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Dear
Stephen-
Thank you for your response. I will
address each and every one of your concerns within the context of your e-mail
below (your comments are in red):
____________________________________________
Dear
Bob,
As one who
holds a PhD from Purdue
University and who is aware of the
value of research, I can appreciate your need to discover the facts about any
particular situation.
I
am glad to hear we are in agreement in this regard, although I have no
"need" to
discover the facts. My reason for asking the questions I have asked is simply
the pursuit of standard professional due diligence. There is nothing personal or
emotional about it. I am vetting information provided by Dr. Garland, you, and
LifesMiracle.com which is being used to promote the company and its product
line. As former President Ronald Reagan once said, “Trust, but
verify”.
I would assume that were
you to gather these same facts with respect to Vioxx researchers and some of the
other prestigious pharmaceutical organizations, you would undoubtedly discover
their impeccability. Of course, degrees from recognized institutions are no
guarantee of genius or even life changing research and certainly miracle
products. One has only to examine the trail of dead bodies strewn over the road
of "approved" drugs.
I presume you are being
facetious in the first sentence of the above paragraph, for obviously this is an
imperfect system. As you state, "...degrees from
recognized institutions are no guarantee of genius", but they ARE
relevant and reliable guarantees that specific educational effort was invested
in accredited institutions of higher learning in which there was supervised and
standardized professional instruction according to generally accepted standards,
along with testing to assure understanding and assimilation of the knowledge and
information presented therein.
Are you suggesting that
since some pharmaceutical products were not as safe or effective as
advertised, we should abandon the existing system and allow any and all products
to be sold on the open market, developed by anyone, without requiring any sort
of credentials, product testing, clinical studies or standardized evaluation?
Your own experience with your former company Lifewave and Dr. David Schmidt
should have taught you to not take such claims at face value. David Schmidt new
NOTHING about “nanotechnology”, he was NOT a doctor of any kind, and the entire
company and its so-called “nanotechnology energy patches” you helped to
sell were an absolute fraud. @@@What I am suggesting is that you have in the history of your
site demonstrated little interest in the reported efficacy of the products
examined, the manner in which they transformed the lives of others, saved
the lives of many and showed little if any adverse implications. No, you do
not focus on product efficacy, report your own honest experiences with products
or take the time to process the genuine experiences of those good people.
Instead, you investigate credentials, belittle and demean cutting
edge technology, demonize those who fail to dance to your demands, threaten
others with exposure to your site and play the lord of your domain, the king of
your fenced in island where you use free speech as others use weapons of
destruction.@@@
Certainly, one would
have to be somewhat culturally isolated in order to be unaware of the prevailing
attempt by those in positions of power to demean and diminish all those whose
origin is dissimilar from their own. One only need study the history of science
to determine that had authority but had its way, we would still be the center of
the universe and the sun would still rotate around the
earth.
This is the old "You
must still believe the world is flat!" argument, meant to intimidate people
with legitimate questions into not asking them, for fear of appearing
closed-minded or old-fashioned. Here are some classic examples of this sort of
faulty reasoning: http://worldwidescam.info/bbd.htm
@@@There is a vast difference between making honest
inquiry and attempting to tie up people in meeting your demands. You have
become part of something Robert that far exceeds the simple inquiry for truth.
You have become an internet bully, a self proclaimed demeanor of others, a
spreader of gossip about those who do not align themselves with your truth and
much more. Irrespective of what good you do by pointing out scams and non
reputable companies, you have become an example of how power corrupts. You
cannot and likely will not ever see this. Why? Because you have created a
world which lends meaning to your life and as such will continue to seek all
that which perpetuates your
world.@@@
Do you mean to
suggest that people and/or products should NEVER be challenged or questioned? Or
that society, scientific disciplines and democratically elected governments
should not establish and enforce standards for proof of efficacy, and should not
require that inventors, scientists and MLM sales people validate their claims of
education, experience and accomplishments? Over time, real scientists proved
beyond any doubt that the Earth is NOT the center of the universe, using real
science and duplicatable experimentation. The TRUTH is still the TRUTH and
misguided authority cannot conceal it for long. And yet, without some form of
recognized and legitimate authority and standards, we are left with chaos –
and Thalidomide… @@@No, I do not mean to suggest any such thing.
You are a bully Robert and have become quite artful in character assassination.
That some of those whom you highlight are individuals of questionable reputation
and integrity does not justify the injury you do to others who simply fall
outside your realm of comprehension. You seem to not concern yourself with
the good that results from use of these products but rather have interest in
that which will provide fodder for your site. It would not matter to you if 50
people stood in front of a room and showed that they were as an example, cancer
free after a particular avenue of exploration. What would only matter to you
would be that individual's high school graduation date and whether it was
accurate. Your values Robert are those of the self righteous who build their own
pedestals of truth so that they may conveniently knock as many off as
possible.@@@
I make no comment on
your desire to see that all that a man represents himself as is the truth of who
he is.
Nor should any comment be
required or expected. Why would anyone, including you, disagree or object with
such a desire?
What has always puzzled
me is that despite your genuinity and likeability, I cannot help but feel that a
man begins as guilty until you conclude that he is
innocent.
That is an emotional
judgment call of your own, @@@ It is not your predetermined opinion which I question but
your fanaticism and your continual attempts to capture the attention
of others so that their time is spent in justifying their existence to
you.@@@ for I have no predetermined opinion
of anyone I inquire about. My investigations begin as a blank slate. When
someone such as David Schmidt at Lifewave signs a patent application with the
U.S. Government as "Dr. David Schmidt", @@@I never knew this and have
never heard anyone refer to him as Dr.@@@ I
will presume he is being honest, but I will also ask him to verify his status as
a "Dr." If, in fact, he has earned such a title, he will show no
hesitation in validating that fact, and should not be the least bit annoyed with
anyone who would ask about it. It's a professional courtesy and a part of
standard due diligence. If he actually has NOT earned such a title, he will
quickly be exposed as a fraud and a charlatan, which is exactly what David
Schmidt was revealed to be. As you wrote in a public letter last
year:
"I would like to place before you the
possibility that some of what is on http://www.worldwidescam.com is in fact
closer to the truth than many of us have before even suspected." – Stephen
Brown @@@ Bob,
irrespective of his academic credentials, and I have never heard nor referred to
him as Dr., there are many sensible and honest people who have benefitted from
use of these patches. Why would you disparage everyone associated with LifeWave?
Why would you selectively employ character assassination with Dr. Haltiwanger.
Granted, people like Warren Hanchey have merited your scorn and exposure,
yet, what about the many sincere and good people who market these patches
because they have seen evidence of so many benefitting from them? It is this
selective exclusion on your part that I
question.@@@
You
continue:
Be that as it may and
rest assured that I have no difficulty with your pursuit of the truth, I am
deeply disturbed at something which in your role as a truth seeker is simply
intolerable. So, Bob, let me call into question the truth of something which you
have presented here which is flagrantly and blatantly simply not the truth but a
reconfiguration of it. When I finish clarifying this to you, I expect from you a
written apology and an acknowledgement that you are anything but immune from
spinning the truth to suit your purpose.
I welcome your challenge,
Stephen, and if I have erred, will gladly put forth a written apology. I am also
most interested in knowing what you perceive to be my "purpose" in "spinning
the truth", as you say, but first let us hear your
concerns.
Suffice it to say that
as a writer, one of my pet peeves is either when someone misquotes me or either
blatantly attributes words to me or a context within which they did not occur.
Now, I realize, that in your own world, you may have justified this in order
that you not reveal that xxxxx xxxxxxx betrayed all that she claims she is by
without my permission emailing you a personal email which I sent to her.
However, let me assure you that xxxxx's attempt to be all
things to all people when in truth her dynamic is primarily self interest, is
something that does not require you to betray yourself in order to further
obscure. In truth, you would do her an even greater service by allowing her to
face her own discrepancies from integrity and stand revealed in the light rather
than remain hidden in the shadows.
Allow me to briefly
interject here that Ms. xxxxx is not now and has never been an issue regarding
my inquires about LifesMiracle.com. She has her own concerns and point of view
and while we have shared an occasional e-mail or phone call, I take full
responsibility for every issue I have raised and every question I have asked so
far.
The following words
which you wrote Bob are purposefully and intentionally false and for which I
require public acknowledgement and apology.
Your statements suggested that asking for a curriculum vitae from Dr. Garland
"is absolutely a shock" and that "he cannot believe that it is still necessary to do
this". Certainly you and Dr. Garland are not above the law or
superior to and independent of the medical, educational and scientific standards
that are an accepted and established part of our modern society. Why should
anyone be "shocked" by a request to see a
professional curriculum vitae? @@@I made no mention of Dr. Garland being above the law and find
it a bit of a stretch for you to include my name in such a way with Dr. Garland.
These are you words and not mine. It would not surprise me at all for you
to make an inference such as this and then make it an attribution as if it
was something said by
another.@@@
In my world or in that
of any other Bob, you have just demonstrated the masterful art of spin, taking
that which is or appears to be and reconfiguring it to suit your own purpose
even if the truth is stretched beyond the bounds of
integrity.
Would you please explain
what is my "purpose" you keep mentioning?
My stated "purpose" is to elicit the
truth. I presumed that was yours and Dr. Garland's, as well. Is it not so? @@@Your purpose Bob is far
more complex than eliciting the truth. Consider that a great deal of your life
is a self chosen mission to expose all that which is not rooted in what you
consider to be truth. Truth is not to be confused with facts. Truth has to do
with universal principles invariant in their origin but infinitely variable
in their application. The Law of Love is an example of such a truth or the
Law of Non Interference. Each man understands love differently and weaves
its truth through his own illusions. Your communications lack the basis of good
dialogue as you seem not to demonstrate the same degree of flexibility you
profess to have. Suffice it to say that you are not immune to selecting what
confirms your intention and excluding that which does not. As an example,
have you listed anywhere the names of the good citizens who have been
unquestionably helped by those companies for which you hold such
scorn?@@@
Did it ever occur to you
that such spin to serve your own purpose may have damaged my relationship with
Dr. Garland. No, of course not, because you have an axe to
grind.
No, it did not occur to me, and please describe
what sort of “axe” I have to grind. Why
should the presentation of your own unedited words as written to someone who
considered you a good friend in any way damage your relationship with Dr.
Garland? @@@Someone who
considered me a friend would have a bit more integrity than to send a private
communication to the editor of an exposé web site. So, xxxxx's definition of
friendship is her own and quite likely one encapsulated by what serves her at
the moment. Were I to consider sending another an email written to me in
private, I would first ask permission to do so. Considering xxxxx's request to
keep her involvement in LifesMiracle a secret as she is suing Eniva, I would
think she might be a bit more discrete about her intrusion on
privacy.@@@ You said nothing
inappropriate or hurtful. You expressed your great respect and admiration for
Dr. Garland and your worry that the time it might take to prepare a CV would
take away from the other important work he is doing for LifesMiracle.com. If I
were Dr. Garland I would feel honored and humbled, as I'm sure he is. I believe
your fears are quite unfounded, unnecessary and
irrational.
Even though it is
cloaked in the pursuit of truth, a fine endeavor, you would appear far more
objective if you stepped back from the role you see yourself in and begin to
consider the many good individuals you hurt along with the ones whom you
unmask.
Pray tell, who have I
hurt up to this point? @@@ Robert, please spare me such false naïveté. You have hurt
thousands of people whose lives have been adversely impacted by your selective
pursuit of what you define as the truth. Good people have awakened and found
their private communications to their downline or upline suddenly in full view
on a public site. Associates who truly believed in their dream and found a
product to be life changing had suddenly to be confronted with your relentless
pursuit of their company. Do you have any idea Robert of the impact you
have had on these good people and how despised you are by so many because
of this? Surely, you do not. Have you helped some individuals avoid situations
which would have caused them harm? Of course, as nothing is either
or. Yet, you have hurt many and continue to do
so.@@@ I have said nothing negative about
anyone - even my statements regarding David Schmidt are based on knowable and
verifiable information, not opinion. You, Stephen, have made several references
to me personally that are far from flattering, but I understand you are reacting
emotionally from your desire to protect Dr. Garland, and I certainly forgive you
for this.
There are three
principles Bob which I have been taught. The first is truth, the second is
necessity and the third is kindness. Perhaps, you may find greater contentment
in your world and less self righteousness if you but consider the latter two and
not just the former. Thank you for your time and attention to my words. I am
certain that Dr. Garland will address this
suitably,
I have a great deal of
contentment in "my world", Stephen, and
yet I do apologize if I appear to be “self-righteous”, for that is not my
intent. @@@This requires a
good deal more Robert. No one intends to be self righteous Robert. Yet, with
this quality of being comes the equally challenging one of being blind to
it.@@@ I have merely asked to see a
curriculum vitae for Dr. Garland and am now attempting to follow-up on the
information he has presented in a professional and objective manner as a part of
performing standard due diligence. Nobody is on trial here, I am not a judge or
jury and Dr. Garland is neither innocent nor guilty. The TRUTH is the TRUTH. I
do not take it personally and neither should
you.
By the way, are you self
trained as a web master and as a "muckraker?" I understood that music was your
profession.
This is correct - I am a
professional musician and have been for thirty years. I am self-taught in HTML
and the design, publication and maintenance of web sites. I do not actually
consider myself to be a "muckraker", but
rather the publisher of a "non-profit consumer advocate web site" in
which I investigate various Internet MLM companies, products and people in hopes
of educating the Internet consumer public so that they may make informed
decisions. The WWSN has never been successfully sued in over ten years on the
Internet, nor have we been wrong about any company or product we have
investigated. @@@Robert, how can
you say that you have never been wrong about any product? In truth, there are
many individuals who have benefitted greatly from some of the companies and
products you have disparaged and bombarded with continual negativity. Certainly,
you would not be that presumptuous to conclude that highly intelligent and
integris individuals like David Jumper and others are purposefully or
naively marketing products which have no inherent value. Robert, you have
not cornered the market on intelligence or integrity. You may be well
intentioned but certainly are not immune to acting out of your own consciousness
as do all others. Neither disagreement with you nor resistance to meeting
your demands for a response are tantamount to wrongness or evasiveness. Simply
put, who are you to demand and threaten? Who gave you such power to hold over
another's head the threat of ruin and exposure when it is you alone who choose
to act as arbiter and protector? Yet, you conveniently ignore the many whose
lives are changed for the better. I do not speak of LifesMiracle alone but of
many others. Certainly, you are not all wrong, but most definitely, you are not
all right. And, please do not present yourself as selfless when in truth you
enjoy and derive meaning from all of the drama and contestment that you
continually create around you.@@@@ As
you eventually learned with Lifewave and David Schmidt, we are a professional
and effective resource that utilizes First Amendment rights, in-depth due
diligence, along with parody and satire to ferret out the truth. @@@You speak of satire Robert
as if it was independent from the laws of graciousness and love. You ignore the
pain you cause others and the lack of kindness in your words. You speak of truth
much like a crusader whose narrowness of perspective in ages past left lifeless
hulks in his pursuit of his own truth, which of course for him was the truth.
You are exemplar of an age in which the pen is used much like the sword to
bloody others in
heart.@@@
Is it not possible that
some individuals are so self trained, having read and read and explored and
explored and then simply opting for the degree that allows them to practice and
serve. I know a number of individuals like this and some of them have degrees
from Clayton. I also know many doctors with degrees from established medical
schools who in their own way have become a part of the published studies of the
leading cause of deaths in the
US.
Once again, Stephen, you
are attempting to make the "exception" the "rule" and the standard
by which we should operate. Perhaps your PhD from
Purdue University included courses in logic and
debate - this might be a good time to dig out your old textbooks and refresh
what you learned there. David Schmidt claimed to use his knowledge of
"nanotechnology" to develop the Lifewave energy patches you used to sell
- I simply asked Mr. Schmidt where and when he studied and learned so much about
"nanotechnology" and, if he was so self-taught, he could easily have
presented the titles of various books he had studied, or presented some of his
own non-proprietary research and investigations into the field that might have
convinced us all that he actually knew anything about the subject. He NEVER did
so - he was obviously a fraud - but you chose to trust David Schmidt and
continued to sell his placebo patches until, more than a year later, you began
to see that the WWSN had been right about Lifewave and David Schmidt all
along. @@@I am not
discussing David Schmidt's degrees. He does not have a credited doctorate. Yet,
do not toss out his technology like the Inquisitors of old. You would stand here
and deny the entirety of vibrational medicine simply because you cannot measure
it with your mind. You remind me of those attempting to verify the existence of
supra physical phenomena with physical devices. This is not a Skinnerian world
of outer realities alone but a subjective world in which you and any other are
subjected to the inner workings of your own
world.@@@
I have always wanted to
ask you this question Bob. Do you enjoy the power you appear to hold in choosing
which reputations to attempt to ruin and which lives to attempt to
destroy?
This is a rather impolite
ad hominem attack, Stephen. What have I said or done to deserve such disrespect?
I have little "power" except to seek out
and present the truth on one Internet web site. If I were publishing false
information with malicious intent, I would have been sued and shut down a long
time ago. But, in fact, if you had paid closer attention to the WWSN when you
were heavily invested and involved in promoting Lifewave, you would not have had
to SUE the company to recover monies owed to you upon your departure. The TRUTH
was available on the WWSN, but you chose to ignore it, even while you continued
to profit from the sale of a fraudulent product. @@@You have much power Bob
as your words create pain for many others and serve to create chaos in the world
around you. You draw to yourself and to your site an emphasis on all that
is wrong and bad and not that which is right and good. Criticism and self
righteousness permeate your site. Yes, there is truth there as there is in
anything. But there is it opposite as well. And most of all, there is a
place where wrongness, disrespect, mistrust, betrayal and all the negatives of
life are held before its
reader.@@@
Certainly, as we have
spoken under other contexts, I do not doubt your underlying sincerity and
concern for those who are purposefully mislead. Yet, there is a point when a man
has to ask himself if that which nourishes him is that which destroys
others.
I thank you for that
first sentence. Your second sentence is simply sophomoric, insulting and silly
and neither deserves nor requires any response.
For a moment, place your
attention on Dr. Garland, consider all the good he has done, the many lives he
has saved and the great love so many have for his generosity. Now, weigh that
with the contribution your newsletter makes to life. Contrast the negativity and
scorn displayed on your newsletter with the tears of joy expressed by those who
still survive although faced with terminal illnesses. A man always has to live
with himself Bob. What will your legacy be? How will you have made the world a
better place to live?
My current opinion
of Dr. Garland is that he is a good man who has done much good for many people.
My "negativity and scorn" is reserved for
those who genuinely deserve it, based on known facts and documented information.
I lost both of my parents to cancer, as my wife also lost her father, and I have
great empathy for those who suffer from terminal disease. I am hoping that Dr.
Garland can verify and validate the claims being made by and about him and that
his discoveries and inventions will withstand the scrutiny of generally accepted
medical, scientific and legal standards. Nothing would please me more than to
state on the WWSN web site that Dr. Garland is the real deal and
LifesMiracle.com is an amazing product.
It is not who you are
Bob, for you are Soul, a part of God. It is that you are a crusader and it is a
natural correlate of being so that the consequences of your crusade always
become subordinate to the crusade itself. You are like a man addicted to drugs
who seeks drama out so that he can feel alive. Perhaps as the years pass by Bob,
you will come to better understand my words. Keep this email Bob and reread it a
few years from now. Yet, I still expect an apology from you and an
acknowledgement that we never communicated about LifesMiracle or Dr.
Garland.
With
Gratitude and Love
Stephen
I appreciate your
offering of gratitude and love, Stephen, but your suggestion that I am "like a man addicted to drugs who seeks drama" is
degrading, disrespectful and inappropriate as a response to a professional
request for verifiable information about Dr. Garland. And there is no need for
you to wait five years, Stephen - simply refer back to your e-mail in
which you wrote in a publicly released statement to your Lifewave associates at
the time that:
"I would like to place
before you the possibility that some of what is on http://www.worldwidescam.com
is in fact closer to the truth than many of us have before even suspected." –
Stephen Brown
And, unfortunately, I
cannot and will not apologize for something I did not do. As you
wrote:
”Although you have not
directly said that we communicated”
You need to assume a more spiritual,
professional and detached point of view, Stephen, and stop letting your human
emotions interject ad hominem attacks and personal insults into matters that
should be handled in accordance with objective and independent due diligence
standards. Look into your own heart and soul, Stephen, and ask your God
what it is you seem to fear about the questions being asked. Do you know the
truth, Stephen? Let us work together to seek and discover the truth, for the
truth shall set you free. @@@You are quite funny Robert. Do you for a minute even
believe that I feel anger or any other emotions as I write these words. Do not
confuse facts with truth Robert. All who practice what you do find themselves
upon a pedestal of so called truth, while ignoring the carnage they have created
around themselves. You are a man who feels completely justified in what he does.
You are neither all wrong nor all right. What you do though is practice
polarization as those who do not meet your demands are seen as hiding something.
What is most interesting is like all so called investigative writers, you expect
others to do as you want. If they have no interest in engaging you, you threaten
them with exposure or an appearance on your site. Personally Robert, I would
deeply appreciate it if you would simply leave me out of your world. I have
always first examined a product to see if it was what it claimed. I have then
shown it to others to see if it impacted them as it had me. It is only when
these pieces fall into place that I pursue a business. I know who Dr. Garland is
and the many, many people he has helped over the course of his life. I ask you
again. When the sun sets on your life Robert, who will think of you with
love in their heart and who will say with unquestioned sincerity that Bob
Burtiss made the world a better place to live in and touched the lives of
thousands with greater health. Whatever you write on your site about Wayne
Garland, PhD, ND, he will still have his clinic without walls, incidentally, an
expression which indicates that he counsels individuals all over the world and
not just within a particular physical structure, and continue to make the
difference in their lives that your web site will never accomplish. Your site is
a place for individuals to go who are reminded of the unconsciousness
of man. There is little there of the heroic qualities of man, the inspirational
vision that produces greatness. Alas, one can only find derision and demeanment.
It is a place where I would send individuals who seek to discover the worst
about their fellow man.@@@Stephen A. Brown PhD |
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