$cientology reminded me of Amway

[duddins]

In many ways there are likenesses, HOWEVER as far as I have ever heard:

Amway does not send thugs to your home to rough you up if you start telling your friends that their products suck!

Amway does not lock up their disgruntled members in a room for days on end until they admit to having stolen a bottle of dish washing soap.

Amway usually does not sequester their uncooperative members from the rest of humanity and keep them under 24 hour guard to stop them from escaping.

At least I have not caught wind of it.

 

[Royal Prince Xenu]

The all seem the same, don't they?

I'm allergic to hype. Back when Halley's Comet was coming around, and every retailer on the block was promoting something in relation to Halleys Comet, I contacted LOCH and asked if I could join. (Lights Out for Comet Halley--they want to bombard enough to make it invisible to the street people just so they can get on with all the other bits of astronomy that are going on. "What's the best viewing time for Halley's Comet? Don't ask me, I'm only the janitor.")

Went to a Herbal Life meeting--same shit, different color.

I'm now connected to "Neways", which doesn't promise to be the best--it's sole claim to "fame" is that it is non-toxic. Like any of these, it is expensive, but the evidence is that the health products work. The woman who has been most influential in our area was being treated for cancer which went into complete remission, her gray hair was recoloring itself--but again, you need to be selling it down lines in order to be able to afford it for yourself.

 

[Cat's Squirrel]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrot_Top

There's this thing on the Internet called "Google". It's very useful.

Paul

That would be "carrot tops," not "Carrot Top" which in that list looks like a proper noun. I thought it had to be a children's TV series or something.

 

[gomorrhan]

Carrot Top is an unfunny "comedian".

 

[Dulloldfart]

That would be "carrot tops," not "Carrot Top" which in that list looks like a proper noun. I thought it had to be a children's TV series or something.

Huh? Did you click the link? If you're being picky, Wikipedia article names are case sensitive, and "Carrot_Top" is not the same as "Carrot_top"--although in this case the lower case version forwards to the other.

Paul

 

[Cat's Squirrel]

Have to say I didn't Paul. I saw the guy in Duddins's post and assumed the link referred to people with ginger hair.

I should have done, sorry.

 

[sandygirl]

Xseaorguk

Excellent Post. You really nailed a few points that I have thought for years. Yeah it is all smiles when you're "new". I could almost tell when someone was being regged or recruited because all of a sudden they were treated wonderfully. Until they signed on the dotted line that is................

keep posting...very interesting

And since we're among friends...hubby and I actually tried to sell Amway to go up our bridge. Big problem was neither of us could hard sell anyone! We hated being on the receiving end and never liked doing it .

No wonder we couldn't make it in $cio or Amway!!! But at least with Amway we LIKED their products!!!!

 

[Lone_Stranger]

With respect:

While in the cult I remember looking at Amway products and once even went to one of their big meetings where people received awards etc.
I found it somehow similar to the cult of $cientology, as I was also surrounded by smiling people telling me how wonderful it all was.
I realize now what the similarites are.

Are you sure attending ONE big meeting is sufficient to claim an indepth understanding of what Amway is about?

I ask because of the errors in the rest of your post:

They are both pyramid schemes concentrating on getting people to become salesmen

No. Amway - after government investigation - is officially NOT a pyramid selling organisation.

Simple difference: In a pyramid selling organisation members are required to buy large amounts of product in the hope that they can sell it on at a profit. In Amway stockpiling is not only against company rules, it is also counterproductive.

then you are convinced how great the products are and how its gonna change your life, and that there are NO other better products in the whole wide world etc.

Amway catalogues make no such claims. Of course they claim that their products are high quality - but what producer doesn't?

But when I got home from the Amway event I realized it still meant I had to contact friends and family to convince them how brilliant this certain type of washing powder or bathroom cleaner was, and of course better than anything else.

No. Unlike Scientology and real pyramid schemes you don't HAVE to do anything.

That it was about 10 times as expensive was another matter.

Like the full-size (350g) can of pre-wash spray that costs £1.65. Where the blue-blazes can you get a pre-wash product for 16.5 pence?

You end up buying tons of different products from your advisor above you on the ladder in Amway, then you have a small room in your house/Apptmnt full of such 'wonderful' products.

Sorry, this simply isn't true. Both you and your "advisor" would be committing an offence that would get you booted out of Amway without the option!

By the way, if you know so much about Amway, how come you refer to an "advisor"? The Amway jargon would refer to this person as an "upline".

I think I've gone off my original idea to explain why I think that Amway and Scientology are pyramid schemes, but I may have given you an idea.
Maybe somebody else can contribute with their experiences.

Didn't seem to me you know enough about Amway to give an accurate description in the first place.

JMO

(To make my own position clear, I've been an Amway "distributor" for about 15 years. I have NO "downlines" - people I've recruited - and I never buy more "product" in a year than what I and a handful of customers (that's end users, NOT recruits) need for our own personal use. Nor have I ever been pressurised by anyone in the Amway organisation to buy more than this.

To compare this with the things that happen even at the lowest levels in Scientology is distortion on a grand scale.)

 

[Infinite]

There's plenty of evidence to suggest Amway operates rather like a crime family. Have you read the Blakely Report about Amway? The investigator says of the corporation:

"It is my opinion that the Amway business is run in a manner that is parallel to that of major organized crime groups, in particular the Mafia. The structure and function of major organized crime groups, generally consisting of associated enterprises engaging in patterns of legal and illegal activity, was the prototype forming the basis for federal and state racketeering legislation that I have been involved in drafting. The same structure and function, with associated enterprises engaging in patterns of legal and illegal activity, is found in the Amway business."

There's also this from Wikipedia:

Some Amway distributor groups have been accused of using cult-like tactics to attract new distributors and keep them involved and committed.[97][98][99][100] Allegations include resemblance to a Big Brother organization with paranoid attitude to insiders critical of the organization,[100] seminars and rallies resembling religious revival meetings[97][100] and enormous involvement of distributors despite minimal incomes.[97][99][100] An examination of the 1979–1980 tax records in the state of Wisconsin showed that the Direct Distributors, comprising less than 1% of all distributors, reported a net loss of $918 on average.[99][101]

Sociologist David G. Bromley calls Amway a quasi-religious corporation having sectarian characteristics.[101][102] Bromley and Shupe view Amway as preaching the Gospel of Prosperity.[103] Economists Bhattacharya and Mehta propose an alternative economic explanation to negative claims, concluding that distributors' continued involvement despite minimal economic return results from social satisfaction compensating for less economic satisfaction.[104]

 

[clamicide]

Merchants of Deception.

http://www.amazon.com/Merchants-Deception-Conspiracy-Motivational-Organizations/dp/1439247153

This book used to be available for free download, but the website has been shut down. I forget why the owners said they were abandoning it, but I had read the book when it was available. The book was pretty awesome, and it definitely points towards cult-like behavior. There were a lot more similarities to Scientology than one would think.

 

[Zinjifar]

To compare this with the things that happen even at the lowest levels in Scientology is distortion on a grand scale.)

However, much like Scientology, Amway follows the internet closely and both attempts to stifle criticism and 'flood' the intertubes with 'theta' by socks

Zinj