Saturday, February 23, 2008

Good News Everybody!

I've just learned that Ogre Winfrey & Friends have started a year-long coarse on XM Radio about miracles and the New Age Christ.

Oh, lordy, what fun!!

"The Oprah" will feature Marianne Williamson's A Coarse On Miracles, which Williamson describes as a "contemporary expression of New Thought" as well as a " self-study program of spiritual psychotherapy." And, by the way, the term new age bears a slightly derogatory connotation, so 'they' have switched to the hipper and more concise term "New Thought."






These are a few of the daily lessons featured on Oprah & Friends since the incipient broadcast:

January 1, 2008 Broadcast:
This table does not mean anything.
This chair does not mean anything.
This hand does not mean anything.
This foot does not mean anything.
This pen does not mean anything


January 3, 2208 Broadcast:

Quote of the Day:
"We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past, but by the love we're not extending in the present."

January 5, 2008 Broadcast:
My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.

January 22, 2008 Broadcast:
What I see is a form of vengeance.

January 26, 2208 Broadcast:
My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability.

February 5, 2008 Broadcast:
My holiness envelops everything I see.

February 15, 2008 Broadcast:
God is the Love with which I love myself.
God is the Love in which I am blessed.

Ahhhh...isn't that soothing? Can you hear chimes ringing from afar? What about water running through a brook or the smell of incense smothering the air? Only thing missing from these lessons is Yanni.





Now, there is one individual whose advice and spiritual direction I fervently adhere to. That, my friends, is Stuart Smalley. His pleasant and gentle demeanor is so disarming I think he could single handedly get all the warring factions in Iraq to lay down their arms and start asking, "What's really making me mad?" His lisp - which I wish I could speak with - destroys every pre-conceived notion of what masculinity is about, as well as any societal expectations of how a man should carry himself.




Oh Stu, if only the world would listen to your wisdom.

19 comments:

Catherine said...

Ahhhh.....

Rita said...

Dear Tom,
Is this Oprah thing real or some sort of American irony us Britishers don't get? There was only your playlist preventing me slipping into insanity as I read it...

Tom in Vegas said...

My Dear Rita-

I afraid this is true. Visit Oprah at her website and you can see all the gory lessons, including the excerpts that I've quoted, for yourself.

Thank you for your comments about the playlist. I have most of these pieces on my iPod and I had Arvo Part’s Agnus Dei from his Berliner Mass on repeat. The beginning is so mysterious and so full of mysticism (mystery of God) that it’s quickly becoming one of my favorites.

Adrienne said...

Oh yes, The Course in Miracles is real - ooops, that's right, nothing is real unless I give it meaning. So maybe it isn't real.

Check out her latest wack job du jour - Eckhart Tolle. She will be ramming him down our throats on her TV program.

Tom in Vegas said...

Oh there'll be NO ramming anything Oprah down my throat. For the most part, when her show airs here I'm usually at the gym, and the supervisors there have the decency of not switching to a channel where her tiresome face is babbling away PC sound bytes.

Why can't we just listen to Stu and his Daily Affirmations? WHY?

Katie Alender said...

I noticed that "New Earth" book everywhere and decided to buy it on audiobook. This is BEFORE I knew it was an Oprah book. I was listening to it, feeling dazed and annoyed (my thoughts might not be real but I kind of NEED them to avoid driving my car into other cars)... and he got to this part where he talks about how celebrities are all living a big fat lie--"except" he says--" a few who are enlightened." And I thought, oh Lord, when Oprah hears this she's going to be like, "It's ME!"

Then I found out he was basically on the Oprah payroll and it all fell into place.

I know you hate Atlas Shrugged, Tom, but there's a character and book that are just like these books talking about how nothing exists and we all mean nothing and our thoughts are really illnesses. And she gives it the what-for.

Adrienne said...

Katie - I like Atlas Shrugged, too. We acknowledge truth wherever we find it and there is some truth in that book. (Sorry Tom)

Our job is to be able to discern the truth and in today's relativistic world real diligence is needed.

rita - no irony here - it's real and scary. Besides, most Americans don't get irony. You British are the real masters - God bless you. What would I do without being able to watch your comedies on Public Television? It would be a sad and joyless world:0(

Tom in Vegas said...

Okay, Auntie A and Katie, I can't believe you guys "love" that book. But I will take Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged any day before the blunt-force-ponposity of an Oprah episode.

Adrienne said...

Well, it has been a very long time since I read it and doubt I would re-read it. But, I know you don't hold that against Katie and me.

By the way, this post was very cute. Your real self is showing through in a most admirable manner.

Have I told you lately how glad I am to have you for my cyber-nephew?? 'Cause I am!

Tom in Vegas said...

Auntie A-

I would never hold anything you liked or didn't like against you in anyway whatsoever. To be perfectly honest, you and Katie are causing me to re-evaluate my thinking towards Atlas Shrugged. Perhaps I wasn't as patient as I should have been when I first picked up the book. As a matter of fact, I visited Amazon this afternoon to refresh my memory of the content and main themes addressed in it. Here's a little secret that you are not to share with anybody - least of all Katie. I've added Atlas Shrugged to my wishlist, and I normally do that so I have time to mull over wether to acquire it or not. We'll see.

I found a copy of Pardon and Peace on St. Anthony Messenger website. I think I will purchase it sometime this week, then let you know if it's worth the thirty bucks. I loved the film when I was prepping for my First Communion many years ago, so I'm sure I’ll like now as well. I will let you know!

And, yes, I LOVE being your cyber nephew! You keep me in line:0) LOL!

Tc said...

Any man who references Stu Smalley [pause for reflection]... is a hero of mine.

I can't stand OW either.

uncle jim said...

i've only seen snippets of her show a half a dozen times since it started - i hear people oooing and aaahhhing as they talk about her show.

we've got a lot of work to do.

i wonder what screwtape has to do with it

Anonymous said...

oh good grief....I feel dirty!

I believe the apocolypse is finally coming. This whole country has been Oprafied too much to begin with.

just imagining what she'll do with this latest bent of hers makes me shudder. hahaha....

she should have on my ex-boyfriend.

now he was super new age! he thought he was not only Jesus Christ reincarnated for the last and final time (aye aye) but that since the demon and the divine are really one, he was the devil too.

now there is a two for one she couldn't pass up! hahaha....

only problem is that he was a junkie at the time and therefore not really liable for his goofiness.

errr....what's her excuse?

:-0

Tracy said...

oh goody, goody! lol

Jennifer said...

Tom...did I ever tell you I work afternoons and the residents always watch Oprah and then DR.PHIL. I think he's worse.

Good thing I can tune both out.

Tom in Vegas said...

Jennifer-

Dr. Phil is another one on my S-list.

Mama Melissa said...

Holy Moly!!! that's so not good.

How are you these days? Mia and I are doing pretty well. She's just getting to be such a big girl!! :)

Melissa

Mama Melissa said...

Just say NO to buying Atlas Shrugged. I loved the first 3/4 of it... maybe more, but the last 100 pages or so was JUST AWFUL. Diatribe on how Christianity is bad. UGH. Forget that crap. Very anti-God.

(no offense to anyone here intended)

I used to like Oprah. Don't care for Dr. Phil. And now that she's onto this... I'm pretty disappointed. Oh well. Such is life.

Terry Nelson said...

I forgot you posted on her! LOL! I'm sick of her too - she is way over exposed right now and it is just going to backfire on her I think.