Cosmic ordering

Cosmic ordering is the name given to a version of positive thinking that was renamed by Bärbel Mohr of Munich, Germany. She first outlined her own version in her own magazine called Sonnenwind (Solar Wind), and then expanded these ideas into a book called Cosmic Ordering Service: A Guide to Realising Your Dreams. In the Great Depression of the 1930s Napoleon Hill popularised similar ideas, and in the 1970s Reverend Ike was widely heard over radio and television stations claiming that "You can't lose with the stuff I use". This "stuff" was mind power based upon similar ideas to those promoted by Hill in his many books, and which Mohr has recently promoted in Germany. In the United Kingdom disc jockey and TV game show host Noel Edmonds has become the main media promoter of Mohr's work.

History

Mohr believes that a person can simply write down their wish list and wait for it to become reality. However, this would appear to be a new name for ideas proposed back in 1937 during the Great Depression by Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich which sold into the millions, and which is still widely available. Hill's ideas were then adopted for Christianity in a most blatant manner by radio and television evangelist Reverend Ike, and then by a stream of televangelists such as pop singer turned preacher Kenneth Copeland; builder turned preacher Bob Tilton and even Jim Bakker of the failed PTL television empire.

Mohr's idea that individuals can use their desires to "connect with the cosmos" and make those desires become reality is a rewrite of the work by Napoleon Hill and others who have promoted similar ideas before.

Criticism

Cosmic ordering has been criticised as "nonsense" by the Right Reverend Carl Cooper. He describes it as goal setting dressed up in spiritual language. He also distinguishes cosmic ordering from intercessory prayer, noting that prayer is not "divine room service".^[1]

Noel Edmonds

Noel Edmonds, best known for being a TV show host and disc jockey, became interested in the subject after being introduced to The Cosmic Ordering Service by his reflexologist.^[2] He had not worked on TV since the end of his BBC TV show ‘Noel's House Party’ in 1999. One of his wishes was for a new challenge. Later he was offered the chance to return to TV to work on Deal or No Deal.^[3] Edmonds later went on to write his own book titled Positively Happy: Cosmic Ways To Change Your Life.^[4]

Academia

Cosmic ordering has recently been put forward as a solution to women's inequality in academia. Proponents advocate asking the cosmos for a promotion to help equal the playing field with men.^[5] Opponents of the concept described the approach as "scandalous" and that "It sounds like an opiate to dull the pain of reality and I can't see the point. The university might as well give women cannabis to dull their senses."^[5][6] The idea is connected to the New Age movement and other concepts such as the Law of Attraction.

See also

• Affirmations (New Age)
• Elmer Gantry
• Synchronicity
• Word of Faith

Notes

1. ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/no-deal-cosmic-ordering-is-nonsense-says-bishop-474077.html
2. ^ Need a lover or a house? Call on the cosmos The Daily Telegraph April 4th 2006.
3. ^ DEAR COSMOS, CAN I HAVE A HIT SHOW? Daily Record, April 3rd 2006.
4. ^ "Noel on his cosmic comeback", The Daily Mail, July 2006.
5. ^ ^{a b} 'Cosmic ordering' cure for campus sex war The Daily Telegraph April 28th 2007
6. ^ South Bank head defends 'cosmic ordering' workshop, Educational Guardian April 27th, 2007

References

• Mohr, Barbel. The Cosmic Ordering Service: A Guide to Realising your Dreams. ISBN 1-57174-272-7.