By: Jennifer Rodriguez

Jennifer Rodriguez — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:01:36 +0000

Dear Patrick,
I haven’t contacted you in a while because I was doing okay and getting on with bettering myself even if it was in a slow, torturous manner but something has happened recently that has made me question myself and everything around me.
It’s the Sweat Lodge tragedy that happened in Sedona, Arizona where James Arthur Ray took a group of people seeking spiritual enlightment. Three people died, 19 were injured.
James Arthur Ray, as you probably know, is one of the most highly regarded teachers of the Law of Attraction. And you, yourself, are also a big proponent of the Law of Attraction.
He was also one of the first people to inspire me to “change” for the better the things in my life I’m not satisfied with (as were you).
Recently, I read a blog post from another highly respected, self-help guru, Dave Lakhani. Maybe you’ve heard of him too. He’s highly regarded in the world of sales and persuasion and is extremely in demand.
He’s also someone who was raised in a cult that his mother joined and broke away from it under threat of death. Dirt-poor and on his own as a teenager, he turned his life around and today is a millionaire.
This is the type of person you would expect to a big proponent of the Law of Attraction. But Dave Lakhani shocked me by writing in his blog post that he is an outspoken critic of the Law of Attraction.
He criticized James Arthur Ray and accused him of “cult tactics” plus accused the Law of Attraction as being nothing more than a “cult” belief.
This devastated me. Because I both respect James Arthur Ray and Dave Lakhani and I was shocked to read that Dave Lakhani doesn’t believe in the Law of Attraction so if he, someone highly successful and very well-grounded in scientific principles, doesn’t believe it then why should I?
For that matter am I being gullible by believing that I can change my life by simply “changing my thoughts”?
Even changing my thoughts coupled by actions might not be enough. What I mean is that, what if I were someone inspired to be an opera singer? Just imagine that I loved opera, had a passion for opera but wasn’t born with the voice to be an opera singer. Would it be enough to just truly believe with all my heart that I was meant to be an opera singer? Even if I coupled that with action, I took voice lessons upon voice lessons to improve my voice – would that ever make me an opera singer? Shouldn’t I just accept that I’m not cut out to be an opera singer?
I don’t know if “believing” is enough anymore to turn my life around. For years, I’ve been trying to motivate myself to start a business. I’ve had tons of “false starts” and now I’m wondering if they weren’t really so “false”. Maybe it’s not for me. Maybe I should just accept that those things are not possible for someone like me. After all, I don’t come from an entrepreneurial family, nor a rich one. We’ve never been more than just workers. Maybe I’m believing something out of my league.
I don’t know anymore. The tragedy, Dave Lakhani’s criticism of James Arthur Ray and the whole Law of Attraction movement in general have really devastated my faith in myself and my desire to “change” my life for the better. Maybe there is no “better”.
Patrick, I’d like to ask you that you take a look at Dave Lakhani’s blog post, it also contains links to the news posts about the tragedy. Both you and Dave Lakhani have something in common. You are both believers in the science of psychology. Dave Lakhani bases everything he does in the science of psychology and in scientific evidence. I’m sure you can relate to that.
And I’d like to ask you to please respond to this. Whether it be through an e-mail to me or a blog post on your blog. I think there are others out there suffering the same crisis of faith as I am and I’m sure many others who have read Dave Lakhani’s post. What do you have to say about this as someone who also considers himself a professional rooted in psychology and scientific evidence?
Here is the link to Dave Lakhani’s blog post which will also take you to news reports about the Sweat Lodge tragedy:
Finally, many of you may have heard of the sweat lodge deaths of three
people at James Arthur Ray’s “Spiritual Warrior” (James was one of the
teachers featured in the run away movie, “The Secret”)event in Sedona,
Arizona. I wrote a very detailed blog post about how people are
persuaded to do things (in this case fast in the desert without
food or water for 36 hours then enter a high temperature sweat lodge
for two hours). The post is long and include analysis of cult mind
control, obedience, thinking errors and more:
https://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=OHRaN&m=1Zi9dbBph2Wvt1&b=OWAOHKmxEpbnnXqSb0YlgQ

I look forward to some kind of response from you, whether it be through e-mail or blog post. I understand how busy you are but I really do hope you will take time out of your busy schedule to look into this.
Thank you as always for encouraging us all to believe in ourselves!
Jennifer Rodriguez

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By: Patrick Wanis

By: Jennifer Rodriguez