Arrived in CA, and...

...everyone's sitting in the same chairs I left them in. However, some chairs are higher and more mighty than before. Case in point: my brother comes up to Mom's waving a DVD called "The Secret," which has no actors, writers, producers or directors written on the DVD case, just "Property of Prime Time International" or some shit. Basically, I'm closed minded, stupid and evil if I don't sit and watch the whole damned thing, so I do, and it's behaviorism repackaged as I suspected, with a huge production budget. It's all stuff I basically agree with - you are what you think, you can create your own attitude, you can visualize success or failure - except they attribute all power to a giant "Universe" where I would call it "God." One reason is "Universe" appeals to a wider audience because it has an all-inclusive, even-sci-fi-nerds-are-welcome, ring. "God" is limited, closed-minded, in-the-box thinking.

The problem is, God created the mind. Some would say we are sustained within God's thoughts, i.e., "in Him we live and move and have our being." And these ideas are not original. They are old as the dirt which now contains most of thier authors. The big appeal with "The Secret" was money. How can I get more money? It's enough that you call your new thing "The Secret..." More later, my brother's coming...