The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Oprah Winfrey. The show ran for twenty-five seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in which it broadcast 4,561 episodes. The show was taped in Chicago and produced by Winfrey. It remains the highest-rated daytime talk show in American television history.
Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life is a 1998 motivational business fable by Spencer Johnson which describes four reactions to change. The book is written as a parable about two mice and two "Littlepeople" during their hunt for cheese. A New York Times business bestseller upon release, Who Moved My Cheese? remained on the list for almost five years and spent over 200 weeks on Publishers Weekly's hardcover nonfiction list. As of 2018, it has sold almost 30 million copies worldwide in 37 languages and remains one of the best-selling business books.
The Skookum cast is a plaster cast showing the imprint of what appears to be a large animal. It was discovered in a muddy wallow near Mount Adams in the southern part of Washington state in the year 2000. Enthusiasts have argued that the imprint may have been made by the mythical creature, Bigfoot, though scientific analysis says it was most likely an imprint of an elk. Scholars and academics consider Bigfoot, and alleged evidence, to be a combination of folklore, misidentification, and hoax rather than a living animal.
Oprah's Book Club was a book discussion club segment of the American talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, highlighting books chosen by host Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey started the book club in 1996, selecting a new book, usually a novel, for viewers to read and discuss each month. In total, the club recommended 70 books during its 15 years.
Eckhart Tolle is a German-born spiritual teacher and self-help author. His books include The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (1997), A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (2005) and the picture book Guardians of Being (2009).
Harpo Productions is an American multimedia production company founded by Oprah Winfrey and based in West Hollywood, California. The name "Harpo" is "Oprah" spelled backwards, and it was also the name of her on-screen husband in the film The Color Purple (1985).
Esther Hicks is an American inspirational speaker, channeler, and author. She has co-written nine books with her husband Jerry Hicks, presented numerous workshops on the law of attraction with Abraham-Hicks Publications and appeared in the original version of the 2006 film The Secret. Hicks claims she channels a collective consciousness she calls "Abraham". As with other channellers, she uses a different tone of voice and accent to indicate the entity is speaking through her.
The Secret is a 2006 Australian-American spirituality documentary consisting of a series of interviews designed to demonstrate the New Thought "law of attraction", the belief that everything/one wants or needs can be satisfied by believing in an outcome, repeatedly thinking about it, and maintaining positive emotional states to "attract" the desired outcome.
Rebecca L. Skloot is an American science writer who specializes in science and medicine. Her first book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010), was one of the best-selling new books of 2010, staying on The New York Times Bestseller list for over 6 years and eventually reaching #1. It was adapted into a movie by George C. Wolfe, which premiered on HBO on April 22, 2017, and starred Rose Byrne as Skloot, and Oprah Winfrey as Lacks's daughter Deborah.
The law of attraction is the New Thought spiritual belief that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person's life. The belief is based on the idea that people and their thoughts are made from "pure energy" and that like energy can attract like energy, thereby allowing people to improve their health, wealth, or personal relationships. There is no empirical scientific evidence supporting the law of attraction, and it is widely considered to be pseudoscience or religion couched in scientific language. This belief has alternative names that have varied in popularity over time, including manifestation and lucky girl syndrome.
The Science of Getting Rich is a book written by the New Thought Movement writer Wallace D. Wattles and published in 1910 by the Elizabeth Towne Company. The book is still in print. According to USA Today, the text is "divided into 17 short, straight-to-the-point chapters that explain how to overcome mental barriers, and how creation, rather than competition, is the hidden key to wealth attraction."
Benjamin Radford is an American writer, investigator, and skeptic. He has authored, coauthored or contributed to over twenty books and written over a thousand articles and columns on a wide variety of topics including urban legends, unexplained mysteries, the paranormal, critical thinking, mass hysteria, and media literacy. His book, Mysterious New Mexico: Miracles, Magic, and Monsters in the Land of Enchantment, was published in the summer of 2014 and is a scientific investigation of famous legends and folklore in the state of New Mexico. In 2016 Radford published Bad Clowns, a 2017 IPPY bronze award winner, and he is regarded as an expert on the bad clowns phenomenon.
Rhonda Byrne is an Australian television writer and producer. Her book The Secret is based on the pseudoscientific belief of the law of attraction, which claims that thoughts can change a person's life directly. She wrote several sequels to the book, including The Power and The Magic.
Robert Holden is a British psychologist, author, and broadcaster, who works in the field of positive psychology and well-being. He is the founder of The Happiness Project, which runs an eight-week course annually, called "Happiness Now", and the author of 10 best-selling books such as, Happiness NOW!, Be Happy, Success Intelligence and Shift Happens!. He runs the National Health Service (NHS) Stress Buster clinic, established first NHS "laughter clinic", and runs regular happiness workshops and seminars, with clients including employees of the NHS, the BBC and British Telecom.
Oprah Gail Winfrey, known mononymously as Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, broadcast from Chicago, which ran in national syndication for 25 years, from 1986 to 2011. Dubbed the "Queen of All Media", she was the richest African-American of the 20th century and was once the world's only black billionaire. By 2007, she was often ranked as the most influential woman in the world.
Brian Andrew Dunning is an American writer and producer who focuses on science and skepticism. He has hosted a weekly podcast, Skeptoid, since 2006, and he is an author of a series of books on the subject of scientific skepticism, some of which are based on the podcast. Skeptoid has been the recipient of several podcast awards such as the Parsec Award. Dunning has also created the Skeptoid.org spin-off video series, inFact, and The Feeding Tube both available on YouTube.
The Power is a 2010 self-help and spirituality book written by Rhonda Byrne. It is a sequel to the 2006 book The Secret. The book was released on 17 August 2010 along with an audio-book based on it. The Power's mission statement is, "The philosophy and vision of the Secret is to bring joy to billions. To bring joy to the world, the Secret creates life-transforming tools in the mediums of books, films, and multi-media. With each creation from the Secret, we aim to share knowledge that is true, simple, and practical, and that will transform people's lives." The "Power" of the title is the power of love, the mainspring of the universe. A large portion of The Power describes how Byrne greets each blessed moment with overwhelming love and gratitude toward all creation. The book is based on the law of attraction and claims that positive thinking can create life-changing results such as increased happiness, health, and wealth. Byrne describes this as a fundamental universal law akin to gravity.
Oprah's Lifeclass is an American primetime television show hosted and produced by Oprah Winfrey, which aired on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. The series premiered on October 10, 2011.
Creative visualization is a term used by New Age, popular psychology, and self-help writers and teachers in two contexts.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a drama television film directed by George C. Wolfe and starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne. It is based on the book of the same name by Rebecca Skloot and documents the story of Henrietta Lacks, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in the 1950s, and whose cancer cells would change the course of cancer treatment.
