Mark Victor Hansen was one of the driving forces behind Chicken Soup - I think in his early days he offered some decent things to people, then in the late 90's I think he started getting people into multi level marketing stuff and it was all downhill from there. His basic attitude is something is good if he makes money of it.
________________________________ From: "dhamiltony...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2014 9:20 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Ultimate Kool-Aid: Chicken Soup for Dumb Souls Thanks for the review of these chicken soup people, Feste37 and Turqb. I had not paid much attention to them. There seems to be an ethical problem there. Did they learn that kind of way of doing business from somewhere or develop the approach themselves? What might it have been in their upbringings that lead them to do business this way as adults? It seems in these more transparent modern internet times that business ethics very often become leading economic indicators as to windows in to people and how their businesses fair. Sincerely, -Buck turquoiseb@...> wrote : Exactly, Feste. That's what originally set my teeth on edge during the few minutes I spent with Marci Shimoff. She was bragging about being a "bestselling author" and I asked what exactly she had *done* on the one book (at the time) she had "written." Answer? She had made a few taped interviews and then edited some of the transcriptions that some flunky had made of them. I hadn't realized until this subject came up that she was also one of the driving personalities behind one of the biggest and most-psychologically-destructive scams ever, "The Secret." I feel icky just writing about her, so I think I'll stop now. ________________________________ From: feste37 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2014 5:32 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Ultimate Kool-Aid: Chicken Soup for Dumb Souls I've always found it irritating when the people whose names appear on the covers of Chicken Soup books claim to be New York Times best-selling authors. These people do not even write the books. At best they are editors and compilers of collections of stories written by other people. I don't believe that Marci ever wrote a word of the Chicken Soup books that bear her name. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : OK, thanks for making your position clear. You "trust" these people, so you will continue to pass along something you now know to be untrue because of your "positive impression." You ARE in on the deception with them. Thanks for clarifying. I think we're done here... ________________________________ From: "Share Long sharelong60@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2014 5:13 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Ultimate Kool-Aid: Chicken Soup for Dumb Souls turq, it's simple: I know the 2 people personally and trust them. And in that moment, on that call, I felt no intention to deceive from either of them. That's why I didn't check what was said. And I stand by the positive impression that I had. ________________________________ From: "TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2014 9:56 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Ultimate Kool-Aid: Chicken Soup for Dumb Souls What's wrong with saying, "I was WRONG? Marci Shimoff is NOT 'the bestselling female nonfiction author of all time,' even though (given your own story, Share) she clearly intentionally allowed her friend to give me and a group of people that impression." THAT, at least, would be honest of you. To continue evading any responsibility for repeating this fiction...uh...tends to convey the impression that you're in on the deception yourself. As for 'just repeating what you thought was true," several people have called you over the years here on FFL on your tendency to do that WITHOUT CHECKING TO SEE WHETHER WHAT YOU'RE REPEATING AS TRUTH REALLY WAS. You do this over and over and over and over, with everything from repeating scare stories about Ebola that aren't true to recommending health care people who are proven quacks. Do you really NOT feel that when you repeat something you are presenting as truth you owe the people you're talking to a little effort to *find out if it's true* first? I'm pointing this out because it's part of a PATTERN among these ex-TMers who went on to become New Age gurus . John Gray and Barbara De Angelis presented themselves as Ph.Ds to further their Woo Woo careers *after buying those "degrees" from a paper mill on the Internet*. Do you think that might be construed as a little...uh...dishonest? Marci Shimoff clearly believes it's OK to allow one of her co-presenters to LIE about the extent of her book sales during one of her classes. Do you think there might be a little something "off" ethically about *that*? And YOU, rather than just saying, "OK, I was really stupid. I just repeated something that someone told me as truth without ever checking to see it was true," you're bobbing and weaving and trying not to take any responsibility for it. "Your conscience is clear" because you repeated some things that you thought were true without doing *anything* to determine whether they *were* true? What's up with that? Why should we assume that you're not exhibiting this same pattern of intentional deception that the other three people I mention are exhibiting? Seems to me that if it looks like a duck and waddles like a duck, chances are it's a duck. ________________________________ From: "Share Long sharelong60@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2014 4:32 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Ultimate Kool-Aid: Chicken Soup for Dumb Souls turq, my conscience is clear: I repeated what I thought was true. I now assume the friend didn't have the exact details and was being enthusiastic. I now assume the author was being gracious about her friend's enthusiasm. I'm assuming the best. Why not? ________________________________ From: "TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2014 7:19 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Ultimate Kool-Aid: Chicken Soup for Dumb Souls So all *three* of you lied, or have no regard whatsoever for the truth. Good to know. ________________________________ From: "Share Long sharelong60@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2014 2:09 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Ultimate Kool-Aid: Chicken Soup for Dumb Souls I repeated something about Marci that was said by one of her best friends during a teleclass they were co-hosting. Marci did not correct her so I assumed it was true. ________________________________ From: "TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2014 7:06 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Ultimate Kool-Aid: Chicken Soup for Dumb Souls Still, you lied. Deal with it. ________________________________ From: "Share Long sharelong60@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2014 2:00 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Ultimate Kool-Aid: Chicken Soup for Dumb Souls Nope turq, I heard it from one of Marci's best friends and co hostess during a teleclass. Neither one of them are associated with TM any more. And I own no chicken soup books! ________________________________ From: "TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2014 6:56 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Ultimate Kool-Aid: Chicken Soup for Dumb Souls So you're trying to make the point that the world has terrible taste in non-fiction? That's not news. Me, I'll stick with "awful, mawkish, obvious, painful, unbearable, unenjoyable, and scarring" and "a noxious sludge of sentimental woo-woo." :-) Besides, a quick scan of this page http://www.abebooks.com/blog/index.php/2014/01/17/the-75-greatest-living-female-authors/ reveals that Marci Shimoff's name does not appear on it anywhere. The list *does* comprise both fiction and non-fiction, but there are at least 7 female authors on the list who write non-fiction, none of them Marci Shimoff. I suspect you have done your usual thing and have chosen to believe "marketing fiction" created by Shimoff's publisher and accept it as if it were true. It isn't. Marci Shimoff doesn't even have her own Wikipedia page, something one might have expected if what you claim about her book sales were true. In other words, ONCE AGAIN you've chosen to believe a lie that makes you feel good about something/someone TM-related, rather than expend even the slightest effort to see whether the lie was true. In fact, *even on her OWN Web page*, Shimoff doesn't claim what you said. The copy reads, "...one of the bestselling female nonfiction authors of all time," so it appears that you made up this particular lie ALL BY YOURSELF. What do you have to say for yourself, Share? ________________________________ From: "Share Long sharelong60@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2014 12:56 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] The Ultimate Kool-Aid: Chicken Soup for Dumb Souls Jeez, turq, now you're blaming the TMO for chicken soup?! FYI, Jack Canfield and Rick Hanson never lived in FF, though Marci Shimoff did. Read it and weep: Marci Shimoff is the best selling, non fiction, woman authorof all time. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. PS Making any progress on that thorn in your paw? ________________________________ From: "TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife <fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2014 3:47 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] The Ultimate Kool-Aid: Chicken Soup for Dumb Souls . Interesting article about a phenomenon that as I remember had its start in Fairfield. Descriptions of this Literary Pinnacle Of Newage Crap in the article like "awful, mawkish, obvious, painful, unbearable, unenjoyable, and scarring" and "a noxious sludge of sentimental woo-woo" just don't do its horriblenessitude justice. Someone I had known back in the TM movement once tried set me up on a "coffee date" with one of the Chicken Soup authors. It was horrific, almost the worst date in my life (for the record, the worst was with Barbara De Angelis)...I lasted less than five minutes before making some excuse and running away, and had to wash my ears out in the coffeeshop restroom before I felt human again. What Makes the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series So Addictive and Awful? What Makes the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series So Addic... My romance with Chicken Soup for the Soul began and ended with the adolescent iteration, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, and it was fostered in part because I re... View on www.slate.com Preview by Yahoo
