General > Frauds
Chuck Spezzano & Psychology Of Vision
Defend the Sacred:
Stirring up trauma, pushing people into a highly emotional state where they relive old traumas, and then leaving them with no aftercare is the norm for most of these nuage, workshop culture exploiters. Wounded, emotionally flayed victims stagger from "peak experience" to "peak experience," from one expensive workshop to the next.
I've been on the receiving end of the desperate phonecalls from people who've been spiritually devastated by these kinds of abusive workshops. I believe these cult leaders are intentionally inducing trauma so their victims will "trauma bond" with them. It's a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, I think, where they see the people who stirred up the old trauma (and caused new trauma in the process) as the only person who really understands what they've been through, the only person who can really help them. They enter into a cycle of abuse, and as much as it is harming them, they've had their minds so messed-with that it can be incredibly hard to break free.
Sandy S:
--- Quote ---Many cults seem to induce trance using disguised, non-direct methods. The pre-hypnotic strategies available to, and often utilized by, destructive cults include singling out someone and giving him/her a great deal of positive, special attention which then increases compliance to authority, and the use of group pressure and/or the demand that one "take center stage" and perform something in front of others (who are expecting a specific kind of performance). This tactic, called "love-bombing," is almost universally employed by cults.
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From The Manipulation of Spiritual Experience: Unethical Hypnosis in Destructive Cults by Linda Dubrow-Marshall, Ph.D. and Steve K. Eichel, Ph.D., ABPP
http://www.carolgiambalvo.com/unethical-hypnosis-in-destructive-cults.html
According to the Psychology of Vision Trainers Manual, "joining" is an activity that is among required activities for the mid-level managers in this commercial enterprise (p. 20)
http://www.psychologyofvision.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Trainer_Manual_2011_English.pdf
Dubrow-Marshall and Eichel continue
--- Quote ---By prolonging trance states, and with the use of repeated inductions, the cultist may become more and more pliable, less critical, more dissociated from him/herself and more apt to accept spurious and even preposterous notions as "facts."
--- End quote ---
Sound familiar?
Here is another case study. The final 60 seconds of this Lency infomercial is particularly worth watching if you prefer to fast forward
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn5k2Ch77VU
Ingeborg:
As has been mentioned, PoV trainers from British Columbia have founded a Ngystle Society based in Skidegate on Haida Gwaii, with which they promote and organise PoV seminars, as well as seminars with plastic shaman Erick Gonzalez ( see http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3420.0 ).
However, Ngystle also promote the use of pseudo-medical devices in their premises. Although the rates are not exorbitant ($ 5 resp meanwhile $ 6 for 30 minutes), it has to be pointed out that they are targeting a non-affluent community. What is worse, Ngystle are using the community newsletters as a platform for publishing advertising articles and they are making numerous health claims attributed to the devices.
Further info on the devices – e.g. a so-called Amethyst Bio-Mat and a device called Trinfinity8 – are provided by our friends at Psiram:
http://www.psiram.com/en/index.php/Trinfinity8
http://www.psiram.com/en/index.php/Amethyst_Bio-Mat
In an advertising article published in the Skidegate newsletter dd Jan 15, 2009, Ngystle say:
http://www.skidegate.ca/Newsletters/Jan15.09.pdf
--- Quote --- […] A session lasts 30 minutes and costs $5.00.
The Amethyst Bio-Mat is a „pad“ which lies on top of a massage table. As you lie on the Bio-Mat, far infrared rays are passed through Amethyst Crystal. The rays penetrate 6-8 inches into the innermost recesses of the body, stimulating heating and regeneration of nerves and muscle tissue layers. It reduces swelling, increases blood flow and has been shown to destroy cancer and viral cells without harming surrounding healthy cells. The Bio-Mat:
relieves pain & joint stiffness
Increases blood circulation
Decreases hyperactivity
Strengthens the cardiovascular system
Rejuvenates skin & cellular function
Induces deep Delta State of relaxation
Reduces stress and fatigue
Boosts energy & vitality
Burns calories and controls weight
Removes wastes & toxins
Boosts the immune system
Regulates Psychological well being.
--- End quote ---
All of the above claims are unsubstantiated – the effects have never been proven scientifically. The devices are not acknowledged by scientifically based medicine.
On top of that, the claim of the device „destroy[ing] cancer and virus cells“ may endanger the health and lives of their customers who, relying on such promises, probably delay medical treatment. Another aspect is that Ngystle, as far as could be established from an internet research, does not have any medically trained employees who will be in a position to realise whether clients suffer from dangerous conditions or not.
Claims like „Decreases hyperactivity“, and „Induces deep Delta State of relaxation“ rely on a state of relaxation brought about by spending 30 minutes relaxing on a mat. A „delta state“ must be something new to science. However, this is nothing which lying on the sofa in one's living room wouldn't bring about, either, and this also does not cost clients $ 6. As far as a decrease of hyperactivity is concerned, it is again unproven and unfounded, at least beyond any calming effect to be had by lying down on any sofa at home. Hyperactivity is a medical condition and needs respective treatment by experts, not by Nuagers selling applications of some devices they believe nifty.
Ngystle also claim the device was in a position to „rejuvenate skin & cellular function“. Oh wow – we haven't only got a device to free us from cancer, it's also the proverbial fountain of youth. Or is it? No way. Devices or applications sold with such arguments will have a very restricted effect – the effect of increasing the weight of the vendor's wallet.
The same is true for the claim „burns calories and controls weight“. HTH can any technical device, or rather its inlay of amethysts and tourmalins, burn calories I consumed and control my weight? That's easy: it simply cannot and will not. If losing weight were to be achieved by some mat, or by buying expensive dietary supplements or whatever, the only garment size produced in this world would be size 0.
The claim of the device „removing wastes & toxins“ is a sales pitch often used in the Nuage and pseudo-medical scenes („detoxification“). This claim is rhubarb, too.
Another claim is: „boosts the immune system“. This, too, is quite common within the Nuage and pseudo-medical scenes and lots of soooper-remedies, dietary supplements etc are sold with this promise. However, if you're in a normal state of health, all you need to rely on is your regular immune system. Contrary to such claims as the above, you should rather pray your immune system does not get boosted – since this would mean you developed an auto-immune disease.
The promised regulation of psychological well-being – well, again this can be obtained far cheaper by a good rest on your sofa at home. The device is not able to do anything beyond what your sofa will do for you.
Many of the promises made cannot be controlled by the client and simply depend on clients' impressions. A client believing in the claims and the device's effectiveness will be rather prone to look into the mirror afterwards and be sure they got less wrinkles than before. They expect to have more energy and vitality, so they will feel this way.
Advertising dubious devices with health claims BTW is illegal according to EU law and an offence. I wonder whether this is any different in Canada and how did they get away with using health claims in their promotional texts for the past five years....
All in all, Ngystle bought themselves a few nice money-printing machines: the one effect their devices will have is to generate income for them. Oh, and one of the group targeted by them and ushered onto mats and what else they got in the way of devices are Residential School Survivors.
Sandy S:
Ngystle Society, Psychology of Vision International Association (with the Swiss bank account), Oneness University, America-China Bridge Ltd., First Nations Fund ...
It would be nice to know if the RCMP, Scotland Yard, Revenue Canada, US IRS, Hawaii Dept. of Taxation and other government agencies are creating a chart as they try to piece together the (literally) crazy-quilt of Psychology of Vision and how all these and many other corporate bodies inter-relate, especially when it comes to money. POV is, after all, a business making an enormous profit from retail spirituality and junk science as they prey upon vulnerable and damaged people.
Part of the insidiousness of POV are the fraudulent credentials the founders present to the world. On a superficial glance Charles Lee Spezzano could pass as a professional. But he is far from that. As documented here on NAFPS, his Ph. D. is not recognised by the APA and he is certainly no psychologist. Yet Charles allows himself to be described as "one of the world’s leading psychologists" as evidenced by this POV marketing in the UK:
http://www.povevents.com/?doing_wp_cron=1385780754.2252640724182128906250
If Charles is such a leader, why doesn't he have a listing in Wikipedia? It appears a gentleman named Matt Blythe attempted to file an entry on Spezzano, but was denied because, among other things, Charles was not considered to be worthy of recognition:
http://wiki.verkata.com/en/wiki/User_talk:Mattblythe
Blythe, by the way, has a YouTube demonstrating the "Power of Joining":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M772WwuhP5Y
One of the corporate entities deserving more scrutiny is Spezzano & Associates Ltd. This enterprise has Charles as President and Lenora as Vice-President. Psychology of Vision appears to be merely a branch and front end of SAL.
Excerpts from the POV Trainers Manual:
http://www.psychologyofvision.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Trainer_Manual_2011_English.pdf
--- Quote ---p. 4 "The Trainer works with Spezzano and Associates Limited (SAL) to develop the principles, the model and their own process."
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---p. 4 "The Trainer works with SAL to develop the means of taking the work to communities and people who are not able to pay the market rate for
training."
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---p. 11 "The Psychology of Vision Trainer Has Access to:
1. Attendance (without paying additional tuition) to the 10-Day Training (each language will be provided $4000 USD towards English translation).
2. Permission to use the copyright, trademarks, names goodwill of The Psychology of Vision and the right to call oneself a PoV Trainer. (for China speak to China Committee)
3. One coaching session every other month from a PoV Coach designated by SAL.
4. Conference calls with Chuck or Lency."
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---p. 21 "All Trainers who enter the program will have to, at some point, deal with their independence issues at a very deep level. This can be
easily recognized and identified when the Trainer begins to act out authority conflict issues through complaining, bad attitude, or other expressions of the rebel shadow or story. This is the biggest challenge for Trainers in the program. Usually, at some point in the training everybody faces these issues and feels they are at a crossroads. At this point, they may decide to go off on their own (and they do so with the blessing of SAL), or they decide to move forward within the Psychology of Vision structure and take positions of authority and assist with policy."
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Naturally these passages bring up a host of other issues, for the time being let's focus on exactly what role SAL has in the POV organization. Does SAL overrule the POV Steering Committee (which also has Charles and Lenora as members)? How many stockholders are there in SAL? Does SAL have other non-POV for-profit undertakings? Where does SAL stop and POV begin?
Lenora's Linked In describes her as a trainer at Spezzano and Associates:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/lency-spezzano/16/bb8/285
The Hawaii Dept. of Commerce and Consumer Affairs has Spezzano and Associates Ltd. listed as a domestic profit corporation.
http://hbe.ehawaii.gov/documents/business.html?fileNumber=81992D1&view=info
SAL was incorporated in 1990 and the Spezzanos are the only two officers. The corporation's purpose is "TO CONDUCT SEMINARS AND LECTURES THROUGH OUT THE WORLD."
In the tradenames/marks category, rights to both "Psychology of Vision" and "Psychology of Vision Press" have expired. Presumably someone else could snap up those trademarks today. POV's purpose is given as "SEMINARS, LECTURES, SELLING PRODUCTS (BOOKS, AUDIO & VIDEO TAPES, CARD DECKS)."
A look at the POV Trainers Manual will confirm this organization is a cult centered around Charles and Lenora, but even more than that it is a for-profit business selling spirituality at very expensive rates.
DoctorLao:
--- Quote --- "I believe these cult leaders are intentionally inducing trauma so their victims will "trauma bond" with them. It's a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, I think, where they see the people who stirred up the old trauma (and caused new trauma in the process) as the only person who really understands what they've been through, the only person who can really help them."
In case it adds suitably to: http://omgrey.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/breaking-the-betrayal-bond/ ("Betrayal Bond. Trauma Bond. Stockhom Syndrome. These terms all describe the same thing: a deep, inexplicable bond with someone who has hurt you.")
Coincidentally, I see this same subject comes up today in replies posted at: http://www.manipulative-people.com/can-character-disorders-hit-bottom-do-they-ever-change/
That's a site about psychopathy and covert aggression in society ("the phenomenon of our times"). Not cultism, nor exploitation of native culture.
As a nonDN, I've no personal cultural heritage or experience from which to speak about appropriation of native tradition and identity first hand. But in current life and times I do directly, personally experience what strikes me as a rising tide of character disorder and malicious aggression - taking many forms, seeking all kinds of satisfactions. Always the expense of others - whoever, the more the merrier.
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