In this thread, so far, no one is talking about "cults" per se, they are talking about the scam of New Thought, and the scam of The Secret, and these New Religious Movements which is what Michael Beckwith is selling.
Beckwith is promoting a very extreme form of New Thought that is very dangerous and damaging.
Michael Beckwith appeared on Oprah and The Secret with James Arthur Ray.
People were warned in this forum over 2 years ago that James Ray was very DANGEROUS due to the covert techniques of group persuasion and hypno-persuasion he was using, while pretending to be New Thought.
Now people are dead. Not just once, 3 died in Sedona, and another person Colleen Conaway died a couple months before (that news was discovered by this forum and then became national news), and there may be others. Many people were robbed blind by his system of cash extraction.
The warning also went out about Michael Beckwith. Watch out.
Michael Beckwith is also potentially dangerous, there are red flags everywhere, and Beckwith is so slick and has the gift of the gab, he deserves very intense scrutiny and skeptical inquiry.
Michael Beckwith is also using many obvious persuasion techniques, and also is abusing many of the same techniques taken from hypnotherapy, and Ericksonian hypnosis, combined with persuasion, New Thought extremism, over-emotional religious revivalism, and just bald-faced salesmanship, and many other methods.
Michael Beckwith claims IN PRINT in his book that his "treatments" healed some woman's kidney disease.
Since there is a "Dr." who claims to be a close close buddy of Beckwith, where is the PROOF? Where are the medical records?
Does this person also believe in the Miracle Healings being claimed by Michael Beckwith?
What about "Dr." Michael Beckwith saying he's seen cancer dissolve, by the power of New Thought?
You believe that one too?
A "Dr." believes that Beckwith cured kidney disease and cancer by mindpower?
What a crock, its just persuasion and salesmanship and deception, perhaps with a touch of the Confirmation Bias. [
www.skepdic.com]
That is all very dangerous. People can die from that, as they avoid timely medical treatment, and instead try to use mindpower, then its too late.
How many people have died while doing the New Thought "treatments"? What? They don't keep records? Imagine that.
No, this is the deal. Time to wake up and smell the coffee of reality.
The New Thought salesmen like "Dr." Micheal Beckwith have learned that if they float CLAIMS and anecdotes that their techniques CURE DISEASE like cancer, then people with cancer who are desperate will flock to them, and they will pay a lot of money for New Thought "treatments".
Now of course, to avoid going to the greybar hotel for making medical claims, the New Thought "practitioner" makes the claims just vague enough, anecdotal and anonymous using fake names. This way, they can get away with it.
This is a dangerous road, but its where the money is. They make these health claims of miracle cures, and yes, the customers start rolling in, and the money comes with them.
This is very old hat stuff, its been being sold exactly like this since Mary Baker Eddy of Christian Science, Emma Curtis Hopkins, and before, well back into the 1800's.
Michael Beckwith is doing and selling the EXACT SAME THING, in the exact same way.
And they make an incredible amount of money.
You believe that Beckwith made a weather vane move with his mind?
OK "Dr." Beckwith, lets get you on live TV with independent professionals, and we'll set up some weather vanes, and you try to move them with your mind.
No? Not available?
That is not even scratching the surface of Micheal Beckwith. Those are warning signs.
Beckwith puts in "weird" stuff like that, as frankly it serves as a test of faith, or otherwise knows as a sucker-test. As in, if you believe that one, then you'll like the next one even better.
It also gets rid of people who demand proof and evidence for those outrageous claims.
Its also a part of "hypnotherapy" to make those so-called "weird" stories which facilitate trance induction.
And one should be cautious about what one says about "hypnotherapy", in the context of persuasion, and to whom. Some people know an awful lot about that subject.
And its almost hilarious (but sad) that you openly admit that you recruit and bring many people into Agape, then in the same breath say you are not a shill. That is being a shill, you are promoting your friends BUSINESS, which is tax-free of course. They make a ton of money with these New Thought "treatment" scams.
What you say about Agape's finances...whre's the beef? Where's the proof? Where are the independent audited financial statements for Agape?
Are the IRS 990 Forms posted on the Agape website, or are they concealed from the public?
The early Agape website had a page asking for luxury cars to be donated, but that was pulled down. Agape is constantly asking for money, and every New Thought treatment costs money, usually a large "donation".
And perhaps instead of lecturing, why not do some research first? If people would have identified James Ray as a blatant SCAMMER, then he would not have been made famous by Oprah, and less people would be dead.
There is no way Michael Beckwith is a simple little new thought preacher. He is a very slick, talented mass persuader, and he is running many many techniques on his flock, most of which they are not aware of.
But even if Beckwith were naive and 100% sincere in his New Thought beliefs, that is still EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.
When people start to try to really believe "New Thought" which is what Michael Beckwith is selling, they can get extremely badly hurt. Because its based on a false premise, it leads to dangerous areas, and it leads to deception and lies, and delusion, and even death, due to delay of medical care.
And save the BS about seeing a doctor and doing New Thought at the same time.
They say that on TV so they don't get in trouble.
In reality, they believe they can achieve the Christ Consciousness, and they can instantly cure exactly like Jesus Christ. They also believe they can do the same "miracles" of Jesus in the bible. That is what they believe.
Of course they hide that stuff from newbies, and are more vague.
New Thought, which is what Michael Beckwith sells, is a potentially extremely dangerous belief system. [
www.skepdic.com]
Michael Beckwith is a mix of someone who sorta believes it, but mostly its about self-promotion, wealth, and running his own show and organization.
He is also very good at recruiting "friends" who promote and defend him.
The warning is out there, and more and more complaints are going to come out about what is going on behind the scenes, in terms of health claims, and the money side of it.
There are just as many red flags flying around Michael Beckwith as there were around James Ray. There were also a couple of other guys from The Secret who were literally crooks, like the guy from Australia.
Its just a rats-nest of sophisticated "hypno-persuaders".
There are lots of these hypno-persuaders running around these days.
And this thread is going to do some serious research into the Rev "Dr" Michael Beckwith.
(he's not a real doctor, and his "Dr." title is one of those fake New Thought "doctorates" they hand out to anyone, to try and get social proof).