The It factor

For $77 million, guess I could adapt to est.

On EST or any other time.

To all in Peterman Nation:

Have a creative day.

"Shhhhh, someone from the IT crowd just showed up"...

Oh boy, it's a whole bus full of em. A load of "Shhhhh...IT"s.

'Tis a puzzlement.

I am going to grab a few ZZZZZs and sleep on "it."

Tommy Typical, entered this late, late yesterday so I am entering it again today just in case you missed it:

Tommy Typical, my Pet Rock is all grown up, married and has several pebbles of his own.

Just for fun, he takes them down to the pond and skips them across the water.

Rock solid family.

The "immediate now" is what I have.

I don't have yesterday.

I don't have tomorrow.

I do have the hope of tomorrow.

And that is what keeps me going.

This  is  "religion  lite,"   junk  science  of  spirituality.    Some  things  aren't  easy.  They  are  those  things  that  are  valuable.   Athletes  practice  &   train  for  years  to  attain  Olympic  status.  Classical  school  British  actors   go  to  rigorous  formal  schooling,  then  start  slowly,  and  finally  the  best  of  the  best  are  potentially  going  to  attain  stardom.   Green  Berets  or  Navy  Seals  must  finish  in  the  top  1%  of  every  category  of  achievement,  and  be  proven  to  function  as leaders  in  the  most  hostile  of  environments.   Attaining  a  spiritual  &  focused  dimension  is  no  different,  it  is  not  realistic  to  assume  that  you  can  cut  corners,  then  suddenly  find  yourself  at  the  top  of  the  mountain.

Greetings. Lotlot, that was awesome ...personally, I am living in the minute every second, just trying to hang on. Very tough and trying times. Times I never expected could happen.

Having done my morning trawl round all the links for today's half baked fuzzy-wuzzy subject, I turned my attention to the computer generated Google ads that appear left hand of page. Somebody would like to sell us Eyebolts. If it's up on your screen, their website is very impressive. Eyebolts are the nearest thing to skyhooks. Nothing to do with ophthalmics.
While most of you are tucked up in bed, I'm waking up to a pinky sunrise over a frosty landscape and using my laptop to keep my knees warm in bed. First mug of coffee is going down well. Am I "living in the moment?" You bet! Being Here Now is good, but it's not a religion, it's a coping strategy.
 

I remember well the, "It  Girl" ....... ( The Original one, from the mid-20's ... Clara Bow ...)

Capt Neptune~ So sorry to hear that you are having a tough time. Just saying so on this page gives you a whole bunch of well - wishers. Us wimmin are far less uptight about going to see a girlfriend and having a good "life ain't fair" rant, crying on her shoulder, having a nice cup of tea or something stronger & going home feeling much better. Nothing changed except the mind-set. It is OK to NEED your friends sometimes. Whatever is troubling you, don't be a stranger.

I was going to stay off the board today as don't have anything much but was immediately concerned about you Capt Neptune. As Hazel says, you have a ton of well-wishers here and if you are so inclined, do share as maybe someone here can help in a practical way. What I can promise is it will get better - been there, done that myself.  Meantime, this is especially for you, though it is also my take for today's topic

http://www.petermanseye.com/photos/294681

I might as well add that I thought the articles on Human Potential were interesting but how quickly it degenerated into manipulative self gratification. I think it has filtered into some Christian circles which preach the prosperity gospel. If you want to know what an Erhard Seminars Training is like read this... http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Erhard_Seminars_Training ; I like to think I am pretty tolerant and cosmopolitan in my life outlook but this is truly hogwash

p.s: Thank you Moose, Park4, Stoney and all those who helped me understand what a lawn jockey is! Never seen one either!

Ummgawa~ I thought your 12.11AM comment was very witty.

Uncle Fester, everyone's got a Cousin IT in Miami.
***
Gonzo Logic states. THIS is IT therefore IT is THIS. ***
***
On my way to the airport to pick up Kinky and Little Jewford for our big show tonight. Boning up on my Vaudeville Act with my pal, Clyde.
***
lot- Ahhh. Your little pebbles prove that a rocky road is not always such a rocky road.

Capt Neptune ~
Whatever it is that has you down, I will pray that it can be overcome and if not, endured.
Your posts regarding family sailing, baseball and so on have always been a refreshing reminder of the better parts of life.
The respect, admiration, support and yes, love of the village will be at your back throughout.
Good luck,
Stoney

Am staring at what you wrote Tommy T and scratching my head. I cannot understand part 3 .... I dont know if its real or its some kind of a parody. It also doesnt help that boning/boner is something else to me and which I'm pretty sure would not involve Clyde...but then, who knows...you've got kinky in there...

I know several people who have taken courses at the Landmark Forum, including my wife.  And all say that it was a positive experience, that they came out more self-aware and self-confident.  The original EST program folded after a number of law suits were won accusing them of abuse.  I was a visitor once and intensely disliked the super high pressure sales pitch to which I was subjected.  In the first course, by the way, to prove your commitment you must complete a project - and the required project is to bring in several new customers.  While much is done to bolster people's awareness and confidence, the push for more customers is at least as great, if not greater.  There are a lot of ways to get to the same place and none of them use sales pressure that would put a telemarketer to shame.

And what are the other ways?  For a lot of people, awakening comes from Twelve Step programs, the original being Alcoholics Anonymous, followed by Ala-non, and over 300 others.  There are people like Maria Nemeth who now focuses more on training people to be personal coaches.  Her foundation course, Mastering Life's Energies, is brilliant.  And the entire ManKind Project is another, with New Warrior for men, Woman Within for women and Boys to Men for teenage boys.  New Thought churches (Unity, Religious Science, Divine Science, etc.) are another.  These all developed in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.  Want to work on yourself and make life better?  Want to go through life with clarity, ease, focus and grace?  There's plenty of places to achieve that.

Captain Neptune - I too have suffered the slings and arrows of this economy. I can only assume it's financial and that would be preferred over health issues. I know that one can lead to another and vice versa. I give you my prayers, completed after I read your post, and in abundance. Blessings to you.

Cap'n Neptune,  I hope things take a turn for the better soon.  You know they will eventually.  Consider Artie Bucco, not as a role model, but as an example of  how things might have been worse. 

Spring Fragrance~I'm not certain the origin of the term 'boning up' but colloquially (sp?) it is like 'cramming' or concentrated stiudy for a test. I understand that when the word 'up' isn't attached it does take a totally different meaning.
 
Reminds me of the Goose Mother rhyme ( as opposed to Mother Goose rhyme, you understand):
 
Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard
To get her poor dog a bone.
But when she bent over
Ol' Rover took over
'Cause he had a bone of his own.
 
 

SPRING, I missed out on the lawn jockey tutorial, but there is a sculptor near me who made one to look like the late Senator Jesse Helms, a man not universally liked or admired.   I'd like to echo your comment on religions that preach self-satisfaction and greed. Hogwash is pretty much it.  I can be self-satisfied and greedy without religion- in fact, I would suggest that religion ought to be one of the things that keeps people from being self-satisfied and greedy.  On the other hand, I don't suppose a religion that only makes people feel miserable and guilty is much use, either.  

I have enjoyed a number of ongoing debates on a spiritual level, my favorite being followers of the prosperity gospel. I have noticed that in the Atlanta metro area, the prosperity preachers all have billboard advertisements with their wives all hussied up, with the "tell" being the diamond encrusted ROLEX watch on full display.

I reject the prosperity gospel. The sermon on the mount began with: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their's is the kingdom of heaven".

Big G knew money would be an issue. Its not the money at issue, it's the holder of the money and his attitude about it (the money). Thou shalt have no other Gods before me...numero uno on the big top ten.

My recollection is that most lawn jockeys have been repainted, the face is now white and no longer black. The "political correctness police" are at it again."

Not that I have to worry about it, but a man who gives a tenth of his million dollar income away stil has 900 thousand.  At least before taxes...   By comparison,  the person who earns $25,000 and gives away $2500 has to manage with $22,500.                                                      Another of my favorite catalogue companies still prints on their order form "I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly..."

Matthew 7.13 tells us the easy way isn't the right way.

I love phrases like "the immediate now." Back in college, philosophy 101, the more the instructor talked like that the smarter I thought he was.  I was, of course, 18.

Hi bert:  yes they have been repainted for the most part.  In my wanderings around this area, I found a house, very grand, looked like something out of an old South movie set - and there were two lawn jockeys on either side of each of the entries to the circular drive.  White faced, the four of them.  Then I saw, up in the gardens that surrounded this estate and not too well hidden, were two black faced lawn jockeys, guarding the geraniums I guess.  I guess the owners just couldn't part with them.

Park4, they are repainted at Keeneland Thorobred Association, a classic Southern racetrack and in Lexington, not far from Peterman. They love tradition, but in their shoes I would have done the same thing. They have photos of the track in the 1940"s when the African-Americans (politically correct term) had their own race day, segregated.

Captain Neptune:  economy or health; either one, I wish you the best sooner rather than later

Captain ... May the remainder of this year get ten times better for you every day, than it was on the 1st. of January ... That is, Daily Increase, Time Ten, of what you had the day before .......
 
Blessings Upon You and All Your House .......
 
 
Rappo  Yerrape !!!    You Shall Surely Be Healed .......

Captain, my Captain...Neptune.  Best thoughts, hopes andwishes to you and yours.  Hold on tight my friend.

 
 Capt. Neptune - You have all the PE village on your side of whatever your issue is....send us public or private email and let us see if any of us can help....Most of us have faced illness, loss, want, and death, and you see all the villagers who have spoken on your behalf. Be of good cheer, you are not alone. Imagine all of us pulling on your side. Hug.
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ON the Topic:
 
These self-improvement gurus who browbeat folks in their seminars while condescendingly squeezing their wallets dry seem to me no different from the other "pyramid" schemers. They make the attendees feel bad about themselves, offer to boost their ego (for a price), and pressure the audience to go out and get more disciples. I have seen people fall for those seminars like sheep to the fleecing...mind control by any other name is still that.
 
Someone I used to admire has been trying to tell me about this "wonderful self-empowerment program" called planetavatar.com founded in 1987 by a former scientology recruit...."The Avatar influence is now working in over 70 nations, in 100,000 people," he says. Courses are in steps like "Resurfacing your Life," "Destroying self-sabotaging beliefs," "Living Deliberately,"  all to" remove conflict and limitation in the human race":  the goal is "To improve the collective consciousness of the world," he says.
(Oh, that's not too ambitious!! --I say!!)
 
If you look up PlanetAvatar ( www.planetavatar.com ; ) you see this is no joke. These people are serious about mind control and their version of "an enlightened planetary civilization." The terms are so broad and cosmic that they sound like Carl Sagan!
 
I find these kinds of "self-improvement" movements to be scary, as they seek to control vast numbers of people in the name of "Greater Tolerance and Global Understanding." The organization awards levels or accomplishments so that the attendees feel that they are achieving and moving UP in their becoming better human beings, as if they are getting medals (for their money, paid for the seminars!)  As someone said earlier, it seems to try to take the place of faith, spirituality, and traditional religion.
 
What does it mean to be "IT" or "Self-Actualized" ?? Are we to aim to fulfill Dr. Maslow's pyramid in order to feel ok about ourselves?   Isn't that the opposite of the Beatitudes?
Most of the Esalen disciples I have known are merely taking narcissism to its highest achievable extreme.... Is that the way to live?    Isn't that the antithesis of the Golden Rule? Can we understand people who believe in est, Esalen, PlanetAvatar, and such?... and they vote, reproduce, and make rules that everyone is supposed to follow....a dilemma.

When I was a teenager and in the middle of two years of three days a week protestant catechism class, I complained to Mom.
"Your are, I think, a pretty good boy," she said, adding that she was confident that I would always try to do the right thing. "Church is to help you know what that is."

The "What is it?" question seems to have anwered itself today. I'm proud and delighted to belong to whatever it is that makes this Village so special.
 

It is nebulus.
 
It is relative.
 
It is s, ubjective.
 
It is boring.
 
If it were interesting," it"  would have it's own show on the Oprah network.  

CAPT NEPTUNE........................I am sending many good thoughts your way................I hope that whatever is being very tough & unexpected goes away as quickly as it came to your door. Stay strong; these are, in fact, very hard times. Be well..................
 
 

Goodnight/Nos Da, duvet time over here.

IVAN..................you sly fellow, thinking about beautiful women.................
 
MOOSELOOP..................you bring up some very good points. I have to say that I would find it very hard to have sympathy for someone who is NOT retarded and gives their money to charlatans........................I always wonder what gene they are missing. The same w/ self help books............seriously, buck up and deal w/ it...........
 
JULIA...................hey chick! Hell is Oprah...............her now defunct show where people would get hysterical and air all sorts of dirty laundry or get hysterical about a basket of prizes under their chair....................she is just.....................yuck............and part of what is wrong w/ America. She makes me appreciate the British stiff upper lip............
 
BERT.........my grandparents had a lawn jockey at the end of their driveway...........top off those feeders!
 
UMM....................your 10:34...............so true.................I am always gobsmacked when I realize that people follow these charlatans in all their crass finery..................it makes me understand why some people are atheists.........................my mother-in-love calls it, "Name it & claim it" religion.....................I don't think she coined that phrase by the way......
 
Time for a hard earned glass of wine.........................................................
 

Mooseloop- you hit the truth right square on the head @5:35. People seeing Jesus in a bowl of Rice Crispies or in toast. I have always maintained that rich folk are that way because of the ability to separate idiots from their money. Most of these fools have recited the rhetoric so long that they actually believe they have achieved deity status. These charlatans have no idea of the force they mock and the deeds they do in the name of the creator. Oh when that day comes and money no longer is a shield to protect but a standard by which ones short comings are revealed. The parable of the talents comes to mind.

I have met a few prosperity preachers and asked them face to face to justify stealing money in the name of God. Most are shocked when someone with bible knowledge tears down the fortress of lies these idiots have built. I'm not special and not exceptionally smart, but I find it extremely insulting that the God I believe in has decided that a pastor should drive a Bentley and wear a 30K Rolex watch. We southerners have a plethora of these preachers in the Atlanta metro area with numerous "Klingon's" in the form of wanna-be Mega-Church preachers with Steeple envy, along with wives that aspire to be on "the Housewives of Atlanta'.

Bert- I really appreciate the eloquence of your message at 1:36 a.m. It is perfect in its simple message. I work on my faith every day. I pray, I study, I teach, and I honor my father and mother every day. But my heart is where my faith lies. My one on one relationship with a living God is what it is all about. Staying accountable with God through Jesus is my business. Mankind is my business. It takes joy, not work, to seal the eternal deal. When I realized that God knew the seed buried in my heart, regardless of how much I denied it, I was set free from failure and worrying about someone figuring out I was a fraud. People have agendas, God has one agenda and that is salvation. My salvation. I have worked mine out with fear and trembling and pray that each name represented has also. This is the smartest crowd I have ever been affiliated with on an ongoing basis. My prayer is that someday we will all meet on most high and enjoy an eternity of exchange interwoven with great praise.

Bebe- "name it claim it" is the foundation of the prosperity Gospel. It's really scary when I meet intelligent people following this pseudo religious horse manure. When I question their belief system and ask them to justify it for me, the pat answer is "well, the preacher sez we'll get rich if we give the church our money and invest in real estate" usually ending with an explanation of what a Pyramid scheme is from me.

There are a lot of brainwashed folk walking around, getting separated from their hard earned money every Sunday by a "Man of God".

Mooseloop -  I think all those idiots are just Amway salesmen.  Not much difference, anyway.
 
Park4 - Please forgive, if you can, my oil-related rant from December.  It was a really stressful time and I took it out on you. 

Knowing I did the best I could, helps me sleep well.

As bebe says, we all have those terrible, bottom-of-the-barrel times....It is part of being human.....Remember Lucy in Peanuts who said, "I want all UP's!" She wanted all peaks and no valleys. Life just isn't like that, but even the down times reassure us that a better day will come.   What goes down must come up.....When people give out good money to go to some seminar to have someone tell them how to "better themselves," it makes me echo you, bebe, when you said, "Buck up. Deal with it!" Implying that we must learn to be creative in finding options when it looks like there are none. The old "Pull yourself up by the bootstraps" seems to apply. Don't go give your hard-earned money to someone who will tell you how to feel.

OOps, Sorry I sounded like I don't believe in psychotherapy! Not so, but there is a difference between a good, trained counselor and the pseudo-psycho business ventures that pose as self-help. Remember, the phrase most used by even a good therapis is this, "What do you think you should do about that?" The good therapist never "tells" you, but helps you answer your own questions.....directed questioning is just what you can do yourself if you have confidence in YOU. If you know you have been capable in the past, have faith that you can be again.

MISS BEBE:  I find Beauty in them all ...  

As I said, always do your best. If you do, you never have to feel you let someone down.  It is what the lord of your faith would have you do.Neptune? hello...we are here for you.....and you have free pass at the coin operated mirror in the club car refreshing area(and it will make you look younger,too)....for every one else,there are several new additional restrooms for those attending the EST sessions.....

I should mention that in being the kind of guy who would 'always try to do the right thing' and with training to recognize 'what that is' does not mean that I always done it.

Maybe it's just me, but a lot of the self-realization and fulfillment gurus seem to have achieved total success and are completely full of IT.

STONEY:   Your last comment is SO Good ... I wish I had said it !!!
 
 
Kudo's Bubba !!!

shandonista!  no no, no worry, my goodness!  You took nothing out on me, you made a good argument.  Nothing nothing to forgive, absolutely nothing.  You would do well as a advocate for any issue.  Now:  it's over, done, I was never angry.  Never!  Please lets see more of your name now, and let's here what you think because you're awfully good at making your point. Okay?  okay.  paula