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“Accountability
is always about assuming responsibility, not deferring
it. Unfortunately, we live in a time when our national
leaders seldom admit sin...even when caught red handed...and
when people at every level of public life avoid accountability.
Rather than “fess up,” we cover up. Instead
of telling the whole truth, we engage in “spin
control,” a euphemism for putting a bad situation
in good light.”
- Rich DeVos
“The similarity between
Amway and the Moonies is so profound that one wonders
if the two are in cahoots. Maybe at the top of the ladder
they scratch each other’s backs.”
- Stephen Butterfield
-
“I hope that you’ll
know that if there is anything that I can do personally
to be of assistance to you, and to support you and help
you achieve your dreams and your goals with this business.
I stand ready to do anything I can. Because we are about
a wonderful mission that you and I can feel very, very
good about together.”
- Dick DeVos, President
of Amway
(...who refused to respond to
certified mail regarding distributors being defrauded.)
“Rich DeVos is uniquely
qualified to explain why Compassionate Capitalism can
lead to financial success for the individual, the community
and the nation. By his own lifetime achievements, Rich
has proven why compassion for all of one’s fellow
citizens is a mandatory key to success.”
- Gerald R. Ford, Former
President of the United States
“Rich DeVos is one of
our country’s most successful businessmen.”
- George Bush Former
President of the United States
“It is certainly
the opportunity of the century.”
- Amway Crown Jody Victor
AMAZING REVIEWS For
The Compelling New Book
Merchants Of
Deception
"They have
diamonds, limousines and mansions. Eric Scheibeler has
a book. With cash contributions to politicians they
seek to influence regulatory agencies, state laws and
national trade policies. In telling his story, Eric
Scheibeler asks for legality, honesty and full disclosure.
They pay ex-presidents of the United States, famous
televangelists and motivation speakers to prop up their
image. Eric Scheibeler stands on his own and speaks
for himself. And they have a raucous army of followers,
clingers and defenders who sing and shout their praise.
Eric Scheibeler gives voice to millions more who are
silenced by deception, manipulation, fear and shame.
With such odds arrayed, Amway and its related motivational
organizations are no match for the thunderous truth
of Eric Scheibeler's exposé."
- ROBERT L. FITZPATRICK
Author of False
Profits: Seeking Financial and Spiritual Deliverance
in
Multi-Level Marketing
and Pyramid Schemes
“Eric Scheibeler's
new book, Merchants of Deception is a must read! It
reveals the inner workings of one of the largest privately
held companies in the world, whose distributor force
has used deceit and mind control techniques to ensnare
millions of people around the world. Cult mind control
techniques are not only used in religious groups - they
have entered the world of business - and everyone must
become aware of it, or risk the consequences. Eric Scheibeler
has shown in this book, how intelligent, educated mainstream
citizens can be seduced and controlled. After his years
of committed leadership with Amway, he experienced most
of the characteristic psychological problems people
have after walking away from a cult. As a licensed mental
health counselor, I can say that I am convinced that
there is a cult mind control problem with the Amway
Motivational Organization's system. I have been counseling
people with cult mind control problems for over twenty
years, and Eric Scheibeler’s problems fit the classic
profile. I am so pleased to see that he has worked hard
on his recovery and that he is so dedicated to share
his experience and knowledge. He is courageous and I
heartily applaud the release of this important, new
book.”
- STEVEN HASSAN M. ED, LMHC
President of the
Freedom of Mind Resource Center @ www.freedomofmind.com
Author of Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to
Think for Themselves
“Misconceptions
abound about people who join groups-- but Amway? Why,
this group is main stream, these are people just like
us--wanting a better life, sacrificing family-time to
make just a little more money. From Jonestown to Heaven’s
Gate we have found comfort in believing, ‘Those
folks are a bunch of nuts-- Thank God I’m not like
them!’ Eric Scheibeler’s chilling portrayal
of life inside a professed money making machine will
convince anyone who ever said, ‘That could never
happen to me’, to think again-- It can happen to
the best of us.”
- DEBORAH LAYTON
Author of Seductive
Poison, A Jonestown Survivors Story of Life and Death
in the Peoples Temple
As one who has
spent years researching and writing books and developing
analytical tools for assessing the harm from network
marketing programs, I am frustrated with the difficulties
in getting regulators and consumers to look at the impossible
math of all types of product-based pyramid schemes.
The math and legal issues are enough to condemn highly
leveraged breakaway compensation programs such as Amway’s.
But Mr. Scheibeler reveals a dimension with Amway that
sets it apart in a class of its own – the extreme
cultism that has grown up within its ranks. Based on
Scheibeler's story, and my own background in psychology,
I have to say that the psychological and social damage
suffered by many Amway participants is far greater than
any of us had imagined.
Amway would have you believe that failure to make money
in their program is due to lack of skill or effort on
the part of participants. Scheibeler paints an interesting
picture of Amway dreamers subscribing to a continuing
stream of sales tools and training to help them be successful
at doing the business. What is comical here, is that
almost no one in the program stops to ask whether their
financial losses might be due to a fraudulent system,
rather than to their own inadequacies. Scheibeler was
one of the few who finally came to realize that failure
to profit as promised had far more to do with Amway
than with the distributor. He is like the child in the
fable who shouted, “The emperor has no clothes.”
Scheibeler and I both see cognitive dissonance as an
appropriate explanation for the disparity between the
belief systems or better judgment of participants –
and their deceptive behavior. In order to succeed at
Amway, one must first be deceived, then maintain a high
level of deception (with the assistance of cultish control
mechanisms), and finally go about deceiving others.
Scheibeler's story is a chilling portrayal of just how
true that is. The book is a great read, one I could
not put down until it was finished.
Scheibeler has it right now, and is doing penance by
telling his story with
candor and courage.
-Jon M. Taylor, Ph.D.
President, Consumer Awareness
Institute and Director, Pyramid Scheme Alert,
Researcher and author of “Product Based Pyramid
Schemes”
Far too often Evangelical
Christians have remained silent or ignorant when it
comes to abuses within its own ranks. Little is said
about abusive pastors, or cultic churches. Even less
is said about helping victims of cults or spiritual
abuse. Such things rarely come up on anyone's missions
committees, or any committees as a worthy cause. It
would be unheard to even dream that the great Christian
businessman such as Rich DeVos may be a wolf in sheep's
clothing. Yet that is exactly what Scheibeler contends.
His experience in Amway is compelling evidence that
Amway is abusive.
Eric Scheibeler's Merchants of Deception masterfully
and prophetically exposes this system of serious abuses
in Amway and Quixtar. Scehibeler spells out a modern
day tragedy- the promise of financial success, the subtle
conditioning to achieve such success, the inability
to gain the wealth promised, the ensuing blame and guilt
management lays on distributors for not making it, and
then the incredible high cost to achieve the false promise
(i.e., 100 hr. work weeks, exhaustion, financial ruin,
depression, etc.) Concurrently, Scheibeler gradually
realized that Amway and all its related enterprises
was a program of lies, deceit, false promises, moral
blackmail, and possible criminality at the top levels.
For Eric Scheibeler, possession of this truth was dangerous,
it was possible life threatening. In sum, Eric Scheibeler
in Merchants of Deception was a victim of a type of
social influence that I have commonly seen over the
last 17 years in my full time practice with victims
of destructive cults.
In spite of several serious reports of death threats
Eric Scheibeler refused to be silenced.
Typically, the church unknowingly reveres the abuser
and discredits the victims. Yet the mission of the church
is the opposite. It's mission is to silence the ''Wolf"
and mend the "Sheep." not silence the 'Sheep"
and feed the "Wolf". In Scheibeler's case
Christian publishers nearly succeeded in silencing the
sheep by refusing to publish his book!!!
Scheibeler's Merchants of Deception should serve as
a wake up call to those is the church who are unwittingly
feeding the wolves!! His book is a must read. It is
a call to action.
Paul R. Martin, Ph.D.
Psychologist and Director
- Wellspring Retreat
A Rehabilitation and Retreat Center for those recovering
from spiritual abuse
and cultic affiliation
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