Wayne Dyer has transitioned

[DreamBliss]

I have just read that on August 30th Wayne Dyer transition from the physical. I say it that way because I am sure this is how he views it. His is not a death to be mourned, but a life to be celebrated. I am almost 100% certain that he did exactly what he came here to do in his physical life.

 

But I am left with feelings I can't sort out. Some of you read the process I went through to get tickets to see him in Portland this year. I walked away disappointed. But it turns out that if I had not gone, I would never have seen and heard from him (at a distance) in the physical.

 

So now it seems there was something even more than what I thought was going on. I know some of you may come in here talking coincidence. So be it. I will use the word serendipitous. I think it was more serendipity behind all the ducks lining up in a row so I could go than coincidence.

 

I have no more words right now. I almost feel something like guilt or shame at myself. As if I have not appreciated this opportunity I was granted as much as I should have. I am grasping at straws here, searching for meaning. I can't make any sense out of this.

 

Thank you Mr. Dyer for coming to Portland, so that I had the opportunity to hear you. I will remember everything I have learned from you, even if I don't yet appreciate it.

Edited September 8, 2015 by DreamBliss

[Nikolai1]

But I am left with feelings I can't sort out. Some of you read the process I went through to get tickets to see him in Portland this year. I walked away disappointed. 

 

Why were you disappointed?

[gendao]

But I am left with feelings I can't sort out. Some of you read the process I went through to get tickets to see him in Portland this year. I walked away disappointed. But it turns out that if I had not gone, I would never have seen and heard from him (at a distance) in the physical.

Could you elaborate on this?  Did he not live up to his hype for you?

 

He also believed "John of God" cured his leukemia in 2011...but I guess not?

 

I'd say he lived a pretty full life to age 75, though.

[DreamBliss]

He died of a heart attack, not leukemia,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Dyer

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/08/30/wayne-dyer-obituary/71435806/

 

Part of my story here:

https://blisswriter.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/as-posted-in-a-comment-i-made-at-the-i-am-light-event-page-on-facebook/

 

Searching the forums for the rest... Well I searched but can't find it. I thought I detailed that here or at my blog. I will check my writing folder later. For now I will have to leave the question of my disappointment not completely answered.

 

Part of it, as I recall, was that I guess I had an expectation that seeing Mr. Dyer would be a spiritually transformative experience for me. But it wasn't.

Edited September 9, 2015 by DreamBliss

[gendao]

He died of a heart attack, not leukemia,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Dyer

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/08/30/wayne-dyer-obituary/71435806/

 

Part of my story here:

https://blisswriter.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/as-posted-in-a-comment-i-made-at-the-i-am-light-event-page-on-facebook/

Ah, I stand corrected.

On Tuesday, a statement on Dyer's Facebook page said the cause of his death was a heart attack.

On Tuesday, a statement on Dyer's Facebook page said a coroner's report indicated "he did not have a trace of leukemia in his body."

"For those of you who have been listening to his talks or reading his recent books you know that he was diagnosed with leukemia but felt he was able to eliminate it from his body and this report confirms what he already knew," the statement read.

No idea what you were disappointed about, then?  Maybe you were hoping for a New Age guru shaktipat, but left the same as you came?

[Nikolai1]

I honestly think Wayne Dyer was a well-meaning chap but he was one of those lucky few who made money selling hope.  Jerry Hicks was exactly the same.

 

Because they got lots of money and fame, they imagined it was the method (Law of attraction) that was working.  Actually all they did was happen upon a product that sells.  

 

When it came to applying the method to anything except selling the method it was clear he was a complete amateur.  Two examples from There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem:

 

He recalled becoming angry at the “thunderous noises” made by workers mowing the lawns on his estate on the Hawaiian island of Maui, until he learnt to “send a silent blessing” when they arrived.

 

In another anecdote he recalled how, on a lecture tour to promote his philosophy, he had worked himself up into a rage when he could not get a sandwich delivered to his hotel room because room service was not available. The crisis passed when, remembering what he had been preaching earlier in the day, he took a deep breath and went downstairs to get a sandwich for himself.

 

This guy was very far from enlightened!!  A person with even a modicum of spiritual peace wouldn't even need to remember the method in these scenarios.

 

All this doesn't mean the Law of Attraction isn't valid - it is, for those pure enough in heart and spirit to make it work.

 

What it means is that Wayne Dyer was not able to demonstrate the method any more than the next salesman. he was just an ordinary guy who people believed in.

[Nikolai1]

In the case of Jerry Hicks there is a certain amount of denial about the fact that he has been dead for nearly four years.

 

On the official website http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/index.php the latest courses and cruises are kept scrupulously up to date.  Yet the About Jerry and Esther section reads thus:

 

Jerry and Esther Hicks live a fairy-tale life.

These two fun-loving adventure-seekers are currently breathing in huge lungfuls of joy as they figure-eight across the United States in their rock star monster bus, following the good weather, meeting friends along the way and enabling as many people as possible to visit with Abraham.

And what a ride these two are having!

And then we get more detail about Jerry:

 

Jerry's life reads like a celebrity bio: circus performer, juggler, boxer, singer, gymnast, radio show host, comedian, millionaire entrepreneur. In his words, "Every dream I've had—every dream since I was a little boy—they've all come true."

Jerry has journeyed from being so sick as a child that he overheard his doctor tell his mother, "I don't think the kid is gonna make it through the winter," to an adult who enjoys almost perfect health and vitality. Today, the spring in Jerry's step rivals that of men half his age.

As a child, Jerry lived in such poverty that, he says a bit sheepishly, "My mother once resorted to cutting the neighbor's fence and letting the cows wander in so she could get milk for my little brother." Yet, by the time he met Esther, Jerry had built a multi-million-dollar business operation engaging over 100,000 people. His success springboarded almost entirely from a chance reading of Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. Jerry confides, "I was never much interested in money. I was more interested in having a wonderful life . . . and being free."

From a series of negative, sometimes tumultuous, dead-end relationships, Jerry has evolved into the soulful partnership he now enjoys with Esther, which he describes as "Spectacular!" and adds, "Esther is the most allowing person I've ever met."

Perhaps the fact that he is dead is slightly off-putting to those who want to buy into the dream and buy into one of the cruiseship courses.

 

Ultimately, they know that their target audience is a bit simple minded, and will ask 'Why didn't Jerry use the law of attraction to stay alive?'

 

Better to try and conceal his death for as long as possible.

[DreamBliss]

In answer to to an earlier question, I can not find what I could have sworn I written. Maybe I wrote it in my poetry journal. I thought for sure I had expressed somewhere, and kept a record of it, my thoughts on the event I attended, "I Am Light." This blog post gives some clues:

https://blisswriter.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/the-aftermath/

 

At this time that is the only answer I am willing to give. I am not willing to spend any more time looking for whatever it was I wrote. I do not wish to spend any more time looking back.

 

All I can say is what I said, and I will expound just a little. I remember talking about how hard I worked to get the money for the tickets, helping some friends of my parents move to Kalamath Falls, Oregon. I figured out later that the money came that way because I had a mentality that I had to earn it. So I received an opportunity to earn the money, rather than say have someone give me tickets.

 

In any case when the day was through I left early and remembered feeling like it hadn't been worth it. That I had learned some valuable lessons in earning the money to go. Also that I did have some good experiences in the form of meeting that woman at Red Robbins. That should be in my dating thread someone around here. But overall it wasn't worth it. As I said I guess I was expecting more.

 

I apologize if that is not enough information. I must have talked about it here somewhere, it will be dated about the same time as my dating thread. I will leave you to your own research if it is important to you. I mean no offense, but I am done talking about this for now.

 

Now to address what Nikolai has since posted...

 

I just wrote a long rant that I have since relegated to a Bleedings document. I will instead keep things very simple. I don't give a flying fuck about enlightenment, or whether or not a teacher is enlightened! It is not important to me. No enlightened person has ever come to my area and made themselves physically available to me. But Wayne Dyer and Anita Moorjani have, so they have earned my respect.

 

What I do have access to is Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Abraham, Seth, Neville Goddard, Thich Nhat Hanh. John Daido Loori, Ram Dass, Osho, Mike Dooley, Rumi (as translated by Coleman Barks) and a handful of other New Thought teachers. And I don't care if any of these folk are enlightened or not.

 

What I do care about is if what I am reading feels right for me, at the moment I am reading it. What I do notice is if I am struggling to read a book, as I did when I started John Daido Loori's, "Zen of Creativity", and all of a sudden something shifts in me and I can understand it. Or when I read Richard Rohr's, "The Naked Now"  and I have an experience that I still can't define.

 

As far as what Esther Hicks is doing, again I don't care. All that matters to me is how a teaching feels to me at the moment I hear it or read it. The Abraham teachings speak to me, so I will continue to read them. I will believe in them. But if they prove to be false, I will release them and let them go. The same applies to any other teaching I choose to believe, whether the teacher was enlightened or not.

 

Writing this has caused a turmoil in me, so I have to step away for a while.

[DreamBliss]

In the case of Jerry Hicks there is a certain amount of denial about the fact that he has been dead for nearly four years.

 

On the official website http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/index.php the latest courses and cruises are kept scrupulously up to date.  Yet the About Jerry and Esther section reads thus:

 

And then we get more detail about Jerry:

 

Perhaps the fact that he is dead is slightly off-putting to those who want to buy into the dream and buy into one of the cruiseship courses.

 

Ultimately, they know that their target audience is a bit simple minded, and will ask 'Why didn't Jerry use the law of attraction to stay alive?'

 

Better to try and conceal his death for as long as possible.

 

[Nikolai1]

Not mentioning his death explicitly is justified by the 'he's not really dead, he's just invisible' argument which I'm sympathetic to.

 

But if they truly believed this, I think they would be comfortable saying in his designated bio that Jerry is no longer physcially alive.  But they don't, and this is because it is bad PR for a movement which is heavily about using a method in order to get physical health.

 

Real physical health and longevity is what people want, and this is why they are being shielded from the reality. We are even invited to look out for them:

 

 

Some day you'll be cruising down the highway and, as you approach a rather large, auspicious-looking bus, you may be able to read, printed across the back: "Life is supposed to be fun!" Don't be at all surprised if—as you pass—you get an enthusiastic smile and a wave from two kids wearing goofy red clown noses.

It's just Jerry & Esther Hicks, on their way to more fun and adventure!

Edited September 9, 2015 by Nikolai1

[DreamBliss]

Not mentioning his death explicitly is justified by the 'he's not really dead, he's just invisible' argument which I'm sympathetic to.

 

But if they truly believed this, I think they would be comfortable saying in his designated bio that Jerry is no longer physcially alive.  But they don't, and this is because it is bad PR for a movement which is heavily about using a method in order to get physical health.

 

Real physical health and longevity is what people want, and this is why they are being shielded from the reality. We are even invited to look out for them:

 

As I said, I do not know what Esther Hicks is doing, I do not care, it is none of my business anyway. I took a moment to see if they had any way to contact them about your issue, but I didn't see any way to relay your concern.

 

Please keep a few things in mind... Nobody ever went to see Jerry Hicks. They went to see his wife, Esther, and to hear from Abraham, through her. Secondly there is no way of knowing how directly Esther is involved with her website, it could have been relegated to others or to Hay House. Your concern should probably be addressed to Hay House, or Reid Tracy. Thirdly if Esther is manipulating things to bring in more money, that is her business, her path she must walk. It has nothing to do with you. Fourthly, what Esther does or how she lives does not invalidate the teachings that come through her.

 

Last but not least, Esther Hicks has nothing to do with the subject of this thread, which is Wayne Dyer and his passing.

Edited September 9, 2015 by DreamBliss

[Nikolai1]

Dreambliss - by the way, as you know, I understand and know the deep wisdom in the law of attraction teachings.  I also thin that neither Dyer nor Hicks had any ability with it, and could only promote it.

 

The law of attraction is a very deep insight and can't really be used to our advantage except in very advanced stages of devotion and insight.

[Nikolai1]

As I said, I do not know what Esther Hicks is doing, I do not care, it is none of my business anyway. I took a moment to see if they had any way to contact them about your issue, but I didn't see any way to relay your concern.

They are probably inundated with this enquiry.  I have no doubt that it is very deliberate that they don't mention the fact the he has been dead for four years.

[Michael Sternbach]

The law of attraction is a very deep insight and can't really be used to our advantage except in very advanced stages of devotion and insight.

 

Hi Nikolai,

 

I have a somewhat different perspective. The Law of Attraction is operational 24/7 and we constantly use it to both our advantage and disadvantage. But to do so more consciously and purposefully indeed presupposes devotion and insight.

Edited September 9, 2015 by Michael Sternbach

[Nikolai1]

Dreambliss, the best channels for the law of attraction teachings never held themselves up as good practitioners.  Jane Roberts was as confused by Seth as anyone, and studied the teachings as any student would - despite the fact that they issued from her own mouth.  Exactly the same was true for the channels and transcribers of the Course in Miracles.

 

Jerry Hicks and Wayne Dyer did present themselves as living proof of the message.  They could not help but do otherwise because they had such strong faith in what they did.  But to anyone of any spirtual discernment it is quite obvious that were just ordinary people, made wealthy by selling a message.

 

There is a whole world of difference between watching Eckhart Tolle videos and Wayne Dyer videos.  There is a gulf between them.  If you thought something spiritual would happen when you went to see Dyer then that was pretty naive of you, but it seems that it has been a helpful learning experience.

 

But most importantly, take the message to heart, not those who sell it.

[Nikolai1]

Hi Nikolai,

 

I have a somewhat different perspective. The Law of Attraction is operational 24/7 and we use constantly use it to both our advantage and disadvantage. But to do so more consciously and purposefully indeed presupposes devotion and insight.

Actually that is how I see it as well.  But those who are trying to use the message to manifest wealth and fame are the same people who haven't got the sincerity and single-mindedness for it to work.  The desire for fame, and the fear of failure are the same thing and coincide in the same people. And the fear prevents the manifestations the naive people desire.

 

This is why it is possible that the Law of attraction industry can be simultaneously liberating and fraudulent.  There are very few people who are spending thousands of dollars on conferences and re-couping the money on lottery wins.  Dyer and Hicks were sincere people, who didn't have the intelligence to see how wildly misunderstood the message can be.  If they had more sensitivity, they couldn't have promoted the message so gleefully.  There would have been a sober ethical sense of the inner transformation that must occure before the Law becomes ours to use at will.

[thelerner]

One of his movies is available online for free from the publisher.   For those interested here it is:  http://www.drwaynedyer.com/the-shift-movie-watch-now

"

Dr. Wayne Dyer’s first feature film is being given away free this week in memory of the man many have called “The Father of Motivation,” who died on August 30.

Dyer, himself, frequently gave away free copies of the 2009 movie “The Shift” as something of a business card to people he’d meet in airports and hotels. The author of Your Erroneous Zones, and more than 40 other books wanted people to see the film to reap what his publisher says are the “benefits of learning to go from Ambition to Meaning in their life.”"

Edited September 9, 2015 by thelerner

[MooNiNite]

So she channels aliens? I guess it is possible but not sure if I believe that. 

[DreamBliss]

I am glad to hear that Mr. Dyer gave away copies of that movie. I do not think it is the same one freely available now, which, as I recall, is, "My Greatest Teacher."

 

"The Shift" AKA "Ambition To Meaning" is one of my favorite videos of this kind. I whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone. Which brings me to a final point I would like to make...

 

I have not seen, yet, any enlightened teachers bothering to take the time to present a message that is in opposition to what we, at least here in America, receive on a daily basis through our entertainment and media.

 

No matter what their flaws, at least these most likely unenlightened teachers bothered to take the time to write books and make public appearances with a message that is a whole lot more empowering than anything else you will find on TV.

 

I think before we start criticizing and judging the teachers we should take a look at our society. America doesn't make it easy to get a message to thousands of people for free. It is a society concerned with and focused on making money, at every level.

 

Just take a look at what Esalen has become. That is the best example I have of what any spiritual institute or teacher may likely become, over time, in this country.

[DreamBliss]

Nikolai

 

Some of what I have said in reply to you disturbs me. At the risk of wandering off-topic, I have some things I want to say, and some realizations I wish to share.

 

I am not sure I feel the need to apologize, or that I owe you one, but if you feel that way, please let me know. I do feel sorry for how harsh my tone was with you. I do not feel that my tone, my responses, were loving or motivated by love at all. What I said was said from a place of ego or pain body. I struck out in pain, struck out because I felt I had been struck. I am sorry for any such striking out. This is not how I wish to be.

 

I have been reading, "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse. I just picked up the book tonight after not having read it for over a week. Sidhartha and his friend Govidna have just joined the Samanas, these ascetic holy men of the forest. Here is a quote that caused me to recognize something,

 

"And Siddhartha said, 'So he has lived for sixty years and has not yet reached Nirvana. He will turn seventy and eighty, and you and I, we too will grow old and will continue to perform the exercises, to meditate and fast. But Nirvana will remain out of reach, both for him and for us. O Govidna, it seems to me that of all the Samanas that exist, there is perhaps not one, not a single one, who will reach Nirvana. We find consolations, we find numbness, we learn skills with which to deceive ourselves. But the essential, the Path of Paths, this we do not find.'"

 

I realized, as I read this, a possible reason why it is so important to you that a teacher be enlightened. If we throw ourselves into a study of a religion, or the teachings of a teacher, who is teaching us how to reach Nirvana, or how to become Enlightened, yet find that the people in our religion, or the master we are studying under, have not reached Nirvana, are not Enlightened, then this casts serious doubt on the teachings.

 

As you said, as I recall, Wayne Dyer was not enlightened. Or at least he was rumored not to act as if he is enlightened. If I were to compare his writing with that of Thich Nhat Hanh, who, if he is not enlightened, is certainly the only teacher I know who is close to it, I would see that Thay's words flow like honey. Love drips from them. But Mr. Dyer's words are far less refined, rougher. Love is there, certainly, and shows up every once in a while. His latest books show someone much more spiritually developed than earlier writings. But the difference is night and day. If Mr. Dyer was still alive, and I could choose to study at his feet or Thay's, I would go to Mr. Hanh. Even though I am not a Buddhist and have no interest in the religion. If there was a teacher I could think off off-hand that could bring me to enlightenment, if I were searching for it, Thich Nhat Hanh is such a teacher.

 

If I was searching for enlightenment, what a waste of time for to study under anyone with the title of Master, if they themselves are not enlightened! Ram Dass should consider himself lucky, his teacher, by all accounts, was enlightened, even though whether or not Mr. Dass is enlightened is not certain. How few enlightened teachers there are out there! Of those few, how few are at even the fringes of the public eye! It almost seems like you have to make like Siddhartha and head up to the hills in India to find one of these people!

 

At an intellectual level I understand that knowledge is the enemy of inner knowing, something else written in this book. Learning can get in the way. Seeking will keep you from finding. I do not have some burning desire to become enlightened, or discover nirvana. I would love to learn how to walk on water and fly, do these things some call miracles. But I have no great spiritual aspirations. I am not driven by my spirituality. I am just strolling along here, enjoying the scenery. My only burning desire is to figure out how to manifest things into my live that I need and want. That's it. I just want to live "high on the hog" until I get tired of it. Because I have been stuck here on the ass-end of things for a very long time. You get tired of the short end of the stick.

 

Maybe these desires are all ego. But I want my own house, land, a woman to share my life with, children, enjoyable, meaningful and fulfilling work, lots of friends, a spiritual community I can be a part of, an easy bike ride or walking distance from where I live. I want a huge library in my house, I want a laboratory to invent things in. I want all the money I could ever need or want so that I never, ever again am limited by a lack of finances. I want the concept of financial lack and limitation to be some long-forgotten tale, almost as if it was told by somebody else. A nightmare I had as a child once that I barely remember now. As you can tell there is very little of spiritual interest in my life.

 

I think I would be happier learning about what I am choosing to call my Higher Self (what I used to call Source and what others call God) myself. Have my own experience of this energy. Directly, not through others. In other words, I would be happier to have a direct experience of my Higher Self. If that leads to Nirvana or Enlightenment, fine. If not, fine. I do not want to live a life of servitude. But I will gladly serve others in the natural flow of my life. I will be there for my family.

 

So for me I pick up a teacher, learn what I can from them, usually in the form of a book, and move on. I go where my interests take me. Currently meditation, lucid dreaming and astral projection. Also shamanism. I learn what I can and then move on. Maybe this is not the right way to do things. Maybe I should only seek those who are master practitioners of what they preach. At this moment I don't know any better way to do things. I am trying to make do with what I have. Wayne Dyer and Anita Moorjani came to Portland. I wanted a spiritual experience. I went. I failed to have what I went for. Maybe I felt something like this character Siddhartha must have felt after being with these Samanas for 3 years. I don't know.

 

But I want you to know that I will practice more respect to the things that matter to you and others. Some seek Enlightenment or Nirvana. Some seek learning or knowledge. Some seek peace. Some just want to feel better! We should never, ever, speak harshly to someone in disagreement to what matters to them! Better to practice acceptance, love and respect. Let other people follow their path while we follow our own. Support each other, as much as possible. Stop tearing each other down. There has been far too much of that in the history of the religions of the world. I would like to create a better world, and a better future. But to build that world, I have to lay the foundation stones now. Acceptance, love and respect are 3 of the cornerstones of this particular foundation.

 

Blessings and Love to you!

[Nikolai1]

That was a very nice message to read and I thank you for the time you took.

 

As you know I have to come to deeply respect the Law of Attraction teachings and I recognise their deep wisdom.  But I was always uneasy about the glib manner in which Dyer and Hicks presented them.  

 

I just want you to know that my criticism of them shouldn't lessen your faith in their teachings. When you went visit Dyer I'm guessing you were a bit bewildered by your disappointing experience, and perhaps your faith was rocked somewhat.  I think this is more than possible when the teachings aren't geive the seriousness they are due.  Too often, people are led to believe that wealth, love and health will be theirs for the taking.  The reality is more complicated, and much inner work must be done first.

 

Anyway, you are a living example of someone who is doing that work.  Someone who is able to take a knock, and get right back up again.

 

Love to you

[thelerner]

I wonder if a 'true guru' would tell you to give up on your dreams- all of it- house, wife, good job, Security.. All of it.  I don't know.  Stories I've heard at an ashram seem to say these holy men are pretty unworldly.   They can be demanding and seemingly crazy, since there world view is so radically different then ours.   They are as likely to take away your possessions, literally toss your car keys into a river then tell you some secret on how to get shiny new stuff. 

[Eric23]

Years ago, before there was any inkling of this path I'm on now, life was pretty difficult. Lots of anxiety, stress etc. Nothing that most of us haven't faced, but it was taking a toll on me. I picked up Your Erroneous Zones at a used book store and read it. Dr. Dwyer's advice was timely and very helpful at that stage in my life. Regardless of how his career evolved, I will always be thankful for Dr. Dwyer. Safe travels towards the light.