Early in 2009 we presented a post here about Internet personal development “guru” Steve Pavlina’s decision to “go poly,” as it were, and embrace a “polyamorous” lifestyle, which promotes for its participants multiple love partners, usually within the context of married and/or “committed” relationships.

That post ended up being the most-viewed piece we’ve posted in 2009, and I wrote a follow-on piece here, in which I admit that in essentially chastising Mr. Pavlina for his personal decisions, that I violated the very intent of this blog, in which it is my attempt in these pages to quiet the monkey mind of judgment and critique of others in order to live a better life, free from resentment and negative energy.

Reader Feedback Welcome

Since weighing on Pavlina, I’ve engaged in several conversations with readers out there, conversations of agreement and conversations highlighting opposing viewpoints, engaged with supporters of Steve.

But none of the comments I’ve received have struck me as much as this one from “ishina,” a reader named Simon who has his own blog on personal development, health, and nutrition which you can see here. (While you’re checking out ishina’s blog, you might want to read this article here on nutrition, which is quite simply one of the best single articles I’ve ever read on the topic of healthy eating.

Anyway, here’s what Ishina said:

Thank you for this enlightening posting. I too am one of the people that became attached to what Steve Pavlina once wrote on his homepage. In fact, I am new to his messages and read through both past and present articles. While I am amazed by his style of writing (he really is talented), the content of his writing has become increasingly out of sync with how I perceive reality and the virtues he himself once proclaimed.

I bought his book “Personal Development for Smart People” after reading several articles on his page and am of the opinion that – for the most part – is book is an outstanding work on rationally analyzing the true nature of reality – which is a major endeavour he is undertaking (and destined to fail, as the human mind is too limited to understand divine creation). The virtues he is describing throughout the book are a good compass for setting the right direction in life. I feel that he has created his own masterpiece in writing this book and has now the problem that most artists face after releasing a seminal piece of work – there simply is nothing more to say and they struggle with low-quality works thereafter.

I feel that Steve should have called the personal development experiement to a close quite some time ago. He has said everything of importance already and his legacy would have been a wonderful one.

In fact, different things happened. His book was a great success – as anticipated – and the legions of followers increased further. This is the turning point in the history of Steve Pavlina’s personal development endeavour. If you give a man enough power and riches, he will eventually become corrupt. This old saying holds true for Steve Pavlina as well. He has disconnected from his core values and is now led astray by his ego. Unfortunately, there is no one bringing him back down to face reality – there simply are too many people still praising him, regardless of what he is saying. Steve Pavlina and his fellowship have become a cult and by doing so, he has shed shadows on his awareness – by the power of ignorance he has succumb to.

It is true that most of the great masters were celibate but it is not neccesary to be celibate to be a true master. There is a point in the throught that sexuality is a great force, taking control over the conscious mind. A true master can control this force and use it for a collectively better world. This is achieved by channeling this force in to positive action beyond sexual intercourse.

What holds true for all great masters is that they were humble in nature. Humility is the core virtue of a true master. Giving up on your ego is the logical next step after having mastered conscious acting. Steve had progressed very far but he missed out on this challenge. The higher you rise, the deeper you fall.

Best wishes, Steve, for a soft landing. You better not be alone at this point.