Detail from ‘Joan of Arc’ by John Everett Millais
In an article titled, When Healing Hands Start Grasping, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of NSW, Professor John Dwyer, has dismantled Universal Medicine cult’s abusive women’s health practice in the May Edition of Australasian Science, and taken a crack at Australia’s healthcare practitioner regulators for good measure.
Unfortunately, you’ll need to subscribe to read the whole article, but Professor Dwyer has quoted some of the ridiculous claims from the original EBM website, similar to those I quoted in my own posts on marketing abuse and calling it ‘healing‘. He also discussed complaints made to the regulators about UM and their pathetic response.
He concludes:
Adequate consumer protection from misleading and often fraudulent practices remains disappointingly inadequate, both at the state and national level. In Australia in 2013, vulnerable patients deserve much better than that.
Boy oh boy, do we agree…
For Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, this negative attention makes a mockery of their claims that criticism directed at UM originates from a handful of ‘disgruntled males’, and a cranky brunette with an ‘agenda’. Very soon, they’ll be receiving negative attention from the HCCC and a large number of parliamentary observers whose patience with aggressive alternative medicine wackjobs has run out.
No doubt the attention will strike another blow to UM’s feeble credibility, and more crucially to their dwindling bottom line.
Encouragingly, there are signs our activism has made an impact. The numbers at the current UK events are down by 30-40% on last year, in spite of Curtis Benhayon, Esoteric Uterus Massager, attempting to look cool around Frome grinding the gears in a Porsche. Several inquiries have come in from Frome, and it appears locals are cottoning on to the nature of UM and are less than thrilled to be the home of a nasty, sexually abusive, censorious, death cult.
In other news, when one does a Google search for Esoteric Breast Massage, this site is 2nd from top of the Google listing, and the first pages are dominated by negative press. All achieved via page hits alone, without a bunch of SEO experts, web designers and a squadron of numbskull, dissociated propagandists, let alone the millions in donated funds Sergio has at his disposal.
In case anyone thought less than a handful of cranky people could make a difference.
However, the job is nowhere near done. It is still a long push from here and we can’t do this on our own. We’ve put our valuable time and our names to pursuing regulators and public representatives as aggressively as we’ve pursued the cult, and it would help us if those affected have our back. We could still lose this war, and UniMed could establish itself as a home grown version of Scientology, but worse. Help us stop the harm. Please consider making an official complaint if you or a loved one have been adversely affected, or write to your public representatives with your story, and let them know why regulatory action needs to be taken.
UNIVERSAL MEDICINE ACCOUNTABILITY 
Hi Venus, I have continued to follow Universal Medicine Accountability.
Your comments referring to Professor Dwyer’s article were good to read. I would love to read the whole of Professor Dwyer’s article, I wonder if you can buy the Science magazine from the Newsagents, I must go and see.
It is of real concern to many in the Community the far reaching effects and family breakdown that Cults like UM are having.
I am still very troubled by the fact that Medical Doctors support UM. How can they?
It was good to see today that the Regulatory body the HCCC are set to have more power.
People who are involved with Cults and that are having doubts about the Cult they are in and are perhaps are fearful of the reprisals and alienation they may experience if they decide that they should leave the Cult really do need sites like this so much. You present clear and easy to understand facts. (Although I must say that I am continually shocked & very concerned by the facts that are being revealed.) These facts are clear to us on the outside of the Cult but not necessarily to those inside the cult.
You, Venus and all who do support you are doing a great service, in what appears to be a difficult and at times hostile situation from what I read here and when I sometimes look at the UM site . I don’t know what is going on behind the scenes but I am sure that soon this whole sad worrying situation will be sorted by the Regulatory bodies.
To any readers who are considering leaving cults – UM in particular, may I reassure you that all will not be lost. Be strong. You can reclaim your life and be truly happy.
Scarlet, you’ve been there so you know. But I was watching a doco recently on cults and their leaders. It focused on homicidal cults, but the similarities were striking. And I would argue that the bottom line is all groups such as UM and the pantheon of new-age/religious cults present and past all have transcendence ( denial/death/annihilation) of life as a center of their doctrine. It is just whether they act on it or not.
One commonality is that just about all these cults had doctors and professionals involved. Usually they were the most active members and perpetrated acts of violence when instructed. Family members were interviewed and what they had been through is exactly what we as families of cult members experience. History had been changed to turn former loving family and partners into abusers. The alienated family members were cut of first from proper discussions, then communication, then contact. The ex cult members report feeling as if they had no doubts as to the veracity of what they were being told, using phrases like ” he never told us to do anything. We just realised we had a choice” and ” to us her was everything, special, the truth. His integrity was beyond question”
The system of thought reform used is identical to Serge’s- Retreats, one on one’s. De-anchoring ( “the cult of life has brainwashed you”, “you’ve allowed abuse into your life”, ” allowing loveless men not to be all they are”, “Black is red”) A study by the brain and mind institute explains how suggestible we are, and how in certain states we are extremely suggestible. To the point of being able to be ‘reprogrammed”.
Serge’s followers have put themselves willingly into situations repeatedly where they are covertly reprogrammed. It doesn’t matter that they are a doctor, lawyer, rocket scientist. It works. And once in that state they are almost completely incapable of seeing the world the way it really is (black is red)
So the responsibility lays with regulators to ensure that people like Serge and his ilk cannot operate. Serge is particularly deceptive because he operates as a “medicine” front, while really indoctrinating his ‘students’ (a telling euphemism) with his insane doctrine which has all the thought reform hallmarks- such as suppression of the intellect and emotions. There must be regulation to stop all untrained and unregulated ‘practitioners’ from ‘treating’ people. Groups that want to hold courses should be vetted to see what they are teaching or training and what their methods are.
Of course, there is always that question of freedom of belief. But there are two responses to that. First, in Serge’s case, he doesn’t reveal his belief system, he tricks them into it. And secondly, in a perfect world, there would be none. Belief simply means, “Faith in the absence of evidence”- maybe it’s time to wake up from the dark ages and enjoy the world that evidence based thinking has delivered. Not the false dilemma’s that Serge and his type frighten their followers into submission with.
To me, Scarlet and as you rightfully said I ‘have been there and done that’ what you (You know whos brother) have expressed here is really the crux of the matter.
You know whos brother, what follows is a copy what you wrote, [Umer’s please please consider this carefully]
“Serge’s followers have put themselves willingly into situations repeatedly where they are covertly reprogrammed. It doesn’t matter that they are a doctor, lawyer, rocket scientist. It works. And once in that state they are almost completely incapable of seeing the world the way it really is (black is red)
So the responsibility lays with regulators to ensure that people like Serge and his ilk cannot operate. Serge is particularly deceptive because he operates as a “medicine” front, while really indoctrinating his ‘students’ (a telling euphemism) with his insane doctrine which has all the thought reform hallmarks- such as suppression of the intellect and emotions. There must be regulation to stop all untrained and unregulated ‘practitioners’ from ‘treating’ people. Groups that want to hold courses should be vetted to see what they are teaching or training and what their methods are.”end of quote.
Because of the medicine front that Serge has and the medical doctors involvement with UM, regulators have to act to protect the public. Innocent patients, or members of the public are tricked by reason of the fact doctors are promoting UM so it must be ok.
It is frightening.
Besides the terrible, unbelievable and horrifying thought that Doctors sanction such a person as $B and the Cult UM is that they go on and on like they are constantly being enlightened with ‘awesomeness’ sorry to burst their bubble BUT here are a couple of thoughts.
Many people do not ruin their lives by overeating and drinking alcohol excessively these people have learnt to manage stress and stressful jobs etc etc etc and they do this with NO help from any dangerous cult.
Yes there are people who have sadly become involved (yes at times through no fault of their own) in these type of things, but many many genuine professionals and groups have helped these people to reclaim their lives with NO weird and absolutely no scary strings, and teachings and diets etc attached.
Some, a little of what they go on about at UMHQ is just common sense that they have pinched from others, duh NO great revelation there. BUT by far the majority of what they teach well there are no words for all of that…………………….
Who in their right mind goes onto the internet for all to see and discusses their periods at such great length, as if it is some great revelation. Sick!Sick! Sick! Why does $erge need to know all of this stuff anyway?
As Venus has so rightly said our job is nowhere near done.
Please tell your story and to repeat what Venus also said: “Please consider making an official complaint if you or a loved one have been adversely affected, or write to your public representatives with your story, and let them know why regulatory action needs to be taken.”
The HCCC’s stronger powers and the realistic, down to earth, logical and so well written article from Professor Dwyer is a good incentive, as is knowing it will help humanity be protected from this dangerous Cult and it’s Leader.
I just want to repeat something that is very important, topical and related to Professor Dwyers article.
There is no therapeutic basis to the claims surrounding the strange practice of EBM’s invented by Serge Benhayon, very strangely on his wife.
The claims made are baseless, without evidence, and quite frankly bogus. Yet the members subject themselves to this regularly and at great cost. The claims that UM has made would be illegal under the trade practices act and I would think under the TGA guidelines, if someone complained hard enough. I guess the members believe that there is an ‘energetic’ benefit to having their breasts rubbed, but UM doesn’t advertise that of course.
Universal Medicine behave generally in a very deceptive manner generally. They don’t advertise that they have a belief system and their healing claims are based on unproven ‘energetic facts’ as revealed to Serge Benyahon by the Hierarchy. Most people come to UM totally unaware that there is a strange and details occult doctrine. Many people would attend workshops mistakenly believing they will be learning healing methods (and perhaps receiving accreditation for those courses which will allow them to practice and earn extra money) However, they are not taught healing methods per se, but rather, the courses are sessions of covert indoctrination whereby Serge uses false dilemma’s regarding health statistics, rape, murder, depression, etc to build a case for his ‘solutions’. He starts with a statement that most people can agree with, then works his way around to turning understanding on its head. In short, he subverts the thinking of these unwitting people so they are sufficiently confused that in time they will abandon their own thinking and accept Serge’s ideas as “making a lot of sense” (to quote the student body) when in fact, almost without exception, everything Serge says makes no sense at all.
Basically, people go to Serge deceived firstly by the name of the outfit- “medicine” and then have a doctrine implanted in their heads which produces a dependency on his unproven and clearly bogus therapies and him ; It destroys families, breaks relationships, and creates single parents, confused children, ill health, fear and anxiety. All at great cost. In cash.
If UM was just about health choices as the students say (using Serge’s words exactly) then they would have no need to defend UM and Serge on a handful of group websites. If UM provided real healing, people would be healed and move on. Lives and relationships would improve. Health would be better. This blog wouldn’t exist, the media wouldn’t be interested.
Serge and UM are shining examples of why regulations must be enacted to enforce standard and compliance on self proclaimed healers and for stops and checks to exist to ensure that people are not being recruited into mind altering groups covertly. They should be forced to declare their doctrines up front so people can make a choice if it interests them or not. I imagine if the more crazy ideas of UM where shown to most potential customers, the clinic would be empty except for a few wing nuts, which would keep Serge in the company he deserves and how it should be.
So my advice to any would be customer thinking of going to see Serge or a UM practitioner is DON’T. And if you’ve booked into a course, ask for a refund now. Because once you’re in there, powerful techniques come into play that will make it very difficult for you to decide for yourself.
I think the Office of Fair Trading should stop UM from using the word ‘medicine’ in their title. To remove the deception, they should rename themselves ‘Universal Bullshit’.
Thanks Scarlet for the encouragement and it’s great to see you back. Professor Dwyer’s article mentions complaints made about the cult doctors and how they didn’t receive copies of the complaints let alone a reprimand.
Feline, that’s so true, plenty of people are able to drink alcohol and eat dairy, gluten and sugar etc. in moderation with no detriment to their health. In fact, it’s probably better for their health to be relaxed about diet and enjoy wholesome nutritious food than trying to live on seaweed, nuts and peas and freaking out about PRANA 😮 Freaking out causes a rise in cortisol, the stress hormone, which is known to contribute to degenerative disease and cancer etc. Anyone can get educated about a healthy lifestyle without throwing their money at a hazardous cult.
We Know Who’s bro, please post the link to the doco, in case anyone wants to watch it.
You make great points about UM’s deceptions. In my complaints to the HCCC, I’ve argued that UM has no body positive, health enhancing messages or practices — all of them are damaging, without exception. Now that the new legislation has passed, I may revisit this with the HCCC, including chakrapuncture. Using the word ‘medicine’ in their title, and presenting themselves as a health or healing service are deceptive practices, or as Professor Dwyer wrote – fraudulent.
Again, NSW is the only state with any public protections at all against unregistered health practitioners. So everyone, please write to state and federal health ministers and attorney generals and urge them to legislate such protections.
I disagree, We Know’s Bro, that UMers ‘willingly put themselves into situations where they are covertly programmed’. Margaret Singer talked about thought reform being designed to occur without the person’s knowledge, and Louise Samways talks about ‘covert hypnosis without informed consent’. It’s not so much that followers are willing to get sucked into a sexually abusive death cult, and have their minds damaged, it’s more that they’ve been successfully deceived and manipulated. Although, in Eunice’s case I think she believes her own bullshit, and it happens to be compatible with Serge’s.
Also, you’re getting into controversial territory with the suggestion belief can be wholly replaced with evidence based thinking. I’m not convinced it can be done, due to the vagaries of ‘evidence’. Certainly, much scientific and medical evidence is incontrovertible – the benefits of vaccinations, antibiotics and thousands of other things, but science still doesn’t have evidence for everything – much is still in theoretical form, and evidence can be unclear. Due to the nature of statistics, averages account for many phenomena, but don’t account for the atypical ends of the statistical spectrum. At the risk of sounding like bloody Eunice (who reckons her feelings are more credible than a BMJ study of 10,000 people), there is still a significant degree of uncertainty within science and medicine. Just as there’s so much uncertainty in life. Psychology is one of those areas where evidence is never wholly clear.
We could get into a whole existential humdinger thing – maybe over a few cups of tea or scotch or ayahuasca or something – but the communist regimes attempted to do away with the ‘primitive superstitions’ of religious beliefs, and when the oppression eased, the masses made sure they were allowed their religious beliefs back. I’m not bothered about whether the beliefs are right or wrong, but I think a better point is that legislation is enacted to prevent the use of deception, particularly deceptive health claims, oppressive practices and covert hypnosis. In France, brainwashing is a criminal offence and people have been convicted for it.
Another of the very damaging aspects of cults is what I’d call spiritual abuse – which erodes people’s faith in humanity or life itself, and makes them hesitant to trust or believe in anything at all. As we all know, the minute we consult a doctor, we have to give them our trust, but a patient who has had a bad experience with a cult doctor has told me they are reluctant to trust doctors now. That patient is anxious about seeing a doctor, but has no choice.
I think this has happened with ex UM students and their loved ones as well – to me too. UM is so evil, so deceitful and so abusive, it’s damaged our faith in humanity. So much so that we might overlook that most people are going about their beliefs without harm to anyone.
You’re right… not the forum for philosophical debate…so…(LOL)…
I agree with you about the covert control. It appears to at their own volition but you are correct to point out that they have no choice once that dependency is implanted.
And I think you’re hinting that I have become a hard ugly nosed atheist due to my experience with UM and you are quite right. It has disabused me of any lingering unexamined notion I was holding onto. I agree evidence has grey area’s, but that is the nature of inquiry (and it is there where Serge and his type plant the seeds of their ideas) Personally, I have come to understand that belief in the absence of evidence is irrational. Forming a belief because the evidence is shaky is also irrational (but common- Serge strikes again here) It doesn’t mean one can’t consider possibilities (and even wish they were true) Its not necessary to believe in them though, which is what Serge begs of his followers (as do all other religious/belief systems) Unexamined beliefs then direct our lives and blind us from other possibilities (aka dissonance) Religion, belief systems and Serge rely on their followers being irrational and distrusting their intellect. Their ‘argument’ (which still requires deductive reasoning) is that it can’t be trusted either because it is faulty or limited, and therefore there is a greater knowledge outside of it and what it can observe or deduce. What we know outside of what we can observe and deduce is exactly nothing, so the book should be blank, but instead it is rich with constructs of fertile human imagination which seem to more or less projections of our fear of our mortality and perfected human forms that have transcended the limitations of our mortal coils, time and space. Seems rather convenient. Nice, and of course not necessarily true. It appears as if humans, blessed with high functioning critical reasoning, are suspicious of what it tells us because we don’t like the output of well worn lines of reasoning which probably started the moment we looked up at the sky and went WTF! . Serge (thought not cognizant of that I am sure) uses that existential conundrum to seduce his followers into the ‘way of the mindlessness” .
In my humble opinion 😉 the communist argument has a problem in that superstitions were extinguished along with liberty and opportunity, so they more or less replicated a dark ages feudal society- the sort where superstitions take hold. I wonder what it would be like if we were taught to think (not what to think) in liberal, prosperous, democratic societies?
Doesn’t advance our battle against the cult of course except if people were forewarned they’d be fore-armed. Hope we’re still friends.
Oh Lord, don’t get her started. 🙄
How do you expect me to run this cult, Bro, if you go around thinking differently to me? Tsk!
I guess that excludes me from your cult too.
I’m in two minds about getting into philosophical or theological debates, I don’t want to side track our focus on the cult, but I also don’t want readers to get the impression this site is hostile to belief, or free thinking, free expression and atheism for that matter. I’d rather see diversity of views here and some healthy debate than the clone comments on the propaganda sites. I firmly believe debate and diversity is healthy and encourages people to think for themselves.
A number of our readers are here because they were looking for answers, found Universal Medicine, and for a while believed in Serge’s ‘truth’. I appreciate the pain of discovering you’ve been lied to in the most abusive way. This guy attacks every aspect of people’s selfhood – their health, relationships, sexuality, finances and beliefs/capacity for faith.
I respect that a lot of our readers can be completely satisfied with rejecting belief, and require firm evidence to confirm their existential notions. Fair enough. Personally, I’m on the fence. I don’t know what the answers are. I’m not even sure what the questions are. I’m just trying to survive. However, I could probably say, for me, the argument for the rational approach to absolutely everything is not quite adequate.
I think anyone who’s walking around without their rationality is in serious trouble, and likely part of a cult like UM, but I don’t think belief is necessarily hostile to intellect, or a sense of spirituality or numinousness incompatible with rationality. I think we have the capacity for a bit of everything.
An example is a highly intelligent atheist I know fell into a health crisis, a few months after the death of his father. He was physically ill, laid up, and told me the image of his father’s burial kept replaying in his mind. When I suggested he might be suffering from grief, he gave the rational response: ‘but I know he’s dead. He’s gone. And we didn’t get along well anyway.’ Rationally, he’s correct, but his rationality didn’t help his emotional pain.
Therapies like cognitive behaviour therapy were popular for a while in helping people deal with depression and anxiety by appealing to rationality and reasoning, but have recently fallen out of favour because the approach was found to be limited – not useless, but not as effective as hoped.
The communist argument isn’t all bad. There are plenty of other places where liberty and opportunity are limited – full time for most in the third world or anyone on the margins, but as privileged as even we are, we have those moments too, depending on circumstance. I’m not big on ripping belief out from under people when they’re in vulnerable states, (which, as you say, is exactly what the cult does, replacing prior beliefs with Serge’s mind fuck.) Try telling someone whose lost a child to leukaemia that we’re only here to keep the wheel of evolution going…
I guess what I’m saying, as a dogged agnostic, is that I get how people slip under Serge’s spell. We’re surrounded by confusion and he offers a sham certainty® package. As much as Serge and his ilk erode our sense of faith, I can’t quite get to turning atheist. I mean, the Universe is big, and filled with immeasurable nuclear shit firing off through infinities of time and space, and here we are with these short little insignificant lives that are chockers with intense weirdness and wonder and agony and ecstasy and all that, surrounded by majestic, crazy nature etc. It just seems like a lot of trouble to go to to end up at Richard Dawkins.
The head of the human genome project – a Christian, and elite scientist – said something like ‘Science can tell us the how, but it’s not so good at telling us the why.’
I’ll let you buy me an ayahuasca and tonic if you like, and we can argue about it.
Or we could go bowling.
I never said you were ugly nosed either.
Freudian? I meant, ‘Ugly, hard nosed’…. Btw. A-theist means not “believing” human constructed religions and revelations as to the nature of ultimate reality. It certainly can’t reject the possibility that there is more, but instead says “I don’t know, therefore I am”. Maybe you call that agnostic.
Yah, I call that agnostic. Atheism is a diverse belief system apparently, but the classic, hard nosed atheist rejects belief in a God or gods. (Greek, ‘a’ – without, ‘theos’ – God). An agnostic (‘a’ – without, ‘gnosis’ – knowledge) says, I dunno.
I dunno either, but I’m damned sure Universal Medicine isn’t the answer.
Fun facts time, duckies:
Even with numbers 40% down on last year, the current UK retreat running over 5 days is expected to take AUD$250,000 (GBP£163,000). That’s just the workshop fees, excluding sales of UniMed crap — books, godawful cult music, Eso-herbs blessed by Serge (overpriced curry powder), clearing symbols etc etc.
Strangely, the attendance numbers at the UK retreat appear to be the same as at the Vietnam Retreat.
UniMed has another 6 events scheduled at the Lighthouse over the next 6 weeks, 4 of which are 2 day workshops. (Including a ‘relationship workshop’ 😮 ) In other words, correct me if I’m wrong, my maths is crap, they’ll probably take another half a million AUD$ in workshop fees alone. They charge £90 for a day of ‘The Livingness’.
Also, the cult tries to pretend they don’t read this site, lol, but whenever there are events in the UK, the UK audience increases significantly. Cheerio Sergio 😀
Next, ever since I posted about Esoteric Breast Massage, we get a couple of dozen hits a day from pornography enthusiasts. We can tell by the exuberant search terms. No doubt Women in Lyingness cops similar. Isn’t that so, Rebecca? My point is, the only people who think EBM isn’t sleazy are in the cult.
Its anything from £160K if Serge hoodwinks just 100 into attending, and upwards from there. Even at worst, his little sojourn to the UK has put another 1/2M $AUD in his pocket. Must be a lot of costs in revealing the true nature of reality, or running “cancer clinics” (former cover story for property acquisitions) or maintain fleet of Alpha’s and UM plated transporters. Not bad for a guy who I was told for a long time “doesn’t take any money for himself”….. which later became “It’s his money. Are you jealous because he’s successful!?” ( answer: not my definition of success, and I wouldn’t mind my money back actually)