John North Editor & Publisher

I shook my head in dismay recently when I read an article in the Asheville Citizen-Times headlined ìProsperity coach wins $200,000 lottery prize.î

The story told of a local prosperity-consciousness teacher who learned Aug. 12 that his $1 Quick-Pick lottery ticket purchased the previous day matched all five white balls of the N.C. Education Lottery Powerball. He journeyed to Raleigh the following Monday and left with a $136,000 check after taxes on his $200,000 prize.

The prosperity coach operates an online seminar that claims to show people how to determine what they want and how to prepare themselves to have it.

What I found especially revealing ó about him, and about the increasingly popular prosperity-consciousness movement he represents ó was how he put his own lessons into practice upon hitting the jackpot.

Indeed, all of this stirs my thoughts about what is, or should be, ìprosperity.î

The prosperity coachís Web site ó which is typical of countless similar pitches ó lists possible wants (in this order): more money, right relationship, robust health, loving family, cherished avocation, supportive career, personal satisfaction, reduced stress.

My first concern is that these are all very selfish wants. Money comes first óand helping others and making the world a better place are nowhere included in ìwantsî for the prosperity coachís clients.
Then, my concern revolves around the way he chose to use his winnings, and what it says about his personal values ó and the values he and his prosperity peers are preaching.

According to the article, the coach had promised his son earlier this year that they would move into a new home by the end of the year.

Why such a big deal over something as mundane as house? Was the prosperity coach living in a shack?

He claimed that he tries to be ìcarefulî with his kids in keeping his promises. But what values is he actually teaching them? Promising them to buy a new house seems highly materialistic to me.
Also, through his example, is he teaching his kids and his clients to make money by gambling? Is that a good thing? I have to question the ethics of participating in a lottery, which we know is funded mainly by poor and desperate people. Does getting rich by any means including gambling constitute a proper path to prosperity?†

And I have to ask, what would Jesus or Gandhi do with such a windfall? Would they put it down on a new house ó or would they share it with the less fortunate?

In my view, prosperity in such a case might be donating a chunk of the $136,000 to something that might benefit others ó and not just myself.

It also strikes me as more self-serving than grateful that the coach bought a dozen roses for the drug-store clerk who sold him the winning ticket, crediting her with Quick-Picking the right numbers for him. Hmm ... if she is that skilled, then one wonders what getting her two dozen roses might achieve.

The problem I have with the prosperity-consciousness movement as a whole is the narcissism and self-absorption that it is built around. For instance, at what point does ìgetting moreî give way to ìhaving enough?î (In my own experience, even though I never have felt like I had enough money, I still have never observed a correlation between financial wealth and a worthwhile and genuinely ìprosperousî life. If anything, Iíve found a reverse correlation.)

Rather than personal enrichment, I wish I had seen on the coachís Web site priorities for prosperity that included compassion, ethics and the responsibility for making the world a better place for others ó as well as oneís self.

In my own experiences in the New Thought movement, Iíve been concerned about many of its true-believersí (ironically) negative attitudes toward critical thinking, the way they confuse (perhaps deliberately) spirituality with narcissistic desires, and the guilt that results (inevitably) in many people who practice prosperity thinking and yet remain impoverished. After all, according to the theory, there are no victims, only volunteers ó so they must be somehow choosing to fail and remain poor.

Iím concerned that much of the prosperity-consciousness movement ó as exemplified by the lottery-winning prosperity coach ó is really just a way to rationalize selfishness and getting rich by any means possible, with little or no regard for others. Whereís the spirituality, ethics or conscience in that?

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John North, publisher and editor of the Daily Planet, may be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .