Guest guest Posted March 30, 2005 Report Share Posted March 30, 2005 Hi folks, don't mean to " flog the dead horse " but I belong to another aromatherapy group where the subject of Young Living has come up and most members have heard bad things. Some members really like the YL oils and some have even worked for YL!! The main question seems to be that we're not too sure WHY there's so much bad news surrounding them. One member has heard the stories about the owner etc..but has been assured that they are just " nasty rumours " . I'd really like to post a message on my other group with some facts about YL and why there's such controversy surrounding it. Sure would appreciate anything anyone could pass along. I'm also going to browse past messages to see what I can find. Thanks! Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend....and if you don't celebrate Easter...then hope you had a great weekend as well! =0) -Christina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 30, 2005 Report Share Posted March 30, 2005 > > Hi folks, don't mean to " flog the dead horse " but I belong to another > aromatherapy group where the subject of Young Living has come up and > most members have heard bad things. Some members really like the YL > oils and some have even worked for YL!! The main question seems to be > that we're not too sure WHY there's so much bad news surrounding > them. One member has heard the stories about the owner etc..but has > been assured that they are just " nasty rumours " . I'd really like to > post a message on my other group with some facts about YL and why > there's such controversy surrounding it. Sure would appreciate > anything anyone could pass along. <snipped>> -Christina Hi Christina, Folks are going to believe what they want to. History shows a world full of gullible folks - including people who went to their graves assuring themselves that all the stories about Jim Jones were just " nasty rumors " Heck - read this about one of the survivors of the Jonestown Massacre " To her dying day, (Hyacinth)Thrash credited Jones with curing her of breast cancer in the late 1950s. She continued to believe that even after she saw him fake faith healings by " removing " bloody chicken livers from people's bodies and proclaiming their tumors were gone. " http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/11/18/JONESTOWN.TM P SHEESH! Anyway, below is a post that I sent to the list about a month ago. I hope it helps your quest for good info, but don't knock yourself out trying to get it through some thick heads. <grinz> *Smile* Chris (list mom) Unrefined Tested Shea Butter On Special - THIS WEEK ONLY http://www.alittleolfactory.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Christine Ziegler [chrisziggy] Wednesday, March 09, 2005 3:13 PM ' ' What Is Wrong With YL? You Ask Since some folks have asked .. here goes ... Now since I've not the time today to really be posting lengthy messages I will take one article from Butch which is on Graham Sorenson's YL Files page and one article by Eva Briggs from the archives of Aromatic Sage magazine and pass them along below .. there is much more info out there .. but this is a good start .... *Smile* Chris (list mom) http://www.alittleolfactory.com <http://www.alittleolfactory.com/> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://theguidetoaromatherapy.com/ylfiles.html A FAQ on GY and YL --------------------------- Q. Have you heard of Dr. Gary Young? He is one of the leading men in the field and has studied around the world. You can check out technical information at the website listed below. A. Have you heard that " Dr " Gary Young is not a doctor as he purchased his ND from Bernadene " University " <http://www.quackwatch.com/04ConsumerEducation/Nonrecorg/bernadean.html> which is a diploma mill selling non- accredited certificates to anyone who pays them the money. Have you heard that Mr Gary Young is a con man using charisma, pseudo science and pseudo religion to con people into his scheme. Here is more info for you ... Q. Hi, Enjoy your site very much! Do you have an opinion about Young Living Oils? A. Yes. :-) Varied in quality, Expensive (Wholesale prices much more than most companies retail), VERY bad company advice, if you can call it that, on safety, major con-man (Gary Young), as the owner, major class action against them in progress, always changing the conditions and commissions to the downlines, stealing downlines, etc. And much more. In a word . I would run as fast as possible. MANY better places to learn about aromatherapy and much better and cheaper places to buy your oils from. That's the short version Here is the long version :-) -------------------- The answer to your question should not be hidden under a bushel, so I'll reply on-line. No answer should offend people who are using YL oils as some of the YL oils are obviously good oils - and folks who use YL oils are normal folks. If my reply " get's something started, " then it'll do much to educate and it'll not be the first time it's been a matter of discussion as ALL the aromatherapy lists discuss it from time to time. > I was wondering if someone can reply off list as to some of the things > that Gary Young does or promotes as to why others in the AT community > have some not-so-good things to say about him? I don't want to offend > people that use these oils so please reply to me personally so that > something doesn't get started. Thanks, Lisa Doyon Gary Young and Young Living as an organization are the same. But Young Living oils and Young Living distributors are a different subject. Mr. Gary Young claims to be a ND, but he has no doctorate degree from any recognized institution of higher learning - he has one he bought for a few hundred dollars from one of the many " non-accredited " companies who will sell you a degree .. pick the one you want, no wait, no exams, just send in your check or money order. The title " Doctor " is illegal to use in Gary Young's home state of Utah because it was a mail order degree. So, he uses the title in states that don't license Naturopathic Doctors. It is a meaningless title and he continues to use it in order to give his theories and practices more credentials. He is therefore, a phoney! He makes many other claims about his life that have been proven false, they are pure marketing hype and pure bovine excrement, but still, YL followers see him as a guru - MR. Young uses religion to help keep the followers following - not too different from Reverend Jones of Jonestown or David Koresh of the Branch Davidians. Some people need a charismatic like GY to lead them, regardless of the fact that he is a charlatan. He claimed connections with famous professors and other accomplishments here in Turkey until I investigated, talked with folks here, learned it was embellished hype and openly published the results to numerous lists. He then decided to drop the Turkish connection from his biography. Young Living as an organization is dominated by Gary and Mary Young. It appears that company policy is make money in any way you can - as fast as you can - and truth is not necessary to accomplish these ends. In my opinion, we're talking about ethics here - or lack thereof. There are thousands of testimonials that would curl your hair - not mine (I'm almost bald) but most people's hair. Claims of ridiculous cures and promoting use of massive quantities of oils in a totally unsafe manner. The more you use, the more you buy. YL promotes unsafe use of neat EOs directly on the skin. They teach their downlines to do this and give them NO TRAINING in safety or proper and responsible use of essential oils. If you talk to some of the more " affected " YL'ers who are really into the cult mentality, they will act as if you are being sacriligious when you question any of MR. Gary Young's unsafe practices. This hype could prevent people from seeking competent medical help for serious illnesses - they fall back on the false hope given them by YL. Bones don't realign with the use of EOs, scoliosis does not cure itself, but YL teaches that both can be cured by their " Raindrop Therapy, " which involves application of massive amounts of neat EOs. Anyone postponing or avoiding conventional treatment for this disease by treating it with essential oils is looking for trouble - but YL promotes this!! And they claim that people who don't believe in Raindrop Therapy don't believe because they don't believe in " Chi, " which is simply horse crap. A member of the aromatherapy list posted this: " *** pray that you will not be among the large number who received festering and/or infected skin ulcers up and down their spine as a result of having neat, irritating oils dripped up and down their spine and then covered with a towel to prevent the normal evaporation *** when you spine turns red, in spots, from irritation and starts to burn, that you aren't told. " oh, that's the virus escaping " *** direct quote from one of my new clients. Those of us who decry the raindrop theory, as well as most of MR. Young's ideas do it because of the potentially dangerous misuse of the oils we love...and the abuse of innocents looking for solutions. Just two weeks ago I received a letter from an elderly gentleman... asking if my helichrysum essential oil is safe to drop into the ears... because he had been told that neat helichrysum essential oil, dropped into the ear, could cure his wife's lifelong nerve deafness. He came to me because his YL distributor had been told that there is no helichrysum essential oil available any more, it's only available in blends. Of course it's available, from many excellent oil suppliers. ** I told him that there was NO evidence and probably no likelyhood that ANY essential oil could cure permanent nerve damage. And that NO essential oil was safe to use, neat, in the ears. I was so very very angry with the " nice man from his church " who told him this that I wanted to throw something. This goes far beyond dishonesty ... this is truly dispicable .. creating hope and belief this way. " UNQUOTE Mr. Young has been arrested for practicing medicine without a license. Now he protects himself - he puts the unknowing YL distributors in the lion's cage. His brochures " Officially " tell the distibutors to be nice and be careful, but his meetings and lectures tell a different story. The distributors are " independent " and have a contract that says so - and they sign that they'll not prescribe for ails and illness - but then they're sent out to do this. If the hammer falls, GY and friends will escape and leave the honest, but gullible distributor to face the music. A member of the AT list recently posted on a YL seminar he attended: " In this seminar I found out that the only person in the US who could read a GC was Gary Young, and you can make chemically equivalent helichrysum by mixing three unrelated EO's together..and that if you dab Frankincense on a skin tumor it will fall off...forget the regular docs and get out the EO's..only YL oils are pure.. There was more .. Should anyone have a chance to attend one of these....do! I promise you awe and amazement..... " UNQUOTE Another posted: " *** there is a difference between reasonable profit/ business ethics and blatantly taking advantage of a person's religious beliefs for profit *** between honest business representation and misbranding/misrepresenting, either of products or yourself * complaints we have seen about Gary and Mary Young from x-employees, x- distributors, x-family and x-business partners have certainly been frequent enough for one to take pause before doing business with this company. Just because other companies seek profit does not negate the deep questions regarding business ethics and unsafe practices that seem to continually pop up regarding Young Living. *** As for lawsuits AGAINST Gary, Mary and YL, there must be a lot more than hearsay out there because there seems to be an incredible amount of litigation against them at the moment, from many of the x-ers that I mention above. " UNQUOTE Another posted: " I am writing this post primarily to notify all YL distributors that a civil lawsuit has been filed in the state of Utah, in the city of Provo *** on behalf of the rightful owners and majority stockholders of Young Living, Washington and California residents, naming Gary Young and Mary Young as participants in fraud and unlawful conveyance. The lawsuit alleges that Gary and Mary stole (conveyed) the corporation from the stockholders and rightful investors and owners. Knowingly and with intent. Some of these stockholders are elderly, with health problems. I rather doubt that the YL corporation has told all you good folks about this. You might ask them about it. " UNQUOTE I'll mention here that Gary Young's brother elected to leave the YL organization and is now putting together an organization that he says will practice ethics - I hope he does this and from what I know now, I believe he will - but I promise to report on him if he doesn't! These folks will never sue me - I've challenged them to do so but as you know, folks in glass houses ... etc., and they cannot shut me up otherwise! As for the quality of YL essential oils - I believe they have improved considerably in the last year as they are now testing some/all? of them, but prior to that, they were selling some oils that were allegedly from plants that don't produce EO and in a few cases, their oils had been tested by others and found to be totally unfit and unsafe. The quality improved because folks stayed on their butts like ugly on a wart hog - you don't get results by being a passive wimp! The issue of price is a personal concern, but if you understand the workings of a multi-level marketing scheme, you will know that prices MUST be too high in order to feed all the hands being held out for a cut on the efforts of other sellers in the chain. A post was made on the AT list concerning this too, plus the matter of trust: " I agree about comparing oils with oils, getting to know their subtle different personalities.... but human personalities do come into the mix, since I expect the same honesty and fairness in business I expect from personal relationships. If you can't trust the honesty and integrity of the person you are buying your oils from on one level, can you really trust them when it comes to honesty about the oils they proffer? " UNQUOTE A researcher on the AT list wrote: " Are YL still including blue tansy in some of their blends? I remember that at one point I checked a website and found some blends, especially ones for pain relief like Paneaway, which contained unsafe oils such as blue tansy and wintergreen or sweet birch. They to my mind, were not what I'd call safe oils. " Thousands of posts have made on YL in just the last 2.5 years I have followed the lists - the anti-YL posts are many and those that present an argument for YL are few and even then, they are nothing more than emotional ramblings. There is an archive where one can view this info at: http://www.TheGuideToAromatherapy.com/ylfiles.html Accept or discard the info provided, but keep smiling .... Butch www.AV-AT.com <http://www.av-at.com/> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.aromaticsage.com/GYRDT.html The REAL Story of Gary Young and Young Living Essential Oils By Eva F. Briggs, M.D. PART 1: WHY DID I INVESTIGATE THIS OUTFIT? In December 2002, I wrote an article exposing Gary Young, Young Living Essential Oils, and the Young Life Research Clinic as dishonest and misleading. Many people in the aromatherapy community asked me how I developed an interest in this subject. This article explains my interest and summarizes my findings about these enterprises. The longer original article, which also contains footnotes to my references, may be found at http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/young.html . This shorter piece touches on the key points and also includes some information not included in the first story. One spring day in 2002, I picked up what appeared to be a textbook lying on an acquaintance's workbench. A business card from a Young Living Essential Oils independent distributor fluttered out of the book, Essential Oils Desk Reference (EODR). I pocketed the card, and briefly thumbed through the book. The EODR, as described by Lynda and Graham Sorensen http://www.smellennium.com/mag.7.html , appears to be mostly the work of D. Gary Young, although he is not specifically credited as the book's author. I politely returned the book, and expressed the opinion that this particular book, with long lists of chemical components of essential oils, would be more meaningful to the distributor if she first learned at least basic biology and chemistry. After returning home, I visited the distributor's web site and from there linked to a transcript of D. Gary Young's tape " The Missing Link. " Gary Young created the tape " The Missing Link " for the alleged purpose of educating the public about the healing powers of essential oils. Young Living Essential Oils distributors purchase the tape inexpensively for distribution to potential customers and new recruits. Many distributor web sites post links to a transcript of " The Missing Link. " At first I read only the beginning of the transcript, because it seemed entirely ridiculous from the first few paragraphs. I examined the entire transcript soon afterward, because I learned that the distributor had convinced my acquaintance to travel thousands of miles to Utah so that an ill family member could be treated at Young's clinic. PART 2: YOUNG'S WRITINGS - THE MISSING SCREW PERHAPS? I'd like to point out some specific examples from " The Missing Link " that demonstrate that Young simply has no understanding of basic science, let alone a subject as complex as essential oil chemistry. I will examine a few quotes from that tape. " One of the primary agents in the blood that is responsible for the delivery of the nutrients through the cell walls is called oxygen. " Animals do not have cell walls. The most basic high school biology courses teach that only bacteria and plants have cell walls. Animals do have cell membranes. " You see, in the human body we have a substance called blood, and that blood has a very specific purpose. That purpose is to transport nutrients to the cells, to nurture and feed the cells. . . . .When we look at Essential Oils [sic], they have the same role, and play the same function in the plant, as blood does in the human body. " Essential oils do not transport nutrients to the plant cells. Phloem transports nutrients in plants, and xylem transports water. Examples of the functions of essential oils in plants may include attracting beneficial organisms such as pollinators, or repelling organisms that might eat or infect the plant. Essential oils do not function as blood. Only about 5% of all plant species even contain essential oils. The other 95% would not be able to survive if plants required essential oils for nutrient transport! " Okay, how many of you ladies have seen a leaf on one of your houseplants torn or damaged? What comes out? It's a liquid, isn't it? It's called the resin by some, some call it the blood of the plant. Some call it the life force of the plant but it's the same thing, it bleeds. " Young implies that essential oils run from the injured plant. However, essential oils do not run out because they are contained within special oil glands. The plant sequesters essential oils in these special glands because concentrated essential oils can actually harm plant cells. It would harm, not benefit, the injured plant if essential oils were to run out. The liquid that runs out an injured plant is sap, a mixture of fluids from the damaged xylem and phloem. " . . . . now we have a new VIRAL tuberculosis, do we not? " Nonsense. Tuberculosis has always been caused by, and still is caused by a bacterium. Bacteria and viruses are completely different forms of life. A bacterium cannot change or mutate into a virus. " The Missing Link " contains many more similar nonsensical statements. But it is only one example of Young's complete intellectual unsoundness. For example, a selection from Young's book Aromatherapy: The Essential Beginning further documents his ignorance. Young writes about a type of white blood cells called neurophils. This is a very basic term familiar to anyone with basic medical training. In the introduction to " The Missing Link " , Young claims to have studied hematology, the science of blood. Yet in that book, Young misspells the word neutrophil incorrectly as " nutrifile " not just once but five times! PART 3 - GARY YOUNG'S ACTUAL BACKGROUND Young's writings convinced me that the man had no business claiming to be an authority on essential oils, and I decided to investigate his background. He claims to have discovered the healing powers of essential oils after he was allegedly left " paralyzed for life " by a head injury. He claims to have discovered an essential oil cure for this supposed paralysis, but has never provided documentation of either the injury or his miraculous cure. By the early 1980's Young had moved to Spokane, Washington. Although he lacked any training in medicine, obstetrics, or midwifery, he insisted on delivering his first wife's baby underwater in a whirlpool bath. He left the healthy baby under water for an hour. The otherwise normal healthy infant drowned. Young claims that he subsequently operated a clinic in Mexico that treated cancer patients with laetrile. Laetrile is a useless and dangerous drug that can harm or kill people because it forms cyanide in the body. It is illegal, and it is something of which Young should be ashamed, rather than proud. From Mexico, Young moved to California and opened a clinic offering supposed treatments for cancer and other illnesses. He claimed falsely at that time to be an M.D. He was arrested in California in 1988 for a variety of charges related to the sale of ineffective and worthless medical treatments. Young then returned to the Spokane area. He was arrested on January 10, 1994 for assaulting several family members with an axe. This behavior is from a man who claims to be deeply religious and spiritual. And what about Young's claims to be an N.D., or naturopathic doctor? They are false. His " degree " is a worthless piece of paper purchased from a notorious diploma mill called Bernadean University. With this worthless credential, Young has NEVER been licensed to practice naturopathy in Utah or any place else. PART 4 - YOUNG LIVING ESSENTIAL OILS In 1992 Young, with his third wife Mary Billeter Young, started his current multilevel marketing company Young Living Essential Oils (YLEO), in Utah. This company makes inflated claims for their products, and encourages some unfair business practices. A few examples follow. Young Living claims that their oils are purer than those of their competitors. According to the archives of the IDMA discussion list, (posted by Graham Sorensen on a Web page called The YL Files (http://www.fragrant.demon.co.uk/ylfiles.html ), an expert with a gas chromatograph actually analyzed one Young Living oil. The findings in fact showed the presence of a carrier oil not indicated on the label, and the presence of an artificial chemical fragrance. The Young Living organization responded by accusing the distributor who had sold the oil of product tampering and subterfuge. Young Living never offered any additional samples for independent laboratory testing. Many YLEO product descriptions are misleading, and imply health benefits where none exist. The FDA has cited company has several times for misleading labeling. Company sales leaders promote a variety of dubious marketing techniques. One former distributor told me that she was persuaded to purchase a Web site designed by her sponsor's husband. She received a number of visitors to her web site, yet she never received any e-mails or orders for products. As the former distributor learned more about using the Internet, she discovered that her Web site was designed to be invisible, hidden from search engines. When potential customers she had recruited through her own hard work placed orders or sent e-mail, the orders and e-mail went directly to the sponsor! The sponsor was not merely earning a percentage of her sales; she was taking all the customers. PART 5 - THE YOUNG LIFE RESEARCH CLINIC Despite Young's lack of education and criminal background, YLEO distributors continue to support him with cult-like devotion. Young himself appears to want to promote his own ideas about " healing. " To that end, in October 2000 he opened the pompously named Young Life Research Clinic Institute of Natural Medicine in Springville, Utah. Because Young has no license, he cannot legally examine, diagnose, or treat patients himself. He hired licensed doctors to operate the clinic. The medical director is pediatrician Sherman Johnson, M.D. What sort of doctor would want to work for an unlicensed, uneducated man with a criminal history whose writings reveal an utter lack of intellectual ability? I explored Dr. Johnson's background. In short, Johnson pled guilty to manslaughter after injecting his patient, a long time girlfriend, with a lethal overdose of narcotics. He falsified her death certificate to cover up his crime. The wrongdoing was discovered when a suspicious nurse demanded an investigation and the body was exhumed. The entire story is so entirely bizarre that I suggest the reader check the longer account in my Quackwatch article http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/young.html This clinic operates on a cash only basis. This enables them to avoid regulatory scrutiny from health insurers and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMA). For example, they can blatantly perform laboratory tests without proper certification because they are immune from CMA fines. The FBI, who is supposed to enforce such laws, is busy with more pressing matters. Prospective patients must pay $349 to register at the clinic, and are then advised to receive a week of treatment costing $2000 to $3000 dollars. The patient must also sign a form stating that he or she is not a member of the press or of any regulatory agency. In addition, patients pay out of pocket expenses for food, travel, and lodging. Treatment at the Young Life Research Clinic includes large quantities of essential oils and nutritional supplements sold only by YLEO. According to one case history presented at the June 2002 Young Living Grand Convention, a " suggested patient supplementation program " prepared for a woman being treated for breast cancer advised her to take 14 different supplements, totaling more than 65 doses of Young Living products, every day. PART 6 - RAINDROP THERAPY Young's invention, Raindrop Therapy, (RDT) is recommended at the clinic and by thousands of YLEO distributors. In RDT, essential oils are dropped in potentially unsafe concentrations onto a subject's feet and back. An excellent paper by K. Barber and J. Gagnon-Warr, White Paper on Young Living Oil's Raindrop Technique http://www.aromaticsage.com/RDT.html describes in great detail why this technique is potentially unsafe and does not represent the best use of essential oils. PART 7 -SUMMARY In summary, Gary Young is a man who is uneducated and who has repeatedly falsified and exaggerated his credentials. He has been arrested at least twice for health fraud related charges. His inability to recognize his lack of training and the limits of his skills contributed to his own baby's death. He purports to be a religious and god-fearing man, yet he assaulted his own family. His writings reveal a complete and utter lack of knowledge about even basic science, let alone a subject as complex as essential oils. A physician who pled guilty to manslaughter in the death of a longtime friend, falsified her death certificate, and attempted to cover up the crime heads his clinic. Gary Young, Young Living Essential Oils, and the Young Life Research Clinic have no relationship to real legitimate aromatherapy. The wise consumer can purchase essential oils from a host of other suppliers who sell quality products without resorting to inflated claims or dubious marketing techniques. And people with medical problems can find honest ethical health care providers elsewhere, most likely closer to home and at less cost.. Don't be misled by the hype. The clinic has NO miracle cures or treatments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 30, 2005 Report Share Posted March 30, 2005 I've always said that if people want to pay atrocious prices for their oils, LET THEM... If they want to believe only YL oils are the best and purest in the word, LET THEM If people need to believe in a Guru and Charlatan, LET THEM... C-M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 31, 2005 Report Share Posted March 31, 2005 Thanks for everyone's input and advice =0) Sounds like it would be easier to move a mountain than change someone's mind LOL. It just really bugs me that there are wonderful people out there who produce and blend their own oils at a reasonable price but then something like YL comes along and demands unreasonable prices and makes outlandish claims and takes business from down to earth honest people. It's a funny world sometimes! Thanks again! -Christina I've always said that if people want to pay atrocious prices for their oils, LET THEM... If they want to believe only YL oils are the best and purest in the word, LET THEM If people need to believe in a Guru and Charlatan, LET THEM... C-M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.