Will Oprah tell Obama about Eckhart?

Here at Tolle Teachings, we speculated during the presidential election about Oprah sharing her experience with Eckhart with then presidential candiate Barack Obama. Now that Oprah has participated deeply in Obama's inauguration, we are still asking the same questions. Michelle and Barack just spent Valentine's Day at Oprah's special restaurant in Chicago. Have Oprah and the Obama's discussed Eckhart?

A presidential candidate who understands the Power of Now might be the ideal Commander-in-Chief -- someone who lives in the moment and is not subject to reactivity and prejudice. Will she tell him about her experiences on A New Earth? Will she recommend that Obama and Eckhart meet? Could Eckhart Tolle be the next Billy Graham of the Oval Office? And finally, should we who were so changed by watching Eckhart and Oprah together urge Oprah to share her experience with Barack and Michelle Obama?

If you think Obama should ask Oprah about Eckhart, send our new president an email about it at www.whitehouse.gov.

The Evolutionary Impulse of the Universe

Oprah and Eckhart's discussions about religion and evolution in part II of Chapter 10 have even more significance with creationist Sarah Palin running for vice-president. Suddenly the culture wars are back this fall as atheists like Richard Dawkins attacks religion with renewed fervor thanks to Palin's fundamentalist political positions, which include supporting the teaching of creationism along side evolution in science classes.

In this section of Chapter 10 you will see Eckhart resolving these differences, which as he says, "only add more content" and finding resolution to the war between science and religion in the notion of "the evolutionary impulse of the universe".

Oprah and Eckhart shine in Chapter 10

Chapter 10 is the grand finale of the webinar series. The show ran 2 hrs and 2 minutes and was beautifully paced. You get a sense that these 2 guys really got a groove going & could do any show in any length or format. Because it is so long we will be presenting it in 2 parts. Chapter 10 Part 2 will be delivered to subscribers next week.

This program, like Chapters 8 and 9, are a must see. Chapter 10 stands alone as an excellent example of the Oprah-Eckhart paradigm shift. Oprah and Eckhart kept the heat on their interpretation of religion and Christianity and how the Eckhart teachings are NOT a belief system. Instead of backing off the word 'evolution', as a fundamentalist couple requested in Chapter 9, Oprah and Eckhart kept returning to that term again and again.

Chapter 5 - The Pain Body

Many people believe Eckhart's concept of the Pain Body is his main contribution to spiritual thought. Other's disagree.

Some psychologists think the Pain Body concept is misleading & downright dangerous for the mildly to severely mentally ill. Yet, Eckhart openly talks about feeling suicidal at age 9 & then again in his 20s, in part because of his parents' constant arguing.

He once again reassured this week's audience that a dense or heavy Pain Body can be a passport to dropping the ego, compared to a life that is not so burdened.

He points out the obvious about the chronic discord in family, love, political, national, cultural, & religious relationships, and describes all of this as the Pain Body. The body of pain that humans endure because they are lost -- lost in thought and not enjoying the Power of Now.

The ability of the Tolle Teachings team to answer questions from a world audience that may or may not be familiar with Eckhart's esoteric terms was quite striking, as the personal stories of their suffering was intermixed with the stories of strangers calling from Australia to Denmark.

We find out in this webcast that Oprah's beloved dog died on the morning of the second webcast & that Eckhart lost his ego and Pain Body on the same night. Is all of this true?

The Mind is Like a Restless Puppy - Chapter 10, Part 2

Last week our subscribers received the first hour of Chapter 10 of Oprah & Eckhart's New earth webcast. Today we are delivering the 2nd hour of Chapter 10, the powerful close to this compelling program.

Since most of you started receiving these videos midway or even later in the mailings, we will be returning next week with Chapter 1. So our Summer School with Oprah & Eckhart will continue!

Chapter 10, Part 1

This week we have reached chapter 10, which will be presented in 2 parts since this chapter is over 2 hours long. Chapter 10 Part 2 will be delivered to subscribers next week.

This program, like Chapters 8 & 9, are a must see. Chapter 10 stands alone as an excellent example of the Oprah-Eckhart paradigm shift. In another blog we'll explore this more intensely, but for now let's just say that Oprah & Eckhart kept the heat on their interpretation of religion & Christianity & how the Eckhart teachings are NOT a belief system. Instead of backing off the word 'evolution', as a fundamentalist couple requested last week, Oprah & Eckhart kept returning to that term again & again.

Oprah & Eckhart start Summer School, but you're already in it!

The official rebroadcast of the OprahEckhart webinar begins June 16th. But if you have signed up for our weekly delivery of shows via YouTube, you've already been in summer school since the series ended on May 5th.

This week we are delivering Chapter 6 to everyone who has signed up. If you are just signing up now, don't worry, we will cycle back to the 1st program again & you won't miss a single week.

More new Oprah & Eckhart on the mysterious Oprah Soul Series!

Why do we say mysterious? Because there seems to be some intentional "sins of omission" about these videos from Oprah's XM radio interviews and we are starting to think it is intentional.

After all, she built a Monday night audience of hundreds of thousands. Now she wants to take that new web-only audience & re-disperse them back into her radio & TV demographic. Makes sense considering the investment she made on her free 10 weeks of webcasts.

The omissions are the nondisclosure of the length of segments from the radio interviews (which will be made available tonight), & the time that they were recorded.

When was tonight's interview with Eckhart recorded?.... Before, during, or after Oprah's webcast series with him? Eckhart did a series of guest appearances on the Oprah TV show late in 2007. And Oprah did mention on one of the webcasts that "this conversation with Eckhart will continue at XM radio", implying that both of them will walk over to the XM recording facility right after the webcast.

But as broadcast professionals, we have been given a clue. The pictures of Eckhart used for the guest line-up preview for Oprah's Soul Series shows Tolle wearing headphones. All radio shows require the use of headphones so that you can hear how you sound on the microphone. Neither Oprah nor her guest Dr. Bolton wore headphones in the video for the last 2 weeks. This leads us to believe that the Eckhart interview was conducted some time before the Harpo team decided to use these videos as part of the Soul Series webcast.

As we talked about last week, the absence of headphones makes folks look more attractive & natural on TV. If they really need to hear themselves, hidden wireless headphones inside the ear have been invented. All this to say that we are certain these Soul Series Eckhart interviews were NOT done after the webinar.

Oprah Eckhart Chapter 2 & the Soul Series Premier

Ditching school means that you have to ask your friends in class for their notes, but what do you do if the teacher does not show up? This is what happened to perhaps hundreds of thousands of people who scoured Oprah.com last Monday night (May 12) looking for the 1st installment of the Soul Series. It simply wasn't there.

There were opportunities to pay money to listen to the interviews on XM online & there were opportunities to sign up for a 30 day free trial of XM radio, but no video of the Soul Series premier, free or otherwise, could be found. Knowing that the audience Eckhart & Oprah had so effectively built over 10 weeks had become quite attached to Monday nights with Oprah, we thought it was a fatal error to offer nothing to those who eagerly tuned to see the Soul Series premier.

It reminded us of the first Oprah-Eckhart webcast, which you remember was jammed because too many people were watching & the Harpo team didn't have enough bandwidth. (So no one saw that premier either). Many people never returned from that 1st week of frustration nor did they bother to deal with the large proprietary Macintosh-platform download files that are not PC friendly. This is how we got in the business of providing these videos for free in YouTube format.

So if you have subscribed to our video newsletter & got the full webcast of Chapter 1 in your e-mail inbox last week, you are able now to see in full the beginning of the Eckhart-Oprah paradigm shift with no interruption. (If you have not subscribed to our video newsletter & would like to be included in the weekly mailing of the entire A New Earth webcast, free, go to the top right of this page to sign up).

So what happened to the new Soul Series? Well, we found it at Oprah.com 2 days after its premier date, Wednesday, and here is our report:

1. The program segments run 23 minutes. On the original XM satellite feed, that allows 7 minutes of commercials between program segments.

2. There is a big XM satellite logo in the lower right corner of the video screen, just in case you share the video with a friend & have forgotten where you got it.

3. Oprah's radio studio is very attractive. It's set-up to have a video shoot of high quality. The only clue that it's radio is the big microphones on giant wands coming up from the floor. Nobody is wearing headphones. It's all very cool, although why not use lapel mikes & eliminate the radio look entirely?

4. We only get the 1st segment. The last 3 come tonight, a full week after the premier date. Why the wait?

Overall the interview with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is interesting. It was obviously recorded while Oprah was in the midst of her webcast with Eckhart, since she makes many references to the webcast & his work. But it is disappointing. Why? Because we don't have Eckhart's presence filling the screen. These 2 women are talking about spiritual experience rather than embodying it.

The Grande Finale - Crossing the Finish Line

After 2 stunning classes in week 8 & week 9 we are on the eve of the last class. We talked last week about how many are asking for ANE II, a second edition of A New Earth. And we reported on how Oprah intends to webcast videos of her radio interviews during the same exact Monday time slot to keep the webcast going.

Those of you have signed up at Tolle Teachings to have the shows e-mailed each week in the YouTube format we are providing will begin receiving A New Earth Reprise -- the entire series of classes starting with the 1st class -- mailed out May 12th. If you haven't signed up, you can do it anytime. (See upper right column of this blog.) It's free and you don't have to join anything.

This blog will also continue with commentary on each class as they are repeated & report on what is happening with the Oprah-Eckhart phenomenon which on the Internet will continue to propagate & affect the world.


From all of us at Tolle Teachings, thank you for joining us on this paradigm-shifting adventure that has really just begun.

The Pope, President Bush, Oprah, & Eckhart

The Pope just completed his visit to America, looking to the vitality of religion (& evangelical fundamentalism) as a sign of hope for Catholicism. With apathy rampant among the Catholic faithful in Europe, Pope Benedict was met with jubilation by tens of thousands of Americans.

At the same time our Oprah Eckhart YouTube videos continue to be inundated with apocryphal warnings from fundamentalists who warn of hell & damnation for those who listen to Eckhart's teachings & Oprah's exploration of them. Here are what some New Earth readers are saying on a message board thread called: "Why are Christian Fundamentalists dominating the message boards?":

"I am sure they are not reading the book because if they were, their arguments would be based on facts and not mythology."

"It is because of the ego trip that is religion. I used to wonder how intelligent, educated people could believe any of the religions. They use religion to feed their egos."

"To be quite candid and honest ... I think that there is growing evidence here that there is a collective pain body for this group of folk ... I would also point out that many are not even reading the book ... and the majority of these hold to the inerrancy of the Bible ... the pain bodies of this group are very active ..."

"You folks obviously understand how popular Oprah is. Many Christians are very hurt that she would host such an outlet for secular spirituality. Hundreds of thousands of people logging on to the internet on Monday nights to get whatever ya'll get out of it. That's why there is so much opposition."

So this is the world we find ourselves in. A place where the largest free webinar conducted by the most influential black woman about spiritual freedom & autonomy from all religion is simultaneously juxtaposed with a conservative new Pope. A Pope who is greeted at Andrews Air Force base by President Bush & then goes to Yankee Stadium denouncing abortion and rejecting "a false dichotomy between faith and political life," a reference to the Church's position that Catholic politicians cannot support abortion or gay marriage in the name of pluralism or democracy.

Perhaps the Pope needs to have, as Eckhart says, "the right relationship with present moment."

Eckhart, are you Perfect?

This was Oprah’s final question to Eckhart at the conclusion of the 6th web cast. An interesting finale (as we reported on Tuesday) to a less than perfect program.

You’ll find Eckhart’s answer to Oprah’s question in the final Chapter 6 video segment below, but here are some striking things to look for. When Oprah asks Eckhart very direct, personal questions -- something she’s very good at -- 2 things happen:

1. Eckhart answers her in a very direct and sometimes non-politically correct way, evoking an atmosphere of openness, almost tenderness.

2. Oprah’s verbal responses & facial expressions soften as she appears to genuinely be touched by his reply.

To us this is repeated living proof that there is some kind of special connection between these two, & as we commented in the first post on this blog, we believe that Eckhart has personally touched Oprah in a way that compelled her to change the rules of her book club & select the Little Leprechaun over a more media savvy spiritual pundit like Deepak Chopra or Neal Donald Walsh.

Several times in this very interchange, Oprah is so amazed by Eckhart’s response she looks over at a camera person with a silent expression of “Can you believe he said that?”

The Pain Body: Love It or Leave It

As we discussed on Monday, some psychologists think the Pain Body concept is misleading & downright dangerous for the mildly to severely mentally ill. Yet, Eckhart openly talks about feeling suicidal at age 9 & then again in his 20s, in part because of his parents' constant arguing.

He once again reassured this week's audience that a dense or heavy Pain Body can be a passport to dropping the ego, compared to a life that is not so burdened.

He points out the obvious about the chronic discord in family, love, political, national, cultural, & religious relationships, and describes all of this as the Pain Body. The body of pain that humans endure because they are lost -- lost in thought and not enjoying the Power of Now.

The ability of the Eckhart-Oprah team to answer questions from a world audience that may or may not be familiar with Eckhart's esoteric terms was quite striking, as the personal stories of their suffering was intermixed with the stories of strangers calling from Australia to Denmark.

We find out in this webcast that Oprah's beloved dog died on the morning of the second webcast & that Eckhart lost his ego and Pain Body on the same night. Is all of this true?

Leave us alone!

Yesterday we talked about the Christian fundamentalists attacking Oprah via message boards & on the comment sections of our very own YouTube clips of the webinar.

Today we're happy to report that Oprah chose to deal with this problem immediately, at the top of the show, before she & Eckhart even started Chapter 4.

Oprah handled the issue in a clever & effective way. Instead of calling out the fundamentalists on the inappropriateness of their fixed beliefs & need to convert unbelievers, she referred to the many messages she received from the webinar student body who asked, "What should they do when a friend or loved one does not respond to the Tolle teachings?"

The response from Eckhart & Oprah was the same. "Leave them alone! We are not promoting a new belief. We do not need to convert anyone. Others may resonate with the teachings later or never. It doesn't matter. What does matter is your own spiritual path & your own spiritual work."

This paraphrase from the top of the program has, of course, a more deliberate application. If that is true for Tolle's teachings then this also applies to fundamentalists all of faiths & denominations. "Leave us alone! You have your path. Follow it, but do not make us follow."

It's like the Oprah.com message board respondent who said. "I don't picket churches on Sunday, so please leave us alone to worship as we please!"

It's all in the 1st 10 minutes of the March 25th program.

OprahEckhart Webcast attacked by Christian Fundamentalists

Oprah Winfrey is not webcasting with Eckhart Tolle to increase her fundamentalist demographic considering how right-wing American Christians are reacting via the Internet.

In very short order, Oprah's message boards and our YouTube streamed video comment sections are filling up with mean-spirited Christian extremist hate mail. So much so that those students of the webinar who are trying to discuss the teachings have to wade through thousands of propaganda posts just to have a conversation with one another.

How is that different from Osama Bin Ladin bringing up the Mohammad cartoons 2 years after the fact & declaring a Jihad on the European Union? What is it about fundamentalists & their lack of a sense of humor or even any kind of tolerance? It's especially interesting since Eckhart loves Jesus & uses quotes from the New Testament to illustrate his teachings.

We will not dignify this behavior by showcasing these comments, you can find them yourselves. We will share with you some of the more positive and life-affirming comments that have been sent to us:

"Good to see the truth has reached such a large scale of publicity Makes me optimistic we can change our world to the better!"

"thanku thanku thanku.....veryyyy much!!!!!"

"thank you very much for posting these. I love brain food because we have so much garbage trying to influence us."

"In recent years I have truly begun to exercise the Power of Now...savoring the juicy moment, reveling in the joy of creation and seeing my vision being enacted in the world. Of course, a very key ingredient has been my ability to shift the ongoing thought process from struggle and automatic response (based on past conditioning) to one of positive expectation, true appreciation and the knowledge of who I am and how powerful are my thoughts and feelings in unfolding the preferable reality of joy, love and conscious manifestation. So, there it is, a true life testimonial of how some simple teachings, coupled with a lifetime of desire for truth, can bring about a most favorable result."

I guess the reason we have a 27 million dollar Creation Museuem in Cincinnatti and why federal employees at the Grand Canyon are not permitted to contradict a book sold at the visitor center explaining that the Grand Canyon is not millions of years old but created by the Great Flood 6,000 years ago is because the fundamentalists in our midsts speak louder and more often. This is exactly why these Internet broadcasts are so important; and why a major media figure on the world stage like Oprah is offering the planet at this time a reasonable, peaceful alternative to all this insanity.

You can see how fun & reasonable Oprah & Eckhart are in this last section from last week's webinar that aired on 3-17-08. See you all tonight!