I used to really admire Steve Pavlia when I first found his articles about productivity and sales, etc. However, over the years his phony stuff about psychics, being a ‘lightworker’ (i.e wanting to constantly give and help people without wanting something for yourself), and all this have really turned me off.
For instance, read this article from his wife, a supposed psychic, Erin pavlina:
Have you ever had contact with a deceased celebrity?
Read it with a neutral mind, and tell me, honestly, do you not feel that the whole theme of this article revolves around deceased celebrities being in trouble, until erin pavlina ‘the heroine’ comes in the play and rescues them? And the way erin remains innocently unaware of her powers just screams ‘b.s’ in my mind. When I posted this on the steve pavlina forums, I was promptly banned.
Now i’m reading a chapter from his new book, and it has gems like this (when describing how he used to shoplift when he was 19 years old):
On a typical outing, I’d lift a dozen candy bars and then drop them off in a public place, figuring that other people would eat them. I didn’t eat the candy because I didn’t think it was healthy.
I don’t know about you, but to me it instantly feels like an attempt to appear ‘heroic’, i.e if people pictured him stealing candy and eating it, he might lose that heroic appeal he has in their mind. So immediately he changes the story to ‘dropping candies in a public place, for other people’. How heroic.
Then a bit further down, it reads (while describing what he did after a close escape from going to jail for 2 years):
I landed a minimum-wage job in retail sales. Even with a criminal record, I probably could have found a more lucrative position, but I just didn’t want one. I only wanted to play it safe, stay below the radar, and eke out a “vanilla” life devoid of stress and excitement. Courage had become my enemy.
During this year of quiet, uneventful living, I worked on myself. I gradually developed a new code of ethics to guide me, integrating values such as honor, honesty, integrity, humility, and fairness.
Why does a book about personal development focus so much on making the author appear heroic?
To me, it feels like he is seeking to become either a cult leader like ‘Jim jones’ or some other sort of late-night scam tv commerical guru. He already seems to be on that path, his wife sells ‘psychic readings’ which one of her repeat-customer claimed feels like a ‘high school counseller’ reading, as she didnt give her any actual facts and just repeated info that was given to her. He himself will soon launch a coaching service costing $500/hour.