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beam me up scottie

(57,349 posts)
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 05:14 AM Sep 2015

Chopra Watch: A BS Sandwich of Astrology, Primordial Vibrations, and Spirit Math

Chopra Watch: A BS Sandwich of Astrology, Primordial Vibrations, and Spirit Math
September 17, 2015 by Bo Gardiner

Luckily for you, I receive Deepak Chopra‘s “Chopra Centered Lifestyle Newsletter” -– how’s that title for narcissism? — so you don’t have to. (You’re welcome.)




Yesterday, Chopra alerted me to go read about the power of Primordial Sound Meditation, written by “The Editors at Chopra.com”:

As scientific research reveals, when you meditate, your breathing slows, blood pressure decreases, and stress hormone levels fall.


Thanks for the reminder, Deepak! I know that medical science has found health benefits to meditation, so I’m going to go meditate right now!

“Stop!” shouts my e-guru (though his actual words are prettier and more camouflaged). “To do it right, you must have my special (read: expensive) scientific mantra!”

At the Chopra Center, we offer instruction in Primordial Sound Meditation, a powerful meditation technique rooted in the Vedic tradition of India. Chopra Center co-founders Deepak Chopra and David Simon have revived this ancient practice of sound meditation and made it available in a format that’s easy to learn.

When you learn Primordial Sound Meditation, you will receive a personal mantra. A mantra is a specific sound or vibration — which when repeated silently — helps you to enter deeper levels of awareness…

The mantra you will receive is the vibration the universe was creating at the time and place of your birth, and it is calculated following Vedic mathematic formulas. When you silently repeat your mantra in meditation, it creates a vibration that helps you slip into the space between your thoughts, into the complete silence that is sometimes referred to as “the gap.” Your mind is no longer caught up in its noisy internal chatter and is instead exposed to its own deepest nature: pure awareness.

As many studies show, a regular meditation practice offers numerous health benefits… Today doctors are increasingly citing stress as a major contributing factor to most illnesses.


And that, my friends, is the classic Chopra Bullshit Sandwich: Take two slices of science-based statements no different from what a medical doctor might recommend, like “stress can be bad for you” and “meditation can be good for you.” Next, slather between them some gooey, wooey Deepities like “I can give you a mantra that exposes your deepest nature using the vibration the universe was creating at the time and place of your birth.” Season liberally with phrases like “scientific research reveals,” “studies show,” and “research has found.”

Now for the most important ingredient: Marketing. Carefully wrap your bullshit sandwich in dreamy New Age rhetoric; sell it with snide digs at “conventional science,” charge thousands of dollars… and PBS and other major media outlets will be clamoring to take a bite. They will happily pretend they’re not presenting an astrologer as a credible voice on science and health. It may not give us food poisoning, but minds everywhere become just a bit more crippled.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/09/17/chopra-watch-a-bs-sandwich-of-astrology-primordial-vibrations-and-spirit-math/



The stupid, it burns.

The antidote, as always, is in the comments.

30 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Chopra Watch: A BS Sandwich of Astrology, Primordial Vibrations, and Spirit Math (Original Post) beam me up scottie Sep 2015 OP
Repeat the sound... but stay silent while doing it. DetlefK Sep 2015 #1
I have seriously considered going into the woo business. beam me up scottie Sep 2015 #2
I think, a colleague of mine ran into Orgone woo. DetlefK Sep 2015 #7
I would have been out of there too. beam me up scottie Sep 2015 #11
How hard could it be? AlbertCat Sep 2015 #9
Exactly. beam me up scottie Sep 2015 #12
I don't have a conscience, so Curmudgeoness Sep 2015 #16
Well we considered going to a woo store and just repackaging the crystals beam me up scottie Sep 2015 #17
Can't I just make tin foil hats? Curmudgeoness Sep 2015 #20
Maybe you could use different coloured foil and really jazz them up. beam me up scottie Sep 2015 #21
My area has people who would be looking for "help" with their life. Curmudgeoness Sep 2015 #22
Jeebus. beam me up scottie Sep 2015 #23
He must have a new book coming out... onager Sep 2015 #3
Chopra is another "gift" Oprah foisted upon us. beam me up scottie Sep 2015 #4
And Dr. Jenny McCarthy... onager Sep 2015 #5
Argh. beam me up scottie Sep 2015 #6
Don't forget, atheists are incapable of experiencing awe according to Oprah LostOne4Ever Sep 2015 #24
using the vibration the universe was creating at the time and place of your birth. AlbertCat Sep 2015 #8
Love that song! beam me up scottie Sep 2015 #13
In that case Cartoonist Sep 2015 #15
Mike Love, not war. AlbertCat Sep 2015 #25
That's a quantum bull shit sandwich. progressoid Sep 2015 #10
Lol! beam me up scottie Sep 2015 #14
I'm glad that the author referenced astrology Curmudgeoness Sep 2015 #18
Chopra is very good at inventing crap and selling it. beam me up scottie Sep 2015 #19
This message was self-deleted by its author RussBLib Sep 2015 #26
In 1994, Chopra published a book called... SwissTony Sep 2015 #27
"Transcendence illuminates the progressive expansion of creativity" beam me up scottie Sep 2015 #28
So, you're saying, it vibrates? lindysalsagal Oct 2015 #29
Some vibrations are good: beam me up scottie Oct 2015 #30

DetlefK

(16,455 posts)
1. Repeat the sound... but stay silent while doing it.
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 05:21 AM
Sep 2015

I have come to the conclusion: Whoever is stupid enough to fall for woo deserves to be separated from his money. That's simply social darwinism.

beam me up scottie

(57,349 posts)
2. I have seriously considered going into the woo business.
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 05:37 AM
Sep 2015

Take Orgone Energy for example:

Orgone energy was Wilhelm Reich's term for the Force an omnipresent, "life positive" energy he claimed to have discovered in 1939. Reich often used 'orgone energy' as a catch-all to explain every natural phenomenon for which there was no conventional explanation (or for which Reich did not know there existed a conventional explanation), as a kind of a God of the gaps. Those few properties of orgone energy Reich did spell out as definite included:

Orgone is attracted by organic substances

Orgone is attracted, but then immediately re-radiated, by metallic substances

Earth has an orgone energy field that flows west-to-east faster than the Earth rotates, except when a storm is approaching and the flow reverses its direction

...

But it's the pelvic thrust that really drives you insane

According to Wilhelm Reich, when a human body absorbs orgone energy, red blood corpuscles emit a blue glow at their fringe when viewed under a microscope.[7] (The possibility that this blue fringe was chromatic aberration, a side effect of focusing light through a lens, didn't seem to have occured to Reich.)

Also, orgone energy causes an involuntary pelvic thrusting motion, which Reich called the "orgasm reflex". The orgasm reflex can appear from activities other than an actual orgasm, and Reich claimed to see it in some of his patients during vegetotherapy. This motion is related to Reich's dividing of universal forces in to suction and pushing actions.

Orgone therapy

Reich extended his ideas of orgone energy into psychoanalytic based therapy throughout his career. Late in his life he combined them all into a general therapy theory coined Orgone therapy. There were two main broad subdivisions: physical orgone therapy and psychiatric orgone therapy. It was not uncommon for Reich to use both types of therapy on the same individual.

Physical orgone therapy involved the use of devices that Reich believed manipulated orgone energy directly. These included orgone accumulator boxes large enough for the patient to sit in, orgone blankets and "shooters" which were built out of the same layers as a single wall in an orgone accumulator, and Reich's medical DOR buster which was a scaled-down version of his cloudbuster.

...

Physical orgone therapy has its origins in Reich's belief in orgone energy. He believed that one effect of muscular armor was that the chronically-contracted muscles blocked the natural flow of orgone energy in the body, and that thus supplying the body with extra orgone energy might be able to overcome those blocks. He also believed that organic substances attracted orgone energy, and metallic substances attracted but then immediately re-radiated orgone energy -- so, he reasoned, by building boxes with organic substances lining the outside and metallic substances lining the inside, he ought to be able to "accumulate" orgone energy inside the box. Reich and his followers built many of these orgone accumulator boxes and had patients sit naked inside them for 10-20 minutes at a time. They eventually came to believe that physical orgone therapy could cure everything from impotence to cancer.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Orgone_energy



Now look at the products being sold to harness the healing power of it:

Metaphysical Orgone EMF Shield Radiation Protection Energy Generator Chem Trails

Does your home have acell phone, microwave, fluorescent lights, TV screens or computer? Each of these products is greatly exposing you to harmful radiation. You will neutralize the negative energy and EMF (Electromagnetic Field Radiation) in your home with a Black Sun Orgone Accumulator.

$285.12 used
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Orgonite 6" Orgone Energy Charging Plate. Crystals, Apatite, Moldavite, Hematite Petalite Phenacite Rhodizite Tourmaline Shungite, SBB Coil

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Set Of 100 Earth Orgone Energy Cubes Amazing Harmonizer Hhg/tb- Potent

Earth Orgone Energy Harmonizer HHG/TB Devices You will receive 100 Orgone Energy Cubes!- Amazing Harmonizer HHG/TB Potent Energy Technology- Protective Shield! (1.25" diameter ...

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Free shipping. No tax


Orgonite | Akasha Beam - Chembuster from Oz Orgonite

Akasha BeamChembuster connected with the ether We use well-tried knowledge and existing know how for the craftsmanship of all our orgonites. The existing chembusters could be ...

$5,156.45
+$217.77 shipping. No tax



How hard could it be?

DetlefK

(16,455 posts)
7. I think, a colleague of mine ran into Orgone woo.
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 08:25 AM
Sep 2015

He's a scientist and has a 5yo daughter. One day she was sick and the doctor sent her to this medical practitioner for a special treatment. This scientist was speechless when this other "doctor" started waving a crystal over his sick child... At first, as scientists are wont to do, he tried to understand and decipher what was going on. He had never heard of this therapy and initially thought that this was some kind of physical effect he had been unaware of. When it became clear that none of the pseudoscientific explanations had a connection to physics, he grabbed his child and was outta there.

beam me up scottie

(57,349 posts)
11. I would have been out of there too.
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 12:42 PM
Sep 2015

Jesus.

It's one thing to let them practice woo on an adult but to have them try to cure a child with it is despicable.

Curmudgeoness

(18,219 posts)
16. I don't have a conscience, so
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 02:01 PM
Sep 2015

if you have any good ideas for something new that we could come up with, I would be more than willing to do it.

Actually, I do have a conscience, but I don't see this as an ethical dilemma. Hell, these people are going to fall for my woo or someone else's woo, so I might as well get into the fray. I have also thought that I should give the people what they want.

beam me up scottie

(57,349 posts)
17. Well we considered going to a woo store and just repackaging the crystals
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 02:07 PM
Sep 2015

and other assorted trinkets/doo dads as orgone products.

If you check out the ads on google products it's easy to learn the code words. You could probably mark the stuff up 500% and make a nice profit.

If you're handy with a welder you can create orgone blasters and make a fortune:

http://www.orgoneblasters.com/make-your-own.htm

Curmudgeoness

(18,219 posts)
22. My area has people who would be looking for "help" with their life.
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 02:42 PM
Sep 2015

Like this one.....I wish I knew where you buy alien repelling spotlights.

HERMITAGE, Pa. -
An unusual story out of Mercer County, where neighbors say they're fed up with an elderly man who wraps his house in what appears to be foil and shines spot lights to deter aliens.

http://www.wfmj.com/story/30006139/hermitage-residents-say-neighbor-is-afraid-of-aliens

onager

(9,356 posts)
5. And Dr. Jenny McCarthy...
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 06:53 AM
Sep 2015

Good Daily Beast article about that, "Blame Hollywood for Anti-Vaxers:"

Who doesn’t love Oprah? America loves Oprah. The president loves Oprah. Everybody who has ever wanted a free Pontiac definitely loves Oprah. And yet the celebrated talk-show host, actress, and political player has a piss-poor track record when it comes to science.

In fairness, Oprah is no anti-vaxxer. She has, however, given one of the movement’s biggest celebrity mouthpieces a national platform. After actress and Playboy Playmate Jenny McCarthy launched her crusade—which included a Green Our Vaccines march and rally in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2008—Oprah invited her on to her show.


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/03/blame-hollywood-for-anti-vaxxers.html

beam me up scottie

(57,349 posts)
6. Argh.
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 06:59 AM
Sep 2015

I forgot about her.

Oprah: my guests prove science is a democracy!

Look under your chairs!

You get some woo, and you get some woo, everybody's going home with woo!

And measles.

 

AlbertCat

(17,505 posts)
8. using the vibration the universe was creating at the time and place of your birth.
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 11:09 AM
Sep 2015

This was big when I was a kid.... does it count?

Curmudgeoness

(18,219 posts)
18. I'm glad that the author referenced astrology
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 02:07 PM
Sep 2015

since that was the first thing that popped into my head when I read about the personal mantra....based on the time and place of your birth. This is the biggest load of crap that I have seen in years, and that is saying something.

beam me up scottie

(57,349 posts)
19. Chopra is very good at inventing crap and selling it.
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 02:09 PM
Sep 2015
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

H. L. Mencken

Response to beam me up scottie (Original post)

SwissTony

(2,560 posts)
27. In 1994, Chopra published a book called...
Tue Sep 29, 2015, 12:37 PM
Sep 2015

"Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old".

Comparing photos of him then and now, it's clear he hasn't aged a day.

I've got a nice bridge for sale...going cheap...

lindysalsagal

(22,377 posts)
29. So, you're saying, it vibrates?
Wed Oct 7, 2015, 07:46 PM
Oct 2015

Like, just shaking a little, or are we talking about moving all of my blood to one part of my body?

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