UK politician hits up government for Avatar course tuition, sparks protest and ridicule
Eldon
£5,000 to find council chief’s undefined self
A council chief executive is attending a £5,000 self-awareness
training course in Germany and Florida to learn to become “more
likeable and able to like herself”.
Last Updated: 12:12PM BST 23 Aug 2008
Dr Allison Fraser, who is in charge of Sandwell Council, signed up to
attend the Avatar Professional Course.
The Avatar website claims the course teaches people how to become
“more real, authentic”, to “protect themselves against the abrasions
of the world” and “gain a connection with the undefined self”. It also
teaches its students how to “obtain the keys to successfully operate
in the world”.
Avatar was established by Harry Palmer, a former missionary in the
Church of Scientology. It is thought he devised the Avatar theory
during a prolonged session in a flotation tank.
Dr Fraser has already taken a £2,400 course in Germany and is due to
fly out to Florida in October for the remaining £2,500 worth of
training.
She will be staying at the International Drive resort in Orlando,
described in the brochure as one of the most “dynamic vacation
destinations” in the world.
Tony Mallam, chairman of Sandwell’s Sons of Rest clubs, which are
facing closure because of budget cuts, said: “It beggars belief. I
think people have lost touch with the simple things. She should be
concentrating on Sandwell, not flying round the world.”
Councillor Mary Docker, of the opposition Conservative group, added:
“I looked on the website and I thought it was quite funny, it’s so
Americanised.
“I think as courses go it isn’t particularly expensive but at this
time of the credit crunch I wonder if there are more important
things”.
But Sandwell Council leader Bill Thomas says it represents “good value
for money”.
“It is certainly very important that she has access to these training
courses,” he said. “This is considered to be one of the best course
around.”
It comes after another Black Country council was criticised for
spending almost £1million on spin doctors each year. Dudley Council
spent £945,000 on public relations in the last financial year –
employing 18 full-time press officers.
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For more coverage, just put ["allison fraser" sandwell Avatar] onto
Google like that.
... including this YouTube video that calls it a "Scientology Avatar
course." Oops!
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=8epA2sjjZnU
Eldon
research. It was posted August 27.
http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/tag/cults/
The author says the Councillors off Sandwell, England have allocated
5000 pounds for its chief executive, Dr Allison Fraser, to do the
Avatar Professional course, meaning that she is already an Avatar
Master, and they retroactively agreed to pay for the Master Course she
already took in July in Germany!
Note the documents from the Florida Department of Health. ;-)
The author quotes profusely from the Estro Companion document too.
Followed by:
I’m not sure which I find most amusing, the crappy name of the cod
Macguffin - The Karsak of Triton Blight Bomb (exclamation mark) - or
the idea that there is anything remote serendipitous about mass
destruction and the ‘discreation’ of the ‘blueprint or the chemical
process of photosynthesis’.
If you are going to try and con people with a crap SF story the very
least you might do is BUY A FUCKING DICTIONARY and ensure that the
line of bullshit you’re spinning is at least semantically correct.
Remember, this guy qualified as a fucking English teacher…
Anyway, its time to stop laughing at the Mekon-wannabe and move on to
more serious matters but, before we go, I need to make a quick but
necessary legal point. You see Palmer, in common with his former alien
masters in the Church of Scientology, is in the habit of using threats
of legal action for copyright infringement in order to prevent his own
brand of super-secret bullshit from being published on the Internet,
where sane people can laugh at it. So, with that in mind, I should
point out that the quotations above are published in the United States
under the provisions of section 107 of the Copyright Act (title 17, US
code) and are sourced from a Dutch website where the full transcript
is published under a 2003 legal ruling (as confirmed by the Dutch
Supreme Court in 2005) which precludes the use of claims of copyright
infringement as means of suppressing publication of cult documents.
-----
Later on, he also quotes from the Entities section of the Wiz course.
And... in conclusion, he says;
Well, they might usefully get around to considering very carefully
whether it really is in the Council’s best interests for its Chief
Executive to be publicly associated with an organisation that is
widely considered to be a quasi-religious cult founded on a pared down
version of Scientology and run by a man who has persistently lied
about his academic qualifications.
ROFL! Jeta triumphs!
Eldon
This blogger made a big mistake -- even bigger than the person who
produced that YouTube video.
Read it and weep:
http://nannyknowsbest.blogspot.com/2008/09/wasting-our-money-dr-allison-fraser.html
'The course is run by the Church of Scientology, a clear sign of
"quality", and aims to teach people how to become "more real,
authentic", "protect themselves against the abrasions of the world"
and "gain a connection with the undefined self".'
Now, I suppose you'll try to blame this error on ol' basher me, or
maybe Ron or Jeta. But you know I never said Avatar courses were RUN
BY the Church of Scientology. I said they were DERIVED in part from
Scientology, which I don't consider a church anyway. So there.
Anyway, I posted a comment to clarify things and help you out. ;-)
On Oct 7, 4:46 pm, Eldon <EldonB...@aol.com> wrote:
Eldon
polite) message, and she responded within hours! Here is her response
with my message quoted below it.
From: Allison...@sandwell.gov.uk
Subject: RE: There is still time to cancel the Avatar Professional
course
Date: October 8, 2008 12:17:08 PM CEST
To: eldo...@aol.com
Dear Eldon
thank you for your advice. The Council is NOT funding the
professional course in Florida. I see no need to make a public
statement.
Allison Fraser
-----Original Message-----
From: Eldon Braun [mailto:eldo...@aol.com]
Sent: 08 October 2008 09:21
To: Allison Fraser
Subject: There is still time to cancel the Avatar Professional course
Ms. Fraser,
I hope for the sake of both your reputation and your sanity, you have
decided not to attend this course in Florida, and not to take council
funds for the previous course. It would be a good idea to make a
public statement. If the "Professional" course is already paid for,
they will have to give you a refund if you do not show up; it says so
on the
avatarepc.com website.
Harry Palmer may be skilled at manipulation and even charming, but he
is a complete con man as the writer of this blog piece states:
http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/tag/cults/
It is well-researched and entirely true. Harry's involvement with
Scientology was both a long time ago and long-time (the early 1970s to
1986). He is currently being painted with the same brush as
Scientology, and well deserves it.
Too bad you got caught up in his hypnosis scam, but it's probably a
good thing overall that your involvement was noted and criticised.
Sincerely,
Eldon Braun
On Oct 7, 4:46 pm, Eldon <EldonB...@aol.com> wrote:
Alrick
> FOLLOWUP: I found her e-mail address online, sent her a (fairly
> polite) message, and she responded within hours! Here is her response
> with my message quoted below it.
>
I notice you didn't state or even insinuate in your message to her
that the council payed for the professional Course, only for the
previous one (Masters?). Her denying something which you didn't even
say is curious and suspect.
It seems she is using the tried and tested Scientology technique: just
deny everything.
Eldon
I didn't say they were paying for it, but that blog article said the
council had voted to pay for both, including the Master course
retroactively. I have a hunch they didn't pay for either course after
all the exposure. This was in a bunch of newspapers.
Of course, I also didn't state that I'm not a UK citizen, which may be
why she got back to me pretty quickly. ;-)
>
> It seems she is using the tried and tested Scientology technique: just
> deny everything.
I dunno. It's pretty funny that a couple one blog and the video said
Avatar was part of Scientology. That got it discussed on the UK
Anonymous boards too.
She didn't state whether she would be attending the Professional
course or not, but I have a feeling she may have canceled. If Hari
wants to prove otherwise, he can publish her success story after the
course.