Good post. When we need critical thinking the most, it's good to be reminded of how easy it is to be fooled.

My personal view about Oprah is that her motives simply cannot be trusted, and that she has a track record that proves it. As the queen of PR how can we discern fact from fiction anyway?

Oprah has only had some bad weeks. That woman simply can't seem to have a bad month. I've been waiting for her to just stop thriving for a long long time.

I live in Africa and most of my student's are from severely disadvantaged communities, and I do this by choice, and for my living, and at a rate very few people with my qualifications would be prepared to work for.
And yes, I know Oprah does a lot of good, but so do many other people, and they don't stand to benefit from the resulting PR. Just look at the volunteer coaches and others who do thankless work in your own communities, they are the true heroes as they do not expect anything in return for it – that is as per Oprah’s Law of Attraction.

As far as Oprah is concerned, her great deeds are wonderful, but then again does that mean we should worship her and hang on to her every word and believe everything she hawkes?

I should hope not. She's a very fallible human being who received some incredibly lucky breaks in her life, albeit that she indeed worked hard for them as well, but so does so many others, but have to be satisfied with often meager results. The point being, we need to be far more critical of what and who Oprah and others in the media endorses as they very often have a vested interest in what they are doing.

Hi fernsy, I do not wish her ill, but I notice that she's had some considerable bad luck since promoting The Secret. She's gained weight, had medical problems, had a bout of depression, her ratings went down, then the James Ray episode. How does this gel with The Secret and the LOA -- what must she therefore be thinking to be attracting all this lousy negativity in her life?

I simply do not get your preoccupation with that book, Newton. Maybe it would help if you did a post about why you are so concerned. It is not even a good book. So why give it so much publicity through your blog? Your blog is precious by the way.

Bonnie, Newton is helping us start a school in India. This is apart from other things he does for his own community.

Hi Rolling it doesn't occupy much of my time, the book is free for download on the internet and I’ve received a number of people emailing me on how it helped them overcome their “spiritual consumerist” addiction.

I wrote a book about it 2 years ago, and based on my analysis predicted an economic crisis to the day (for the record a copy of the book was sent to the University of Amsterdam in July 2008 indicating this). It's not The Secret per se but the mentality it promotes which is dangerous, and indeed, it’s a wacky nonsensical book, yet it is still topping the bestseller list.

And it is not harmless. In fact, to the contrary. The James Ray (cowriter of the book) case and the number of deaths and injuries and suicides associated with it being a case in point, but the subliminal harm it causes is far more insidious, particularly since it affects one’s essential belief system, and I argued in the books, is at the very heart of American decay at the moment. Why I’ve focused on Oprah is one of its greatest proliferators -- that is notwithstanding that she does do much good and her show is very informative – but that proliferating such views has a far greater effect that would last beyond the apparent good she does. And I say apparent because we have to be sceptical as we cannot tell where PR begins and ends with her, but that's just the business she's in so we are foolish to hero worship her, she's merely doing her job, and very well at that.

BTW, the book is a philosophical/psychological discourse grounded in existentialism, and that The Secret provides an ideal backdrop to the greater discussion as it is in almost complete juxtaposition to this view. But interestingly, to the views of most mainstream religions as well. Its more than 400 pages (normal book size), so it is quite and extensive and exhaustive discussion. I must say that that indeed took some time, but it was more a work of passion than anything else, now I’m merely marketing it whenever a relevant event such as the imprisonment of James Ray takes place. Quite frankly I don’t have much time to give it much more attention than that.

Also read this blog article by Stellaa -- America's addiction to fairy tales, fantasy and folk lore.