Young Living revisited - MY YL: STORY - LONG

[Guest guest]

Hi Dave,

 

Definitely speak up as someone there may be ready to listen. Also,

if I can help you (or anyone else) in any way by sharing my story,

answering questions, I'm more than happy to do so.

 

My initial introduction into aromatherapy 5 years ago was through

Young Living through two different people (a trusted friend/therapist

at the time, as well as my massage therapist who was using the oils

on me during my regular massage treatments). Normally I have an

extremely skeptical mind but because it was people I trusted who had

gone through two different schools (one had gone through holistic

training at an oriential medical school and the other massage

shchool, i.e. they had much more knowledge and experience in the

alternative healing field), I trusted them completely. Also, the

oils seemed to be helping and since I was concentrating on the

healing work at hand, I didn't question too much despite some nagging

misgivings (the price of the oils, the push push push to use lots of

oils every day, etc). Looking back, I thank God every day that I

seem to have come through unscathed after using the oils neat for so

long (I almost hope all his oils are adulterated so I wasn't using

pure oil neat).

 

However, I get extremely angry and sick to my stomach after reading

Sue Martin's artcles about oils and cats because I used the oils on

my cats because his books and tapes said it was " perfectly safe. "

I'm with other people when they say that you can do whatever you want

to your own body but when it comes to the helpless (small children/

animals) that's another thing. Luckily my cats seem to be okay (I

only used the oils on them directly a few times, however I did

diffuse quite often before learning more) but who knows what

permanent damage may have been done?

 

My skeptical mind really kicked in last year when I came across a

training tape where he started to advocate the daily internal use of

numerous oils. In my search I stumbled onto Graham Sorenson's " YL

files " that led me to others - Kathleen at AromaticSage, QuackWatch,

etc. At the time I was looking for cold hard facts (not just the

general " he's not a nice guy, he's a liar " , etc). The complete

turning point for me was coming across the information that he had

been arrested several times for medical malpractice (with court

documentation), the fact that his clinic closed last year after

alomst killing a woman with his " therapy " , his issues with truth

telling (he's a MD - no wait, he's an ND - no wait, he's now in

Ecuador/Chile? to get his MD because they have a true understanding

of complete holistic medical healing).

 

Being the anal-logical person that I am, I have a box with all the YL

materials accumulated before I got enlightened (training tapes,

books/VHS - a case of " ALL " his oils - YIKES!!! if I only knew then

what I know now) as well as folders with the peritent information

from the other side with rebuttals to various things he says and does

(i.e. the missing link, etc). I'm also re-educating myself with

aromatherapy through reading all the old posts on this site and ATFE

as well as reading books by Martin, Sylla, etc. Although Gary Young

does have some truth once in a while, as far as I'm concerned it is

out-weighed by all his bad information.

 

Now to answer the question of " why do people get involved with him in

the first place? " - it's easy. As with me, most people are

introduced to Gary Young and Young Living through someone they know

and trust (family member, therapist, friend, business contact, church

member). Your defense are down with someone you trust. Also, being

from the same religion as the man, I can tell you for a fact that he

targets his presentation to a religious (particularly

Mormon/Christian) audience. He knows all the right things to say to

go straight to their heart. He is very charismatic and as the

article on AromaticSage states he has always been a gifted story

teller. Listening to hour after hour of his tapes, he definitely is

a smooth talker.

 

The other thing (and to me the worst) is he preys on the desperation

of people looking for a miracle/help. We all know that people facing

a bleak future/outcome are willing to grasp at any spark of hope and

for me that alone earns him a special place in Hell. Having dealt

with serious chronic conditions (not life-threatening or completely

debilitating thankfully) for most of my adult life, I know the desire

to get my health back and be free of the chronic physical pain and

sometimes the feelings of desperation that can cause when the pain is

especially bad.

 

Another big part of it is not knowing where to go elsewhere so you

believe the people you trust who introduced you in the first place.

Working for attorneys I know that it is possible to get someone to

say anything you want and if you don't know where to go to get good

information, sorting out the bad is a daunting task (doing a search

for " aromatherapy " gives you thousands of hits). I can tell you from

my own experience I spent days going through page after page after

page on the web before finally stumbling across Graham's YL files.

Luckily for me my interest had been sparked by something from Gary

Young himself and I was on a mission to find out everything I could

and didn't stop until I found it.

 

Are all his oils bad? No, I don't think so. In fact there are some

blends that I like very much " Valor, Present Time, etc) but they are

extremely over-priced. They do have a strong smell and at first when

smelling others (like Butch's) I did have an initial " is this as

good? it doesn't smell as strong " reaction but after going back again

and again, I think that there are things in his oils as most of his

oils have a tendency to smell similar. Right now I'm a little gun-

shy to go out and buy large amounts of other oils after spending

thousands of dollars over the years on YL oils (still having the bulk

of them) but I know I'll get over it.

 

As many people have said time and time again, the main problem with

Gary Young and his teachings are the total disregard for the harm the

oils can do. Putting them on neat and then explaining the

sensitization reaction that occurs as the " toxins coming out of the

body " - using oils on animals who can't protest and tell you they're

hurting, the false hope to cure disease, etc.

 

On the one hand YL and the others did introduce me to this wonderful

world of Aromatherapy of which I hope to learn more and more as I

know the healing effects the oils can have on body and mind. On the

other, I feel like I've been cheated out of 5 years of having to

unlearn the bad and relearn the good. Not to mention the fear that

althought I don't seem to have any effects from using the oils neat

right now, who's to say that issues won't arise later on.

 

Again, I'm more than happy to help anyone in anyway with regards to

GY & YL.

 

Mary Ann

 

" Not all who wander are lost " - Tolkein