NAFPS Selections: Lenora's Ripoff pt. 5

[From the New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans forum, by "Sandy S," April 06, 2014]:

 Lenora's Ripoff pt. 5

The next two paragraphs continue Lenora Kay Spezzano's response to a Ripoff Report complaint about business practices in the Spezzano and Associates Ltd. money machine called "Psychology of Vision"--

http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/psychology-of-vision-spezzano-and-associates-ltd/kaneohe-hawaii-96744/psychology-of-vision-spezzano-and-associates-ltd-chuck-and-lency-spezzano-scam-psycholog-1087019

"Does the Psychology of Vision use mind-altering practices? By definition, all emotional healing practices, such as forgiveness, would alter the mind in a positive way. Healing removes psychological patterns and obstacles that limit our ability to enjoy our life and have constructive relationships. The result is relief, expansion, happiness and a greater ability to give and receive love. Do we use any form of drug in the seminars? No. Do we use hypnosis? No. Do we use violence and manipulation? No."

"PoV's joining method utilizes love as a healing tool. This love comes from the Source of love (the Creator, Allah, God, the Higher Self - however the seminar participant has chosen to define it) and is effective regardless of the cultural background or religion of the participant. The Psychology of Vision has a non-denominational spiritual framework that leverages its students on their own spiritual path. For example, Muslim students of the Psychology of Vision in Bangladesh appreciate an enhanced direct experience of Allah's love in their prayer time. Seiks in Canada use it to bring more intimacy into their relationship with Guru. Buddhist monks and nuns in Taiwan use it when they advise members of their temple."

She is being misleading at best. In this forum we have recently addressed the issues of the use of hypnosis and manipulation by Lenora, as well as the nondenominational claim. In addition, as she demonstrates over and over in her "joining" YouTubes, Lenora presents herself as the conduit between these astral forces and the client.

https://www.youtube.com/user/LencySpezzano/videos
[Update: Most of the "downloading/Joining videos have been removed from public view]

It is in Lenora's next paragraph where we can move into a few new topics--

"The PoV polices itself professionally, and any complaint about a Trainer's behavior is subjected to a review process of accountability and consequences. If any of us PoV Trainers were damaging people we would have heard about it from those victims, or from witnesses of that abuse. If we were swindling people we would have heard it from them or from their families. We have never received feedback that seminars are over-priced or are not worth what people paid for them. Also, seminar participants are not pressed to bring new members to seminars, or to raise funds that benefit Trainers in any way."

Four thoughts immediately spring to mind.

First, it is true that in the Psychology of Vision Trainers Manual (p. 21-26) they describe a type of Star Chamber of discipline (with a "permanent record" file) and it reveals the very hierarchy that according to Lenora does not exist. It makes one wonder if Charles Lee Spezzano was subjected to any POV disciplinary measures when he brought shame and a lack of integrity to the organisation in 2004 when the State of Hawaii fined him for impersonating a psychologist.

http://psychologyofvision.blogspot.com/2015/09/psychology-of-vision-trainers-manual.html
[Substituted link]

http://www.kimberry.com/tipaldi/steve1.html

POV cannot have a situation where it "polices itself professionally" unless they have professionals to begin with, which they don't.

Second, POV has been aware of people who have been damaged by their practices, but in their culture of blaming the victim they simply refuse to accept responsibility. For example, it doesn't take a viewer very long to determine that many of Lenora's clients in the YouTube videos are shaking beyond control. Even some of the onlookers were in a state of tremor. But the Spezzanos apparently don't see this as a problem, as this comment from a 2003 POV forum illustrates--

Quote

    "- a Shaker obviously causes attention to be drawn to him or her, and ego latches on to anything like that. It can also be very distracting and even scary for people who don't know. Chuck once talked to The Shaker, and at the same time, had a conversation with the non-shaker in the same person. It was very interesting. There was a choice going on."

http://web.archive.org/web/20050308165054/http://psychologyofvision.net/ubb/Forum9/HTML/000194.html

See? It was the shaker's fault. Not Spezzano's. It would safe to assume Charles and Lenora turned a deaf ear to all sorts of damaged people. There is a choice going on. Just like obviously Lenora also does not consider the fine Charles received in 2004 to be a form of Impostor Syndrome or a swindle of sorts. Or that one of their own POV websites, in UK, is currently advertising the upcoming visit of Charles Lee Spezzano thusly:

Quote

    "CHUCK SPEZZANO is one of the world’s leading psychologists and experts on relationships and personal growth therapy."

http://psychologyofvision.blogspot.com/2015/09/chuck-spezzano-is-one-of-worlds-leading.html
[Substituted link]

The man cannot even earn an entry in Wikipedia, and by his admission to APTN he is no psychologist. During this same visit he will charge $1100 an hour for a personal consultation. This is what is known to most people as false advertising and a "swindle" I would say. His God is the Almighty Dollar.

But in terms of finding classic examples of blaming the victim, nothing can surpass the work Healing the Body Through Mind and Metaphor co-authored by Charles Lee Spezzano and Janie Patrick (later Ticehurst). In reading these it would be reasonable to conclude that the writing partnership consisted of Patrick describing the malady (given her nursing education) and Spezzano inventing the allegory. Once the mainstream world began to pay attention to this source, it evaporated from the public online world and recoiled from the light of truth as rapidly as references to Oneness University, again without explanation.

Fortunately the Spezzano/Patrick work is still available for public inspection at this link--
 
http://web.archive.org/web/20130915052756/http://healingkeys.com/MetaphorAtoZ.htm
[Update: This is now a dead link, removed shortly after this post originally appeared]

Here are some choice entries. Notice that even in cases of congenital disorders the victim is still to blame. Original Sin is alive and well in these little horrifying Spezzano/Patrick "factoids." The very first example serves as a perfect premise, but many others are given to supply you with a feel for just how sensitive and caring Charles Lee Spezzano really can be--

Quote

    Birth Defects

    A birth defect is an abnormality that is present at birth.

    It represents unfinished business from ancestral patterns and/or a past life metaphor. We are being called to heal this soul level issue.

    The area of the body affected can give us more information about the metaphoric meaning of this symptom.

Quote

    Down's Syndrome

    Down’s syndrome is a congenital abnormality (one that is present at birth). It is the result of having an extra chromosome in our genetic make-up, usually number 21 or 22.

    Down’s causes moderate to severe mental retardation, oriental appearance of eyes, flat nose or absent bridge of nose, a single palmer [sic] crease on a short broad hand and a dwarfed body.

    If we have Down’s syndrome, it means that we have come to learn some lessons at a soul level. We are here to seek soul fulfillment and the completion of a cycle, yet we are stuck in the transition between the old level and the new.

    The two main soul lessons of Down’s syndrome are correcting over-willfulness and giving up the ego’s plan in exchange for heaven’s plan.

Oriental?!?

Quote

    Parkinson's Disease

    Parkinson’s disease is a nerve disorder characterized by a slowly spreading tremor.

    It shows that we are caught in an unconscious fear about accomplishing our soul purpose or promise.

    This unconscious, or soul level, issue has us "shaking in our boots."

Quote

    Muscular Dystrophy
    Muscular Dystrophy is characterized by the wasting away and atrophy of muscles.

    It is believed to be a genetic defect in muscle metabolism that can be inherited from one generation to the next. Typically symptoms show up early in life, and it is more common in males than females.

    Having Muscular Dystrophy indicates the existence of an ancestral issue that has left us weak, debilitated and afraid (paralysis).

    A guilt issue has become a family script and now there is a level of self-attack.

    Somewhere in the past generations of our family, there is a belief that being strong, powerful or cruel, caused damage, and therefore we are afraid to have strength now.

    Muscular Dystrophy is a compensation to cover over and make up for this issue.

    We are being called upon to let our weakness be heaven’s strength.

    This inspires us to let heaven be in charge so that we know our power and strength will be used with the highest integrity.

Quote

    Meningitis

    Meningitis is the inflammation of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.

    It represents where we are disillusioned about something that we consider central to our life, which has led to anger, disappointment and death temptation.

    Meningitis can point to a surfacing core memory where we felt unsafe and unprotected. Our conflict comes from feeling emotionally attacked in such a way that it steals our courage and makes us fearful.

    It can stem from feelings of unrequited love or from not getting what we were trying to get. This can happen in spite of having acted in the correct, prescribed way to get it.

    We feel a frustration or anger from not getting what we want. Our conflicts stem from an unwillingness to move on.

    While every illness has a relationship component, this one may place emphasis more on our purpose, career or "doing" side.

Quote

    Glaucoma

    Glaucoma is a disease of the eye, resulting from a pressure build up within it. This pressure can eventually lead to optic nerve atrophy and blindness.

    The predilection for this disease is inherited ancestrally. It is representative of an emotional pressure, or a place where a part of us (a self) is suspended in emotional trauma.

    We are pushing ourselves to do something, but can’t see a way to do it and go forward.

    Blindness eventually ensues because there is something we don’t want to see. At some level we are adamant or stubborn about something.

    We are reluctant to recognize our responsibility and the need to change, find the way forward or lead. Instead, we give ourselves away emotionally until we reach a point of feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

Quote

    Prostate Gland

    The prostate gland secretes fluid, which becomes part of the semen.

    The prostate gland represents issues involving sexuality and masculinity.

    Problems with the prostate indicate a level of sexual guilt and an interruption to our natural flow or creativity and emotional processes.

Quote

    Gall Bladder

    The gall bladder is a pear-shaped sac on the under-surface of the right lobe of the liver. Part of its function is to provide gastric juices to the digestive process to help break food down for assimilation.

    Problems with the gall bladder indicate that feelings of anger and bitterness have become overwhelming and that we are judging what is going on.

    We feel attacked and bitter about something and/or someone’s bold effrontery (gall).

    We are projecting arrogance from a shadow figure, a part of ourselves that we have fractured off as an unbearable belief about our self.

Quote

    Fibrocystic Breast Disease

    Fibrocystic breast disease is characterized by single or multiple benign tumors of the breast, showing that we have cut off an element of nurturing.

    While we push to move forward, we are holding on to something unresolved from the past. Part of our life’s purpose is nurturing those around us, but because we didn’t feel nurtured ourselves, we carry a grievance.

    This grievance-judgment hides our own guilt, which in turn hides our soul level gift of nurturing. Instead of embracing the act of true giving, we have either adopted a role, or we have withdrawn from the gift of nurturing altogether.

    This gift was meant to nurture the very parent we have a grievance with for not nurturing us. All of this is a conspiracy that has to do with giving nurturance.

    We see it as too big a challenge for us, because we perceive the need around us as too great.

    But, like any purpose, heaven does it through us; we don’t accomplish it alone. So we could receive heaven’s nurturing for those around us.
 
Quote

    Fibroids Uterine

    Uterine fibroids are fibrous, encapsulated, connective tissue. Found in the uterus, these benign tumors vary in size from a few millimeters to the size of the abdominal cavity.

    They demonstrate that we are rooted in the past with some grievance under a buried level of guilt. We have a desire for birth, but are afraid to let go of the past and give what it takes to make a leap forward.

    Our desire for birth goes only as far as the desire. The fibroids depict our unwillingness and blockage to nurturing and truly birthing ourselves.

    This block stems from a place where we are giving and not receiving.

    We may be caught in the mothering role of taking care of the whole family. We are using the role and our family as an excuse to not move forward and live our life in such a way that would encourage and support them the most.

    We are being called for commitment to the birth of self, which would generate ease.

The following disease description is particularly cruel given the fact diarrhea is a major killer of children in the world and in areas of great poverty. But Charles Lee Spezzano probably thought this was pretty witty.

Quote

    Diarrhea

    Diarrhea is the frequent passage of abnormally watery bowel movements.

    This symptom comes from the feeling that we "don’t have our shit together" about some issue or area in our life. There are feelings of loss of control and courage or feeling unprepared and disorganized.

    Diarrhea reflects a fear of the next step because we have not yet handled this particular area of our life. We are "running" for it.

Lenora worked with the deaf earlier in her career. That makes the following entry twice as insensitive--

Quote

    Deafness

    Deafness is a complete or partial lack of the ability to hear.

    It signifies that there is something that we don’t want to hear either about relationship (left ear), or career (right ear).

    We have a fear of our purpose, and there is something that we are refusing to learn. There is an area where we have cut ourselves off, which is holding us back from joining the dance of life.

    Because we want to do things our way, there is something we don’t want to hear from others or from within. Deafness means we have some stubbornness and unwillingness to listen and communicate.

Quote

    Diabetes Mellitus

    Diabetes mellitus is an impairment of the body’s utilization of sugar.

    Sugar is used in several languages to describe sweetness and love. Metaphoric statements and "pet names" such as "Give me some sugar," "Honey," "Sweetness" and "Sugar love" are abundantly used in the English language with those we feel close to.

    The problem with diabetes is not that there is not enough sugar available; it is that the body is not able to metabolize it normally.

    Emotionally, there is a hidden fear of sweetness and intimacy. Just as the body can’t completely transform the sugar into a usable form, we may have love in our life, but somehow we are not able to receive or experience it fully.

    We might be in a loving, nurturing relationship or be the member of a very loving family, yet we are simply unable or unwilling to feel the love at a deep level.

    The problem, therefore, is that we have a block to receiving nurturing and love. This is often an ancestral issue passed on inter-generationally.

Quote

    Cystic Fibrosis

    This is a disease of the exocrine glands (i.e. glands that secrete externally).

    Cystic Fibrosis is an inherited disease, which usually begins in infancy and is rooted in unresolved pain. It affects the pancreas, respiratory system and sweat glands.

    Problems caused by this disease include chronic respiratory infections, heat intolerance and pancreatic insufficiency.

    Cystic Fibrosis indicates that there is some kind of self-deception going on. Metaphorically, an ancestral ‘big hairy spider’ is weaving a web of deception around us as a result of repressed sibling Oedipal patterns, usually involving a "cyst-er" (sister).

    We are unable to "secrete" the pain due to some deep issue from the past in our family. This may be hidden by sexual guilt and revulsion, which are compensations for the attraction.
Quote

    Constipation

    If we are constipated, then we are having difficulty with our bowel movements, due to the passage of hard and dry fecal material and sluggish action of the bowels.

    Constipation shows us that we are holding on to the past. We are holding on to our "shit" (emotional detritus), with a conflict between the need to let go and the refusal to let go.

To truly appreciate the following you need to find a recent photograph of Charles Lee Spezzano--

Quote

    Obesity

    Obesity is a state of being abnormally fat and is one of the ways in which we hide our true self, true power, purpose and sexuality.

    We are caught in major patterns of indulgence and sacrifice; we are substituting food for love, bonding and creativity.

    We have deep feelings of insecurity and are trying to fill up our unconscious, hidden feelings of desolation, misery and desperation.

    Our obesity is an attempt to create padding to protect us from the shocks and downfalls of life.

    Overeating is a way to tranquilize our emotional pain and fear. There may be a massive compensation for feelings of failure.

Quote

    Alzheimer's Disease

    Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia, involving the loss of memory, speech and physical ability that is accompanied by the deterioration of intellectual function and disorientation.

    This is the result of a lifetime of unprocessed emotion and shattered dreams, combined with a loss of hope that comes from our feeling that time is running out.

    From shattered dreams we derive the feeling of missed opportunities; not living up to our potential, disappointment in ourselves, the desire to return to a better past, unwillingness to deal with the present, regression from purpose and from life, and retreat into the past.

    There is a great desire for us to forget and so we live in the past, no longer feeling strong enough to deal with the present, which has only been disappointing.

    Suffering from Alzheimer’s means that we have a lot of experiences that we have not understood or processed emotionally.

    Suffering from broken dreams, and having been overwhelmed with life’s losses and disillusionments, we withdraw into ourselves and into our own world.

Quote

    AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)

    This disease means our body has lost its ability to fight off infection. Infection by the HIV virus has caused serious damage to our immune system.

    Normally our immune systems produce antibodies to fight off foreign agents but, because we have a poorly functioning immune system, "opportunistic infections" take advantage and infect the body.

    The development of this syndrome is the result of immense self-attack and self-judgment. We have judgment on society, which we feel is judging or attacking us in return. We feel that we have no defenses against attack.

    At some level, we experience an inability to receive or give help. We are caught in a trap of indulgence, martyrdom or rebellion, rather than leadership.

    The martyrdom takes the form of not receiving help and at the same time criticizing parents, family and society’s ability to give.

    Yet, we are ignoring our vocation, refusing to heed the call to giving, to leadership, purpose, vision and not allowing ourselves to have all the help and comfort we crave.


In the YouTube Can AIDS Be Healed, Charles Lee Spezzano expands on this topic and also claims he has worked in cases where AIDS and cancer have been cured.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlx4hkT8OTc

It was the Spezzano and Patrick entry on cancer that probably brought the most unwanted attention from the POV standpoint--
Quote

    Cancer

    Cancer involves the transformation of healthy functioning cells into malignant, or harmful, cells. The altered cells transfer faulty information to their offspring, and the cancerous cells grow in an abnormal and destructive way.

    Cancer is the embodiment of self-directed anger. It reflects a place of guilt and self-attack.

    A traumatic situation with a significant other will have taken place between six and eighteen months before the onset of the cancer.

    At some level, it is an attack on another through self-harm. It highlights that we have a need to give that has gone wild, or is completely misplaced, in addition to a fear of our purpose.

    Cancer reflects a fear of the next chapter in our life and a fear of major or radical change for the better.

    Tumors encapsulate our repressed anger, malice and conflicting, hidden belief systems.

    We are trying to shelter our pain or disappointment and are attempting to hold back negative self-beliefs and evil self-concepts. These mistaken beliefs and self-concepts stem from unresolved emotional fractures and broken hearts.

    We can get more information about our particular cancer by cross-referencing the information in this section with the body part affected.

    For example, if we have cancer of the stomach then we know that our anger is also about our ability to accept, integrate, receive and be nurtured. It may also reflect aspects of introjection, (swallowing others emotional pain).

The late Morty the Dog shared the Spezzano and Patrick description of cancer with the American Cancer Society, who filed the following response--
Quote

    Dear Steve,

    Thank you for sharing your important concerns with your American Cancer Society.  As you may know, researchers have done many studies to see if there is a link between personality, stress, and cancer. No scientific evidence has shown that a person’s personality or outlook can affect their cancer risk. This information can be found at the link below:

    > Questions People Ask About Cancer:
    http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancerbasics/questions-people-ask-about-cancer

    The Society often reaches out to organizations when we see something we think is not right, not fair, or not productive to the fight against cancer; however, we cannot do this in every case. That's why we rely on people like you, our supporters, to help us.

    Your words can mean more than you might think. As a volunteer organization, we know well the power of the public to change the course of cancer. Therefore, we encourage you to personally contact those who give platforms to Chuck Spezzano and others when you want to express your opinion. Together, we can make a difference.

    Thank you again for helping your American Cancer Society to create a world with less cancer and more birthdays.

    Sarah
    Online Cancer Information Specialist

Attachments provided. Collected by Sandy S.

Rather than defend their dogma, it appears the Ticehurst website censored all Spezzano references and even deleted one of Charles Lee Spezzano's YouTube videos on "Self-Health." According to Psiram, the Spezzano and Patrick/Ticehurst "Healing" information is currently available only by invitation.

http://psychologyofvision.blogspot.com/2015/10/psiram-psychology-of-vision.html
[Substitute link]

One former trainer, who on the whole still praised the Spezzanos, wrote to me and observed this Spezzano/Patrick aspect of Psychology of Vision was showcasing the corporation at its money-grubbing worst and admitted it was an Achilles Heel of the organisation. He dismissed it as a sideshow, which is a typical POV rationalisation. In my view, much like the allegiance to Oneness University, this other deleted portion of POV history is part of the central core of their philosophy. POV is becoming a dwelling where the builders are knocking down the foundations. Sooner or later the whole thing is going to fall down.

Third point-- the overpriced aspect of POV. In this regard Lenora could be correct in terms of the naive and manipulated cult followers not willing to complain directly to POV. But it is not hard to find such complaints even from POV adherents when one surfs through the Web in a critical manner. I think Brian Lynchehaun, who was on to the POV confidence trickster game ahead of the curve, addresses Lenora's rationalisation quite well when he brings up the behaviour of "buyer's remorse"--

Quote

    "So it’s important to note the financial commitment that the participants have made here: they are predisposed to accept most anything that Lency does as ‘correct’ and/or ‘appropriate’. A rejection of what she does would lead to buyers remorse, a state we all try to avoid wherever possible."
http://brilyn.net/taking-advantage-of-seeking-a-better-life/ [Update: dead link July 1, 2018]

Well said. It has been suggested by critical thinker humanists who want to save cult victims that if POV followers add up how much of their financial resources have been spent on following the Habitrails the corporation requires for loyalty, including taking into account the non-subsidised travel, food, and lodging and then take an inventory of how much your POV involvement has cost in terms of family/friends connection and whatever cultural connections you had in defining your most precious and primal inner self-- the result might be enlightening. True enlightenment, based in the real world.

My impression of the POV trainers is that they are not stupid people (well, most of them), but have been spiritually and emotionally damaged to a point of desperation where the mainstream system has failed them and they are reduced to detouring down a dead-end street called "Psychology of Vision" which is run by a couple of back-alley confidence tricksters.

In most organisations, the higher you rise, the more power you acquire. But not in Psychology of Vision. Instead, the higher you rise, the more money Charles Lee and Lenora Kay Spezzano can extract from you. One look at the "trainer fee" schedule in the POV Trainers Manual (p. 11) will confirm that. And they remain the top two most powerful people and always will no matter what since they are the President and Vice-President of Spezzano and Associates Ltd., the company that owns POV.

The Spezzanos like to cite the overhead of their operations when defending their outrageous fees. I would counter that you can find someone locally who, unlike the Spezzanos, has an academic degree recognized by the APA and can provide you with better help and follow up at a much more reasonable and less greedy rate.

Some POV trainers have spent enough money on Charles Lee and Lenora Kay Spezzano that if they had invested the same amount in a legitimate professional academic degree they might have had a real future in the field of psychology by now. Instead they have wasted all those dollars and energy on a confidence game and emerged with nothing more than a worthless set of credentials that are meaningless in the real world. They've been had. POV is not Harvard. It isn't even a GED degree. It is nothing. No one outside of the tiny esoteric POV snowglobe respects or recognizes these credentials.

Finally, Lenora's claim that "Also, seminar participants are not pressed to bring new members to seminars, or to raise funds that benefit Trainers in any way" has been pretty well destroyed by our own Ingeborg's research into how the "First Nations Fund" works. Read posts # 144-147 on this forum:

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=4179.msg36665#msg36665

The most authoritative primary source on how the First Nations Fund scam (and the POV Swiss bank account) worked was the German version of the POV Trainers Manual. But, surprise, surprise, this site was removed after Ingeborg exposed the inconvenient truths contained within it right here on this forum. Typical POV response. This joins the Oneness University and Healing Metaphors in terms of Soviet style purges. Censored with no recognition or taking responsibility that it ever existed. This seems a bit hypocritical for an organisation that claims it will help clients face their personal demons of denial.

Here's the link that will lead you to nowhere, a fitting allegory for POV--

http://www.pov-int.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2013-dt-Trainerhandbuch.pdf
[Update: Dead link, a revised version of this manual was later posted but that too has been removed]

So much for "transparency," or "cutting edge," or "paradigm shifts." Same old practices expected as usual from a multinational corporation. Covering up and lying while victimising gullible people in order to enlarge the bank account.

Not that we need any more, but we continue this series of examining the Ripoff Report rebuttal of Lenora Kay Spezzano in the next installment, part 6.