Brian Gongol
As a talk radio show host, I get a lot of e-mail from authors and publicists who want to get free air time for their books. Of the dozens that arrive in a day -- most of which are stupid but otherwise harmless -- occasionally there's one that touches a nerve. This one obviously did.
I have highlighted some of the most offensive language. My response and some additional thoughts follow.
The solicitation
-----Original Message-----
From: Miriam Slozberg on behalf of Miriam Slozberg
Sent: Thu 9/22/2011 4:00 AM
To: Gongol, Brian
Subject: Are your listeners suffering, not knowing why? This guest may have the answer.
Liberate the Tortured Soul
GUEST FOR SHOW: Author of..."Stars Behind the Tortured Soul: Using Astrology To Heal Past Life Memories Of The Holocaust"
Dear Brian,
Are you or your listeners depressed, suffering, lost, tortured, miserable? Stars Behind the Tortured Soul - book
Could your suffering be caused by a past life as a holocaust victim? Miriam Slozberg says there are indeed many people who have no idea that such a past life is at heart of their misery. And her new book Stars Behind the Tortured Soul provides the way to identify and detach from past life trauma using astrology. While the book is specifically revealing for those whose souls were once the victim of the Nazi genocide, the methods she proposes will help anyone whose tragic and traumatized past lives are bleeding into this one.
In the book, Slozberg--astrologer, author of My Five Autobiographies and past-life Holocaust victim--describes her own journey and the journeys of five other persons through their exploration of the soul. She reveals that we can be karma stoppers. Each of us can heal in our current lives the pain and suffering carried forward from our past lives, no matter how deep our wounds or profound our torment.
In Stars Behind the Tortured Soul, Miriam Slozberg provides much more than a story of personal passages:
* She provides a comprehensive primer on astrology: the meanings of the planets, signs, planetary aspects, and astrological houses.
* She introduces us to Nicole, Beth, Claire, Jessica, and Rabbi Yonassan Gershom--they are different from one another in many ways, yet all lived through the Holocaust in their past lives.
* She conducts a thorough analysis of their natal astrological charts, as well as her own; drawing from the discoveries therein.
* She provides evidence of reincarnation and illuminates the challenges, courses, and gifts of healing from past-life sufferings.
* She presents an astrological analysis on the rise of the Third Reich.
* She entreats us to never forget the atrocities of the Holocaust while recognizing the opportunities to overcome the negative and transform it into the positive, and beyond.
* She shows how the path toward healing may become known to us when we open up to and learn from the experiences--however horrific--that we encountered in our past lives.
To book Miriam for an interview to share insights from Stars Behind the Tortured Soul with your listeners please send an email with the name of the show, your contact information and a proposed date directly to Miriam at mirb7000@gmail.com or call her at 416-436-7163.
"This book is, to my knowledge, the first work that uses astrology to analyze cases of Holocaust reincarnations. I believe that Miriam Slozberg's work is an important contribution to the area of past-life studies." - Rabbi Yonassan Gershom Author of Beyond The Ashes
Miriam Slozberg
416-436-7163
mirb7000@gmail.com
My response
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gongol, Brian
Date: Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 10:06 AM
Subject: RE: Are your listeners suffering, not knowing why? This guest may have the answer.
To: mirb7000@gmail.com
I find this solicitation profoundly insulting. You are profiteering off the deaths of millions of innocent people in the Holocaust. Astrology and "past life" myths are bunk, and you should be ashamed of yourself for making a mockery of the lives of those who *actually* perished in that abhorrent event by trying to claim a share in their pain -- for material gain, no less.
Do not send me a solicitation ever again.
-----
Brian Gongol
Host, "The Brian Gongol Show" and "WHO Radio Wise Guys" on Newsradio 1040 WHO
515-245-8855
www.gongol.com
A few additional thoughts
First, to think that the rise of the Third Reich can be watered down to the nonsense of the apparent motion of stars in the sky not only insults the intelligence of everyone who knows that astrology is bunk, it suggests that we have anything to blame but human weakness for the rise of the Nazi movement. That's wrong. Genocide and other evils happen because good people don't stand up to stop them. Blaming them on the stars makes it sound like we can't do anything about them -- when the truth is that we can and we must.
Second, reducing a person's mental pain and suffering to some nonsense about memories from a supposed past life does no good for the person who's suffering. If one has serious, long-standing emotional troubles, one should seek treatment from the many qualified, compassionate mental-health care providers out there. By telling people that they can ease their emotional pain today by imagining that they suffered even greater pain in some false previous life as a Holocaust survivor is insulting, trivializing, and contrary to every sensible idea in psychology.
Finally, and most importantly, fraudulently purporting to have suffered in the Holocaust in a fictitious past life is the worst kind of self-deception. When someone pretends to have served in the military, we call it a case of "stolen valor". Veterans and servicemembers are offended by these frauds and it has become a mission to see them brought to justice. Sadly, though, millions of Holocaust victims died -- and there are few survivors left today to defend their own honor, or the honor of those who died. Claiming to have lived a past life as a Holocaust victim is no less a case of "stolen valor" than wearing an unearned Purple Heart or Bronze Star. It's just much harder to be brought to account.