by Rachel Hall, Australia

What country are we living in here? I believed Australia was a modern society with a “live and let live” attitude that fosters freedom of thought and speech. The media behaved appallingly at a recent Universal Medicine event (Lennox Head Community Centre – Friday night 12th Oct 2012).

This is a country where we have the right to choose how we think, feel and live, what religion we follow and what workshops we attend. What sort of country do we live in where a small group of disgruntled people who prefer to remain anonymous can incite such an unfounded media frenzy based on lies and unfounded accusations about what Universal Medicine presents?

If this were a country living under an oppressive regime then this would not be surprising, but this is not the case. The media acts as if they are totally unaccountable and can do whatever they please so long as they get their story – what about all the people at this event who have been traumatised and victimised by these disgraceful tactics? These are real people with real lives, jobs, families, businesses and children. If the media had bothered to have a balanced discussion, they would have found a group of people committed to living more lovingly, caring for themselves and taking responsibility for their way of life. But hey, that’s not so great for the TV ratings, now is it?

And that’s what is wrong here – the news should be about a group of people that are choosing to take care of themselves and are bucking the trends when it comes to stress, depression, anxiety, exhaustion and health and wellbeing.