Mar 09 2009

Neurometaphysics – BS In A Cheap Suit

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Comments: 21

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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