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<DIV class=timestamp>Dear Visionaries,</DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp> </DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp>Below is a New York Times column that caught my
attention for everything from global peace to finding a home for the Ice Rink...
and maybe better parking for downtown Moscow!</DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp> </DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp>Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on
to the affirmative and don't mess with Mr. In-Between! (Love thopse lyrics that
Frank Sinatra sang so well! Didn't think they'd have such gigantic political
implications!)</DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp> </DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp>All the best and happy spring to Moscow!</DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp> </DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp>Linda Pall</DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp> </DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp> </DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp> </DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp><STRONG><FONT size=5>The New York
Times</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp>February 17, 2007</DIV>
<DIV class=kicker><NYT_KICKER>Op-Ed Columnist</NYT_KICKER></DIV>
<H1><NYT_HEADLINE version="1.0" type=" ">A Giant Doom Magnet
</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE version="1.0" type=" ">
<DIV class=byline>By <A title="More Articles by Maureen Dowd"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/maureendowd/index.html?inline=nyt-per">MAUREEN
DOWD</A></DIV></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody>
<P>So I was sitting around watching “Oprah” yesterday afternoon when I realized
how I could stop W. and Crazy Dick from blowing up any more stuff.</P>
<P>All I needed to do was Unleash my Unfathomable Magnetic Power into the
Universe!</P>
<P>Energy flows where intention goes. Or maybe it’s the other way around.</P>
<P>Anyhow, Oprah taught me how to stop abusing myself and learn The Secret. I
finally get it: because the Law of Attraction dictates that<SPAN class=italic>
like </SPAN>attracts <SPAN class=italic>like</SPAN>, my negativity toward the
president and vice president is attracting their negativity and multiplying the
negative vibrations in the cosmos, creating some sort of giant doom magnet.</P>
<P>I need to examine my unforgiving stance toward them and use my power of
visualization to let them know that in my consciousness and awareness, they
cannot determine my destiny. I am severing those emotional and vibratory
tonalities that keep me tied to their toxic energy, causing me to repeat the
same old pattern of bemoaning in the newspaper their same old pattern of
blundering in the Middle East.</P>
<P>Oprah did her second show in eight days on “The Secret,” the self-help book
(and DVD) by Rhonda Byrne, an Australian reality-TV producer. The book hit No. 1
on the USA Today best-seller list this week. </P>
<P>At first glance, “The Secret” might seem like inane piffle, a psychobabble
cross between Dr. Phil and “The Da Vinci Code,” a new-age spin on Norman Vincent
Peale’s 1952 classic, “The Power of Positive Thinking” and the Beach Boys’ “Good
Vibrations.” But that’s a negative way of thinking. </P>
<P>James Arthur Ray, a teacher of The Secret method, who talked to Oprah, says
it’s “very, very scientific.”</P>
<P>“If you think you’re this meat suit running around, you know, you have to
think again,” he said. “You’re a field of energy in a larger field of
energy.”</P>
<P>Oprah enthused that The Secret “really is touching a nerve around the world”
because “so many people are hungry for guidance and meaning.” Ms. Byrne claims
it improved her eyesight; others say it works on everything from weight loss to
panic attacks to getting rich to snagging the mate of your dreams or a good
parking space.</P>
<P>“We create our own circumstances by the choices that we make, and the choices
that we make are fueled by our thoughts,” Oprah explained in her first show. “So
our thoughts are the most powerful thing that we have here on earth. And based
upon what we think — and [what] we think determines who we are — we attract who
we are into our lives.”</P>
<P>Or as the book so eloquently puts it, “You must feel good about You.”</P>
<P>If it works on eyesight, can’t it work on foresight? Can’t we use The Secret
on the secretive Bush White House to prevent a calamity in Iran?</P>
<P>According to the Sacred Principles set out by the Law of Attraction
Specialists, the universe responds to your thoughts. So if I want certified
chuckleheads to stop mucking up American foreign policy, all I have to do is let
the universe know. I forgive the president for being a goose and the vice
president for being a snake, and I start thinking about the sort of amazing, or
even mildly competent, leaders I deserve to have in my life.</P>
<P>Maybe W. should read the book. He likes things biblical, and “The Secret”
says it takes its Creative Process from the New Testament.</P>
<P>He would learn, as Mr. Ray said, that “trying is failing with honor,” adding:
“Take the word ‘try’ out of your vocabulary. You either do it or you don’t.”</P>
<P>W. could have applied that to Iraq, where he has always done only enough to
fail, including with the Surge.</P>
<P>A main tenet of The Secret is learning to avoid the chain reaction of
churlishness, which begins with a single thought: “The one bad thought attracted
more bad thoughts, the frequency locked in, and eventually something went wrong.
Then as you reacted to that one thing going wrong, you attracted more things
going wrong.”</P>
<P>It’s an apt description of Iraq policy. A bad thought that led to more bad
thoughts, and the negative frequency is now locked in on Iran, which is
responding with its own negative frequency.</P>
<P>With The Secret, W. will realize that all he needs to do to change his
current reality is admit that it’s fake. (Similar to the wisdom of Dorothy
clicking her shoes three times.)</P>
<P>Once he stops his chain reaction of negative thought, I can stop my chain
reaction of negative thought. And then there will be peace on earth and parking
spaces for everyone.</P></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>