there, you can see evidence, and interviews with some of the world's top scientists.

"Makes you wonder............If thoughts can do that to water, imagine what effect they might have on US."

I'll leave you with this.....

https://www.whatthebleep.com/

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Raven I don't want to offend you, but don't take everything you see or read at face value?

from Wikapedia

"Critics have voiced concerns that the film selectively presents favorable information while ignoring contradictory information and misrepresents the current consensus understanding on the underlying science, all with the aim of furthering a particular viewpoint which can be variously described as spiritual, mystical or "New Age-y."

There are allegations of extensive connections of the filmmakers and some of the cast to the Ramtha organization. Three of the film's directors are students of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, a school named for an alleged 35,000 year old spirit which JZ Knight (prominently featured in the film) claims to channel."

another quote

"For example, the following is from film critic Roger Ebert’s October 2004 Answer Man column:

“Q. While the film What the #$*! Do We Know!? parades itself as a tell-all about quantum physics, it turns out that it’s actually a 111-minute infomercial for ... that’s right, the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. In fact, the three filmmakers, [William] Arntz, [betsy] Chasse and [Mark] Vicente, are all devotees of Ramtha.

“There’s little to no accurate science in the film, and, as a physicist pointed out recently in your Answer Man column, the individuals who are quoted are pretty far from qualified experts on the field of quantum mechanics. Case in point: One of the persons expounding on causality and quantum physics (Dispenza) is a chiropractor. The film’s sole purpose appears to be to promote the ideology of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. A quick browse through their Web site will clearly demonstrate that the film’s pseudoscientific nonsense comes straight from the teachings of the RSE

I agree with the premise that there is much more to the universe than what meets the eye, but I am weary of many groups and con-men (women) like JZ Knight.

[Viivi]

In addition to what I wrote here earlier.. The thing that actually bugs me about the ”negative thinking causes cancer” idea is the underlying guilt assumption - as if many cancer patients didn’t feel guilty enough for possibly gotten sick because of their way of life; smoking, eating fatty food and so on. Should they feel guilty for thinking ”bad thoughts” as well?

Raven Wolf, since I haven’t seen the documentary you mentioned I can’t really say anything about it. Nevertheless, I respect your right to your opinions. And I don’t want to offend anyone by mine, I might add.

Love,

dontbesodark