Oprah Winfrey's Web class takes book promotion to a new level
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BY BOB REEVES/Lincoln Journal Star
If you’re an author, you know that the ultimate kiss of life would be for Oprah Winfrey to pick your book for her Oprah’s Book Club. Sales mushroom as Winfrey’s millions of fans rush to buy copies.
This winter, Winfrey took that process to a new level when she picked “A New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle as her 61st book club selection.
For the first time ever, she offered a free online live Web class. Ten 90-minute installments over 10 weeks have Winfrey and Tolle discussing the book, chapter by chapter, with the opportunity for viewers to ask questions by telephone, e-mail or, as Oprah frequently repeats, “through the miracle of Skype,” an Internet video phone service.
Winfrey described “A New Earth” as “my boldest choice yet,” because it has a message she believes really can change the world. Tolle, a spiritual teacher who lives in Vancouver, B.C., is the author of the best selling “The Power of Now,” teaching people how to find inner peace, creativity and better relationships by learning to live in the present moment.
In “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose,” Tolle builds on his first book to show how people can transform themselves and the world around them through a fundamental “shift in consciousness.”
After Oprah announced her pick, “A New Earth” immediately hit the top of the best-seller lists, with more than 3.5 million copies sold before the class started on March 3.
The class got off to a rocky start, with a high proportion of the 700,000 who signed up unable to watch the first class due to technical difficulties. By the second week, however, those problems were mostly solved, and participation rose to more than a million around the world watching it live, plus many millions more viewing free webcasts of each class posted at www.oprah.com.
The format is loose: Winfrey and Tolle have a free-wheeling conversation about whichever chapter of the book is being covered on a particular night.
Occasionally viewers appear on screen, asking questions from their living rooms around the world. The class begins at 8 p.m. Central time, but viewers in other countries have to sign on at all hours of the day and night.
The first night, Winfrey noted that people in all 50 states and more than 139 countries were watching the live class. “This is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anything more important than awakening and also knowing what your purpose is.”
Winfrey and Tolle are a study in contrasts. She has a very dominant, aggressive personality, while Tolle is soft-spoken and laid-back. His TV presence reflects his message: helping us discover that who we truly are isn’t the continual barrage of thoughts and emotions that clutter our minds but an inner awareness that is always at peace. “It comes out of a space of stillness — getting in touch with the stillness within where there is no mental noise,” Tolle said in the first class.
“All you ever have is the present moment,” he said. “The power can only flow into your life when you are present completely in what you’re doing now.”
At the beginning of the second class, Tolle asked everyone to be quiet and focus on their breathing, as a way to be in the present. Both he and Winfrey closed their eyes and sat on camera for about 15 seconds, doing nothing but breathing. Winfrey agreed with Tolle that “this has never been done on television — it’s unprecedented,” but they’ve started every class since then with a moment of silence.
Viewers’ questions, for the most part, have dealt with personal issues — such as how to help friends or relatives with addictions or emotional problems, or how to become free from the ego, as Tolle recommends, while still having personal goals and ambitions.
Tolle responds to most questions in the same way: encouraging people to keep focused on the present, stop worrying about future and past, and learn to accept present circumstances as they are — good or bad — rather than resisting them.
He frequently uses examples from Eastern philosophy — Buddhism, particularly — and from Christianity. But Tolle says his message is spiritual rather than religious, and not tied to any particular doctrines or scriptures.
He sees Jesus as someone who was completely awakened to life’s purpose and sought to share that awareness with others. Regarding acceptance, Tolle quoted “thy will be done” from the Lord’s Prayer and Jesus’ words, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt,” before his Crucifixion.
“Every human being has their own cross to bear and every human being has to come to the place of not trying to avoid suffering, but to accept ‘Not as I will, but as thy will,’ ” Tolle said.
Throughout the class, Winfrey sums up Tolle’s comments in her own words, and marks her own “aha!” moments by saying “Got it!” just before fading to a commercial. Yes, although the class is free, it still has sponsors — Skype, Chevrolet and Post-It Notes — which repeat the same spots every week.
Winfrey has declared the effort a rousing success, presaging future Web classes with other authors.
At the beginning of the fourth class, she explained her rather grandiose goal in bringing Tolle’s message to the world: “My deepest hope is that our collective consciousness will begin to create a transformation, not only in ourselves but in our planet.”
Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or breeves@journalstar.com.
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