Nicely done.

Having been on the more credulous end of things and now more skeptical and, hopefully, less gullible, I may lack compassion. Some folks seeking “help” are desperate. Many, though, are just greedy. Really, if their sense of self-preservation is so low they buy into any alternacrap, maybe they need to learn those lessons the hard way. I do draw the line when their decisions affect kids and animals.

I have not looked at this book. I typically do not trust the “how to get rich” books. The reason is that the people who wrote them tend to think it was something they did and that’s why they’re rich. They never try to comprehend the luck that was involved. And it’s likely that the “millionaire mindset” was something they developed AFTER making money. IN that case, teaching it is meaningless to people who have no money

But I might give this book a try. It at least looks interesting.

Vlad,

Nice to see you again. I agree. I think the whole ‘wealthy=rich’ equation is wrong. In fact, I blogged on it before. Have a look if you haven’t read it http://dontstepinthepoop.com/difference-rich-wealthy

Carlon, it has also occurred to me that you are NOT as scientific or logical as you profess to be. You say that you are a Guru of the real world, but your comments just don’t make sense.
They might seem logical when you take a quick glimpse at them, but when you seriously go and logically deduct them using scientific reasoning and processes, they don’t have any basis whatsoever.

Let me explain:
You wrote: “I have a problem with health because a lot of “alternative” medicine is dangerous. I always hear about how “Big Pharma” or something or another is preventing natural cures from coming out.
Here’s my take:
1. If there were natural cures, we’d have seen them by now.
2. People live longer NOW rather than hundreds of years ago because of modern medicine.”

Ok so lets analyze these statements logically and with FACT rather than your opinion.

Your statement: “I always hear about how “Big Pharma” or something or another is preventing natural cures from coming out.”… Well thats an interesting comment. How about you look at it this way. What if you were a pharma business and someone came out with some scientific information that the drug you produce, works on some people (based on certain criteria) and doesn’t work on other people. Would I be right in saying that your drug is BS? Better still, what if someone came out with another method of curing people without using your drug? And because of that you stand to loose millions of dollars of profit from it?

Well if you live in the real world you claim to live in, then the answer would be, that you would stop the competition by shit canning it, and then finding all the information, even if it is heresay, to discredit it, which would be pretty easy especially if its not a drug but a natural substance. And if you say no you wouldn’t you are a liar because its human nature to shit can your competition and protect your investment or market.

Then you state: “1. If there were natural cures, we’d have seen them by now.”.
Well then you must be blind because there are many out there that ‘WORK’. Yes sure there are a lot of scammers too, but just because there are many scammers, doesn’t mean they are ALL scams. Where is your scientific real world reasoning that you are supposed to have? Where is the scientific basis of your GENERALIZATION ? Because YES you are ARE generalizing with a statement like “1. If there were natural cures, we’d have seen them by now.” So this also means that if you don’t know about it, it doesn’t exist? Oh so you are the All Knowing master? Hang on a minute, I thought you were a real life Guru (your claim)!!!
If you were real life guru as you claim, how come you are making stupid statements and generalizations like you do?

You see another problem I have with your statement “1. If there were natural cures, we’d have seen them by now.”, is that these natural cures actually do exist, have had hundreds of thousands of people scientifically tested in labs and in the real world, with scientific results and hard evidence to prove it, yet you haven’t heard anything about them. Ok so you will be thinking, tell me about one then. Ok, here is one: Hydrogen Peroxide 35% Food grade.
This is the one that you “Drink” when you mix it with distilled water (thus making a solution of of 3% or less). Apart from being produced by your own body in small amounts and the first breast milk that infants drink contains substantial amounts of it, has cured hundreds of thousands of people and I even take it myself (the water form, not breast milk ). I’ve studied it hard core before ingesting it and I can tell you, I used to suffer from colds and flu and other health problems for years, but since I’ve been taking it (more than 2 years) I have NOT been sick once! So please, before you make generalizations about things, make sure you know ALL the facts (which is Impossible unless you are God, which you definitely are NOT), but maybe you think you are?

The second statement I have an issue with is: “2. People live longer NOW rather than hundreds of years ago because of modern medicine.” (Emphasis on the word Hundreds – as in plural or meaning more than 200 years)
Ah actually, that is a MYTH. Why? If you check statistics, you will find that these statistics were only available up to about 150 years ago. Now you can go and find a huge amount of so called ‘Scientific’ studies on the net with thousands of references, but these references have only occurred in the last 100 to 150 years. Prior to that, no statistical information on a large scale (because they just didn’t do it) is available so therefore it cannot be said with scientific evidence or reasoning that our human lifespan has been increasing since the beginning of time (or at least Hundreds (plural) of years – ie. 500, 1000 etc…) because you can’t scientifically prove it, actually no one can. Its only based on the last 150 years and that is pretty insignificant information if you want to analyze this sort of thing. So lets just say, we don’t know… no one knows because you can’t prove it scientifically. Yes you could have said, in the last 100 years, longevity has increased, sure, but that means absolutely nothing in terms of real scientific evidence along the context of your argument because ‘Nature’ has existed since the beginning of time as we know it on planet earth, but your “100″ years argument is like a drop in the world’s ocean. Just so insignificant its laughable, especially coming from a self professed ‘guru’.

Another part of your statements that I find strange is:
“I’ve seen ads by some of these “natural” people railing against:
* vaccines
* pharmaceutical drugs
* surgery
* cancer treatment
These things save lives and people live longer than ever because of them. Are they perfect? No. But exploiting people’s fears of these things just to make money is wrong. Telling someone to to stop taking things that helps them live longer is like saying you want them to die. And I think it’s wrong to want someone to die.”

Sure, medicine saves lives, no doubt about it. But you forgot to mention all the people that died from the same drug that has cured one person, but has had an adverse affect on another.
Don’t say that this is BS because all you have to do is look at the statistics of the drug in question, (whatever it may be as there are many), that help or so called ‘cure’ some people, but kill others or other people have very bad side effects from taking the drug because they fix one thing and damage another. So don’t be going around claiming that you are Mr reality guru because you are not. You’re just selecting figments and portions of statements, and making them into fact as you see fit, just so you can get your point across and be right (which is extremely egotistic rather than scientific). Really, sometimes I think you may have studied politics because your statements are quite structured but they are extremely biased with no factual evidence, just really babble.

For example, I’ve NEVER seen in any self help book or anything written on the net (self help or not that I’ve read), where people have stated “not to take your medicine” as you claim in your statement “Telling someone to to stop taking things that helps them live longer”. Obviously if you take it into context that the drug is helping that person and its scientifically proven, then sure, its absurd but if the so called cure drug kills 80% of patients, then absolute basic elementary logic would tell you to think twice before you take the drug, even if it was prescribed by your doctor because any responsible doctor will tell you that before you take the drug, please read the side effects and information booklet inside the pack. Unless you use that statement, and twist it so that you are again GENERALIZING just to prove your point. No science behind this statement? Just look at the bird flu scenario that went on in the US in the 80s but conveniently it was forgotten. Even 60 minutes did an interview of many people, one that comes to mind was a woman who took the vaccine and then she ended up in a wheel chair, just like so many other people, even many people died from the vaccine ie. drug that was supposed to help. Yet you conveniently haven’t mentioned anything like that. Look at the bird flu scenario now in the past few years, what happened? Still exactly the same thing and its been conveniently pushed under the carpet, so to speak. Oh but I forgot, thats all babble, it doesn’t really happen because the main stream media isn’t talking about it. Sure… whatever you say…I really believe that …. yeah…. NOT!

If you say you are a real world guru, then why don’t you mention REAL WORLD stuff like that? I bet if a family member had something like that happen or even to yourself, I bet you would be writing much differently, if you are an honest man or not an egotistically or psychologically impaired person.

Carlon my friend, it saddens me to say but I think you have some serious psychological problems because, when you profess to be a guru of reality “About Carlon – Carlon is a guru of reality and sober thought.” – Then if I were to analyze that statement that you have at the bottom of every page of your blog, then I would come to the conclusion that you are suffering from egotism and severe self delusion. Clearly you are not a guru because you are NOT an all knowing being (no one is) and most of your babble has no scientific basis.

My advice to you is to step back, take a hard look at yourself and some of the un-scientific statements that you have made in your blog (when you claim they are) and try to figure out what the hell you are really trying to achieve.

Is this website an attempt to convince yourself that what you call “new age crap” doesn’t really exist or are you crying out for psychological help? This is not an insult and if it is being taken as an insult, I apologize because it isn’t my intention, however you gotta admit, your foundation for much of your statements is baseless and has no scientific ground whatsoever. Yes, sure, there are many scammers out there just to take money from people, however you can’t generalize the way you do and state that everyone is a scammer because they are not. There are even things (ie. mental abilities and psychological studies) that are being studied and verified by the US military that seem impossible to us citizens, yet because we know nothing about it, we think its BS because we either don’t understand it or don’t want to understand it because for some reason it scares us.

The more and more I read your posts, I get the feeling that you are somewhat living in the year 2010 but with your mind in the 16th century. Why do I say this, because your reasoning seems all to similar to that of the Church with regards to the “Copernican theory”. If you have studied history, you will know what I mean. If not, just look up the history of Galileo Galilei. You are doing the exact same thing they are doing and you are even showing your so called evidence (which I might add has absolutely no scientific basis).

Sorry mate but before you go about criticizing others, make sure you know what you are talking about. And before you start saying that I am a fan of the “scammers”, actually I am not. I’m just a person who analyzes ALL avenues and makes sure there is substantial scientific explanation and EVIDENCE before I open my mouth or write on a blog such as yours.

Have a nice day and don’t forget to visit your friendly neighborhood doctor

If you want to know what luck means, you can look it up in the dictionary. But let’s say it’s the things that happen to you (good or bad) that had nothing to do with your will or effort. Like who your parents are, where you were born, etc.

Now, if you don’t believe that some people are born into better circumstances than others, then I can’t help it if you live in Fantasy Land.

Hmmm interesting. I come forward and state a few facts that have scientific reasoning, yet you are telling me I have touched a nerve? Where did you get that idea from?
I’m not in a tizzy, unless you call everyone that asks questions and analyses peoples comments, a person who gets in a ‘tizzy’.

You wrote:
“I would recommend taking some reading lessons and actually read my post.”
But in actual fact, all I did was COPY and PASTE YOUR COMMENTS !!!
So I don’t understand how you can say this, unless you don’t even know what you are writing yourself, thus I presume you are in need of psychological help, more than I first realised.

When you refer to the self-help BS, in the context you are writing it in AND based on your comments in http://dontstepinthepoop.com/man-millionaire-mindset-poor AND the fact that you haven’t stated ONE SINGLE positive about ANY self help author or book, really shows me that you have something against self-help in general.

You see, if you were the GURU as you claim to be, then instead of finding everything wrong with the books that you’ve listed in your website (and thats fine too) but you haven’t offered an alternative. Its real easy being a critic, especially when you have absolutely no idea about a solution. So ok, YOU STATE YOU ARE A GURU, then SHOW US THE ALTERNATIVES… No put your money where your mouth is, instead of writing so much babble that is meaningless.

Yes sure, I’ve read many self help books and yes some of them are BS and I’ve previously admitted that, however I am not the one with the chip on my shoulder and constructed a website that is 98% based on canning all self help. So where are the CONSTRUCTIVE alternatives. And by that I DON”T mean the stuff that you’ve written in http://dontstepinthepoop.com/selfhelp-guru-bullshit-arist. Thats not a solution.
Lets see you be the GURU you claim to be and show us some real alternatives.
So what am I really saying? Simple. Either PUT UP OR SHUT UP !

With regards to the Secret… How did I know you were going to bring that up. Well let me tell you something interesting. First of all, I challenge you to PROVE to me (in writing, show me a reference) where author or person interviewed has stated anything about not taking medicine. If you can produce factual evidence, then I will apologise but you’ve got as much chance of me doing that as hell freezing over because you KNOW it doesn’t exist. You’ve just made it up. So how do I know? easy… I’ve watched the DVD and read the book. And I can even help you to find a REAL reference and that is when Dr. Demartini is talking about the placebo effect. So basically he stated that you SHOULDN”T (ie. Negative – Don’t – DO NOT) stop taking your medicine but its also a good idea to explore other means of therapy. Nothing wrong with that but the main point of concern here is that he NEVER said NEVER TAKE YOUR MEDICINE and I challenge you to prove me otherwise, but it must be done with FACT and using references, not just your opinion because your opinion is meaningless when we are analysing facts.

With regards to your comment “perhaps you could read one of those self-help books that say that disease is caused by negative thoughts, not germs.”.
Well let me answer that with some FACTS.
Here have a look at this (if you can handle a more scientific approach)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLZ7GqWpEqM&feature=related
This is Dr. (ie. DOCTOR – Phd) Bruce Lipton and he has done some experiments, which you can easy verify on the net with videos and transcripts and people have also backed up these lab tests, to verify these things. You really have your head in the sand because you choose to stay in the negative mode without studying about things properly before you write your babble.

And your last paragraph (or should I say Insult) just endorses how uneducated you are in resorting to insults instead of coming back to me with SCIENTIFIC evidence to back your claim because quite frankly pal, if you don’t have any scientific evidence to back up your claims, then all your words are just meaningless, your opinion and also pure babble.

I never wrote any novel agreeing with anything you wrote (although I enjoy writing), YOU WROTE “1. If there were natural cures, we’d have seen them by now.”. They are YOUR words, NOT MINE ! So if you don’t even know the meaning of your own words that you write, you really are in serious trouble my friend… Go see a doctor quick because you are suffering from some sort of severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
You’ve come back with blazing guns at me and all I did was ask you to clarify some points in your posts. I haven’t been disrespectful or anything like that (maybe a little cheeky but nothing more).

I’ve never said that modern medicine was wrong… and if you can show me where I’ve stated those exact words or written in such context, then I want to see it.
Otherwise all you are doing is trying to move focus away from what I’ve written because YOU SAID “1. If there were natural cures, we’d have seen them by now.”.
Therefore after all these words, you still can’t come back with any hard scientific evidence to back up any of your comments… please, I am sure everyone reading this would LOVE to see your scientific Evidence.

Eagerly awaiting your response

The second definition: the events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual seems much more in line with the definition I gave you.

So, what’s the problem? You’re the one saying you don’t believe in luck. You don’t think that circumstances and events do not operate for or against an individual? You think that the circumstances of one’s birth does not work in one’s favor or disfavor?

Why don’t you explain your position? Please, I’d love to hear it. Because all you’ve really done is stated your opinion, made assertions, and made poor attempts to insult me.

I’m reading your writing here, but your whole thing basically consists of “I don’t believe in luck because it doesn’t exist !!! and you can’t prove that it exists Scientifically.”

Those are not facts; those are opinions. I am not trying to prove you wrong. You’re the one who came to this blog to prove ME wrong, and you haven’t proven anything of the sort.

You’ve just stated your opinion.

That being said, I get the feeling that you and I are arguing over different definitions of “luck”.

I don’t think there exists some magical force out there that can be manipulated to bring good fortune to people. But I KNOW that there are circumstances beyond a peson’s control. I call those things “luck.”

Those events or circumstances can be either good or bad…like being born into a rich family is luck (beyond one’s control) but that doesn’t necessarily mean someone rich will have a happy life or be successful. I blog about this point all the time..since you seem to be an avid reader of this blog, I think you’ve read my posts on the same point you’re trying to make to me above.

No one can deny that there are things beyond you’re control. If you’d like to prove that everything is under one’s control, then that is your burden of proof, not mine.

Though reading your final comment here, I think you don’t believe that. And I think we sort of agree.

Lastly, don’t worry. I am in no way insulted by your personal attacks…and yeah you are attacking me personally rather than my points when you comment on ME rather than my position. Or perhaps we need to have a conversation on the definition of “respect”.

But I am used to people commenting on here anonymously or sending me anonymous hate mail. They can be quite brave when there are no consequences.

So, it’s all good.

Carlon, firstly I am not anonymous. You’ve got my email, you can send me one any time you like. I’ve subscribed to this thread!

Secondly, ahhh sorry but you still haven’t answered my question. You see the biggest point here is that you think that I am trying to prove you wrong, but in actual fact, if you read the first comment I have ever left on this thread was actually a question to you.
This question was solely about “luck” because in the context of your comments, you’re basically saying that you do believe in this ‘force’ that you choose to label as luck.

No matter how you try to get around it, beat around the bush so to speak, you are still saying the same thing. You are calling everything that you can’t explain (in the context of your comments and this thread) as luck. Yet all I asked you is if you could prove this ‘luck’ thing of yours, with a scientific basis. You’ve not done that, instead you’ve resorted to insults and personal attacks rather than debate me.

Remember, its YOUR site and YOU have put your comments out to the world. If you weren’t prepared to back them up or at least intelligently debate them with someone who has obviously wanted to challenge you on them (ie. ME) then you shouldn’t be publishing this stuff in the first place. As a responsible adult (and I imagine you would be) you should be mindful of the comments you make, as they might sway a person into thinking that there is just no way out of the hole that they are in. If you read behind the lines/words of what I have written, you will understand the meaning and I am sure you are intelligent enough to understand it.

This is exactly one of the many reasons I have challenged you on your comments.
You are hammering all the scammers (and thats fine) but at the same time you are painting a very negative and extremely GENERALISED picture of life, but because of your self proclaimed status as a real life Guru (your words), then people may take you seriously (and its usually the weak minded or persons that are extremely down on their luck). Do a test for yourself, and look at things from another perspective. For example, do you know how I found this site? I just googled some key words (I won’t tell you because you are sure to figure it out, or if you like, just check your webstats) and you’ll find that it was extremely easy to find your website.

You are expelling your opinions, you make them sound so convincing to the untrained person or persons with weak character/mind, and they end up believing your babble instead of the scammers. Does that make you different to a scammer? The answer is simply NO. Scammers are taking away peoples hard earned cash, ruining them (financially and psychologically) for X amount of time. Your negativeness and opinions that are NOT based on scientific fact have exactly the same effect because once people read some of the comments (totally your OPINION and NOT FACT), they would be thinking that there really is no solution to their problems. I am sure you know where this is leading and it might be good for you to have a sleep, think about what I am saying before you respond to me. I know its going to be very hard for you to let go of your ego because it is obviously quite large and I don’t mean that as an insult, I mean it seriously, but it would be good if you could back your comments up with some scientific fact that you can repeat, over and over again with the exact same results, thus proving scientifically that what you are stating is correct and not really just an opinion.

Some food for thought I guess. And before I go, just a word of advice. Just because someone challenges you, doesn’t mean they ‘hate’ you or dislike you or something negative like that. If I hated you, I wouldn’t be writing in this way, I’d be hurling abuse at you which I am not and have not. Actually, I’ve enjoyed reading some of your posts, they are quite amusing, however some of the others concerned me which is why I’ve asked you some questions. And your hint about me being gutless when there apparently isn’t any consequences??? whats that supposed to mean? is that a threat of some sort? You’ve got my email, go for it, send me all the email you want, I don’t really care because if its hateful, I’ll just delete it. Do you want to meet up face to face? No probs, just name the place if I am near you. I am sure if you saw me, you wouldn’t be speaking like this but I forgive you because you are probably a super stressed out person who has had various things go wrong in your life and you feel the need to blame it on everyone else and throw pitty parties for yourself as much as you can.

So again, another word of advice. step back, relax and when you have a clear mind, think about my words, and I’m sure you will understand the gist of what I am trying to say to you, and it may just help you to be a happier person rather than the obviously stressed out person you are.

With the alternative health books a huge percentage of it is garbage, and much of it is even dangerous as you pointed out.
I don’t necessarily thing that big pharma always can be trusted to have your best interest at heart, they are as profit driven as any guru. However, many of these natural health people are fruit loops, they might get it right on one or two topics, but then all the sudden they take a left at crazy.

Like most things in life, it comes down to; the truth is somewhere in the middle. I do believe a high percentage of the natural health stuff out there is garbage. Lot of diet books are garbage. However, some of it has proven it’s self. For example many alternative health people for years have been saying to take more vitamin D. The government had very low doses suggested for decades. Only very recently have these dose guidelines been updated (by the government) to higher levels that are now much more in sync with what the alternative health people have been saying.

I try to keep an open mind, but always keep that B.S. detector running, because there is always plenty of it.

Overall, I think it is good that your helping to make people aware of the scams and false information that is out there. Too many people are suckered into things that are down right deadly.