Oprah

[Gianna]

How does everyone feel about Oprah? I'm only asking because my mom always calls me to tell me about her stuff (Oprah's content on 'enlightenment') and idk why it just pisses me off. And then I feel guilty & filled with 'judgment' because I am judging. haha. idk, what do you guys think? I really don't even know anything about Oprah, only what my mom tells me. So maybe I am really just annoyed with my mom and potentially her spiritual bypassing? idk there just seems to be a sense of pride there that gets under my skin when it's surrounded by such pure concepts. I think I have a core belief that mainstream ideology is toxic because I was raised with this kind of media we are dealing with (and Oprah is obviously mainstream).  Either people are misconstruing the concepts which pisses me off or I am misconstruing them which is pissing off my higher self. LOL! 

Edited September 4, 2021 by Gianna

[RickyFitts]

She just never strikes me as being truly sincere, somehow, there's something about the way she comes across that I find off-putting. Maybe that isn't really fair - but she doesn't resonate with me, anyway. 

[RickyFitts]

Hard to know with your parents, though, just the hierarchical nature of the relationship (particularly in your formative years, especially if they weren't particularly conscious people - and so many parents aren't  particularly conscious) complicates things and creates simmering resentments. It's something I'd notice in myself towards my dad, he could be doing something completely innocuous and it'd just piss me off to a pretty ridiculous extent  Took me quite a while to come to terms with that.

Edited September 3, 2021 by RickyFitts
The 'a' in 'aren't' wasn't italicised. And I couldn't stand for THAT, obviously xD.

[Gianna]

2 minutes ago, RickyFitts said:

She just never strikes me as being truly sincere, somehow, there's something about the way she comes across that I find off-putting. Maybe that isn't really fair - but she doesn't resonate with me, anyway. 

Interesting!! Okay, so I'm glad to hear your experience/feelings/perspective on it. Yeah, my mom was telling me that Oprah said her purpose is, "To teach other people how to live their best life by living my best life." And I get that, to an extent. But coming from her it sounds like this to me, "Oh, I teach people how to be great because I am just so great." Haha. It comes off super disingenuine and egotistical to me. Like– I think to myself– would Leo ever fucking say something like that? No. But he actually does teach people how to meet themselves. So it just bothers me. 

And I get the "leading by example" thing but you don't say that kind of stuff when you have true humility. Like Teal, Rupert Spira, Matt Kahn, or other teachers of this nature. They would neverrrr say something so shallow and empty. 

[Gianna]

15 minutes ago, RickyFitts said:

Hard to know with your parents, though, just the hierarchical nature of the relationship (particularly in your formative years, especially if they weren't particularly conscious people - and so many parents aren't  particularly conscious) complicates things and creates simmering resentments. It's something I'd notice in myself towards my dad, he could be doing something completely innocuous and it'd just piss me off to a pretty ridiculous extent  Took me quite a while to come to terms with that.

Me too, seriously me too. Sometimes I think my inner child just has a lot of built-up resentment towards some things. I feel bad because– for me too– it's like the most innocent stuff I'm like  seriously.. haha!! superrr unconscious/inauthentic behavior from them only (not from other people) makes me annoyed and angry and it should really just make me laugh. Like this: 

this is how I look at Oprah... LOL. I really have nothing against Oprah honestly. This is image is just the representation of a life before realizing no self. 

Edited September 2, 2021 by Gianna

[RickyFitts]

17 minutes ago, Gianna said:

Interesting!! Okay, so I'm glad to hear your experience/feelings/perspective on it. Yeah, my mom was telling me that Oprah said her purpose is, "To teach other people how to live their best life by living my best life." And I get that, to an extent. But coming from her it sounds like this to me, "Oh, I teach people how to be great because I am just so great." Haha. It comes off super disingenuine and egotistical to me. Like– I think to myself– would Leo ever fucking say something like that? No. But he actually does teach people how to meet themselves. So it just bothers me. 

Oh yeah, I know exactly how you feel - I'm not loving that either, it does sound nauseatingly self-satisfied to me. Just the whole vibe I get from her... it doesn't sit well with me somehow, it feels phony.

 

20 minutes ago, Gianna said:

And I get the "leading by example" thing but you don't say that kind of stuff when you have true humility. Like Teal, Rupert Spira, Matt Kahn, or other teachers of this nature. They would neverrrr say something so shallow and empty. 

Absolutely agree! The difference between affected humility and true humility is glaring, true humility is so much more quiet and inconspicuous, and it doesn't seek validation because it doesn't need it.

[FlyingLotus]

     Oprah’s exceptional at the the unique way she’s chosen to contribute to the world.  In Spiral Dynamics terms, her mission has been to raise people from stage blue to stage green and beyond.

     If you’re used to Leo’s work, Leo focuses on going from orange/green to yellow and turquoise.  Maybe it’s annoying watching your mom be late to the party?  Also, if you don’t know much about Oprah, her best stuff was on her show which ended in 2011.  You can find clips of it on youtube.

     Oprah was talking about spiral dynamics stage yellow and turquoise stuff back in the 90s and 00s.  People are just starting to understand stuff like that now in the 2020s.  She’s not perfect, but is exceptional at what she’s specifically chosen to do.  I can definitely think of ways to criticise her, but compared to how much she's contributed to the world it's pretty small.  

     Watch this interview between Oprah and Traci Lords a pornstar who was raped at 10 years old.  Look at the stage yellow structural understanding she has of how society demonizes certain “types” of women.  The empathy and compassion she has towards Lords that’s also imparts lessons to the audience on how they can apply that empathy and use Lords' experiences to reflect on their own life.

     How many interviewers, or even people, will admit on international television that they can relate to someone as "dirty" as a pornstar.  Most people would judge Lords, or condescend and pity Lords in a "glad that ain't me" way.  Oprah has the meta, structural understanding of Lords' situation.  The Oprah show was filled with interviews and content as compassionately intelligent as this.  

     Oprah’s unique in a lot of ways because she’s a paragon of feminine leadership and the importance of love and empathy in understanding the world.  It’s not just all data and numbers.

     I can write more on Oprah, but I’m in the middle of something, so will have to come back to this thread.  Anyway, Oprah’s awesome.  Your momma sounds like a smart lady ?

Edited September 2, 2021 by FlyingLotus

[RickyFitts]

@Gianna Best picture ever!  

49 minutes ago, Gianna said:

Me too, seriously me too. Sometimes I think my inner child just has a lot of built-up resentment towards some things. I feel bad because– for me too– it's like the most innocent stuff I'm like  seriously.. haha!! superrr unconscious/inauthentic behavior from them only (not from other people) makes me annoyed and angry and it should really just make me laugh.

Oh yeah!  

I think most of us do build up a lot of resentment towards various things over the course of our lives, because we're having to curb our authentic selves to fit in - and our spirit wants to be free, it doesn't really like being confined like that. And often it's our parents who are feeding us the message that it's basically not all right to be the way we are, and, God bless us, we do tend to take that to heart. But it's not easy being a parent, to be fair, so I try not to judge them too harshly.

Edited September 2, 2021 by RickyFitts

[Nahm]

She a great example of nonconformity imo, turning water into wine. 

[Gianna]

1 hour ago, FlyingLotus said:

  In Spiral Dynamics terms, her mission has been to raise people from stage blue to stage green and beyond.

That's a big gap!! I could see how this would be an admirable mission. My mom is stage blue.. which is probably why it helps her. That makes soo much sense! I didn't think about it like that. 

1 hour ago, FlyingLotus said:

 If you’re used to Leo’s work, Leo focuses on going from orange/green to yellow and turquoise.  Maybe it’s annoying watching your mom be late to the party? 

YES! This is probably exactly what it is. I am honestly not used to anything below green. Which is probably why content that is centered below this stage comes off as disingenuine and 'emptyish' to me–  like it's missing the heart of it. 

 

1 hour ago, FlyingLotus said:

Oprah was talking about spiral dynamics stage yellow and turquoise stuff back in the 90s and 00s.  People are just starting to understand stuff like that now in the 2020s.  She’s not perfect, but is exceptional at what she’s specifically chosen to do.  I can definitely think of ways to criticise her, but compared to how much she's contributed to the world it's pretty small.  

 I love this perspective and it makes me feel so much better. Thank you for making this connection! Because this goes for all of the content my mom listens too not just Oprah. And I never understood why it was so annoying to me. But having this perspective now, I actually have gratitude towards Oprah because who the hell wants to teach stage blue content!? haha! Sounds miserable to me. 

[Gianna]

1 hour ago, RickyFitts said:

true humility is so much more quiet and inconspicuous, and it doesn't seek validation

Or praise!!

1 hour ago, RickyFitts said:

because we're having to curb our authentic selves to fit in - and our spirit wants to be free, it doesn't really like being confined like that

Okay, THIS!! Perfectly said. 

1 hour ago, RickyFitts said:

And often it's our parents who are feeding us the message that it's basically not all right to be the way we are,

It's so hurtful and infuriating but it is only coming from a place of love– of them wanting to protect us from what they think will hurt us. Except they are the only ones hurting us by giving us the idea that people will not accept who we are. 

[RickyFitts]

7 hours ago, Gianna said:

Or praise!!

Yes, exactly!

7 hours ago, Gianna said:

It's so hurtful and infuriating but it is only coming from a place of love– of them wanting to protect us from what they think will hurt us. Except they are the only ones hurting us by giving us the idea that people will not accept who we are. 

Exactly, that's exactly it  

[RickyFitts]

@FlyingLotus Appreciate your perspective, I was probably viewing her through much too narrow a lens and you've helped me to see the bigger picture - thanks for that  

[FlyingLotus]

@RickyFitts It’s all good!  Most people on this forum probably aren’t super informed about Oprah because they’re mostly guys in their 20s, lol.  I watched her show everyday as a kid and as a teenager.  Watched it occasionally in college, but haven’t seen much of her recent stuff.

     There’s really no other tv show that did a better job of evolving the culture, largely in part because she’s so good at talking to stage blue and orange.   She covered so many topics that were too taboo to discuss, but really needed to be discussed, like sexual assault, child molestation and assault, every mental health topic you can imagine, drug addiction, food addiction, people pleasing, racism, sexism, metaphysics, law of attraction, why does the world hate America, there’s way more, but that’s all I can think of right now.  A lot of her best stuff isn’t even on youtube.

     Also, the way she covered those topics was very stage yellow and turquoise, but always framed in a way that blue and orange could digest by appealing to their value system.  That’s an incredibly tough balancing act and quite brilliant, especially with an audience as big as hers.

 

Random Oprah Goodness:

• She got a bunch of child rapists arrested by offering rewards out of her own pocket and using her show as a platform.
• Had an episode totally devoted to sexual assault of men, a topic that still doesn’t get discussed enough today.
• Gave free cars to an audience of teachers who were specifically needing cars.
• Gave out over 64000 academic scholarships during the show.
• Opened a school for impoverished girls in South Africa.
• Tried to introduce classic literature to the US by putting it on her book club, even though the audience did not like it and turned on her, lol.
• Got people to read through her book club!
• Promoted a lot of black artists who were being ignored by mainstream media at the time.
• Made spirituality a lot more mainstream by featuring new age authors, like Gary Zukav (her fav), Marianne Williamson, among others.
• There's so much more stuff, but I can't find clips.  She basically put a human face on topics that called forth and elevated the humanity in others.
• Embodied the power of empathy and bearing witness to other people’s stories, like this:

 

 

 

 

"But she must be evil.  She's so rich!!!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice that this talk about God works if you're stage blue, orange or green:

 

 

Last clip, I promise...but it's a good one...

 

Edited September 3, 2021 by FlyingLotus

[FlyingLotus]

14 hours ago, Gianna said:

But having this perspective now, I actually have gratitude towards Oprah because who the hell wants to teach stage blue content!? haha! Sounds miserable to me. 

Haha, no doubt.  It'd be like constantly teaching your parents how to use a computer.

[Thought Art]

I watched a lot of Oprah as a kid when at my grandmothers. I think she is a good woman!

Her booklist shares books with Leo's

[Gianna]

7 hours ago, FlyingLotus said:

Haha, no doubt.  It'd be like constantly teaching your parents how to use a computer.

Okay, this literally made me laugh out loud! Haha!! So funny because it's true. That's exactly what it would feel like. 

[Leo Gura]

It's just such mainstream weaksauce.

Awakening can never be mainstream.

[kieranperez]

On 9/2/2021 at 1:43 PM, Gianna said:

And then I feel guilty & filled with 'judgment' because I am judging

Judgements aren’t bad. Bad judgments are bad. “Bad” in the sense of “unskillful judgments”. Trust your capacity to make skillful judgments grounded in good sense-making and honesty. Oprah does in fact greedily sell bullshit spirituality to people, despite the fact that she’s also conquered a rather harrowing upbringing. There is some basic intelligence in the self contraction when faced with bullshit. 
 

But yeah, sounds like some basic therapy would help when it comes to your mom and uncovering the complex underbelly of inner conflicts when it comes to the relationship with your mom that you’re not aware of. 

[eggopm3]

I watched her interview Eckhart Tolle once and she seemed mostly clueless to what Tolle was talking about. Strange, since her support for his books was a big part of how he got so popular, you'd think it would have at least resonated with her on some level beyond the shallow mainstream new age mentality, but nah. But also not too surprising, since her show is aimed at mostly middle-aged normie moms.