A mishmash of informed snark, piquant opinions, refined nastiness, occasional schmaltz, & tawdry graphics, served up continuously since 2006 by COSMIC CONNIE, aka CONNIE L. SCHMIDT. Covering New-Age/New-Wage culture & crapitalism, pop spirituality & religion, pop psychology, self(ish)-help, alt-health hucksterism, conspiranoia, business babble, media silliness, Scamworld, politix, & related (or occasionally unrelated) matters of consequence.
Well, Dear Ones, this has been a very busy month,
and I haven't been tending my Whirled as I should, and now the
month is nearly over. Lots of stuff is going on. Some of it I
could write about but am just too busy, and some of it I just
can't write about yet because it is too horrid. But no worries;
it will all work out.
One hopeful development is that serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's
Ponzi-ish Global Information Network (GIN) continues to erode
from within. Peeps have been urging me to get back to writing
about True-dough and GIN, and oh, I will, I will... but so many
things are going on, and... well, enough excuses. There's a lot
of evidence that GIN's days are numbered, and if you want to see
some of the best evidence there's no better place to look these
days than Bernie O'Mahony's GINtruth.com.
While I've been blogging for the past nearly-three years that GIN
is a scam, Bernie and some of the other ex-GIN members and fans
are providing real evidence.
If you're curious, go visit GINtruth.com and poke around a bit.
And while you're there, donate a little. It won't hurt you, and
it will help keep that site up and running. I have a feeling it's
going to get a lot more traffic in the weeks and months to come.
Thank you, and I'll see you in September, which is just hours
away as I write this.
Now more than ever, your donation is needed
to help keep this Whirled spinning. Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit
card.
If that link doesn't work, send PayPal payment directly to scrivener66@hotmail.com or tocosmic.connie@juno.com If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank
you!
This post is a bit overdue, and the
"news" isn't all that new any more, but I felt it was
important enough for a commentary. And don't worry; I will get
back to my coverage, such as it is, of the collapse of the Global
Information Network (GIN), which is serial scam artist Kevin
True-dough's brilliant but doomed-from-the-start Ponzi scheme
that apparently sucked in thousands of people the world over, but
is now reportedly shedding members faster than my dog Kali sheds
hair in the summer time. And I am also still working on the next
installment in the tale of a particularly nasty little
mustachioed tan man with a taste for pink, and I mean that in
more ways than one. For now, though, let's revisit one of my
favorite snargets, Access Consciousness, formerly Access Energy
Transformation.
~CC
For several years I've been writing on this blog about the crazy,
mixed-up, increasingly cult-like sex-and-money organization called
Access Consciousness. In case
you are unfamiliar with my Access posts and don't feel like going
back and searching for all of the posts (though here's a
link if you are), no worries: this August 2011 post sums up
my views pretty well.
A few things have happened since I published that post. For one,
a new web site arose in June 2012 called Access Schism. Access Schism has taken a detailed, thoughtful, and
very critical look at Access' teachings and doings, as well as
those of a few other LGATs and cult-like orgs. It was off to a
terrific start. However, as of last week, the site owner chose to
temporarily suspend the site, though he says nothing nefarious is
going on. He just has to tend to some other things for now. I'm
hoping he'll be up and running again soon. Meanwhile, here's
the Access Schism Facebook page, which
has some interesting commentary and numerous external links.
Over the years I've tried several times to get some members of
the mainstream media interested in Access, but have had zero
results. Yet "Access Consciousness" seems to be one of
the most common search parameters that lead visitors to my blog,
so there has definitely been interest.
Ricky himself is an Access facilitator. He's
also known for being into all kinds of other
"alternative" stuff, so it's not surprising that he
would be open to Access. Access, however, is apparently his
breakthrough du jour, and he seems to really admire Gary
Douglas because of Gary's "willingness to be himself,"
whatever the heck that means.
In any case the mainstream media have finally...FINALLY... taken
notice of Access. For instance, there's this from the Austin Chronicle. Sports writer Alex Dunlap explained some of the back
story:
In December 2011, Williams thought his
foundation had secured funding to the tune of $32 million. He
was under the belief that the group donating the money shared
his values about the importance of helping underprivileged
children to understand they have choices in life, and could
always aspire to be great. The anticipated funding never came
through, according to Williams this was due to him no longer
being an NFL player.
Williams, through the beginning of the spring, was
contributing his own money with the expectation that his
foundation would be receiving the $32 million. When it fell
through, that's when the charismatic, rich Gary Douglas
swooped in to help. Together, Douglas and Williams concluded
that Williams, although never indoctrinated directly, was
indeed unknowingly practicing Access Consciousness. It was
the model of his whole foundation's program: Give the kids a
choice, free their minds.
Williams is now a devout accessory of the Access movement,
and the mission of his foundation has transformed into an
outlet for delivering the controversial teachings of Access
Consciousness to the underprivileged children who attend
their camps. This is currently taking place, in Austin, on
AISD property.
Douglas is a significant contributor and is bankrolling a
large sum of costs by live streaming the event to devout
accessories all over the globe for quite a pretty penny.
(Replays of certain live streams can sell for upward of
$1,200.) Williams was the camp's instructor last week for
Level I of the course. "Advanced" levels II and III
will be delivered to these children by the person who
accessories all over the world call their "fearless
leader," Gary Douglas himself.
Though Dunlap was relatively restrained in his
commentary, for the most part, the media have been borderline
hysterical about Ricky Williams being involved with a
"cult." Whether Access is a cult or not is a matter of opinion, of course, but in my opinion, it is at the very least cult-like.
Overall it seems that the journos are pretty sensitive to cults
now that Scientology has been making the news again, what with that whole Tom and Katie split and so forth. Some are seeing the resemblance between Scientology
and Access.
Understand that I am not complaining about the journos' negative
coverage, just their tardiness in coming to the party. It's about
fricking time.
And there's finally an Access tag on the Rick Ross web site, due
to -- you guessed it -- Williams' involvement: http://www.rickross.com/groups/access_cons.html That is truly a historic development.
As mentioned, there have been tons of other
negative write-ups about Ricky Williams' involvement with Access
(a few more links are below), with some alarmed writers saying or
implying that this is the first time Access has been offered to
kids on a wide-scale basis.
But that's not quite true. Actually, Access has been reaching out
to the kiddos for years. I first wrote about some of their kids' programs in June
of 2007. There's also the
Access True Knowledge Foundation, a
"not-for-profit organisation based in Australia and the
United States," whose board includes Gary Douglas, Dain
Heer, and a Houston heiress named Curry Glassell, among others.
Founded in 2008, they say their mission is "to facilitate
greater possibility and choice in the area of education and
schools, particularly with children." Oh, Good Goddess, just
imagine the range of nonsense covered by that euphemistic
claptrap. And more recently Access has been advertising that kids
15 and under can get into many Access adult classes for free, and
those ages 16-18 can get in for half price. I don't want to sound
like a hysterical bluenose type myself, but it seems that this deal for kids includes even the
potentially risque classes.
I wonder how many of the journos who have written alarmed
commentary have seen this February 2011 discussion forum comment, which, if true, should be enough to raise a lot of
alarm bells in parents whose kids have contact with Access:
...[Access promotes] the necessity to
stop judging everything and everyone. And, in their
doctrines, that includes sex regardless of the age of the
individuals. They call that "playing" in order to
eliminate all senses of accountability, especially from the
adult who may desire to "play" with an underage
individual. What you and I denounce as being a
"pedophile behavior" is nothing more than
"playing" to them. Several people who have left the
cult remembered [hearing] the gurus say during seminars that
as long as the teenage (therefore underage) boy or girl does
not judge him/herself nor the adult who want[s] to
"play," there is nothing wrong with... playing.
They promote the idea that "the body needs to be
nurtured" which has led to sexual orgies (involving one
of the two gurus) with parents while the kids were in the
vicinity.
Cult business as usual...
(Actually, that entire conversation is
interesting, and I urge you to read all of the comments if you've
not already done so.) At any rate, whether the worst accusations
are true or not, I've received numerous emails over the years
from people worried about spouses, siblings, or friends who were
already deeply involved in Access and were trying to get their
kids involved too.
But it's true that Ricky Williams' involvement
represents a new level of mainstreaming. Access, of course, is
thrilled with the alliance, and they sent this email blast at the
beginning of the month:
From: Access
Consciousness Team <newsletter@accessconsciousness.com> To: Sent: Wednesday, August 1, 2012
10:23 AM Subject: Letter about Kids Class
Hi [Name],
As many of you know we had a really special event 10 days ago
as a fundraiser for the Ricky Williams Foundation. It was the
first ever [Access Level] 2/3 just for kids!
What showed up was amazing!
We thought we'd share with you the energy of this class, the
children, the change... and oh yeah.... We raised close to
$50,000 for The Ricky Williams Foundation as well! You can
find out more here: http://rickywilliamsfoundation.com
Imagine if you had been given these tools as a child what
might have been different in your own life? What else can we
change?
A Fun Transcript Ricky: We had an incredible conversation.
Last week, we were on a field trip and E (name has been
shortened) was in the car with me and he started talking
about faith. Do you remember this conversation, E?
E: Yes.
Ricky: And, I just said to have faith in something, and he
just finished my sentence and said "Ok, I see you have
to make yourself stupid, you have to shut your awareness off,
to have faith." And he said, "Oh, I can just
know!"
Gary: That's right.
E: Yeah, like for me, faith is a substantive thing. I've seen
and believe, so you have to shut off your awareness, you have
to turn off everything, so you can believe that you're gonna
make it. So, it's not that you don't know that you're gonna
make it, you just believe and hope you make it.
Gary: There's lots of people that have hope and they want to
have a belief that they are going to make it, but they sort
of give it a hope and a prayer instead of a real go.
E: Yeah!
Gary: There's an old poem that goes: "If wishes were
horses, beggars would ride. If daisies were watches, I'd wear
one by my side." Literally, people have all kinds of
wishes, but they don't actually accomplish much.
E: Yeah, if all of our wishes came true, or all of our
prayers came true, the world would actually be kinda bad.
Gary: It would be bad?
E: Ok, here's what I'm trying to say. When you pray, you just
don't pray about what you want. You have to pray that you be
successful in what you're doing. It's not all about you and
your prayers.
Gary: Right. You have to include everybody else in your
prayers.
E: Yeah! And like especially when you have enemies, you can
pray for your enemies , please help them out or please give
me the wisdom to help them or whatever they need help.
Quote From Ricky Williams:
"I've always known there had to be a different
possibility for these kids, I just didn't see how to create
that different possibility until I found Access
Consciousness. It was this weird, wacky stuff, but it gave me
what I had always been looking for, permission to be me. I
just knew that if these kids had that, it could be the key to
unlocking the different possibility I always knew existed for
them."
Quote From Gary:
"Every staff member of Access volunteered their time,
paid for their own ticket, paid for their own accommodation,
paid for their own food and delivered as much as they could
to contribute to these kids. This was all about the kids and
funding Ricky Williams who is doing an amazing job of helping
these kids who have no other source to change their
lives."
A Letter From Dain...
Something totally shocking occurred for me at this event: the
innocence and awareness of CHILDREN.
On the third day, I facilitated an Energetic Synthesis of
Being Taster for these kids. In inviting them to be part of
the ESB energy, I realized that they initially felt that they
were excluded from it. I learned that I had to include them
and include what else I knew, that I wasn't even aware that I
knew, in a different
way than ever before!
This totally changed what the ESB is for me, and what the ESB
Class will be from now on. It created it as something
different, something even more inclusive and expansive. I
don't know exactly how to explain it in words-but if you tap
into the energy, you'll get it!
This week was one of the most amazing weeks of my life so
far, thanks to these kids and their phenomenal courage and
difference. I spent most of it with my eyes filled with tears
of gratitude.
What else is possible with the new possibility that this
group of underprivileged kids-or SUPPOSEDLY underprivileged
kids-gifted us and the world with--THEIR VERY UNIQUE CAPACITY
TO BE?
Yours truly,
Dain
Fun Transcript #2 10 year old to Gary: "Oh, if you have
some belief, that limits you, because you can't see anything
that isn't the same as the belief."
Gary: "You are really smart! Will you agree to be that
smart always?"
10 year old: (Doesn't take his eyes off Gary, and smiles.)
Gary: I don't see many people who are as smart as I am, and
you just might be one of them... Will you be that smart
always?
10 year old: (Doesn't say anything. Keeps smiling.)
Gary: Double dog dare you to catch up to me.
10 year old: I probably already have. What People Had To Say
"Dear Gary and Dain, I already feel a change coming in
my life, and, that is great. The ESC today was so powerful
that I just started to cry. Thank you for this, and how it is
just for us kids." ~ Colorado, Age 14
"So much has changed during these four days. The kids
look different, they walk different, they sound different,
they have a different feel to them ... more confident,
expansive, more relaxed. They are enjoying being
themselves!" ~ Ann M, Colorado
"Thank you for this class, this is what I asked for when
I was 7... I feel like I`m 7 when I watch, and getting the
information I wanted then..." ~ Sweden, Parent
"The boys have known about this class and I told them
from the beginning that it is a class for them and only them.
Within 5 minutes of your starting class yesterday, Jasper ran
to me, pulled me by the arm to show me the computer. LOL! He
was so excited, and kept exclaiming, "Mom! He knows! He
really knows! This really IS a class for me!!" and I
have been receiving gratitude hugs on your behalf regularly
since yesterday morning. Thank you Thank you Thank you for
bringing this to my children." ~ Colorado, Parent
"My children are physically glowing and sparkling.
Hahahaha!" ~ Oregon, Parent
"I would like to send a BIG thank you and express my
gratitude to Gary and Dain for Access tools because since I
have been in Access, for the last three years, my school
grades are much higher than before! How does it get any
better than that?" ~ Poland, 15 years old .....
This is actually kind of disturbing stuff when
you think about it too much, or even a little. But Access has
always been about discouraging thinking.
A friend of this blog who is a long-time Access
critic mentioned to me that Rasputin was the one missing element
from most of the journalistic offerings about Ricky Williams and
Access. He is referring to the fact that Gary Douglas once
claimed that the late Russian faux-monk Rasputin helped deliver
Access to him back in the early 1990s. I wrote about it here. My
friend said that the mention of Rasputin in these stories should
be enough to turn most people away from Access.
But at least one article did mention Rasputin (citing yours
truly). Not that it apparently has made
much difference. And "Raz" was evidently not a turn-off
to a lot of folks, back in the day. As I've noted before, the
leaders don't like to talk about Rasputin in Access these days,
since they are trying to become more mainstream. Gary Douglas himself wrote on a comment to one of my
blog posts, "Rasputin went
away" several years ago. He claimed that almost none of the
stuff taught in Access today came from Rasputin, or 'Raz,' as the
Accessories used to fondly call the dead guy.
But "the Bars" -- which
for most people is the entry drug to Access -- did come from Raz,
or so Gary initially claimed, and no doubt some of the other
basic class material does as well.
The point is that even today, Raz probably wouldn't be too much
of a deterrent with many folks. After all, look at the popularity
of Abraham-Hicks -- Esther Hicks
and her late hubby Jerry's shtick with a whole group of imaginary
friends. Look at the popularity of Scientology. And so on.
Even so, the fact remains that Ricky W is getting a lot of
criticism for his involvement with Access.
Looking at this, one might think there is some
hope for the human race. On the other hand, there's a lot of
mainstream criticism about Scientology, and there has been for
many years -- and yet those rich, nefarious, litigious nutcakes
are still going stronger than ever. More to the point, some folks
commenting on the negative articles about Ricky Williams said
they didn't see what the big deal was about Access.
The comments on the SportsGrid piece linked to above are a case in point. One person wrote that the big
companies that sponsor other athletes are a lot more evil than
Access. And there's this, from someone who would apparently like
to learn some of the stuff Access teaches -- though the comment
sounds suspiciously like a troll or a sock puppet:
I have some friends who have taken
classes with Access Consciousness. In general they seem
happier than I ever remember them. 2 have greatly improved
their marriages, one quit a job she hated forever and is now
doing something she loves, and our other friend has finally
stopped dieting and is losing weight naturally.
I’ve been looking forward to taking a class for a long
time!
I don’t know about any other readers, but many of the
bullet points in this article sound awesome. I’d love to
find out if they can change wine! And heck, i can even see
how giving full body orgasms might be a very useful skill.
Why is it we have to leap to the absurdity of of miracles and
assume people are insane? What if there really is something
different available?
And why is it so horrible that they would want to teach kids
that they aren’t without a future and they can create their
life?
Yep. Sock puppet. And there's this:
Ricky Williams is a very amazing,
lovely person. Gary Douglas is an extremely brilliant, kind
and giving man. I know both of them personally & they are
both nothing but gentle, loving people who are here to give
& help people.
I would recommend the person who wrote this article to go
talk to Gary & Ricky in person before they begin to
vilify them & see what they are really doing. Ricky is
NOT crazy, he’s never been crazy, people are
mis-identifying who he is. Access Consciousness is not a cult
& no-where near a cult, and whoever made that up is just
silly..
Ricky & Gary together raised over $50,000 for
under-privledged [sic] kids & help changed their lives. I don’t
really see what could be wrong with that...
...When everyone thought the world was flat, the people who
challenged that were vilified… I’m pretty sure this is
the case where people don’t want to see & believe what
these guys are doing & how they are helping the world.
Oh, my, the flat-Earth analogy again.
It's going to be a long battle. But here's a word to wise moms
and dads: Keep your kids away from Access. And keep yourself away
from it too. Even if it isn't "dangerous" to everyone,
it is pretty stupid. PS ~ I’ve linked to this before on more than one
occasion, but here, back by popular demand, is some commentary on one of Gary Douglas’s 2007 TV
appearances. Apparently he fooled some
Aussie TV producers into thinking he was a doctor who had some
sort of expertise on autism. They weren’t fooled for long,
though.
* * * * *
Now more than ever, your donation is needed
to help keep this Whirled spinning. Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit
card.
If that link doesn't work, send PayPal payment directly to scrivener66@hotmail.com or tocosmic.connie@juno.com If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank
you!
