From International Viewpoints (IVy) Issue 18 - August 1994
See Home Page at http://www.ivymag.org/
Letters to the Editor
Book News(1)
Dear Ant,
Thanks for the article re John Kehoe.
As it is, last year I attended a Kehoe lecture and also met the man
and spoke with him in person.
He is quite a forceful speaker, sways his public and sounds very
convinced
of the correctness of his data. I also bought and read his books.
Although he states that he is not just talking about 'positive
thinking', i.e. Coeism, I myself have not been able to discover
where his method differed.
The old Coe method of positive thinking was telling oneself that 'I
feel better and better every day', or words to that effect. It
could also be able to be adapted to specific situations. For example,
a sick person was said to be able to suggest himself back into health,
an individual failing in life could similarly sort of 're-program'
himself into success.
Regardless the success or lack of it in his positive think method,
basically the above is exactly what Kehoe told his public. During
a personal discussion with him, he most definitely refused the concept
of past lives and their possible influence on today's existence.
Ray Harman's drawn representation of the Gradient Scale, outlining
where attention is placed in the different methods, is very clear
indeed! It shows exactly the difference between the varying modes
of approach.
At the same time, on page 31, in the next to last paragraph, he states
the weakness of Kehoe (and also movements like AVATAR) when he writes,
'An Isness cannot be entirely vanquished by Not-Isness. But
almost!' And it is exactly that 'almost' which makes a
difference between true effectiveness and a degree of failure.
Although the failure will at times not be noticed immediately, a not
fully handled item will come back sooner or later to further plague
the individual, regardless the number of positive thoughts he may
have implanted himself with. The old negative, no matter how deeply
buried, not-ised and suppressed, just won't stay down.
I have always found that once an item has been truly handled
(as-ised),
there is no need to assert its opposing concept day after day.
The fellow suffering from fear of ... may suggest to himself that
he doesn't, in order to free himself from that affliction. He may,
for a time, well appear to have been successful. Once it has been
as-ised, however, he'll discover that he no longer has to run auto
suggestions that he is free from it (nor does he have to do anything
else about it for that matter!).
Nothing in this letter suggests that a positive approach and attitude,
provided they are true and not asserted, are not positive attributes
in life!
All the best, O. J. Roos. Holland.
(1)IVy 17, page 30