Quote:
Originally Posted by cmac2012
Smith was adroit at co-opting religious symbols and words, such as the Urim and Thummim I mentioned. I don't think taking belief in that stuff as the guiding force in your life is a good thing by any means.
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Kind of reminds me of the great con man, Werner Erhard, of the 1970s:
From a book on him:
" Before he abandoned his wife and children, changed his name to Werner Erhard, moved to California and began promoting his self-awareness programs, known in the 1970s as est and later as the Forum, Jack Rosenberg was a car salesman in Philadelphia.
Inspired by a self-help course called Mind Dynamics, by Napoleon Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich , by Scientology and cybernetics, and advised by a skilled tax lawyer, Erhard launched est in 1971. And for 20 years he reigned as guru of the "human potential movement."
According to freelance journalist Pressman, the womanizing, charismatic and demanding Erhard collected tens of millions of dollars from 500,000 people who took his courses. Eventually lawsuits, desertions among his coterie and the rise of new New Age mind-improving programs ended Erhard's empire and in 1991, owing millions to the IRS and others, he went into exile in Mexico. Pressman here cuts into him with surgical precision. "
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
He's actually dying of cancer in Germany these days.
Rather telling that he was a used car salesman...
I knew a Werner convert, we used to do " languaging" together, as he called it.
In other words, we had conversations. He couldn't just say: " We talked."
I have always disliked people who make up special terms in a vain and stupid attempt to make them look "intellectual" "in the know" and "exclusive."
Most of them are victims of their own con. They just need to be exposed to the young and the inexperienced so they are not scammed.