Here is my wrap up on recent events.

1. 20th July 2012: Article posted in Medical Observer entitled "Investigation urged into 'cult' medical group" written by Byron Kaye. [www.medicalobserver.com.au]
- Serge sends out email to his distribution list advising them that Byron has sided with the detractors and requests his followers to bombard Byron with Emails that are Pro-UM, especially Pro-UniMed cancer patients (because they apparently have nothing better to do with what precious little time they have on this earth, than be concerned with the well-being of Serge).
- The article sparks debate between readers who are DRs and Anne Mallatt - a Pro-UM practitioner, possibly the most damning comment came from a post by "Dr Ciccioni" who said "I find it weird that some of my peers work in an evidence-based environment, but don't live in an evidence-based world".
- Serge commences legal action against Medical Observer after gaining legal counsel (possibly from the same lawyer who allowed him to conduct a book burning at his property near Mullumbimby.)
- Confident with their legal position, Medical Observer puts the article back online - but without the offending comments.

2. 22nd July 2012: 2 Articles posted in the Sydney Morning Herald online and on page 7 of the Sun Herald written by Heath Aston
[www.smh.com.au]
- The article featured the following comment: John Dwyer, the former head of medicine at University of NSW, described the claim that a lymphatic pulse exists as ''utter nonsense''. ''GPs might be sending a person off in good faith to get a legitimate therapy but what this person is getting is esoteric nonsense,'' he said.
[www.smh.com.au]
- This article featured a confession from Serge, where he admits that he has been lying to students for the past 13 years: "He has claimed to be Leonardo da Vinci and Pythagoras reincarnate but he backtracked during an interview with The Sun-Herald at his home on Friday. ''I don't believe it. Not for one minute do I believe it,'' he said. ''What I present is part of a whole and if you take one piece outside the whole it sounds absurd. I agree, it sounds ludicrous.''
- In response to these two articles, Serge and Universal Medicine by extension, go into full damage control mode, Serge sends out an email to his distribution list, aimed at discrediting the journalist, downplaying his own confession, and labelling the people on this forum - [forum.culteducation.com] - as the culprits, calling us "a small group of detractors". He wasn't finished there, he went on to request that members set up a blog site for "the students" to supply only positive accounts od UniMed and Serge, and to do so in normal language, so that people reading it from outside the group wouldn't think it was a cult.

3. 23rd July 2012: A third article posted in the Sydney Morning Herald online written by Heath Aston
[www.smh.com.au]
- The article features a quote from Serge which archetypically demonstrates Serge's arogance when he states: ''I wish they would have just said to me, 'Hey, you're doing the wrong thing', in reference to the investigation by health authorities over a range of herbal supplements Universal Medicine sells online.

4. Now that Serge and his "Universal Medicine" have been picked up by a national, network, syndicated news source, the roll-out from here is a great spectacle to behold. We are now seeing numbers of discussion boards starting up on this topic across the world.

We're all a bit concerned by what is classic cult behaviour being displayed by the followers of Serge as they gather around their fallen leader.
There are a few major take aways for me from this week's events.

1. People will believe what they want to believe.
Even though Serge has categorically admitted lying to his followers, a group of them remain unchallenging in their belief of him and Universal Medicine.

2. A small unified voice can reach the masses.
Even though there are only a small number of contributers actively present on this forum, we have managed to create a massive response to our concerns.

3. I may not be able to defeat you Serge, but I can make you wish I had
What I mean by this is that we may not be able to physically remove Serge from his throne, and we may not be able to reach those that are wholly under his spell, however, by being in contact with the right authoritative bodies, by keeping others informed, and by asserting our rights as citizens through social, government, political, personal, and community means, we can enforce a framework on Serge and Universal Medicine that makes it nearly impossible for them to violate the rights of individuals within this country.

4. One seed of doubt is all it takes
I have been contacted by a few ex-members of Universal Medicine this week, and their reasons for leaving UM were actually a lot simpler that you may expect. When taking on someone as charismatic as Serge, you almost feel like you will need to catch him in bed with the prime minister with a blood soaked knife in his hand in order for people to see him for what he truly is, but in reality it is a lot simpler, for these people it was as simple as, they woke up one day and realised it just didn't make sense, for one it was the lifeless and soul-less music of Serge's son, for another, it was the rediculous amount of money that everything cost - especially a postcard sized piece of laminated cardboard, for another it was the fact that having a beer and watching the footy was actually fun and not an evening of poison drinking and one-upmanship.

5. Positive progress every day
For me this is the underlying reason for this forum's success, we haven't sat idly by, every day we are on here, we are using the collective intelligence of the group in order to push that little bit further, whether we are disecting the text, reviewing the UM website, contacting government authorities, media, etc. every day we do something positive and proactive which will help bring Serge and Universal Medicine to justice.

And on a side note, I am really enjoying watching the roll-out of the recent news coverage on other news sites, blogs, forums, opinion boards, it is only just beginning. Serge may think we are just a small group of detractors, but watching the rollout, our voice has grown into thousands - he may even pick up some more followers -- like they say there is no such thing as bad publicity - but the main thing is that now people will see him coming, and there will be an imposed (not self-imposed) framework on him and his group that will force him to adhere to the law, and preserve the rights of the individual on the physical plain, regardless of what they choose to believe in the metaphysical.

Nice work, K_I_K.

Just an observation: Serge has said he would debate the Dalai Lama over matter of re-incarnation and the soul. Such bold statements indicate an apparently bulletproof confidence in his own convictions. The Dalai Lama makes no secret of his religious beliefs and is constantly in the public arena. He doesn't omit details or lie just in case the general public don't share his beliefs. Serge claims his own divine knowledge would show the Dalai Lama the error of his beliefs, yet at the first sign of media exposure he admits he doesn't believe his own mythology, that it's all just 'spherical context' designed to fill in tge 'mysterious blanks'. Or lies, in plain English.

UM students please consider the following:

Serge, who claims to know more than anyone else on the planet about the nature of reality and matters of the soul, crumbled at the first sign of media interest in his extraordinary claims, admitting they were, in effect, lies.

Be honest. 'Feel into' this for yourselves:

Does such conduct really sound like that of a man confident in his beliefs? A man with more love and integrity in his being than anyone else on the planet?

Or is it possible that Serge is nothing but a sweet talking charlatan, a shrewd business man who knows how to press the right buttons and candy coat outrageous lies in an appealing rhetoric of love, brotherhood and harmony?

Please, I implore you. Ponder on this wisely.

Hey John, how have the views on this site been going, I bet we sparked some interest over the weekend hey?

Hi All

Universal Misery spreads itself across the world. Sorry Corboy it looks like there is a beach head.

Quote:

My daughter and her husband became involved with a man named Serge Benhayon, who operates out of the UK and Australia, only...He has sucked my daughter, Julie, into his world of so called Holistic Healing and EsotXXXXX XXXXXving, as he says it...If you go on his website, you can read his sayings which make no sense at all...But I am sure they are brainwashed...one of the elements he requires is total disassociation from the family which Julie has done....We were always a very close family and now she is out there somewhere and her family, brothers and sisters, and us mean nothing to her...her e-mails are very sarcasic and very disrespectful....I>E> today she emailed that in spite of the "things you do" I still love you...She never calls. I have called several times to talk with my 4-yr-old granddaughter and she refuses to allow me to talk with her...she says that Maya is busy now...The last time we saw our daughter was a year ago when we babysat Maya while they were in the UK....When we try to talk with her via e-mail, (we have tried the phone, but they screen all their calls, and do not answer) , she is very sarcastic but has the same inuendo...."No matter what you do or say, we still love you"

I called and left a message recently about hopefully calling her father on Father's Day, and she e-mailed back, that I cannot tell her what to do....She will call or not call...

She seems to have this aura that she is in total control of her family and whatever we do to try to restore what we have lost in her, she rebels...

I am at a loss. I have lost my beautiful daughter to some jerk, and it has broken my heart in two.

Yes Serge apologists, it is all about Love and Joy.


Read more: RA -JM - JustAnswer [www.justanswer.com]



[www.justanswer.com]

Quote
MacReady
As you have accurately stated before CP, the charges Serge directs at others say far more about himself than anyone else.

I've heard Serge say repeatedly that he would love to debate his claims with the world's intellectuals and that he refuses to dilute what he knows to be true in order to make his presentations more palatable to a wider audience. Yet at the first sign of media exposure he crumbles and recents? Now the students are saying he publicly backtracked on the da Vinci claim because 'most people don't believe in re-incarnation'? I hate to break it to the students, but many new people who may not believe in re-incarnation attend entry level UM workshops or EDGs each year and it doesn't stop Serge from discussing re-incarnation. Is Serge going to censor himself from now on just in case someone in the audience is a journalist by profession or simply doesn't believe in re-incarnation?

More Breaking News

Looks like the Therapeutic Goods Administration are interested in Serge's 'Eso Herbs':
[m.smh.com.au]

And I have to say congratulations, Serge. You've made it into the 'weird but true' section of the New York Post:
[m.nypost.com]

Also, perhaps don't try expanding your empire to Croatia anytime soon.
[m.24sata.hr]

Good news spreads fast.

If someone with better computer skills than I could contact the papers in Somerset UK and give them a 'heads-up'to the Sun Herald story, I'm sure people over there would appreciate the news of a Cult Leader (not-me thinks you protest waaaaay too much Serge) from South America via Australia, setting up business in their corner of the world.
The closest large town to Tytherington outside of Frome is Bath, better still if you could make contact with the newspapers in Bristol, the news would spread faster and wider.

Serge sending out hundreds of emails to 'followers' to start a website to publicy 'stand up for you', isn't just a tinsy bit lame and not the least bit sus.

An alarming piece of information was shared with me on the weekend by an ex-cult member. It appears that there is a huge percentage of the faithful followers who have at one time or another belonged to other minor cults. It might be the area of your next research Serge to look at the mental stability of a group of people who need to be told how to live, to exist.

Questionable to say the least.

From ABC News:

[www.abc.net.au]

Universal Medicine man denies cult claim
Posted July 23, 2012 15:37:30

The owner of a controversial health group based on the state's north coast denies it's a cult.

Universal Medicine has a treatment centre near Lismore, and its website offers esoteric healing involving energy cells which it says make up the human spirit.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration is urgently investigating supplements being sold by the group which have not been properly evaluated.

But founder Serge Benhayon says he offers treatments which complement mainstream medicine.

"If everything that is mainstream is working, why is breast cancer, cancers and diabetes through the roof?" he said.

"We are in an age where science and medicine are at their highest, and I'm very pro-science and pro-medicine, but surely there is something missing.

"Einstein said or proved that everything is energy.

"All I've said was everything is because of energy... and every choice that we make brings an energy with it.

"We've been in touch with the TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) and according to a spokesman there, there had been no investigation launched.

"But we launched our own investigation and asked them to have a look at our products and to advise us if we've made any mistakes.

"If we've made mistakes, I will correct them immediately.

"It looks like we're cashing in and doing this and there's blog sites that have said we've made 25 million and so forth, but that's totally untrue.

"But we are successful, we're saying things that people are ready to hear and it's their choice whether they come or not.

"It's not something I hold for free and it's not something (where) we keep people in a commune or a compound.

"They can come pay, or leave and have a refund if they're not happy.

"It's very, very unconventional.

"You're going to hear things that you know, don't make sense on one level, if it's based on the convention that you're trained to hear.

"But if you listen, and you put things together it starts to make sense, slowly and slowly," Mr Benhayon said.

Doctor Dan Ewald, from North Coast Medicare Local, says people facing desperate circumstances will often try any treatment available.

"Particularly if they've got a condition that isn't curable, like a chronic-pain syndrome or a cancer that's not responding to therapy, then they get very desperate to search for solutions and are prepared to have a go at everything and anything," he said.

"I'd strongly advise people to talk it over with a good generalist, such as their GP, who can help them try to sort out the wheat from the chaff."

There is a new report out on the MO website. Please see link.

[www.medicalobserver.com.au]

Mr Benhayon, in lengthy email and telephone correspondence, gave a passionate defence of his organisation, which he insisted was a “healing centre”, not a “medical centre”, despite its name. He said his reincarnation claims were meant as an example to show his beliefs dated back hundreds of years. He said he never advised a client (he does not use the word “patient” as it wrongly suggests traditional medicine) to avoid seeing a doctor, eat or exercise.

“We do not interfere with medicine,” he said. “We do not hold ourselves above medicine. We are super pro medicine.” He also rejected the “cult” label, arguing Universal had no typical cult traits.

“People pay to come and have a session or a lecture,” he said. “You choose to buy it or... not. It’s not free, I don’t have any hangers-on, I don’t have any followers, I never ever tell anybody what to do.”

Paid customers included “doctors, architects, dentists, nurses, physios, all the way to your reiki master”. Even a barrister.

Sorry, this is priceless. Serge doesnt have hanger oners? If anyone has been to one of his courses, they will have witnessed the spectacle of hundreds of people scribbling his every words like it is the Gospel, with awe struck looks on their faces.

Maybe Serge believes that there are no cult traits. But I doubt it. Lets go through them.

1. Exclusive Doctrine- Check ( in fact, the most exclusive doctrine known to mankind)
2. Own language and phrases- Check
3. Reduces interaction with competing social forces- Check
4. Promotes belief over critical thought- Double check
5. Reduces emotional responses- triple check
6. Argues allegiance to the doctrine- Check ,check, check- in every book, article, rant, arcane, saying.
7. Restricts and control food, exercise, and intimacy levels by redefining view of body- Check
8. Is interested in money- Clearly, even if the flock dont see it.
9. Has their own symbols, music, art, literature- well, yes.
10. Tries to control public perception- Um, check-
11. Abuses ex followers- Check. we have the letters/emails

You don't need walls, shaved heads and Robes to be a cult. It is clear as daylight people worship Serge. check the site they just put up or any rant on any blog by any student describing the wonderful experience of being brainwashed and then praising Serge as being the most wonderful human to ever live. Have you ever met a person like that?
It is clear Serge tells the flock what to do and think. It is clear he wants to control perception.

Serge, you are running a cult.
Followers, you are in a cult.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2012 03:17PM by COncerned Partner.

[www.zoominfo.com]

The zoominfo.com profile page appears to have been edited to remove the annual financial records. If I'm mistaken and just missing something, please feel free to correct me. The page was apparently last updated 1/6/12.

Here is the MO article in full. Author - Byron Kaye

BYRON Kaye investigates the alleged “cult” said to ban food, exercise and doctors in the name of health.

JENNY’S* introduction to Universal Medicine came from her husband. An “intelligent, caring, gentle” man who struggled in a high stress job, he had been taken by colleagues to the northern NSW “esoteric” healing group and suggested she take a look.

Frustrated with chronic back pain and anxious to understand her husband’s strict new diet and aversion to exercise, not to mention his sudden spiritual bent, she went to a meeting.

She didn’t last long, walking out in anger at what she considered dangerous dietary and medical advice from the group’s leader, a persuasive, soft-spoken tennis coach turned alternative therapy devotee called Serge Benhayon.

It wasn’t just alcohol and caffeine that were off limits, Jenny said, but the group was advocating severe dietary restrictions. Dairy, wheat and root vegetables were all guilty, apparently, of “grounding” the earthly beings that are humans. Her tipping point was Mr Benhayon’s criticism of traditional medicine.

“They say doctors will make you sicker than you already are,” she told MO. “At the point where he said [nurses were the worst people], I got up and walked out.”

It would be almost three years, however, before Jenny made her concerns formal, complaining to the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission earlier this month, along with two men whose relationships ended over their partners’ involvement in Universal.

Now the authority must determine whether to formally investigate an organisation accused of being a functioning cult that restricts its members from eating, exercising or seeing the doctor.

Cult Counselling Australia director Raphael Aron said the organisation seemed to be “exercising a level of mind control to the point where people submit to whatever this fellow seems to be offering, to their detriment”.

“What he’s doing is potentially very dangerous. It’s not an unfamiliar pattern in terms of people’s subjugation to the authority of a charismatic leader.”

Despite her reservations, Jenny returned to Universal Medicine. Anxious for both a cure and “peace in the house”, she had her GP write a referral for a Medicare-funded team care plan for her physiotherapy treatment at Universal.

Universal’s registered physiotherapist told Jenny her “cardiosacral pulse” readings – which supposedly measure fluid infusion in spinal tissue via a person’s head – were poor and suggested she undertake six one-hour sessions plus counselling.

Her open mind winning over scepticism, she told the Universal counsellor of her desperation to be a better parent. The counsellor’s advice: stop preparing all food for her five-year-old son, because she was passing him bad energy. From now on, the boy must feed himself.

And she also undertook “esoteric breast massage”, which she said Universal staff told her would prevent breast cancer by “clearing… all of men’s negative energy” that she had accumulated in her life. The “EBM” was conducted by female staff, but still “it was the most horrible thing I’ve ever had in my entire life,” Jenny recalled.

Meanwhile, her craniosacral readings – in which she was told Mr Benhayon was the only person with a perfect score – were improving. After three sessions in which her hopes were raised, her GP, who had ordered tests with traditional specialists, gave her the real news: she had cancer.

“I’m just so worried that very sick people are spending [money at Universal],” she said.

Jenny spoke to MO, as did two men affected by their experiences with the group. All three branded Universal a “cult” that placed unreasonable pressure on members to avoid most food and most exercise for fear that these things would infect their spiritual alignment and contribute to poor health.

Other methods the three cited included “ovarian readings”, where Mr Benhayon’s 22-year-old daughter talked to women’s ovaries to prevent cancer.

One of the men said his partner of many years chided him, citing Universal, for putting a cauliflower into a shopping trolley and forbade him from exercising or watching sport on television.

The other said his marriage ended when he could not share his wife’s attachment to the group, including her belief that Mr Benhayon was Leonardo Da Vinci reincarnate.

All spoke of Universal devotees being easily recognised around Bangalow and other NSW far north coast towns as being slow, “frail” and “grey” – the visible result, they said, of the restricted exercise and food regime.

“My main concern is that they are actually a cult. They consider [Mr Benhayon] a ‘descent master’,” said the second man, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from the group.

“I would like to see an inquiry into whether they’re registered and the veracity of what they’re promoting. He should be putting disclaimers that he’s not a medical professional and he should be referring people on to professionals.”

Mr Aron said Universal’s methods may appear to work for some people simply because they instilled hope, even though they might have no medical benefit.

“It creates the belief among other people that it’s actually working, but people coming in with serious ailments require proper assessments and proper treatments.”

GP Dr Sue Page, based in nearby Lennox Head, said that while no geographic area was immune, non-metropolitan areas with a mixture of free-thinking people and lack of accessible medical services were the most fertile for recruitment into such groups.

She said the rise of families where both parents worked long hours, combined with financial insecurity, had many individuals, particularly women, wanting some of the most basic relationship elements: talking, empowerment, touch.

“Then somebody comes into their life and says ‘the reason you feel tired and run down and not yourself and sad all the time… [is] because you need to have this spiritual experience, and if you pay me money I can make you feel better’.”

Mr Benhayon, in lengthy email and telephone correspondence, gave a passionate defence of his organisation, which he insisted was a “healing centre”, not a “medical centre”, despite its name. He said his reincarnation claims were meant as an example to show his beliefs dated back hundreds of years. He said he never advised a client (he does not use the word “patient” as it wrongly suggests traditional medicine) to avoid seeing a doctor, eat or exercise.

“We do not interfere with medicine,” he said. “We do not hold ourselves above medicine. We are super pro medicine.” He also rejected the “cult” label, arguing Universal had no typical cult traits.

“People pay to come and have a session or a lecture,” he said. “You choose to buy it or... not. It’s not free, I don’t have any hangers-on, I don’t have any followers, I never ever tell anybody what to do.”

Paid customers included “doctors, architects, dentists, nurses, physios, all the way to your reiki master”. Even a barrister.

Did he, as suggested by Jenny, tell the physically or emotionally unwell – including rape victims – that their situation was the result of their own misbehaviour in a past life? No. Or not exactly.

“We believe there is an ongoing healing process from life to life,” he said. “I’ve put that into context. I never tell somebody that that’s what they’ve got [punishment from a past life]. I especially don’t say ‘that’s your fault’; that would be callous, cold. I say to them that part of the healing is to respect the fact that you’ve been raped, to honour that and… to also see the bigger picture. One of the most integral parts of dealing with horrible cases is the ‘why me?’”

He denied discouraging food intake, saying he never went further than giving information about what people put into their bodies. Having seen elite athletes unable to cope physically and mentally with the pressures of their sport, he had come to embrace a more “gentle” approach to exercise.

“I surf,” he said, adding he no longer tackled very rough waves.

After speaking with Mr Benhayon, MO received unsolicited emails from several Universal customers, including a Sydney solicitor, a Brisbane barrister and two women with breast cancer, as well as a Sydney rheumatologist, an Irish general surgeon, a Brisbane chest physician, a Bangalow eye surgeon, and a psychologist and exercise physiologist from Universal.

The physiotherapist who treated Jenny, Kate Greenaway, told MO the group worked closely with the medical system and never told people not to see a GP. Ms Greenaway, who said she herself became “grey” after first joining Universal, said clients who became weak were “actually misinterpreting the presentations of how to live a more balanced, harmonious life”.

Although the complaints MO heard of went to the HCCC, national laws prohibiting non-practitioners from falsely “holding out” as registered medical professionals – including in signage and marketing – are overseen by AHPRA.

AHPRA would not comment on specific cases but confirmed the penalty for falsely holding out as a medical practitioner included fines of $30,000 for individuals and $60,000 for organisations.

An HCCC spokesperson said if a complaint led to formal investigation, the commission could only make “recommendations which identify systemic improvements” in an organisation. Individual unregistered practitioners who breached a statutory code of conduct could face a prohibition order, while registered practitioners could be prosecuted for unsatisfactory conduct or professional misconduct before a professional standards committee or tribunal.

Jenny said her “skeletal” husband, who quit jogging under Universal’s influence and became a rare presence in his own home, has become an opponent of the group following an intervention staged by the most persuasive influence of all: his eldest daughter.

“She hadn’t seen her father for a while and when she saw him she just started crying,” she recalled.

Jenny convinced him to take a “break” in which he had a “bite of bread [and] a sliver of cheese and didn’t die, and I think he started to think about things”.

Jenny admitted being “nervous” about becoming a “whistleblower” but felt she had no choice. “I don’t want one more really sick person being taken for a ride.”

*Not her real name

Hi TF, your mailbox is full. can you delete some. thanks CP


Good news spreads fast.

If someone with better computer skills than I could contact the papers in Somerset UK and give them a 'heads-up'to the Sun Herald story, I'm sure people over there would appreciate the news of a Cult Leader (not-me thinks you protest waaaaay too much Serge) from South America via Australia, setting up business in their corner of the world.
The closest large town to Tytherington outside of Frome is Bath, better still if you could make contact with the newspapers in Bristol, the news would spread faster and wider.

Serge sending out hundreds of emails to 'followers' to start a website to publicy 'stand up for you', isn't just a tinsy bit lame and not the least bit sus.

An alarming piece of information was shared with me on the weekend by an ex-cult member. It appears that there is a huge percentage of the faithful followers who have at one time or another belonged to other minor cults. It might be the area of your next research Serge to look at the mental stability of a group of people who need to be told how to live, to exist.

Questionable to say the least.[/quote]