“Pat your thigh. Ok, then repeat after me, ‘That’s the case for this scenario. I’ve got to be well, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure of it!’”
On a stage with “International Conference” written on the background screen, a training personnel of the “Spiritual Growth” organization in formal dress shouted out the above words with a microphone to audience off the stage. She also encouraged everyone in the auditorium to pat their thighs while repeating after her, saying it would be totally worthy of spending the whole morning here as long as they could bear the sentence in mind.
“International conference” held by the “Spiritual Growth” organization
That was an “international conference” held in a five-star hotel in Tianjin. Earlier, a reporter from the Xianhua News Agency went there to conducted a secret investigation, and found out that there was a hidden way of collecting money behind trainings from the “Spiritual Growth” organization – when you believed that you were receiving energy from the universe to heal your soul, you might already be tricked into a scam.
Mind control: repeatedly brainwashing trainees with scripts full of pseudoscientific terms
According to the reporter’s investigation, locations for training activities held by the “Spiritual Growth” organization were chosen at enclosed bookstores or hotels. During the training session, trainees were prohibited from recording, videoing or taking note, all they needed to do was to follow their “mentor” to do certain moves or repeat some phrases.
In those enclosed environments, the trainees kept patting their thighs under the guidance of their “mentor” simply because they were instructed by him that only in this way can they “touch their cells, touch and activate their body’s sensation to set up a new and good ‘neural link’ which can accomplish things.”
However, Professor Wang Jingui, vice president of the First Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, had a different view on the term “neural link”. In an interview with the Xinhua News Agency, Professor Wang said, “the so-called neural link refers to sensitivity of our main and collateral nerve channels. When the nerve network is completely unblocked, it (the ‘Spiritual Growth’ organization) borrowed a word to say that his (trainee’s) neural link was fully set up or, his neural link was yet to be set up if some part of the neural system was blocked. That was an act of usurping a medical term, which was ridiculous.”
Professor Wang Jingui
Besides the term “neural link”, the word “frequency” was also emphasized quite frequently in the trainings as if it was a panacea to cure all diseases. When you ask its staff what “frequency” was, the answer they give you would be, “your miracles would happen if your ‘frequency’ synchronized with those miracles.”
As early as 2016, the word “frequency” was once used by an organization called “Create Prosperity” in the banquet hall of a conference center in Xiji Town, Tongzhou district, Beijing, causing nearly 1000 people on-site to cheer wildly for it.
In early June 2018, on the site of “Create Prosperity” grand ceremony in Beijing, the host encouraged everyone there to “wave their wings to participate in resonance”. Picture provided by the Beijing News.
That was also a grand ceremony held in the name of "spiritual training".
On the stage, the host shouted in excitement, “this is a hall accommodating nearly 1000 people here, so, all good things could be accomplished with the resonance of ‘frequency’, the question now is ‘will you allow it?’” “I do!” The excited audience off the stage shouted back in unison.
The host shouted again, “Let the universe see your smile! Keep this ‘high frequency!’”
With the rising cheers from the audience, and surrounded by four men in black, Liu Mouqi, the “international mentor” of the “soul training” organization, came on stage like a pop star.
On the stage, Liu Mouqi said, “if your vibration is of ‘high-frequency’, then what you create is of high-quality, therefore, whether you’re healthy, whether you make lots of money, or things you use are of good-quality, all depends on your own ‘frequency’.” Hearing this, the audience responded in a way as if they had been trained beforehand. They all nodded reverently in approval and shouted, “Yeah! Yeah!”
In early June 2018, at the grand ceremony held by “Create Prosperity” organization in Beijing, the host led the audience to chant, “Let the whole universe hear us.” On that day, nearly 1000 people from all over the country participated in the ceremony. Five POS machines were used to swipe cards at the same time, and the registration fee per capital started from 50,000 yuan. Picture provided by the Beijing News.
However, was the power of the “frequency” advocated by trainers really so great?
Obviously, the answer was no!
Professor Lyu Hong, director of the Center for Joint Quantum Studies (CJQS) at Tianjin University, said in an interview with the Xinhua News Agency that, the human body does have internal frequency, which, however, only refers to footsteps, heartbeats, breathing, etc. The so-called frequency describing one’s overall behavior doesn’t exist in physics, which is a misappropriation of physical concepts and can only be categorized as pseudoscience.
In fact, with the mode of collective teaching in an enclosed environment, the reason why trainers were using pseudoscientific terms to deceive trainees was that they wanted to drive trainees into a state of blind faith and ecstasy by ways of repetition, recitation, hint, hypnosis, etc., therefore, the trainees would be easily and fully brainwashed. In the whole process, a certain sense of authority like an archbishop was established, and trainees would gradually submit themselves to such authority to the extent that they would respond in an expected way the trainer designed.
Layer upon layer of traps: using empty promises to lure trainees to invest in scam projects
Of course, trainers did not brainwash their trainees just for hearing expected responses, what these trainers really wanted was to squeeze trainees for every penny they possessed by means of mind tricks.
Trainees who paid the “entry fee” would be lured to improve their identity because trainees with improved identity could attend more lectures to gain more energy, then they could be qualified to carry out training themselves to earn income from it.
How to improve your identity? Simple, the more money you pay, the higher your status is. Let’s take the hierarchy of the “Spiritual Growth” organization mentioned at the beginning of this article as example: it takes 3.5 million yuan to become an “international supervisor”, 30 million yuan to become a “director”, and it takes 80 million yuan to become a “mentor”, and if you want to get the title of “international mentor” which is at the highest level in the hierarchy, you need to pay 140 million yuan.
Wan Hua (a pseudonym) spent millions of yuan in obtaining the identity of “international supervisor” from the “Spiritual Growth” organization. Moreover, she also pulled in her childhood friend Shi Jie as her lower-level client.
On a poster at the “Spiritual Growth” training place, there was a statement, “you don’t have to do the job yourself, all you need to do is to enjoy the harvest. In the Musang King Durian Plantation in Malaysia, what you really gain is not only rare Musang King Durian, but also an inheritable legacy to posterity.”
A project promotion poster
Half a year ago, this durian investment project successfully put the idea of joining in into Shi Jie’s head. So, after she paid 150,000 yuan of the “entry fee”, she tried to come up with the rest 450,000 yuan for the amount required by the investment project, because the “Spiritual Growth” organization promised that this investment would bring in lucrative profits.
The organization mentioned that the money would be used to sign a land purchase contract with the Malaysian government, which stated that the annual income from planting durian and leasing land could reach up to 300,000 yuan and that investors could continuously receive this annual income for up to 90 years, which meant that Shi Jie could earn more than 20 million yuan by investing 600,000 yuan.
However, after several training sessions, Shi Jie started to harbor doubts about the organization because she hadn’t received any invoice, receipt, contract, or legal document. So Shi Jie realized that she might fall victim to a serial scam and wanted to quit and have her “entry fee” returned, but she got ruthless rejected by her childhood friend.
This was how Wan Hua answered her, “There is no such thing as refund since the establishment of the system. This is not like buying a stuff. To be frank, since we have joined in, we’d better try our best to raise our energy. Our raised energy is priceless, and how much do you think it is worth?”
She regrets to have signed the “soul contract” after fooled by false affection
Shi Jie is not the only one who regrets.
A report by the Paper in October 2016 said that Wang Weiwei (a pseudonym) from Guangdong had asked for a refund from the “soul training” organization she once joined, but she got no invoice or receipt, let alone contract for the money she paid, all she had was just bank statements. The reason why she had no legal proof for her money paid was that her “supervisors” called the transaction “soul contract” between each other, which demanded “unconditional trust and love”.
There was no receipt of contract for the fees paid except for some money orders presented by a former trainee of the “CPreate prosperity” organization. Source: The Paper
Recalling the day when she first joined the group, Wang Weiwei said that she felt like the course was opening a magical door to her life. “We called each other sisters and brothers. We could vent our pent-up feelings in class. You could speak from the bottom of your heart and other would be all ears for you. What a happy time it was!”
At first, she paid 200,000 yuan to become a “tenured trainee”. In 2014, encouraged by her “mentor”, she resolutely gave up her job in Shenzhen and took part in the training system. Because it took 3 million yuan to obtain the title of “mentor”, Wang Weiwei tried every possible way to raise the money. She even mortgaged her house ownership certificate, which resulted in a divorce with her husband.
According to Wang Weiwei, she had invested more than 14 million yuan in the scam. When realizing that she was conned, she decided to take her money back but only found that she was in a helpless situation with the “soul contract” she signed. The personnel of usury companies and small loan companies constantly called to intimidate her, and her creditor either wrote letters or called at her house for money, all of which made Wang Weiwei live in endless sufferings each day. “My son also left me. He didn’t forgive me for not listening to my family.”
Ms. Zhu from Wuhan, Hubei Province was also troubled by the “Spiritual Growth” course. Before that, Ms. Zhu spent 150,000 yuan on the relevant course over the internet, but failed to receive the course as scheduled after paying the tuition fee. Various signs suggested she might be deceived.
At first, Ms. Zhu got to know the person in charge through a set of “Spiritual Growth” books. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, some people were often worried and anxious. But the person in charge called Ms. Zhu to care for her well-being every day, which made her quite touched so that she agreed to attend a live event.
Live event attended by Ms. Zhu
Since then, that person in charge called Ms. Zhu more frequently than ever, in most cases till 1 am, trying to sell a course called “two-zero benefits” to her, claiming that a medical beauty voucher worth 150,000 yuan plus a right to experience the “spiritual ceremony” worth 150,000 yuan would be given to her. The phone call harassment almost pushed Ms. Zhu to the edge of mental breakdown, so she agreed to buy the course for some reason she couldn’t understand. Eventually, she scraped the money together, and bought the course with 150,000 yuan. But that person in charge wouldn’t easily let Ms. Zhu off the hook, and further asked her to pay more expensive fees and recruit followers even when she was already deep in debt.
Finally, Ms. Zhu, sensing something was wrong, found many people who had the same experience like her on the Internet. It was not until this moment that she realized that they might be deceived. But it was too late. When she tried to call the “mentor” in charge, no one answered her phone.
In this rapid developing era, people tend to be impulsive and restless, so they have more needs for spiritual comfort, especially when they have too much difficulty to overcome or too much anxiety accumulated to relieve, they are inclined to focus on their own inner mind.
But here, Mr. Wuxie wants to remind our readers that we must turn to reasonable and safe means when seeking help. For example, we could seek help from a certified psychological counselor, rather than relying on a deified authority for help. If you want to take a shortcut to achieve the effect of instant spiritual improvement or sublimation by simply paying some money or receive intensive training for several days, then there is a huge possibility that you might fall victim to mental control traps or financial frauds. In another word, you may unwittingly drink the toxic “spiritual chicken soup” cooked up by fraudsters who disguise themselves as “mentors” or “close friends”.
