About selling Abraham-Hicks… Excited by my first brush with Abraham-Hicks, pacing around that airport in Buffalo, waiting for my delayed flight, I searched for more when I was back in New York. I went to the website and found the skimpy biographies.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Following is an excerpt from Jerry and Esther Hicks’ Spiritual Money Tree.
David Stone
Special to The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Years after Jerry Hicks’ death, their website continued to say what it said on the day he died: the fun-loving couple rides around America in their “monster bus,” and Jerry romps through his “celebrity bio” type history, more alive than men half his age.
The website, at least, spared him the months in bed fighting leukemia and his invisible death in November, 2011. The fictions expand. Also unchanged is the determined, but confusing Synopsis of Abraham-Hicks’ Teachings.
Even the title is strange, since “Abraham-Hicks” is not the collective of nonphysical teachers but the corporate name for the business. Freudian slip? Maybe. But careless, certainly.
The synopsis consists of twelve declarations and an intriguing post script. Posted twice in slightly different versions, they are fleshed out with detail in one. The oddest thing about them is that they read like they’d been tossed off quickly, without editing, declaring truths that never make much sense, a catch basin of ideas so broad anyone can land, where you’d expect clarity and cohesion.
When I bought my first few Abraham-Hicks books, the points where Jerry jumped in with original content of his own — while claiming it was all Abraham — were obvious. Rather than passionate and inspiring, Jerry is dull, repetitive and pedantic. It has a listen to me tone.
The Selling of Abraham-Hicks continued…
The synopsis has the thudding, stuck in the past quality of Jerry’s work.
The sentence structure is sloppy, punctuation chaotic. For no obvious reason, each tenet of faith concludes with a kind of affirmation caged off in parenthesis.
It’s as if the writer wants to implant memes but doesn’t know when to stop. Let’s take a look at the first of Abraham-Hicks’s teachings…
#1 You Are a Physical Extension of That Which Is Non-Physical
Esther uses “Source” as a substitute for God. And it’s in service of the well-known cliche about God not being finished with us yet. With a twist.
In this version, we are not finished acting out God’s mission, bringing heaven to earth on the leading edge of thought. We do this by seeking more of what feels good to us, more of what’s “fresh and gloriously uplifting.”
We take no action. It’s more like daydreaming, shoving aside what’s less pleasing. The mechanics of action come up briefly later, but for now, the leading edge of thought is nothing more than fishing around for what feels good when you get it in your head.
Throughout, there is little reference to how your fantasies become realities, which must at times involve other people and their own “leading edge” thoughts. Messy or confusing details of how it all works are never explained.
Bottomless Pit: The Selling of Abraham-Hicks
How did daydreaming about feeling good become “the leading edge of thought?”
The big questions philosophers have wrestled with for centuries: Who are we? Where do we stand in the universe? Why are we born, only to die? — These are unimportant with Abraham-Hicks.
We serve God, bringing heaven to Earth, by seeking thoughts that feel good. That’s it.
Okay, this sounds not just stupid, but shallow and self-indulgent. So much context critical to a fulfilled life is missing, but that, you assume, will get cleared up in the next eleven declarations.
But, no, it doesn’t.
It gets crazier.
One for the books…
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Greetings David,
I have with much joy recently come across your blog, I cant seem to find anything on your page, where by I may contact you.
Could you please send me an email. Or perhaps direct me to where I may find your contact details.
Fond Regards
Aron G
agochin@yahoo.com
What you’ve done here is the best way, but what’s your interest? I’m not being evasive, but I get way too much junk mail and junk texts to be free with contact information. What would you like to discuss?
Hi David, I was introduced to A-H many years ago, which lead me to the Source–Seth. I never looked back after that. Saw A-H as a manufactured knock-off, including Esther’s mean streak. Do you have an opinion (written) about Seth/Jane Roberts? That was NOT a money machine.
You’re lucky. I went through a similar sequence and at about the same time, but unlike you, I found Seth way over my head. Couldn’t get a handle on it, but it seemed genuine enough to me. When I later read about Jerry and Esther reading Seth in bed every night, pre-Abraham, it became clear that Abraham was essentially dumbed down Seth. And they also modeled presentation after Shiela Gillette and Theo, who they also met personally prior to Abraham showing up.
If you dig a little deeper into the “Estherham” origin stories, they have multiple versions of where they came from. One has Abraham capturing Esther while she meditates, causing her to start writing with her nose. (I’m not kidding.) Another has Abraham seizing her hands, forcing her to thump her chest, then leading her to at typewriting where she’s forced to, eventually, after learning the keys, type out “I am Abraham. We are going to write a book together.” This version counts on nobody finding out that there were already two Abraham books that failed to sell sell. Finally, and most popular, Esther says Abraham took over her voice while Jerry’s wheeling down the freeway in his Caddy. (They always mention big cars or as Jerry called them vee-hicles.) In this version, Abraham orders Jerry to take the next exit and then engages him in conversation. This, of course, doesn’t square with the “blocks of thought” claim, but it works better, which explains why it worked for them.
By the way, if you haven’t looked into Paul Selig, you might find him fascinating. I did, and like Seth, genuine.
Thanks for your comment.