by Suzanne Anderssen, Brisbane Australia
Your article titled New age ‘medicine’ of Serge Benhayon leaves trail of broken families is full of holes and innuendos. People choosing to live a life in harmony with themselves, their partners, families, friends, colleagues and environment should be regarded as something wonderful, celebrated as a way of life.
In one article, we are told by the medical fraternity that caffeine is not good for us. In another we are told alcohol is bad for us. In another, we are told to get more sleep, go to bed at a regular time. Many, many, many people and doctors know gluten is harmful in the body. And many, many others know dairy causes them gastric or allergic issues. So when someone (be they male or female) decides to listen to themselves and to the many medical articles that have been written separately, and decides to follow all of that advice at the same time, then it is considered weird, cult-like behaviour. How weird is that?
The treatments Universal Medicine practitioners offer are nothing short of beautiful, caring procedures. There is no impropriety involved in an esoteric breast massage whatsoever. The creams used have been created by people who treat themselves to an amazing amount of self-love, and thus the end product created is one of integrity and care for its users. Don’t buy it if you don’t agree.
We should be ashamed for insinuating that it is normal for men to touch their partners without their permission. This is not normal behaviour. If I ever lived in a relationship where it was okay to be touched by anyone without giving my permission, I would leave in a second. Being touched without permission is nothing short of assault.
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
Serge Benhayon has been the only person I have met that’s been ultra careful to NOT tell others what to do, in a world where we are bombarded with health and other information constantly.
Suzanne, I could not agree with you more. There are thousand’s (maybe an underestimation) of books worldwide, that are written, that if we eat this or drink this or do this or that, your life will change. If we are really honest with ourselves, many of us would have bought books or attended a workshop or webinar, to help us with something in our lives. I certainly can put my hand up to it, and what happens afterwards? Tried it, didn’t work, ok what’s the next fad? And we blame the thing we tried as being responsible for it not working, or improving anything for us.
And so the cycle goes on throughout our lives.
Along comes someone, who asks us to consider say, listening to our bodies, no impositions, just to observe, the choice is within us to take heed or not. As we experiment, people around, notice and, all of a sudden out comes the label gun, and we are fired at. Something is working for you, but we rather it didn’t, because we don’t want to admit that there is truth behind it.
And so it continues.
That may be why true truth is so absent in this world, its presence exposes so much that it’s shot down by the massive reaction of the masses.
When people are not wanting to understand what is truly on offer at Universal Medicine, all they can do is spread lies that are made up from those who have an axe to grind and thus express the lies that are propagated by a few.
It really is a playground bully. A pack indulging in whatever antics tickle their fancy, and the moment someone starts looking outside the playground, the rest would do anything to make sure they remain with the group – by charm or threat or whatever it takes and make it very hard for them to leave – even though, individually, they might actually all be having a sense that what they have been getting up to is no real fun and secretly wanting to get out themselves.
Well summed up Suzanne – short and sweet – facts and truth!
Imagine for a minute that people speak truth and simply say the Universal Medicine is ´it´ and share all the amazing reasons for this. That puts other people in an awkward position: either trying it out or to have to be honest in the why not. What articles like this do is to protect the people´s capacity to avoid being honest.
It is unnecessary to behave that way in any scenario but when you have a professional responsibility to report without bias and there is no due diligence done then it makes the behaviour even more shameful.
Yes they have obviously taken the lies at face value and they fail to have any integrity or respect and decency towards the most Loving people.
No one has a right to call a group a cult, especially not tabloid style journalism, it’s irresponsible because it creates fear in communities and impacts negatively on those directly involved. I’ve been studying with Universal Medicine since 2012 and they are definitely not a cult, they are in fact an amazing organisation dedicated to true health and well-being, and are world leaders in self care.
Hear, hear, Melinda. There is nothing cult-like about Universal Medicine. In my opinion, the culture I grew up has more cult-like threads and they call it culture, beliefs, conforming, religion etc. But all hidden because you belong to this community, you are from this country, or that religion, it is their norm, so we accept it.
When we decide to no longer live from this “norm” we grew up around, the cult card is thrown at us.
Universal Medicine needs to be studied and then report these findings publicly, so people can make their own unbiased opinions, instead of one-sidedness – is this a fair thing to consider?
It seems to be a common trend lately to create stories from nothing to earn money for nothing. It’s easy to label something as a cult. Sensationalism and lies are sadly the basis of some so called journalism like that. It’s in us the readers, the ability to discern those lies and the power to feed it or not.
It’s crazy to think the extent to which we’d go to in order to protect our beliefs and the reality we live in – even claim that sexual assault is okay if you’re married.
I am starting to realise (yes clearly I am a bit slow off the mark) that journalism isn’t about writing truth all the time. On the whole there is a bigger pull to sell papers and sadly sensation sells. We, the readers, the subscribers, are fully responsible for that end result and the only way we will call for a deeper sense of integrity in what we read, is to walk with our feet and use consumer power.
The thing is when you leave normality then normality kicks back because it makes them seem not normal so you’d better stay inside the lines otherwise we might look silly. The cult of humanity wants to you be reliant on coffee, sugar, sweets, bread, milkshakes and everything else that everyone else does. However we need to stay strong and firm because we (those to chose to listen to what feels true to us) are the ones everyone else will be seeking out when the s**t hits the fan for real.
“Being touched without permission is nothing short of assault.”
Hear hear Suzanne and anyone that would suggest, imply or out rightly state otherwise is perhaps revealing their own misogynistic attitudes toward women.
Yes, absolutely. No-one has any right to touch someone without their permission – where have they gone that they could think otherwise???
Some medical doctors – in the UK, USA and Australia – are even catching on and advocating more healthy lifestyles, suggesting we cut down on coffee, alcohol, carbohydrates etc. will they too be labelled as cultists?
Great title Suzanne. No one attending Universal Medicine presentations is forced to be there. We all attend of our own free will, and then make our choices as to how to live. No coercion, no follow up if we opt out. So where does the word cult come from? From an as yet hidden self fury- jealousy – that their own health isn’t as amazing as that of many esoteric students, because they prefer comfort to truth?
Yes, attendance to any Universal Medicine event is a choice to make, there is no advertising, or persuading to attend any event, ever.
Ironically it seems if you break away from societies’ norms and unquestioned rules and start making your own decisions about how you want to live your life, you are branded with a label of being in a cult and criticised for this decision. This for me exposes just how much pressure there is to conform in the world.
Interesting and ironic.
“So when someone (be they male or female) decides to listen to themselves and to the many medical articles that have been written separately, and decides to follow all of that advice at the same time, then it is considered weird, cult-like behaviour.” – Is it not interesting that when a gigantic group of 60,000+ people gather together in a stadium, chant obnoxious, crude, and lewd songs while painting there half-naked bodies in the colours of their favourite football team, and cheers on a group of men who are trying to crush an opponent in a mini-war nobody considers THAT to be a cult, but they do when a group of people are committed to living the love that they know they are made of inside and then expressing that with others fully?
It is completely and utterly ludicrous! I’m considered weird because I don’t drink alcohol, and I’ve heard comments of others being “part of some weird religious group” because they don’t drink. But no one questions the fact that just because the majority drinks alcohol doesn’t mean it’s natural, the majority just makes that activity seem normal. Alcohol is scientifically proven to be linked to various cancers and very harmful for the body, and related to various other social problems including domestic violence. For me I felt the harm it was doing to my body many years ago so it was easy to let go of. It doesn’t mean I’m in a cult because I don’t drink, I’m just taking care of myself. That’s all the students of Universal Medicine are also doing, taking loving care of themselves.
ha ha yes I love that analogy! It is quite absurd that there should be this much fuss. If you don’t like what we live then simply walk away.
It just shows how far we’ve come when we have to say this ‘Being touched without permission is nothing short of assault.’ and that our media would perpetrate anything else is crazy and yet it’s happening … where are we at with respect and decency, a wake up call for all of us to consider how we treat each other.
Just so simple – how can a series of decisions that mean you honour your body, are less likely to become a burden on the NHS, and more likely to live a consistent, connected life where the focus is on love and sharing that be a bad thing.
I would welcome any journalist with an open mind to do some proper research on Universal Medicine and its student body: the would see a trend in the lives of the students that goes against the trends in society: less sickness, more lasting happiness or joy as we call it and more vitality. Isn’t that worth some proper research how this gets done?
Very needed article! You inspire to stand up to the media when they are telling lies. Instead of silently complying.
Not every day there is such an open attempt at normalizing the abnormal in the name of the normal.
It’s one thing to not buy a product you do not like, it’s a completely different thing to publish lies and vilification about it.
You can twist anything to look bad if you want to, it makes no sense when all our healthcare systems are bowing under the pressure of just how unwell we are as a society to criticise and ridicule people who simply choose to look after their own health and well-being.
Sadly, we have allowed a culture to generate massive mistrust of anything that offers a point of difference outside the deemed normalcy of comfort and security that we have settled for, due to our lack of awareness and being able to discern what is true and what is not, as a result of overriding our bodies and sense of truth. The fact that we have allowed abuse to be an accepted part of life is not right and obscene, and admitting that the way we live has had a hand in this culture developing is not always accepted easily, and often we think it is easier to blame another or another group. Choosing to live with love in our lives may not, at this point seem normal, but this only highlights just how far away we are living from a truly honouring, respectful and harmonious way.
Suzanne you bring up a great point about inappropriate behaviour, being touched without permission is abuse, and now many well known actors, and prominent people are being brought to account for inappropriate behaviour, I recently heard one say ‘it may have been acceptable a decade ago, but it is not acceptable now’, when in truth it is never acceptable.
Yes I agree it was never acceptable it was outrageously taken as normal and that is the horror that we now face. How many other things have we taken as normal that we now call abuse? We must never stop questioning.
Perhaps the reason others react so strongly to those who make loving changes in their lives like no longer drinking alcohol, feeding their bodies nourishing food, going to bed early etc, is because they can see that these would be loving choices to make for themselves, but it all seems too hard. When we are entrenched in a comfortable way of living it does seem rather scary to even begin to think about making changes, let alone start to make them.
Yes clearly stating – it became obvious to me that the level of integrity in the journalists, listed above, would have to be very low that they have come to attack a company that works from absolute integrity and love, and try to make it look bad, whilst actually it brings the absolute truth to mankind. Now that to me this is a dangerous form of journalism – which is not at all what journalism is about – and the fact that this is possible is very alarming and should not be accepted by us at all.
I agree Suzanne, soon as anyone does anything to support themselves whether it be dietary changes or live differently, you are labeled.
I have been called ‘weird’ by staff members because I do not eat diary, gluten or salt but the end of it all is that I have simply made choices to support me and my body and they have made their own choices.
As for most journalists their profession is based on shocking people by either dooming or dramatical news – it’s the way of the profession but there is often another side to the story that is often unexplored.
This article and the story is it writing to, was some time ago now but many of the comments still linger. It’s not up to me to convince or prove things one way or another as most wouldn’t listen anyway. What I do continue to do is live what I talk and everyday it changes and moves. Each day my eyes open to something that I may not have understood or seen in that way before, there is a freshness to life. People can believe whatever they need things to be but that won’t hold me back from enjoying the difference in what I see and what I feel. My life has changed significantly for the better from my association with Universal Medicine and so with respect call me what you like, the people that know me know who I am.
Most people do weird things, things that are harming to themselves and to others. Yet, they and these get accepted as mainstream and normal. Some people revise the concept of what is normal according to what they do to the body and they are accused to being in a cult. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
“And to the journalists Josh Robertson and Liam Walsh, you should be ashamed of yourselves for insinuating that it is normal for men to touch their partners without their permission.” . . . Thank you Suzanne and for this . . . “Being touched without permission is nothing short of assault.”
It should be front page news the miracles that have happened in the lives of the students of Universal Medicine, through choosing to be responsible and make self loving choices they have a vitality and a joy that they have not experienced before. Totally opposite to the lives of people living in a cult.
In our current modern society, it is considered very normal to go to the gym obsessively, even if that includes replacing meals with protein shakes and partying religiously on the weekend and training hard again to work it off. This is just one of the many lifestyle choices we accept as normal….but why? Why is it that we are completely unchallenged by a person living in this way? And further more why are we so challenged by someone making positive lifestyle choices after attending Universal Medicine events? It seems very convenient that an organisation like Universal Medicine becomes the villain, the cult, the strange thing, when in truth it is the most all-encompassing and deeply considerate philosophy I have been privy to, to date. There is no obligation to sign up or attend and it is open to the general public. There really is nothing weird, well nothing weirder than what is already accepted by many, but very interesting that most people try to put it in the weird box, for as long as it sits on the ‘cult’ side of the room, nobody has to ask themselves why they are not living this true model of health.
When a woman is touched even by their partners in a way which is inappropriate and without the respect she rightly deserves, a woman has every right to say ‘No’. Why should it be any different? It is appalling that we as women have got to this place of utter disregard where our society even considers that this behaviour is normal and acceptable.
At Universal Medicine everyone is free to come and go as they choose. It is a sad reflection on much of journalism today that many who call themselves journalists jump on the bandwagon of the sensation seeking cult-ure of rubbishing what they have not bothered to find out for themselves.
Branding something a cult inappropriately immediately casts suspicion and judgment on it which is always the intention.
Suzanne thank you for clarification in your awesome blog that Universal Medicine is not a cult . . . I am sure these journalists have never been in a cult otherwise, they would describe it differently or the only reason why they wrote it like this was to get more newspapers sold. If that would be the case then something very important is out of order.
Well said about this irresponsible piece of journalism printed by the Courier Mail, Suzanne.
To so-brand people who are inspired to actually improve their lives and care for themselves, as so many students of Universal Medicine are doing, is impossibly ridiculous – and yet, there it is, in print.
We have a long way to go in order to fully call our media – at least sectors such as this – to account.
“The treatments Universal Medicine practitioners offer are nothing short of beautiful, caring procedures.” They define or redefine the word treatment and many other words like love, care and nurturing. Treat and discover for yourself. Find a UniMed practitioner near you – https://www.epa-international.com/practitioners
‘Being touched without permission is nothing short of assault.’ It is assault plain and simple. In legal terms it’s called Common Assault. I volunteer in a hospital for people with neurodisabilities and during our training we were shown that even touching someone gently on for example, their arm or shoulder without permission is Common Assault. It is not OK however normalised it has become.
The true story here has been overlooked for the push for sensationalism and showing headlines. I can see now how many people are swayed away form knowing the truth because of the doubt that is portrayed within sections of the media. The true and very worthwhile story is that many people are changing everything about their lives and it’s making a difference.
It just makes no sense for these journalists to call Universal Medicine a cult just because we have chosen to make life style choices that are loving and healing to our bodies, this way of bringing in self love is so foreign to a world that is all about self identification which brings abuse to the body in many varied ways.
It is crazy to think you are treated with suspicion or said your in a ‘cult’ because you make lifestyle choices that are truly loving and supportive, you lose excess weight, become more productive at work, deepen all your relationships, have more energy and vitality, become more engaged in the community – who is really living in a cult? I leave it for you to decide.
If looking after yourself means you’re in a cult then the world is truly crazy. I don’t care what anyone says – I’m going to look after myself until the end!
I love the header of this blog Suzanne, it exposes their own stupidity of what they are trying to make be doom and gloom.
It really is sad that many see one who chooses to live in a way that honors and respects their body, to the degree where what they eat and how they live changes, because it is felt that the old ways were not honouring and respectful. What if just doing this in our lives could enrich our health and wellbeing, bring back a true sense of responsibility and to boot, relieve the pressure on our health systems. Now this is what needs to be reported.
Hear, hear Suzanne, I agree with all you say. One has to conclude that there needs to be the return to true journalism, true reporting with true investigations, with real concern for people and for humanity at large. Whatever are these so called ‘journalists’ on about?