Interview - Full Response

Thomas Moore   with The Rev. Wayne Walder

(TM):

That’s really an interesting question.

I mean the first point is that I don’t think it works, (spiritual entertainment). And I’m saying this from a great deal of experience as a writer - especially writing about things of spirit.

It’s a mistake to think that your first job is to respond to people’s expectations. If we think that people will like us or come to us if we find out where they are and what they want, we are mistaken. I don’t think that’s the right approach. I don’t think that’s what most successful people bring to their work in almost any sphere. People do that all the time, but I don’t think that’s the most effective way.

I don’t know if you’ll see the parallel, but I see it in my work as a writer. I write books that are on subjects I’m very interested in and I write them the way I want to write them. I don’t try to get an audience; I think I know what I have to do to get the audience. I think I know what it means to entertain a reader, in that sense. But I don’t do it. And I find the publishers I work with, both in books, in magazines and in other places too, want me to give people what they want.

I’m working right now with public television, it’s the same kind of thing. They think they know what people want and they want to pander to people. They want to give them almost more than they want. They are almost out of their minds wanting to succeed and therefore want to find out exactly - almost to poll people to find out what they want, and give it to them. It is incidental if something of value sneaks in.

But giving people what they want, is not really it, that idea is very low on my list of priorities. So, I’m in conflict with my publishers all the time, I think it’s parallel to what you’re describing. I don’t think we should try to respond to what people need because first of all, you’re never going to get it right. Publishers don’t get it right; media people can’t get it right. And if they can’t do it with all of their ability, the Ministers are not going to get it right. There’s no way to really do that because there’s no way that people are really going to get turned on by that.

People usually get turned on by things that keep them in place – that really don’t challenge them. And as I see it at least, my view is that people today will be attracted by sentimentality - by sentimental ideas especially in the spiritual realm. I think it’s a big mistake to go that route. You can get large numbers that way.

In my field there are writers who, as far as I can see, have nothing at all to say but they know how to touch people by sentimentality. I don’t think that really satisfies the person.

I think it would be better to trust that if you develop a good spiritual product people will come. People will come for it. I think that’s a better way than to try to guess what they want and then give it to them.

I agree with you about entertainment. It is a really big thing. It is another way of saying sentimentality. People don’t want the substance they want to be entertained, I see that. There’s a certain success you can get by entertaining people, but it does not really satisfy the person receiving it or giving it either. So, I would recommend that the Ministers give up that project of trying to find out what people want. Stop trying to keep people entertained and rather go back to what I said in the first question.

Rather, be somebody! Be somebody who is worth being around! Have some vision and some thoughts that are substantial. Thoughts you have worked at for a long time and that you have incorporated into who you are. And people will be drawn to that; they will go a long distance to find somebody who is like that. They are not drawn to the entertainment aspect of it, I think they are drawn to a person who is actually a reflection of what they speak about. It’s a rare thing. I think if you move in that direction you’re better off.