Saint David: the martyrdom continues

Well, now disgraced Aussie Secret star David Schirmer has yet another name to add to the growing list of folks to blame for his troubles. So far he's blamed:

1. a jilted ex-lover/employee
2. depraved Aussie journalists
3. Satan

To that list he can now add his former right-hand man, Warren Henningsen. Warren, who last year faced one of those marauding journos when Schirmer hid from her in a public restroom after she asked him some uncomfortable questions, apparently had high hopes when he went to work for David Schirmer. Warren says that when he first saw The Secret, he knew he'd found his calling: he felt he was meant to spread the joyful message about the Law Of Attraction. So he joined Schirmer's team and thought he was on his way to a career doing just that.

Foolish? Idealistic? Maybe. But that's not the point here. Warren, who is now trying to make a living as a life coach, says that David Schirmer was the closest connection to The Secret that there was in Warren's native Australia. He became Schirmer's spin doctor, a job that grew ever more difficult as rumors about his employer took on a life of their own. As time went by Warren kept seeing more red flags, but tried to ignore them.

Finally he couldn't ignore them anymore, and he eventually got so fed up he quit Schirmer's employ. Schirmer, however, is apparently spinning their separation in a different way, claiming to have fired Warren for various misdeeds. But who ya gonna believe? I'm more inclined to believe Warren.

Recently Warren spoke to A Current Affair reporter Ben Fordham. Here's the YouTube link to Part 6 of ACA's David Schirmer exposé. For the record, ACA tried to talk to Schirmer to get his side of the story, but Schirmer refused to talk to them.

Meanwhile, Schirmer is still thumping that Bible of his. Someone intercepted this recent communication on a chat forum:

David Schirmer said...
I have been on the receiving end of...bullying tactics of gutter journalists and self-promotion egomainiacs [sic]. People like [he named two Aussie journos] are the scum of the earth and have no moral values beyond their own egos. They never do real research, they find a person that they think they can destory [sic] then create lie after lie to build their case, hidding [sic] behind the walls of solicitors [lawyers] and TV cameras. For all those people who have been attacked by these scum, stand tall in the truth, they will be brought to judgement eventually. "Greater is He who is in me (God) than he who is in the world (satan)."

Amen, Brother David...oops, I mean, Saint David. Sorry. (And no, I have no concrete proof that David Schirmer wrote that comment, but it is his style of writing, not to mention his creative spelling.)

So what's next for David Schirmer? Well, he still has quite a few significant legal issues and court cases in Australia that have yet to be resolved. But he has recently sold his home for $1.8 million (Australian dollars, which amount to a little over $1.4 million US), and there's a lot of speculation that he is making plans to move to the US in an effort to start over. He seems to have an ally Stateside – and no, I'm not talking about Joe Vitale, who was recently featured in Schirmer's Succeed Magazine. (Word has it that numerous other Secret stars no longer have anything to do with Schirmer and have been warning others to stay away from him too. Apparently Joe didn't get the memo in time to back out of the Succeed deal, but he should be fully aware by now.)

No, Schirmer's apparent ally is a minor asteroid in the Hustledork Solar System, Keith Leon, whom I've mentioned here a few times before. Keith claims to be a Relationship Master, and he recently published a book about finding your life purpose, Who Do You Think You Are? The book featured Schirmer, among many other New-Wage hustledorks (the Foreword was written by Jack "Chicken Soup" Canfield). If you look on the Events list on Keith's web site, you'll see that he's holding no less than eight events in November, three in December and even one in January 2009, starring himself and David Schirmer. Though no specific date is given for the January event, here's the blurb:

JANUARY 2009

"UNLOCKING The Secret to Success: Prosperity, Connection & Relationships"

David Schirmer, Keith Leon, Joe Vitale and another Secret Teacher TBA will speak at this powerful three day event. You do not want to miss it.

Los Angeles, CA

Pssst, Joe... You did say on your blog that you didn't know about the Schirmer connection with Succeed Magazine before it was too late. Well, it's not too late to back out of this one. If you've already done so, you'd better tell Keith to remove your name from his site.

You're welcome.

Judging by remarks on some other blogs I've seen, I know that some people are pretty bored with this whole Schirmer saga. But I also know that quite a few people claim to have been wronged by Schirmer and are waiting for justice through the courts.

Some of you may think I'm belaboring a point or beating a dead horse. Maybe so, but here's my thinking (and I know I've said this before, but it needs to be said again): If Schirmer has done even half of the things he's accused of, do we really want him here in the US?

And there's an even larger point, which I've also made here, but feel obligated to make yet again: Schirmer may be the one who got caught, but he's far from the only smarmy player on the New-Wage stage. He's merely an extreme symptom of what is wrong with the entire selfish-help industry.