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.
Apparently they haven't been going well for a very long time. From where I sit it looks as if the rats are jumping from the sinking GIN ship; some of them are waking up to the possibility that the whole thing is a big con. Or, rather, they're waking up to the idea that KT might -- just might -- be a hustler who is only looking out for himself, and is using GIN funds to buy himself Bentleys and other accoutrements of a rich-and-infamous lifestyle. Some are even... gasp... questioning KT's tall tale about having been a long-time member of a seekrit Brotherhood, a ruse that he has used all along as one of his main marketing hooks to promote GIN. In other words, folks are coming out boldly and suggesting that KT may have lied to them. Gee, ya think?
But lest you think that this is part of the Victims' Spring or Occupy Scam Street movement, hold on to your idealism and save it for the Minion Uprising over at Salty Droid's blog. Some of those who are now hollering the most loudly about KT's actions seem to be hell-bent on continuing the extraordinary hustle that is GIN, and/or on promoting their own hustles. Some were in the inner circle and promoted and championed KT for years, till they apparently got the shaft themselves. Business as usual, in other words.
Still, it's a beginning. Maybe.
KT's sales and marketing director Peter Wink ended ties with KT late last month, and KT's former b.f.f. "Dr. C." -- aka Leonard Coldwell, the former Bernd Klein, aka Bernd Witchner, of Germany (he had some problems over there, apparently), the guy who was Lenny the Life Coach for a spell, and now has the answer to cancer and many other vexing problems -- has also left the party. At one point Dr. C. had written that he still had a 10-year contract with GIN, but apparently GIN cancelled that last week. And now both Peter and Lenny have made noise about wanting to spill the beans regarding what really went on behind the scenes at GIN. I can't wait.
Actually, Lenny's already singing. He published a blog post yesterday -- May 20, 2012 -- outlining how GIN might be saved, sans KT. Here is the current link. I say "current link," because the original link has been 404'd. The new one, slightly revised, is dated today, May 21. Read it while you can. And notice the strange headdress that Dr. C. seems to be wearing in the pic of him and True-dough in happier days. Maybe it's some kind of anti-cancer or anti-electromagnetic thingy. KT apparently left his hanging on the wall behind him and Lenny.
If you follow the link above, and if you are also a reader of Salty Droid's blog posts -- and the hundreds and hundreds of comments from Salty's readers who have been screwed by marketing luminaries other than KT -- much of Dr. C.'s post will sound very, very familiar. One itty-bitty little snippet:
Is it true that KT paid from GIN funds the $10,000 dollar per
night hotel room in Las Vegas, and the private plane flight to
get there (est. $23,000 each way in my experience) was also paid
from GIN founds, while, in the meantime, Kevin is telling the GIN
speakers and others, that GIN is millions “in the red” and
has to save money? Is it true that most of Kevin Trudeau’s personal, elaborate
lifestyle has been financed from the member owned nonprofit
organization GIN, funds?...
...Is it true that GIN does not have the money to pay all bills due
for bonuses or other outstanding liability’s [sic], commitments or
bills?
See what I mean? No surprises there. Perhaps we should reserve our surprise for the fact that presumably bright, educated men who were so close to KT couldn't see all of this coming.
KT was not mentioned on the recent Internet Marketing expose on The Verge, by the way, but I'm thinking that such a mention would have been appropriate. On second thought, as I've noted here before, he's bigger than those Syndicate members, and has been in the game far longer than most of them (and most of them prolly look up to him and aspire to be just like him). Long before there was an Internet, KT was pulling his scams and schemes via TV infomercials and direct mail. He's been to prison for fraud, for gosh sakes, not that that really set him back. I'd say that he is worthy of a whole separate article, at the very least.
Meanwhile, True-dough's beleaguered brother Bob Trudeau, who has written that he got out of GIN last October, seems to be getting the short end of the stick. I don't know his whole story yet, but jeez, that does not seem to be a happy family. Sociopaths often hurt those who love them the most.
And some sociopaths are apparently not above calling those in their inner circle "idiots" and worse when said inner-circle members get uppity. It would appear that some of KT's most loyal loyalists are now seeing his true colors. Of course some of us haters and outsiders -- including numerous intrepid mainstream journalists over the years -- have seen those true colors for a long time, but I suppose that when you're in the inner circle and benefiting hugely (or at least subsisting on the bright and shiny promise of future benefits), you can get a tad color-blind. Or maybe there's so much going on in that inner circle that you have to put on blinders to stay focused.
Currently there is also quite a bit of out-in-the-open scuttlebutt and venting on various principals' Facebook pages about the Great Hustledork Rebellion of 2012. This whole thing has some of the GIN members, KT followers, and Coldwell fans extremely upset. There's talk of some of the "platinum affiliates" of GIN filing a class-action lawsuit. And someone (whose affiliate status I don't know) wrote this on a Facebook discussion, regarding the "secrets" you learn in GIN: "The only secret you get when you get to level 5 is you find out you have just been scammed out of 17.5k!"
Most notably, more and more GIN members and KT fans seem to be waking up to the possibility that True-dough was just pulling that whole GIN council/seekrit-brotherhood thing out of his arse. Amazingly, though, for some of them that doesn't even matter.
Ithink
many people have doubted whether there is a GIN Council, whether
YWIYC [Your Wish Is Your Command] was recorded as presented, whether there really is a
brotherhood or not. I decided long ago that these things didn't
matter to me AT ALL. Even before I got in I imagined that KT made
the whole thing up. And now GIN is big enough where if the truth
comes out, it won't matter. We've won. GIN is bigger than KT and
the GIN Council. GIN is a membership organization that does not
depend any particular external leadership. GIN belongs to those
who say, "I AM GIN!" who have committed to the dream of
a world where everyone has the opportunity to learn how to make
their dreams come true. With 200 individuals on the Inner Circle
who have invested so much for GIN to exist - those individuals
will ABSOLUTELY band together and say: "WE ARE GIN"...
...GIN
may have been created with lies (or it's possible that it really all is
genuine), but The bottom line is this: GIN is a membership that is
bigger than ANY SPEAKER and ANY PERSON - because WE ARE GIN... Love to everyone: The GIN members, Dr. C, Kevin
Trudeau, The GIN Council if they exist, the space aliens if they exist,
... but mostly, I love myself. I am SO awesome! JUST LIKE all the
other AWESOME people in GIN and throughout the world. YOU ARE
MAGNIFICENT!
Someone else wrote:
I feel like my parents are divorcing: Mom and Dad are saying that I was lied to and now my family is being split.
That last one almost made me sad. Almost.
Of course I'm not suggesting that everyone who is jumping from the sinking GINtanic is a hustler or has a self-serving agenda. I'm sure there are some good folks who are genuinely surprised and disillusioned and are wondering what to do next. Well, then, here's a hint: Plotting to carry on the long con is not the solution. If you want to do something constructive, begin by finding another way to make money besides trying to talk others out of theirs in exchange for vague promises of endless passive wealth and an opulent lifestyle. Being part of what Salty Droid has often called "the big, sick machine" is not the answer. Perhaps being part of a larger effort to educate others is an answer. It's easy to join the movement, but first you have to wash the slime off of your hands.
Now more than ever, your
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Maybe I'm being a little too optimistic, which is quite uncharacteristic of me. After all, it's possible that The Verge's lengthy May 10 piece on Internet Marketing scammers is not a herald of any real change, but will merely be fuel for a brief burst of outrage by the more-or-less mainstream media. Still, this piece is a good, almost-mainstream beginning.
And in any case, it's gratifying to see that my pals Salty Droid and Steve Salerno (SHAMblog) were both mentioned in the article. It's also good to see that notorious boiler rooms such as Prosper Inc. are getting more of the attention they so richly deserve:
The basic objective of all boiler rooms is the same. Find out how much
credit is available on the victim’s credit card [and] take all of it.
If you've never really understood how IM scams work, and if Salty Droid is too cryptic or...well... salty for you, this article is a really good primer.
And if if you want to be part of something more than a snarkfest or passionate online discussion, Salty is starting something that could end up being pretty big. I've committed to being a part of it, and so has my guy Ron, though we are still working out what we will be doing. Here's a link to more info.
Addendum 15 May, 2012: Not surprisingly, some of the very Internet marketers who were mentioned in The Verge's "Scamworld" article (and some who weren't mentioned directly) took umbrage at the piece. Frank Kern is up in arms on Facebook, and so are many of his followers, who have drawn a line in the sand between themselves (the good guys) and the critics (the haters and losers, of course). Some have suggested to Frank that he commit violent acts against his critics, particularly Salty Droid.
An Internet marketer whose name wasn't mentioned at all -- but whose close buddy (the guy who got him into IM in the first place) has business ties with notorious Utah boiler room Prosper Inc. -- called the article "Swiftboating" and said it was poorly done. Well, actually, he only linked to the video, not the actual article. But still.
And at the Warrior Forum, a veritable Petri dish for hustledorks and wannabes, it seems they don't want the matter discussed at all. This post still shows up in the search engines, but apparently has been removed.
The gist of the arguments from Kern and other IM defenders was that The Verge article unfairly blasted all people who do any online marketing whatsoever. Apparently the fine points of the article (and the video) eluded them.
Do I even have to say that Salty Droid has a pointed rebuttal to Kern's protestations? It's right here.
Don't get me wrong. I think there should be an open and ongoing conversation between those who take issue with the article and those who agree with it. And I think it should be made clear that not everyone who has ever marketed anything online is a scammer. But the piece on The Verge was not about legitimate online marketers, and some of those who are protesting most loudly are guilty of the worst misdeeds discussed in the article.
As I said earlier, I'm delighted that this matter is
getting wider attention. At this point, though, I'm not holding my
breath for all of the major media outlets to fully jump on the bandwagon
with more journalistic coverage -- and less huckster-tainted content
(such as scammers' infomercials and hustledork-infested talk shows, for
starters). But The Verge article, incomplete as it is, marks a good
beginning of broader coverage.
* * * * *
Now more than ever, your donation is needed
to help keep this Whirled spinning. Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit
card.
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you!
Hey, kids, it's Friday the 13th! Are you feeling lucky? If you're in Las Vegas for serial huckster and convicted felon Kevin Trudeau's GIN Dream Weekend, you are no doubt feeling extraordinarily lucky. But you can't always trust your feelings, and in this case, you'd better not. On the compellingly toxic and seemingly indestructible tree that yields an endless supply of hucksters, hustledorks, flim-flammers, and fraudsters -- the Tree of Lies, you might call it -- Kevin Trudeau is, I realize, the low-hanging fruit. It scarcely takes any effort at all to find negative information about him; for more than twenty years a string of critics in both the mainstream and not-so-mainstream media have been blasting away at him for his creative methods of parting the trusting masses from their money. He's been in prison (1991-93), he has been fined extraordinary sums, and yet he keeps on churning out the scams. As I've noted many times before, I'm not treading any new ground here.
And yet, KT and some of his more loyal followers just keep coming up with more imaginative malarkey, and I never cease to be both amused and astounded by the absolute and utter crap that the hopeful masses continue, against all reason and common sense, to believe.
The newest news is that, beginning today, Friday the 13th, and lasting for three fun-filled days, you have a whole new way to lose your money in Sin City: the GIN Dream Weekend in Las Vegas, April 13-15, 2012.
GIN, or the Global Information Network, is one of KT's most majorly mercenary money grabs. Defenders like to say that he doesn't actually own GIN but is merely a co-founder, along with about thirty other world-class billionaires (who, of course, shall remain anonymous), and he merely acts as the spokesman for this "multi-form company organized in Nevis/St. Kitts." GIN, or so the marketing tall tale goes, is based upon seekrit knowledge that until now was only accessible to princes and presidents and Bilderbergers and Bohemian Grovers and other elites.
KT claims to have once been a member of a secret society called The Brotherhood himself (beginning at either the age of 12 or the age of 15, depending upon which version of the tall tale he's telling); they approached him, he says, because they recognized what a rare and gifted soul he was. He says he risked his life when he finally left the society and opted to share The Brotherhood's forbidden information with the public.
He says that some of the other founders of GIN are still members of elite secret societies, which is the only way he can continue to get all of the inside information so he can sell it to GIN members, but which of course also 'splains why he has to keep the other founders' names hidden, because otherwise their fellow society members would shun them or even... gasp... kill them.
The GIN Dream Weekend site basically consists of a few teasers about how fabulously exciting the event and its host city are. But in truth it tells nothing about what the event actually is; it only promises that attending will allow you to "Bathe yourself in this high vibration environment that will TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE!" KT and his minions are talking a lot about vibrations these days; you'd think they were '60s era hippies, but really they're still just slogging that old Law of Attraction meme, inspired by Abrascam Hicks and The Secret.
The GIN Dream Weekend site also says that the Dream Weekend is a MAJOR EVENT, and Major Events are must-attends where "decisions are made and lives are changed." I'll just bet they are. The promotional video tells nothing either. And yet... and yet... they're drooling with excitement about it on the Global Information Network Facebook page.
Baccarat bounty...or not Las Vegas seems like the perfect place for a GIN event, particularly since one of the hooks GIN has been using is the promotion of gambling systems that True-dough claims he has used to make millions for himself over the years. Apparently KT has been pushing this stuff for a while, but I just recently became aware of it a few days ago when I heard from someone who's concerned about a long-time friend who has become deeply involved with GIN.
The person who wrote to me hadn't really even heard of Kevin True-dough before conversing with this friend and conducting some independent research. I'll share parts of the email, which my correspondent gave me permission to use. The first item of concern was the actual cost of membership:
The $20,000 to get through the GIN [Membership] levels does not include the monthly cruises / Vegas trips / Seminars or additional GIN learning opportunities.
Members pay another $1000 plus transportation and expenses to go to these things and meet the charlatans. Monthly costs for the brainwashed can easily be over 5 grand per month after participating in all the fabulous GIN events.
That's pretty much consistent with what I've heard from others. And here's where the gambling comes in. My correspondent continued:
In addition to this stuff and what you already know, GIN is really trying to bash its most gullible members over the head with their ...Baccarat "money management system." Whatever money they make sending their dopey hoards off to a casino with their last 10 grand is nothing compared to the money these people will lose following [this] gambling system.
In this f-----g amazing installment, Kevin reveals that he has convinced his friend, who has an amazing sytem [sic] for winning at Baccarat, night after night, will be teaching a one time only seminar to GIN members. We are also getting the horse racing sytem [sic] that Kevin himself has used to win millions over the years. Are you kidding, Join GIN now!
Here is a link to the video mentioning the gambling. If you don't want to watch the entire vid -- and I certainly can't blame you because it's one hour you'll never get back -- I'll tell you now that the gambling stuff starts at about 1:07 and continues through about 12:00. It's pretty disgusting. If you go to the KT Radio Network site, you'll see a list of entries with a "baccarat" tag: http://www.ktradionetwork.com/tag/baccarat/
Granted, the KT vid I linked to above was posted over a year ago, and at that time True-dough said that the baccarat training he was planning to offer, thanks to the good graces of a baccarat-savvy buddy of his named Don, was only going to be a one-time deal. Of course, as I noted to my correspondent in a subsequent email, we know that the perception of scarcity is one of the tools (or weapons) of influence documented by Robert Cialdini in his classic book, and it's a weapon that is used shamelessly by the slimiest of Internet marketers.
In any case I wondered if KT and GIN are still pushing the gambling wisdumb as part of the package of "benefits" for those who pay for GIN membership. One of the "benefits" listed on the GIN member benefits page is, "How to be lucky and win at gambling, including horse racing, baccarat and other casino games," but I wanted a little more information.
So I asked my correspondent about this, and was assured that the observations shared in the email were based upon very recent exchanges with GIN members, some of whom had done the gambling seminar about a month ago and were obviously gambling novices, but were gambling 5-10 grand per week using their newly learned system. My correspondent added:
I am guessing the scarcity of the training depends on how easily or cheaply GIN can get a degenerate gambler to show up...
I'll add more specific info about the gambling/"money management" systems actually being taught to GIN members as I get it. Apparently they are based upon the Martingale betting system. Wrote my correspondent:
The system is good for scammers because it works as long as you have a large bankroll. Once you start getting near your limit you risk it all until you are broke again. These guys can sell the systems as long as people are betting and not yet broke. People using the system will claim they are winning constantly and will not admit that they lost their shirts until they need to borrow money. Using the system with a large bankroll means you can stretch out your 1% loss over a long period of time and tout [the] system to other nincompoops.
In any event, I think my correspondent nailed it pretty well in the first email to me:
Of all the shady nasty things GIN seems to be putting into the heads of these gullible nitwits, to me this one is the worst. For the few grand GIN might make for selling this crap to its members they are encouraging them to risk 100 times more money than GIN could possibly make on this scheme...
Until I met a few GIN members I would have laughed about this stupidity, but the scams are starting to look like stealing candy from babies. I am sure the few members I've met will be cleaned out within a year.
It seems Trudeau has found the perfect balance between Amway, Tony Robbins, As-Seen-on-TV, conspiracy theories, cults and Scientology. Much of his pabulum is just repackaged self help nonsense from as early as 1800s mixed with objectivism. It seems he has pre-programmed his followers so no amount of evidence of this fact will ever penetrate their heads.
Harsh words, those. And lest you think this is a case of victim-bashing, the context makes it clear to me that my correspondent is motivated chiefly by compassion and concern for a close friend who has recently been imbibing the GIN-spiked Kool-Aid in a big way. As for me, I still struggle between my compassion for the easily fooled and eternally hopeful, and my desire to grab them by the collective shirt collar and shake them (figuratively speaking), while shouting at them: "WAKE UP!"
Of course, KT has convinced many that it's the rest of us who are asleep, and the lucky ones who join GIN who are awake.
Jimmy Ray Jumpsuit serving GIN from prison cell And in related news -- probably worth a blog post of its own, but I'm a little rushed today -- convicted killer James Arthur "Death" Ray, currently serving time in prison for the deaths of three people in his fake sweat lodge in October 2009, is apparently trying to help True-dough out by flogging Your Wish Is Your Command, the 14-CD upsell for GIN. Wrote Tragedy In Sedona author Connie Joy on her Facebook page yesterday:
Under the subject of "You just can't make this kind of thing up" I just got an email from JamesRay@aweber.com with the title of "From the Desk Of James Arthur Ray"! I didn't know that he had a desk in jail?!? But he is still selling his stuff. He has a "GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU" a program he is calling Your Wish Is Your Command. "I've personally gone through the entire program and can strongly recommend it to you." Yes, you want to buy this so you can be just like him???
As far as I'm concerned, the meat industry isn't the only thing producing a lot of pink slime these days. Slime is slime, whether it's decked out in an orange jumpsuit or a silly hat.
Now more than ever, your
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to help keep this Whirled spinning. Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit
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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
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As reported on the Salty Droid blog last week, there is a class action lawsuit brewing against Internet marketer Stephen Pierce. And it's about time. For far too long, too many "success" gurus have been peddling their frauducts and flopportunities online and on TV infomercials, persuading thousands of vulnerable and desperate people to fork over millions of dollars that most really cannot afford to spare. Once they realize that they've squandered time, money, and mental and emotional energy for squat, most of these unhappy customers have little legal recourse. Some are too ashamed or perhaps just too stubborn to admit they've been taken, so they swallow it, or they turn a blind eye and order more frauducts, hoping the next one will be the key to the realization of their dreams. Others may own up to being swindled, but they simply don't have the resources to pursue legal remedy. Now, with this developing case against Stephen Pierce, we have what could be a notable exception to this sad scenario. It may even inspire other similar actions against serial scammers -- at least those who haven't made themselves sue-resistant by setting up their scams on obscure offshore isles. But perhaps even those hucksters will get their due, someday.
First things first, though. Says Salty, regarding the lawsuit against Stephen Pierce:
Dallas Attorney Alan Rosenberg is preparing to bring a lawsuit against Stephen Pierce International {and affiliated companies and individuals} for the victims of SPI’s various scams :: fake opportunities :: and boiler room soul crushings. Alan and his firm :: Chamblee, Ryan, Kershaw & Anderson, P.C. :: have agreed to take the case on a contingency basis … which is super awesome of them because people who’ve just been scammed for insane monies don’t tend to have lots of cash lying around.
If you’ve been scammed by Stephen Pierce {or a phone room calling in his name} you should consider being a part of this suit. Not just for yourself :: or for the money {which you deserve to get back} … but because it needs to be done for the greater f-----g good. Because it’s not going to stop unless we all step up and do our part to stop it. Contact Alan Rosenberg at this email address for more details about getting involved in the suit.
Why Stephen Pierce? After all, on one level, this founder of the defunct Black America Online (it seemed like such a good idea at the time!), and co-founder of the hustledork clearinghouse SANG, is just one of hundreds of smarmy pitch men (and women, though women are a very small minority in the upper echelons of this dodgy industry). Although by many reports Stephen Pierce treats his family, friends, and employees shamefully, there is still nothing particularly exceptional in that; lots of egomaniacs and sociopaths are equally reprehensible. But Stephen Pierce has made himself stand out in a very big way. Writes Salty:
...he decided he needed to hire the classless act attorneys at Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease to sue everyone in sight … mostly people he’d already made to suffer … mostly people who can’t afford to hire an attorney. That awesome move was enough to bump Stephen Pierce up to number one on my list … so well done there champ.
According to Salty’s investigating, Pierce not only has scammed tens-to-hundreds-of-thousands from people buying biz-ops, but he also flexes his lawyer on them, and sues people all the time. It doesn’t take a genius to do a little web searching and find tons of complaints on Pierce – but these are common in the stinking, scuzzy world of biz-op Internet marketing. What is not common is to sue people as much as Pierce does, and this is pretty unappealing by most standards. It’s like stealing the wheels off wheelchairs, or raping the wounded.
Couldn't have put it better myself.
And by the way, I've addressed this point before but will go there again for the benefit of any new readers. Some people are put off by the "salty" language on Salty Droid's blog. Some are confused by his sometimes cryptic writing style, and they end up scratching their heads and wondering what the heck he's talking about. (Following the many links he provides would actually clear up much of that puzzlement, but some folks don't bother.) One person whose work I respect even warned me that by quoting Salty so much on my own blog, I might be damaging my own credibility (such as it is). And some simply dismiss Salty as a hater hiding behind a fake-robot persona.
Well, he is a hater -- of scams. But he's hardly hiding. As I am doing with my Cosmic Connie persona, Salty is hiding in plain sight. He reveals his real name -- Jason Jones -- and other personal information right there on his site.
And while some of the profanity might make you flinch, I urge you to stick around for the real information about real scams and scammers. As I've said many times before, I believe that Salty-aka-Jason's heart is in the right place, and so is his head. I am far from the only person who thinks he's doing good, especially with his latest series about Stephen Pierce -- a series that is still ongoing. If you really want to get up to speed about Stephen Pierce, follow this link. And don't worry; you'll get used to the language. Just try to put it in perspective: A few cuss words here and there aren't nearly as bad as the real harm that is being done by the folks being cussed.
* * * * *
It wasn't too long ago that, like millions of other people, I'd never even heard of Stephen Pierce. My blog had always focused on those whom I considered to be the higher-profile New-Wage/selfish-help/McSpirituality gurus and some of their minions -- you know, the stars of The Secret, Oprah's darlings, and the like. Reading Salty Droid's blog opened my eyes to other, intimately related, factions of the industries I'd been targeting for many years. But Stephen Pierce still wasn't really on my radar until I heard from a former employee of his. Without mentioning any names at the time, I wrote a post about that person's experiences a few years ago: http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2009/11/lies-that-blind.html.
In retrospect, knowing what I know now, I see that my post barely touched on the atrocious behavior and hypocrisy of Stephen Pierce. My main point in writing it was to bolster my contention that hypocrisy, appalling behavior, and train-wreck personal lives are par for the course with all too many motivational, marketing, and pop-spirituality "stars." The people who make millions telling us how to live our lives are the ones whose own lives are sorry examples.
Now it looks as if Stephen Pierce may really get what's coming to him. Perhaps in the process, some of his colleagues and enablers, such as the notorious Utah-based "coaching" mill and boiler room Prosper Learning, may get a little karm-uppance too. (By the way, here's a recent vid from Prosper, in which they proudly name Stephen Pierce as one of their "partners." It's a segment from my local (Houston TX area) FOX station: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgJIOHDRprg )
The good news is that you can help with the effort to pursue justice for the victims of Stephen Pierce. First off, I'll reiterate what I cited above: If you -- and/or someone you know and care about -- were scammed by Stephen Pierce or anyone representing him or Stephen Pierce International, contact attorney Alan Rosenberg at arosenberg@chambleeryan.com. Even if you were not directly affected, you can help by spreading the word. In Texas, attorneys are not allowed to solicit clients. So it's up to all of us interested lay folk to get the word out.
You can use social media, for example. Tweet about this matter, and write about it on your Facebook status. Of course, you can also blog about it if too you feel so moved. Some of my favorite bloggers and scam fighters have already gotten in on the act, including:
I intend to add other links and resources as I become aware of them. Even now, sites and forums are being built to advance "the cause." You can also participate in online discussion forums as appropriate, such as this treasure trove of information about Stephen Pierce on RealScam.com: http://www.realscam.com/f11/people-vs-stephen-pierce-1189/
You might also consider writing comments -- again, as appropriate -- in some of the discussions following reviews of Stephen Pierce's work on Amazon. Here's a page for one of his books. But please don't spam. Don't just copy and paste the same comment on dozens of threads, as that doesn't help the cause at all. As Salty noted on a thread on his blog, we have to take the high road -- both legally and morally -- all the way.
But I do urge you to do something. If not for yourself, do it for the thousands of people who feel they have been scammed by Stephen Pierce, those who have been maltreated by him, and those who haven't yet awakened from their fever dream of being led by the hand to unlimited wealth by this blustering blowhard. There's sweet little Mrs. Saunders, for instance, hand-painter of Christmas ornaments, who was still apparently enamored at the time she put this video up in 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Qqz3ufYLNBw#
In the video, there is a very conspicuous cross on the wall behind Mrs. Saunders, which for me just raises the question: WWJD? (Maybe he'd get behind this contemporary effort to throw the moneylenders out of the temple?) I can't help but wonder if Mrs. Saunders has since joined the ranks of the disillusioned. Whether she has or not, however, thousands of unhappy people are decidedly in those ranks, and would like to see a little bit of justice. Here's hoping they get it. As Lynn Edgington of Eagle Research Associates wrote:
We want to wish everyone who has been a victim of Stephen Pierce, and his companies/programs all the success with getting some of your money back through this lawsuit. This attorney firm is not a firm that is interested in “settling” the case. They are trial lawyers, and they relish going to trial. The mere fact they are doing this on contingency is saying they will try this case.
And as Marty at Articulayers put it: "Here’s hoping this suit gets huge, and brings more light to this subject matter – not to mention a little well-earned restitution!"
Yeah, what they said.
* * * * *
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Oh, Good Goddess. I just signed into Blogger for the first time in weeks, and saw a bunch of comments waiting to be moderated. And publish them I did, even those that were calling me to task for one thing or another.
My sincerest apologies to all of you for the delay. As I may have mentioned before, I used to get notifications of comments regularly at my email address, cosmic.connie@juno.com, which I check many times every day. Once upon a time, I could easily publish comments with just a couple of clicks in the body of the email. But Blogger has been very weird about that for the past few months, and now I mostly have to sign in to see and publish comments. Since I have been very busy once again with paying projects (and of course, I'm not complaining!), I have been neglecting my Whirled, and hadn't even bothered to sign in to Blogger for several weeks.
So, again, I apologize, and please know that I appreciate your participation. And for those who may have been hoping that I've decided to give up on this snarky forum altogether, dream on. You can keep on doing your "cleaning" and "clearing" and other superstitious rituals, or you can pay con artists and witch doctors to do the cleaning and clearing for you, but I have no intention of abandoning these Musings. I have numerous posts in the hopper, and I intend for them to see the light of day. So hang on. I'm just gathering strength for the next onslaught.
So there I was one recent morning, minding my own beeswax and casually checking my email, when I came upon the helpful notice from Amazon.com. Amazon's intrepid bots, which are always on the lookout for books and other products that might tickle my fancy, had decided that I might be interested in purchasing a book, Free Money "They" Don't Want You To Know About, pennedby one of my fave snargets, Kevin True-dough. As I write this post, that book has a pathetic two-star-average Amazon reader rating (17 five-star, 5 four-star, 10 each of three- and two-star, and a whopping 56 one-star reviews).
As might be expected, though, the promo blurb paints KT as a hero:
Kevin Trudeau is fast becoming the nation’s foremost consumer advocate and exposer of corporate and government corruption. Claiming to be a secret covert operative for almost twenty years, Kevin knows from personal experience how big business and government try to debunk individuals who promote products that could hurt the profits of giant multinational corporations. Trudeau spends most of his time spearheading a website that promotes education about natural healing therapies and a website that exposes corporate and government abuse and corruption. He is actively pursuing lawsuits against the individuals, corporations and government agencies that take advantage of the average consumer. He is also dedicated to the formation of various foundations to pursue these goals, and intends to donate much of his fortune for that purpose.
Cue heroic music. But notice the hedging copy, "Claiming to be a secret covert operative for almost twenty years..." As in, "We ain't saying he was a covert operative, and we ain't saying he wasn't. But he claims he was." Just for grins, I decided to read some of the five-star reviews of Free Money, and one in particular caught my eye. Written by someone named Alicia Rose, the review had attracted a few dissenting responses. One person accused Ms. Rose of working for True-dough and fraudulently posting the review. Ms. Rose countered that she does not work for KT and is a legit customer and admirer of KT's work, and that she was simply giving her honest opinion. Subsequently someone named R. Winnett mentioned that KT had been fined $500,000 and then $5 million for fraud -- upon which Ms. Rose jumped in with both feet to defend him:
There are a lot of rumors on the Internet about this bestselling author. This happens to be one of them. Learn the truth about Mr. Trudeau at http://www.ktradionetwork.com
You will, as I have, find him a responsible Consumer Advocate who cares about people.
His books are good reference books; well researched.
Well, I just couldn't let that slide. So I popped into the party with this:
Alicia Rose, Kevin Trudeau is a convicted felon. That's fact, not rumor. And R. Winnett was understating, if anything. Since KT got out of prison in the 1990s he has been fined much, much more than $5 million. You need to stop drinking that GIN-soaked Kool-Aid. Of course if you're getting compensated in some way for these "honest reviews," then I guess you feel you have no reason to stop drinking the Kool-Aid. (BTW, I found this thread because Amazon recommended this title to me. Even their bots screw up sometimes, I guess. Obviously, said bots don't read my blog, Whirled Musings.)
And then we were off to the races, with Ms. Rose insisting that I was relying on rumors spread by the media, when I could easily go straight to the source to find the truth. Sources she mentioned included some top Amway folks whom she had befriended during her time as an Amway distributor (1994-97), and who had nothing but good things to say about our boy Kev. A brief Google search I subsequently conducted revealed that these folks had been in a bit of trouble themselves for getting involved in some illegal pyramid stuff. But the mainstay of Ms. Rose's argument was that, according to her, True-dough was a top Amway distributor at the time she was in Amway, and that he could not possibly have built his business to that level if he had been in prison during the time everyone was saying he was. In one comment she wrote:
You claimed the following, I quote you: "The information that I have read states that in 1991 he pleaded guilty to credit-card fraud in federal district court and was sentenced to nearly two years in prison. This implies that he spent (only) a couple of years at the most, presumably in the early or mid 1990s, in prison."
Where are you getting your information? I know for a fact Kevin Trudeau could not have been in prison during the years you are trying to place him in prison. During that time frame he was seriously working on his Amway Distributorship. By the time 1994 arrived Kevin Trudeau was one of the top Amway Distributors with a very lucrative distributorship. Amway Distributorships take years with a huge amount of effort and time spent to become as successful as Mr. Trudeau's distributorship in Amway. All in Amway, including myself, in the 1990's wanted Mr. Trudeau's Amway checks! There is no way in the 1990's Kevin Trudeau could have done prison time.
She also defended what is arguably KT's biggest scam, the Global Information Network or GIN, saying she'd received many benefits from her membership. I questioned her for details about those benefits but she remained vague. I also pointed out the fact that GIN is "organized" in Nevis/St. Kitts, and I speculated that this was done to avoid any legal hassles from the government or from disgruntled members who found it to be a financial black hole. She insisted that GIN is based inside the U.S., although at the same time it is a worldwide, exclusive club. And more than once she mentioned that GIN is based on a legitimate business model designed by M.I.T.
In a later post -- and I know this will come as a huge shocker -- she accused me of sour grapes. (Where have I heard that argument before?) Ms. Rose mused that perhaps I'd always wanted to join GIN but had never been invited. She said she was more than willing to invite me; I had only to ask. (I respectfully declined.)
She also continued to take issue with the claims about KT's prison sentence. It seemed to me that she was arguing that True-dough was never in prison, but in her most recent (as of this posting) comment she clarified:
You seem to misunderstand my argument in our debate. I am arguing the when, the time frame of occurrence.
According to More Natural "Cures" Revealed (I have the book here at home) I quote "committed over twenty years ago" and the edition I have was published in 2006 by Alliance Publishing Group. If you subtract 20 from 2006 it equals 1986. Therefore, his prison time would have been before 1990, at the earliest being 1986. It is my understanding that this incident occurred much earlier, exact date I do not know. Mr. Trudeau has made it clear publically that he was very young when he did this particular prison time you keep referring. Kevin Trudeau was 29 in 1990. That is not an age a man would refer as "very young." He further has made it very clear that he learned his lesson. Your quote from More Natural "Cures" Revealed collaborates this.
In my response to that comment, I cited the documents from The Smoking Gun Web site, which included True-dough's indictment for credit card fraud (dated September 11, 1990); a six-page handwritten letter from his mom, asking the judge for leniency (dated 1991); and an April 1991 letter from a psychiatrist who had examined him, also suggesting leniency. Although in compliance with Amazon's policies about external links I did not supply the direct link on the Amazon discussion thread, I told Ms. Rose she could Google "Would You Buy A Used Cure From This Man? | The Smoking Gun."
I have blogged about this before, but here again is the link to the information. Within the article are links to the individual documents mentioned in the above paragraph and in my comment to Ms. Rose. If she searched and followed the links as suggested, she would have seen that The Smoking Gun article concludes:
After serving 21 months in Uncle Sam's custody, Trudeau was released in August 1993 and placed on two years probation.
I'm sure that Ms. A. Rose will be back as soon as she finishes digesting this information. Meanwhile, if you want to read the entire Amazon exchange, follow this link to the review and the comments. You can only participate if you have an Amazon account and you sign in, but the convo itself is viewable by all.
And finally, on a related note, I'll leave you with a love letter I received today via email:
From: [I will mercifully withhold his name. ~CC] To::cosmic.connie@juno.com Sent: Fri, Feb 03, 2012 02:33 AM Subject line: what is wrong with you? I'm not trying to offend you but maybe you really should consider getting a life. Kevin Trudeau is doing so much to better society right now and you have the audacity to even mock his name. I didn't bother reading all that negative spew about your blog but it shows why KT is a Multi-Billionare and you are just a loser blogger. I'm sorry but you're a loser and you're always going to be a loser. I bet you love cancer? Perhaps not everything thing the man says KT says is %100 true but I guarantee not every you say is true. No one is Jesus we've all said something that might stretched the truth. My dear friend from Canada cured her Emphysema because of his works. Not to mention through the Global Information Network she is able to earn thousands in true walk away residual income each month. I personally am on the fast track to doing the same. Free cruises, financial freedom, amazing health, countless friendships, and so much more have been added to my life because of KT. I'm not trying to make you feel bad about yourself. My motto is everybody love everybody. I just saying maybe your time should be better spent else where. Instead of talking about things you no nothing about. I highly suggest you at least listen to this CD series and consider joining the GIN. www.globalinformationnetwork.com Affiliate Code: [####] There for free you can become an affiliate. Then after you check it out I'd love for you to get back to me on becoming a member. You'll never regret it. Sincerely, XXX
As it happens, I do have a set of the CD series, Your Wish Is Your Command. Someone thoughtfully sent it to me as a gift. And as I've also noted several times previously, it's basically an upsell for the ludicrous and even more expensive GIN scheme.
To any True-dough fans reading this, I will make the same offer I made to Ms. Rose on Amazon: I'll be here for moral support if you ever decide to come off of your GIN-spiked Kool-Aid bender. Maybe I can at least take the edge off the hangover. Laughter is good for that kind of thing.
Now more than ever, your donation is needed
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Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay It's Cosmic Connie Day AKA My Birthday A worldwide holiday!
And I really, really apologize for the solar flares. I just asked for fireworks, but my friend the Sun likes to go all out. (He's such a flaming... but oh, where would we be without him?) Oh, and I'm also sorry for the storms and high winds and so forth that you may be experiencing in your area, depending upon where you are. I sincerely hope that none of y'all are too inconvenienced by outages and suchlike. If you are, please know that I will probably be suffering right along with you, as our satellite Internet (don't get me started) goes out at the first hint of rain, say nothing of solar flares. What I'm trying to say is that we are all in this Whirled together.
And I must say I am also humbled and honored by the fact that the President of the United States is going to be giving a speech tonight in celebration of Cosmic Connie Day. You may or may not like him, but you have to admit that presidential recognition is a pretty big deal. (Don't be fooled by that corny old State of the Union framework; this is really all about Me.)
So what can you do to celebrate Cosmic Connie Day, besides heap me with praise, good wishes and/or money (and here's a poem to get you inspired re the latter)? Well, you can do your part to fight Internet censorship, although if the Sun wants to censor all of our Internet activities for a spell, there's not much to be done. (I'll try talking to him, but he can be so willful at times. Besides, I don't want to hurt his feelings. After all, he's flaring for me.) Or you can go out and adopt or rescue a homeless animal or two (or three, or however many you can reasonably support). And do what you can to support your local sustainable farmers and other small-business owners. These are all perfectly wonderful ways to honor me and (in the case of helping homeless animals) even save a few lives.
Meanwhile, I have to get back to work. Yes, even on Cosmic Connie Day, work must go on. Not that I'm complaining! Thank you to all of you for your continued support of my Whirled.
Note: I have modified some of the copy in this post since I first published it. In the portion following the "bad poetry" in honor of Abe Forum moderator Jody's birthday, I have substituted my original "speculation" about the forum mods' motives for censoring a conversation with actual private communications about these motives. I was aware of these exchanges at the time I originally wrote the post, and worked the basics into my (informed) "speculation." However, at that time I had not yet obtained permission to share the exchanges verbatim. Thank you to ex-Aber Tina, who brought this sad story to light after two-and-a-half-years, for giving me permission to share them, and for the erudite Clarity, who helped me secure the permission. For easy viewing, the new material will be in this color. ~CC, 19 January 2012
Also see addendum -- an important comment from Clarity -- posted in this color. ~CC, 23 January 2012
Now that we're well into The Year of the Mayan Apocalypse, I suppose I'd best get back to blogging while there is still time. Actually, this somewhat overdue post has been in the hopper for a few weeks, but work and other responsibilities kept popping up (not that I'm complaining).
One of the things I find most frustrating about New-Wage/selfish-help/McSpirituality culture is the constant, contrived, and almost superstitious avoidance of "negativity." This avoidance is manifested not only in ongoing efforts to ignore, discredit, or even take legal action against critics, but, at its most extreme, in the effort to cover up injuries or deaths of followers. While some fans of New-Wage gurus or belief systems may sincerely believe that focusing on the negative is counter-productive to their growth, it seems pretty obvious that the gurus and group leaders have their own motivations for nixing negativity: it's bad for business. When followers die and their death seems even marginally related to a particular New-Wage enterprise, that's really bad for business. And this brings us to the apparent cover-up, by Abraham-Hicks principals, of the 2009 suicide of one of their followers, Karen Shelton. I am not the first blogger to write the sad story of this talented artist, who followed Abraham-Hicks in the last years of her life and used the name "Ari" (which is her son's name) on some of the Abe forums. She was very active on these forums, and when she took her own life in the summer of 2009, a few of her fellow members who found out about it wanted to discuss the matter on the forum. But moderators of the official online community, The Abe Forum, made a concerted effort to squelch the conversation. And although they didn't wipe "Ari's" hundreds of posts from the forums completely, they changed her status from "member" to "guest," and made it clear that discussing her was verboten.
So why go into this story now, when it is two-and-a-half years old? It started when an ex-Aber named Tina mentioned Karen's story recently on the blog of another ex-Aber, Mariah, and Mariah turned that into a blog post, the link to which is here. Around the same time, long-time Abe-Hicks critic Dave Stone wrote two posts about the matter, one on Seekyt and one on Healthmad.com. I guess it's my turn now. Originally I had just planned for this to be a short post linking to the others' work. But it grew and grew, as things so often do on this Whirled. As usual with these long posts, you may want to print this one out to read it, and highlight the links you want to follow. I do urge you to read Mariah's and Dave's posts, as well as those on Kyra's blog. And be sure to read the comments from other ex-Abers such as Clarity, Claire, and Charmcat, and, of course, Tina, who brought the story back to light. These bloggers and commenters are the ones who are really the experts on the dynamics of the Abe forums and the whole Abe-Hicks body of work.
A member to remember...or not Karen Shelton had been through more than her share of bad times in her life. She had battled depression for years, and even mentioned on a post I read that she had been suicidal at different times in her life. She'd suffered through an abusive marriage, the loss of twin baby girls who were born prematurely, and an aggressive form of breast cancer where she was given only a 50-50 chance of survival. Although single and lacking insurance, she did survive, but her hair never grew back after the cancer treatments. Before and after the cancer, her life was apparently a series of financial and emotional struggles.
But Karen had two things going for her: her artistic talent, and her son Ari, an artist in his own right, whose chosen art form was music rather than painting. Ari did everything he could to support his mom, even writing to CBS' The Early Show, requesting that they consider his mother for a makeover as part of the "Week of Wishes" that the show was sponsoring at the time. Thanks to Ari's poignant recounting of his mother's struggles, Karen was chosen and received her makeover, which was featured on an episode of The Early Show. Macy's donated a $1,000 gift certificate towards a new wardrobe, and a team at a posh New York Salon helped her make the most of her looks. According to the story on the CBS site:
In the end, Shelton felt like a new woman. "It's amazing, glamorous and beautiful," she said. While visiting The Early Show Thursday morning, the good news continued. Co-anchor Rene Syler surprised Shelton with the news that art supplier DickBlick.com is donating a $2,500 gift certificate. Shelton also will be getting a professional break that many artists dream of: The Animazing Gallery in New York's SoHO has agreed to hold a show of Shelton's work and to host a reception in her honor.
Hearing the good news, Shelton threw her arms around her son, saying, "He does magic for me."
Here is a link to that story, which includes a video of Karen and Ari's appearance on The Early Show: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/23/earlyshow/series/week_of_wishes/main1433783.shtml It's important to note that although the article on the CBS site is dated February 11, 2009, the original date of the show on which Karen and Ari were featured was March of 2006. At that time, she had probably been into Abraham-Hicks' teachings for about a year. (Thanks to Clarity for clarifying these points for me.) The page about Karen Shelton's Animazing Gallery show has some more biographical information about her. In the Artist's Statement at the end, Karen quotes a friend who wrote this about her:
"We should all be writing our books, but now you, you should be having [your son] Ari score your movie, a movie about a too quiet girl who dreams in color. It wouldn't be about all that was taken away from you but all that you create out of thin air..."
But apparently it was not in Karen's nature to claim all of the glory for herself. She added:
My friend could write the same thing about herself; her challenges have equaled mine. “We think of something, and we doos it” is another way she describes how strong we, like so many women, have learned to be. My desire is to describe this kind of strength through my paintings. It is a subtle kind of strength that comes to us just as a way of being. The flaws, the scars, the scratches in paint reveal a strong sense of presence… a Presence That Just Is...
We all love the heartwarming true-life tales we see on TV, and I'm sure they're good for ratings, but of necessity they provide only a snapshot and not the entire story. It would be lovely to believe that the trip to New York and the attention lavished by CBS et al. marked a turning point in Karen's life: both a happy ending and a new beginning. But there was no happy ending. Karen dreamed in color and committed those dreams to canvas, but her life off-canvas was not a dream. And although she was by all counts a strong woman, in the end there were forces that were even stronger.
At some point after she was on the CBS show, Karen became active on the Abe-Hicks forums (she joined in 2007), and was a frequent participant, not merely seeking support for her own struggles, but constantly trying to help others with theirs as well. Her story unfolded over a series of many posts, some of which were a clear cry for help, but the only "help" she got from Abe forum members were the expected cliches about getting into alignment. Tina, the ex-Aber I mentioned above, put it most succinctly on Mariah's blog:
I recall Ari/Karen posting and seeking help and alignment, and seemingly, the harder she tried, the worse her life became. She quit her job at the encouragement of fellow posters. She was financially strapped at this time, but trusted she could rely on the abundance that was sure to flow in from her art work because of Esther's teachings. She would post every once in a while her out of alignment, losing her loft, no money, an art job would come in but be surrounded with problems. Most of her issues were seemingly stemming of lack of finances. She was getting deeper and deeper in depression, and her posts were clearly reflecting this, all the while she continued to get the same canned responses about getting into alignment, etc., and reminding her how close she is to getting everything in her escrow. She would get into a happier place, but then return a week later more depressed and discouraged than the week before.
Tinanoted that some of Karen's last posts revolved around her excitement over her son's upcoming wedding. But this excitement was marred by financial concerns and not being able to afford a nice dress. She was also uneasy about seeing her son's dad, her abusive ex-spouse. It was all apparently too much for her, and finally, after leaving the wedding, she ended her life.
When Tina found out about it, she broached the subject on The Abe Forum, but the thread was quickly shut down by Super Moderator Jody Baron (more on her in a little while). And when Tina went looking for Ari's posts, she found that the Ari avatar, which was one of Karen's lovely paintings, had been removed, and her status changed from "Member" to "Guest." Wrote Tina on Mariah's blog:
It was as if she never existed on that forum. A few people did see my post before it was removed and starting asking about Ari and surprised at her death. Jody made a post reflecting the topic was not up for conversation, or something to that effect.
Jody also communicated privately with Tina that it was best not to allow any discussion of Ari/Karen; more on that below.
In a recent private discussion about this, ex-Aber Clarity (who gave me permission to quote her) summed up Karen's struggles and how unhelpful the Abe teachings apparently were:
So let’s see…she comes to Abe, loses her gallery to rotten people…moves 6 times in one year, winds up in a rough neighborhood in an oversized closet, has to borrow money to keep her place, finds a beau and gets dumped. Can we see how always trying to stay positive and figure out how to open that vortex door would tax a stable person, much less a person on meds who is suicidal??? Karen really tried hard to keep thinking better thoughts…and her life kept going downhill. God, the overwhelming sense of frustration that she had to deal with each and every day. The overwhelming sense of personal failure. She did something wrong…she didn’t line up.
...Not to forget she was a very integral part of the forum, a regular poster/always there for others, always trying to help, inspire, comfort. Then one day poof…gone…let’s not talk about it.
[Addendum, 23 January 2012]: Although it also appears in the discussion following this post, I want to insert Clarity's January 21 comment about a detail of Karen's story that I inadvertently overlooked. I'm going to quote Clarity verbatim.
…Karen’s last post on the Abe forum was the day before the wedding, the day before she took her life. From someone who recalls the post it wasn’t any kind of post that would be um, incriminating. She was excited about Ari’s wedding, wished she had something nicer to wear and was nervous about seeing her ex after so long. That post was removed, puff into thin air. I wondered about that for awhile…why remove a not damning post? It wasn’t till a few days ago that I got it. It was the last post she made and in spite of her happy face the next day she took her life. That was why it had to be erased. That is in fact the most incriminating of all…happy face today, gone tomorrow. The Hicks, who control the forum and make all the decisions, I would best guess went over Karen’s post and decided how to handle it…remove her avatar of one of her beautiful paintings, remove her as a member to guest status and remove her last post. Now that I understand why they removed her last post (because I really didn’t understand why when I first heard) it is reflective of not only sinister motives in how her passing was handled but someone’s looking at each detail carefully to sanitize her presence on the forum. What kind of ghouls go over her post like that? What kind of sick sadistic ghouls???
Just for the heck of it I Googled "Abraham Hicks suicide." The first few results were videos of what "Abe" says about death and dying. Then there was this blog post, which was hard to read for more than just the totally lousy typography. The gist of it? "Every death is suicide." Or so says "Abraham." Dave Stone has written quite a lot about the Abraham-Hicks teachings on death and suicide. In his recent Seekyt article he wrote:
"'...death' is a matter of closing one's eyes in this dimension and literally opening one's eyes in the other dimension. And that, truly, is how all death is, no matter how it looks, up to that point.. The re-emergence into Source Energy is always a delightful thing." This was said by Esther Hicks, posing as Abraham, in Buffalo, New York, two weeks to the day after terrorist attacks claimed nearly 3,000 lives on September 11th, 2001. Not to worry. Pregnant women crushed by collapsing towers or jumping to avoid being burned alive, others on jetliners with babies in their laps, men with dependent families waiting for them to come home, telemarketers slugging away another day on the phone--no matter, they killed themselves, fully aware and instantly without a regret, according to Esther Hicks. “The death experience is always suicide.” Also, it “is always a delightful thing.”
Someone going by the name of Wide Eyes wrote this on a recent Salty Droid post, in a thread about the narcissistic mindset of The Secret:
January 11th, 2012 at 2:28 am ...Speaking of the evil of the secret, I’ve lost a newborn (stillbirth) and was told by a Secret/Abrahams Hicks devotee that it was probably because of a “negative thought” This was the worst thing i’ve heard. So f-----g mean But it was also total b.s. As in fact I did not worry at all needless to say I erased this woman from my life… (who fancies herself as a coach helping people!)... ...Btw we had another child and worried sick for her (lots of negative thoughts)… She’s perfectly healthy...
It seems that the real laws of cause and effect are far more complex than the all-knowing "Abe" -- and other LOA gurus and followers -- would have us believe.
The mods versus realityAs you may know, the Abraham-Hicks empire is on somewhat shakier ground now than it has ever been, and it's not just because Esther and gang apparently got on the wrong side of an influential Hollywood celeb (but that's worthy of a whole other blog post, which I won't write but will link to when it is written). The shakiness is due in large part to the recent death of the original brains behind the whole Abrascam, Jerry Hicks. Granted, Jerry was old -- in his eighties -- and he had leukemia. Yet many are questioning why the Abe-Hicks teachings on health and illness apparently failed him. And even though the fact that...um...he was quite elderly and had a terminal illness should have been a sufficient explanation for his demise, the manner of his passing did raise interesting questions about the apparent disconnect between Abe-Hicks teachings and Jerry's choices at the end. For instance, there was his choice to use every conventional (and unconventional) medical treatment available as he fought to hang on to his earthly existence, despite Abe's teachings to the contrary. And then there's the question of why he "attracted" the cancer in the first place.*
The moderators of the official Abraham-Hicks forums have apparently been putting forth their best damage-control efforts, much as they did with Karen Shelton. I'm certainly not an expert on these forums and their dynamics and politics, but I think I have a grasp on the basics, thanks in large part to the Abe-Hicks critical bloggers and those who have participated on their blog discussions. In fact, the ever-intrepid Kyra, who takes her job as Nancy Drew and Scooby Doo seriously, connects some dots with the Abe forum(s) in this recent blog post.
Apart from Esther-as-Abe, perhaps the most influential voice on the official online community is long-time Abe-Hicks house boy David Gordon, who seems in many ways to be a typical SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy). In his profile on The Abe Forum, he lists his home page as abrahamappreciators.com, but it directs to this URL: http://whatanicewebsite.com/faces/. David apparently received his noble calling to pilot Abe-Hicks' online conversations back in the late 1990s, as he relates on this link. Called to the "hotseat" at a live event in 1998, David had a convo with Esther-as-Abraham that began like this (with brief annotations from your hostess):
ABRAHAM: Right here. You've just been given a new birth. DAVID: That's going to be a hard one. ABRAHAM: Better than a lobotomy. [Yuck-yuck. Oh, that Abe gang. What a bunch of cut-ups. ~CC] DAVID: What a wonderful act to follow. I have been given the wonderful opportunity to administer an E-mail list for the body of information that is Abraham-Hicks. There are over 140 people on this list. It's been in existence for about three years. ABRAHAM: How did it come about? How did it begin? [Why would Abe ask these questions? I thought they knew everything. Oh, well. ~CC] DAVID: It came about by a particular individual who is in this room coming up with the idea of linking on-line folks on the leading edge, as we are, together to discuss the works of Abraham. ABRAHAM: So they are independent students of the process of deliberate creation. DAVID: Yes....
And it goes on and on like that. Oy. I'm quite familiar with that "we're on the leading edge" mentality, by the way. It's a banner proudly carried by woo armies everywhere, providing the foundation for some of their most common (and fallacy-ridden) counters to criticism.
In May of 2011, David started a Love for Jerry thread on The Abe Forum, the URL of which is www.LoveforJerry.com, though it directs to http://www.abeforum.com/showthread.php?23438-Appreciating-Jerry-Hicks. Presumably this love-bombing was an effort to support Jerry as he fought his cancer battle...oops, I mean "allowed" the medical treatment. On one of his posts on that thread, David quoted from another Abe-Hicks fan named Tewa:
Jerry I love you SO much It will take me a thousand rampages of appreciation to list the things I love You and Ester [sic] have given us all so much My heart is so full tonight of all I have received
I love that you take the Chemo in true wonderful Jerry style watching and allowing i love how you Live Abe i Love how you are I love what you asked into Being for all of us with your thirsting questioning mind and your great loving and appreciating ways And I love you I love your zippy do da -ness i love how you are so tuned into FUN! i love your incredible life
I love your courage and resilience Love YOU Thank-you Jerry SO MUCH! Love Tewa
But in spite of all of that love and zippy do da-ness and being tuned into FUN!, Jerry croaked anyway on November 18, 2011. Or, rather he "made his transition," though Esther waited a few days to announce it to the world. And there seems to be some pretty interesting buzz about that, about what was really going on while Jerry was being launched into the vortex and the Abe-Hicks propaganda machine was spinning its tales to keep the shocked and the doubting in thrall. There appears to be an interesting Korea story here; I do believe some of our Abe-Hicks sleuths are looking into that even as I write this.
But I digress. The point towards which I am meandering is that at least the participants were allowed on the forums to talk about Jerry's passing...well, sort of. Apparently they can't comment about Jerry anywhere but on the "I love Jerry" thread, where the post-croaking rampages continue. Head SNAG David Gordon makes it clear:
Posts in the "main" forum, Abraham Teachings and you, are open only for that topic and not comments about Jerry.
And I'm sure that any critical posts will be disallowed.
David has been aided in his guard duties by several others, most notably, the aforementioned Jody Baron, Super Moderator. Here are some highlights from Jody's profile on The Abe Forum:
Location
Where Life is FUN
Favorite short Abraham quote
"Stop making such a big deal out of everything!"
How did you find the Abe forum?
I created and launched it with David Gordon in may, 2007
But that is now, and this was then. And for the benefit of those who might accuse me of indulging in gratuitous gossip, let me state that I am merely providing some context for Karen's story. As both David and Jody were instrumental in the censorship of her story on The Abe Forum, it only seems appropriate. It's also appropriate to mention that around the time when a few of the regular participants were trying to bring Karen's story to light on The Abe Forum, and the mods were busily wiping the forum clean of her presence, David Gordon began a "rampage of appreciation" for Jody to celebrate her birthday. On August 19, 2009, David introduced a new topic: "Rampage for Jody Today." Judging from the time stamp, he got up pretty early in the morning to do it:
From David Administrator Posted: Wed Aug 19th, 2009 03:35 am I thought I'd give a Happy Birthday to our Beloved Super Moderator today. Today is her birthday, and I wish her a GREAT day today.... and every day. It may not be enough to just write some appreciation, and words may not work or be enough to express how much I appreciate her, but I wanted to at least try!
The Abe Forum is yet another one of Jody's expressions of Love in her life. And like her sons and daughter, it has turned out magnificently. Without the energy of Jody, this place would not be what it is. (okay, she has a lot of help from Marc and Scott, but it's not their birthday today, it's hers.)
And so today I rampage for Jody. The world has the best possible forum for the appreciation of Abraham because of her amazing talent and focus. It's a LOT more than just her talent that is involved, there's an energy that is off the chart for helping others understand and use the Abraham teaching. And she does this tirelessly, day after day after day. (unless she is on a cruise, which is OMG.. often!) Even then there's hardly ever a time when this place is not on her mind and in her heart.
I practically go breathless to encompass all the Love she is. The Forum is just a portion of that Love. I see how she is as a Mom and there's not anyone around that can know the feeling that I feel or understand the Love that is present. I have told her that she is Love on steroids, and that is SO true!! So Jody, this rampage is for you today. Happy Birthday!!
May you feel Loved and Appreciated today beyond anything that makes any sense.
with Love and Rampages,
David Last edited on Wed Aug 19th, 2009 10:45 pm by
This open invitation was followed by a page of emoticon-heavy, animation-infested, happy-happy joy-joy messages from participants whose profiles listed their locations as places such as "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and "The Vortex." It was a true "rampage," Aber style. There was even some bad poetry (and goodness me, you know how I love bad poetry):
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HAPPY BIRTHDAYJODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Birthdays come but once a year But, your radiant love is always here Your style and grace never cease to be And we all appreciate you responding so inspirationally Your energy and enthusiasm radiates to us all As Abraham's philosophy you so KNOWINGLY recallJody you're an uplifter of pure clarity Which we can all enjoy for eternity...
Meanwhile, the discussions about Karen's death were wiped clean, and "Ari" was de-avatar'd and re-listed as a "guest" rather than a "member." Some might say that the forum moderators had good reasons to suppress discussion about the tragic end to Karen's life, apart from the obvious agendas to keep negativity to a manageable level and to avoid anything remotely resembling liability for a member's death. In fact, Birthday Girl Jody, in private communications with Tina at this time, expressed these reasons like a true expert in obfuscation (Abe-fuscation?). As I mentioned in my Jan. 19 note at the beginning of this post, Tina has graciously given me permission to share this exchange.
Jody begins with this communication to Tina:
I think we're going to make any discussion of Ari off-topic. What do you two think?
Meanwhile, the consensus of the moderators is that we'll discuss it in PM [private messages] - those who are aware, but we don't see value it discussing it on the open forum. I'm very willing to entertain opinions to the contrary though... any thoughts? Jody
Tina's reply:
Hi Jody,
My thoughts on Ari's transition. Obviously, the decision is yours and David's [that would be David Gordon, of course ~CC], and I appreciate the opportunity to give you my thoughts. With this being the Abe forum, and Abe always referring to us humans in physical forms attributing negativity to death when it is not a negative experience, I feel in keeping quiet when someone from the forum transitions, well, it gives me the feeling that death is bad in some way, which contradicts Abe's teachings on the subject. It doesn't feel right to me . I honestly feel a guided thread, perhaps started by a moderator with clear intentions in place of it being about Ari and the teachings of Abe to keep the flow on the experience of death from Abe's perspective would be beneficial to those on the board following Abe and his words. We need to comprehend and totally understand that death is not something we should be afraid to face, it can't be swept under the rug, but should be addressed in some fashion. Even to make a positive comment about Ari transitioning and then locking the thread would be better than not acknowledging her transition at all.
As I said, of course, the call is yours and David's, but to pretend that it didn't happen would be a travesty and certainly not in line with what Abraham teaches. Tina
Jody's response:
Hi Tina, I totally hear what you are saying, of course. We would never censor the subject of death, as you know, and we have had many very intense threads on it. The reason I'm hesitant to allow a discussion of Ari is that she was sort of anonymous here - if she was your mother, then of course I would allow you to discuss your use of the Abraham teachings while "dealing with" (for lack of better phrase) her death. But just the fact that she was a forum member doesn't seem a "good reason" for us to get into a discussion of it. Does this make sense? It is what feels right to me and David and Scott and Marc right now, but again, I'm happy to keep up the dialog with you here and if you feel there is a thread in the making that you have bubbling up in you that involves Ari's death and directly relates to the teachings- please run it by me here? (I'm copying my co-moderators on this note in case they have words of wisdom..) Love, Jody
Tina's response to Jody:
Hi Jody,
I have come to the thought that being anonymous, then the name is not known, so to speak, outside of the board. It is a screen name. Ari is known as Ari the screen name. I see no contraindications to making a thread about Ari transitioning and locking it. Ari is a screen name. The screen name transitioned and will not longer be posting. Does that make sense? Separating the real person from the anonymous screen name?
I didn't know Ari's real name or even where she lived, but I do see a difference in stating on the forum that Ari transitioned versus Karen Doe of West Sawdust, MA transitioned. She posted here as Ari. The use of the name Ari would still allow the person behind the screen name to remain anonymous. Tina
Jody's reply to Tina's response:
Tina: I'm not sure what would be gained by announcing her death, and then discussing it. To discuss it "just because" she was a forum member seems a little "off". Does this make sense? I don't think we are "grieving" for her or really in any way having to deal with her passing, so a thread just to let people know that someone who was on the forum is now in non-physical doesn't make sense as far as topic. For me, it seems most downstream just to answer the questions of those who PM me or the other moderators (of they will) asking why she is no longer on the forum. But since even that has not happened.. I think with over 4000 members, in and out of physical, we're not going to be able to keep track! Am I over-thinking this? It's very possible!! I do have a tendency to do that! Thanks for mulling this over with me! Jody
Today Tina says, "Of everything Jody said in those messages, this stuck out the most to me: 'I don't think we are "grieving" for her or really in any way having to deal with her passing.'"
Indeed. That's the part that sticks out for me too. Jody's arguments come across as just so much rationalization. First there are the issues of privacy and anonymity. As Tina pointed out, it would not have been a violation of Karen's privacy or anonymity to discuss her death using her screen name, Ari. For that matter, on other platforms, both Karen (using her real name) and the son who survived her (more about him below) have been quite public about their troubled stories. Had this not been the case, I would not have used their real names here.
Moreover, grief has many faces, and I think it is indeed possible to grieve for a relative stranger, even if you don't have to directly deal with the logistical matters or the deeper emotional issues related to their passing. To imply that those who mourned Ari/Karen's passing were not dealing with real emotions is ignorant and cold. Tina and the others who wanted to talk publicly about Ari were motivated by empathy and compassion, traits for which the Abe machine apparently has little use. And the matter of Karen's untold story has remained painful for Tina even after two-and-a-half years.
When I speculated on these matters in a private conversation with a small group of Abe critics, and added that empathy and compassion do not seem to be stressed in the Abe-Hicks teachings, Dave Stone responded (and has given me permission to quote him):
You think empathy and compassion are not stressed in the Abe-Hicks teachings? Worse they that, the embedded, radical narcissism makes them anathema. If it ain't about me, it ain't.
I remember one heavy-duty Aber... in one of the last debates I ever had on AbeTalk [another Abe forum], insisted that she would waltz past the children being forced to ingest poison in Jonestown, singing La-di-da-di-da. It was law of attraction in action, after all. The children, even infants brought it on themselves with their "vibrations," and it wouldn't be right to interfere. Hers was a pure expression of the teachings in real life. It's about me, me and me, or it just isn't. After all, I created the whole thing, and I can just ignore what I don't like.
The philosophy gives a bad name to sophomoric and shallow.
I couldn't have said it better, Dave. And that whole Jody birthday exchange leads me to wonder: If, according to the Abe-Hicks mindset, the grief that some members felt for Karen/Ari wasn't "real" because after all, they only "knew" her through the forum, how could all of those joyful rampages of appreciation in which the Abers indulge on the forums be "real?" And how genuine is that effluvium of professed "love" for Jerry and Esther? Granted, some of the gushers and fawners have probably met Esther and Jerry -- and each other -- in person on cruises or at other Abe-Hicks events, but do they all really "know" each other? Probably not.
But then, much like the Beatles' fabled Strawberry Fields, in the Aberhood nothing is real.
What is real is the life that burns beyond the ecstatic rampages on the forums, but those stories can be so distressingly mundane. I think Tina summed it up quite well on Kyra's recent blog post (Jan 11, 2012 07:31 PM):
I find that most people on the forum are either looking to attract a relationship or money, money probably being #1, but relationship is a close second. A lot of posts I read on the forum are people who are down and out, can't pay their basic need bills, strapped for cash, yet continuing to use their last dime, so to speak, to buy a Hicks's book, a video seminar, or actually going to a seminar in person (all when posting they are soon to be evicted for not paying their rent). They are willing to spend their last bit of money on anything Hicks's related because they think "I just need one more piece of information and then all my abundance will come to me, this might be it, this might be the final piece of the puzzle I need." Unfortunately, reaching their goal through the Hicks's "scam," for lack of a better word is always elusive, dependent on the new book, the next seminar, the next great recycled idea that the Hicks...and Company come up with.
That's a familiar scenario, one that is no doubt played out over and over and over again across the New-Wage (and Internet Marketing) universe, on everything from Marcy From Maui's Powerful Intentions forum to Joe "Mr. Fire" Vitale's Attract Miracles "community" to the wretched hive of self-described "Syndicate" members that Salty Droid writes about on his blog. There will always be people who are willing to spend their last penny and even go into debt for overpriced products and events, hoping that the next one will be the portal to the realization of their hopes and dreams.
Same story, different verse When I first read the story of how Karen/Ari was all but "wiped away" from the Abe forum after she killed herself, and particularly after I read about the Jody birthday appreciation rampage, I immediately thought of another tragedy that also took place in 2009. I recalled how James Arthur "Death" Ray and his minions worked so hard to cover up Colleen Conaway's death after she (apparently) jumped off of a third-floor mall balcony during one of Ray's Harmonic Wealth weekends in San Diego in July of 2009 -- less than three months before the fatal sweat lodge in Sedona. Many of you who are reading this probably know the basics of Colleen's story, but it bears repeating in this context. (For those who are interested, Salty Droid wrote of the tragedy of Colleen in detail over the course of numerous posts.) One of Ray's minions, Greg Hartle, actually witnessed Colleen's fatal leap from across the mall, and instead of calling 911 he simply tweeted: “Just witnessed a woman jump several stories down onto pure concrete. I gotta say it was disturbing. I’m sending her my love right now.”
Even after Colleen's body had been identified and Ray was notified, some of his assistants pretended to still be looking for her. One of them even called her cell phone repeatedly and left messages asking her where she was -- after it was known that she was dead. And that night, they all had the wrap party and danced the night away, with the principals knowing full well that Colleen was lying dead on a slab. In all fairness I'll say that most of the dancers and party animals did not know that one of their fellow participants was dead. Most did not have a clue until months later, after the Sedona tragedy put James Ray in a harsher light and the news media and critical bloggers started digging. But Death Ray and the Rayettes did know that very night, and still partied up a storm.
As Abe-Hicks critic Clarity wrote recently about Karen and the Hicks, "In the name of the franchise must go on it was hushed up." That tactic backfired big time on Ray and will continue to backfire. He is currently serving a prison sentence -- a paltry one but a prison sentence nevertheless -- for the three deaths in Sedona, and Colleen's family is reportedly pursuing justice. I find the tale of Karen and the Abe forum to be equally sad and disgusting, and especially poignant as there seemed to be ample red flags leading up to her suicide. (Colleen's death, on the other hand, took everyone by surprise -- particularly her family -- since she apparently had no obvious problems before that, other than the problem of being utterly hooked on James Ray seminars and spending all of her money to attend his increasingly pricey events.)
The story of Karen and the Abe-Hicks forum also reminded me of another sad tale that didn't quite have the legs of the James Ray cases, but seemed to be another clear example of the harm that can be caused by New-Wage nonsense, and a reminder of how grievously unprepared the hucksters who peddle this mindset are when it comes to dealing with people who are in real trouble. In December of 2005, a 34-year-old Australian woman named Rebekah Lawrence, described by many as normally shy, modest, and polite, took off her clothes at work, hurled insults at her coworkers, shouted out her love to her husband David, and jumped out an office window, plunging to her death. No alcohol or other drugs were found in her system, and she did not have a history of psychiatric problems. Yet according to at least one forensic psychiatrist, she was clearly in a state of psychosis.
A couple of days earlier, Rebekah had completed an intensive and emotionally grueling $695.00 "experiential" self-help course called The Turning Point, which, among other things, focused on bringing out one's inner child. In the days leading up to her suicide she had tried repeatedly to get phone support from the folks at the company sponsoring the course. She said she was having some awful thoughts about death. Yet she was met by platitudes from various volunteer support workers, one of whom advised her simply to take a warm shower, have a hot drink, and be gentle on herself. Instead she took herself out. And she wasn't the only one; at least two other suicides, both before and after Rebekah's, were linked to The Turning Point course. I wrote about this in September of 2009.
And then there's the tale of Michael Scinto, who killed himself after some harrowing experiences with the men's selfish-help group the ManKind Project. I wrote about that on this lengthy post in January of 2011. Sad stories just keep popping up to rain on the New-Wage parades... or should I say the charades?
All is not well By mentioning those other examples, my intention is not to take anything away from Karen's story, nor to gloss over any unique characteristics of the Abraham-Hicks community. But it is hard not to notice a common pattern among all of these organizations. While countless folks have claimed over the years to have been helped in some way by various New-Wage/McSpirituality/selfish-help ideas, leaders, and LGATs (Large Group Awareness Trainings), there is also a body count. Ever since the days of Esalen and est (the forerunner to the intensely annoying Landmark Education), disturbing news of deaths or serious injuries have surfaced on occasion -- relatively rare and briefly newsworthy tales that for the most part are quickly forgotten by the public. But the true body count probably remains unknown (at least in this dimension). What is known is that there is a body count, to which the Abraham-Hicks machine has apparently contributed in its own way.
Besides Karen there is the sad and puzzling (well, it's puzzling to me, anyway) story of Andrew Wilcox, reportedly a former Abe insider who at some point decided Esther was a fraud and apparently spent the rest of his life trying to prove it. The story goes that he even went so far as to track down Esther and Jerry in an elevator, following them down the hall and challenging Esther about faking. Esther's only response was to repeatedly chant, "All is well. All is well"-- presumably in her Abe accent.
The premise, THE F-----G TITLE, is, "ASK and it is Given". BUT... it should really be...
Ask, and then visualize, and then work up the emotional scale, and then buy another book, and then come to the seminar, and then only talk pleasingly and upliftingly about Abraham only on The Abe Forum, and then make sure you really believe this stuff, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then... it MIGHT be Given... might be... if you're lucky, and you didn't complain to[o] much, or have a few doubts or negative "episodes" along the way... maybe.
I'll say this for Andrew: Just judging from his last blog post, written two days before his death, he seemed to be good at spotting liars. Word is that he was actually a kind and gentle soul, not nearly as in-your-face in private as he was on his blog and on some of his forum and blog posts, and I also hear that there were Abe forum members who genuinely tried to help him. (Here's a thread on what has been described as a "renegade" Abe forum about his passing: http://abetalk.com/showthread.php?t=3396.) I'm told too that Andrew Wilcox was the one who coined the name "Estherham" -- a name that surely has two meanings, for what is Esther if not a large and egregiously over-cooked ham? Andrew had his own set of problems, which may or may not have been exacerbated by Abraham-Hicks. But I have observed over the years that groups such as Abe-Hicks seem to attract more than their share of broken people. Is it that groups such as these are seemingly less judgmental than traditional institutions such as most churches? If that's the motive, many soon learn that the lack of judgment is illusory, for while New-Wage communities may be accepting of things that would make the church ladies at the local Baptist church cluck disapprovingly, they are peopled by positive-thinking fascists who level their own set of judgments. Or do troubled folks flock to these groups because participation at its most basic level is generally free or cheap (cheaper than legitimate therapy), and most of these broken people are also broke? Beats the heck out of me, but it's good discussion fodder, anyway.
It could be argued that the body count in the Aber-hood goes beyond the suicides. Kyra recently shared a story of a woman in the "hotseat" at a live Estherham (oh, I do love that word) event, whose husband had recently died of cancer after refusing chemotherapy. The grieving woman said her husband had opted out of conventional treatment because he intended to cure himself of cancer by using the Abrascam virtual-reality method. Now the man's widow wanted to know why this had failed. Estherham's answer? "All is well." This seems to be a standard response not just from the Abe-Hicks machine (apparently the forum moderators love it too) but also from numerous faux-wise New-Wage/McSpirituality gurus. I suppose it is marginally more enlightened than "It was God's will," but not by much. With Karen Shelton in those final months, it was painfully obvious that all was not well. But Abraham-Hicks did not provide a proper framework for her to even express the not-wellness of her world, much less provide a solution.
Liability versus responsibility I know what you may be thinking: It's possible that the hotseater's husband would have died of his cancer anyway, and that the chemo would have just delayed the inevitable, adding a few months or years to his life. And that life may have come with a lot of suffering in the bargain, as conventional cancer treatment is grueling and sometimes turns out to be almost worse than the disease itself. One can hardly blame people for seeking an alternative to being disfigured by surgery, burned by radiation, poisoned by chemo, or some tortuous combination thereof. But I guess we'll never know what might have been, and the kindest thing I can think of to say about this infuriating hotseat exchange is that "All is well" in this circumstance is a callous and cold response. (And do I even need to remind anyone that Jerry Hicks didn't stick with Abraham's usual "medical" advice when faced with cancer himself?)
This question has certainly been raised before on other blogs, but how many other people have refused possible life-saving medical treatment because of the Hicks' dubious advice? Or for that matter, because of the advice and "counsel" of any other Law of Attraction guru or Internet marketing mercenary? I believe in free choice, and I generally don't think Draconian measures should be taken to protect people from their own choices. But by the same token, I believe charlatans should be called out, loudly and often. And I don't believe that they deserve any special legal protection from critics who wish to expose their nonsense, either through the presentation of facts or informed opinion. But that's definitely a whole other (long) blog post.
Abraham-Hicks has alternately been called a cult and a religion, as have many other New-Wage and LGAT orgs. Most of the principals and the followers of these gurus and groups bristle at the suggestion that they are part of a cult. (Some groups apparently don't mind being tagged a "religion," however, if it will earn them some of the tax breaks and other perks that mainstream churches receive in the US, including the right to accuse critics of religious discrimination.) Some groups, such as Scientology and Landmark Education, even go so far as threatening to sue anyone who dares suggest they are a cult. From a technical standpoint they may not be cults, but all too often the results are cult-like, and sometimes tragically so.
In today's litigious milieu, one of the first questions surrounding any tragedy is that of liability. Who's responsible, and how can the responsible parties be made to pay? But with New-Wage gurus liability is generally very difficult to establish, even in cases where there seems to be a fairly clear cause-and-effect relationship between the guru in question and the deaths or injuries or emotional harm suffered by followers. Consider, for instance, the James Ray trial for the three deaths in the fake sweat lodge in Sedona. That trial was a long and expensive ordeal that resulted in the aforementioned light sentence for Jimmy Ray Jumpsuit, a sentence that his lawyers are still fighting (pro bono, or so they claim, because Jimmy Ray is indigent, or so he claims). Colleen Conaway's family may or may not eventually get some sort of justice, but it seems like a long shot.
With the Hicks enterprise and Karen, it would probably be even more of a long shot, should someone wish to pursue legal remedy. Karen clearly had a troubled history, and it could not reasonably be said that the Abe-Hicks teachings were the cause of most of those troubles. She came to Abe-Hicks relatively late in her life. I imagine that criminal or even civil liability would be exceedingly difficult to establish. The case isn't even as clear-cut as that of a party host or bartender who knowingly serves more alcohol to someone who is visibly intoxicated. However, moral liability/responsibility is quite another matter. And while Abers may be all lah-de-dah about how all deaths are suicides anyway, and death is no big deal, and that it's a joyful experience, and so forth, it seems to me that the forums did play at least a cameo role in the final scene of the tragedy that was Karen's life, and the moderators' attempts to wipe her away are reprehensible. But then I have to remind myself that a moral sensibility -- and a conscience -- much like empathy and compassion, are not required to get you in the door at Big Abe's Speakeasy. If anything, conscience is a hindrance.
What part did Abraham-Hicks really play in Karen's death? We can only speculate, but I think Dave Stone said it succinctly and quite well in the conclusion to his recent piece on Healthmad.com:
The trees may be scary but hidden among them is your house.~ Poet and essayist Andrei Codrescu
These days Karen's son, Ari Picker, is coming to terms with his mother's death -- and her life -- through his music. Since 2002 he has headed a group called Lost in the Trees, whose music reflects Ari's classical training. Though classified as "alternative," the band's work has been more accurately described by music writer Cameron Matthews as a combination of the pastoral and the orchestral. I find it very compelling, so compelling that I recently bought the group's debut CD, All Alone in an Empty House. In December of 2010 Ari's story appeared on Indyweek.com. Wrote music editor Jordan Lawrence about All Alone in an Empty House:
On the album, Picker turns his adolescence—a dark saga steered by an emotionally abusive father and a mentally troubled mother—into searing episodes. Recollections of conversations and glimpses of intimate imagery combine over the stacked textures of a beautiful orchestra and heartache-fueled folk music. The two stylistic poles tug at each other, pushing into the other's territory, blurring into a cathartic whole. It's a fitting backdrop for a narrative that's rich with moral ambiguity and poetic sorrow.
Not to mention a combination of disturbing, whimsical, and beautiful visuals in the music videos, such as the one for the CD's title song, "All Alone in an Empty House." The moral ambiguity to which Lawrence referred is Ari's refusal to morally condemn his abusive father; the video concludes as illuminated lanterns sail up into the night sky like souls returning home as Ari sings:
no,no one is perfect and, no one is perfect we've got holes in our heart no one is perfect*
At end of day, this is the album Picker set out to make, a celebration of the woman he calls a "warrior," and a testament to the power of music to heal and transcend.
And if the following preview video is any indication at all, Ari has done Karen proud. This collection promises not to be just a continuation of the first one; it is taking Lost in the Trees' music to a new level. I'm definitely going to buy the new CD too as soon as it's available.
While I am frequently snarky about McSpirituality and, to a lesser degree, organized religion, at heart I remain sympathetic to the spiritual quest. I may laugh, I may snark, I may roll my eyes at times and giggle fiendishly as I Photoshop, but in the end I really cannot bring myself to categorically condemn people for the very human desire to find answers to the mysteries of life and death and love, answers that normally can't be found in a life lived on the surface. I don't fault Karen for seeking answers and support in an online community, nor do I fault her son for the new and more mystical direction of his own art (and his explanations thereof). He has taken his pain, and his mother's pain as well, and used his talent to mold that pain into something gorgeous.** For Karen, Abraham-Hicks was far from being the church that fit her own needs. When she needed it the most, it failed her, adding to a long list of other people and institutions that had failed her. When a few concerned members of her final "church" tried to express grief for her passing, they were silenced. But we need to remember that The Abe Forum is just one little corner of a vast world. (And in fact, the "renegade" Abe Talk forum did allow discussion of Karen's passing: http://abetalk.com/showthread.php?t=4129.) Karen lives on, in her own paintings and in the soaring, atmospheric music of her son Ari and his band. And no amount of rationalization or heavy-handed moderation from the loyal followers of an imaginary-friends-spouting charlatan can keep Karen's story from being told in many other ways as well, and by many other people. I imagine that we will each contribute our own spin and that we'll bring, as Clarity has observantly noted, our own biases to the story. And that's okay, I think, for the room where Karen's paintings hang is a boundless place, larger by far than even her son -- the one person who never failed her -- may have imagined.
And I predict that the population of the Aber-hood will continue to shrink, as more and more people awaken from their daze and come to realize what a garish, silly, and ultimately empty place the house that Jerry and Esther built really is.
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Jody
I do have a tendency to do that!
