Swift - Weekly Newsletter of JREF (James Randi)

See article at: http://www.randi.org/jr/2006-07/072106gentle.html

"GENTLE WIND AND JUSTICE"

Kittery, Maine, is where the tax-exempt charity known as the "Gentle
Wind Project" [GWP] makes its headquarters, from which they have
been selling – mailing out – various "healing instruments" for the
last 22 years. The Maine Attorney General's Office took that long to
discover that these devices, ranging from simple laminated cards to
disks that are advertised to cure every known ailment – except
naivety – were not real! True, the company flaunted all sorts of
endorsements from "medical professionals," but the AG was able to
find "undisclosed financial relationships" between the company and
those who endorsed its products and services. What a surprise!

Does this group actually make claims that their silly devices can
cure anything? Examine these quotes from its website:

There are few people on this planet who cannot benefit from this
healing... The Gentle Wind Healing Technology can help… This
Healing Technology was designed to restore and regenerate a person's
energetic structure when used one time in a person's life. Some very
complex problems need more than one healing… Healing Instruments:
Shown below are Healing Instruments available from The Gentle Wind
Project.


To me, friends, these are direct, positive, statements that the
Gentle Wind devices – if we can dignify them with such a name – will
provide healing. What's shown – at www.gentlewindproject.org – is a
selection of colored cards and a couple of "pucks," surely as
ridiculous a set of gimmicks as I've ever seen. But, in the true
spirit of quackery, all this is followed by their disclaimer (hello,
Barb Mallon!) and it says:

Healing Instruments from The Gentle Wind Project are not intended as
a cure for any physical or mental condition. As far as these
conditions are concerned the Instruments are intended to complement
proper medical and/or psychological treatment. Our instruments are
not intended as treatment or cure for any illness.

So, after thinking about this scam since 1984, the Maine Attorney
General's Office has finally sued Gentle Wind for selling colored
cards and round plastic disks – these containing nothing more than a
spoonful of red sand – that they claimed were built on designs
transmitted from the spirit world, an action which the AG's office
says violates the Unfair Trade Practices Act. Of course, GWP has
already made millions of dollars by peddling these things for two
decades, and I'm certain that their highly-paid lawyers are now
expressing their dismay that anyone could possibly doubt that
plastic cards and disks could cure deadly diseases.

Regardless, six members of the Gentle Wind board including president
Mary Miller, John "Tubby" Miller, and their treasurer/bookkeeper
have been charged with violating laws regulating charitable
organizations. They could be fined as well as forced to pay sales
tax that they never collected on those millions of dollars worth of
transactions. It's been claimed that "Tubby" Miller "directed the
manufacture" of the healing cards and wrote the descriptions of them
in the group's literature. What's involved in directing the
manufacture of colored cards? "Here's a colored card. Make us some
more." Granted, coming up with fanciful literature to attract the
gullible requires some skill, just the kind that Hans Christian
Andersen needed, but I doubt that Tubby has improved the state of
American – or Danish – literature, in any way.

This won't be the first legal involvement for GWP. They sued a Rick
Ross for offending them, and in May, 2004, they indignantly sued
former GWP members Judy Garvey and her husband Jim Bergin for
defamation, after the two published autobiographical essays about
their 17 years with the group, which they compared to a "mind-
control cult." They claimed that they had been exploited financially
and had let group leaders control their lives. And Judy said she was
involved in "sexual rituals" that she was told were necessary – to
create the healing instruments, yet. (visit www.windsofchange.org
for more.) The mind boggles trying to image what rituals might have
been used to make laminated cards become magical…

Said the lawyer representing Garvey and Bergin:

The state is alleging that Gentle Wind Project (officials) are
acting deceptively regarding their healing instruments, and that's
exactly the same claims that Bergin and Garvey have been making on
their Web site.

Friends, what's so difficult in ascertaining that colored cards and
disks don't heal anything? Years of arduous research? I could have
told them that, and I'm no Einstein. Also, the fact that GWP was
representing their products deceptively, was not a great revelation
to me when it arrived on my computer screen. The State of Maine is
seeking to stop Gentle Wind from making claims about their products,
to pay the uncollected sales tax, and to permanently bar all the
defendants from serving on the boards of any charitable
organizations. It also seeks control of GWP's property, including
homes in New Hampshire and Florida, and to force it to pay
restitution to any customer who purchased a "healing instrument."
Well, knowing that GWP has a huge bank account, and that they can
buy the best available legal personnel, I'd say that the AG of Maine
has a formidable task ahead. In this atmosphere of "faith-based"
thinking, I'm expecting those ambitious goals not to be met. After
all, if Sylvia Browne and John Edward can claim that they speak to
dead people, and get away with it every day, why can't some
charlatans in Maine take money for nothing, too?

See www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Gentle-Wind for more on this subject.
Interesting…