1.02.2009

Personal Development for Dummies - Because Steve Pavlina Sucks

Steve Pavlina is the self-annointed guru of Personal Development on the Internet. He is the unrivaled king of writing epic length useless posts on self-improvement. He curries favor with his audience by telling his readers that his site is Personal Development for Smart People™, which (mis)leads his readers into thinking that since they are reading it, then that must mean that they are smart.

There is nothing particularly groundbreaking about the work of Steve Pavlina. His adoring fans worship him as a man-god for ridiculous reasons. They will overlook all his inane blather about raw diets, subjective reality, and talking to insects, because he wrote a post that helped them to wake up early.

No, it's not satire. You would think that something as mundane as how to be an early riser would not be enough to become a charter member of the Steve Pavlina cult, but somehow simple tasks such as how to wake up early, and how to stop drinking coffee, are enough to lock in the supposed Smart People™ for life.

Steve seems to be obsessed with a quest to deny his humanity, his physicality, and as this quest continues it is getting more and more absurd. From believing that a deceased friend helped him win in the casinos, to cutesy conversations with spiders. He even mentions the idea of living on sunlight without so much as batting an eye.

He is also the king of moronic experiments. In 2005 he experimented with polyphasic sleep. A ritual of sleeping only 20 minutes at a time a few times a day. This sleep pattern must be strictly adhered to, or it won't work. He meticulously documented this senseless sleep study, and it became ingrained in his mind that it was something that made him extraordinary.

In fact, ever since his preposterous polyphasic experiment, he can barely mention himself without pointing out how utterly awesome he is because he had a screwy sleep pattern for a month. Unfortunately, he never was able to find a way to top this unreasonable undertaking, until this year.

Steve Pavlina "treated" us to an even more unreasonable experiment when he decided to live on a liquid diet for over one month. Not surprisingly, the fad diet didn't work out too well. It seems that humans are actually intended to eat solid food. I suspect this is why we have teeth. Steve stubbornly refused to give in and realize that just maybe some of the things people do, they do because it's what we are designed to do.

Even when the so-called "juice feasting" wound up being an unmitigated disaster, Steve refused to draw the logical conclusion that living on a liquid diet is not a good idea. Nor is it something that sane, intelligent people would ever think is a plausible lifestyle. No, instead the self-help swindler evaluates his ludicrous liquid diet as possibly being something that readers might want to try.

Steve also routinely calls out anyone that is critical of him as being mindless minions of the Media. If you disagree with him, you may not be worse than Hitler, but you are most certainly worthy of condescension in his eyes. Do you actually find satisfaction in watching TV? Steve stands ready to shower you with scorn for you stupidity.

This is far from a comprehensive list of why Steve Pavlina sucks, but it is a beginning to act as an explanation as to why I felt the need to create a response to his site. Personal Development for Dummies™ will not treat anyone choosing not to follow the personal development scammers with adoring adulation as being somehow less than worthy. Instead, we will seek to find a balance to your life, between your quest for self improvement, and acceptance of your humanity.

Related to the Steve Pavlina Cult:

This post from MonkeyInMyMind.com is a very detailed and incisive analysis of His Lordship.

23 comments:

  1. ...LADIES AND GENTLEMAN THAT'S WHAT I CALL ENTERTAINMENT... now Steve Pavlina the simpleton alien look alike got bored of shagging the fat cow he has at home (Erin Pavlina) and he is intending cheating on her publicly because he can't turn her on and he is not getting any of it, poor Erin that agrees with the whole fiasco for fear of being dumped while munching jumbo size chocolate muffins and swallowing her tears. After much considering, she is a lucky girl who lives off the self-made charlatan blog, who else is going to love a fat old rag who speaks to angels? So she rather put up with his polishagging and Steve goes wild with Nevada whores. Erin Pavlina you have no self-respect and are a shame for the rest of women. Divorce the con man and strip him off his very last cent.

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  2. I'm glad to have tickled your funny bone. I do think there is something fundamentally wrong with a woman who agrees to let her husband publicly engage with other women sexually. But then again, she makes hordes of cash off her psychic con job that Steve promotes.

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  3. His wife wouldn't beat an eyelid in public because thanks to his star status she had managed to write some books in family cooking and carved a career out of thin air. These women are not candid and they know that MONEY matters more than anything else so they publicly stand by their man while sleeping in different bedrooms.
    Steve is a con man with an inflated ego who would only answer questions to people that massage his ego. Once I tracked back three interesting posters and guess what? the three of them have been banned from the forum, Steve does not want intelligent people who outshine him he is a layman, no a healer, a yogui, a doctor, a philosopher, a computer tech with a master degree in freakism I haven't read his stories on dieting, non sleeping of dark/light shit because is all charlatanism, he and his followers must have given up in life to try such stupid experiments no wonder the forum is crammed with vulnerable teenagers.
    And what about the moderators, ass lickers of their boss who doesn't pay them a penny...What I really appreciate in Pavlina forum is the links people post and the book recommendations but I stay away from the "prophet" propaganda.

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  4. Sorry my post got cut I was saying that you are right Erin is making some serious cash out of his husband internet traffic and she is not so naive to let that go I was mentioning that this scenario is far too common, recently in UK the chef Gordon Ramsay was photographed with a prostitute that he had been seeing for a decade and his wife didn't bat an eyelid about it. Money rules. Ask Erin angels.

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  5. And what about the bad brother David Pavlina who's trying too to cash in with his blog thanks to the traffic that his surname generates? I don't think Steve is happy about it, he has been asked. Silence.

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  6. I didn't even notice that about David Pavlina. I will agree that if the situation is convenient or expedient, women seem to be willing to overlook quite a few things from their husbands.

    I h=don't pay much attention to the forum lately. I'm not even certain why I pay attention to Steve. I think it's like the fascination of a car wreck. I just need to rubberneck to see what's happening.

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  7. Polyphasic sleep is not his invention. He took it from the community of polyphasic sleepers. I'm a part of this community. It is not nonsense. I agree with you on everything else.

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  8. Some funny posts here.

    However, I don't know what is more sad. Having Pavlina as your guru, or seeing someone spending away his life bashing Pavlina?!

    Tough call!

    The only difference is that one person makes tons of money by writing often ridiculous stuff that often even he doesn't preach, and the second person doesn't make a dime, except for blowing steam against, perhaps, his "old guru?"

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  9. Hello all,
    Yes, Steve Pavlina does promote some far-fetched stuff, such as his wife Ering speaking to angels......however, if you take his books with a grain of salt, there is an element of motivation.

    Anyway, I think that Scott Fox and Mark Joyner are more accurate regarding money-making strategies....

    Just a thought...
    Gaby

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  10. Steve says in his "How to make money from a blog" page that he now makes $1000 a DAY from his blog without selling anything. Does anyone else have trouble buying that claim? I don't think anyone makes that much just from putting ads on a blog. And plus, rich people do not ever talk or brag about their riches. They prefer not to draw attention to it. What do you think?

    Plus if you read his FAQ on his site, his answers sound immature and a bit egotistic, not spiritual at all.

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  11. There is something very unsettling about Steve Pavlina. On the surface, he is awesome- in fact, gives great advice on his blog and I used to read his posts and get inspired. I was actually a fan of his before. Now I'm ashamed. Reading his words is one thing. When I saw him speaking the same words on youtube, I got a very fishy vibe (call it a "first impression" guided by intuition). Watch his videos on youtube. Don't take my word for it. He looks straight up like a LIAR. He is pudgy as hell- NO RAW FOODIST or exercise genius looks like an old, fat child molester with a receding hair line. He is supposed to look like a result of his experiments. He doesn't. But no one sees it because they desperately WANT to believe that he's a god-man. People need to believe in themselves. Whenever anyone points out that he's too chubby and old/tired/soulless looking to be a raw food superman, they get bashed by his followers who swallow every word he says like the BJ they're giving him. But do they have a clear answer? Do they have proof that he's doing those experiments? Or are they just empty words coming from a guy who ended high school in jail for grand theft. You think someone who has been to jail for stealing is completely innocent? Or would you use your brain and think for a second that he might have some anti-social tendencies? He has stolen money before and will continue to do it. Now, through the guise of spiritualism, he's stealing people's souls. And no I don't believe that you can go from a jailbait into saint in one lifetime. If you watch his body language, he looks like a recluse trying to play the extrovert using gestures learned from success seminars, but it looks very fake. His body language often looks rehearsed as well as what's coming out of his mouth, but on a deeper level, you can see dishonesty and lies written all over him. He has no true humility. He shows no remorse for anything. His eyes have no soul. His polyamory thing is based on a few core principles : be a con artist, be a public whore with many female self help fans and no one to call you out on your shit (it's like the emperor's new clothes- these new agey bitches are STUPID and can't see that he is fat and naked, and obviously doesn't go on any of these diets or fitness regimes at all- it's all made up written garbage on his blog to make MONEY people), pervert,lonely,insecure. If you see any videos, you always find some pale and pasty alternative chick fawning over him, because they believe he has "spiritual power" and is a "spiritual" celebrity. They're ready to whore themselves on him, and he's ready to lap it up and kick his fat dumbshit of a wife to a corner and throw her some food so she can make company with a burger while he screws every self help seminar chick in town. Sounds like your everyday con artist spiritual leader to me :)

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  12. to the poster above, you've posted that on about 8 sites i've seen so far. Seems kind of trollish to me.

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  13. Erin, oops I mean "undercover vixen", the whole "troll" term comes right out of the Erin pavlina playbook. It's pretty obvious and anyone who has read your guys' stupid message boards on the pavlino website knows it. Why are you going on 8 different pavlino commentary sites, "policing" the web like your psychotic BDSM ex-husband if you weren't ERIN herself? Others have the right to spread the truth about you psychos so back the f*** off. Please get your fat whale ass back to your pathetic psycho/psychic website.

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  14. This is all hysterical; I love the idea of this blog! I agree with you (owner of this blog). I've just stumbled on an article by Steve and got to his website and perused for a bit.

    At first I read the normal-sounding posts. I had a strange feeling about him (& how he always talked about how he earns so much money, his lifestyle...). Still, I got a few nuggets out of the posts. Then I read his FAQ. I agree with the comment above that his FAQ gave me the creeps. His tone is downright rude.

    Then came the other crap about polyamory, BSDM and his graphic depiction of his fantasies, his exploits after his divorce, and how he does not care if his ex-wife, kids or family reads it. I was disgusted.

    Now I agree with leaving a relationship if you are not in love anymore. I'm OK with people trying different things (BSDM, if that's what you like, then whatever.) But the way he handled it was pathetic and slimy. He should have NEVER publicized this stuff. He prides himself as not being private but now it's clear that he has a huge ego and no conscience or compassion for how others feel.

    And the reason I'm here and not on his dirty website is because I'll be banned in a flash. This is why blogs exist - to talk about things, discuss things and people. And Steve is too worried that he'll be publicly ridiculed and will lose arguments if he allows his non-followers to disagree on his website. So I agree wholeheartedly with this blog!

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  15. You sound like a hater. Your article didn't tell me anything other than you think raw diets and experimentation with your health is dumb. Okay, so what?

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  16. This article is sad. So sad. Why are you spending a whole post talking about someone else's blog, who is far more successful than you? Do I detect some jealousy in your tone? It's sad that you find Steve to be a moron and that he does moronic experiments. Maybe it is because you are too afraid to do them yourself. I'm just saying, don't demonize the guy until you have walked a mile in his shoes.

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  17. Hi,

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  18. I respect your opinion, but I find you to be a little misguided when it comes to Steve. Steve advocates for people to think for themselves and not to follow what he does. All he can offer are experiences and suggestions. I understand why some people hate him, because he does come off as self-righteous sometimes, but he is only trying to get people to think, not to convert them to his way of living.

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  19. Keep up the good work. You didn't mention his wife Erin Pavlina who claims to be psychic and earns laods of money from idiots. She suposedly travels to anywhere she wants with her soul deattached from her body, aka astral projection. She meets demons, angels, she has spirit guides. I wonder if she has cast demons into Steves body! She is probably cheating on him with a demon:)

    By the way who the fuck reads about selv development if they are smart! Over 9 million idiots read his BS each month. No wonder some parts of the world suffer from hunger! Just too many idiots.

    Apparently Steve realized this and decided to make money from the idiots. His earnings are over $10000 a day. Obviously the 9 million idiots never get smarter and they keep coming back to him. I mean how stupid can they be!

    Allah be praised, Steve is blessed by Allah.

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  20. If Steve is a liar, why on earth would you believe he makes $1,000 a day? He is a con artist and the #1 attribute of a sociopathic con artist is PATHOLOGICAL LYING. Oh and Erin needs some serious trauma counseling

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  21. This is really a nice and informative, containing all information and also has a great impact on the new technology. Thanks for sharing it
    Personal development

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  22. Excellent post.

    One thing I have noticed about certain sites is that, even though they have tons of content, the site looks great and the headlines are eye catching is that the material is simply filler. It’s downright unreadable. You can forget it 6 seconds after you read it. Not the case with your post though, really enjoyed it reading it and it held my attention all the way through!

    self improvement.

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