Does anyone remember Kevin Trudeau? He was all over late night TV in the 1990s with infomercials on getting rich with real estate, “the weight loss cure they don’t want you to know about,” healing yourself with natural cures, and improving your life by improving your thoughts. Thanks to his marketing genius, he became a billionaire.
A lot of what he promoted, and still promotes, sounds like the Course. And it hasn’t been an easy ride. His “thoughts create your reality” approach, packaged in slick marketing and reaching huge audiences, has been controversial. Maybe if he hadn’t made so much money no one would have cared. But Wikipedia says it this way: “His late-night infomercials, which promoted unsubstantiated health, diet, and financial advice, earned him a fortune but resulted in civil and criminal penalties for fraud, larceny, and contempt of court.” In 2013, he received a 10-year prison sentence for violating a court order that prohibited false advertising. He spent 8 1/2 years in prison and was banned from making infomercials for 5 years.
But it’s what happened next that’s most interesting. In online “infomercials” he practices what he preaches. “I haven’t gone through any adversity,” he says. “You may think it’s adversity and for you it may be adversity, but for me it was a gift. In every challenge or adversity or bad thing, I knew there was gold to be found. The Universe doesn’t do things to us; it does things for us.”
As the Course teaches, “Nothing occurs but represents your wish, and nothing is omitted that you choose. Here is your world, complete in all details. Here is its whole reality for you. It is only here salvation is.” Lesson 152
It seems Kevin Trudeau understands. It’s his best infomercial yet.