Gentle Wind blows (Local newspaper covers lawsuit)

[Mercutio]

Article here. (gotta register--it is free, though)

Two former members created the www.windofchanges.org website, which describes Gentle Wind as a cult that manipulated followers into behavior that included group sex rituals. The two parties have been in litigation over defamation claims since 2004.

Many complaints in Maine's lawsuit against Gentle Wind focus on the promotion of their healing instruments, hand-held objects such as brightly colored, laminated cards or plastic pucks bearing designs the group has created.

Gentle Wind's website, www.gentlewindproject.org, still showcases the instruments. They have been available to the public for requested donations, which can exceed $1,500. The group also makes them available to trauma victims without cost.

The state also has leveled allegations against Gentle Wind based on the way the directors may have spent money from donations.

Maine is alleging a misapplication of charitable funds to buy personal property such as a boat, motorcycles, electronics and musical instruments. The purchase of these items are documented in tax filings.

The state argues the defendants should pay a civil penalty equal to the value of any property they received from Gentle Wind for private use.

The board of directors lives in a four-bedroom Durham, N.H., residence. The state alleges donations improperly paid for it as well as properties in Kittery and Melbourne Beach, Fla.

All properties but the Durham residence since have been sold. Judy Garvey, who maintains with her husband the website Wind of Changes, says the Kittery property was sold to members of the organization and is back on the market. The Durham residence is on the market for $975,000, reduced from $1.25 million.

A related article also in today's paper goes into a bit more detail about the people behind the suit.

Garvey has said the group cons people into ritualistic group sex as part of the process it uses to produce its healing instruments.

"Just as we supported them in our true belief that we were assisting people, there are still people in that same mindset," Garvey said.

Garvey said the practice was called "energy work" and involved group sexual activity between the leaders and followers in which all the participants were women except for John Miller, the founder, who is named as one of the defendants in Maine's lawsuit.

She said the process of learning about what goes on inside the group is slow, so she did not know what she was getting into. But she eventually participated in the rituals.

"It sounds crazy, I know," she said. "But that's what we believed."

 

[Mechbob]

I read James Bergin's account, I found it very sad and disturbing that an apparently inteligent and educated man could have been fooled into believing the unbelievable. I wish him all the best in the effort to put his life back together. I wish that the mass media would cover this story like they cover the weddings of certain celebrities.
I am always surprised to learn how gullible we humans can be at times. There, but for my cynical mind go I.

 

[Kopji]

Several interesting aspects to this. Apparently the company tried to misuse the RICO racketeering laws against people who left the [cult] organization and created a website against them.

I think it makes it even more difficult for intelligent 'normal' people to make decisions about these kinds of products when authority figures add their voice in support.

Something I see as a great failure of the 'alternate healing' business is that they are not examined 'end to end'. There are often victims in the product cycle and this group's product line is a pretty good example. It is not enough that some people feel better by using the products when there are victims everywhere we look.

Dr. Robert Lang of Connecticut cites that factor in support of Gentle Wind. Lang has a private medical practice with locations in Hamden and Madison, Conn. He specializes in endocrinology, rheumatology and naturopathic medicine.

"I thought they were doing a very honorable thing," he said. Lang, also an associate professor at Yale University's School of Nursing, said he offers
the healing instruments to his patients and has several who ask to use them each time they have an appointment.

"My experience with the instruments is that they do help people," he said. "... enough people that I don't believe it's a placebo." He said people gain a feeling of well-being and calm when they use the instruments, with people suffering from stress benefitting most.

http://www.windofchange.org/Maine_AG_-_Spiritual_Group_is_Run_Illegally_-_Fosters_-_7-23-06.pdf

 

[Mercutio]

"Gentle Wind Project" has been shut down in Maine.

Maine's AG filed a lawsuit against GWP for both unlawful mismanagement of charitable funds and making deceptive health claims about its paraphernalia.

Rather than go forward and take their chances in court, the Millers chose instead to settle, but the terms of that settlement were withering and will likely be devastating to GWP.

According to a published consent decree released this week by the AG, GWP has "agreed to pay civil penalties and costs and to an injunction that prohibits them from making certain health and research claims about the 'healing instruments' or from serving as fiduciaries or advisors for any other Maine nonprofit. The parties have also agreed that GWP will be dissolved, and its remaining assets distributed by the Attorney General as restitution to consumers who purchased a 'healing instrument' since 2003 and to a Maine charity whose charitable mission is to provide services to those with mental health disabilities."

Our local paper reports (this story is not available online) that "The Gentle Wind Project's law firm is refusing to represent the organization any longer, citing non-payment of legal fees."

They have lost their non-profit status, the lawsuit brought by former members continues, Maine's Attorney General says that they violated Maine's Unfair Trade Practices Act with their claims of "healing instruments" that have no demonstrated benefit.

So...are they down and out?

"The Gentle Wind website now lists an address of Sparks, Nev.

A recent posting on the website describes the project as an all-new, volunteer not-for-profit. They do not make any claims about the relief their instruments may provide, and they do not accept any donations for them, the website says.

'We are a group of people who want to make the world a better, easier place,' the website reads."

(italicized quotes are from Foster's Daily Democrat, Aug. 31, 2006, p. A3)

 

[tracer]

Garvey has said the group cons people into ritualistic group sex as part of the process it uses to produce its healing instruments.

I think this is positively shameful.

What we need is a return to good, old-fashioned family values, in the form of ritualistic group sex for its own sake!