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Scott in Winnipeg

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Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« on: June 26, 2008, 12:56:53 PM »

Ian has mentioned a couple of time about Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) "healing himself" when this "law of attraction" nonsense has come up a few times.

Positive thinking, defining and making the effort to reach goals is perfectly plausiable and that is NOT what the "Law of Attraction" is, the Law of Attraction has to do with sending out vibrations and is magic, and not real.

Here are the facts with Scott Adams.

- he's been dyslexic his entire life

- in 1992 he was diagnosed with focal dystonia, which made it hard for him to draw his cartoons. He was able to work around it by developing a physical pattern of drawing that worked for him. Eventually the problem went away. It came back in 2004 and instead of doing what he did before he got a new drawing tool that allowed him to work with little noticable difference to the end user.

- in December 2005 he announced that he has spasmodic dysphonia, a brain abnormality that affects speech for which there is no known cure. There are treatments to manage it thought, and Scott is one of a few people for who the condition comes and goes, and is able to manage it through vocal exercises and cognitive thearapies. Scott has not complletely recovered, he still has a raspy, tinny voice, but at least he can talk. One article says " His doctor told him that nobody with this condition has ever regained the ability to speak." That doctor was wrong, and the condition doesn't necessarily mean that people won't be able to speak at all.

Scott didn't cure himself of spasmodic dysphonia. He's experienced a temporary reprieve from it based on some personal experimentation.

If he takes this further and develops a process which works permanently for everyone with the condition, then it will be correct to say that he has cured it.

None of this has to do with the magic of the "Law of Attraction", it has to do with effort and work and a positive attitude.

Here's what the basis of the "Law of Attraction" is, it's "vibratrions" and "energies" and it's nonsense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXqzRulbMyU


Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_dystonia  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spasmodic_dysphonia
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/09/AR2005050901066.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15446515/
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/25/scott-adams-hacks-hi.html
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Blackie

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Re: Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2008, 01:07:19 PM »

Yea, LoA is BS. Everyone knows that the Quan Yin Method of Supreme Master Ching Hai is the only true method.

Quote
Prerequisite of Initiation: A lifetime commitment to the vegetarian diet and keeping of the Five Precepts.
The Five Precepts:

1. Refrain from taking the life of sentient beings. This precept requires strict adherence to a vegan or lacto-vegetarian diet. No meat, fish, poultry or eggs (fertilized or nonfertilized).

2. Refrain from speaking what is not true.

3. Refrain from taking what is not yours.
 
4. Refrain from sexual misconduct.

5. Refrain from using intoxicants. This includes avoiding all poisons of any kind, such as alcohol, drugs, tobacco, Pornography, gambling, and excessively violent films or literature.

« Last Edit: June 26, 2008, 01:09:25 PM by Blackie »
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thomasjack

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Re: Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2008, 01:59:33 PM »

Yea, LoA is BS. Everyone knows that the Quan Yin Method of Supreme Master Ching Hai is the only true method.

Quote
Prerequisite of Initiation: A lifetime commitment to the vegetarian diet and keeping of the Five Precepts.
The Five Precepts:

1. Refrain from taking the life of sentient beings. This precept requires strict adherence to a vegan or lacto-vegetarian diet. No meat, fish, poultry or eggs (fertilized or nonfertilized).

2. Refrain from speaking what is not true.

3. Refrain from taking what is not yours.
 
4. Refrain from sexual misconduct.

5. Refrain from using intoxicants. This includes avoiding all poisons of any kind, such as alcohol, drugs, tobacco, Pornography, gambling, and excessively violent films or literature.



Does Supreme Master Ching Hai mention that she lifted those precepts directly from Buddhism?

[edit] well, except for the vegetarian, porn, gambling, and violent stuff parts.
« Last Edit: June 26, 2008, 02:01:32 PM by vosti backle »
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Blackie

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Re: Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2008, 02:34:49 PM »


Does Supreme Master Ching Hai mention that she lifted those precepts directly from Buddhism?

[edit] well, except for the vegetarian, porn, gambling, and violent stuff parts.
Yea.
She pulls stuff from lots of religions.

Quote
In the years after her enlightenment, Ching Hai lived the quiet, unassuming life of a Buddhist nun, until people sincerely sought her instruction and initiation. Starting in 1985,[14] through the insistent requests and efforts of her disciples in Taiwan and the United States, she began lecturing extensively throughout the world in Chinese, English and Vietnamese, and has since initiated many tens of thousands of spiritual aspirants. She continued to dress as a nun until around 1993 when she began wearing her own fashion designs and grew out her hair.
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Taors

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Re: Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2008, 02:39:39 PM »

Quote
Law of Attraction has to do with sending out vibrations and is magic, and not real.

:lol:
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DanPatrick

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Re: Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2008, 07:45:15 PM »

I was personally very disappointed in hearing Ian, whom is generally a skeptic, talk about this bullshit.  I give any proponent of LoA the link to James Randi's Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge http://www.randi.org/joom/challenge-info.html
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John Shaw

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Re: Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2008, 11:58:40 AM »

I was personally very disappointed in hearing Ian, whom is generally a skeptic, talk about this bullshit.  I give any proponent of LoA the link to James Randi's Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge http://www.randi.org/joom/challenge-info.html

LoA people aren't interested in evidence, let alone proof.
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alkanen

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Re: Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« Reply #7 on: June 29, 2008, 08:48:44 PM »

Glad to see I'm not the only one annoyed by this crap.

If you're being negative and think you'll never make it, you won't see opportunities and take them.  It has nothing to do with the universe being some kind of sentient being sending you shit for being a dick-head.  Occam's razor gods damnit.
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John Shaw

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Re: Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« Reply #8 on: June 29, 2008, 09:56:46 PM »

Glad to see I'm not the only one annoyed by this crap.

If you're being negative and think you'll never make it, you won't see opportunities and take them.  It has nothing to do with the universe being some kind of sentient being sending you shit for being a dick-head.  Occam's razor gods damnit.

Ian doesn't seem to believe in the validity of science:

I don't really care if you believe it or not, and I think it's already been made clear that there's no science or testing involved here.
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Re: Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« Reply #9 on: June 30, 2008, 01:04:49 PM »

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trollfreezone

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Re: Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2008, 09:56:02 PM »

Found when googling amazing randi "law of attraction."

http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-02/021607failure.html

Quote from: James Randi
BIG SECRET

Reader Scott Marshall, a proud JREF member, tells us of yet another film that presents woo-woo as fact:

Quote from: Scott Marshall
A friend at work gave me the DVD movie, "The Secret," a 90-minute movie from Australia that promises to reveal the answer to all of one's hopes and dreams. He said it was recently featured on Oprah. If Oprah covers it, it must be real, right?

In the first few minutes of the film, I was drawn in just a little by the familiar promise that it would change my life, though I was skeptical, since this had been promised by so many other works, so many times before. The movie spends a good part of its opening dramatically and slickly portraying ancient Egyptians coveting and hiding the Secret of the Ages, plus other similar exciting historical dramatizations. It brings us up-to-date with a modern boardroom of executives using their knowledge of "The Secret" to expand their wealth and power. It lists historical figures supposedly privy to this secret – Plato, Newton, Carnegie, Beethoven, Edison, Shakespeare, Einstein – although backing this up with no supporting evidence. The implication is that I could achieve similar heights of fame and accomplishment if I were to follow the upcoming advice contained on that very disk. The onscreen pundits worried me, e.g. a New Age Minister, a Quantum Physicist.

Then they revealed "The Secret."

Called "The Law of Attraction," it basically means that thinking things makes them happen because of “quantum effects.” They express this visually as a shock wave emanating from the head that, when passing things nearby, causes the world to fall in line with one's expectations: one "attracts" what one expects. The video is not content, however, to suggest that a good or bad attitude makes you see the world in a better or worse light and leads you indirectly to obtain these things you are thinking about. It's not content to suggest that these waves emanating from our brains are metaphorical. It really suggest that, for example, if you worry that you will be stuck in a traffic jam, the quantum waves from your brain will cause the traffic to jam and make you late. They back up their magical promise with irrelevant ramblings from their Quantum Physicist, and a dramatization of an Aladdin-style Genie – a 20-foot-tall black bodybuilder – granting our every wish.

That was enough for me. I've sent this disk to you since it seems to be a fairly loud cannon blast. Defenders of the rational need to know of this incoming missile from New Age woo-woos.

Thank you, Scott.  I’ll look this over and have my own comments, anon.
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Scott in Winnipeg

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Re: Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« Reply #11 on: July 01, 2008, 10:16:18 PM »

Exactly, I wish that Ian and Mark would take notice that the "Law of Attraction" is not the same thing as having a postiive or negative attitude, it is magic.
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gu3st

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Re: Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« Reply #12 on: September 09, 2008, 05:08:17 PM »

I don't believe in Law of Attraction, I believe in the Law of think->define->believe->plan->act->persist->profit. :)

Napoleon Hill, author of "Think and Grow Rich" was a genious. Authors of "The Secret" are sensationalist new agers. They based quite a bit of their ideas on Napoleon Hill's work, but in an attempt to merge it with the New Age style religions, perverted it into barely pseudoscience and a religion, not to mention a self improvement scam.

The bad thing about this is that due to its publicity it may give a bad name to the actual provable and demonstrable philosophy by Napoleon Hill. People who get disappointed for not getting everything they desire (thinking that's enough) are then less likely to again try the real thing.
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Kevin Freeheart

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Re: Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« Reply #13 on: September 09, 2008, 05:15:14 PM »

Quote
I wish that Ian and Mark would take notice that the "Law of Attraction" is not the same thing as having a postiive or negative attitude,

Ian understands the difference. He just beleives the crocpottery. He's clear. "My thoughts create the universe".

Mark thinks it's crap, but puts a lot of importance on positive thought.
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Re: Scott Adams and the Law of Attraction
« Reply #14 on: September 09, 2008, 05:40:22 PM »

I don't believe in Law of Attraction, I believe in the Law of think->define->believe->plan->act->persist->profit. :)

Napoleon Hill, author of "Think and Grow Rich" was a genious. Authors of "The Secret" are sensationalist new agers. They based quite a bit of their ideas on Napoleon Hill's work, but in an attempt to merge it with the New Age style religions, perverted it into barely pseudoscience and a religion, not to mention a self improvement scam.

The bad thing about this is that due to its publicity it may give a bad name to the actual provable and demonstrable philosophy by Napoleon Hill. People who get disappointed for not getting everything they desire (thinking that's enough) are then less likely to again try the real thing.

Sounds about like the truth to me.  I for one hate all this "New Age" religious crap.  It's just a rehash of all the paganistic false science religions of old in a fancy new wrapper.
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