Beware of the self-help gurus

We are living in a strange era. Everyday appears to be full of surprises. The pace of scientific advancement is too great to cope with. Would not it be strange if somebody offers us a bag full of air claiming it to be better for us?
What if the “International Academy of Selling Air Bags” and the “Global Association of Air Bags” endorsed the product?
What if he or she started to appear in many social events surrounded by people promoting his or her products and writing poetry in how using them have changed their lives for the better?
No matter how silly the original idea may sounds, presenting it in this carnival of accreditations, supporters, admirers, and marketing materials can transform it into a believable one! And in no time, you could find yourself buying several bags of air and promoting the idea in your immediate social circle.
That is exactly how the self-development and Neuro-linguistic Programming or NLP-based courses are selling out their ideas. From “unleash the giant within” to “use the power of colors to be a better person,” thousands of people are falling for such tricks and psychological manipulation these courses are offering. It is happening everywhere in the world, and it is getting popular in the Kingdom.
Quite recently, I have started to notice those so-called trainers active on different social media platforms. They promote their courses, attend different social gatherings, and try to acquire as many followers as they can. They offer group courses; one-on-one consultation sessions and some of them actually provide WhatsApp courses (how some people are willing to pay for a series of WhatsApp messages under the name of a course is still beyond comprehension).
Such kinds of courses have always been the hot topic for debates between supporters and critics, but for most of those with a little knowledge about neurology and psychology, it is nothing but pseudoscience.
In the world of science, there is a very important concept that is absent from the building blocks of these self-development courses; that is the concept of falsifiability. Claims of any scientific nature can be tested in a way that makes it possible to be proven wrong, that cannot happen in any NLP-based courses because they are presenting themselves as being the practice of “doing what works,” which make them unfalsifiable.
Another trick that such courses exploit is what psychologists call “the social proof.” “People like to do things other people are doing because it seems to prove the value of their own actions,” Chabris & Simons wrote in the New York Times discussing the popularity of books and courses based on the law of attraction NLP concept. That is why the so-called trainers of these courses encourage their attendees to promote the course, advertise it in their direct circles. It gives them credibility.
Also, they usually tend to fill their materials with quotes from popular personalities and historical icons like Ghandi, Confucius, and Einstein or even sayings of various prophets. Such an approach charges their messages with the power of those names, giving them validity and acceptance. In psychology, this is called “the logical fallacy of argument from authority,” we tend to be believe messages when endorsed by those whom we like or admire.
Moreover, these courses are mostly built on people’s fears or shortcomings. They are advertised for “those who feel something is fundamentally wrong with them and they are willing to try anything to make it better, and those people who think they’re already generally good persons, but they have some problems and blind spots and want to become great people,” as Mark Manson wrote in his article “5 Problems With The Self-Help Industry.”
Ironically, such an approach actually exploits the negative feelings in those willing to take the courses; you are here because there is something wrong with you, you have a major shortcoming and you need to get rid of it. Needless to say, what people end with after finishing these courses are nothing but pep talks and hollow ideas that could lead to deepening the problem.
Apparently, it is a chaotic scene that needs to be regulated. All courses based on pseudoscience are to be banned, as they are ripping people off.