London, England - NOEL EDMONDS has come under fire from a senior Anglican bishop for promoting the cult of “cosmic ordering”.
The Bishop of St Davids, the Right Rev Carl Cooper, gives warning in his Easter message against reliance on the latest new-age cult. Referring to comparisons between cosmic ordering and the Christian practice of prayer, the Bishop says that prayer should not be seen as a form of “heavenly shopping trolley”.
Edmonds, host of the show Deal or No Deal on Channel 4, claims that his career underwent a resurrection after he became a follower of the German writer Bärbel Mohr.
Her self-help manual, The Cosmic Ordering Service: A Guide to Realising Your Dreams, directs readers to submit a wish list of ambitions to the cosmos as if using a mail-order service.
Since adopting its methods, Edmonds has appeared on television with stars, grapes and rain clouds drawn on his hands, symbolising his connections with the cosmos. Less than an hour after he praised the book on television, it shot to the top of the Amazon bestseller list.
John Humphrys, the BBC Radio 4 Today presenter, likened the practice to prayer when it was discussed on the programme this month.
In his Easter Message, published on the Church in Wales website, Bishop Cooper criticises the cult of writing wishes on a piece of paper and waiting for the Universe to come up with the goods, saying: “This is nonsense. It may be laudable to set goals in life, but we don’t need to dress this up in spiritual language. Intercessory prayer is part of our Christian tradition, however it is not divine room service, nor is it a heavenly shopping trolley.”
He points out that even Jesus prayed to God to be spared the Cross, but came to accept its inevitability. The Bishop adds: “At Easter God challenges us with the question of faith. What do you think is most probably true? Deal or no deal? Life or no life?”
Edmonds’s comeback with the hit game show came after a six-year absence from television, Noel’s House Party having been axed by the BBC in 2000. He received his first Bafta nomination this year.
He has said that four of his six wishes have come true, including the acquisition of a holiday home in the South of France. He believes that he got what he wanted within six months of reading Mohr’s book, given to him by his reflexologist.
In a recent interview, he said: “You’ll think I’ve gone away with the fairies — but it’s fantastic. It is quite reassuring about life after death and spiritual things. I have faith. I don’t know what shape it is. I feel uncomfortable to think it’s purely Church of England, and I’d like to learn more about Islam.”
The Cosmic Ordering Service has sold a million copies in Germany alone. Mohr maintains that if you write down a wish, or shout it out of a window, it is likely to come true.
A spokesman for Edmonds said that the former Swap Shop presenter had only “played around” with cosmic ordering. He said: “Noel hasn’t been gripped by a sinister religious cult. He wrote down a list of achievements, part of his life changes after he split with Helen.”
THE DEAL ABOUT A NEW AGE CULT
# Amazon synopsis says The Cosmic Ordering Service is “a guide aimed at helping the reader realise their dreams — just by placing an order with the universe”
# Bärbel Mohr, the author, says the “service” gained her a dream job, the ideal man, money, health and a castle
# Initially a sceptic about positive thinking, she wrote the book after an argument with a friend
# Phrases include: “The most loving person is the person who is self-centred”; “The soul speaks to you in feelings”; and “There is no evil! You are perfect, just as you are”
# The manual promises: “Don’t you wish you could just place an order for the life you want? Well you can! And you don’t have to chant, meditate, pray, fast, work or do anything — just relax”
# In an interview reproduced on her website, Mohr said: “When you order with the cosmos, you connect yourself with what others call ‘united field theory’ and others might call it ‘morphogenetic field’ or ‘akasha chronicle’. One assumes that everything is one and that you are able to connect with the power of the entirety”
# One blogger has written about the book: “I told my girlfriend I wished she’d just die. That was two years ago. She’s now dead and I blame the cosmos”