Tao-Te-Chi - If It Sounds Too Good To Be True…
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We live in a world of competition and salesmanship; a world where what we see may not be what we get or even asked for. Everything around us seems to focus first and foremost on how much money we can make from it. Yet in the middle of all of this falls the lonely human who gets to try and sort it all out.
There are not too many people out there who have not heard the expression "If it seems to good to be true it probably is!" However, how many of us even bother to look to find out? In a society where every day a thousand amazing claims are made, where would we even begin?
In truth most of the people in business are counting on you not to investigate. They rely on the fact we are lazy and lethargic when they plan their ad campaigns. Their one and only goal is to sell you a product and make money doing so. There is no issue with whether you need the product or if it will even be of benefit to you.
Sadly we all seem to have this built in idea that no one would ever lie to us. That whatever we see on TV or in the Newspaper must be the total truth. We go around life in a total haze of apathy and figure no one would ever take advantage of us. Yet every now and again we hear about products being pulled off of shelves because the manufacturers could not back up their claims. In the news we hear about some new scam from time to time to milk people of their hard earned money. In the middle of all this we still seem to hold to the idea that "It will never happen to me!"
I ask a simple question… "if we are all so smart as to not fall for it, then how come we are falling for it?"
We live in a world where you have to have anti-bacterial soaps and disinfectants. Of course the reality that these things don't kill viruses, which is what actually make us sick, is not important. The fact that we have lived with the germs etc that these products kill off, for thousands of years without any harm, also never gets mentioned. However somewhere in the middle of all the advertising telling us how much better and healthier it is without these germs, we have become afraid of them. The manufacturers of these products have programmed into us a fear of being sick so we will buy their products. Yet because we are so smart not to fall for it these people are making a mint selling us these products.
If we really are so smart to see through these sales tactics how come we buy their products? It can not be because most of them are cheap; in most cases they usually are smaller or more expensive. This is just a small section of anti-bacterial soaps. The same thing happens with Hair Care products that have additives that do nothing because hair itself is dead. It is the hair follicle that is alive not the hair itself. Yet because we do not look at the reality of what these things do we simply assume they must be good. Otherwise why would they put them in there in the first place?
To be totally blunt… because they know we are too naive or stupid to figure it out. They do these things because they have done studies that show we will go "WOW" and rush out to buy their products. There is really no other reason for it. Everything is designed and devised to make money and sell you things… plain and simple.
This does not mean that these products are bad or harmful. Most really do nothing except make you think there is more to them. In a lot of cases the products and services offered in this manner may even be really good in their own right. That is not the issue at hand. We are not here to talk about bad products; just the methods that we fall for when selling them.
For most things the worst that happens if we find out later it is untrue is that we are out a few bucks. Oh well, we spent some money on anti-bacterial hand soap that we really did not need. There is no big world altering event, no collapse of society… just a shrug of our shoulders, a slight bruise to our pride and on we go.
The problem is that because these tactics work so well with other products and services other people are adopting them. What happens if we were to have a Doctor who tells us their office is healthier because they have "Apple Fresh" air. In the middle of a major urban city what does that mean exactly? Do they have apple trees planted in the back room to bring in oxygen to the office? Maybe they have air bottled from an apple orchard and then shipped in to their office. Most likely it would mean simply that they use an apple scented air freshener.
How would we feel if they started doing this in order to attract more clients or patients? What if hospitals started to compete for the sick and injured. This hospital is better because they use "Powder Soft Blankets", that one has "Brilliant Realistic Light" and the one over here has "Happier and Friendlier Staff".
Would any of that really matter when we have a broken arm or a shattered hip? Does it really matter that their blankets are just a little softer when we have to have our finger cut off? If these people were to begin trying these tactics we would be up in arms. We would likely feel totally violated and betrayed if they ever did it. Yet we have many people pulling these same tricks today and we simply look the other way.
We have in our society an entire field that uses these very tricks to get you to think they are the best. A section of people who tell us they can do many things they can not remotely prove. Yet in the middle of it we come flocking to them in droves and thank them for their lies.
This industry of course is the "Alternative Health Profession". These include healers, some types of massage, acupuncturists, herbologists, holistic practitioners and many many more. They are the people who are supposed to be here to help us live better and richer lives. Even though the only one seeming to live better and richer are the ones we keep paying all our money to.
This industry also includes many more commonly acceptable things like the "Self Help" industry. However it can also include some very far out ones too. Regardless of where they fall on our scale of acceptance, these are people who claim and proclaim that they are here solely to help us. They all tell us how much better our lives will be if we use them or their products. Most even tell us that we simply can not live without them, in one form or another.
Yet here we are highly intelligent and smart people, ones that can spot a lie a mile away, and we dole out the money to them hand over fist. In most cases we do this because they said they were a Doctor, a Master, a Guru or some other word that we simply gushed over. In most cases we were even so busy gushing we did not even look one bit at them or their credentials.
It is important to stop for a moment before we go any further to explain a few things. The first is that there are many terms, words and titles in our society that are very misleading… we will discuss more about that shortly. Just because someone claims to be something does not mean that they are. However it also does not mean that they are not.
When we want to deal with people of a more direct Healing or Self Help nature we have to be aware of a few important facts. Very skilled people can lie just as easily as unskilled ones. Most people are trying to get you to think they are the best because they want you to come to them over anyone else. Just because someone says they can do something does not mean that they can do it for you; even if they did it for a hundred others.
I hope at this point that you realize there is a lot of things said and done in a day that are not at all based on reality. Most of this is not done out of a sense of trying to harm or rip you off, it is done simply to make money. In fact most of this will never even involve you… as the only thing that matters is what you have in your wallet.
We live in a world that revolves around money. You do not have any… you do not eat; it is really that plain and simple. The problem is that a lot of these people become so focused on their reputations and bringing in the money they loose touch with their skills. There are a great number of very famous people who have sold their souls in order to make money. Many of which work extra hard to make you think they are the best there ever was… after all they are famous for a reason right?
For most people, especially in this field, if you write a book then you must know what you are talking about. Again we seem to feel that because it is in print it is fact. This is not even remotely true. Books do not get published because they are filled with facts and reality. They are published simply because they will make money. There are a great many books filled to the rim with garbage… yet because they are entertaining or sucker us in to buy them we dole out our money to do so.
We need to be willing to face the reality that just because someone told us something does not make it true. This is a very vital key to life if we really want to be happy, self fulfilled and like who we are. It is hard to have pride in ourselves when we have gotten taken for a ride eight times this week.
As a result let us take a moment to look at some of the common ways we get misled in this industry. To begin lets start with some titles. The most common of which is "Doctor". We truthfully have a variety of Doctors; there is the Medical Doctor, Veterinarian and Psychiatrist. We have Ph.D.'s which are very smart people who graduated from a University. We have Doctors of Theology (in many cases higher trained Priests). These just to name of few.
Of course what we don't see is that we also can have Honorary Doctoral Degrees. This basically means that the person never went to school a day in their lives yet have a degree… in most cases because they are famous, rich or did something special to help the school directly. Yet they all have the right to use the title of Doctor.
So far this is only taking into account the actual types of Doctors, what about people who lie? There is nothing to stop someone from calling themselves a Doctor or even practicing as a Medical Doctor without ever going to school. Every now and again we see this very thing in the news; someone begin caught after many years of success doing it.
That is only the word Doctor. What about other important words like College or University. These are not simply schools of higher education. A college is also an organized group of Professionals. Of course the word Professional simply means someone highly skilled in a profession or who makes all their money in that profession. Someone who makes all their money off telemarketing is a Professional.
This means that any group of people can come together and legally call themselves a College simply because they only work in one industry. No one ever even said they all had to work in the same one either. In regards to the topics we are here to discuss; it means we could have two or three people who call themselves "Healers" start the "College of Healing Arts" tomorrow just for the fun of it.
It sounds very impressive does it not? "The College of Healing Arts"… it just conjures up images of a large campus full of student healers walking around. In fact that is what they are hoping you will think. It is not a lot better for the word University… however there are some more restrictions to that one.
There is a very important word to know… "Accredited". What this one word means is that is it approved by the government. It also means that it falls under specific rules and regulations. This is the word that separates a group of people trying to sell you some impressive sounding ideal from an actual institute of higher learning. If they ever advertise or use this word without actually being accredited and ever get found out, the people who did it could end up in jail… just like the fake Doctor we talked about earlier.
Then, especially with this field, we have the words like Master, Grand Master, Guru, Swami and a host of others. These are titles that are inferred usually because you have passed a training course. In many systems of healing the title of Master is conferred automatically as a level of training; in some cases only after something like thirty hours of training.
Could you imagine living in a world where someone could become a Medical Doctor after just one week of school? That is a rather scary thought is it not? Yet to become a Master Healer you could do it in around four days.
The point to all of this is not to take people at face value. Health is a business pure and simple and in any business money comes first. There are in truth some really amazing and great people out there… it is your job to find them.
I always look at it like this… if they need to lie to or manipulate you into coming to them what are they going to do when you do? If they can not back up their titles and credentials how could they back up their skills? If they pretty much come out and tell you they think you are stupid by trying to do any of this at all… why on earth would you want to go to them?
In this field integrity, dedication and commitment should be your marker for success, not flashy titles and credentials. If they have a good reputation and hold up to investigation… go for it! If what they tell you seems to be lies… RUN!
Copyright April 2005
ISBN 0-9739566-4-X
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