The Self Development Scam?

I agreed wholeheartedly with your post and was in fact thinking about something very similar earlier this week. One of the criticisms of A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle was that he stated right off the bat "You may not be ready for this. You may not 'get' it and that's ok, your just not ready." which some took as a way of saving his own #@%$. In other words if you don't get it it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with his book. He's not wrong your just not ready. Anyone who disagreed with it was just not ready yet. No room for opposing view points or Devil's Advocate debates.

Personally I didn't take it that way at all. I benefited enormously from Eckhart's book. But in such a none tangible area of discussion, debate and yes, business (outside the sales figures, that is)proving ones work is legite and correct is near impossible. Gather too many followers and your another Warren Jess.

I guess it comes down to the sincerity and believability of those of us involved personally. Self awareness, self improvement and personal growth are just that - personal- and will be discovered and attained on individual time schedules. To promise any more would be fraud and misleadng and the last thing the industry needs is the percepetion of sharlitans.

With Peace and Awareness,
Nancy

Well put, John. I concur, one generally gets out in proportion to putting in, no free lunch, or wisdom. Gratuitous grace is just that.

That said, there do seem some jump-starts that can show a newbie what the terrain ahead may hold. These include psychedelics, biofeedback, ordeal initiations, near-death-experiences, among others. These are listed in my personal order of preference.

Integration of such revelations is essential to effective implementation.

I suspect that many old heads are just now putting the lessons of the sixties and seventies into functional format. I count myself in that tribe.

Your invocation of self-mastery is apt, I'm with ya there, but who is Self, who or what is Master(y)? I've come to be leery of canned cultural models, and find much utility in old-school Taoist thought:
the Big All I am part of defies description, but yields to participation. I can't "know" it, just "be" it.

I watch, and cultivate the Watcher.
Becoming intimate with the Watcher, patterns emerge.
Acting in harmony with such patterns, skill is developed.
Application of skillful means multiplies effects.
Enhanced effect size equates to abundant Chi.
Chi is Life-Force-In-Action.

Authentic self-development involves developing larger Self.