What a girl! Well done Michaela, what an inspiration. A rivetting programme. I hope you continue with the pratices you sampled. I believe, because of a disability, that looks aren't important. But hey, your hair looks fantastic! Go girl!
It seemed to imply that if you are not happy or are not fulfilled in your life, for whatever reason, 'religion' is the answer.
For the record meditation, dancing, helping the needy, or having close friends or family around for dinner have nothing to do with religion, yet this programme tried its best to suggest it did. Its possible to benefit from all the above activities without involving an irrational belief system. I think that the programme had a responsibility to inform the public that this is the case.
The proselytising, indoctrinating nature of the programme became apparent from the start, when Jonathon Edwards, a fundamentalist Christian, mentioned the woman seeking help with her life didn’t have a religion at beginning of the programme. At the end of the programme he asked her 'how do you feel about god now?'.....
There was also an awful shot of Edwards staring blissfully at Michaela as if she had been touched by his god...errrkkk.
I wish Michaela all the best in her quest for a happier life, and say that religion is certainly not THE way to a happy life...which I think she knew already.
Come on C4, (My fav channel), don’t let those standards slip.
I disagree. I think that the whole point of demonstrating a variety of practices, and showing how simple they were, emphasised that the programme was proposing that more spirituality - rather than organised religion- is a viable antidote to modern life.
It's important not to get bogged down by semantics, but my (and, I suspect, Michaela's) interpretation of the word "God" is more akin to some underlying reality to the universe, or as Michaela herself put it, something bigger than mankind. I would suggest that this is slightly different to how someone like Jonathan Edwards would conceptualise "God".
The transformation in Michaela was not someone being "indoctrinated" but was more like someone having their perspective shifted. At the start of the month Michaela was consumed by worldly and conditioned things like image, status, material comfort and wealth. By the end of the month it seems she was able to see true happiness as being synonymous with being authentically yourself and having more of a regard for other human beings. This is a core component of spirituality, whichever way you cut it. People born into a big organised religion do not have a monopoly on the spiritual - the programme was convincing in its suggestion that more spiritual states of mind are accessible to all types of people, whatever their background...they just have to have the sincere desire to live by them.
Well done to Channel 4 for having the guts to put together a genuinely illuminating programme which went against the grain of the conventional lifestyle/"reality" show.
I believe I used to work with Michaela back in an MGM cinema in Southampton, She was a lovely person as I recall, a bit quiet with not a bad word to say about any body.
I'm of the assumption that the way she explained how she felt at the beginning of the show is a common feeling amongst people of our age, the Waldorf schools explain this time as our Saturn years the time of our lives when we question every thing, maybe things that once were solid fact in our mind.
If you can hop between deities and steel a few different techniques from religion, cult, TV show or self help guru to help one understand or feel more human then why not? They have obviously worked for years and generations.
Even atheists must believe in the self as an entity and realise that it requires a little effort in the maintenace department every once in a while. And unfortunately we dont come with haines manuals so for someone with no religiuos background a good first stop would be a shopping spree around the religion section.
Good Show C4 and well done Michaela for every thing you have done in what must be ten years now.
