Spiritual tool Supplier Bucks Placebo Snake-oil Merchant Image

When someone bluntly asks you what more you want out of life, what would be your first reaction? A quick glance around the corner to see if the late Rod Sterling himself is soliloquizing a chronicle of your miserable existence to a mysterious sound track ("Dee-dee-dee-dee! Dee-dee-dee-dee!")? How about a suspicion that the fellow is really trying to cajole you into buying (or even worse, selling) Amway products? Maybe it's that kind of red-eye set, Anthony Robbins, wanting to show off his nifty helicopter while telling you how he converted all time Super Bowl loser Fran Tarkington into a bona-fide winner in the "Super Bowl of Life." To many cynics, the personal power sweepstakes are the '90s version of the buckboard traveling snake-oil salesmen immortalized from the old west. And most of us, irritated by those sugar-water placebo pitches both past and present, wouldn't think twice about slamming the front door shut before any of those neuron-enriching opportunists try to wedge their Gucci's in the frame. I don't think  Dõv Baron has a Lear Jet or a private limo at every port whenever he is conducting his own series of feel-good junkets. I'm willing to bet that when he touches E-ville turf in time for a speaking engagement at the Whole Life Expo (Golden Garter, Sept. 30 - Oct. 2), one of those Expo folks will be waiting to pick him up at the airport. You see, Dőv is a globe trotting, registered psychotherapist who spreads his message via lectures and inspirational tapes courtesy of, uh, The Spiritual Tool Company. Which leads one to infer, that if he had a show on cable, it would be called Dome Improvement. To my knowledge, he's not on TV with the same alarming regularity of those infomercials plugging fireproof car wax or vacuum haircuts. And when he is on the tube, I might presume that he doesn't seem to be the type to shamelessly peddle his products. "Some people learn through experience and hard knocks," he says on one of his tapes. "There are a lot of guys who are saying, "I stood with these great people in front of what made them successful and I too can show you what they did so you can be successful." My experience is, if you show people what successful people do, they won't do it." Life of Mediocrity Instead Dőv, who spent a childhood in poverty in England, became fascinated with why people kept living a life of mediocrity. After discovering that "an inner script within the mind" was responsible for dictating living patterns, he shared the idea with friends until public demand for his ideas made it lucrative enough for him to lead group discussions. His personal faith in the theories that pulled him out of squalor were put to the test in June, 1980, when a mountain climbing accident in B.C. resulted in massive facial injuries that required at least three years of reconstructive surgery. A 120-foot drop, a face smashed to bits, blood everywhere - Dőv Baron walked away from the accident. The psychological wounds were tougher to deal with, but Dőv claims he was able to overcome that barrier. "There's within us all as human beings, a spirit or whatever you want to call it, that drives us to go beyond that 'script.' It drives us to be authentic, to live as natural human beings, beyond what we are told we are." Dőv Baron compares a "script" to a "one-man police force" propelled by the human ego. "If you are operating on those 'scripts,' you can never become the king or the queen of your own life, because that little police force called your ego will keep throwing things at you, saying what you should and you have to do." There are no bells and whistles to Dőv's presentation. He doesn't rush out onto a footlight-bordered stage to pompous trumpets blaring the theme from Rocky. But, based on the tapes I heard, he is an animated speaker nonetheless. With a bit of a Cockney accent reflecting his Coronation Street-like upbringing, the glibness comes from his own self determination as opposed to a bevy of Hollywood voice coaches. Dőv also refuses to buy into the packaging of hippy-dippy consciousness. In particular, he dismisses the new age approach to problem-solving, which he calls it a whitewash. As far as he's concerned, people, no matter how ordinary or eccentric, have the capability to overcome the domineering effects of their own egos. Three Basic Needs There is a serious, clinical side to him as well. Before his accident, Dőv Baron specialized in treating abused women. And with scientific explanation, the psychologist claims that three needs are required for survival: nutrients (air, food, and water), stimulus (he sees TV as a perfect example) and love. In many cases, he believes negative applications of the latter two ingredients result in lack of human growth. "If we compromise, we compromise ourselves," he says. "That's why I'm saying we've got to get beyond those three basic needs into the positive end of those three basic needs. That's how the game works." Dőv obviously doesn't guarantee instant wealth. But he might be able to help you drag yourself away from watching those damn infomercials. From Lifestyle Magazine