Fire Fire Everywhere

Fireboy, aka Mr. Fire himself, is asking people to "Nevillize" away the central Texas fires.

Remember, kids, if you're breathing in smoke from wildfires, it's because you're not being positive enough.

And if Mr. Fire is breathing in fire (instead of spewing out sulfurous material as is his usual modus operandi), then there is only one real solution. That solution is to rally the troops. See, if people will only think positive thoughts, imagine rain, and meditate, use EFT, hooponopono, then it will help. See, he's been doing it and the wildfires in his area have increased in containment. Oh, and it happened INSTANTLY he said.

He writes:

People from all over the world sat and prayed, or visualized, or intended and requested that the fires diminish. 

What happened? 

Almost instantly a friend who had been evacuated from his home due to the fires wrote to me saying the smokes seemed to clear, the power came back on, and he was told he could return home safely. 

Friends of mine who were preparing to evacuate were told they were safe. 

Then I looked at the news and saw that while the fires were still burning and there was no rain in sight, most of the larger fires around my area of Austin, Texas were either contained, put out, or greatly improved in containment.

See? It works! Just pray and think and it will magically fix itself. Oh, but if it doesn't work, he'll bring out some crap about how he talks about action and tell people he never said that thoughts make magic happen.

But here we are again, with Mr. Fire saying that people should use the power of their mind -- and use intentions -- to make the wildfires stop. It worked for his friends!

But in other communications, he'll tell you that intentions are for wussies. Or that he never said that thoughts create magical miracles.

So. What is it? What's the truth? If thoughts, words, intentions and unconscious beliefs create reality, what is Mr. Fire creating every time someone types in mrfire.com? Fire. Everywhere. Fire. Central Texas. Fire. Joe Vitale. Fire boy.

But don't try to blame Mr. Fire for thoughts creating reality, unless it somehow makes him look like he isn't unconsciously Law of Attracting Fire to central Texas.

If you are Mr. Fire, you are using more than 2 dozen scientifical studies that prove when people hold intentions for Mr. Fire, those intentions come to pass. I'm sure all of those FLAMES on your web site wouldn't get hypnotically into people's unconscious, would they.

So. Either thoughts, intentions, and magical thinking don't have any effect, or Mr. Fire has some responsibility in Law of Attracting himself a regional disaster. The logic he uses holds about as much water as the Pedernales River has in it right now. Aka, not much.

I'm not saying people shouldn't pray for Texas. I think a prayer or two would be nice. Supporting the people who are there with tangible donations would be better.

My problem, and the reason for this blog post, is with the fallacy of logic of the past two Joe Vitale posts. It's the fallacy of logic he uses to sell everything from crappy books to overpriced, scammy miracles coaching. It's the fallacy of logic that requires criticism and scrutiny.

Instead of wussified intentions, Joe, why don't you donate some of that vast wealth you say you've accumulated in your marketing to help some of those people who lost their homes?

Also, remember that during the San Diego fires of a few years back, Joe Vitale blamed the victims of those fires for what happened. The evidence has all but disappeared from his blog, but there's enough discussion on the internet to keep your google goggles busy.

Update: Thanks to our friend, Cosmic Connie, here are some links that will remind you of what Joe Vitale REALLY thinks about people who suffer from wild fires.

http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2007/10/all-fired-up.html

http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2007/10/all-fired-up-continued.html

http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2007/10/putting-out-fires.html

http://shambook.blogspot.com/2007/11/mr-fire-indeed.html

Timothy Wilson versus Joe Vitale

Oh, now this is getting fun.

Joe has announced a new Abundance Network after lunching with God. Hint: Joe has in the past announced television shows such as Expect Miracles, a radio show on CNN, and a TV show on CBS. He has announced bogus charities that do nothing but feed his ego and make him APPEAR to be generous, meanwhile doing absolutely NOTHING. My prediction: the abundance network will amount to Joe's pile of dirt.

Joe has announced a trip to fantasy island, but you have to pay him $50,000 and he's not even going to dress up like his alter-ego, Tattoo. Don't worry, he'll still look like Danny Devito, and your brilliant imagination skills can make up the rest. Friend of the Pyre, Cosmic Connie has details on that.

But look what Fireboy did. He got mentioned in a book called Redirect by Timothy D. Wilson, the Sherrell J. Aston Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia. On page 45, no less. The shot isn't completely directed at Joe, there's lots of mentions of his cohorts in the "movie" The Secret. But Joe, our fearfilled leader, takes it upon himself to defend himself and the rest of the make-believers in the Law of Attraction. You see, Joe never said anything about thoughts creating your reality. It's about actions. Actions create your reality. That's it, that's the ticket.

Oh, and I love the way Joey shows off that he learned a big word in that blog post where he defends himself against the completely unconscious Timothy D. Wilson. But then again, small minded "Got Milk" types of hucksters trying to play superior games against well respected actual Ph.D. (not the pretend Ph.D. in "meta-physics Joe Vitale asserts that he has from a diploma mill) always have amused me.

So, real Dr. Wilson says that movies like The Secret and just-think-happy-thoughts self-help books and programs that not-Dr. Vitale put out actually cause more problems than they're worth.

Joe's response:

He [the author of 'Redirect'] quotes me as saying the reason you have what you have is due to your thoughts. He apparently missed the part where I said you have what you have due to your actions. Thoughts are only part of the equation. Glossing over facts because they don’t support your underlying message is a common way to communicate...

 

...I’m not kicking the author’s shins, as I enjoyed his book and urge you to read it. But I am reminding us that we all have unconscious blind spots – even authors who try to help us see them. We don’t see them because they are unconscious. The point of life is to awaken.

I'd love to see if real Dr. Wilson would ever respond to not-Dr. Vitale. Is Dr. Wilson awakened enough to spend $50,000 of his book earnings to actually attend not-Dr. Vitale's Fantasy Island? Would Dr. Wilson be open enough to let go of his unconscious patterns and play the role of Rourke? I think not, Dr. Wilson. I think not. I bet Malcolm Gladwell, who apparently raves about Dr. Wilson's books, wouldn't invest $50,000 on Make-a-piece-off-you island either.

Let's talk a little bit about "glossing over facts," shall we? It's a common way to communicate in Joe Vitale's experience, and I agree. He experiences himself glossing over facts a lot. Like the facts about what he has really said.

Sometimes he tells us that we do things with our thoughts. Sometimes he tells  us we need to set intentions. Sometimes he tells us we need to listen to specially designed audios to set our intentions. Sometimes he tells us intentions are for wussies. Sometimes he tells us we need to neutralize negative thoughts. Sometimes he tells us it's all in our unconscious and we need to hooponopononono on it, like he just did to Dr. Wilson. Sometimes he likes to say that it is little kid's fault for attracting their killers, like he did on Larry King.

OK, now I am tired. Apparently, Joe likes to gloss over what some truths and concentrate on whatever message might be most profitable in the moment. If he was telling the truth, he wouldn't contradict himself every other minute. He'd have some congruency in the products he puts out.

My order of Redirect is coming soon. I am hoping I get to see whether or not Dr. Wilson is congruent in his message in the book. I think there will be a lot of congruency in his message that self help materials like Joe Vitale's, like The Secret, do much more harm than good.

Joe Vitale's God

We're still talking about Joe Vitale's lunch with God. It's fascinating, really, and it gives you a little look into Joe Vitale's motivations, psychology, and reality. For someone who says he loves everyone, for someone who tweets frequently that "I love you" is the most powerful statement you can say, it's odd who Joe feels God-like feelings towards.

Is it someone with a huge heart, someone who radiates love and kindness in every statement?

Is it someone who can  provide him health and healing?

Is it someone who can solve homelessness? (After all, Joe says this is a big problem, a problem worthy of his conspicuous altruistic attention.)

Is it someone who can solve worldwide problems of hatred, bigotry, and violence?

Or is it someone who has a few hundred million at his disposal.

Yes, the person who shows up and makes Joe see God is a per$on in bu$ine$$ ca$ual that make$ Joe $ee what i$ mo$t important to him.

Not love.
Not health.
Not helping people.
Not changing the world.

Nope. Joe Vitale saw dollar signs, and that is his God. He's willing to take someone's last few thousand dollars through a hard sell in his miracle coaching program before he will help a homeless person.

Operation YES, according to my research, is a sham organization that does absolutely nothing. It doesn't meet the promises that have been stated for nearly 4 years. It doesn't even try.

Joe Vitale's primary focus is money, it is his God, it is what he wants more than anything. And when he says "I love you" what he really means is "I love your money."

If Operation YES really is committed to changing the world and not just a sham organization that Joe pulls out when he's looking to look altruistic, why did he not tell his "God" in their lunch meeting about his goals of helping people around the world overcome homelessness? Why was that not pitched as an idea bigger than big, bigger than Joe's ego?

Perhaps because Joe feels that he wouldn't get enough attention, that the evil mainstream media would just turn it into another Hoshun doll escapade and ridicule Joe. Because there are never any feel good stories about people overcoming homelessness on mainstream media. Nevermind this guy. They are just looking to victimize people like Joe who are REALLY doing good work, you know.

Operation YES, homeless of the world, you're on your own. Really, it isn't Joe's fault that the media won't report in his favor. But he'll show them. Yes, he will. He'll show them.

After all, he's got "God" on his $ide.

God visits Joe Vitale (or not)

I apologize, dear readers, for neglecting you for so long. You took the time to follow me, encourage me, and off I go living a Fire-free life. How dare I.

I had to go back and look at my notes to see where we left off, and to see what Joe Vitale has up his sleeve these days. There's no real theme to what he's doing.... promoting a few products from Clickbank, promoting his pal Pat O'Bryan's unseminar coming up this month, and then... this morning, he wrote a blog post about a lunch meeting with "God."

I'm sure you know that he doesn't really mean GOD himself. Or George Burns. Or even Morgan Freeman.

I don't think he even meant Osho, Dr. Hew Len, or any other of his spiritual advisors.

Maybe Central Market needs to check their mushroom stash. Perhaps Joe was having psychedelic visions again.

Personally, I think he's just trying to call attention to himself.

(I know, say it isn't so. A known narcissist calling attention to himself with empty, false promises of things that will never come to pass. Like perhaps a miracle from miracles coaching.)

Well, apparently this business casual diety asked Joe to think big. Joe's thought processes immediately turned to the biggest thing he could imagine. He thought of his ego. The diety in khaki said to think bigger than that.

Joe was amazed. His eyes widened.

There's something bigger than Joe's ego? Really?

Maybe... yes. It is entirely possible.

Remember that evil media man, Dan Harris from ABC News, that twisted and turned his meeting with Joe into a hatchet job... this after Joe shared his love of all things indie music and bonded with Dan so deeply and spiritually. They were such good friends! Remember them... they tried to make Joe look human with foibles and attacked his beloved ego.

Perhaps Joe could find a way to upstage them and finally have his revenge? Perhaps Joe could have his OWN (not affiliated with Oprah Winfrey Network) network and only allow Vitale-approved news on it? Maybe Joe could take all of those negative nay-sayers, you know the ones that control everything in this world and try to make people feel bad so they buy things like medicine and food, and show them how media should be done. Joe has "complained" (his words not mine) about them in the past.

Yes, apparently, Joe is still burned by his own little fire from that experience.

Yes. That way, Joe could prop up his beloved ego and put everyone who doesn't worship at the Altar of Joe's Ego in their place. What a way to turn a negative into such an ego-worshipping positive! Way to go, Joe! I hear your business casual GOD really loved that! I'm sure all the great metaphysical texts have mentioned something about making up conversations with people you think are dieties in cafes on hot summer days.

Let's see. If the Law of Attraction really does work, then how did Joe attract such an ego-crushing experience with Dan Harris in the first place? What did you do, Joe? What awful, horrible thoughts did you have that magnetized your mind for such humiliation? After all, isn't your primary teaching that you should take responsibility for everything that happens to you?

Or maybe bad things do really happen to such wonderful people such as yourself? How is it that you area victim of evil Dan Harris, but your "friend" who was down on his luck from your previous blog post created it all himself?

Here's a question, and I've been doing my own investigative work to find an answer. But Joe doesn't talk about his homeless days much at all. Some people have suggested that perhaps Joe was never really homeless. Other people have suggested that perhaps Joe was actually homeless for a matter of a couple of weeks. We are just not really altogether sure whether or not Joe was really as down and out as he purports in his marketing.

We'd like to know, though.

Which leads us to another look at Joe's "world changing" Operation YES initiative. This is yet another thing that Joe mentions in passing all too often, but it's something that Joe hasn't done anything with. Nothing. Joe wanted to end homelessness (you know, the problem he's so intimately familiar with), but there has not been one dime invested, not one change made, not one person's life affected by his Operation YES initiative. The only thing that has changed is the removal of James A. Ray's  name from the Operation YES web site.

If I'm wrong, please prove me wrong, Joe. Stop talking about what Operation YES should be, and show some hard evidence of what it has done. Otherwise, I will assume that Operation YES is just another vanity affair like your Abundance Television Network will be.

A lot of talking, a lot of promises, and no substance whatsoever. Kind of like the little Russian Wish Doll Joe and Pat O'Bryan dreamed up to make all your dreams come true. Or did they take that idea from a woman named Maria Joe met while traveling in Russia?

My expectation is that Joe will do nothing with the Abundance Television Network. Just like he did nothing with the Expect Miracles Television show he promised was in the offing about 4 years ago. Just like so many products, books, services... it's all just empty platitudes... marketing at its best... substance at its least.

Recycled information... over and over again.

And that's my opinion, of course.