Monday, November 28, 2011

Has anybody here seen my old friend Abrascam?

As some of you may be aware by now, Jerry Hicks, former Amway superstar and the person who first “inspired” his wife Esther to get in touch with that imaginary collective, Abrascam, has “transitioned to the nonphysical.” A form of leukemia, perhaps related to advanced age (he was in his eighties) took him. He shuffled off this mortal coil on November 18, which as it happens was the same day James Arthur "Death" Ray began his prison ministry tour. Esther apparently waited a few days to announce Jerry's death.

Many folks, both Abe believers and nonbelievers, have had questions about several aspects of this event. A person named Bonnie, writing in a discussion on an older post on the Salty Droid blog (comment date-stamped November 25th, 2011 at 6:04 pm), summed up the issues quite well:
What I really find amazing is that after they outright lied about his [cancer] diagnosis for the longest time, and when he got his diagnosis, he started immediately with aggressive chemotherapy treatments, something they have always claimed that modern medicine of any kind is something that you don’t need (I wonder just how many people they “killed” by people dying rather than seeking out treatment), and then he dies anyway and it takes Esther 5 whole days to notify their suckers, I mean, supporters, because she needs that much time to make up a story to convince their cult that everything is just the way it was supposed to be and Jerry is now where he was supposed to be, and everyone believes it all and is still all wrapped up in the bullsh!t! I mean, doesn’t anyone see the discrepancy between what they teach and the real facts now? Talk about brain washing! I kind of thought that when I saw clips of Esther performing with a bad cold and could barely talk, her voice was so hoarse, on one of their recent video releases, and how she “excused it away” — when what they teach is that if you are in “alignment”, or “in the vortex”, you will not get sick or attract any illness of any kind. I guess Jerry attracted his cancer the same way [James Ray] attracted his downfall. “You attract what you are”.
But no doubt Esther will go on, probably channeling Jerry now as well as Abe. I know, I know, she doesn't call it "channeling." She calls it "receiving." You say receiving, I say channeling, let's call the whole thing off? Not a chance of that; calling it off is apparently the furthest thing from Esther's mind, seeing as how she is already getting messages from Jerry in the Vortex.

And I've been getting bold anonymous messages on one of my old Abrascam blog posts, even though at the time I received them I’d only mentioned Jerry's death briefly on someone else’s post on Facebook. Here's a small sampling, unedited:
...And, they never said NOT to go to doctors and use medicine. Just whatever feels right (positive) to the person. Though of course, in hindsight, taking chemo didn't work for Jerry, overall. But then, he was 84 or so, and had a long, interesting, sucessful life, and maybe had done all he wanted to do in this lifetime?
...Just seems like the ctirics of the Hickses and Abraham are just plain jealous. And they will create a life for themselves, based on this...
Thursday, November 24, 2011 9:39:00 AM
Hmmm... if Jerry had done all he wanted to do in this lifetime, why fight the cancer at all? It seems obvious that Jerry wanted to live a little longer, and who can blame him? The comments following that one were even more loving (pardon the F-words and such):
Anonymous said...
ugly bitch. Be happy for someone when their dreams come true. Fucking follower. Go ahead live like your ancestors. Stupid old tired beliefs....why dont you go digging in the dirt for 2000yr old answers to now questions. I hate you. And i did it on purpose. I am not closer to wealth because of hating you. Bitch
Thursday, November 24, 2011 12:57:00 PM
Anonymous said...
maybe someday I will laugh at your choices in life, create a web-post about it, and use a flattering photo of you-maybe with a dick on you forehead.
Thursday, November 24, 2011 1:01:00 PM
Full of love and light to the end, those Abers! Or perhaps it should be that Aber. Frankly, most of those comments read as if they all came from the same deluded soul. By the way, that reference to a dick on my forehead is apparently an angry reaction to my crude photo-composite of Jerry with a big spider on his head. (Originally the Hicks thought Jerry might have been suffering from a spider bite, which, they speculated, he might have received while they were camping out next to a yacht marina.) I could save my critic the trouble and do a Photoshop of myself with a dick on my forehead, but I've written about so many of them on this blog over the years that it would be difficult for me to choose just one, and my forehead will only hold so much.

On that note, Joe "Mr. Fire" Vitale, who has long considered himself a friend of Esther and Jerry, weighed in about Jerry's death a couple of days ago. Besides paying tribute to his friend, he attempted to address the controversies surrounding Jerry's illness and death:
Abraham taught you’d always have challenges. As soon as you resolved one issue, you’d attract another. Welcome to the human experience. This doesn’t mean the Law of Attraction doesn’t work. It means it does work. You always get what you unconsciously believe and expect. (Re-read that.) Jerry once told Esther he’d probably depart before her, which proves he had a belief in dying, and maybe a belief in a particular way of passing on.
What Joe doesn't mention is that Jerry told Esther he would probably depart before her because he was so much older than she, and the law of averages would dictate that his time would be up before hers. So Joe's remark that this comment proved Jerry had "a belief in dying" is... well, typical asinine Law of Attraction crapola, to put it most charitably. Joe continued:
I wasn’t with Jerry when he grew ill, so I can’t say what he was thinking. I don’t know why he attracted cancer, or why he chose the modern medicine path to remove it. But if he accepted conventional medicine as a treatment, than he must have felt he attracted it as a possible solution. He was probably reaching for the thought that felt best to him at the time.
But immediately afterward, Joe seemed to contradict himself:
The fact that he got ill and passed on doesn’t mean anything more than he got ill and passed on. Everything else is simply our projecting our beliefs onto his situation.
Perhaps Joe actually meant that the fact that Jerry got ill and passed on doesn't, or shouldn't, mean anything more to Abe-Hicks believers than that he got ill and passed on. After all, the two paragraphs Joe wrote before that sentence would seem to imply that there were indeed deeper reasons for and/or meanings behind Jerry's illness and death. In any case, many of the Abers -- and ex-Abers --do seem to be having problems with apparent contradictions in the Abe-Hicks teachings. As illustrated above, some who seem to be clinging desperately to their beliefs have rationalized that Abe-Hicks never actually taught that one should eschew Western medicine completely. Others contend that yes, Abe-Hicks did teach this, and therefore Jerry Hicks was being hypocritical by choosing chemo.

The larger issue, and one that Joe conveniently overlooked, is that either by accident or design (then again, there are no accidents, right?), Esther and Jerry created a "cult of personality" over the years with their Abe shtick, making themselves the stars as much as their imaginary friends, despite their faux-modest disclaimers that Abe was the real source of the wisdom they shared.

So the fact that some of their followers are upset about what they see as contradictions or hypocrisies in the Hicks' own decisions cannot be dismissed merely as the followers' own flaws or projections, although that is Mr. Fire's favorite means of dismissal. People who create and market a public persona -- and represent themselves as an example of how to live -- are setting themselves up for criticism. (Yes, I know I am setting myself up too, and I get plenty of criticism. But I'm not presenting myself as an example of how to live, and I am certainly not making millions of dollars off this snarky shtick.)
I will grant that whatever her motives might have been, it was Esther's right to choose when and how to announce her husband's death. Brilliant cons aside, Jerry was her spouse of many years, and I have no doubt that she loved him, and is grieving for him on a deeply personal level.

At any rate, as I've noted before, I'm not an expert on the Abe-Hicks material, so I'll leave it up to those with a broader and deeper knowledge of the material to argue the particulars about what Esther and Jerry and "Abe" did or didn't teach about health and illness and death. And other folks can argue all they want about whether and how the Law of Attraction "works." That doesn't interest me much. To me, the real issue here is and always has been my opinion that Jerry and Esther made the whole Abraham thing up, originally inspired by the enduring success of Jane Roberts' Seth material. (Some of the back story -- plus some insight into the Hicks' character and business practices -- can be found in this 2007 article from the (UK) Independent.) And while Jerry may have lived a long, interesting, and successful life, as one of my Anon detractors pointed out to me, for much of his life he made his living as a hustler and con artist. Before Abrascam, there was Amway...

But he did leave a legacy, and I have no doubt that even as Jerry joyfully whirls in the sweet by-and-by, the sweet buy-and-buy will go on in this dimension. Esther will be up there on stage channeling Abe, and then...oh, my... Jerry will make an "appearance," bringing tears and laughter to the crowd of gullibles. More books, more DVDs, more workshops, more cruises. And Jerry will be on every one of them. Indeed, it takes more than cancer to kill a cash cow.
* * * * *
More on Abe-Hicks: http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2007/07/you-really-gotta-want-it-but-you-better.html

Kyra's excellent critical Abe-Hicks blog (I may not know much about the Abe-Hicks teachings, but Kyra certainly does.)

I don't want to forget Dave Stone's Abe-Hicks Squidoo lens. Here he shows an outrageous example, from a recent Abe-Hicks workshop, of the type of amoral teachings of Esther Hicks' imaginary pals (but very real cash cow). Apparently selfishness is a divine, Christ-like attribute, and it's perfectly all right for a child to abuse a pet.


Musings about why it matters more -- or should matter more -- when New-Wage gurus screw up in their lives than when the rest of us do: http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2009/11/lies-that-blind.html

* * * * *
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16 comments:

kyra said...

Hey CC,

Wonderful post. Yes, this is definitely causing a lot of cognitive dissonance for Abers. They have been out and about, desperately affirming their faith or totally renouncing it. Abers can defend this all they want, but Jerry was not receiving chemo and using the Abraham processes so that he could die. From he and Esther's emails on the subject, we see that he intended to get better and be back to normal. And it is evident that the Abraham teachings did not help him manifest that desire.

As a side note, I did want to draw attention to the final sentence in Esther's note on Jerry's passing.

And as I have said to him a thousand or more times through the years, "Well isn’t life just a kick in the pants?"

This is closer to how I envision the real Esther Hicks--a woman who recognizes the "kick in the pants" that life really is, not the happy-go-lucky persona that she tries to present to the world.

Excellent post on the subject!

Cosmic Connie said...

Thank you so much, Kyra. And yeah, that bit about life being a kick in the pants sounded much more genuine to me than any of the Abe wisdumb. I sure don't envy Esther her burden of keeping that happy-go-lucky public persona propped up.

Clarity~ said...

Just posted this to Dave's lens. We have sock puppets rallying to the charge. Dave says "Gives them something to do while they wait for the next workshop."

True :)

Anyway, my post...

"One very important fact the AH defenders are overlooking is Abe didn't tell Jerry when he was feeling fatigued that he had something more serious going on. When the spider bite happened Abe didn't say um, not a spider Jerry.

So are we to believe that Abe who knows all, sees all, goes shopping with the Hicks helping select good food choices, directs them away from oncoming accidents (several as a matter of fact), takes the eye test for Ester at the DMV, and many more our days with Abe stories, was somehow silent on alerting Jerry when he first started feeling puny that he might need to look into the causes in more depth?

Or was it that even tho the Hicks consult with Abe on a day to day basis didn't bother to ask Hey Abe, why the heck am I not feeling up to snuff?

You can go on and on about Jerry's time, not fully realized etc but you are ignoring this simple fact.

WHY DID ABE NOT TELL JERRY HE WAS VERY SICK?
"

Anonymous said...

Interesting development on the Abe Hicks front.

I think you are correct about the twosome modelling their stage show on the Jane Roberts/Seth material.
I think Esther's Abraham voice is remarkably similar to that of Barbara Marciniak who was/is channeling the Pleaidians. There are some clips of her on youtube.

Barbara did a whirlwind tour of Australia a while back. In one city so few turned up to hear her that she invited everyone to come up and sit on the stage.

I suspect that Esther will give up the channeled voice and just present q and a's telling audiences that the information has been "downloaded" to her head.

Cosmic Connie said...

Excellent points, Clarity. (This is why I love feedback from people who have more of an in-depth knowledge of the Abe-Hicks material.) These are such good points that I would love to cite them in a comment to Joe Vitale's blog post about his friend Jerry Hicks... but alas, I have been banned from participating on Joe's blog. I really cannot figure out why. ;-) Of course if I or someone else did make these points to him, he would just snap back with a reminder that we shouldn't waste time wondering about why Jerry "became ill and passed on," but instead should be working on ourselves, or signing up for Joe's Miracles Coaching or some such crap. He would never do anything to rock the New-Wage boat... or cruise ship, as the case may be.

Cosmic Connie said...

Anon Thursday, December 01, 2011 12:49:00 AM Well, according to the official web site, the Pleiadians have been speaking through Barbara Marciniak since May of 1988. I think Esther and Abe started their shtick in 1985. But I’m sure that many of the Imaginary-Friends acts draw inspiration from each other. Acts evolve too; the smart huckster never stops polishing the act, and searching for and using whatever works and will bring the money in. In any case, there are several possibilities for Esther; even if she stops the “channeling” act per se (and in fact her voice does seem less robotic in more recent “channeling” performances), she can, as you noted, still claim that the wisdom she shares comes from Another Realm. And who can prove it doesn’t? Those who want to believe will believe.

Yakaru said...

I read some of the Seth stuff years ago. It had some fairly mundane advice that one can find in any basic psychotherapy book, in fact, maybe even completely identical to what Jane Roberts might have written herself had she attempted to be a normal author like everyone else.

I guess it was just her dedication to scrupulous referencing that motivated her to acknowledge her true source. She would not have wanted to risk someone else channeling a plagiarism lawsuit from Seth in the spirit would.

Funny how for all their timeless wisdom and higher perspective and limitless knowledge, none of these diffuse invertebrates ever say anything new. But maybe communication will improve now that Jerry has disappeared up his own vortex to join them.

Pity he didn't take any books with him, or they might have learned something. For some reason, all these higher beings seem to make exactly the same mistakes about quantum physics and general science. It's almost as if they only have access to a narrow range of new age books from the late 1970s. A few basic science textbooks might have cleared up a lot of misunderstandings for them.

...

Anyway, congrats Connie, on getting banned from Joe Vitale's site. I'm sure you've earned it, even if it's not really deserved.

Cosmic Connie said...

Ha, ha, Yak, great points about Jerry and gang. And thanks for the congrats for my getting banned from Camp Vitale. But as they say (or at least as I've often said): "The banned plays on!"

Anonymous said...

I do know that Jerry Hicks did not consider Joe Vitale a friend. When I asked about Joe specifically, Jerry was incredibly cold to me and walked away from me. I've always had the sense that Jerry and Esther were really good people. They certainly made a good decision in getting away from The Secret. And whether or not you agree with their teachings, they never set up multi-thousand dollar coaching programs in Utah!

Cosmic Connie said...

Anon Friday, December 09, 2011 11:54:00 AM: Interesting little tidbit about Jerry and Joe. But I guess it is not surprising, given what I know about the personal conflicts, backbiting and "professional" jealousy among the New-Wage/McSpirituality gurus and hustledorks. Someone in a position to know once shared what another one of Joe's so-called buddies, Bob Proctor, REALLY thinks about Joe. Someone else also shared what Kevin True-dough really thinks about Joe and his pals. For people who often pander to the love-and-light mindset, there sure is a lot of junior-high bickering going on in the background. But hey, they're all only human, right?

Whether or not Jerry and Esther were "really good people" is a subjective judgment, I suppose. And while I may think their Abe shtick is a scam, I also think they were probably treated shoddily by greedy Rhonda Byrne and her business partner and lawyers. As for the Utah boiler-room schemes, they had no need for such stuff, since they were doing extravagantly well with their Abe routine. Joe, on the other hand, would never be able to maintain a satisfactory income level with just one shtick. He has to keep numerous balls in the air. Miracles Coaching is the one scheme he flogs most consistently and desperately, and yet it seems to be the dodgiest one of all.

kyra said...

Anon-

I don't know how Jerry felt about Joe Vitale, but I do know that he and Esther eagerly discussed their friendship with (and support of) everyone's favorite New Age plagiarist, Neale Donald Walsch.

And they didn't have time to set up a multi-thousand dollar coaching program in Utah. They were too busy setting up Abraham Hicks LIVE "Vortex of Attraction" online workshops!

Cosmic Connie said...

LOL, Kyra. Not to mention they were busy with those fancy-schmancy sea cruises and so forth. They had/have so many money streams they don't have to do the desperation dance.

And Amen about Neale Donald Walsch, a past snarget on this Whirled.
http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/search/label/Walsch%2FConversations%20With%20God

Anonymous said...

A great person has died. I think noone could stoop that low, as to compile the nasty picture at the top and post it. Connie,I feel sad that a capable and intelligent person as you is using life's precious moments to do what you are doing. Jerry and Esther and the teachings of Abraham has inspired so many people and continue to do so. You, on the other hand, have contributed to nothing and to nobody.

Cosmic Connie said...

Oh, goody, another bold Anonymous defender of a "great" man (and his hammy wife and imaginary friends).

"Contribution" is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.

Clarity~ said...

LOVE THE PIC CONNIE!!!

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