Celebrity crazies are a dime a dozen, but Shirley MacLaine
is crazier than most. An actor of some fame in the 1960s and 1970s, she became
a New Age woo-meistress in the 1980s, writing several books (Out On a Limb, Dancing in the Light) that were unfettered by such conservative
standards as reason, rationality, truth, and accountability, and which (nevertheless)
helped popularize a plethora of insane New Age beliefs. And MacLaine made sure she
ran the full gamut from reincarnation to channelling.
Now, although her earlier woo was particularly concerned
with reincarnation,
transcendental meditation,
channeling and past-life regression,
she has lately been mostly focused on UFOs,
and in her 2007 book Sage-ing While
Age-ing she discusses her alien encounters and witnessing of Washington DC
UFO incidents in the 1950s (curious that they weren’t reported before). As for
channeling MacLaine and the ABC television network must be held partially
responsibility for the fame of JZ Knight.
In 1987 ABC did a mini-series based on MacLaine’s book Out on a Limb, in which MacLaine converses with spirits through
channeler Kevin Ryerson. One of the spirits who speaks through Ryerson is a
contemporary of Jesus called “John”, who speaks, rather than Aramaic, a kind of
fake Elizabethan English. “John” tells MacLaine that she is co-creator of the
world with a god, which MacLaine accepts because, remarkably, this is a belief
she has expressed earlier (i.e. that she is a god). It is pretty remarkable,
isn’t it, that “John” told MacLaine exactly what she wanted to hear. Proves
that the channeling works, right?
MacLaine briefly lived with Dennis Kucinich, who is known to
be more than a little susceptible to woo himself.
Diagnosis: Moron, and so egotistically oriented that the
fact that she believes that p is sufficient evidence-for-her that p (indeed,
she explicitly claims that she can create her own reality – which is, in fact,
a rather common claim among reason-challenged people despite its obviously
contradictory force). I suppose the grandness of ego is an important factor in
explaining the attraction between celebrities and mystical powers.
Read her daughter Sachi Parker's memoir "Lucky Me" for more on Ms. MacLaine's gullibility, self-centered behavior, and general neglect of her daughter. MacLaine packed her daughter Sachi off to Japan to live with MacLaine's husband Steve Parker, and his mistress. Parker conned money out of MacLaine for years until Sachi revealed that Parker's story that Sachi's real father was an alien caused MacLaine to realize that Parker had been scamming her for years. MacLaine washed her hands of responsibility for Sachi once Sachi became an adult, and MacLaine made some past lives claim in order to justify her generally bad parenting. MacLaine wasn't happy with "Lucky Me," but that is probably because the book gives a rather unflattering look at her egotism and predilection for woo.
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