It was December 9,1 981, at approximately 5 p.m. when I received a telephone call from Don Griffin. I had previously asked Don to find for me any complaints in the United States addressed to consumer protection agencies which would specifically allege abuses concerning either the sale of concessions or emotional injury to distributors. Up to this time, most of the complaints we were able to compile either referred to products or non-payment difficulties. Don had always been a whiz at research, but I was astounded once again by his ability to retrieve information.
"Phil, I've found what you've been looking for! And more! And it is right hereon the West Coast!" Don stammered. I could tell by his voice that he had discovered something valuable.
"Well, what is it?"
"Now listen carefully. There's this fellow in Portland, Oregon. His name is Bret Sutter. He is a building developer and an Amway distributor. This guy filed an official 29-page complaint to the Amway Corporation purporting mind control by some distributor organizations, and he has documented some of the same things you've seen. I talked to the guy, and the whole thing is really revealing! "How do I get in contact with him?" I asked anxiously.
"He's waiting for your call. Now I'm not sure about this, but I believe he's really frustrated because Amway hasn't done much in response to his complaint."
I called the number Don had given me. I found a somewhat suspicious voice on the other end.
"Hello."
"Bret Sutter?"
"Yes."
"I received a call from Don Griffin with whom you spoke.
Bret interrupted, "Mr. Kerns, can we meet somewhere and talk?" "Of course. Where would be a good rendezvous point?" I asked. We didn't waste any time. I met Bret at the Red Lion Inn within the hour.
Bret's story as I was soon to learn, was spellbinding. I sat across the table from this blonde, thinly framed man and listened intently as he described, in detail, the circumstances leading up to his complaint.
Bret was unique--so different from most of the distributors I had interviewed. He possessed a keen awareness of what was going on. He also was well-schooled and retained a self-possessed ability to communicate his feelings and observations.
"Mr. Kerns, I got into this business solely for the purpose of increasing the bottom linel" "Please, just call me Phil," I interrupted.
"Sure, well, okay Phil. As I was saying. .
He appeared frustrated that I had broken his train of thought. I felt he needed to get this story out. It must have been building up inside of him. He contemplated his words before speaking.
"I got into this business to make money. Nothing else. As the months went by, l discovered it was much more than that! A lot more was going on. Do you know what a cult is, Phil?"
"Of course," I replied, realizing his question was rather strange. It was as if he were probing to find out whether or not he could trust me with what he wanted to share. I encouraged Bret to continue.
"I believe things have been allowed to get out of hand. It's like a herd of cattle running through Times Square, trampling all over people."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Look I have no quarrel with Amway, okay? Their business concepts are great. It's just that I feel when you've got over one million little toadies running around out there. It's awfully difficult to keep them all in line!" "Okay," I interjected. "But what makes you feel it's a cult or that it may be out of control?"
"First of all, I didn't say the company was a cult! However, I believe some key people on the Amway Distributors' Association Board and thousands of people downline are using the same techniques the cults are using in order to control the minds of the people in their groups. I believe they study this stuff, and they know precisely what they are doing. It's gotten crazy! I'll explain the cult thing a little later, okay?" 'Sure."
'Now let me go on. You see Amway tells you this is your own business. But in some lines of sponsorship, the leaders do not let you operate it as your own business! You've always got some twerp upstream telling you what to do. When you break off and go' direct' to the company for your products, supplies and other needs, you're supposed to be really independent. Right? No way! They still keep the chain of command strictly intact. Sure, the FTC ruling says they are not a pyramid. Technically speaking, Amway is not a pyramid. Their manual purports they are a direct distributorship business, but behind the scenes, many of these little ole brainwashed toadies are moving millions of dollars worth of non-Amway produced products such as books, cassettes, easels and rally tickets. You name it! These lower echelon distributors and newcomers have absolutely no idea what's going on, not to mention that they never see a dime from this junk. They just flush this stuff downstream, and others eat it up. There is such a large appetite created for this stuff that one can imagine practically no end to the volume they can push.
"Man, they're running around with tapes in their cars, tapes in their homes and tapes at work. Everybody is listening to the 'Dream' and how they are going to get rich. It's the slickest thing happening in America today. Millions and millions of cash receipts are being raked off by a select few from the high-volume peddling of all of these non-Amway produced materials. People are told, and they believe, that they must have them in order to succeed. I am absolutely sick of the whole thing." "Bret, tell me about the cult angle?"
"Okay." Bret sat up straight and continued. "Have you ever heard of Dr. John Clark, Jr., a professor at the Harvard School of Medicine?"
"No, can't say that I have."
"Well, he did an extensive study on all these little toasted groupies as they walked out of the back door of your local guru meetings, and he came up with some pretty interesting thoughts. I found that the points he was making were describing a perfect profile of your class A-1 brainwashed Amway distributor." Bret pulled a large yellow piece of paper from his pocket and began reading its contents.
"They appear to have become rather dull and their style and range of expression is limited and stereotyped. They are animated only when discussing their group and its beliefs. They rapidly lose a knowledge of current events. When stressed even a little, they become defensive and inflexible and retreat into numbing cliches. Their written or spoken expression loses metaphor, irony and the broad use of vocabulary. Their humor is without mirth!"
He also described programmed people and the characteristics of a cult.
I reached over and touched Bret's arm to stop him before he could continue. "Now tell me, where have you seen someone being programmed?"
"That's simple. You're programmed every day--every time you turn on the TV Programming is a gradual sort of thing. Doctors have been saying for years that the human mind is always more susceptible to suggestion whenever there is excitement present."
I began to understand. "So that's what they do-at these meetings?" I thought to myself.
Bret went on: "The band, the bragging, those colorful pictures of Cadillacs, Mercedes and Rolls Royces. It's all part of the plan I And once they get you, they gradually program you into seeing things their way."
"What about the guys who surround the leader? Aren't they suspicious?" I asked.
Bret began to laugh aloud. "Sure, they know what's going on. But the only thing that the leader cares about is whether or not they are loyal. That's all. The reason I was laughing is because in my complaint to the Amway Corporation I described, in detail, how they break a man and test his loyalty. Now you're going to think this is really bizarre, but," Bret broke out laughing again. "Really, Phil, it's not funny, but...(gulp) but I just can't help myself every time I think about it.
"You see on several occasions I questioned one of my uplines' Dean Robertson, regarding the idea of the leader being the 'God man'--you know, the oracle of God crap? We're told by our uplines to shave and to have that clean look, but what about the leader! He's got twigs sticking out all over his face. But that's okay because he's arrived and he's supposed to be our figurehead.
"Robertson has told me, 'We use the same techniques that the Nazis used. Hitler used it for evil, and we use it for good.'" Bret continued. "All of what Robertson was saying didn't make sense until some of these Diamonds started to publicly humiliate people. Here's exactly what they would do."
Bret leaned across the table and began reading directly from his papers. "I should note at this point that at the Kenney's Family Reunion, Wells held a meeting for those at 1,500 PV (point value). A friend of ours, who subsequently quit the business, attended that meeting. Another distributor and friend who also later quit the business came to us with the following report.
"At the meeting John Wells entered the room with a squirt gun. He mounted the stage and announced that he was going to test the total faith of the Directs. He called all Directs and Silver Producers up on stage and instructed them to strip to the waist. They did so. He then teased them with the squirt gun, ordering some to do a number of push-ups and so forth. Two were ordered to drop their pants, which they reportedly did. One was Marvin Curtiss, and the other was Dean Robertson.
"Kathleen Emery is in possession of the photographs showing Robertson, Curtiss and the others. She volunteered to show the photographs to one witness and did so. The other witness was present at the meeting. A few weeks later Lucy, my wife, was with a couple of individuals who were talking about the incident. They said that distributors are sometimes required to humiliate themselves in public places to show their loyalty to their uplines. Through this process it is known that they can be trusted and can be depended upon to do what they are told."
"Incredible," I thought to myself. "This all sounded so familiar-the hype, the dream goals, the misrepresentation, all of the pressures exerted upon these people, and now this! Humiliation tactics! Were they actually testing their loyalty?"
"That sounds so much like the tactics of Jim Jones and his inner circle," I thought. I looked and listened to Bret more intensely than before.
Bret continued, "My complaint went before the Amway Distributors' Association Board. Ed Postma, the Sales Coordinator for the Northwestern Regional Sales Department, said that it caused quite a fracus. In fact, I believe my complaint, along with lord knows what other issues, caused the board to reevaluate their position. The reason I believe this is true is because the board, shortly after I filed my complaint, published their manifesto on April 16,1980.
"I believe they were freaking out, especially after that Federal Trade Commission bout. It seems to me that this manifesto is an attempt to correct some of these practices. Allow me to read you Chapter 3 of the manifesto."
Again, Bret read from his documents:
"The only requirement which distributors can impose on prospects whom they are willing to sponsor is that the new distributor shall have an official Amway Sales Kit (without substitution or alteration), sign the SA-88 Distributor Application form and mail it to Amway.
"A new distributor must not be required, as a condition to becoming a distributor, to purchase a specific product volume, maintain a specific minimum level of product inventory, procure a 'starter' or 'decision' pack, purchase tapes, books and other materials or attend meetings, seminars or rallies; however, many of these may be desirable or important to the development of their business."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but what you are telling me, Bret, is that Amway and the Amway Distributors' Association Board in their manifesto are saying, 'Hey, we don't want you heavy bowlers out there cramming all this unnecessary non-Amway produced paraphernalia down the distributors' throats. Right?"
"Exactly!"
"Is this activity still going on?" I asked.
"You bet it is! I know plenty of people who will tell you that many of these distributors have more non-Amway produced junk in their garages than Amway products."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because they're told that without these valuable tools, they cannot succeed. They'll fail. It's ridiculous. They can't get ahead because they're spending a fortune on this garbage. The tapes and books don't tell you how to build a successful Amway business. They are just full of philosophy and religious wisecracks. They only emphasize how to sponsor new people (which creates new consumers for the non-Amway produced junk). The leader's market is not the general public; it's his own distributor force so retailing is not stressed."
After this engagement with Bret Sutter, I learned that the distributors named in his complaint were required to defend the allegations made against them.
Sutter's complaint cited a myriad of subjects. How ever, two of the key issues were (1) misrepresentation of the sales plan and (2) programming for the sole purpose of having unsuspecting individuals purchase non-Amway produced materials and attend seminars--all of which only enriches the leaders.
Later I obtained letters, which were written by those accused in the Sutter matter. These letters of rebuttal revealed that, in fact, Sutter was telling the truth when he said these people were required to strip in front of the audience. However, the respondent of this complaint alleged that it was all only in fun and pointed out that they were wearing bathing suits under their pants.
Was it really only in fun? Or was it a demonstration for a predetermined result--a means of mind control? Were they, in fact, wearing suits? Regardless of whether it was only in fun or not, the point seems to have been well made: Do as you are told by your upline, without asking questions.
Today Bret is still running a successful Amway business. He says he is satisfied with Amway's response to his complaint; however, he wishes that more would be done to clean up the business. Bret, like many others with whom I have spoken, just wants to run his business of retailing products, privately, and without all of these additional pressures from upline. Sutter feels that if the Amway Distributors' Association Board can't resolve and police this problem, then who will?
"I don't know what a cult is."
the web address for this page is http://hunza1.tripod.com/amway/fakeit09.html
Back to the Beginning