Heh...vegetarianism is not a guarantee of kindness or compassion. Hitler was a vegetarian.

Actually Hitler being a vegetarian is one of the biggest vegetarian myths out there. He loved his sausage and stuffed pigeon(unfortunately not NYC pigeons).

On Vegetarianism, lets not get off topic. It's a pretty healthy diet, provided you understand how to eat a balanced diet. I've been lacto-vegetarian for 18 years, no health issues to speak of, in good shape, and definately not pasty white and rail thin. Most in the group however, have no idea how to eat a balanced diet nor does the "master" give guidence as such, and are unhealthy as a result.

Back on topic please.

Looking into the details of Ching Hai, and its very clear they are using all of the standard set-ups, operating like a business corp, using religious tax-loopholes internationally, etc.

She even claims on her website she does NOT accept donations. Again, many groups SAY that to deflect criticism. They get the money in other ways, either by selling overpriced material to the members. Or just calling it something else.
We do not accept donations. But if you have a "blessing" then just deposit the money-order into this account by direct deposit.

She then gives away lots of FREE material, which is effective to give away free worms to the fish you want to catch on the hook.

And then also sell you tons of other junk. [www.smchbooks.com]

They also claim "humanitarian work" but that is full of controversy about where the money is really going.


You can see some photos of her are obviously photoshopped like crazy...how do you get such divine radiant glowing skin? A Photoshop plug-in.
How do you look 32 when you are 60? Easy with digital technology.


And yes everyone MUST be a vegetarian, and the best way to do that is to eat at the Ching Hai backed vegetarian restaurant. One assumes some of these are staffed by Ching Hai followers working for no pay? Many other sects have done the same thing.
www.lovinghut.com

Also, they want you to turn your dog vegetarian, and a dog is a carnivore, so what is going to happen to these Ching Hai dogs when they get sick? That is real animal cruelty through total ignorance. www.godsdirectcontact.org/animals/

GodsDirectContact.org
Another classic, she can put you in direct contact with God, which happens to be her. Convenient and outrageous.


Frankly, there does not appear to be ONE single original technique in anything Ching Hai is doing. Its all just a copy of other people's techniques she's picked up over the years.
And by technique, that's not the meditation stuff, its the overall techniques she's using to market herself, and persuade people.
As well, using that type of "meditation" is a classic technique to make people more suggestible. Countless groups do that too.




















(below are some keywords for upcoming research search engine indexing)
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Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association (SMCHIA)
Quan Yin World Wide Web Links
The Supreme Master Ching Hai

The Shining World Leadership Award
This award was founded in March 2006 by Supreme Master Ching Hai.

Loving Hut - Heavenly Gourmet
Loving Hut advocates healthy life style and vegan foods and at the same time strives to fight for their cause to protect the planet from global warming. Loving Hut is currently the fastest growing international vegan fast food chain in the world. www.lovinghut.com

Supreme Master TV
New satellite channel broadcasting on SkyTV Channel 835 and 14 satellite platforms.
Internet TV

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Publications

DVDs, CDs, MP3, Books, etc...

Artistic & Creations

Paintings, Lamps, Fans, Jewelry, Apparel, Music, etc...

Vegetarian Era

Vegetarian recipes, restaurants, famous vegetarian...

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Weekly Radio Broadcast in Southern California, in Aulacese...

The Celestial Shop

The official online store for Celestial products...

Happy Doggie

Celestial clothes and sleeping mattresses for dogs...

Animal Cruelty

These are the shocking video clips about the animal cruelty
[crisis2peace.org]

Latest News

* Supreme Master Ching Hai Press Kit
Supreme Master Ching Hai is a world-renowned spiritual teacher, artist, and humanitarian, whose loving assistance extends beyond all cultural boundaries. Born in central Au Lac (Vietnam),

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Based on the latest satellite data cited in a December 2007 article, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) climate scientist Jay Zwally predicts that nearly all the ice could be gone from the Arctic Ocean by the end of Summer 2012...

You can download the programs previously broadcast on our Supreme Master Television by day or by program.

* New Book - The Dogs in My Life
The Dogs in My Life is a humorous and beautifully illustrated book, with heartwarming stories and lively photographs of Supreme Master Ching Hai's ten cuddly canines.

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Following The Dogs in My Life, Supreme Master Ching Hai wrote another book entitled, The Birds in My Life,

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Reporting from each continent of positive events and actions that have taken place since the launch of Supreme Master Television: Europe, Asia, America, Oceania, Africa & the Middle East.

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The beauty and its elegant perception of Master's poetry have been well known to us by the previous publications. Dream in the Night & Beyond the Realm of Time are among the new DVD's for our enjoyment

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"Quan Yin" mean contemplation of the Sound Vibration. The Method includes meditation on both the inner Light and the inner Sound.

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and its looking like the www.lovinghut.com restaurants, are a franchise situation, where devoted Ching Hai followers buy a franchise from her company, and set one up.

What is the cost of the Loving hut franchise?
Setting up an experimental Vegan fast-food franchise paid to the Master, possibly using your house as collateral?

Setting up franchises is one of the BIGGEST moneymakers in any sect or group. One follower can pay the Guru 100K at rock bottom, all the way up to hundreds of thousands, and lose everything.

Quote
The Anticult
Looking into the details of Ching Hai, and its very clear they are using all of the standard set-ups, operating like a business corp, using religious tax-loopholes internationally, etc. And yes everyone MUST be a vegetarian, and the best way to do that is to eat at the Ching Hai backed vegetarian restaurant. One assumes some of these are staffed by Ching Hai followers working for no pay? Many other sects have done the same thing.
www.lovinghut.com
----------------------------------------------

Actually, to one up that, the "healthy" processed vegetarian foods being used in the loving huts are sourced from a, surprise surprise, vegetarian food company that she owns. Make a product and then create a market for it. Last I checked, there are no revenue sharing arrangements between the "Master" and the resturants, as they are normally independently owned and self funded, but curiously enough, they are instruced to say that they are "masters" resturants. Funny, have the disciples carry all the liability and risk while she reaps the profits from selling the food supplies and increase her "reputation" of being a savior to vegetarians.

Loving huts are "franchised" but do not subscribe to any franchise laws like having a FOC or disclosures. Hence why they are only available for disciples to own.

Actually, when I was last in the group, my wife and I were researching opening up a loving hut. Here are the facts(relevant as of a year ago). There are no franschise fees or revenue sharing arrangements between the resturant owner(s) and the orginization. However, all decor must fit their image standards with paintings, lanterns and crap, which is a revenue generator for the master. Loving huts are free to make their own menu, but it is "reccomended"(meaning you get merit or good karma for doing so) to purchase masters own food products that are made in Taiwan. This is a large source of revenue and the main source as resturants burn though processed food supplies. Also, Loving Huts sell these products over the counter as well to retail customers.(the stuff is pretty lackluster and crappy compared to other asian based vegetarian food products btw)

Anyhow, with 120 branches/resturants worldwide and no capital or liability exposure or marketing expense directly on the master herself, and the great majority of them purchasing the processed food products and decor from the master = a ton of revenue with little to no risk. Lets say conservatively each one uses $200 of product a day(probably much more), at 100% markup from manufacturer(very conservatively), thats $100profitx120 locations or $12,000 per day of revenue. Thats a buttload of cash.

All the risk and cost falls on the disciples that unwittingly cash out retrement plans or mortgage homes to get into a business they have no idea how to operate or run. I've seen and witnessed a few disaster stories myself.

Even smarter! That way there is no legal liability, but the franchisees have to buy their food from her. Well, in franchise-land that is how the Supreme Owner makes the best money, buy over-charging their own franchisee for product.
That is why the local Subway owner gives you 3 olives, and you have to ask for more, because he has to buy his olives from Subway Inc, and they charge them plenty.

So Supreme Master is very clever, doesn't sound too crazy, crazy like a fox.

And if you read the Yelp reviews about Loving Hut, they usually go...food was good/bad....but there was this flat-screen TV blasting some type of freaky Supreme Master stuff, it was like some sort of a cult or something...

Search Google for:

"loving hut" yelp television

Food reviews...then a puzzled...what's up with the freaky weird cult TV Supreme Master thing???


But again, very smart. Only devoted followers get a private Loving Hut franchise, who knows how they get it? Begging? Donations?
Then they buy their food from her, and run her TV propaganda, and guess what, find new people to join the sect, and just sell others food.

This lady ain't crazy, just plays one on TV, another crazy Guru act.
Why are all these "crazy" Gurus such good businesspeople and multimillionaires?
Its really comical if it weren't so serious.

It is comical, but its serious as real people are getting hurt, and are going to get hurt by this Ching Hai system.
And sadly the average person has NO CLUE of what Ms Ching Hai is up to with this. She is a very smart cookie, actually. Very clever, and media savvy, and she understands mass persuasion.
All of this "weird" stuff has been covered in other threads, its a technique.
And instead of a Love Bomb, this is a Food Bomb, and it can work the same way.

And the gruesome slaugherhouse videos to make you sick before you eat, its deliberate, and thought out very carefully by Ms Master.
The average person doesn't get what is going on here, but its quite clever, and its going to work.
Yes, many people just ignore it, and buy their food.
But many don't ignore it, and get interested, and get lured in, and that is who Ms Ching Hai wants. Its targeted marketing.

Combine this with everything else, and there is a cultic system with legs.

And using DISGUST along with love-bombing is very effective.
Byron Katie uses it, people vomit at her seminars using other techniques.

Read this massive thread, to learn about the techniques used by Gurus like this. And Ms Ching Hai seems to be a more aggressive businesswoman even than the entrepreneur Byron Katie.
Byron Katie [forum.culteducation.com]

It doesn't help they are telling their true believers the world is ending in 2012, which will then be changed and reset constantly.
Doomsday cults are not amusing. [www.skepdic.com]

-----------YELP QUOTES---------------

[www.yelp.com]
...

I do have a serious issue with being preached to while I dine. The Loving Hut broadcasts some sort of freaky cult television station called The Supreme Master TV, at full volume, in a small dining room with terrible acoustics. I looked up Ching Hai, the mastermind behind all this nonsense, and it's pretty scary. It's also kind of hard to preach a vegan, save-the-world lifestyle while packaging to-go orders in non-recyclable plastic and plastic bags. Just sayin'.


...

I want to warn anybody who has to change the channel on the TV when those commercials come on for pet cruelty...on two big screen TVs while you wait for your food, play a continuous video of various animals being slaughtered as part of food preparation (even baby chicks)

...

Yes, the supreme master stuff on TV is weird, but it isn't that bad and it is easy to ignore, if you want. I would recommend reading the subtitles, though, something must be lost in translation because a lot of it makes no sense at all.

...


The only weird thing was what playing through the speakers. That was kind of... different?? (thats what people say when they don't want to offend someone by calling it weird. Peep: "Oh your haircut is so... different! Sure, that outfit is... different. Yes the experience was... DIFFERENT." catch my drift?)

...

Decor is kinda weird... cult- like... especially the stuff shown on the monitor...

...
A big minus to the fact that the two huge tv's hung continually play the propaganda videos that promoting the "cult" the restaurant supports. That wasn't too bad but it did include videos of pigs going to slaughter.

..............
p.s. My friend noticed the photographs on the wall. /awkwad silence as we stare. Strange at first, but I just assumed they were well-known vegan/vegetarians who promoted healthy living.
...

Now to the atmosphere. I am sure there are nicer Loving Huts, because this one was in a strip mall. Also, this is a very Asian place and there are videos that preach the teachings of the Supreme Master Ching-Hai, which is basically a cult.

My advice - ignore the strange Asian cult-like videos and head to the Loving Hut for some tasty, cheap vegan food!

....

The food is always great and quick. The only thing i do not like is this "supreme master" crap. I think being veg and all is cool but i do not need to watch PETA slaughter vids as im eating my meal ok. Other than the tv always being on propaganda this place is pretty solid.

.....

It's almost overwhelmingly bright inside at night, the patrons are unsettlingly quiet, and there's some bizarreness on the TV screens that I can't even explain, but it seemed to be some kinda quasi-religious station or something. Not quite sure about watching cult TV while I eat...but the food is good...hmmm...maybe get it to-go ?

....

I am reviewing them solely based on their food and not their views, etc. For all I know, a big cut probably goes back to their "Supreme Master" (who seems to have a twitch, BTW). If they are a "cult" then they are a "save the planet" cult that just wants to do good. ...They do have a video playing on "Supreme Master TV" to program you with subliminal messages,
....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/2011 03:28AM by The Anticult.

Agree 100% that healthy vegetarianism has nothing to do with cults, and is totally off-topic.

But basically every cult does something with FOOD, as its a way to control and influence people 3x a day, all day.
So some have a strange diet, or certain rules.
And many deprive followers of protein, on purpose, or have "fasts" to make people more suggestible. So FOOD control is a huge part of many sects and cults.

And Ms Ching Hai is using slaughterhouse videos as a persuasion tool, not just for being a Vegan, but for her agenda, to get deep inside people emotionally.

The irony is that many of these so-called Gurus are often caught breaking all of their own rules they set-up for their followers. They get caught drinking, pill-popping, eating Burger King, sexual abuses, etc.
Looking at how Ching Hai operates, its clear she is using food as a powerful weapon to lock people into her sect, as we all have to eat, and that opens a huge door in people's behavior to control.

Its strange, most sects exaggerate their membership. But Ching Hai seems to imply they have about 20,000 members? That actually sounds quite low.
But she is using being "Elite" in her marketing, so perhaps she wants to make it sound more exclusive?
but they are certainly exaggerating their satellite TV viewership!

Wow, is this still accurate? 2.5 hrs a day of chanting the Masters name?
That is very intensive mind-control, to engineer an image of the Guru deeply into the followers psyche.
Control the mind, control the body-behavior, control the person.


cross-post From the March 28- April 3, 1996 issue of Metro
[www.metroactive.com]
"Almost all that is known about the group's actual methods is that it requires keeping a strict vegetarian diet and meditating a minimum of two and a half hours per day while chanting the Master's name."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/2011 04:06AM by The Anticult.