Martin Luther King had young children, too, and I think he knew there was a fairly good chance he’d be assassinated, but he chose to continue his push for civil rights. We honor the choice he made as right for him, and I think we should honor Edwards’ and Snow’s choices as right for each of them. Whether you or I would make a different choice is irrelevant.

My MIL, a devout Christian, once told me that the bible said that the Jews would be persecuted and she had absolutely no feeling for holocaust victims whatsoever. That took place about a month before I gave up organized religion forever.

I have not thought through the Holocaust. I’ll check out Vitale’s website.

Oh, fwiw, the book I specifically like by Myss is The Creation of Health. I have other books of hers but that one is a “fun” read for me.

“Sometimes could it be that an illness just hits for no reason at all?”
Well sure. I think so, at least. There are of course viral illnesses, and people who are genetically predisposed to contract certain illnesses - but then there’s also Nature. We’re human. We’re not infallible. Our bodies aren’t totally resistant to disease (whether that’s unfortunate or fortunate is another topic, lol).

I’ve been reading the message boards at Oprah about the shows she did on The Secret and the vehemence of some of the posters was overwhelming. Most of the folks were grateful for the shows, but a few people in particular made a point to try to respond to nearly every post with something belittling and negative. They kept pointing things out like “so did the folks attract hurricane Katrina to them?”

I mean, c’mon.
Yes, it was a bad situation. Do I think they attracted it? No. Mother nature will do what mother nature wants to do, and we are either prepared for it or we aren’t. There were plenty of people involved in hurricane Katrina who had no “bad” experience with it at all - they got out early, they had another place planned to stay, they had hurricane and flood insurance on their house, etc. They were prepared (something you think would be important living right off of the hurricane-ridden Gulf Coast in a city that’s below sea level). The folks who had a BAD experience with Katrina - I think it’s pretty safe to say they weren’t prepared.

I think sometimes nature just throws a curve ball your way and your real test is whether you roll with it or not; how you perceive the situation, how you react, and what the final outcome is.

The Holocaust is another big subject with LOA objectors. Did the Jews attract that? My answer is no. Joe Vitale might say they did, by wanting to be martyrs or something, but I honestly think that the Holocaust is due to *Hitler’s* vision of what the world should be like. Like it or not, he practiced the steps outlined… he envisioned it, he focused on it, he took steps to get to a place of power where he could achieve it - and he nearly did achieve it. Never underestimate the power and ambition of someone hellbent on pure unadulterated evil.
Could the Jews have gotten out and saved themselves? Perhaps, I don’t know - I wasn’t there. I believe there had to be some warning signs in the beginning, but maybe I’m completely wrong. (There goes another book for my list - the author that Oprah raves about being one of her living heroes; he survived the Natzi death camps. I would really like to read his book.)

I really do have a big long post about all of this and my take on it rolling around in the back of my head trying to take form; it just hasn’t completely “jelled” yet. Maybe I’d just be contributing to the controversy though; everyone has their own take on things and that’s why it’s so confusing to those who don’t “get” it.

I also find it extremely interesting to see that the people yelling so loudly against LOA and The Secret are saying the *exact* same things as the people who yell so loudly against the idea that there exists a benevolent God. (You know the ones, why did God allow that little girl to be murdered, why did God bring down hurricane Katrina on his children, why did God… etc etc etc.)

Maybe all in all it’s just a matter of faith; faith in yourself, faith in the world, faith in a higher power (whatever you choose to name that higher power) - and what these naysayers are really yelling about is that their lives are so empty and meaningless that they can’t even begin to imagine having any kind of faith - in anything. Least of all themselves.

Hrmm.

My cousin and I were talking about health and how we bring things on ourselves, law of attraction, etc., and we both blurted out the same question: Sometimes could it be that an illness just hits for no reason at all? I wonder if sometimes people get illnesses to teach them lessons on their life path. I don’t know.

Have you read Caroline Myss? She’s a medical intuitive and I love her books. I have an older book of hers which I can’t remember the title at the moment, but she explains the energy behind specific illnesses. Very fascinating.