Why Oprah Couldn’t Stay Skinny

Maybe you should consider a picture of her in the film ‘The color purple’ by Steven Spielberg, which marked the start of her career.

Many thanks, Rose, for the fascinating and detailed reading! I’m now really intrigued by the process of the aura changing in general. To see such big shifts in one person’s aura is so interesting and I found myself thinking about how/when, at what point, changes in consciousness, habits, decisions, events end up changing the aura. It’s all so fascinating….

It makes perfect sense to me that Oprah isn’t an empath or a highly sensitive person. I find it very hard to imagine how an empath or HSP would be able to do the job that she does.

Everything you said in relation to the dieting makes so much sense. It’s always struck me that all the shows related to weight loss and the way she talks about it, always saying that she hates exercise but just does it, never seemed to have a theme of true self-love in them. There always seems to be a ‘grin and bear it’ take on it.

When you have a chance at some point, I’d love to hear more about auric modeling. I have definitely experienced this, most memorably in the presence of Sonia Choquette at workshops. I have more questions about the whole idea.

This is all such great fun and endlessly fascinating.

That was MOST interesting, Rose. As with cosmetic surgery, body size DOES affect one’s inner being. So few people really GET that, I think.

Loved this kind of entry. More More More! hehe

Oh, Melanie, of course Oprah can grow differently. YOU have access NOW to tools that she hasn’t learned about YET. She could!

People choose their teachers and healers. I was reminded of that when Diane Rehm published her memoir, describing the throat ailment with which she is regularly treated with a drug which could simply be considered a designer, elegantly prescribed form of Botox.

I know Diane a bit, partly because she interviewed me for an hour as her guest on “The Diane Rehm Show” and partly because I listen to her program a lot. (Recently I’ve heard that she is the only talk show on a list of America’s super influential Top 10 radio shows.)

As tactfully as one can, when giving completely unsolicited advice, I suggested in a letter to Diane that her aura indicates a lot of throat chakra problems that could be an underlying cause of her rare medical problem with losing her voice. I think I offered to give her a session of Aura Transformation.

It was so clear to me, reading her aura, that the medication she uses basically numbs out the problem, rather than healing the cause. Clear to me, but not clear to her. And she didn’t express the least interest in taking me up on my offer.

But then think how many well-intentioned fix-up offers she must have, along with all sorts of communications from more-or-less strangers. To get an idea of what Oprah must deal with you would multiply by what, 10,000?

Any celebrity who remains sane gets the Rose Rosetree Award for Earth School Excellence.

Overall, I think Oprah has done remarkably well at dealing with her oversized celebrity.

James Taylor is my favorite example of a celebrity who hasn’t comparmentalized himself or gone numb or nuts. How about you, Melanie and other Blog-Buddies? Which celebrities have the healthiest, most vibrant and not-compartmentalized auras you know?

Hi Rose,

I’ve wanted you to read Oprah for ages and was thrilled to pieces to see this post. Hurrah! And look how many comments you are getting from your other thrilled readers?

I actually haven’t read the auras of many celebrities, but if I had to make an educated guess, it seems that Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Garner seem remarkably down-to-earth. Another guess might be Natalie Portman, who managed to graduate from university, despite being famous before she attended. She was still able to continue on to a major Hollywood career but had the kind of upbringing that many non-celebrities have, albeit a bit more privileged, perhaps. As far as I know, she also attended a regular high school, instead of being home schooled or tutored on various movie sets, as so many young celebrities are nowadays.

Another guess is that a celebrity probably does well if they are not always in the center of the public eye or involved in maelstrom after maelstrom. James Taylor is famous, yes, but he’s not right in the center of public attention, and he’s a very stable celebrity – someone who has survived more than his 15 minutes of fame. He’s not in his heyday right now, as Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears are.

Just my two cents.

Thanks for this reading, Rose.

I had a light bulb/aha/’duh’ moment tonight about the issue of Oprah being emotionally intelligent and sensitive, yet not empathic or highly sensitive. I’ve been mulling this and what came up for me tonight is how I think that I’ve been fooled at times by ’sensitivity’ and even the ‘highly sensitive person’ label. Being an empath and an HSP and after reading this thread, it dawned on me that one can be an HSP, be an energy worker, work in fields that require and value sensitivity — and not be an empath — at all. Maybe this is a big ‘duh’ to others (comments, blog buddies?), but a major light bulb moment for me. I’ve had some stunningly harsh experiences with HSPs and I know that a part of me has been quietly trying to connect the dots in these experiences to understand them. I had some recent cord snippings to some highly self-absorbed types, one of whom actually comes across as sensitive sometimes, which has helped me to be able to sort through this with more clarity.

I can see how I always had this construct that sensitive/highly sensitive and empathic are simply a unit, by default. It’s obvious to me now that this has been a blind spot for me. I would be shocked and stunned by the thoughtless behavior of people I’d thought were empaths because they actually were sensitive. I’d connected with them on the sensitivity and similar interests in the energy realm and assumed that empathy came with it, only to end up stunned.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Here’s an example and a situation I’ve been mulling….

I see a chiropractor who practices a specialized type of energy work and who is clearly sensitive and gifted in many ways in working with energy. There are 4 tables in the entrainment room and he moves back and forth between the 4 practice members in the room at one time for the 15-20 -minute sessions.

Several months back, for 2 or 3 weeks in a row, I’d be on the table and would overhear him talking about his upcoming marriage to his chiro partner, who was pregnant with his second child and whom I’d thought was already his wife. He went on to happily tell the person that he’d be sending out email invites to the wedding and to be sure to leave her email address. Sheesh…zing…cause each session for these few weeks he’d have a similar conversation with a neighboring practice member or two, but said nothing to me personally about the wedding.

It doesn’t take a consult with Emily Post or Miss Manners to say it was simply bad manners… but at a deeper level – or actually, that’s basically what bad manners are, anyway, aren’t there? A lack of empathy.

So there I was, feeling that awkward grade school feeling of very obviously not being invited to the party, also feeling awkward about what to say to him/them about the wedding that I wasn’t invited to and the announcement of marriage that I was never given. “congratulations!? I hear you’re getting married!?”

But mostly my head was spinning because it was so difficult for me to compute that one could be so highly attuned to energy and quite gifted at moving it in profound and transformative ways, and even respond with sensitivity to moments of great pain….and yet simply not be empathic. But since Rose’s explanation in this thread, now I can see how people can be wired that way.

At times it has felt as if he and his wife, along with a few other energy workers and HSPs I’ve met, are like technicians. Highly skilled, really gifted….yet lacking in empathy.

Rose, what do you think about this? I’m curious to hear what you might have to say about this issue of being sensitive, yet not empathic.

Thanks, Rose. I read the other conversation and it feels wonderful to see that so many others have had similar experiences. Not that the experiences have been any fun, for sure, but it’s comforting to know that I’m not alone in this. It’s interesting how insights work, in that I’ve read Empowered by Empathy at least twice cover to cover, rereading chunks in between, but did not fully register the difference between HSPs and empaths. That’s why I called it an aha/duh moment. Perhaps for others it’s been obvious, but for me today it’s the missing dot in the connecting of dots I’ve been trying to do for a while now. But I sure do get it now!

There is such irony in these realizations…these people I’ve connected with or tried to connect with in one way or another have each touted themselves as sensitive, caring, healers, blah, blah, blah…but each has revealed a stunning lack of empathy. Now I really get it. Viscerally.

Another realization that came to mind in reading the other conversation is just how important it is to fully register what it means to be an empath. I’m thinking of the messages of various personal growth authors and coaches, who are actually gearing their work to those who do need to learn to open their hearts. I can recall times when these shocking relationship dynamics would happen in the past, I’d blame myself somehow and would try to ‘fix’ something in me, thinking I needed to open my heart more. Sheesh. Now I can see that what you so wisely encourage us to do is the best thing – to turn off the empathy! This has been so liberating.

Rose, could you please say a bit more about the ideas in those last two paragraphs?

I think I understand what you mean by ‘a lack of contrast’ and feeling something by becoming more grounded and not stretching, but I’m not sure I’m completely grasping what you mean.

I’m wondering if a particular example that came to mind is what you’re referring to…when I’m looking for a particular answer and it only comes when I do something like wash the dishes or clean the house, grounding activities. Is that what you’re talking about or am I completely off base here? Thanks.

Rose, that makes sense. Another set of ahas that has been percolating is the connection between what we’re discussing here on the blog and astrology. What I mean is that one approach I’ve used with astrology basically helps to direct me in shifting the gears we’ve described here. Here’s an example – and if it’s too astro-jargon-laden and unclear, please forgive me and we can skip it.

One of the most fascinating aspects of astrology and helpful in a practical, grounded way is the information that can be gleaned from exploring the North and South Nodes of the Moon in the astro chart. A hugely abbreviated explanation is that the South Node describes brush strokes of habits, talents, and knowledge that we bring in from past incarnations. Kind of like being an actor on Broadway who can pull off those 8 shows a week in her sleep, she’s so well-rehearsed.

The North Node describes the path or trajectory in this lifetime that will move us along our soul path with much less ‘friction,’shall we say, from repeating outworn habits, and will lead us to growth and exploring new areas where there is a lot of potential for fulfillment.

Here’s an example from my own life and how I’ve used this and how it relates to Deeper Perception. My South Node is in Pisces and my North Node is in Virgo. I’ve had past lives as a religious devotee…lots and lots of time spent in contemplation, religious settings, developing compassion, dissolving the ego, that type of thing. With my North Node in Virgo, life goes more smoothly for me if I’m focussing my energies on Virgo-esque pursuits, like being of service, paying attention to details, my health, being practical, grounded, healthily discriminating in relationships. How did I learn about this?

Divine Humor!! I (unconsciously) married a minister and was drawn to the religious setting…again. Repeating an old habit, in a way. But the marriage didn’t last and neither did the church connection. Long story short, after many “learning experiences,” I’ve come to see that it’s very important for me not to get too ’spacey,’ not to expand too much or spend too much time in solitude (as in ‘been there, done that’ in past lives), but to be sure I’m moving, exercising, being of service, out in the world, eating well, etc. These are the times of my greatest insights. I know, for example, that the absolute wrong thing for me to do would be to go to an intense meditation retreat, the kind where you’re in silence for hours or days on end. And do you see how it all connects with what we’ve been talking about? Your work has been like the practical “how to’s”, the marching orders, in a sense. See, the use of grounding activities to process came to me from my explorations of the North Node in Virgo. So astrology can provide insights into the types of activities that we empaths can turn to perhaps more efficiently or effectively to ’shift gears’ in these ways. This is basically how I’ve begun to use astrology in my language teaching.

It’s great fun to see all these connections….thanks for the opportunity to share them!

I just found a 2006 photo of James Hillman. He does not often let anyone photograph him either.

What a great reading. I just wanted to add that I heard oprah say referring to a photo of her in the skinny jeans pictured above “I didn’t eat for 3 days to fit into those jeans!” I could hear mixed emotions in her voice. Personally, I would hope that if someone was going to fast for 3 days, they could think of a better objective/goal than to fit in a certain pair of jeans. Happy Reading! md