Perhaps Gregg Braden should also notify the FDA of those 3-minute miracle cures for cancer he is promoting?
Gregg Braden and his buddy "James" Ray have much in common.


_____quote________________
Beware of Online Cancer Fraud
[www.fda.gov]
While health fraud is a cruel form of greed, fraud involving cancer treatments can be particularly heartless—especially because fraudulent information can travel around the Web in an instant.

Red Flags
Coody says that firms engaged in cancer treatment or prevention fraud often use exaggerated and bogus claims to promote these products. He adds that consumers should recognize the following phrases as red flags:

"Treats all forms of cancer"
"Skin cancers disappear"
"Shrinks malignant tumors"
"Non-toxic"
"Doesn't make you sick"
"Avoid painful surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or other conventional treatments"


[www.fda.gov]
Fake Cancer Cures
Warning Letters have been sent to 28 U.S. companies and two foreign individuals marketing a wide range of products fraudulently claiming to prevent and cure cancer, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration today. The FDA also warns North American consumers against using or purchasing the products...


Search FDA for fake cancer cures
[google2.fda.gov]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/2010 10:38PM by The Anticult.

[www.timesonline.co.uk]

Found the above article today, an interesting account of a televised confrontation between a godman and a rationalist. The involvement of politics, peripherally mentioned in the account is of great interest too. It ties in with the mind over matter expose of fakir tricks.

Regarding China being pretty lawless for allowing fraud, I should point out that the state has an iron grip on what is acceptable or not for its people in China.
The political dimension cannot be overruled here, it is generally outsiders, westerners who are being fleeced here, mainly because they have the money to spare but also because there is a perverse sense of payback for the wrongs that the running dogs of satan (in Cantonese foreigners are 'gweilo' ghost or devil, Mandarin 'laowai') have committed on the real people, Chinese.
[www.waze.net]

Sure, on one level China allows it to fleece the westerners, and of course some of them are true believers, some are superstitious, and some local officials would get a cut. Its business, health tourism, and its big business.

But its almost unbelievable that Gregg Braden has been able to get away with this for so long. Sure, he's clever enough to point to others in a foreign country.
But to dangle the false-hope of bogus 3-minute cancer cures to people, that is beyond sick.

Some exposes' out there, search for:

"gregg braden" fraud



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/2010 10:52PM by The Anticult.

Corboy wrote: "Years ago, somewhere in his book, Rational Mysticism, journalist and author John Horgan referred, in passing, to 'The Enlightenment Industry.'

"At the time, this rang a bell for me, as that choice of words linked the Enlightenment Industry with the celebrity driven media driven Entertainment Industry."

You made some good points, Corboy (though I'm not so sure I can claim credit for coining the term "Persuasion Industry)." I've long said that the New-Wage/selfish-help/McSpirituality business is as much about entertainment as it is about enlightenment...enlightentainment, if you will (a word I *think* I coined, though it's kind of awkward).

One problem is that self-help etc. is very often relatively expensive entertainment (when compared to, say, a blockbuster novel, a movie, an MP3 of a hit song, or even a Broadway play). Another problem is that people often base important life decisions on this pricey "entertainment." True, some people are deeply influenced by movies, novels, or songs, and a few may even look at life differently, and perhaps even make a change or two, based on the message they took from a story that touched them. But a filmmaker's or songwriter's attempts to touch our hearts or make us think are, I believe, much different from the well-orchestrated and systematic influence/persuasion techniques employed by those in the self-help biz.

Some years back a certain not-so-cosmic person scribbled an essay based in part on some of the points about self-help/spirituality as a form of entertainment...
[home.swbell.net]

...and little has changed. In fact, the problems have gotten worse, it seems.

BTW, my pal Chris Locke at the Mystic Bourgeoisie blog has made reference to the "Spiritual-Industrial Complex." That seems apt too.

I had a quick look through the 'greg braden fraud' sites that came up, there are some seriously disturbed people using his material, one poor site maker is reversing his radio puffs/teasers to come up with instructions to crop circlers to produce mandelbrot sets in the corn and has a toilet that seems to be the conduit for the One (god, one assumes) delivering instructions.
There's a lot of old trauma around potty training there.
When the 'connecting the dots' leads to eveyones toilet being the portal to the otherworld, we are in some serious shit.
I can't read this stuff, its not even funny. Why doesn't someone report this agent for the cancer cures to the local fraud office?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2010 12:13AM by Stoic.

Hi, I am a long-time lurker, timidly posting for the first time.

I wanted to reply to Stoic's comment about Dr. Oz.

James Randi, the fraud debunker, appeared on a "48 Hours" show several years ago concerning a "healer" in Brazil named John of God. Mr. Randi wrote an extensive article which is somewhere on his site. One of the tricks that John of God uses is to stick a long thin object of some kind up a person's nose, which is supposed to help heal the patient. Mr. Randi points out that this is an old magician's trick called "blockhead," and explains how it works.

Dr. Oz also appeared on this program and was asked his opinion of John of God's methods. Dr. Oz suggested that perhaps the object up the nostril could stimulate the pituitary gland somehow.

James Randi, understandably disgusted, put a diagram of the human head in his article, showing the location of the pituitary gland, as well as the location of the object up the nose, and they are not even close.

Dr. Oz would obviously be well aware of this, but chose to play dumb. I believe he's employed by ABC News and knows which side his bread is buttered on.

So even though Dr. Oz is probably very capable, I would never trust anything he says, because it is clear that he will deliberately distort or withhold accurate information to suit his agenda.

How to Slip Advertising for New Wage Stuff into Comments Sections on Legitimate Discussion Sites Exposing New Wage Stuff

Hi People. Here is an example of how this is done. Begin by flattering the author of the expose article.

Then use the comments section to recommend your own product.

I am happy to see that there are Buddhists who are not afraid to call a spade a spade.
Go here. Scroll down to an exchange of comments that took place on March 5th, 2010

[74.125.155.132]

Remember, this is for educational purposes only.

Anyone who uses this to try to do sneak advertising risks being reincarnated as a tapeworm.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2010 12:07AM by corboy.

Quote
corboy
Anyone who uses this to try to do sneak advertising risks being reincarnated as a tapeworm.

Thanks, corboy, for not saying "cockroach". I am afraid some of the perps might actually aspire to that!

qd

Quote
Hippo
Hi, I am a long-time lurker, timidly posting for the first time.

I wanted to reply to Stoic's comment about Dr. Oz.



So even though Dr. Oz is probably very capable, I would never trust anything he says, because it is clear that he will deliberately distort or withhold accurate information to suit his agenda.

Hi Hippo,

I'm not too familiar with Dr Oz and have only seen vid clips of him on Oprah. I assumed he was an MD of integrity as I had been told that the Big O had some good guys she promoted. He's obviously more concerned with selling and promoting the other dubious stuff--like reversing the aging process!---- than giving the honest opinions his training should dictate.
I am not much of a puritan when it comes to reality, but he is trading on the credibility his MD and experience gives him in order to sell rubbish. He knows better and that just makes him sleazy. I agree with your conclusion, not to be trusted.

To hark back to the question of the detailed scam analysis, I found this in-depth consideration of the movie Full Metal Jacket by an aspiring film maker. Bearing in mind that this is one man's interpretation of the images etc that make up the film, I thought this was illuminating in how Kubrick, an artist, constructed a many layered narrative and vision to manipulate the emotions of the viewer for a desired effect.

Regardless of what the viewer feels about what the film is saying, Kubrick himself is on record as saying that this is not an anti-war movie, he just set out to portray the theatre of war.
Each persons interpretation will vary depending on the personal history through which they filter the complete film.

This analysis is particularly good because the writer picks up on many, many deliberate and complex ways that Kubrick shapes the viewers experience.
It also gave me a new way to think about the toilet as a conduit for the One!

[www.collativelearning.com]