Here are some observations about Serge’s female following based on my experience several years ago. Plus some concluding remarks and questions. Then I'm going to bed! It's past 9 pm and getting close to 3 am and the entities are out to get me:
Serge has a brilliant skill for making women feel special. He’s clearly relaxed around them, gives them his full attention, listens, takes an interest, and behaves with an appearance at least of caring, compassion, sensitivity and love. His deification of the feminine principle also has appeal to many women. Individually, he shows appreciation of each woman’s abilities and is keen to allow them to put their various talents to use in the service of his idea of the greater good, which basically consists of bolstering his ego. With all of that charisma he comes across as the ultimate S.N.A.G.
TM, and this is an alluring mix for women who might be disillusioned or dissatisfied with their relationships with men.
As I mentioned previously, he flagrantly exploits the enduring communication gap between the sexes, particularly in his separation of masculine and feminine principles, where, as ‘Words from the Families of Universal Medicine Students’ [
wordsonsergebenhayon.blogspot.com.au] so accurately puts it, he portrays the feminine principle as divine and pure, while the masculine is base and aggressive. In terms of the break down of relationships, he uses such characterization to emphasize the points of difference between partners, which expedites the rift, rather than doing what is therapeutically responsible and encouraging the partners to use their common points of attraction and affection – beyond primitive and patronizing stereotypes – as a foundation for building a bridge and healing the rift. Healing, of course, requires a willingness from both parties to improve the relationship, sustained effort to improve communication, time and compromise. In some ways I agree a man needs permission to intimately touch a woman, but in my experience, most men when approaching the woman they love usually begin subtly with a kiss or embrace. I mean really, how many men walk up to their partners or wives, grab them by the breast and then manhandle them into submission when they resist? It happens, but not to the extent Serge likes to project. The way Serge puritanically frames it, rather than encouraging negotiation for a healthy and enjoyable exchange of affection between partners, he encourages women to deflect all physical displays of affection from their men. In doing so Serge perpetuates inane and archaic patriarchal gender stereotypes – women as pure and innocent creatures who need protecting from their own desires, and men as abusive ruffians. His thinking insults us all. Ugh. Again, we can’t put him in jail for it, but in a therapeutic context his teachings on intimate relationships are divisive and destructive.
On putting women to use, I noticed at the workshop his inner circle talking about their hectic schedule and how Serge had called ‘another meeting’ for them the following evening. I detected among those women a real dedication to the greater good of UM and a sense of gratification that Serge depends on them and values them. I don’t know if any or all of them were remunerated. From my own experience, I was in a similar situation where I did copious amounts of unpaid and often unnecessary work for a guru figure and what I thought was a ‘good cause.’ The good cause ended up amounting to nothing more than the establishment of his prestige. He ended up rolling in money, and I ended up on the bones of my proverbial.
So, I got the impression the core women of UM were running to and fro in service of Serge and the organization, and in the case of the Brisbane natural therapist, driving for two hours each way to Goonellabah however many times a week. The yoga cult I was briefly involved with also operated this way, with the guru ordering his staff (coincidentally medical professionals) to commute between Warwick, Toowoomba and Brisbane several times a week (hours of driving), often separated from family for days at a time. All of this keeps followers so busy they have difficulty in critically evaluating what’s going on in the group. In the case of the yoga group, even his inner sanctum of medical professionals weren’t aware of the guru’s participation in fraud, lies, bastardry and even his own terminal illness. For those interested in that story and its parallels with UM: [
www.religionnewsblog.com]
I’m not sure women are more likely to enslave themselves this way. In the groups I was in, men were doing the same. However, women seem better suited to providing a protective buffer zone for the guru. One has to approach the buffer zone in order to access the leader and if the zone is populated by women, critics are less likely to approach aggressively. I mean, 8 female assistants at his healing workshop? Incidentally, Colonel Gadaffi had female body guards.
Lastly, and crucially, women give legitimacy to Serge’s perversions. I’ve already argued that ‘ovarian readings’ have no therapeutic value and no place in ethical practice. The same goes for Esoteric Boob Fondling and its claims to assist in healing a bunch of reproductive and breast disorders, as well as emotional problems. The fact that those claims are impossible to prove are beside the point. The real point is that it’s never appropriate in a therapeutic context to massage a woman’s breasts. Never. Not by a woman or anyone, not only because there is zero medical value to it, but because such action can be too easily misconstrued by both practitioner and patient. Therapeutic guidelines and standards about touching patients exist not only to protect patients from abuse, but to protect practitioners from litigation.
Interestingly, Serge’s Advanced Level 1 Esoteric Healing Workshop manual from 2004/5 states on page 34 under ‘Ethics and Code of Conduct’:
CAUTION! – Particularly to male practitioner treating women. As the breasts (nurturing centre) are so close to the heart at no time must inappropriate contact be made with the breast during Heart Chakra treatment. Absolutely Never! Nor should heart work be an excuse for this. Be very clear on this. This also applies for female practitioners.So Serge can’t feign it isn’t an unethical practice. Yet, somewhere along the way he’s changed his tune. He must have figured out he could legitimize – or is it sublimate – his breast obsession by lumbering his female assistants with it. I’ll firmly reiterate it has no therapeutic value. I have several close friends who practice traditional Chinese Medicine and they assure me they treat breast and gyne disorders, with demonstrable results, completely non invasively, as in NEVER needing to touch the breast or any genital area. Even emotional issues and issues with femininity are regularly dealt with via counselling without touching breasts – without touching! And without prying into a patient’s sexual history. No excuses UM!
Apart from the excuse of course that it allows Serge to sublimate his sexual fantasies and exercise his power to influence women of integrity to behave unethically. Just as the complicity of his former wife lends legitimacy to his subsequent marriage. Miranda was of age when she married Uncle Serge – but it’s another malodorous arrangement. He is so blatantly and audaciously straining the bounds of acceptable, ethical and lawful behaviour, as if it’s some kind of game to see how much he can get away with. All the while, the breast fondling, the fishing for sexual disclosure and the grooming of an impressionable young woman to become his eventual bride are given a veneer of respectability they don’t deserve by all those nice, gentle, attractive, intelligent and professional women in his immediate vicinity, who apparently also have no shame.
To conclude, several of you on this thread are doing a brilliant job of dismantling Serge’s teachings. I don’t have the time, the patience or the intestinal fortitude to read the stuff. For me the therapeutic indiscretions, the sickening paternalistic relationships with women and the strong evidence that people/families are being harmed by UM are sufficient cause for concern.
I notice many critics of UM are mostly looking to Serge’s teachings for the answer to the riddle of his ability to attract such a big following. Personally, I’d attribute the attraction to his charisma, but even his charisma is now secondary to the tremendous pulling power of the purported ‘healing’. I wouldn't underestimate the intoxicating and persuasive power of hands on healing, which is unfortunately too easy to abuse. It appears he did the hard yards in establishing the group through his charisma. By now, however, he’s gathered enough legit practitioners to have amassed a certain credibility, and he uses all the right catchwords to maintain the aura. And of course the monetary success of the group then contributes to its appeal.
I don’t believe the teachings are any major factor in recruitment. Rather Serge uses his teachings as a tool to perpetuate submissiveness among his flock. They contain just enough sense to make them attractive to ‘seekers’, but are so inconsistent, convoluted and saturated with his invented and nebulous terminology, they’re impossible to rationally evaluate, impossible to debate and therefore impossible to truly grasp. As he frequently shifts his philosophical goalposts his followers are constantly striving (and in some senses competing with each other) for the Esoteric knowledge, but the relentless shifts make it impossible to attain.
The arguments from his apologists saying he doesn’t tell anyone what to do are laughable considering he insists on regularly making dogged, prescriptive statements about what is and isn’t good for his followers – from advice on diet and intimate relationships, to what time to go to bed, what sports not to play or watch or whatever, all of which compromise individual decision making and encourage dependence.
Another cultist characteristic of his schtick is his overemphasis of persecution and attack, urging his followers to reject those outside the group to instead cling to each other – and him. He pushes an ‘us versus them’ attitude. You’re either for or against him/UM, everything is either astral or divine, and he makes a big deal of how corrupt the world is without ever acknowledging the countless people outside his group who are constantly engaged in worthwhile and selfless actions which not only don't harm people but benefit many more than he ever will, and who are able to carry out their work without seeking attention or riches, or blessings from him.
Finally, Esoteric Medicine doesn’t work. Serge looks ill. Someone here mentioned he has an eye disorder requiring surgery, but I sense it goes beyond that. Compare his photo in the Courier Mail article, which was taken a few years back to the recent photos in the Good Weekend. The CM shot was how he looked when I last saw him, with a nice healthy glow about his skin, so I was shocked to see the recent shots in the SMH and the Echo. He’s gaunt, his expression is severe and he has the complexion of a very sick or at least an extremely malnourished man. He ought to eat a bit of dairy, it might perk him up.
Now, some questions if anyone would be kind enough to answer.
Does anyone know what has happened to the blogs critical of UM? Why have they disappeared? And don’t tell me the bloggers saw the light and the error of their ways etc. I imagine there is coercion going on, but we desperately need to know the extent of it.
Concerned Partner seems to think there’s less catharsis going on in the healing? Can anyone update me on that? Does Serge still do private sessions? (Out of curiousity only. I don’t want one, thanx for asking)
Are the Esoteric healers still burping up a storm when the astral energy is released? If not, you had to be there to believe it, lol.
Thankyou to the blog 'Words from the Families of Universal Medicine Students'. Keep up the fight and the great research and writing! And thanks Herbert for getting this started, and to the interesting input from all the contributors.
And I’ll tack this on the end: when I started googling Serge again after reading the David Leser article I was surprised to see there was very little out here in cyberspace describing what goes on in Serge’s treatment room and in the workshops in any real detail. To understand how this cult is pulling these decent and vulnerable people it’s essential to know the precise techniques and machinations being used, even more so than trying to get our heads around the tricky philosophy. The philosophy is a smokescreen. I just now received a moving personal message which made me realize my instinct even back during my involvement to observe, and eventually put in writing everything I know about the group was correct. I’m pleased and gratified to know it has already helped at least one person in some small way.
I really hope more followers will feel compelled to come forward and provide more of the missing pieces. Perhaps together we can avert some harm.
Cheers and good health to you all.