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HerbertKane178
What amazes me about the recent newspaper articles and TV reports on Universal Medicine is the response of Universal Medicine to them. If you go on their website, the front page is now dominated by links to their 'media' page. The whole set up displays a massive lack of understanding of how the media works and actually human responses to it. The letters to various media organizations they have chosen to publish highlight the desperation of the situation they are now in. Writing to a reporter who visited their headquarters and they willingly gave their time to, who then delivered a report as he saw it, pretty much how every other media organization has seen it, and not the puff piece they expected and then suggesting that he was not telling the whole truth is ridiculous. The more they try and counter the press interest in them, the more they reveal about themselves, and it would seem, the more the media becomes interested in them.
Apparently all the journalists involved in the numerous articles have no integrity and are just printing lies. All of them, really? While the Northern Echo did the name of good journalism a disservice in the article they printed as certain facts were not properly researched, they did retract those errors very quickly. I have seen no retractions from the Sydney Morning Herald or The Medical Observer. Both are respected journals with reputations for accuracy and credible journalism. Their reporting of Universal Medicine allowed for comment from Benhayon and Universal Medicine, and both printed those comments. I can see no evidence of unfair reporting in that.
The accusations of a "smear campaign" are just idiotic, a childish defense against the truth being revealed. Universal Medicine often often uses the expression "mud slinging". It seems to me they are slinging mud everywhere at the moment hoping some of it will stick, but none of it is.
I would also like to welcome the new posters, and those choosing to do so via PM.
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knowledge_is_king
Does anyone else find the following strange:
1. People inside Universal Medicine think Universal Medicine is normal, not a Cult and that the press coverage is an 'attack'.
2. People who have left Universal Medicine say Universal Medicine is a Cult
3. People who have loved ones that are in Universal Medicine say Universal Medicine is a Cult
4. People who aren't in Universal Medicine say Universal Medicine is a Cult
5. People who are specialists in Cult theory say Universal Medicine is a Cult
6. Media organisations are speculating that Universal Medicine is a Cult
7. In fact it seems that unless you are in Universal Medicine it is quite easy to see that Universal Medicine is a Cult.
8. So if you were involved with a group that everyone else on the planet says is a Cult, wouldn't you at least ask yourself the following three questions before you considered joining:
1. Does Universal Medicine have a charismatic leader, who has increasingly become an object of worship as the general principles that originally sustained the group lose power.
Answer: Yes, the leader of Universal Medicine is Serge Benhayon. He is the founder, the one who leads the EDG's, the one who writes the doctrine, takes interviews with the Press and the one who the Business Names, Trademarks, and ABN's are registered in - despite the attempts recently by the group to deny this as truth. He has increasingly become the focus of the group, even as he distances himself from the doctrine in interviews, the group cluster around him in a protective posture, and even as they turn a blind eye to the fact he has publicly renounced his previous claims, they raise him up further as 'the one'.
2. Is there a process of thought reform in use?
Answer: Yes, students are advised not to use critical thought, to 'feel' into things rather than use their mind. This unquestionably is a reform to the normal thought processes, and it is observable on the recent Pro-UM blogs where 'students' are told to feel what is right for them, rather than to logically weigh up facts.
3. Is there economic and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.
Answer: Yes, it is quite easy to demonstrate that through the deployment of a charismatic leader, a complex belief system, which he can change at will, and by changing the thought patterns of members through thought reform processes, the leader is able to achieve a sales model of 'no-compete' enabling him to mark up prices on items over and above competitor prices, and has been found to sell products and services that have not been classified by appropriate government bodies, creates certifications for services which are not recognised by any independent and accredited bodies, and uses these falsehoods and deceptive tactics to enable him to pressure members to purchase his products and services, without which it is not possible for them to fulfil the requirements of his prescribed belief system.
Note: Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, considered by many to be a leading expert on Thought Reform and Cult Formation, wrote on the topic of Cults, that the presence of all three factors above, satisfied the necessary requirement to define a group as a Destructive Cult.
So in the very least you must ask yourself if everyone is telling you that Universal Medicine and its leader Serge Benhayon are a Destructive Cult, and that the processes in use are demonstrable of Cult behaviour, is everyone else wrong - or maybe, just maybe, do you think it is possible that our major concerns for your safety are justified...