The following article, "Natives Find New Age Help in Hawaii" by Suzanne Fournier was originally published in The Calgary Herald, Jan. 28, 2001, page A1.
This reprinted version of the work was found online in a Yahoo group.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/TurtleIslandNativeNetwork/conversations/topics/240
[Update Oct. 1, 2021: dead link]
Sun 28 Jan 2001 News A1 / FRONT Suzanne Fournier, Vancouver Province
Natives find New Age help in Hawaii
By: Suzanne Fournier, Vancouver Province
Natives are spending thousands of tax dollars jetting off to Hawaii for workshops in questionable New Age therapies.
Critics say the training trips, and the ensuing therapy sessions on the reserves, are a waste of taxpayers' money, unhelpful and potentially dangerous for victims of everything from residential school abuse to sexual assault and addictions.
But Dr. Jay Wortman, B.C. director for Health Canada's medical services branch, says bands can spend health money as they like.
"We might not condone it and I agree 100-per-cent it looks bad, but it would be paternalistic to dictate to First Nations how they spend their health dollars."
In Manitoba, however, Health Canada is suing to recover $5 million from a native centre that used counselling dollars to send staff to the Caribbean and Hawaii.
About 14 B.C. natives attended $2,500 workshops in Hawaii last November.
Dr. Charles Brasfield, a North Vancouver psychiatrist who has treated hundreds of native residential-school victims, says they typically require lengthy one-on-one counselling, which Health Canada refuses to pay for.
When bands spend money on quick-fix New Age therapies such as Neurolinguistic Programming and something called Psychology of Vision, he says, Health Canada looks the other way.
"Typically, these quick-fix money-makers try to get an aboriginal 'trainer' as a front," he said. "We tried to warn medical services how public money was being spent but they weren't interested.
"We're very concerned about the influx of these money-making quick-fix therapies. They're very expensive and they're just sweeping reserves."
Agrees Vera Manuel, a Secwepemc playwright and qualified traditional therapist: "It's a feeding frenzy out there -- all kinds of so-called therapists are coming out of the woodwork."
"These New Age therapies are becoming as oppressive to us as the first wave of religion -- some of them are like cults. This is not a good use of the small amount of money we have."
Carole Dawson of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs said she has complained repeatedly to health and Indian affairs officials about her impoverished Tsawataineuk reserve, on northern Vancouver Island, paying for NLP workshops.
"They just don't listen," she said.
"Not only is this taxpayers' money being wasted, it's dangerous, irrelevant drivel -- how does our social worker spending two weeks in Hawaii help the people suffering on our reserve?"
Tsawataineuk social worker Charlene Dawson was among those who flew to Hawaii in November for NLP "training," for which she says she borrowed $3,500 for airfare, hotel and meals "that I'll be paying off for years."
The workshop, in Kona-Kailua on Hawaii, was put on by Nimpkish band member Richard Hunt, who lives in Tsawwassen and makes a comfortable living as an NLP "master trainer."
He didn't charge Dawson for the workshop. Instead, she agreed to promote NLP workshops on reserves, where they would be paid for with federal health dollars or Indian affairs dollars.
Dawson, a single mother of five, defended going to Hawaii: "You're on a big high -- Hawaii is so beautiful. But when you get home, reality hits. It's a real let-down." Said elder Flora Dawson, Carole's mother and a distant relative of Charlene: "Elders and home-care clients weren't really looked after while she was gone."
The Neskainlith band near Chase paid $3,200 for two band members to attend, which band social development director Leigh Ann Edwards admitted is "more than a third of our annual medical services training money."
"I don't understand NLP, but it's popular," she said. "We prefer to fund aboriginal counsellors here but it's hard."
Hunt, 38, said he has given "hundreds" of paid sessions on reserves since he became a "master trainer" in 1995.
He said he isn't concerned that NLP has little credibility among medical experts: "NLP by itself I agree might not be useful, but I do use our aboriginal experience and the real kicker I use is called timeline therapy." Timeline therapy is an NLP technique to eliminate negative thoughts and emotions about previous events in a person's life.
Asked about the ethics of charging cash-strapped bands thousands of dollars for Hawaii workshops, Hunt replied angrily: "I didn't twist their arms or force them to come, did I?"
Turtle Island Native Network Aboriginal News & Information http://www.turtleisland.org E-mail: infocom@...
9 comments:
Great article. The media needs to follow up on this story.
In many ways the situation is worse now than it was in 2001. The documents on this blog confirm these cults and destructive toxic groups have insinuated themselves into the grant cycles, political, and health structure to some degree in First Nations communities across western Canada.
Haida Gwaii is particularly diseased by this blight in Canada. After the place began to obviously implode thanks to the Spezzanos, Chuck and Lency suddenly stopped showing up and even ignored pleas for help from their cult followers (See New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans Forum for documentation). Apparently there was no profit to be made, so the Spezzanos probably just decided to walk away. No pay, no pray.
For all the Spezzano talk about free service to Haida Gwaii, I believe a true accounting will prove otherwise.
"Attawapiskat suicide emergency: Health Canada, province send in crisis teams"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/attawapiskat-suicide-emergency-help-1.3529750
Health Canada has allowed frauds like the Spezzanos to victimize First Nations for far too long while the government looks the other way. The Canadian feds bear some responsibility for this state of emergency.
chuck spzezzano and his cult -psychology of vision is not the answer to fix peoples probelsm, and how he targeted reserves for their real healing money to spend on himself, you wouls think there would be some finacial fraud cases against this cult, they don't create cultural Renaissances in reserves, it's all about his cult teachings to follow, absolutely nothing to do with saving first nations, all he's after is the healing money meant for true licensed healing.but he learned how to target the fn's money for real healing. shame on the government for allowing this to happen
Psychology of Vision, enter, stage right.
Highlighted passage, illustrating how Babs Stevens is a "front":
When bands spend money on quick-fix New Age therapies such as Neurolinguistic Programming and something called Psychology of Vision, he says, Health Canada looks the other way.
"Typically, these quick-fix money-makers try to get an aboriginal 'trainer' as a front," he said. "We tried to warn medical services how public money was being spent but they weren't interested.
"We're very concerned about the influx of these money-making quick-fix therapies. They're very expensive and they're just sweeping reserves."
Agrees Vera Manuel, a Secwepemc playwright and qualified traditional therapist: "It's a feeding frenzy out there -- all kinds of so-called therapists are coming out of the woodwork."
"These New Age therapies are becoming as oppressive to us as the first wave of religion -- some of them are like cults. This is not a good use of the small amount of money we have."
These movements were born in Germany when Freud and Karl Jung tapped into the 'psychoanalysis' theory of the subconscious. Jung covertly sidled up to Freud purporting he respected Sigmund's more rational evaluations of these forces but, Jung was actually dabbling in dark regions of these disciplines. A book on Jung by Richard Noll: THE ARYAN CHRIST, explicates why Freud distanced himself from Jung's faction. There is presently a Carl Jung 'Spezzano' type group on Facebook mining the same veins.
In my extensively considered examination of the phenomenon, or I should call it by its correct noun, nuomenon, because there is no phenomena involved, only charades of ideas, the heavy emphasis on sexualistic in both Freud and Jung is a driving characteristic of all these movements so it will be difficult to expunge. Noll researches Jung family correspondence so this aspect in only lately coming to light. Bear in my mind that administrations if theses monies are handicapped by the 'self-government' rhetoric that makes any scrutiny appear to be colonial. Also, however, keep in mind that these are deep deep forces, the forces that in Germany in the 1930's brought Hitler to power. Combining money, spirits and sexuality will always produce secret cabals that dress in nice clothing but do real damage.
I advise those concerned about this and those being drawn toward it to consult one scripture: Ephesians 6, 10-20; the same energies that are diagnosed as paranoia and schizophrenia are awakened in these movements.
The teachings of Jesus do help because his experiences were all along this area of reality. He is there to consult in scripture and in direct prayer because, remember, these forces are real and we're always present to our ancestors. Civilization and the English language cloud up the issues because they deny these spirits are real.
In Jung's case, to end on a money point, a Rockefeller heiress funded him and paid to publish all Jung's writing. Scholars worship this body of pseudo-medical authority.
Spezzano can be seen tapping this like a godly gold mine.
All these years, who pays for Haida CAO Babs Stevens annual or biennial trips to Hawaii? Surely she can't make enough in her job to afford this? Is she given professional leave time to attend these cult sessions? Are her trips officially sanctioned? Is money that could be used for positive constructive efforts instead being spent on a power-hungry person indulging in a commercial cult so she can feel special and important at the expense of her people? Calling all auditors!
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