Mar 09 2009
Neurometaphysics – BS In A Cheap Suit
Dr. Joe Vitale is not a real doctor, in any sense of the word. He went to Kent State but failed to graduate. Then he received a “doctorate” in metaphysics from the unaccredited University of Metaphysics in Sedona, Arizona (America’s epicenter of woo). He also has an honorary doctorate from (also unaccredited) Belford University, an online diploma mill.
This guy wants to bring you the secret of neurometaphysics. Neurometaphysics is nothing more than a fancy name for “The Secret” – the magical belief that wishing for something makes it come true.
To any thinking person that’s probably all that needs to be said about it, but the window dressing is interesting. Promoters of The Secret claim they have discovered the “Law of Attraction” (LOA) – which is the power of positive thinking. Not in the ordinary sense that if you are a positive person you are more likely to be motivated and create opportunities for yourself, but in the overtly magical sense that the universe will respond to your positive energy and make this happen – by magic.
Modern gurus often like to throw around the word “science” to describe their BS. It’s just marketing, but it’s very irritating to those of us who actually care about the integrity of science. The worst of them invent new jargon, like neurometaphysics. But the only “science” that Vitale has to back his claims is the anecdotes of believers.
Also like most gurus, Vitale is intolerant of doubt. You must believe. He writes:
When anything happens in your life, you can say it was LOA that made it so or you can attribute the result to some other cause and pretend LOA doesn’t exist or doesn’t work.
Yes, we can always pretend. He continues:
The Law of Attraction is the same as the Law of Gravity or any other law: it’s working whether you give it credit or not. Knowing about it can help you achieve the results you want.
In other words, if you’re one of those who say LOA doesn’t work for you, then you might as well say gravity doesn’t work for you, either.
He reassures us that the best approach is to forget all doubt and just accept that LOA works. He has more advice:
I’m constantly saying that you must get clear of the limiting beliefs within you in order to attract your intention. Counter-intentions will always trip you up. Be aware of your thoughts when things don’t work out for you. Those are what you need to get clear of. Those are the beliefs that attracted what you got. How do you get clear? One easy way is through Zero Limits.
That’s right, all you have to do is buy his book. The core message here is the same as for most cons and belief systems – the magic always works, except when it doesn’t. And when it doesn’t, it was your fault for doubting the magic. When things go well for you, no matter what real-life factors may have been at work, it was really the magic. When things do not go well for you, that was your doubt in the magic.
Insert any magical belief system for “the magic.”
Further, any anecdotes that seem to support the magic are true, and any that seem to contradict the magic are false or misleading. This is a deliberate policy of confirmation bias.
If you want to have a bad day then read the comments below any of his entries, but stop before you lose all faith in humanity.
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Thanks to Skeptico for sending this to me.
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20 Responses to “Neurometaphysics – BS In A Cheap Suit”
And if that’s not incentive enough to dislike this “Doctor,” it seems he has quite the crush on Ms. Jenny McCarthy and her exploits …
Link
The sad thing is, i read all those comments, and I did lose faith in humanity. At least some sects anyways
Whoops, link’s busted. Here’s the URL if anyone wants it
http://blog.mrfire.com/secret/jenny-mccarthy-says-yes/
LOA = LOL
How is LOA different than prayer?
The Law of Attraction is pure crap. Everyone knows that the Law of Fives is where it’s really at.
Asking another being for help vs. thinking yourself into luck. That’s the difference I see. I could see the scientologists getting into this one pretty hardcore.
Maybe a better question is “How is LOA different than faith?”
Alfred E Neuman got there first.
http://www.leedberg.com/mad/quotes/quotes.html
Steve, I agree with you completely… but don’t you think you could have worded that a little more positively? Your negativity is going to set up a negative feedback loop in the universe and in the next few days you’ll stub your toe or something!
I hope Oprah’s on top of this…
It just amazes me that people actually buy into this crap. It frustrates me at the same time.
Dr. Joe Vitale says in Watcher’s link that we have to say no to cheesecake and yes to a diet. Gee, Joe, that includes you, say no to “cheesecake,” Jenny McCarthy, and yes to a smart-looking and sounding lady.
[...] Steve Novella, of the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, discusses neurometaphysics. What’s that? Well, it’s the scienctific sounding name being used for the drivel promoted in the movie The Secret. [...]
I wonder if Vitale is his real last name. It seems too convenient for someone selling motivational merchandise.
I’ve heard of this quack before. He was trying to sell some marketing book. Seeing how well The Secret is doing is making me wonder if that one might actually be worth reading.
How do you get an honorary degree from an online diploma mill? Is that like their lower-cost diploma option?
Five? Five dollar? Five dollar foot-long?
Don’t confuse this guy with Joe Vitale the rock musician. He’s another Ohio native who went to Kent State. But he’s not a guru, he’s a drummer who was ubiquitous in the ’70s and ’80s. CS&N, Eagles, etc. He just wrote a tell-all book about his days on the road. Thank you, Wikipedia disambiguation page.
I like the giant spaghetti monster god better.
On the other hand, if some weird belief makes someone not act in quite such a horrible manner as they did before, it might be useful.
How do you stop a tsunami with positive thought?
It’s like some kind of infinite regress of nonsense. He markets BS courses in “hypnotic marketing”… to marketeers… the very people who are supposed to be masters of BS…
Does that make him a BS merchant or a kind of BS poacher or…? I really don’t know. I think it just makes him a douche.
I say “yes” to not reading joe’s dumb book.
I say “yes” to not sending joe a amazon gift certificate.
I say “yes” to telling joe he’s a @$$%*(&