On this thought-provoking Blog, Englishman, David Brear, guides us to the dark heart of a modern-day, totalitarian labyrinth and shines a piercing light on its manipulative rulers and manipulated inhabitants. First, he provides a spool of unbreakable thread so that we can all find our way safely home. Blog readers may contact David Brear via: axiombooks@wanadoo.fr
In the tragi-comic era of Donald Trump, Alex Jones and 'QAnon,' the reality-inverting 'totalitarian' information/mind control technique known as, the 'Big Lie,' has suddenly attracted the attention of a new generation of critical commentators. That is to say, the spreading of a falsehood which is so colossal and outrageous that the average person cannot even begin to conceive that anyone would have the audacity to invent it. Yet, it has been known for a long time that, when even the most-crazy of 'Big Lies' gets repeated enough times, eventually many people will come to accept it as the truth. The actual truth then becomes a threat to the self-esteem of those who have fallen for the 'Big Lie,' and in this way, the actual truth itself can become mistaken for a lie. Consequently, the 'Big Lie' can be described as a form of sustainable criminal deception, because it can also prevent victims from facing reality and complaining.
Bearing the 'Big Lie' in mind, Japanese trade regulators have suddenly shut down 'Amway.' The issuing of all new recruitment contracts, and all transactions, have been banned for 6 months (to start with), but only on the limited grounds that 'Amway' has been behind 'illegal soliciting.' In simple terms, Japanese regulators have taken this action because they have received complaints from a significant number of people who realise that they were deceived into signing up for 'Amway.'
'Amway' was first registered in Japan as long ago as the late 1970s (some sources say 1977 whilst others say 1979) and the hidden criminal function of this reality-inverting corporate front has evidently not yet been officially recognised. That said, more than 20 years ago, I encountered a group of Japanese lawyers attending a conference on cults in Paris. They were very interested to speak with me about the cultic aspect of 'Amway,' but I never heard a word from them after the event. At that time, I was informed that around 1% of the entire Japanese population* were claimed as current contractors of 'Amway.' This was a significantly higher % than anywhere else in the world.
(*The entire population of Japan has been approximately 125 millions during the last several decades).
Thus, in the mid-1990s, 'Amway' was claiming more than 1.2 millions Japanese 'Distributors.' This means that, even at an annual churn rate of only 50%, 'Amway' was eating and spitting out around 0.5% of the entire Japanese population annually. That is significantly more than 1% of the adult population and over 10% per decade. Indeed, the Japanese chapter of the Big 'Amway' Lie has been particularly colossal and outrageous. Imagine if there were more than a million McDonalds restaurant franchises in Japan, but these were all secretly operating at a net-loss and being quietly closed (and replaced) annually at a rate in excess of 50%. Imagine also if not one of the human links in a never-ending chain of would-be business owners had been told that the overall net-loss churn rate for participation was effectively 100% (by design). Yet this demonstrably-fake 'Business/income opportunity' is the 'Big Lie' that the 'Amway'bosses have been peddling, and getting away with peddling, in Japan for decades - and right under the noses of Japanese journalists, regulators, law enforcement agents, legislators, etc.
In the UK, with a population of around 68 millions (just over half that of Japan), 'Amway' has never had more than around 100 000 claimed contractors. Interestingly, in 2007 British 'Amway' recruitment was also suspended when the UK company faced limited civil investigation (and possible closure) as the front for a pyramid scheme. The investigation discovered that at least one million contracts had been issued in the UK 1973-2006. As a result of the suspension of all new recruitment, the number of claimed 'Amway' contractors quickly collapsed to under 20 000 in Britain at that time.
Subsequently, the 'Amway UK Ltd.' mysteriously survived the regulators' somewhat timid attempts to close it definitively.
It is to be hoped that the same mistakes will not be made in Japan.
In 1945, whilst most, contemporary mainstream commentators were unable to look beyond the ends of their noses, with a perfect sense of irony,'George Orwell'(1903-1950) presented fact asfictionin an insightful'fairy story'entitled,'Animal Farm.'Herevealed that totalitarianism is merely the oppressors'fiction mistaken forfactby the oppressed. In the same universal allegory, Orwelldescribed how, at a time of vulnerability, almost any people's dream of a future, secure, Utopian existence can be hung over the entrance to a totalitarian deception. Indeed, the words that are always banished by totalitarian deceivers are, 'totalitarian' and 'deception.' Sadly, when it comes to examining the same enduring phenomenon, albeit with an ephemeral 'American/Capitalist'label, most contemporary, mainstream commentators have again been unable to look further than the ends of their noses. However, if they followedOrwell's example, and did some serious thinking, this is the reality-inverting nightmare they would find.
Whilst watching this kitsch video of the 'Amway' fairy story, keep in mind that the quantifiable evidence proves (beyond all reasonable doubt) that, since 1959, tens of millions of individuals around the world have been churned through the so-called'Amway income opportunity' whilst the overall, hidden net-loss/churn rate for so-called 'Amway Independent Business Owners' is effectively-100%
Again bearing the above in mind, back in the late 1990s, I contacted (separately) two (apparentlyindependent) 'cult advice associations' (legally-registered as ‘charities’ in the UK), ‘Catalyst’ and the ‘Cult Information Centre.’I had an urgent enquiry about‘Amway.’I was obviously upset and in quite a vulnerable state, but I clearly explained to their directors that my brother (a teacher living in the north of England) had completely changed personality and become a would-be 'Amway millionaire.' I also clearly explained that my confused, widowed, elderly mother (with whom my brother was now living and who's large house he had turned into an 'Amway' recruitment centre) was in the process of signing over all my family's considerable capital assets into my brother's name.
Ian Howarth
Graham Baldwin
In ignorance, I had assumed that Graham Baldwin (Director of ‘Catalyst’) and Ian Howarth (Director of ‘CIC’)were free-thinking individuals who specialised in the study of cults, and who provided independent free advice, and accurate information, to enquirers. However, both systematically excluded all quantifiable evidence to the contrary and they began to gaslight me - pretending that‘Amway’ is a multi-national corporationoffering individuals a business/income opportunity which a minority of participants have imagined to be a pyramid scam because they have lost money. They insisted that my concerns about ‘Amway’ being a cult were ridiculous, unfounded rumours spread by the organization’s commercial competitors and repeated by biased and ill-informed journalists. This was apparently in reference to‘Amway’ having been profiled in the UK (in 1994) in a major ‘Time Out’ magazine article entitled, ‘Hidden Persuaders.' The article was published despite typical (empty) threats from the legal representatives of ‘Amway UK.’ In fact, Graham Baldwin was even briefly mentioned as a 'London-based cult adviser and former University Chaplain' who had received various calls fromconcerned 'Amway' adherents. Other, newspaper reports, variously described Baldwin as a 'former Army, or Military, Intelligence officer.'
After conducting further research, I discovered that Ian Howarth has absolutely no qualifications relevant to the cult phenomenon, whilst Graham Baldwin obtained a standard degree in 'religious studies' at Kings College London in 1986. Baldwin then persuaded members of the faculty of Kings College that there was a growing problem with cult recruiters on campus, and that he was going to tackle it by offering information and advice to students. This led to Graham Baldwin briefly styling himself as 'Chaplain' (a meaningless, but impressive, title). When I made enquiries to the religious studies Dept. of Kings College London to establish whether Mr. Baldwin had once been employed there, and why he had suddenly abandoned his self-appointed post of 'Chaplain,' I was contacted by the college's aggressive legal representative who informed me that, due to data protection legislation,none of my questions could be answered. However, when Icontacted the UK Ministry of Defence, I discovered that Graham Baldwin's career as James Bond, is a fabrication.
The 1994 ‘special investigation’ published in 'Time Out' by News/features Editor, Tony Thompson, was headed:
‘Amway says it can make you rich beyond your dreams with its multi-level marketing system; critics say it only makes money for a very few at the top, and its techniques are worryingly cult-like.’
Far from being ill-informed, Tony Thompson had cited in his article the work of Professor Robert Jay Lifton who, in 1961 (after 10 years of detailed research, interviewing US servicemen held prisoner during the Korean War), published, ‘Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism.’ In this standard, medical text-book, Dr. Lifton identified 8 ‘themes’ which, if present in any group, indicate that its members are being subjected to a mixture of social, psychological and physical pressures, designed to produce radical changes in their individual beliefs, attitudes and behaviour.
1).‘Milieu control’— the attempted control of everything an individual experiences (i.e. sees, hears, reads, writes and expresses). This includes discouraging subjects from contacting friends and relatives outside the group and undermining trust in exterior sources of information; particularly, the independent media.
2).‘Personal or mystical manipulation’ — charismatic (psychologically dominant) leaders create a separate environment where specific behaviour is required; leading to group members believing that they have been chosen and that they have a special purpose. Normally group members will insist that they have not been coerced into group membership, and that their new way of life and beliefs are the result of a completely free-choice.
3). ‘Demand for purity’ — everything in life becomes either pure or impure, negative or positive, etc. This builds up a sense of shame and guilt. The idea is promoted that there is no alternative method of thinking or middle way, to that promoted by the group or by those outside it. Everything in life is either good or bad and anything is justified provided the group sanctions it as good.
4). ‘Confession’— personal weaknesses are admitted to, to demonstrate how group membership can transform an individual. Group members often have to rewrite their personal histories and those of their friends and relatives, denigrating their previous lives and relationships. Other techniques include group members writing personal reports on themselves and others. Outsiders are presented as a threat who will only try to return group members to their former incorrect thinking.
5). ‘Sacred science’ — the belief in an inexplicable power system or secret knowledge, derived from a hierarchy who must be copied and who cannot be challenged. Often the group’s leaders claim to be followers of traditional historical figures (particularly, established political, scientific and religious thinkers). Leaders promote the idea that their own teaching will also benefit the entire world, and it should be spread.
6). ‘Loading the language’ — a separate vocabulary used to bond the group together and short-circuit critical thought processes. This can become second nature within the group, and talking to outsiders can become difficult and embarrassing. Derogatory names, or directly racist terms, are often given to outsiders.
7). ‘Doctrine over persons’ — individual members are taught to alter their own view of themselves before they entered the group. Former attitudes and behaviour must then be re-interpreted as worthless, and/or dangerous, using the new values of the group.
8).‘Dispensing of existence’ — promotion of the belief that outsiders — particularly, those who disagree with the teaching of the group — are inferior and are doomed. Therefore, they can be manipulated, and/or cheated, and/or dispossessed, and/or destroyed. This is justifiable, because outsiders only represent a danger to salvation.
In 1994 'Amway' claimed '73 000 Independent Business Owners' in the UK, but the company acknowledged a staggering annual churn-rate of at least 50%. Tony Thompson discovered that almost all 'Amway' adherents were losing money (some to the tune of tens of thousands of £), whilst the majority of financial activity within the ranks of the organization in the UK, was actually the sale of publications, recordings, tickets to meetings, etc., on the pretext that these 'optional' materials were 'vital to achieving total financial freedom.'
Tony Thompson also discovered that, since 1973, the UK branch of this fraud had secretly generated hundreds of millions of pounds in cash (without the payment of UK tax) and that it was being run behind various (apparently independent) UK-registered corporate fronts, including, 'International Business Systems UK,' but that the bulk of the illegal profits were being shipped to'Amway Diamonds'in the USA, like 'Pastor'Dexter Yager.
In other words, the so-called 'Amway MLM income opportunity'is the bait in a cultic trap.
Almost a decade after Tony Thompson's 'Time Out' article exposing 'Amway, ' American network television discovered the identical racket in the USA, but hidden behind the corporate front of 'Quixtar.'
From my own disturbing experience with members of my family, after reading Tony Thompson’s article and examining other similar evidence collected by the French cult advice association, UNADFI (Union of Associations for the Defence of the Family and the Individual), I had immediately realized that my brother (at a vulnerable time in his life) had (in exchange for an illusory Utopianoffer of 'future freedom, prosperity and happiness') sold his soul to a gang of American-based racketeers. I also realized that all Lifton's published ‘thought reform themes’ were present within ‘Amway.’ However, this obvious analysis was systematically rejected by Messrs. Baldwin and Howarth. Laughably, they actually tried to undermine my trust in the independent media (an information-control technique, clearly-explained in the first of Lifton's 'themes'). Yet, at this time, Baldwin admitted to having around 70 ‘Amway clients’ on file, whilst Howarth acknowledged having at least 50.When I asked: Exactly why , if 'Amway'wasn't a cult, had all these people contacted 'Catalyst' and the'Cult Information Centre'?; and: If any ‘Amway clients’had been passed on to legislators, law enforcement agents or to journalists in the UK?; Messrs. Baldwin and Howarth refused to reply. Furthermore, they then began to challenge the authenticity of my own encounter with ‘Amway.’When I refused to accept their inflexible opinion of ‘Amway’ as 'non-cultic,'both posed as innocent victims under attack. They pretendedmoral and intellectual authority, treating me as though I had absolutely no right to question them, because they were experts.I was finally asked for money by Ian Howarth in return for his ‘advice,’whilst Graham Baldwin told me that he had once been an ‘officer in British Army Intelligence’ and that although he didn't 'charge for advice,' it was customary to give his charity a 'donation.' I later discovered that, at the time I contacted them, Messrs. Baldwin and Howarth were both under contract to ‘Amway UK Ltd.’ as ‘consultants.’I had, in fact, been speaking to the de facto agents of the ‘Amway’leadership. I am reliably informed that not long after I had contact with them, Mr. Howarth (and possibly Mr. Baldwin) had direct contact with my mother, to whom he was presented by my brother as a 'cult expert'.Obviously, he never declared his connections with 'Amway.' In this way, an unqualified charlatan convinced my mother (who had begun to have some doubts) that 'Amway' is not cultic and that I was dangerously-deluded to say so.Indeed, she subsequently became totally-convinced that I was being paid by the British inventor/industrialist, James Dyson (who was in litigation with 'Amway'in the USA), to defame 'Amway' in the UK, and she even signed (along with my brother) a false deposition stating that I had made a full-confession. My mother died in 2004, never having recovered her critical and evaluative faculties.
Unfortunately, since the mid 1990s, Messrs. Baldwin and Howarth have been allowed to promote themselves as 'cult experts' whilst simultaneously living off funds deriving from a classic blame-the-victim, cultic racket. Indeed it's not just the 'Amway'racketeers who have paid them. Despite their self-righteous façade ofhonesty and philanthropy, the clandestine activities of these two in Europe, on behalf of their billionaire American paymasters,undoubtedly forms part of a pattern of ongoing, major racketeering activity (as defined by the US federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 1970).
As a result of my persistent complaints, the UK government tried, but mysteriously failed, to have 'Amway UK Ltd.'closed down as a dissimulated pyramid scheme in 2008, using the civil procedure of a public interest bankruptcy petition. At that time, UK regulators discovered that at least one million UK and Irish citizens had been churned through 'Amway' during the period 1973-2006. It was also estimated that up to $ one billion dollars could have been stolen via the sale of so-called'training and motivation'materials. The main UK-registered corporate fronts for this secondary part of the 'Amway' racket were voluntarily closed, and their bosses excommunicated from 'Amway', evidently to prevent further investigation. However, UK regulators had found it difficult to trace victims. Most remained silent out of shame and embarrassment, but also because they had been recruited by a friend or relative. Any 'Amway' victims who had approached Messrs.Howarth and Baldwin, were never directed to the authorities or to the media. Instead, they were either persuaded that 'Amway' is neither a cult nor a fraud, and that there was nothing that could be done, or they were taken to 'Amway UK,' where presumeably limited-compensation was offered in return for their silence.
I would contend that, due to their long-term paid efforts to gather and silence 'MLM' victims, Messrs Baldwin and Howarth are partly-responsible for the current situation in the UK, where it is claimed that in excess of 630 000 persons (more than 90% of whom are women) are under contract to 'Amway' and its copy-cats - 'Herbalife', 'Forever Living Products', 'NuSkin', Mary Kay',etc. . Again, it should be remembered that the hidden overall net-loss churn rate for 'MLM' participation is known to be effectively 100%. Literally millions of people have been, and continue to be, temporarily enslaved by these 'MLM' cults in Britain alone. It is already established beyond all reasonable doubt that (by design) effectively all 'MLM' contractors have ultimately abandoned (and will ultimately abandon) this economically-suicidal activity, after failing to generate an overall net-profit. Not-forgetting that in a significant number of cases, chronic 'MLM' adherence has not only resulted in destitution, the abandonment of traditional careers and education, the destruction of marriages, families and friendships, etc., but also in victims exhibiting chronic psychological deterioration symptoms and, in the very-worst cases, committing actual suicide.
Laughably, Messrs. Baldwin and Howarth have been variously reported in the UK media as having helped thousands of cult victims, and their relatives, in the UK. However, these frequent, glowing portraitsseem to be based largely on Messrs, Baldwin and Howarth's own unsubstantiated, and unchallenged, grandiose anecdotal statements about their own activities.These fantastic fairy stories have gradually been fed to the press (particularly, to one freelance journalist of their acquaintance). Sadly, these big lies have been repeated so often, that eventually they have become accepted as the truth.
For a while, Ian Howarth succeeded in infiltrating a pan-European federation of cult research/advice associations, FECRIS. In 2004, at my instigation, during a FECRIS conference in Marseilles (at which I was present), Mr. Howarth was privately invited by the board of FECRIS to participate in an internal enquiry (to be conducted by Anne Edelstam and Jean Pierre Jugla) into the extent of his connections with 'Amway.' At the time, I was not aware that Howarth had been working for other 'MLM' cults including 'Herbalife.'
Howarth's initial response, was to admit that, yes, he was a paid consultant to 'Amway UK Ltd.' He then told the astonished board members of FECRIS that he wanted the other FECRIS associations to pass any complaints they had received about 'Amway/MLM' to him, because he had already negotiated compensation for people who had lost money. It turned out that Howarth's trip to Marseille, and all his related-expenses, were actually being picked up by 'Amway.'
Howarth was given a series of written, common-sense questions about his 'Amway' connections by Anne Edelstam and Jean Pierre Jugla, which (not surprisingly) he flatly refused to respond to. However, before he could be kicked out of FECRIS, Mr. Howarth resigned and accused its board of 'behaving like a cult.' Howarth subsequently published a simplistic, and unoriginal, 44 page booklet entitled,'Cults, a Practical Guide.' Of course, this contained no mention of 'MLM/commercial'cults. This potentially-dangerous ommission, must have been influenced by 'AmwayMLM' money.
A couple of years ago, I was told by a colleague of Howarth that he no longer is employed by 'MLM companies, and that privately he admits that he made a mistake. However, it's a certainty that Howarth will have signed open-ended employment contracts with various 'MLM' front companies making it very difficult for him to face the truth publicly. Thus, to date (by his silence), he remains the de facto agent of racketeers. I for one would like to know exactly how much stolen money did he get in total?
As for Graham Baldwin, I have no idea if he is still employed by 'MLM' racketeers, but I would strongly suspect that he is. Again, he will almost-certainly have been obliged to sign open-ended gagging-agreements. However, I do know that (for years) Baldwin has been appealing to the UK public to give his charity £1.5 million to create a centre for training cult counsellors and for helping cult victims, where he and his associates, will offer pyschiatric therapy, counselling and legal advice. http://www.catalystcounselling.org.uk/fund-raising.html.
It turned out that the French journalist had personally-witnessed around 6500 fanatical (mostly-Chinese) 'Tiens' adherents attending a 'convention' in Paris. This event culminated in a kitsch publicity-stunt in Nice on the Cote d'Azur, primarily designed to attract positive media coverage and insert the name 'Tiens' in the 'Guiness Book of Records.' The French 'Tourist Office' as well as French politicians and journalists had (apparently in total ignorance of reality) been lured into playing along with this sinister game of make-believe. 'Tiens'adherents were generally described by the French, and international, media as, 'employees,' whilst emphasis was placed only on the temporary economic benefits this event had brought to France. Apparently, the cost was around 30 millions euros and involved the booking of thousands of rooms in hundreds of French hotels and the sale of thousands of rail tickets. However (as far as I'm aware), no rigorous independent investigation of who/what really financed this reality-inverting show, or accurate explanation of what 'Tiens' actually hides, has ever appeared in the French, or international, media.
Some readers might be surprised to learn of 'Tiens' (a.k.a. 'Tianshi') - a Chinese-based blame-the-victim 'Amway'copy-cat 'Multi-Level Marketing' cult which makes the astonishing claim to have established corporate subsidiaries in 110 countries (including the USA, France, Germany and UK) and to have more than 40 millions adherents in more than 200 countries. The organization's propaganda further boasts that 'Tiens' has 'established strategic partnerships with top enterprises,' and is'a successful major global enterprise with ambitions to make a difference to worlds health, to create business development opportunities and to spread hope.'
If the 40 millions figure is accurate, then this means that more than 30% of all current claimed contractors of'MLM' companies world-wide are signed up with 'Tiens.' Classically, the bosses of 'Tiens'have never disclosed (in an easy-to-understand format) what is the overall net-loss/churn rate for participation in their so-called'MLM Income Opportunity.'
The ostensible intigator and boss of 'Tiens,' is (rags to riches 'billionaire') Li Jinyuan (b. 1958), who looks like he has come straight out of a 'James Bond' Movie.
Speaking of 'James Bond,' last week, the heads of UK, and US, security services (Ken McCallum MI5and Christopher Wray FBI) made an unprecedented joint public appearance in London to warn an invited-audience (from the world of business and academia) of the 'immense threat to our economic and national security posed by China.'
In short, it has been concluded that the leadership of the ruling Chinese Communist party has been directing, and is steadily escalating, the prosecution of an (undeclared) economic war; using agents, various corporate-fronts and other deceptive methods (including hacking), to steal valuable technology 'on a massive scale'. This state-sponsored criminal activity not only profits the Chinese economy, but also inflicts long-term economic and social damage on China's major competitors. Various examples of how these thefts, and attempted thefts, have been perpetrated, were detailed by the heads of MI5 and the FBI, and these matters are subject to ongoing investigations.
Predictably, a torrent of gaslighting propaganda statements were immediately issued in response to this evidence-based analysis and warning, in which the ruling Chinese regime simply offered a blanket denial and pretended thatthe heads of MI5 and the FBI are delusional.
However, I would contend that the heads of our security services themselves need to be warned; for (apparently-unknown to them) there is a lucrative 'technology' that has already been taken and copied by the Chinese, but which (for obvious reasons) has never been legally-registered as the intellectual property of any individual or corporate structure. This is because the 'technology' in question is a proven system for deceiving large numbers of vulnerable people into de facto servitude. Furthermore, the Chinese must have deduced that they too can get away with peddling their own adaptation of the big'MLM' lie in plain sight, because the original version has been developed over decades by the bosses of various copy-cat American organized crime groups hiding behind labyrinths of legally-registered corporate structures and posing as 'compassionate capitalists.' During this period, a syndicate of American 'MLM' crime-bosses has acquired control over a mountain of stolen money; some of which has been used to infiltrate traditional culture and acquire political protection to a degree which makes Mafia bosses look like a bunch of amateurs.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of 'Tiens' is the fact that economically-unviable trading schemes based on endless-chain recruitment (as opposed to economically-viable single level traditional direct selling schemes) have long-since been specifically-banned by law in mainland China. So how is it possible that 'Tiens' has been allowed to exist, if it hasn't been one of various corporate-fronts for the ruling Chinese Communist regime?
In conclusion, the co-ordinated devious techniques of social, psychological and physical persuasion which have been, and continue to be, inflicted on the adherents of 'MLM' cults (without their fully-informed consent), should be immediately recognised by the leaders of our security services as an immense threat to our economic and national security, no matter where these 'MLM'cults have been based.
The following deconstructed analysis has been formulated to sharpen the critical and evaluative faculties of all unwary persons approaching so-called'Multi-Level Marketing'from the dangerous (subjective) point of view thatit must be a business/industry,rather than from the safe (purely-objective) point of view that they don't really know what it is. _________________________________________________________________________
More than half a century of quantifiable evidence proves beyond all reasonable doubt that:
the widely-misunderstood phenomenon that has become popularly-known as 'Multi-Level Marketing' (a.k.a. 'Network Marketing') is nothing more than an absurd, non-rational, economic pseudo-science maliciously-designed to lure unwary persons into de facto servitude, dissociate them from external reality and not only steal their money, but also deceive them into unconsciously acting the role of bait to lure other unwary persons (particularly their friends and family members) into the same trap.
the technical-sounding made-up jargon term, 'MLM,' is therefore, the misleading title for an enticing structured-scenario of control which has been developed, and constantly acted out as reality, by the instigators, and associates, of various copy-cat, major and minor, ongoing organised crime groups (hiding behind labyrinths of legally-registered corporate structures) to shut-down the critical, and evaluative, faculties of victims, and of casual observers, in order to perpetrate, and dissimulate, a series of blame-the-victim 'Long Cons' - comprising self-perpetuating rigged-market swindles, a.k.a. pyramid scams (dressed up as 'legitimate direct selling income opportunites') and related advance-fee frauds (dressed up as 'legitimate: training and motivation, self-betterment, programs, recruitment leads, lead generation systems,' etc.).
apart from an insignificant minority of shills (whose leading-role in the 'Long Con' has been to pretend that anyone can achieve financial freedom simply by following their unquestioning example and exactly-duplicating a step-by-step-plan of recruitment and self-consumption), the hidden overall net-loss/churn rate for participation in so-called 'MLM income opportunities,' has always been effectively 100%.
The enticing structured-scenario of control fundamental to all 'rigged-market swindles' is that people can earn income by first contributing their own money to participate in a profitable commercial opportunity, but which is secretly an economically-unviable fake due to the fact that the (alleged) opportunity has been rigged so that it generates no significant, or sustainable, revenue other than that deriving from its own ill-informed participants. For more than 60 years, 'Multi-Level Marketing' racketeers have been allowed to dissimulate rigged-market swindles by offering endless-chains of victims various banal, but over-priced, products, and/or services, in exchange for unlawful losing-investment payments, on the pretext that 'MLM' products/services can then be regularly re-sold for a profit in significant quantities via expanding networks of distributors. However, since 'MLM' products/services cannot be regularly re-sold to the general public for a profit in significant quantities (based on value and demand), 'MLM' participants have, in fact, been peddled infinite shares of their own finite money (in the false expectation of future reward).
Thus, in 'MLM' rackets, the innocent looking products/sevices' function has been to hide what is really occurring. i.e The operation of an unlawful, intrinsically fraudulent, rigged-market where effectively no non-salaried (transient) participant can generate an overall net-profit, because, unknown to the non-salaried (transient) participants, the market is in a permanent state of collapse and requires its non-salaried (transient) participants to keep finding further (temporary) de facto slaves to sustain the enticing illusion of stability and viability. Meanwhile an insignificant (permanent) minority direct the 'Long Con' - raking in vast profits by selling into the rigged-market and by controlling/withholding all key-information concerning the rigged-market's actual catastrophic, ever-shifting results from its never-ending chain of (temporary) de facto slaves.
Although cure-all pills potions and vitamin/dietary supplements, household and beauty, products have been most-prevalent, it is possible to use any product, and/or service, to dissimulate a rigged-market swindle. There are even some 'MLM' rackets that have been hidden behind well-known traditional brands (albeit offered at fixed high prices). Some 'MLM' rackets have included 'cash-back/discount shopping cards, travel products, insurance, energy/communications services' and 'crypto-currencies' in their controlling scenarios.
No matter what bedazzling product/service has been dangled as bait, in 'MLM' rackets, there has been no significant or sustainable source of revenue other than never-ending chains of persons under contract to the 'MLM' front companies. These front-companies always pretend that their products/services are high quality and reasonably-priced and that for anyone prepared to put in some effort, the products/services can be easily sold on for a profit via expanding networks of distributors (based on value and demand). In reality, the underlying reason why it has mainly only been (transient) 'MLM' contractors who have bought the various products /services (and not the general public) is because they have been tricked into unconsciously playing along with the controlling scenario which constantly says that via regular self-consumption and the recruitment of others to do the same, etc. ad infinitum, anyone can receive a future (unlimited) reward.
I've been examining the 'MLM' phenomenon for around 25 years. During this time, I've yet to find one so-called 'MLM' front-company that has voluntarily made key-information available to the public concerning the quantifiable results of its so-called 'income opportunity'in an easy-to-understand format.
Part of the key-information that all 'MLM' bosses seek to hide concerns the overall number of persons who have signed contracts since the front companies were instigated and the retention rates of these persons.
When rigorously investigated, the overall hidden net-loss churn rates for so-called 'MLM income opportunites' has turned out to have been effectively 100%. Thus, anyone claiming (or implying) that it is possible for the average participant to make a penny of net-profit, let alone a living, in an 'MLM,' cannot be telling the truth and will not provide quantifiable evidence to back up his/her anecdotal claims.
Although a significant number of 'MLM' front-companies (like 'Vemma', 'Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing', 'Wake Up Now') have been shut-down by commercial regulators in the USA, some of the biggest 'MLM' rackets (like 'Amway' ,'Herbalife', Forever Living Products' ) have continued to hide in plain sight whilst secretly churning tens of millions of losing participants over decades
The quantifiable results of the self-perpetuating global 'Long Con' known as 'Multi Level Marketing,' have been fiendishly hidden by convincing victims that they are 'Independent Business Owners' and that any losses they incurred, must have been entirely their own fault for not working hard enough.
Chronic victims of 'MLM' cults are invariably incapable of describing what they were subjected to in accurate terms. Even though they are no longer physically playing along with the 'Long Con's' controlling-scenario, they unconsciously continue to think, and speak, using the jargon-laced 'MLM' script – illogically describing themselves as 'Distributors, Ambassadors, Business Owners’ etc.'
Chronic victims of blame-the-victim rackets who have managed to escape and confront the ego-destroying reality that they’ve been systematically deceived and exploited, are invariably destitute and dissociated from all their previous social contacts. For years afterwards, recovering victims can suffer from psychological problems (which are also generally indicative of the victims of abuse): depression; overwhelming feelings (guilt, grief, shame, fear, anger, embarrassment, etc.); dependency/ inability to make decisions; retarded psychological/ intellectual development; suicidal thoughts; panic/ anxiety attacks; extreme identity confusion; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; insomnia/ nightmares; eating disorders; psychosomatic illness, fear of forming intimate relationships; inability to trust; etc.
