"What did the president know, and when did he know it?"
Boy, do I have egg on my face. I've been writing about what I perceived as the alliance between Joe "Mr. Fire" Vitale and David "Succeed Magazine" Schirmer. Well, it turns out that, according to Joe, there is no such alliance after all. On Joe's blog today I saw this comment, sent in response to Joe's post about making the cover of Succeed: Oh, dear. So I guess there never really was a marriage in the first place. And I guess we are also to assume that Joe didn't know David Schirmer himself was listening in on the conversation when the editor of Succeed Magazine did the interview. Schirmer recently wrote on his own blog:
Shame on Schirmer for eavesdropping without informing Joe he was doing so. And shame on him for claiming that Joe is a friend of his when Joe says he doesn't even know David.Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Opps!! [sic] I'd better write another blog.
Time flies so fast when you're having fun! I can hardly believe it is so long since I wrote my last blog. A friend on msn suggested today that I should post again ... so here I am.
There is much too much to write about to bring you up to date, so I'll share with you just a little of my day today.
At 7:30am the editor of our Succeed Magazine phoned Texas, USA. It was a special call to an amazing man, friend and co-presenter on The Secret, Dr Joe Vitale. I enjoyed immensely sitting in and listening to Joe's story.
I guess we can also assume that someone besides David Schirmer contacted Joe about being in/on Succeed Magazine in the first place – and being in/on it not once, but twice (an article of Joe's also appeared in the April-May issue). So maybe Succeed was being a little less than honest for not disclosing to Joe that David Schirmer was the publisher. But heck, it's "a great and inspiring magazine," according to Joe, so I guess a little duplicity is okay.
If we are to take Joe literally, Succeed merely featured him and that was that; no further affiliation. I imagine this means that if you click on the specific "Mr. Fire" link to subscribe to Succeed – the link that Joe helpfully published on his blog – Mr. Fire will not receive a percentage or anything like that.
So now you know. Just thought I'd pass the information along, in the interests of being fair and balanced here.
By the way, Succeed magazine also recently featured a profile of David Schirmer's ex joint-venture partner, noted quantum physics expert and "Law Of Attraction guru" Bob Proctor. So even though he can't market Proctor's stuff any more, by court order, Schirmer apparently can still exploit Proctor's name to sell his magazine.
Warning: ACCESSories on the loose
As if Australia didn't have enough on its mind, what with David Schirmer still running around loose, there is also this creepy cultish thing called ACCESS Energy Transformation, which seems more determined than ever to dig its claws in Down Under. I wrote about ACCESS here last year, and then did a follow-up post a few days later.
ACCESS, according to a tale that seems to be strangely absent from the current official ACCESS sites (but can be found here and here), was founded in the early 1990s. It all started when a "being of light" (or, alternatively, "beings of light") called Novian used the late Russian faux-monk/Whirled-class charlatan Grigori Rasputin to channel an "energy transformation technique" to a Santa Barbara, California realtor named Gary Douglas. Gary decided to call the technique ACCESS, and it now has followers all over the world. But he seems to be concentrating on the US, Australia, and New Zealand. And what's really scary, in my view, is that Gary and gang want to ACCESSorize the younger generation with their ACCESS kids' camps.
Yesterday I heard from an anonymous commenter responding to my second ACCESS blog post. This person was concerned about the fact that Gary and the ACCESS teachings seem to encourage their followers to have sex with anyone they want to, even if they're married. That's not the first time I've heard this, and if it is true, it doesn't seem that ACCESS would be the best organization to be running a kids' camp. I'm just saying...
My correspondent also provided a link to an ABC MediaWatch page detailing a segment last year on Australia's Channel 7, featuring Gary Douglas himself. "Dr." Douglas appeared on a segment of Channel 7's The Morning Show as a "behavioural expert" sharing his views about kids with autism and ADD. The folks on the program later ended up apologizing (or apologising, for you Aussies and Brits) on the air for featuring this loony-tunes "doctor." Here's the link.
As the Media Watch writer noted, "Dr." Douglas doesn't restrict his "energy transformation" techniques to humans; he also works with horses. He even put together a TV pilot, Conscious Horse, Conscious Rider, about his remarkable equine communication skills.
It's a mad, mad Whirled, and I'd love to stay and chat, Dear Ones... but I gotta get back to work for a while. And then I think I'm going to go out and talk to the horses. I'll let you know what they have to say.
PS ~ It's not that I think there is no validity to "horse whispering." I do. People such as Monty Roberts and Pat and Linda Parelli have achieved remarkable results with horses, and I am endlessly fascinated with their work. But they utilize knowledge about equine behavior and body language, not telepathy or the voices in their heads or whatever it is that Gary Douglas claims to use.
So now you know. Just thought I'd pass the information along, in the interests of being fair and balanced here.
By the way, Succeed magazine also recently featured a profile of David Schirmer's ex joint-venture partner, noted quantum physics expert and "Law Of Attraction guru" Bob Proctor. So even though he can't market Proctor's stuff any more, by court order, Schirmer apparently can still exploit Proctor's name to sell his magazine.
Warning: ACCESSories on the loose
As if Australia didn't have enough on its mind, what with David Schirmer still running around loose, there is also this creepy cultish thing called ACCESS Energy Transformation, which seems more determined than ever to dig its claws in Down Under. I wrote about ACCESS here last year, and then did a follow-up post a few days later.ACCESS, according to a tale that seems to be strangely absent from the current official ACCESS sites (but can be found here and here), was founded in the early 1990s. It all started when a "being of light" (or, alternatively, "beings of light") called Novian used the late Russian faux-monk/Whirled-class charlatan Grigori Rasputin to channel an "energy transformation technique" to a Santa Barbara, California realtor named Gary Douglas. Gary decided to call the technique ACCESS, and it now has followers all over the world. But he seems to be concentrating on the US, Australia, and New Zealand. And what's really scary, in my view, is that Gary and gang want to ACCESSorize the younger generation with their ACCESS kids' camps.
Yesterday I heard from an anonymous commenter responding to my second ACCESS blog post. This person was concerned about the fact that Gary and the ACCESS teachings seem to encourage their followers to have sex with anyone they want to, even if they're married. That's not the first time I've heard this, and if it is true, it doesn't seem that ACCESS would be the best organization to be running a kids' camp. I'm just saying...
My correspondent also provided a link to an ABC MediaWatch page detailing a segment last year on Australia's Channel 7, featuring Gary Douglas himself. "Dr." Douglas appeared on a segment of Channel 7's The Morning Show as a "behavioural expert" sharing his views about kids with autism and ADD. The folks on the program later ended up apologizing (or apologising, for you Aussies and Brits) on the air for featuring this loony-tunes "doctor." Here's the link.
As the Media Watch writer noted, "Dr." Douglas doesn't restrict his "energy transformation" techniques to humans; he also works with horses. He even put together a TV pilot, Conscious Horse, Conscious Rider, about his remarkable equine communication skills.
Conscious Horse Conscious Rider is a remarkable TV Pilot, starring horse medium Gary Douglas, and created at the request of horses everywhere.So not only is Gary Douglas a doctor who's an expert on kids with autism and ADD; he's also a horse's... a horse whisperer. And the horses themselves requested that he make his TV show. Take that, all you neigh-sayers!
It's a mad, mad Whirled, and I'd love to stay and chat, Dear Ones... but I gotta get back to work for a while. And then I think I'm going to go out and talk to the horses. I'll let you know what they have to say.
PS ~ It's not that I think there is no validity to "horse whispering." I do. People such as Monty Roberts and Pat and Linda Parelli have achieved remarkable results with horses, and I am endlessly fascinated with their work. But they utilize knowledge about equine behavior and body language, not telepathy or the voices in their heads or whatever it is that Gary Douglas claims to use.
Congratulations, Joe! I expect we’ll be hearing a lot more out of your collaboration with David Schirmer. It’s obvious from his blog that he’s excited about it. The two of you should make a really powerful team!
May 21st, 2008 | #
Hi Joe. I don’t know David and am not collaborating on anything with him, so not sure what you know that I don’t. Succeed magazine simply did a feature on me, which I’m grateful for. I didn’t even know he was associated with the magazine till after it was all said and done. Anyway, I apprecaite [sic] your words of congratulations. Succeed is a great and inspiring magazine. Richard Branson was on the last cover, so my being on the next one is beyond flattering. Now I want to receive as much wealth as Branson - or more.
Blessings,
joe