Oprah @ MindSay

I’ve been on vacation and have had the opportunity to catch up on my Oprah. Recently she had a show regarding supposedly straight women “turning gay”. It was actually a follow up on a previous show about a long time married woman who left her husband for a woman, who actually looked a lot like her husband, and was at the time happily ensconced in her first official lesbian relationship. Now a few years later the relationship has ended and the straight, then lesbian is now straight again. Though pining for her past lover. Woman, not man.

 

That story was very interesting but what really hooked me was the expert. I guess she was an expert in sexuality? I’m not sure, I didn’t catch that part. The expert has a book out and her claim to fame is that sexuality is on a continuum. It ranges from 0 which would be 100% homosexual to 5 which are 100% heterosexual. She claims that we are all on this scale at some point between 0 and 5. That not many people, certainly female people, are truly 100% either way.

 

Theoretically I can buy this theory 100%. It makes complete sense to me that sexuality would be a range scale. But in reality, I’m not sure that I buy it. And I bring up Oprah’s own heartbroken guest as evidence. This woman married to a man for year’s states she had “messed around” sexually with girls in college. That she was not surprised when she found herself attracted to the woman formerly in her life. She is currently in a relationship again with a man but admits that she would much rather be with this woman. She states that her hetero relationships are nowhere near the intensity of her lesbian relationship and that she felt much more like herself when she was in her lesbian relationship vs. hetero. I think she’s a lesbian. Perhaps not willing to commit, but a lesbian all the same.

 

The expert states that most women are in the middle of the range. That young women today are more of the attitude that they are open to either and that gender doesn’t determine their partner. I don’t know that I buy this theory. Our media driven culture certainly indulges girl on girl relationships. I believe this current trend is related more to revenue streams than social conscience. Men certainly aren’t socially open to experiment. Are we repressing men? If it were socially acceptable for men to experiment sexually would they? If they were on a continuum, wouldn’t they? I can’t see that happening. But maybe it’s just my Midwestern roots coming back to bite me again.

 

Is sexuality like many of the gray areas in life?  Aren't we programmed one way or the other?  We can adapt to the in-between but fundamentally don't we have a preference?

PLEASE check out an amazing excellent interview with NBC "The Office"'s Rainn Wilson, with Oprah Winfrey.  About his great website, especially for young people called Soulpancake

Part One:
http://harpo.vo.llnwd.net/pb/podcast/xm/ss/rw1/ss-rw1-vidPod.m4v?llnw_original_url=http%3A%2F%2Fflv-vm.oprah.com%2Fpodcast%2Fxm%2Fss%2Frw1%2Fss-rw1-vidPod.m4v

Part Two:
http://harpo.vo.llnwd.net/pb/podcast/xm/ss/rw2/ss-rw2-vidPod.m4v?llnw_original_url=http%3A%2F%2Fflv-vm.oprah.com%2Fpodcast%2Fxm%2Fss%2Frw2%2Fss-rw2-vidPod.m4v

This is Rainn Wilson's Website that the talk about:
http://www.soulpancake.com/

In the foolhardiest of endeavors, a Chicago blogger is living her life in accordance with the gospel of Oprah for an entire year. In essence, she watches every episode of Oprah and reads every issue of O Magazine, then carries out anything that Oprah mandates (reading a certain book, wearing a certain outfit to flatter her body type, creating something called a "vision chart," etc.) She devotes about 40 hours a week to carrying out Oprah's "assignments," and hopes to write a book about the experience.

The best/most terrifying quote: "It takes a huge amount of pressure off to be handed a spiritual path."

While tidying up around the apartment I turned on the TV and came across Oprah doing a show on past-life regression. Eric makes fun of me whenever I confess to watching Oprah because I'm always complaining about how she drives me crazy; my defense is that if the current show's topic is interesting enough, I can put aside my dislike for the host and watch it anyway (the same applies to Dr. Phil).

Anyway, the topic of today's show, as I mentioned, was past-life regression. A therapist was leading patients with unusual phobias into what he claimed were past lives to help uncover the supposed source of said phobias. For instance, a woman with a lifelong fear of sharp corners and having her neck touched discovered that in a former life she had been slain by an Indian warrior with a spear to the throat.

The skeptic in me finds it very interesting that what seems to be 98% of patients who undergo past-life regression therapy report having been something akin to a member of royalty or a Babylonian high priest in a previous life. Remarkable, given the percentage that people of such status would have occupied in the general population. Why is it that no one seems to regress themselves into unglamorous identities, like chief stall-mucker or lonely Victorian widow? One of the patients did suggest that the therapy has a "fantasy" element, which lends even less credibility to the whole past-lives thing. I also found that the questions the therapist was asking had a definite "leading" quality.

Maybe it doesn't matter if the therapy is reality-based or total hocus-pocus -- if it helps the patient, maybe that's all that really matters. No doubt past-life regression therapists will have to break out the waiting lists now that they've received Oprah's coveted stamp of approval.

Without mentioning God, this man has words of wisdom for Christians and everyone else.  I found it very inspiring and caused tears to come to my eyes.  Oh that I would think as this man does.

 

Please find 11 minutes of your time to watch this...it will change your life!   http://video.stumbleupon.com/?s=ithct48cqw&i=ufcchmyxqsuj9vwsemax