You could do it, but why would you want to?

In a local paper, I saw an ad for these “I Can Do It®” seminars, the next one being this weekend in Las Vegas. (Don’t worry if you can’t go – there are several more, later in the year.) Anyway, these are truly conferences of supreme woo – just look at some of the speakers:

Terah Kathryn Collins – “an internationally recognized Feng Shui author, consultant, speaker, and teacher”. Regular readers will know what I think about Feng Shui.

Gregg Braden – “considered a leading authority on bridging the wisdom of our past with the science, medicine, and peace of our future”. Having read some of Braden’s work I can vouch that he is a leading authority on making stuff up and making it sound like science.

Sonia Choquette – “a world-renowned intuitive and spiritual teacher who specializes in helping others recognize that we are all endowed with a sixth sense that we can count on”. She no doubt counts on her sixth sense to make lecture fees. Apparently she holds a Ph.D. in metaphysics. You learn something new every day – I didn’t know you could get a Ph.D. in metaphysics. But then I haven’t learned to count on my sixth sense yet.

Gary R. Renard – “In 1992, a mysterious couple, claiming to be Ascended Masters, appeared from out of nowhere to Renard in his living room. Over the next decade, Renard had numerous conversations with these beings”. I’ll just bet he did. The question is: why would anyone be interested unless their job was treating schizophrenia?

Sylvia Browne - who really needs no introduction. According to the blurb, “(m)illions of people have witnessed Sylvia Browne’s incredible psychic powers on TV shows such as … Larry King Live”. Must have been a different LKL from the ones I saw. I only saw Browne’s lame demonstration of cold reading. I also saw her agree to be tested for James Randi’s million dollar prize, although she continues to avoid being tested. I’m sure this avoidance is not because she has no psychic powers. Oh no, that’s not the reason. No way.

If you think that lot is nuts, get a load of:

Doreen Virtue, Ph.D. – “a spiritual doctor of psychology and fourth-generation metaphysician who works with the angelic, elemental, and ascended master realms”. Yes, this woman holds seminars where you learn to talk to angels. I didn’t make that up. Oh, and did I mention, she has a PhD.? If I didn’t, she did. Every time her name is mentioned.

I count 19 speakers in all. All but a couple are in a similar vein.

Anyway, I got to wondering, does each of these nut jobs uncritically accept the claims of all the others, or do even these people have limits on the amounts of idiocy they will believe in? For example, Braden claims to be some kind of scientist. Does he secretly look down on the psychics and feng shui people as being unscientific? Do Gary Renard’s voices in his head (sorry, “Ascended Masters”) tell him the others are all frauds? Does Sylvia Browne know the others are as full of crap as she is? (Whatever else you think about her, she’s pretty smart – she must go to bed rolling her eyes just a little bit.) And does everyone get together in the bar before dinner to talk about the angels woman? (“I thought we were crazy until I heard Doreen Virtue. She thinks she can talk to angels!” …sounds of laughter.)

Just a thought.

Comments

[latibulum]

There is an easy way for these people to get money, so they wouldn't have to charge people. Just play the lotteries.

[Paul]

No, they all get together in the bar and talk about the sad sacks they are fleecing out of their hard earned paychecks.

[Tao]

From Wikipedia:
"Metaphysics (Greek words meta = after/beyond and physics = nature) is a branch of philosophy, and related to the natural sciences, like physics, psychology and the biology of the brain; and also to mysticism, religion, and other spiritual subjects. It is notoriously difficult to define, but for purposes of briefly introducing it, it can be identified as the study of any of the most fundamental concepts and beliefs about the basic nature of reality, on which many other concepts and beliefs rest&m". Google has more definitions. Several universities have courses in meta-physics so having a PhD in that isn't so surprising.

It is my guess that to the crowd that goes nuts over the stuff above, saying "metaphysics" sounds cool and happenin'. These people are just co-opting that field in order to sound credible. Just like saying that they are a psychologist.
Both are real fields of study, but of course what they are (most likely) talking about during the above seminar has absolutely nothing to do with either of them.

[Ray]

Sonia had a PhD from the American Insitute of Holistic Theology (http://www.aiht.edu/) of which she is one of the "faculty" . It appears you can get a bachelor's, masters and a doctorate degree in metaphysics--- for the tidy sum of $8700. Not bad by today's higher education standards. Looks like most of the faculty got their degree there as well.