Thursday, August 12, 2010

Joe Vitale's Empire of Miracles

I saw Joe Vitale speak about ho'oponopono about 4 years ago back before his book Zero Limits was written. He did this exercise where he had people brainstorm up all of these ideas on a white board and then he told us that none of that stuff ever matters because what really matters is inspiration and going back to a clean whiteboard.

Then he said that he didn't know what he was going to talk about that day, it was going to come from inspiration.

It's the same exact  spiel he did at the TLC meeting in Santa Fe. He posted the videos to not much fanfare at all, but he sure did inspire Steve Pavlina. I am actually finding Pavlina's inspired 30 days experiment rather interesting to watch. But to say that he was inspired to do so by Mr. Fire's inspired speech is to say that you were inspired by a lie.

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So, Joe Vitale says he has a new show coming up with CBS.

First, what is CBS thinking? Do they want to throw money away the way that other network did on Tony Robbins? If Tony Robbins can't make it last more than 2 episodes, I think Joe Vitale's track record will be even worse.

But shame on CBS for giving a scammer free air time to suck people into the scam of Joe Vitale's Miracles Coaching amongst other things.

Are we going to start taking bets that it's not going to come to fruition? Let's think about this. Joe is always tooting his own horn that he's going to have the next greatest media appearance. He's told us that he was going to:

- be on Oprah (didn't happen)
- have his own TV show called Expect Miracles  (didn't happen)
- have his own documentary about his not-really a non-profit, Operation YES, from which he says he will end homelessness in one day (didn't happen)
- have his own radio show with CNN
- blah blah fishcakes

How many other things has Joe Vitale SAID he was going to do but he never does them? Let's see...

Wasn't he going to buy a multi-million dollar house? I don't see any evidence of that ever happening either. How about ending homelessness? I just saw a hobo who said Joe Vitale allegedly offered him $5 to do something awful behind the dumpster at the Jack in the Box. What other things has Joe said were going to happen, but he can't live up to his hype?

Healing the gulf of mexico with affirmations set to music? Actually helping people?

With his track record, we should keep score of what Joe says he's going to do versus what he actually does.

Note: this type of hype of what he SAYS is going to happen versus what WILL happen applies to his products too. If you don't believe me, look at his own disclaimer. He's telling you right there that he's not going to deliver on the hype... what he's selling you is "hard work." Note: this is YOUR HARD WORK, not his.

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Speaking of TV shows, Joe was on ABC news not long ago. First, he was ridiculed during a program about Joe's good friend James Ray who allegedly murdered people in a sweat lodge in Sedona due to his negligence. Joe looked like a complete idiot during this program, and he similarly looked like an idiot on the replay on ABC news this last weekend.

ABC is doing something interesting here... they call him a successful self-help guru, and the article is vague in its criticism. This is actually kind of smart, because it pulls people in who might otherwise think Joe is a decent human being but plants the subtle idea that perhaps Joe is an egomaniac who will really take you for a ride.

Joe, oblivious to his own egomaniacal ways, promotes the ABC article as something that is good for him. I had to wonder WTF was happening here, but here's the deal. Joe has so many of his cult followers in a trance believing that he deserves positive attention and that it couldn't happen any other way. Joe plants hypnotic trances in his products and marketing (he is, of course, the godfather of hype-notic marketing, right?) so that people are  more receptive to his other marketing. So if they see something vague, and Joe tells them its positive, their hypnotic trance tells them it is so.

It's pretty pathetic, and probably continued contributory evidence that he has a very small penis and severe mental capacity problems, that he needs to resort to lies, manipulation, and hypnosis in order to sell a product. He has to resort to lies, stealing, and manipulating hypnosis in order to convince people that he is more than what he is. He has to play mind games and mind tricks in order to convince people that he knows anything at all.

And I feel sorry for the people who fall for it.

I feel sorry for myself for falling for it many years ago.

But if you notice something, Joebots need to cycle through... people eventually start seeing that there is no evidence of success in their lives despite dumping thousands of dollars on Joe Vitale's Miracles Coaching program and his other products... and they wake up. The cognitive dissonance is too great for them. And they wake up, eventually. At least most of them do.

So he needs to keep sucking them in so that he can keep sucking in their cash.

For those that never wake up, or for those that sense something is seriously wrong but can't quite put their finger on it, they are required by the very nature of the Vitale world to believe that Joe is great, Joe does no wrong, Joe experiences no wrong, Joe is as close to diety as you can experience. It is all an illusion, an illusion that would make the greatest magician and hypnotist proud of him. Or maybe disgusted.

Hey, sounds just like a cult.  Joe must have learned those tactics when he recruited for Rajneesh back in the day.

Good job, CBS radio. You'll be helping a whole new group of people experience the psychosis veiled as self help.

There are good self help teachers out there... but they're few and far between. And you have to keep your wits about you so that you don't get sucked into a victimization type of relationship with a teacher or guru. My advice is to look beyond the personality and look at the information being presented. The information will speak for itself.

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In other news, apparently Pat O'Fat O'Breakdown O'Bryan launched another scam attempt charging for something that is freely available elsewhere with his video link generator. Nerissa Oden, who also has a video link creation application, and who is also "married" to Joe Vitale. Oh noes, did Pat O'Bryan take her idea? She's pretty heated up about it, apparently taking her frustration to her Facebook wall. She also repeats some of the standard secret-type thinking about how Pat is just triggering her, blah blah.

And that, my friends, is similar to the brainwashing that happens with other people in the Vitale empire. If they want to be a part of the non-potable Joe Vitale empire, they have to agree that Joe is awesome and that anything that is wrong is something that they manifested into their experience. So they beat themselves up and shame themselves for the wrongs they've experienced.

Thus, the people around Joe and Pat remain victims if they want to remain around Joe and Pat. They are bullied into either believing the lie or at the very least remaining silent to the truth.

This, my friends, is Joe Vitale's secret to success. It isn't affirmation, meditation, ho'oponopono, zero limits, law of attraction, saying "I love you" (more likely "I love me"), and it doesn't come from integrity. Joe Vitale's secret of success is pretty much summed up by They Might Be Giants in Kiss Me Son of God.

I built a little empire out of some crazy garbage
Called the blood of the exploited working class
But they've overcome their shyness
Now they're calling me Your Highness
And a world screams, "Kiss me, Son of God"
Yes a world screams, "Kiss me, Son of God"

7 comments:

  1. Well, BBF, it's good to see you back, and in such fine form. :-) I very much agree with what you seem to be saying about the ABC coverage. Recognizing that my perceptions are of course influenced by my own opinions, I still think the ABC segments are some of the most subtly damning footage I've seen, even though ABC refrained from taking a sensationalist stance one way or the other.

    I'm still thinking that the CBS *and* the CNN shows Joe mentioned are minor projects and are not part of the mainstream programming on either of these huge networks. If, on the other hand, they are creating promotional or fluff pieces that will be aired to a wide audience, then score another one for ABC, who, again, has at least attempted to present a more honest look at the selfish-help industry and some of its most successful members.

    The whole Nerissa Facebook thing is interesting. It's interesting that she would take it public and that she said Joe supported her in this and claimed that he is going to remain neutral. Uh-huh.

    I would like to think that people are indeed waking up -- but perhaps not in the sense that Mr. Fire intended when creating his so-called Awakening Course.

    PS ~ Damn good choice of lyrics at the end of your post.

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  2. Thanks, Connie, though I am not sure that my form is quite fine.

    I do think people are waking up. Just in the last week, I've found three instances of Joe Vitale unfavorable press. It's becoming easier to find such things. I would like to think that people are seeing the nuanced criticism in the ABC segments. It kind of gives me faith in humanity again.

    I do think any mainstream media featuring Joe Vitale as the lead is not going to be a major project. He doesn't have a faithful following, there's too much turnover in his audience to have much of anything to build on.

    I don't get how Joe is supporting her by being neutral. Neutral is "keep me out of it." Isn't it? If he was supporting her, wouldn't he tell Fathead O'Bryan he's being a jerk and to back off?

    Maybe he could support her by sending out an email to his list promoting her project. That would be supportive.

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  3. Unless Joe has changed very much since the days R & I knew him, "neutral" will consist of him being supportive of Nerissa when he is with Nerissa, and supportive of Pat when he is with Pat, and eventually both of them will get seriously p.o.'d at him. At which point Joe will throw up his hands and moan that he hates to see people he loves warring with each other, and he never wanted to be caught in the middle, and gosh, he tried his best for a peaceful resolution but the others just wouldn't cooperate. Sigh. A guru's work is never done.

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  4. Joe will "support" whoever offers him the most money or the most unrelenting praise. When the flow of either is interrupted, so is the "support." If Pat falters in his fawning, Joe will find a new BFF. If Nerissa falters or questions too deeply, he'll seek out new girlfriends who haven't seen the real Joe, just as he did with his ex. Might be doing it already, given his drooling over his "fitness model" and his one-time muse. I just hope Nerissa is strong,

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  5. The only people 'miraculously' having all of their financial dreams come true, are clever scammers like Vitale, Byrne and the rest of their ilk. With backing from the incredibly gullible Oprah, naturally.

    Of course they're going to be thinking happy thoughts every minute of every day...they've managed to scam millions of dollars worth of peoples hard earned money to keep themselves in the lifestyle to which they've become accustomed. They're still patting themselves on the back for pulling off that one!

    The only thing I've found to be of honest benefit to anyone, with verifyable evidence of outcomes (and it certainly wasn't The Secret) is EFT (Emotinal Freedom Technique).

    It's free, ridiculously simple, and information on how to do it is freely available all over the internet.

    It works, whether a person believes it will or not. It just works.

    The Secret? Total scam without a shred of evidence to back it up.

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  6. Haven't thought about this guy in years but I came across another guy online with the same egomaniac personality and thought I would look Joe up.

    Joe's secret is that he takes advantage of people when they feel weak and vulnerable. A feeling that he is intimately aware of so he can clearly see it in others. Please don't miss understand. I don't completely blame him because I was the one who allowed him to take advantage and take more than he deserved. Still to take advantage of people by preying on their weaknesses is wrong and I applaud your attempts at alerting others to his ways.

    Years later I can see that and understand my role in all of what happened. Also years later I understand that Joe is really a sick man who no matter what he says will never find true happiness. He will always be the guy who has to manifest something bigger and better while never really appreciating what he has or had.

    Isn't there some universal law about what goes around comes around?

    Malignant narcissism has been described as "an extreme form of antisocial personality disorder that is manifest in a person who is pathologically grandiose, lacking in conscience and behavioral regulation, and with characteristic demonstrations of joyful cruelty and sadism". (Wikipedia)

    If you think that last bit doesn't fit, just think about that stupid half smile smirk he gets on his face when he talks about his "master mind ideas".

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  7. If you choose to read a book to inspire you to get off your ass and move forward, then you have to follow up with the plan to move forward.

    If you do nothing, then buy another book, then another, you will never succeed as the goal is to inspire you to get up and move forward.

    Putting out another book is what Joe does to stay vital in the publishing world. You didn't read the book from three years ago, well here's another one to get you moving. Read it and go! Don't buy fifty new books - you either have it or you don't! Collecting bookshelves of literature won't change the fact that you haven't got the talent to thrive.

    Everyone will find a reason to call everything from the Presidency of the US to the Sham-wow a scam, but like antique collectors - the product is only valuable to the person who wants it most and that raises the value of the product itself. If you want a shelf of literature, keep buying - but if you are looking to succeed, maybe just read the latest title and go out and succeed.

    I can't imagine any of the people posting hateful messages on this board have found any success at anything in their lives. How do you have the time and energy to focus on writing hit-pieces on people and still have time to breathe? Go do something positive! Leave the computer and ride a bike, plant a tree, cast a fishing line into a river to go to the mall and meet people over coffee. Losers! You have all this pent up energy and you're looking for a venting process that leads to browbeating and brickbats.

    There will come a day, and I hope it isn't too late for you, that you'll see all the wasted time you spent spewing garbage out in a desperate attempt to scream "look at me" to the world. No one would be reading your trash if you didn't attach it to a celebrity name like Vitale's, and they didn't choose to read it because of you, they found it because you used his name to write senseless waste on the Internet.

    YOU don't have the skills to move forward, the talent to succeed or the capability to organize positive thought into forward moving projects. It is your ultimate failure and the downfall of everything you do. When you look at yourself in the mirror, that person you hate is the person you need to change. Filling Internet with hatred and misleading information is not how it's done.

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