NAFPS Forum
General => Frauds => Topic started by: Freija on January 02, 2007, 01:32:20 pm
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Some days ago yet another "healer" here in Sweden was sentenced to prison. He had claimed Cherokee descent and convinced his victims that they had all been Indians in their past life . During the healing procedures he had raped and molested them. The youngest one was 11 years old! This healer had world wide recognition and was defended by many spiritual organisations.
The worst bit of it all is that many of the young women and children had complained to their parents and/or other adults in the organisations for years, but had been told not to question a spiritual person like Mr. XXX. The children and youngsters had been told that "when he does his healing it can sometimes feel like his hand are in "certain places" but it is just an imagination due to his strong power!" :o
Anyway - another one locked up for many years! Since the first "plastic shaman" was sentenced little over a year ago, more and more fakes are being questioned ;D
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Jail is not harsh enough, his victimization of women and children will end, while what he has done will last. Boy does that stir up some anger...
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Do we know this person's name, Annika?
PLH, I guess Sweden's prisons are less brutal places than those in the US, but this sicko is still going to be stuck for years in a large building with a lot of angry guys who view the likes of him as lower than the wife-beaters, bent cops and informers he'll likely be sharing a cell block with. Anything could happen in that time.
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Do we know this person's name, Annika?
We sure do! Check out his website...this guy has been around! God knows how many people he have raped/assaulted/molested during his world wide tours!! I shudder just to think about it!
www.cheroki.com
I agree with you, PLH, it is difficult to even find words to describe how apalling this is!! But Barnaby is right, he will not have a cosy, lazy time in the prison - I am sure he will encounter some....cough cough....problems....
This is the second "false prophet" who has been convicted in Sweden with loads of media coverage - we´re a fairly small country so people are bound to read about it. And hopefully this will make people more cautious and also give the victims strength and courage to come forward.
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Mervyn Johnson:
"My clairvoyant sight first opened when I was around eight years old and I thought it was quite normal to see spirit people. I joined my first spiritual church, in England at the age of twelve.
It was confirmed to me by several mediums that I had a natural gift of healing and spiritual communication.
My training first began when I was a teenager with meditation and circle-work with the well-known English medium Ena Twigg. Over the years I have spent much of my training at the Arthur Findley spiritual college in Stansted, England."
Have you heard of this college, Barnaby, or Ena Twigg?
While I was in Sweden, they took me on a tour of the last prison where they used to have prisoners waiting to be executed. It's been shut down for many years as inhumane. And the cells still had at least twice the space a prisoner in a county jail in the US would have. I don't take that as a sign Swedish prisoner have it too easy. I take it as a sign of just how messed up our own prisons are. The main thing is if he will lose years out of his life for the harm he did, and that seems to be yes.
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Have you heard of this college, Barnaby, or Ena Twigg?
No, but I doubt whether anyone not involved in spiritualism would recognise these names. Here's a thread on the James Randi skeptic forum (http://www.randi.org/forumlive/showthread.php?t=68102) with some translations from the Swedish papers and a few other links: apparently he only got five years.
It's very disturbing. I'm wondering whether there are British victims.
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Thanks for that link, Barnaby! I haven´t followed all the articles since I´ve been away for Christmas.
Yeah - five years...that is Sweden for you!! We can put away people for murder for more than 30 years, but when it comes to victimizing women and children....they get close to nothing!! >:( What worries me, when he gets out, he will still have devoted followers around him!!
So he is still a British citizen...and he is getting divorced? The normal procedure would be to send him back once he has served his sentence. Sorry Barnaby....
This guy has been kept anonymous all along, which is the law in Sweden, until one newspaper published the photo on his website with his face blurred. It didn´t take many seconds for people to find out who he was.
Barnaby, maybe we should move this to the FRAUD section with his name in the subject title? I didn´t realize I knew who he was until you asked me....
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Barnaby,
You would think that if this guy is British, it would have been reported in the UK, especially if he is likely to be sent back after his sentance.
Have you heard anything in the news?
Piya
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Piya/Barnaby - if there is nothing in the English press it is probably because according to Swedish law, the names of offenders are not made public. Not unless they kill a minister or something....
Perhaps someone could "happen" to inform a British newspaper...? ;) ;)
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Freija,
I am on to it. Check your PM,s
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Also if anyone can provide any links to media who have covered the court story, please let me know
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There are lots of articles in Swedish newspapers - nothing in English apart from what was translated on the link that Barnaby provided. Here are some (this is the biggest evening paper)
http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=745913 8th November
http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=782111 8th November
http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=746367 9th November
http://expressen.se/expressen/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=746379 9th November
http://expressen.se/expressen/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=747704 10th November
http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=789541 12th November
http://expressen.se/index.jsp?a=745436 14th November photo
Check the last link with the photo - then go to his website http://www.cheroki.com/eng/galleri.asp?kat=7
and scroll down. This is one example of that although the Press is keeping his name hidden, they continously publish photos from his website.
I think maybe the best thing would be to get in contact with the persons who have written the articles.
I only found one short article about the sentence, published 28th December:
http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=119&a=316339
The more I´ve read, the more sickening it gets. He told the women - and the children - that they were selected out because of their "pure energies" and if they didn´t put up, the spirit world would punish them by giving them cancer. Most of them believed him....
Let me know if you need any more help, Piya!
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MJ is still mentioned with an entry as a healer in Swedish wikipedia:
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mervyn_Johnson
He also must have tried to make it to safer waters recently, as there was an ad from Switzerland:
http://epaper.baslerstab.chsicms/detail.php?id=23164&template=ep_html
The ad reads: "English trance healer Mervyn Johnson will work in the town of Muttenz from November 14-17. For appointments call 061/4620357"
This was supposed to happen in November 2006.
And then there was something really interesting, but the article can't be accessed any longer:
http://www.macroworld.net/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=227838871
The short paragraph showing up in a google search reads:
"Wright, originally from Essex, uses the stage name Mervyn Johnson as a spiritualist medium and claims to work through an ancient Chinese doctor. ..." Wright???
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The topic was moved and renamed. Hopefully anyone doing a search for him online will know now know exactly what he's done.
The "college" he was trained at is not too impressive.
http://www.nucleus.com/~donnakiss/college1.htm
"THE ARTHUR FINDLEY COLLEGE:
Arthur Findley gave his home, Stansted Hall, to the Spiritualist movement for use as a college for the advancement of psychic science in 1964. Since that time thousands of students from around the world have taken advantage of this unique place of learning to advance their psychic and spiritual gifts.
The courses last between 3 and 5 days and are full board residental (live-in) for that time. I was lucky enough to have attended 2 courses; Trance and Physical Phenonena III, and New Dimensions Week (exploration of all stages of Mediumship). There are many courses to choose from, from Spiritual Retreats to Healing Courses and Teacher Training. There are also weeks set aside for non-English speaking contingents (German Week, Italian Week, etc.)
You can contact the College through the Spiritualist National Union's WebSite (see below), or contact them via telephone: 01279-813636; or write to; The Arthur Findley College, Stansted Hall, Stansted, Essex CM24 8UD."
Five whole days at somebody's house?
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Al,
Its not that small a house.
http://www.snu.org.uk/t_front.htm
I was near there the other day working at Stansted Airport, if I had known I would have called in and asked some questions about MJ. Maybe next time.
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Have you heard anything in the news?
Not a word, and I think I would have noticed something like this.
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http://www.paranormalreview.com/News/tabid/59/newsid368/132/ISF-elects-new-vice-president-and-issues-statement/default.aspx
http://www.paranormalreview.com/News/tabid/59/newsid368/131/ISF-vice-president-resigns-over-rape-case-decisions/default.aspx
They plan their 2009 meeting to be in sweden. Their vice president resigns and they issue a statement trying to distance themselves from him.
This is a terrible travesty, an insult to the victims, and a disservice to the members.
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Ok folks this is a legal 'head's up', In the UK at this time there is a law entitled "The Fraudulent Mediums Act",we can only shut these people down if any of you obtain evidences they have harmed.This law is due to be replaced next month with a new EU wide law protecting "consumers"
Mervyn Johnson is far from unique hes sadly not the first or last within the plastic fantastic community to use suedo Indian identities to abuse vunerable and naive people.But we can make the police aware they have convicted sex offenders in their midst who are not on the British sex offenders register.If they reside here then they can be placed on it due to the nature of their conviction.
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What about the likes of Pushican/aka Lightning Bear/aka John Colbert..
http://www.lightningbear.co.uk/interviewwithlightningbear_255308.html
He has been seen at the UK Pow Wows and is a convicted peodophile in Germany. Also a great friend of Mr & Mrs Billington.
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What about the likes of Pushican/aka Lightning Bear/aka John Colbert..
http://www.lightningbear.co.uk/interviewwithlightningbear_255308.html
He has been seen at the UK Pow Wows and is a convicted peodophile in Germany. Also a great friend of Mr & Mrs Billington.
Colbert was convicted of sexual abuse of several women, one of them a minor. However, from what I saw in media articles, the person was about 17 years of age at the time the abuse occured. Legally, this person therefore was treated as a minor during the process and laws protecting her were applied in this case (e.g. non-public court hearings, restricted info to media re details of the nature of abuse). From an article written fairly early (I suppose when charges were brought forward), one can pick up that Colbert's 'speciality' seems to be SM rather then pedophilia -cf the thread on Colbert.
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The reality is this if Pushikin and co are seen at the UK Pow wows stand up and voice your concerns directly to the local police force.Tell them directly you have witnessed a known and convicted sexual predator at the UK pow wows.
Given that these are hobbyist pow wows they will be reluctant to come foreward if they have been abused,as an ex pat I need to be very clear,I cannot sit back and watch innocents abused for any reason,using any form of our national indentities as a form of 'grooming exercise'
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Just discovered a news item about Mervyn Johnson aka Mervyn Wright from 2008
I am posting it here because it is a very disturbing and also interesting account of how a male predator secures the loyalty of an entourage of devoted female followers who serve and obey him and who do their best to suppress any accusations of impropriety.
In this instance the females tried to persuade a victim that the molestation was part of spiritual healing. In some ways this story resonates with that of convicted rapist Michael Lyons aka Mohan Singh.
Anyway, story here
July 4, 2008
Spiritualist world splits over failure to expel Mervyn Wright who raped his patients
David Brown
The world of spiritualism is embroiled in a bitter dispute after the British head of the International Spiritualist Federation was jailed for raping girls and young women while giving them naked energy massages.
Mervyn Wright, who claimed to be acting as a conduit for the powers of an Ancient Chinese medicine man, became renowned for his work at spiritualist churches in several countries.
The charismatic healer was very popular with women patients and his pre-eminence was confirmed two years ago when the international federation elected him president, a post first held by the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Months after his election in the summer of 2006 he was charged with sex assaults against seven patients, the youngest 14.
The victims were abused while he gave them “Chi” massages between 2003 and 2006, Värmlands District Court in Sweden was told. At the time he was working at two centres in Sweden as well as in Finland and Switzerland. Wright was jailed for five years and lost his second appeal last year. However, the international federation decided to inform him only last month that he faces expulsion, after a vote by members.
The Spiritualists’ National Union, which represents 350 churches and centres in Britain, announced yesterday that it was severing its links with the international federation. Its complaints include the federation’s failure to expel Wright promptly and its plans to hold its next worldwide convention 20 miles from where he carried out some of his attacks.
Wright, now 62, from Hornchurch, Essex, claimed to offer healing through the spirit of a 1,000-year-old Dr Lu and a 300-year-old Native American called Cherokee. On his website he boasted: “A wonderful Chinese doctor from the spirit world, Dr Lu, treats patients through me. He can take over my subconscious and nervous system which enables me to become Dr Lu’s personality.”
The former lorry driver, who is also known as Johnson, moved to Sweden to continue his healing work. He selected his victims on the basis of their “special energies” and told them to remove their clothes to avoid “blocking” contact with the spirit world. He attacked them at an educational centre in Västerås, a motel outside Örebro, his home in Hammarö and healing centres in Karlstad.
When the women threatened to complain he warned them that they would be punished with the onset of fatal illnesses from the spirit world.
The court ruled that Wright’s “use of his position as a respected medium to sexually molest girls and younger women aggravates his crime. Further, when they had turned to him for help, he had known of their emotional and mental fragility and vulnerability.”
The Spiritualists’ National Union, a founding member of the federation in 1923, said yesterday that it was concerned at the handling of Wright’s case and other issues surrounding administration and appointments.
Duncan Gascoyne, president of the national union, said: “We consider it very serious that [the federation] have got someone who has been convicted of a serious offence and has lost an appeal and they did not have his membership taken away immediately.”
Wright’s former wife, Maria Ottersson, 41, said that although she had suspicions about his activities during their marriage he had used his connections with the spirit world to convince her that she was wrong.
Ms Ottersson, who is president of a spiritualist group in Karlstad, Sweden, said: “Women find him very attractive. He is a very charming man and very charismatic. I noticed he had an interest in young, pretty girls and he seemed to spend more time in trances and giving them massages.
“When I complained he would put himself into a trance and have the spirit world talk to me. I now know it was just him talking.”
The International Spiritualist Federation voted last month to order the executive committee to expel Wright.
A leading woman spiritualist said: “It was a very emotive debate. His followers are totally besotted. Most of them are women and may of them are in love with him. They are genuinely convinced that he could not do anything wrong.”
The federation is still planning to hold next year’s convention week in Sala, 20 miles from Västerås. It is expected to attract spiritualists from 15 countries. Victims’ groups say that Wright is likely to be in an open prison by then and could attend the convention. Kerstibn Zaring, of the crime support group in Karlstad, said: “It is frightening that this might happen. He has lots of power and control over women.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4265658.ece