CULTS vs. MULTI-LEVEL MARKETING

CULTS vs. MULTI-LEVEL MARKETING -- Let the Consumer Beware

(Based on Robert Lifton’s Criteria for Totalistic/Cultic Groups)

by Sharon Colvin

Cultic Maneuver	CULTS	MLM’s
1. Milieu Control	Heavy milieu control; cults need to isolate you from your friends and family and gain control and influence over your life; they also need this to stifle your critical thinking abilities	Less control over your environment, yet attendance at meetings is considered crucial and heavy exposure to higher ups as role models in the group is standard; maybe it’s more the power of influence rather than control of the environment
2. Mystical Manipulation	Cults have to show that the leader has special, magical powers; he or she is omnipotent; knows all and sees all. This is done to gave them more credibility at whatever they claim to be. They have to demonstrate that they are spiritually superior to their followers.	Not mystical so much as tendency to make false claims -- you’ll lose tons of weight; you’ll never get a wrinkle; you’ll get RICH selling this !! In cults, it’s the Leader who is magical and extraordinary -- in MLMs it’s the product. You can’t LIVE without this product! And you’ll get RICH selling it. (“Statistical manipulation”)
3. Sacred Science	Cults are based on some kind of “sacred truth” that is exclusive to that group alone. Only they have the secret knowledge about the destiny of the human race, or the sacred secrets of the past -- it’s part of their exclusivity. You can’t find this sacred teaching just anywhere!	The “sacred science” in an MLM is more likely to focused around the sales schtick. We have the sacred healing herb, or skin care secret, or weight loss product. Nothing else on the market comes close! And you’ll get RICH selling this -- you can retire in 5 years (-- if you don’t plan to be “average”).
4. Loaded Language	Each cult has it’s own language; ordinary words take on new meanings outsiders cannot understand. It’s a special encoded language. It’s all a part of the plan to reprogram your thinking.....	In MLM’s the sales schtick often has loaded phrases that carry extra weight, but words would not be cryptically as redefined and encoded as they might be in a cult. They also want to recruit lots of outsiders, so they have to look and sound fairly mainstream
5. Demand for Purity	In cults this is done to gain control over followers and to weaken them physically, emotionally and mentally. It’s done to make them feel like less than who they are, and they must purge themselves constantly because of their unworthiness.	Depends on MLM -- around the issue of diet and health foods, this could be very extreme. It’s not acceptable to use a product OTHER than what the MLM is selling! It becomes a measure of loyalty to the organization, you must use their products, follow their advice/lifestyle.
6. Cult of Confession	As part of wearing you down as a person, your right to individual privacy is stripped away through the process of confessing your sins constantly to higher ups -- this is supposed to be good for you and aid in your “purging” process.	Depends on MLM -- in less healthy ones, confessing your “sins” could be expected behavior. If this is encountered in an MLM, this is NOT a good sign. Where there is a tolerance for people being humiliated in front of others, no respect for the Individual is present. Someone is trying to gain control over the Individual.
7. Doctrine Over Person	In cults, the Mission/Doctrine is always more important than the needs of the person. The person is expected to sacrifice all personal needs for the good of the group/the cause. They will be ridiculed and punished for anything less.	Depends on MLM -- could be a very sick group where the “Great Commission” and sales goals of group takes over individual needs. Could be that sponsor pushes individual to sacrifice more and more the way a discipler might do to a follower in a cult.
8. Dispensing of Existence	Cults establish an Aus vs. them” mentality of the outside world. They decide who is “saved” and who is not. You are special only if you belong to this chosen group; if you are not of the group, you are part of the evil, outside world. There is no life outside the group; only a void – and your life will come to an end if you leave the group.	Hopefully, most MLMs are not as radical as cults in this regard, but there could still be such an allegiance and loyalty expected that to leave the group might seem like a big deal to them, when in fact it isn’t. If you are loyal to the product and the network, you wouldn’t leave -- even if personal goals weren’t being fulfilled, you would stay on to try harder, do better, and of course, support your “downline.” Somehow, if your expectations for what you hoped to achieve fall short, it’s YOUR fault, not the fault of the person who recruited you and fed you lies about geting rich.

Women Who Eat Soy. . . . . (Reliv)

Are you trying to get Pregnant? Reliv is not going to help you. I think you will find the following article very informative concerning yet another danger in consuming soy based products.

Women who eat soya may spoil sperm's chances

Tests indicate such foods may make it harder to get pregnant

• James Meikle in Copenhagen
• The Guardian,
• Wednesday June 22 2005

This article appeared in the Guardian on Wednesday June 22 2005 on p10 of the Life news and features section. It was last updated at 14:20 on June 22 2005.

Women who eat soya-based foods may be damaging their chances of becoming pregnant and should give up eating them during the most fertile part of their monthly cycle, a scientist said yesterday.

Professor Lynn Fraser has found that men's sperm quickly passes its sell-by date if it comes into contact with genistein, a compound found in soya.

Laboratory tests suggest the naturally occurring chemical destroys the mechanism that allows sperm to dock with women's eggs, she said at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Copenhagen.

Her team is about to test the theory by mating mice on a soya diet.

"It might be practical, if you are in the habit of eating lots of soya-based products, to restrict your diet for a short time over your window of ovulation," Prof Fraser said.

The researcher, of King's College, London, added that sperm could "hang around" for four days in women's organs.

Soya, present in products such as bread, milk, margarine, ready meals and sauce, is often lauded for preventing damage to cells, and protecting them against heart disease and some cancers.

But even the Vegetarian Society went along with Prof Fraser's advice: "For anyone struggling to become pregnant, avoiding soya products for a few days a month is worth a try if there is even a slim chance that it will help fertility." It recommended alternatives for vegetarians and vegans, including Quorn meat substitutes, oat or rice milk and pulses.

Prof Fraser said human sperm had proved 10 to 100 times more sensitive than mouse sperm to the action of genistein. "Human sperm are responding to very low concentrations - well within the amounts that have been measured in people's bloods."

Ovulation typically occurs around 12 to 15 days into the menstrual cycle. Many women try to conceive at that time.

Prof Fraser said research indicated "important warning signs", but cautioned that little was known about how sperm worked in human bodies rather than laboratories.

Professor Richard Sharpe of the Human Reproductive Science Unit in Edinburgh,was sceptical of the theory: "Oriental societies that traditionally eat a soy-rich diet show no signs of reduced fertility of which I am aware; [and] effects on sperm in the laboratory are not necessarily directly related to what might happen in real life."

More evidence of sperm's frailty emerged yesterday. Researchers from Toronto suggested that the DNA damage common in older men's sperm hurt their chances of conceiving with their partners, who tended to be older women.

And those who think men should abstain from sex so they can store up more or better sperm to coincide with their partner's ovulation might like to think again.

Dr Elyaho Levitas of the University of the Negev, Israel, analysed sperm samples collected for fertility treatments and found that abstinence in donors for more than three days "is doing some harm to the semen".

"People sometimes abstain from sex for weeks, thinking they are doing good, but I think probably they would be better to have sex every two days, rather than every two weeks," he said.

Reliv - Expensive and Unnecessary Scheme

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Please note that due to not having stable access to the Internet, I am not able to update my blog as often as I would like. If you have had a bad experience with Reliv or the business, please email it to me at relivwatchdog@gmail.com

Expensive and unnecessary pyramid scheme product
by floridianlife ,Dec 30 '04

Pros: Vitamin drink
Cons: Expensive! No positive health effects. Consumer advised by Dr. to discontinue use.

A guest speaker came into our Rotary Club meeting last year and gave a RELIV presentation about this "miracle health food". We were told that this product would cure joint pains, headaches and improve energy levels. I was even told that I could become younger looking over time. The pressure to buy the product was heavy since the guest was "a friend " of a member. I bought a can of this product since it was multivitamins and I figured it wouldn't hurt me. I spent about $140.oo on Reliv Now and the RELIV fiber drink. I faithfully consumed this product for 31 days until the can was empty. It was very expensive and I didn't feel as well as I normally do when taking my multivitamin tablet with iron. I also developed a rash on my hands and my treating physician told me that the RELIV product provided me too much vitamin A. He instructed me not to take it anymore but to eat a healthy balanced diet. To add salt to the wound, the RELIV seller kept calling me to try to get me to become a distributor for them. This was a pyramid setup.