Juan Ford, Ultrapilgrim
Prior to adopting the Sound Foundation charity as the tax exempt front for Universal Medicine’s commercial operations in the UK, cult leader, Serge Benhayon, attempted to obtain charity status for his business by pitching it as a religion called ‘The Way of the Livingness‘. His marketing department sent out an email call to the faithful to provide testimonial on how the Livingness has benefited those around them. In spite of the propaganda, sanity prevailed and the Church of $erge failed to gain tax exemption from the UK Charity Commission. However, his ‘charity’ merely emerged in different packaging, undisclosed.
From:<noreply@universalmedicine.com.au>
Date: Sat, Jan 30, 2010 at 12:50 PM
Subject: Unimed Trust
To: [ ]
Dear Students,
As you may be aware we have been talking to the Charity Commission in the UK about setting up a Universal Medicine Trust, which would be a fantastic next step in establishing the New World Religion. The role of the Charity will be to help grow the availability and teaching of the Livingness, as well as providing numerous benefits and a safe haven for the work, and the many bequests that you have kindly offered.
During the Charity Application Process, one element that we must prove to the Commissioner is the Public Benefit that such a charity would provide. We feel that the best way to prove this Public Benefit is to present testimonials from you, the people who have been studying the livingness and will have seen and felt the changes to your life and to those around you. As such, and only if you feel this is appropriate, can you please send us a testimonial of how the work has had an impact on you in the sense of its wider appeal.
The process itself is a very precise legal (pranic) exercise, and therefore the testimonials will have to follow some simple guidelines. (If they don’t, we will not be able to submit them);
A) Please keep the Testimonial to one page of A4
B) The Testimonial “cannot be described in private or personal terms as this confirms the Commissioners opinion that the organisation is not for the public benefit”. In other words the Testimonial cannot be focussed on the impact it has had on you.
C) “Public Benefit might be established where the religion beliefs and practices (The Livingness) reflected in the doctrines and code of that particular religion (ie the Books, the Arcane, EDG’s etc), encourage its adherents to conduct themselves in a socially responsible way in the wider community”. So the focus is on the affect that you doing the work has had on groups of people that you are with – ie. what Clark Kent has been doing…..
Our feeling is that the way to approach this requirement is if you can share your experiences of the beneficial impact that you being in the Livingness has had on a group of people, for instance;
1. Family & Friends
2. Business & Work (specifically patients, customers, suppliers etc)
3. The wider communityPlease can you send us your testimonials over the next couple of weeks so we can compile this for our next submission to the Charity Commission in February. The best testimonial will be the one where they can feel the impact that your light and service shine out of the page!
If you have any questions, then please contact Simon Williams at [**@lighthouse-uk.com ]
With love,
The Universal Medicine TrustYou have received this email because you have subscribed to a mail list maintained by Universal Medicine.
To update or change your subscription settings please log in to http://www.universalmedicine.com.au with your username and password. If you believe this email has been received in error please email contact@universalmedicine.com.au
Many of our readers would have loved the opportunity to send their testimonials to the UK Charity Commission to outline the detrimental effects Serge Benhayon’s grubby religion has had on their relationships, health, finances and families. However, it wasn’t necessary in that instance, as reported in a not for profit sector journal, the Third Sector in September 2011.
The Charity Commission refuses to register the organisation on the grounds that it does not fall within the definition of religion in charity law
The Charity Commission has declined to grant charitable status to an organisation called The Way of the Livingness, the Religion of the Soul Trust, on the grounds that it is not a religion and some of its objects are not charitable.
The organisation, which promotes adherence to a philosophy described as the “way of the livingness”, applied for charitable status, listing among its objects “to raise awareness and understanding of religious soul-full [sic] life by the development of the key principles relating to self love and energetic integrity”.
Other objects included “to work for reconciliation, truth-telling and harmonious union by the promotion of the understanding that by living in harmony with our surroundings we improve the environment for all”.
In a document giving its decision not to register the group as a charity, published last month, the regulator says: “The Way of the Livingness appears to be a form of theosophy, which the court has decided is not a religion as charity law understands that term.
“Even if it were not a form of theosophy, the commission is not satisfied that it falls within the definition of religion in charity law.”
It says the object “to raise awareness and understanding of religious soul-full [sic] life” is not charitable, and that the dissolution clause in the organisation’s trust deed might allow the trust’s assets to be applied for non-charitable purposes. It also says the application did not demonstrate a public benefit.
“In reaching its conclusion, the commission confirmed that it is neither its role nor intention to judge the inherent worth of the Trust for the Way of the Livingness, but only to consider the narrower question of whether it met the test laid down in law for registration as a charity,” the regulator’s report says.
Third Sector was unable to reach anyone connected to The Way of the Livingness for comment.
Note that Australia has not had any form of public benefit test for charities until a new bill was introduced this year. Let’s hope the ACNC get it right.
The UK Charity Commission published the decision on their site, including the Way of the Livingness objects, which are similar, if not identical to those of the tax exempt College of Universal Medicine in Australia.
But as we know, the Way of the Livingness simply dismissed the failed bid to resurface undisclosed under the name of an existing charity, The Sound Foundation.
Universal Medicine is attempting to gain tax exempt charity status as a religion in Australia, which we believe to be an insult to authentic religious charities that operate for the public benefit, and an abuse of the system. By now our readers are familiar with Universal Medicine’s catalogue of abuses affecting individuals, families and communities, and that the UM charities merely operate to provide tax exemption for Benhayon’s harmful commercial enterprise, maximizing funds to expand holdings and operations, which will only come with more detriment and more victims.
Please refer to the Prohibiting Serge Benhayon page for contact details of federal parliamentarians, and please write to your local federal member and others on the list, including Senator Xenophon, and ask them how the College of Universal Medicine was allowed charity status when its teachings are anti-education and anti-charity. Ask them to scrutinize the ACNC’s process for assessing Universal Medicine’s bid for religious status, and please tell your story and express your outrage at this abuse of tax payers. Please don’t assume other readers are doing this. Assume that they’re not, and waiting for someone else (me) to act for them. Our complaints have more impact in numbers. Please help.
The Tax Exempt Sound Foundation Charitable Trust – Donating to Serge Benhayon’s UK Church
The Tax Exempt Universal Medicine College and Fiery Building Fund – Donating to the Church of $erge
UNIVERSAL MEDICINE ACCOUNTABILITY 
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/some-churches-run-more-like-cults/story-fn59nsif-1226601968570#
This article gives a clue as to why Serge and co want to be regarded as religion. It will bestow some automatic rights and removes a lot of transparency that will be required under the new public benefit test.
In the UK, UM could not gain status a religious charity because it’s not a religion and their constitution allows directors to carve up the assets amongst themselves or other parties. The constitution is more or less the same here, allowing the directors to take money out of the “charity” any way they see fit and with little or no transparency. The same applies to the assets.
In both cases, there is no interest in charitable work as we might understand it, simply a one way vault and some airy-fairy objects which amounts to Serge being subsidized while continuing to recruit and brainwash on the sly.
If it were successful, it would empower CUM to snaffle up more government grants this time more directly. (unlike a couples years back when it backdoored $750K via the YMCA) So you’d have Serge paying no tax and getting the government to give him more money which would result him thinking he must be a sixth level master- and the cult stepping up another gear, emboldened by the implied legitimacy.
We’re at a cross roads with that. We need to make sure it doesn’t get a tick of approval from a careless government department. For some reason they don’t ask the public what they think when a registration is under way, so let’s do it for them. Take Venus’s advice- write letters to the ACNC and explain how UM is not a religion, but a life sucking cult run by a conman whose conveniently stepped aside while the review process was on. One good look at their current constitution should sound alarm bells to anyone with half a brain, but we are talking about bureaucrats predisposed to doing nothing except “consulting” rather than investigating.
We know there is hundreds of pissed off people between Lismore and Cairns and the same again scattered around Australia and the world. Start typing. You don’t even need to buy a stamp or walk it down to the P.O tomorrow. Now is a good time.
If you write to the ACNC, CC the email to your local federal members of parliament and senate, and Senator Xenophon. Because the ACNC is a statutory body, not a government department, it doesn’t come under the portfolio of any one minister, but reports to the whole of federal parliament. We need our public representatives to look at the ACNC’s operations and put pressure on the regulator to stop giving a free pass to rorters and abusers.
The email address for the ACNC: advice@acnc.gov.au
Contact me via the contact form tabbed at the top of this page if you need assistance.
If you hit the paywall for that article cited by You know who this is the full paste:
Note that the 2013 Charities Bill was passed in June, including the introduction of a public benefit test, however rumour has it that the ACNC is taking a soft ‘collaborative’ approach with non compliant charities, which in the case of UM, who are seeking to expand the pyramid scheme of abuse at tax payer expense, that is simply not good enough and we need to apply pressure to representatives and the regulator.
Especially since the HCCC have shown no will to investigate complaints of serious harm, in spite of having new powers to investigate without complaints from individual patients.
“Public benefit had not been demonstrated” LOL I think the UKCC got that one exactly right. There is no public or in fact ANY benefit to be had when following the soul-full way of the livingness, and it’s quite ironic that followers were asked to write about how their families benefit from the teachings of this cult.
My personal goal is to get the UKCC to transfer all of the sound foundation’s assets to another ‘proper’ charity. Wouldn’t that be fab? Serge would explode if that actually happens… Two birds killed with one stone, so to speak. And Venus is right, we all have to do our bit because it really needs a concerted effort to bring those motherfuckers down.
I am planning to write up an easy to digest summary of UM and Serge’s teachings and send it to the UKCC and also to the organisers of NHS self care week (I spoke to my GP last week about it and he was so taken aback and delighted by the gossip at the same time, I’m pretty sure he’s already spreading the word). I will also email my letter of complaint to Venus and if anyone can’t be arsed to sum up the UM scam they can get the template from her.
Let’s pull our fingers out, people. The UM brigade is in panic mode and it probably only needs another us and the whole thing implodes.
Can you publish the addresses of relevant people in the UK CC we can write to if you know them please? The CC website allows for complaints, but it’s process does not really allow people to explain how they have been negatively effected by UM (and by extension it’s “charity” the Sound Foundation – which I can’t believe they are allowing to continue with charity status, when having denied UM that status in the first place, but that’s another letter I am drafting…).
Keep up the good work!
Hello, sorry we can’t post a contact for the UKCC because it’s too sensitive, and we can’t give the reason because that is also sensitive information.
I agree it’s a good idea, but we are not aware of the status of the investigation at this point, and the Commission is not required to disclose it.
What I would suggest is that you use the contact form they provide and give reasons for why you believe the Sound Foundation is the undisclosed charity front for Universal Medicine in the UK. You could use the evidence provided here and perhaps give some examples of Sound Foundation events staffed by those profiting from UM, and that those events are promoting UM services. For example, Simone Benhayon et al giving women free arm massages at the IWD event to promote Esoteric healing services, or any other examples you know of. The best examples will be people recruited to UM dependency with all of the damage that brings – if they can be shown to be recruited at any events or services run by SF trustees, or if they were recruited or began their UM habit at an SF event.
But don’t just leave it with the UKCC, send your message to your local MP and any British politicians or community leaders who have taken an interest in or been critical of the UKCC, or any representatives who have spoken out against cults. Again, it’s a case of the public applying pressure so that these matters are not shoved under the carpet.
I think it’s a great point to make that UM openly named the SF as their UK charity until the regulator took an interest. That the Way of the Livingness failed to get charity status, but simply adopted an established charity set up by Benhayon’s business partner without disclosing the backing (or that UM is the main beneficiary) to the Commission, that the SF has done miniscule charity work and when they have, the events are marketing UM services.
In the meantime, UM followers and their families are suffering.
And thank you, pranabunny and anyone else who writes a letter for making the effort.
UK readers please CC the local member for the Frome area and possibly the borough of London where Sara Williams has her clinic – Spherical Living.
Sorry, I’m too busy to look those details up, but if any of our UK readers would like to supply names and contact details. Can you name any politicians or high profile academics etc speaking out about cults?
You might also consult with the Family Survival Trust http://www.familysurvivaltrust.org/index.php They might be able to point you in the direction of public figures who may help advocate for us.
MP for Frome and Somerton: David Heath http://www.davidheath.co.uk/
These are a couple of interesting articles on cults from The Telegraph newspaper in UK:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/9061694/How-Igot-sucked-into-a-cult.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/10375807/What-its-like-to-escape-from-a-cult.html
I suggest anyone writing in the UK to their MPs also contacts the journalists responsible for these articles as this paper seems to have an interest in cults.
I’ll have a dig around and see if I can find a politician or 2 that have an interest in this area…
Thank you Super Sleuth. David Heath looks promising because he’s also a medical practitioner and a Liberal Democrat, so likely to be protective of abuses of NHS initiatives, and have a good bullshit detector when it comes to New Age ‘healers’.
Wherever you are, include your local MP in your addressees, as well as the MPs for Somerset or the Lismore Byron Bay area and any others who’ve taken an interest in abuse of the charity system or cults. Any MP in Australia or the UK can raise charity regulation issues in parliament as it’s not part of a ministerial portfolio. I’d like as many MPs as possible to be looking at UM seeing their tentacles extend nationally and internationally.
Confused? Ask questions here.
Good on you Pranabunny. Your anecdote reminds me of the reactions I have had from medical practitioners and also alternative practitioners around these parts who have been slammed by Serge over the years. Aghast is an understatement. But for whatever reason, most of them are not prepared to speak up. My thoughts are they have know people in the group, have patients involved, or are afraid of losing even more business if Serge goes out of his way to blacklist them, which he has done on several occasions.
So to all those doctors and practitioners, now is your chance to have a say. The ACNC won’t pass your comments along to the cult or Serge. Here’s an opportunity to say something. To the doctors who have expressed concern about their patients mental and physical health and their relationships- Speak up. To the alternative practitioners who have nearly lost their businesses to Serge’s denouncements, say something. It doesn’t need to be elegant. Just click the email and write something. UM escalating to a full blown religious charity will just mean more problems for you and the community. Take a few minutes now. Please.
My favourite LOL from the marketing division’s call to the gullible is this bit:
The role of the Charity will be to help grow the availability and teaching of the Livingness, as well as providing numerous benefits and a safe haven for the work, and the many bequests that you have kindly offered.
Kindly offered after SERGE HAS CALLED FOR DONATIONS AT EVERY SINGLE CULT EVENT HELD FOR YEARS.
Perhaps in their testimonials, the cultees told the UKCC how thrilled their families were that they’d given or bequeathed large portions of their assets to a pint sized multi millionaire pervert.
This is from the ACNC website, and is pretty much the same as the UKCC – seeing the Australian Commission was modelled on the UK one.
“You can raise a concern with us if a registered charity is (or could be):
losing a significant amount of money or assets without a reason
harming the people who benefit from the charity
set up for illegal or improper purposes, such as being a ‘sham’ charity
being used for the private benefit of members
being misgoverned or mismanaged in a way that puts it at serious risk
involved in criminal activities
posing a threat to national security such as funding or engaging in terrorist activities
otherwise breaching the ACNC Act or acting in a way that threatens public trust and confidence in the charity and the sector more broadly.
We don’t get involved in complaints outside our responsibilities like:
fundraising
internal disputes, such as disagreements within a charity, that are not a serious risk or do not breach the ACNC Act
contracts a charity has with other organisations (other government departments and agencies often look at this issue)
the services a charity provides
policies or actions of boards or directors that are within their powers
employment issues such as unfair dismissal.”
http://www.acnc.gov.au/ACNC/Contact_us/Raise_Concern/ACNC/Adv/Raise_Concern.aspx?hkey=5fe0e51d-b2e3-4417-8de9-799d0f90b483
An update just came in from the UK Charity Commission.
They have confirmed they are monitoring the Sound Foundation, and the charity has ‘been given an action plan that they will need to satisy the Commission they have completed by 1 May 2014.’
One wonders if the cult’s followers have been informed the Commission found serious irregularities in their operations.
This is a partial win for sanity, but our work isn’t over. The SF are still backed by an opportunistic, deceiving, parasitial cult that is actively harming vulnerable people. The SF’s activities, staffed by conniving bastards and deluded sycophants are toxic, no matter how legit they try to make them look.
We should still push a case for harm to beneficiaries, make the SF’s backing known to the local area, politicians, media, local community groups etc and make sure the SF does not raise money to pretend to be a charity, only to revert to the usual scam once the UKCC averts its gaze.
UM ‘investors’ THINK about those direct debit donations you continue to make and how you will feel when the Charity Commission reallocates the assets ‘owned by the students’ to a worthy charity that will use them to benefit the public – for real.
Personally, I’d want my money back.
Is it possible to publish more of the update, without harming on-going investigations?
Sorry Super Sleuth, that’s the best we can do. The Commission are restricted in what they are able to tell us. So we can’t give more detail because we don’t have it. They’ve acknowledged receipt of all evidence submitted, we were told they would meet with the trustees in June this year, and this is the latest update. What we can conclude though is they uncovered irregularities which require monitoring and correction.
Let’s see how rotten to the core Benhayon Inc. fares at going straight.
Communications from regulators are restricted as a rule, which is why we never leave major complaints with regulators without drawing attention to them from politicians, the media and other interested parties. Questions from MPs and the media to the regulators puts pressure on them to do the job right.
It’s good to know that SF is on their radar and as a regulatory body I actually have quite a lot of faith in them. It’s also further undeniable evidence that the way UM is operating is not above board. Same as the TGA investigation in AU. All these infractions add up to reveal to the wider public the corruption of UM. The love bloggers can keep extolling the virtues of Serge Benhayon as long as they like, but every time a legitimate, independent, organisation actually looks in to UM, UM comes up lacking in integrity and truth. It’s not going to sway the paid up members, but it’s certainly going to give pause for thought for new initiates.
Aw Venus, you’re always so serious, lately. Come on and celebrate a little bit…This is more you…
We haven’t won yet, duckie.
No, but we do have to stay up all night to get lucky….at mission critical that is. Great tune. Very pranic. Full of life and joy. So not UM.
Half the night for me duckie. I AM NOT pulling all nighters going after the grimy little perve. Ironically though, I forgot to put my phone on do not disturb last night, so woke up ‘ping’ when the emails came through from the UK.
We’ve come too far to give up who we are…
She’s up all night to get lucky
Hey, Super Sleuth, I agree. Personally I think the UKCC are a pretty sharp outfit. As shown on their site, they’ve denied charity status to a number of groups, and are used to dealing with non compliance (bullshitters).
The ACNC on the other hand are on trainer wheels.
Either way, I don’t want to leave it to the regulators alone. We need support to get this done right.
Unfortunately I have up close and personal recent experience of the White Wash that is this Cult. I will be writing to the Member Of Parliament local to The Sound Foundation to put him in the picture about their web of connections with Universal Medicine. There are other people on my list to contact too including The Charity Commission.
I will happily refer to these blogs and point to all this detailed information and the evidence that is all here, and I will be able to add my own testimony on top, like a sort of shitty cream.
I will sign my name on my letters and ask that my information be circulated among MPs and Councillors as widely as possible. ‘They’ won’t like it much, but I am personally SCARED for the population close to the UK UM hell ‘hub’. Under the guise of a nicey-nicey lovey-dovey wellbeing & health chill-out bolt-hole is a zombified, international, uncaring, alien but compelling set of lunatic ideals and fundamentalists.
That’s All!
Donut, you ROCK!
Yes, anyone writing complaints, it’s important to add your personal experiences of UM to your complaints. It’s not enough to tell the politicians UM are a cult and a bunch of arseholes. That won’t get anywhere. Please tell them how the cult has affected you or your loved ones, how it has changed them and how much involvement with UM has cost.
NOW, for a little bit of art appreciation. We love the above image by Australian painter, Juan Ford, and we thought it a perfect depiction for the sorry Way of the Livingness. Our pilgrim is draped in a discarded shower curtain, probably from one of Sergio’s bathrooms he keeps doorless for when the little girls come over. The student’s head is covered and as they focus on their connectedness or whatever, they can’t see that the Way is heading straight for a precipice. Yet, they trudge on, shrouded in a cheap curtain of denial, weighed down by the lightweight garbage that is Sergio’s Esoteric teachings.
I have a few people on MY list, including some of the more high profile members of the NHS Self Care Forum board. I have feeling that the actual organiser of the Self Care event didn’t quite know what to do with the information about UM and has decided to ignore the facts. Well, we’ll see what Ian Banks and Co have to say about the culties hijacking the NHS forum.
Oh, hey, listen up……did we collectively realise that Serge is in the UK RIGHT NOW? As we speak he’s laying out his wares and sticky expensive traps and hoping for a good turnover during the ‘courses’ and sessions that run at The Lighthouse, Frome, Somerset from Friday till Sunday. High level hypnosis will be taking place, I urge anyone to go along and ask for a full fat hot chocolate, large glass of Pinot and three packets of crisps! See for yourselves, if you haven’t already, the strange collective effect it has on the ‘students’ and families. If you have a really good bullshit detector then you can sit in the cafe and laugh (or cry) to yourself as they have their hugs and seeds for lunch.
No I didn’t realize that, but The Northern Star did just report that the air in Goonellabah is suddenly fresher without the persistent reek of bullshit.
I daresay the Charity Commission know Sergio is in town too. The bunker staff sent them the Benhayon cash raking circus schedule.
Sweet.
There’s a really nice pub just down the road from The Lighthouse that serves good ale and a tasty lunch too. So for any one heading down for a ringside view of the circus, I heartily recommend heading down there at lunch break time. I am sure they
have seen a fair few escapees in their time!
Surely some alarm bells must have gone off amongst UM followers at the revelation that Benhayon, who has publicly condemned charities as ‘evil’, impudently tried to register UM as a charity in the UK and that when this was rightly refused, UM’s activities appear to have been shoehorned into the SF Charity. Did UM really do this? Certainly, by Benhayon’s reasoning, this would have made UM an ‘evil’ charity? Or was it to reap the tax benefits of operating as such? I am sure the tax authorities in the UK would be interested in these events since Registered Charities benefit from some exemptions from paying the European T.V.A. (VAT in the UK).
Are we discussing the possibility of deliberate fraud here or a series of incompetent errors by those responsible for the tax affairs of UM in Europe ? There seems to be one rule for the UM theocracy and another for the rest of us who live in the ‘pranic’ world where charity, transparency, freedom of speech and rational discussion enrich our lives and enable us to identify hypocrisy and charlatanism.
Incompetent errors among UM’s tax affairs? No way and no excuses. Sound Foundation trustee and major donor, Michael Nicholson, is a chartered accountant and the CEO of Abacus Financial Services, ‘the leading provider of financial services to HM (military) Forces’. Incompetent errors aren’t a good look for a multi-millionaire financial services provider. Lighthouse proprietor and UM UK company director, Simon Williams, is also a chartered accountant.
I think we all say the same thing daily. Surely some alarm bells must have gone off…
But no.
Charity is evil, except for Serge’s. Religion is evil, except for Serge’s. Capitalism is evil, except for Universal Medicine Pty Ltd and its myriad of offshoot businesses and the pyramid scheme cartel. Education is loveless, unless it’s Serge’s One Unified Truth® as presented through Serge’s Universal Medicine College. Alternative medicine is evil, unless its Esoteric healing taught by Serge. Molestation is TERRIBLE, but when Serge does it it’s a blessing.
‘His hands are nowhere near her lady parts’.
Alarm bells?
Legitimate charity is ‘evil’ because it has the potential to divert followers’ funds and minds from the Benhayon tax exempt mind fuck and money pit. As do competing healing modalities, competing spiritualities, competing religions…
Men are loveless, abusive bastards who are incapable of making love and probably want to “split” underage girls, apart from Serge ‘I can’t stop talking about rape and pedophilia but it’s perfectly safe to send your underage daughters to sleep over at my house and don’t forget I’m the only man in the universe who has full body orgasms and I can feel how jealous that makes you’ Benhayon.