Oneness University, Amma and Bhagavan, Psychology of Vision, and Facebook

Psychology of Vision was once a franchise of Oneness University, having been "authorized" to bestow "Deeksha Blessings" at the end of 2009. Chuck and Lency spent 21 days at OU in India in 2007, humbled at the feet of Amma and Bhagavan and guided by Raksith Ji.

But something happened, a serpent entered Eden and POV attempted to erase all trace of  their allegiance with OU in early 2014. Most of the "Cards of the Day" praising Amma and Bhagavan  were deleted, the statement that OU was one of their two (along with ACIM) "greatest inspirations" were chopped out of POV webpages, Chuck's LinkedIn wiped away his attendance at OU.

So what happened?

We have two statements from the POV side regarding this:

"What Is The Nature of The Relationship Between Psychology of Vision And Oneness University?

There is no relationship between the two organizations. Some of us attended healing programs there years ago, but for a number of reasons it felt true to me to distance Psychology of Vision from Oneness U. For about a year after making that decision, I stated in my seminars that I did not recommend that people attend their programs."
--Lency Spezzano

"My parents also have NO affiliation whatsoever with Oneness University. They and some of their students attended some of their courses a number of years ago, but were shocked and disgusted to learn about some of their practices. My mom actually spearheaded a campaign to learn and expose the truth about Oneness University. My parents do not support their practices, community, or methods. They have wanted nothing to do with that organization once they had an opportunity to learn more about them. They adamantly steer people away from that organization, their practices, and beliefs. They would NOT want their students to be affiliated with that organization in any capacity."
--Christopher Spezzano

We have never found any online record of the Spezzanos campaigning against Amma, Bhagavan, or Oneness University prior to 2014. As one of our fellow critics has observed, it must have been a "stealth campaign."

As some randomly found Facebook entries below illustrate, Lency and Christopher's above statements are misleading at best, to put it charitably. So what's the deal here?

Even Chuck himself says that his Psychology is a hoax

This is actually old news which I have rediscovered. Julian Ticehurst, former POV trainer and employee of Spezzano and Associates Ltd. and spouse of Janie Patrick Ticehurst (co-author with Chuck Spezzano of Healing Metaphors A-Z), made the following statement on Twitter back in 2010 under his "Julian Edward" handle:

"I’d say that a good half of people who attend the groups think it’s nonsense too but they use the tools and love it for that.

even Chuck himself says that his Psychology if [sic] a hoax. But he’s not interested in people believing it. Only in the results."

https://robteszka.wordpress.com/2010/05/22/pov-redux/

You can't have health problems unless you feel guilty about something

 Apr. 2016

Yup, Chuck Spezzano actually said it. The entire quote was:

"You can't have health problems unless you feel guilty about something, and then at an even deeper level you can't have a health problem unless you're getting revenge on someone."

It came from his 2010 Youtube (produced with the help of Spar Street) entitled Self-Health but was deleted from public view more than two years ago from the account of Spezzano's Healing Metaphors A-Z co-author Janie Ticehurst.

 Chuck Spezzano without the cosmetics. This man feels free to lecture you on self-health

In my view that quote qualifies as one of the most evil statements ever given by any Psychology of Vision representative, and what compounds the damage is that a lot of the POV foundation rests on this kind of sick shaming.

Here's a nice opinion piece from The Guardian Mar. 26, 2016,  Don't tell cancer patients what they could be doing to cure themselves / Steven W. Thrasher.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/26/do-not-tell-cancer-patients-cures-they-could-be-doing?CMP=share_btn_tw

The following passage especially reminded me of the Spezzanos, Psychology of Vision, and the Healing Metaphors A-Z:

"Finally, giving advice to people with cancer blames the sick person for your discomfort with their reality and shifts any accountability you feel back on to them. As the authors Barbara Ehrenreich and Sarah Schulman have shown, we have ethical responsibilities to the vulnerable in our communities – and we find excuses to avoid them. Having cancer or caring for someone with it understandably causes fear, anxiety and depression. Expecting someone to have a Positive Attitude™ when they are facing mortality, or telling them they’ve missed a simplistic way they could have avoided their fate, further isolates and shuns them.

As anthropologist S. Lochlain Jain wrote in Malignant: How Cancer Becomes Us, 'the huge and punishing self-help industry preys on fear and adds guilt to the mix. As one woman with metastatic colon cancer said on a retreat I attended, ‘Maybe I haven’t laughed enough.’' Talking at someone with cancer about what they should do, rather than being with them in a morass with no easy answers, is not you helping them. It is you unfairly shaming them for having failed at self-help, which isn’t even a thing."

Thrasher's mention of further isolating the person with cancer is exactly what a for-profit cult group like POV wants to promote so they can become your new surrogate family and drain your bank account. Makes ya think,  don't it?

Lency and Chuck Spezzano

It is important to remember Chuck Spezzano is not a professional nor licensed psychologist. He's a self-appointed "coach" which requires no consumer protection oversight. Enter POV at your own risk.

Psychology of Vision Trainer Depletion 2017: Everything will be different

Feb. 2017

That 2017 Psychology of Vision Trainers Training in Hawaii must have been quite the shindig. Shortly after the event the various POV online sources have revamped their roster of trainers and it appears that perhaps half or more of them are no longer working in the "trainer" capacity, although many of them have moved on to become "Steps to Leadership" (i.e. POV-lite) facilitators.

Canada is now listing only three trainers and POV Canada has apparently deleted their Facebook page. POV UK lists only one single trainer. Both of the Anglo nations have zero events posted as of today (Feb. 7, 2017)

POV Japan has lost three trainers or so, and the once trainer-plentiful POV Europe is down to a mere three trainers now.  The trainer depletion in POV Asia is more difficult to ascertain, since their webpage is woefully out of date.

This 10-day Trainers Training is also something of a meeting of franchise holders, so it would appear POV is going through some sort of economic restructuring. It is obvious that many participants were blindsided and stunned by this event. 2017 is going to be a fascinating year to watch Psychology of Vision.

Here are just a few of the many interesting bits surrounding the soiree:

 Babs Stevens, Claudia Schönfeld, Alex Patchett-Joyce, Emiko Takano

 By way of comparison, here are the POV-Europe trainers in Jan. 2016

Below, they are down to three trainers. Susanne Ernst's caption translates into English:

"It has stormed violently and the sweet gentleness after it is all the more intense."

[Update: April 29, 2020: A link to a blogpost by a POV trainer who was purged. Her post should be entitled "I Will Survive!" We know she is not alone and send her our best wishes in building a new life]

https://www.anne-kathrin.de/inspiration/blog/wie-trauma-in-die-innere-freiheit-fuehren-kann.html?fbclid=IwAR34e8mfX-zFlVfswCLw_Z62JTQoJLZNCGYHNVilrwPOBylJZdvTcXf4lto

(Dead link)

"A few years ago I went through a very traumatic experience. It came unexpectedly. (Almost) everything was stolen from me within a few hours. Everything I believed in and committed to was torn away from me. Suddenly my friends were no longer my friends, but became evildoers. My purpose in life was taken from me and denied. Everything that I had relied on for years was suddenly gone.

It didn't just fall away. I was actively expelled, mocked,humiliated, cursed and no longer known. In what was previously the safest place for me, there was now neither protection nor support, but instead attack and violence.

I was in shock and traumatized and it felt like my whole life and the floor from under my feet had been torn from my feet. Like a fat earthquake that flattens everything. My life was shaken and collapsed.

I was stripped inside, naked, on the floor, and all sense was gone. And I was really scared. Betrayed, cheated, mistreated, despised.
And then very obvious lies were spread in public and my name dragged through the mud."

I talk about spiritual truth, and spiritual truth should never be sold -- those who sell it injure themselves spiritually

I recall seeing the Peace Pilgrim (1908-1981) at least once walking through my neck of the woods during the Vietnam War era.

Here are her thoughts on making spiritual awakening and healing a commercial venture:

Q: Why don't you accept money?
A: Because I talk about spiritual truth, and spiritual truth should never be sold -- those who sell it injure themselves spiritually. I accept money that comes in through the mail (without being solicited), but I do not use it for myself; I use it for printing and postage. Those who attempt to buy spiritual truth are attempting to get it before they are ready. In this wonderfully well-ordered universe, when they are ready it will be given.

Q: What is the theory behind 'not buying spiritual truth'?
A: The theory behind not buying spiritual truth is this: One who has it would not be selling it, so one who is selling it doesn't have it. These are the 'pearls without price.' As soon as you are ready for the spiritual truth, it will be given. On the other hand, you are given as you give. But paying a fee is not giving a gift. And you do not need to give to the one from whom you receive, as we are all cells in the same body body of humanity.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Peace_Pilgrim.html?id=1T6u5l3Xi1YC

£700 (or roughly $1100) per Hourly Session

This appeared in the POV sanctioned povevents.com website. It was taken down in Dec. 2014.

State of Hawaii v. Charles L. Spezzano dba Psychology of Vision

Charles Lee Spezzano Ph. D. in Professional Psychology

The title page, table of contents and some selections from Chuck Spezzano's dissertation in the course of earning a Ph. D. in Professional Psychology. This degree is more liberal arts based than medical and this school was not accredited by the APA in 1977. The attainment of this degree is still a considerable achievement and does entitle the graduate to use the prefix of "Dr.," but it is not recognized by the profession as an accredited or medical credential.

Given the number of German language websites (and several in English) marketing Spezzano's for-profit services with erroneous academic awards it needs to be said Chuck Spezzano's degree was not in clinical psychology. In Hawaii he is not licensed as a psychologist and in fact was fined in 2004 for pretending to be one.

In order for Spezzano to become an actual psychologist in Hawaii he would be required to go back to school in order to earn a proper psychology degree. But the only school he attended after 1977 was exactly 30 years later at Oneness University, an institution now disowned by Lency Spezzano, a fact confirmed by her son Christopher. In fact, POV has gone to great lengths to eradicate any online trace of their association with OU. Why? We don't know. OU was once one of POV's two "greatest inspirations" but somehow rapidly fell from Spezzano grace between 2011-2014.  Yet the OU program remains in the POV curriculum and several current and former POV trainers are proud to be allied with OU to this day.

The number of German websites making false claims about Spezzano's credentials is staggering. I am attempting to document them all but the task is formidable. Spezzano's own direct promotional people and POV trainers in Europe are repeating these myths.

According to the POV Trainers Manual the Spezzanos have regularly scheduled conferences with their trainers. That would seem like the perfect time to mention the correction of these errors, but somehow these fallacies continue to be posted online for years.

So far I have not located any research by either Chuck or Lency Spezzano submitted to peer-reviewed journals.

Charles L. "Chuck" Spezzano should not be confused with Charles J. Spezzano, who is actually a real psychologist.  It seems the Library of Congress Name Authority File has blended these two Spezzanos together, which adds to the confusion.

There is also the question of the name of Spezzano's actual degree. Mr. Spezzano himself says it is in Counseling Psychology, but this dissertation (which is classed in the Library of Congress classification call number for literature) states it was written for the obscure and unemployable Professional Psychology degree.

Many, many questions here- not the least of which are the business ethics of Chuck Spezzano profiting from false advertising. Lency Spezzano claims these promotions are out of their control even though many of these fabrications are trumpeted by their close associates, some even broadcast under POV websites.

It should be noted that both Spezzanos have gone on record stating that Chuck Spezzano is not a psychologist. Chuck Spezzano told APTN reporter Rob Smith in 2013 that he is not a psychologist, he is a "coach." Lency has stated Chuck is not a psychologist in her Truth About Chuck and Lency Spezzano and the Psychology of Vision website:

http://the-truth-about-chuck-and-lency-spezzano.com/is-chuck-spezzano-a-psychologist/
[Update Oct. 12, 2019: "This site is currently undergoing maintenance." -- This has happened just in the last week. Below is a link to the Internet Archive version]

https://web.archive.org/web/20190221053037/http://the-truth-about-chuck-and-lency-spezzano.com/is-chuck-spezzano-a-psychologist/