(Part 3) Top products from r/antiMLM

I woke up to a FB message from someone telling me that this had been shared here, so I tracked it; I'm the OP for the FB post. I'm sorry I'm so long-winded, but I just kept typing; it was actually just supposed to be a reach-out to some friends who are getting into ItWorks! and Lipsense, to caution them not to get too deep. I don't do a lot of social media, so I'm not good at viral posting or anything like that, but I wanted to come and provide more information from my notes for those interested. I got to sit in front of two subject matter experts for three hours, and everything I wrote was a credit to their life's work to undo the damage of high-demand groups.


I'm a Navy vet and psychology doctoral candidate from WV, and I work in mental health. I attended a training earlier this month from two guys from Wellspring WV, which is a really great facility that focuses primarily on helping people recover from re-education, high-demand groups, and what we could traditionally call "cult" activity and "brainwashing" (These awesome gentlemen are named Jeff Bryson and Greg Sammons; they also reference Dr. Alexandra Stein, who was a reformed cult member and is now a prominent SME in the field). It was about three hours of talking about the general tactics that are applied by the leaders of these groups to expand control. The focal point of the training was actually Scientology, but I was immediately fascinated by the claims that coercive control extended to MLM groups. Specifically, they mentioned someone from ASU (for the life of me, I can't remember who, because things were moving fast, there were a lot of slides, and I forgot to write down his name) who actually teaches a seminar on how to apply these coercion tactics in a MLM; so, ASU's School of Business has a MLM-factory,maybe from this Michael Sheffield dude somewhere in its midst (but he covers his ass by stressing that people only use the information "ethically". Yeah. Right.) So for the past few weeks, I've been poring through whatever literature I can find. Here are some of the things that have been in my general reading list, not focused on MLM:

• Heresy of Mind Control by Steven Martin
  
  
• Thought Reform and Psychology of Totalism by Robert J. Lifton
  
  
• Influence by Robert Cialdini
  
  
• Brainwashing and the Cults by Paul A. Verdier
  
  
• Movies: Dig, Faults, The Wave, The Firm, Join Us, Paradise Rediscovered, Betting on Zero; shows like The Path and The Following (you have to dig below the story, but many of the early episodes of each are good illustrations of some techniques)
  
  
  I'll make a response thread here with my lengthier notes.

> Also, in my experience, there is some truth to the statement that wealthy people learn things that people don't learn in school.

There's a very interesting book called A Framework for Understanding Poverty that talks about the unwritten rules of each social class and how it's difficult to move up the ladder if you don't understand the rules. Someone who is born into a wealthy family is going to have an inherent advantage at maintaining a lifestyle of wealth because they understand the social rules of being part of the wealthy class. It's a fascinating read.

Why not? Also, is this MLM related?

Edit: 🙄

Here is the original version of the book, which is 400-some pages long and written by a “holistic veterinarian”, whatever that might be. Apparently it does list which specific oils are safe for which animals, and gives cautions about others, which I would certainly hope for in a 400-page manual.

It appears that she only mentions YL brand products, so the book does appear to be at least MLM-adjacent, if not exactly MLM. Some of the Amazon reviews complain about this.

I still expect that the overall effect of most of the book’s advice is “nothing”. Maybe it’ll make your horse smell nice. If that. Oils aren’t medicine.

This was an enlightening read, Eric Sheibeler gives you a look of a man who has already climbed the ranks for 2 decades before waking up.
In the beginning of the book I was wary that this guy was maybe overly paranoid, but by the end you can see why.
This man and his wife did literally everything "right". And I mean everything.
If you want a great insight into the mechanics and history of this company, I highly recommend

If y'all want an actual good product that you can add to your dog's meals, I use this. I just crumble a really small amount on top of their dry food and sometimes I'll add a little bit of water and mix it in. I also cut it into small pieces and use it for training. It's a great high-value training treat.

You should send her a book on how not to get scammed (maybe https://www.amazon.com/All-That-Glitters-Not-God/dp/1579211348/ref=pd_sbs_14_2 ) with a card
"Sorry for the late gift - Hope this proves helpful"

and then giggle at her trying to figure out if she should share it on FB or not.

Also I can't recommend this book enough.

Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs

Steven Hassan is considered one of the foremost experts on this topic, and many, many people have benefited from this book and his other books, Releasing the Bonds (2000) and also his earlier book, Combatting Cult Mind Control (1989).

If reading isn't your thing, here is Joe Rogan with Steven.

I've been using these techniques to speak with those in MLMs but also those with opposing political beliefs to mine in regards to our current POTUS (sigh) and I found it extremely successful.

Has he already read the Diary of a Wimpy kid series? My son is a year older than yours. He loved Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Here are a few series books kids that like Magic Treehouse might also like:

Stink Series
Jack Stalwart
Artemis Fowl ( also a graphic novel series)
A to Z Mysteries
The Lemonade Wars
The Lemony Snickett Series of Unfortunate Events
Anything by Louis Sachar

This list could go on to eternity. Basically you can search google with any of his favorites and add the keywords “Read Alikes” and find lists.

Magic Treehouse Read Alikes by Richland Library

Right before I got out of Young Living I was tempted to start the Lucy Libido classes, which is some hun who wrote a book about essential oils for sex. Now let me preface by saying that I was making $7 a month on my “business” and was looking for other ways to “grow” because it was “my own fault” that I wasn’t “rich” from this scam.

Anyhoozle, I asked my OBGYN about it because the best way to lose your sex drive as a woman is to have your lady bits taken out thus putting said woman into surgical menopause... yuck. So I was super curious as to how to help my libido (whose name is NOT Lucy btw). Well my OBGYN (will never need the OB part again) immediately was like “DONT EVER PUT ESSENTIAL OILS DOWN THERE!” And I was all “I didnt I swear!” Like a kid who was thinking about doing something wrong but got caught in advance of doing it.

So since my OBGYN went to many years of medical school and is one of the smartest people on the planet I trust her opinion way more than some hunbot who got bored in her marriage and her business started to fail so she wrote a book about how oils “saved her marriage slash sex life.”

You want to know what saved my marriage slash sex life? Quitting Young Living. Thats right me and my DH have been better in the last couple of months of no YL/MLM BS than we have been in the last couple of years when I was peddling oils.

But that’s just my opinion.....

Edit: added some quotation marks around sarcastic things.

Yep, so do the ones in Hawaii. We call em B52s.

Edit: There's even a children's book about em, haha.

https://www.amazon.com/How-B-52-Cockroach-Learned-Fly/dp/0964749106

This book has a 🌟 FOUR AND A HALF STARS 🌟 rating on amazon. It’s time to do our part, babes.

these leggings are the “buttery soft” feel with much less chance of ripping and SOLID colors
fiber mascara (that makes you look much less spidery than younique)
“norwex” dupe cloth at half the cost

That might just be Amazon's weird gobbledy gook URLs (I got a ref one when I searched normally) or have to do with Smile, but here's a regular link just in case: https://www.amazon.com/Framework-Understanding-Poverty-Cognitive-Approach/dp/1938248015

Luckily for everyone, The Cast has never made a Christmas album. The Winnowing is the most depressing (but beautiful) album I've heard.

If you want to read a book which may have you actually smashing things, read The Faith Healers by James Randi. Now, I don't think Randi is the final authority of the world, and he's got a rock star sized ego. But he makes some scathing criticisms of people who promise everything and deliver nothing. Those people absolutely prey on others who are in a very bad place in life.

May I present to you [The Taco Cleanse] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1615192727?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1615192727&linkCode=xm2&tag=thewaspos09-20)

You can buy enteric-coated peppermint capsules for much less at a health food store.

Here's what I use

Crank is an old common term for people who invent fake physics or math. For example :
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0883855070/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_wjfOAbRGJHJWH

(fantastic book by the way) I think it probably spread from there.

Jon Taylor is a finance/business professor, and also a former NuSkin rep, so he has a unique perspective. His writing is very readable and hard-hitting. His book, MLM Unmasked, is a free download from his website: http://www.mlm-thetruth.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/MLMunmasked-5-1-2017-CURRENT-1.pdf

Robert Fitzpatrick is the author of False Profits. It was published more than 20 years ago now so it's a little dated, but still very good reading. https://www.amazon.com/False-Profits-Financial-Deliverance-Multi-Level/dp/0964879514

Also this page provides a good summary and several specific examples of MLM abuse and fraud: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Multilevel_marketing