Talk:John Gray (American author)

message: Another relationship book author pointed in his book, John Gray had divorced many times. Is it true? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lynxlea (talk • contribs) 13:52, 22 May 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Did John Gray divorce many times?

message: John Gray (Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus) → John Gray (U.S. author) Much better title. --Hottentot
----
:Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one sentence explanation, then sign your opinion with ~~~~
* Support. A much simpler name. – AxSkov (☏) 06:05, 3 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Add any additional comments
There's nothing here about him but criticism. I mean it's nice to know that his Ph.D. has come under fire and that despite dispensing relationship advice he got divorced, but that doesn't tell us much about the person.
It's like the mass of negative information about Monty Roberts. I'm tempted to cut and paste the bulk of this article onto the talk page and leave a stub. Uncle Ed 17:50, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

text: I'm not convinced the marital stuff is relevant, but his professional credentials certainly are. Gray is in the business of dispensing psychological advice, and in the course of that business he has repeatedly chosen to stand on his doctorate. His website offers "relationship advice from Dr John Gray". His books credit him as "John Gray, Ph.D". In an ideal world, maybe he would be judged solely on the quality of his ideas; in the real world, many people are more willing to believe an idea when it comes from somebody with a professional qualification. --Calair 23:13, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Requested move

message: His divorce was years before he became a relationship expert. The fact that he went through such pain may have been what caused him to learn so much.
24.8.106.182 (talk) 16:20, 2 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Add any additional comments
There's nothing here about him but criticism. I mean it's nice to know that his Ph.D. has come under fire and that despite dispensing relationship advice he got divorced, but that doesn't tell us much about the person.
It's like the mass of negative information about Monty Roberts. I'm tempted to cut and paste the bulk of this article onto the talk page and leave a stub. Uncle Ed 17:50, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

text: I'm not convinced the marital stuff is relevant, but his professional credentials certainly are. Gray is in the business of dispensing psychological advice, and in the course of that business he has repeatedly chosen to stand on his doctorate. His website offers "relationship advice from Dr John Gray". His books credit him as "John Gray, Ph.D". In an ideal world, maybe he would be judged solely on the quality of his ideas; in the real world, many people are more willing to believe an idea when it comes from somebody with a professional qualification. --Calair 23:13, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Discussion

message: In what year was John Gray born?Patchouli 02:14, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The article says 1951. --Calair 05:27, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Birth 

message: This John Gray his pseudonym?Patchouli 22:04, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Name on Identification Card 

message: Dirty Politics and Libelous Announcements
Irresponsible and libelous media announcements have defamed Columbia Pacific University (CPU) as a diploma mill. In reality CPU was supervised and approved by the California State Department of Education. Effective 1986-1989, California documents confirm that CPU's full institutional approval was the equivalent of regional accreditation , .
Thus, CPU was a California State Accredited University. CPU degrees are legal and valid! California newspapers, such as the Point Reyes Light and the Union Tribune in San Diego published misinforming articles about CPU but failed to set the record straight when I submitted to the editors letters requesting appropriate corrections.
The closing of CPU resulted not from valid educational considerations but from the dirty politics of higher education in California. Mind you, the judicial system is often not about truth and justice but about power and money. Miscarriage of justice is a common phenomenon. CPU was closed on the basis of a fabricated report full of factual errors and insubstantial allegations. For example, it absurdly claimed that Harvard-trained psychiatrist Dr. Richard Crews was unfit to serve as the President of CPU because he was an MD and not a PhD. Another preposterous and prejudiced assertion was directed against the black deans of CPU holding PhDs from well-known European universities. The deans in question were Dr. Ketsela, graduate of the University of Wales, and Dr. Tolossa, graduate of the University of Bremen, . The report falsely alleged that these European universities are unaccredited. There were over 80 errors of fact in the report rendering it completely worthless.
Error of Fact Number 28: The Spanish Dissertation
Error of Fact Number 28, for example, has become quite famous and mentioned in a variety of media articles. It concerns a Spanish dissertation that allegedly was approved by faculty who did not speak Spanish. In reality, the CPU faculty mentor who supervised the dissertation worked with the student in Spanish and the doctoral thesis provided Table of Contents, Summary and additional information in English. Moreover, CPU policy changed in early 1995, so that dissertations could be submitted only in English.
Documented refutation of all the false claims against CPU has been published on line in "The Chronicles of Columbia Pacific University", . Please, note that CPU graduates earned their degrees through competency and hard work. Thousands of them teach at accredited schools or work in research, civil service, business and industry. The defamation of the good name of CPU as a pioneer of distance education is unfair and unacceptable. Today CPU is a federally recognized non-profit educational institution, .
Pluralistic Education is a Necessity
I believe that Pluralistic Education advances the Public Good and therefore it is not only a Democratic Right but also a Necessity. We live in the electronic age that can provide the technology for the development of an information society in which education becomes accessible to broad segments of humankind. The rise of cybernetic culture in the global village can bring distance learning even to the most remote areas of the world. It helps education to be more democratic. Knowledge is power. Education empowers people to become an integral part of a well-informed citizenry, enabling them to create a constructive culture of social and political democracy.
Today virtual schools allow the realization of the once-utopic vision of education for all. Unfortunately, the development of virtual schools is also accompanied by the proliferation of Diploma Mills, bogus universities that are in the business of selling fake academic degrees. The infestation of the academic world with diploma mills is accompanied by the problem of how to separate the wheat from the chaff, the wide-spread inability of the public to differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate educational institutions.
Authoritarian Measures Suffocate Creativity
It was Albert Einstein who stressed that imagination is more important than knowledge and that the outstanding accomplishments of the intellect are based on the freedom of thought. In Ideas and Opinions (1954) he points out that the development of science and of the creative activities of the spirit require inner freedom, "the independence of thought from the restrictions of authoritarian and social prejudices as well as from unphilosophical routinizing and habit in general" (p. 42). And he adds: Schools might play constructive or destructive roles. They may favour inward freedom and encourage independent thought but they may also interfere and repress them through authoritarian measures.
Another leading thinker, Nicholas Negroponte, Professor of Media Technology at MIT, maintains that bureaucratic organizations are the enemies of creative environments. In "Where Do New Ideas Come From?" (Wire, 4.01), he observes that governments and corporations are sterile leagues that stifle imagination and creativity. This is a pity, he says, because we need innovative schools to develop, foster and nurture new ideas for human progress. Prof. Negroponte views the university as an unsettled habitat with undefined edges accommodating academics as well as people "who don't fit traditional scholarship" because new ideas come from a muddled creative environment.
A CPU Connection
Allow me please to add a note about my affiliation with CPU. After graduating from high school in Hungary, I attended for two years the University of Szeged. I hold a BA and a Teacher's Certificate from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and a Master's (History and Art History) from Concordia University in Montreal ( Canada). I wrote my thesis on Georg Lukacs: Aesthetics and History. I completed all my doctoral course requirements at Concordia, did additional work at Columbia Pacific University and wrote my dissertation on The Interface Dynamics of Art and Science (1986). In the process of researching my doctoral thesis I collaborated with a group of renowned scientists and scholars, including P.R. Halmos (Editor of the American Mathematical Monthly), Sir Nevill Mott (Nobel Laureate in Physics) and John Kemeny (Dartmouth College President). Under the title, The Brush and the Compass, the dissertation was published in 1988 by University Press of America, an umbrella academic clearing house of Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and others. The book has been internationally acclaimed and also taught in anthropology, art and science and other interdisciplinary courses. I am also the author of A History of Architecture (Jerusalem: R. Mass, 1972), as well as of other critically acclaimed books, and have published numerous scholarly papers in such peer-reviewed journals as Leonardo, Orbiter, Ylem, Pulsar, Contemporary Philosophy, Q.A.M.T. and Lo Straniero.
Paul Hartal 04:19, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi Paul, I thank you for all the information on CPU. I have heard some of the details before but I find it personally interesting to learn more. There were/are a number of California approved schools that in my personal opinion should have been closed down rather than CPU. In my mind this whole sad story is indicative of the extra dangers that come with unaccredited schools. Thank you again, Bill Huffman 08:16, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Columbia Pacific University (CPU): A Victim of Miscarriage of Justice and Sensationalist Media 

message: Why is everyone so ticked that this man doesn't have a fancy enough Ph.D.? Even if the CPU doctorate is bogus, many best-selling authors only have B.A.s. Obviously, Gray is not an expert; that should be noted in the wiki article, as it is, voluminously!. However, despite his book's shoddy methodology, it did sell over a million copies, and has positively influenced lives. Shouldn't that be as noteworthy in the article as the potshots everyone's taking at his credibility? M. Frederick 03:31, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gray's PhD: Who Cares? 

message: John Gray has a Ph.D. from an unaccredited school that was closed down by the state of California. That is different from saying he doesn't have a Ph.D.. To state such is unencyclopedic, a violation of wp:npov since it is not stated in a neutral tone, a violation of wp:blp, and gives undue weight to the fact which is already covered elsewhere in detail in this very small article. All my opinion, of course, but if you disagree then please let's discuss it here and perhaps I'll change my mind. Regards, TallMagic (talk) 21:08, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unaccredited Doctorate Undue Weight 

message: I have removed this section which is poorly sourced and has no reason to be in the article.
* He was featured prominently in Columbia Pacific's marketing literature in the 1990s prior to its subsequent court-ordered shutdown in 2000. **
At the time Gray received his degree CPU was a valid University that issued valid degrees. The fact that the University was later discredited and closed down is irrelevant to the article subject.--—Kbob • Talk •  16:45, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you for the improvments to the article. TallMagic (talk) 17:11, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Section Removed 

message: I removed the following text recently added to the article because it was not directly about Gray.
:"On March 22, 2011 the CEO of Mars Venus Coaching Richard Bernstein was arrested for Theft and Operating without a Securities License. http://www.mynews3.com/category.php?id=5404&n=5037 http://www.bluemaumau.org/ceo_bernstein_mars_venus_coaching_faces_felony_charges" --BwB (talk) 16:30, 30 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bernstein 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on John Gray (U.S. author). Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080517134152/http://www.newstatesman.com/199904020013 to http://www.newstatesman.com/199904020013
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20160109084020/http://netnotes.altcpualumni.org/?page_id=8 to http://netnotes.altcpualumni.org/?page_id=8
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 17:14, 11 February 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 2 external links on John Gray (U.S. author). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080209113116/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080204.wlhampson04/BNStory/lifeMain/home to https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080204.wlhampson04/BNStory/lifeMain/home
*Added archive https://archive.is/20140609181028/http://www.afp.com/en/node/2470223 to http://www.afp.com/en/node/2470223
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 20:54, 27 November 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: This article is a mess. The source cited for his degrees and certifications...is a source which explicitly states those claims are inaccurate. Another source clearly contesting his claims has also been cited to support those same claims.
Basically all of the information about him personally is primary, whether it be from his website, associated websites, or interviews. Most of the other sources are either unreliable, opinion pieces, or dead links and unrecoverable. Vermont (🐿️—🏳️‍🌈) 01:18, 28 September 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  NPOV