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Your Work Is Not for Everyone

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by Jeff Goins

The point of marketing is not to convince people to buy your stuff. It’s to help you find the people who need your work. Don’t create something for everyone. Create something for someone.

I once saw a conversation between Michael Hyatt and an upset fan.

The fan started complaining about how Michael didn’t really care about people and all he cared about was money. He started to attack how my friend had conducted himself on his blog and podcast. The fan ranted and protested, and as I watched this go down on Twitter, I wondered what Michael might be thinking or feeling. I know what I would’ve been feeling at that point: a strong need to defend myself. However, when I saw Michael’s response I was blown away.

He said quite simply, “I’m not for everyone.”

Did you know that your work is not for everyone?

That is actually the point of it. Most of us get into creative work, whether that’s starting a business or painting a picture or trying to write a book, not because we want to make something for everyone but because we want to make something for someone.

We want to create something that has never been created before. We want to write something that has never been written, not like this, ever. But at some point along the journey, we lose our way. We start to think about who might not like it. And as we consider those who don’t like it, we start to hedge and play it safe. We remove any of the strong language that could potentially lead to people disapproving of it. They might unsubscribe or ask for a refund, we think, so we do whatever we can to avoid any kind of criticism.

Not for Everyone Book cover by David Leddick

But here’s the problem: the kind of work that doesn’t deserve criticism doesn’t deserve praise. Read that again and let it sink in.

The kind of work that doesn’t deserve criticism doesn’t deserve praise.

If you don’t do something worth criticizing, then you aren’t doing something worth appreciating. So as we venture forth to make our things and share them with the world, we have to consider a few questions before we begin.

Who am I not trying to reach?

Before we think about who this work is for, I wonder if it would be a better strategy to consider who this is absolutely not for.

Who is going to disapprove of this?

Who is going to hate it?

In fact, in the “growth hacker” marketing community, thinking about who will absolutely hate this is one way to stir up buzz about the product.

If this thing is not worth hating at least by someone, is it even worth creating?

What will it not do?

Read the Whole Article

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Supernatural Worldview Book Cover
Belief

Cris Putnam & The Supernatural Worldview

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My favorite book of 2014 was The Supernatural Worldview: Examining Paranormal, Psi, and the Apocalyptic, by Cris Putnam.

The reason the book is important is summed up by Chuck Missler in his foreword:

How will you deal with empirical validations of extrasensory perceptions? Of near-death experiences? Non-biblical spirits? Evidence that the mind goes far beyond the organ we know as the brain?1

… the current trends toward a “Supernatural Worldview” will prove to be a critical challenge to those who take their personal destiny seriously, and we can certainly anticipate that our adversaries will exploit these challenges to advance their own agendas.1

Cris Putnam And Derek Gilbert On “The Supernatural Worldview”, Parts 1 & 2

Cris Putnam And Gary Stearman On “The Supernatural Worldview”

Table of Contents

— Foreword by Chuck Missler

Chapters:
1. Paranormal Witness to Gospel Witness
2. The Supernatural Worldview of REALITY
3. The Paranormal Paradigm Shift
4. The Ethos of Demythologization and the Excluded Middle
5. Near-Death-Experience Science Drives the Paradigm Shift
6. Telepathy, Dreams, and Remote Viewing
7. Precognition, Theology, and Watchman’s Warning
8. Apparitions, Hauntings, and Poltergeists
9. Mediums, Ghosts, Familiar Spirits, and the Supernatural Worldview
10. Satan, Demons, and the Ghost Hypothesis
11. Spiritual Warfare, Juvenile Prophets of Baal, and the Zombie Apocalypse
12. The Supernatural Worldview of the Bible

SkyWatchTV 3/7/17: Tribute to Cris Putnam

I was shocked to learn that Cris died, last week. Here’s a tribute to a tenacious researcher, talented author, believer, and husband, by the folks at SkyWatch:

  1. Chuck Missler, Foreword to The Supernatural Worldview: Examining Paranormal, Psi, and the Apocalyptic, Defense Publishing. ↩
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On Idolizing the Bible

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On Idolizing the Bible

Commentary on “How the Bible Became an Idol” by Paul Rosenberg

I’ll refer to the author as Rosenberg to distinguish him from the apostle Paul.

“Again I am raising a difficult subject, but again, it’s something that needs to be said. And my title is true. The Bible – the holy book of more or less all Christians – has become an idol. And yes, I do mean idol as in “false god.”

A book, no matter how good, remains a book and should be treated as a book. A deity is something far different.

Not every Christian uses the Bible as an idol of course, but many millions do – probably a majority in North America – including nearly all of the TV preachers.

The Bible is 66 books with ~40 authors written over ~1500 years put between one cover and referred to as “a book”. None of the books are deities nor are they above, or outside of, Reality.

A Christian may hold the Bible to be the most important “book” in the world but it’s not a substitute for God unless He’s absent from their lives (which is probably the crux of the matter, here).

What is an Idol?

An idol is something you hold above reality.

The Bible uses the word “idol” to refer to that which a man holds above, or in place of, God. Since only that which created Reality could be above (outside, beyond) it, Rosenberg’s use of the word is roughly the same.

A true God – a creator of the universe, for example – should be held above reality, since he created reality. If, however, we hold something else above reality, we make it an idol. A created thing should be considered a part of reality, not held above it.

So, when I say the Bible has become an idol, I mean people hold it above reality, putting it into the position of a god.”

The Bible refers to the gods being worshipped in the OT and NT (represented in stone, wood, or gold idols) as real and created by God.1 These created gods, as well as the Bible, “should be considered to be part of reality, not held above it”.

Not a Book-Based Religion?

As long as the relationships between people and their Creator are replaced (avoided) with rituals we’ll be stuck with the word, “religion”.

“Christianity very clearly did not start as book-based. When Jesus “preached the good news,” he quoted just a small number of scriptures and usually as a necessity, answering people who questioned him. And several of those were of the “you’ve heard it said… but I say” variety. He read a few lines from Isaiah in his hometown synagogue once, but we see very little more than that.

Even the very literate Paul uses Greek poets in his sermons almost as much as Old Testament passages. (He uses some scriptures in his writings.)”

The New Testament refers to the Old Testament 2,572 times including allusions, echoes, citations, and quotations.2 Here’s the total breakout as well as that for Jesus and Paul.

nt_ot

Jesus’ use of the OT is consistent with, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Mt 5:17) One astounding aspect of that fulfillment was His abiding by the laws while supplanting them with grace.4 His scripture was the Septuagint (A Greek translation of the Hebrew canon made in 250 BC.).

While Jesus fulfilled the laws, Paul documented much of that fulfillment in canonical extension, later to become known as the New Testament. Paul’s use of the Septuagint is consistent with writing eight to thirteen of the 27 books of the NT.

Stating the Obvious, Extrapolating the Unnecessary5

Those writing, copying, and assembling books of the New Testament did not, themselves, have access to completed copies. To therefore conclude, somehow, that books not yet written were unimportant to those writing them is to extrapolate the unnecessary after stating the obvious.

In that sense, neither is Judaism a book-based religion. The Old Testament was written and assembled into canon over a period of ~1000 years. It was then translated into Greek to make it accessible to Jews who had been in exile so long they’d lost touch with their own language. Does a project requiring 33 generations to complete imply apathy?

The first Christians valued Christ over everything. Their first independent actions were to spread the word about Him and what He’d just done. They weren’t apathetic about writing things down. A remarkable aspect of the NT is how little time had passed from the actual events to the time the 27 books were written and then assembled into canon. They were documenting what they’d witnessed while simultaneously risking their lives to spread a faith that would become the largest in the world.

I do agree with Rosenberg that the apostles and first Christians weren’t risking their lives for a book (or books) but for what they’d just seen. Also, even without completed copies of what has become the New Testament the early Christians were, no doubt, more effective and consistent than most modern Christians.

Facing the Bible

Those of us who’ve read the book know the laws in the Old Testament that no one follows anymore. We know how the apostles disagreed. But – and this is where idolatry comes in – millions of us pretend that we saw nothing and move on. Or if we’re trying to be very religious, we come up with creative interpretations to resolve the flaws.

Conjuring up “creative interpretations to resolve the flaws” is worse than a waste of time. It degrades integrity and faith. It also avoids some of the best opportunities for spiritual growth.

Do the “Bible is the word of God people” think the Author needs their help in deflecting attention away from weak parts of an otherwise stellar attempt to reach mankind?

The Laws that No One Follows Anymore

I’m no expert on Judaism. Still, I doubt that anyone, other than Jesus and a few prophets and priests, managed to abide by all 613 commandments of the law.

There are orthodox Jews who still believe they must abide by most of the laws. They claim to be excused from the sacrificial laws (159 of the 613) because the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. But, how were they released from the remaining 454? If they don’t recognize Jesus as their messiah how (and when) did these laws become inactive?

The Apostles Disagreed

The most famous disagreement among the apostles arose when Paul publicly admonished Peter for observing Judaic laws after Jesus had fulfilled them. Bob Deffinbaugh’s exposition of the disagreement, and Peter’s capitulation, is excellent.

Using the Bible to Prove Everything

And let me be clear on this: Trying to prove everything by the Bible is a deviation from actual growth. If you’ve done this for any length of time, you’ve hindered yourself.

Rosenberg may be referring to the often lazy habit of quoting Biblical text as self-proving. To a non-believer this is recursive reasoning. It’s much more effective to quote applicable verses and explain why you think they’re true in the context of the discussion.

A larger point to understand is that the Bible doesn’t contain all knowledge. Such would be like a map with a scale of 1-to-1: accurate but useless. There are no microwaves, jet planes, toasters, CAD design programs, or even hidden codes in every 70th (or whatever) letter predicting the third Reich. Neither does Ezekiel contain the design plans for an alien spacecraft. The sooner a Christian is disabused of the notion that everything is in the Bible, the better.

The Bible is what God deemed sufficient for the realms it covers. It was not intended to be exhaustive. Exhaustive knowledge is a utopian myth. Humans have to work for knowledge just as they have to work to get food from the ground.

Doing, Or Not Doing?

Readers of the book really should know these things. The core of the New Testament – the recorded words of Jesus – require people to do the things he taught. The “Bible as word of God” people, on the other hand, spend endless hours arguing about who Jesus was, comparing scriptures, finding hidden meanings, proving their interpretations right, and proving the interpretations of others wrong. And so they bypass doing.

Though admonished by one commenter to “stick to subjects he knows about”, Rosenberg could just as well be paraphrasing Paul in 1 Timothy 1:3–7:

“As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.”6

The Sad Part

“The central requirement for any follower of Jesus is to love. Everything else comes second. Jesus not only taught this again and again; he exhibited it in his life. Christians, however, consistently push it aside in favor of other things. (I could tell you stories, but you probably have your own.)”

Indeed, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Ga 5:14)

“The really sad part of this is that the Bible idolaters – or at least a great number of them – do have experience with the divine impulse, of contact or at least innate yearning for a transcendent ultimate. But they never develop these things, because they’re busy idolizing a mere book, following the traditions and commandments of men.“

Jesus condemned the Pharisees for treating the OT in exactly this way. How much worse for a Christian to do the same with the completed Bible?

What’s Rosenberg Getting At?

Rosenberg sees the Bible as a valuable resource. He greatly appreciates the impact that Judeo-Christian ethics have had on western civilization. He believes there’s a creator of the universe distinct from the created. He has a “divine impulse” and “innate yearning for a transcendent ultimate”. So, why would someone so philosophically, though not theologically, aligned with Christianity be frustrated enough to write about Christians using the Bible as an idol?

At the risk of being presumptuous I’ll put into my own words what I think are some of Rosenberg’s points. If doing so would make fellow Christians consider them then it will have been worth the effort:

  • Because of the enormous, yet squandered, human potential of a third of humanity. If a small fraction of that number patterned their thoughts, will, abilities, beliefs, and expectations on the full range of Jesus’ teachings the world would be so dramatically transformed it might be mistaken for heaven.
  • Because millions of Christians who claim Jesus as their role-model either don’t take him seriously enough, or are afraid to discover, let alone implement, the full breadth of His teachings.
  • Because the Book of Acts describes the behaviors and experiences of Christians before there was a Book of Acts. And yet, the first Christians were more Christ-like, with limited access to fragments of text, than modern Christians are with a completed New Testament.

The Christian Difference

Voltaire is credited with saying, “Show me your redeemed life, and I’ll believe in your Redeemer”. And then there’s the rhetorical question that, “If you were jailed for being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you?”.

There’s nothing different about people living inconsistently with their own stated beliefs. You can find them in every house and on every street-corner in the world. Christians are supposed to stand out in such a way as there’s no doubt that something is different about them. Why else would anyone care to learn more about their beliefs?

Can we blame non-believers for concluding that a redemption without fruit is no redemption, at all?

The Christian difference occurs in believers who call Jesus a role model and have the courage to act consistency with the goal of becoming more like Him.

That means diving into his teachings and exposing yourself to the full-spectrum of what you find. No picking and choosing what you, or those around you, might be comfortable with. No strip-mining the supernatural out of the events. No arrogant presumptions that God needs your protection of His Bible because someone sent you a list of “flaws” on Facebook.

Set a goal of nothing short of putting on the mind of Christ. “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: aim at Earth and you will get neither.”7

Faith without Works

Faith without works is trust without transformation. It’s an attempt to be oriented towards the Creator without “power according to his glorious might”. (Col 1:11) In daily life, it’s hope without joy.

Transformation of Character and Supernatural Power

Dallas Willard, speaking on “Being Church” said:

“When the kingdom of God is present, power flows. And what characterize the people of Christ throughout the ages is transformation of character and supernatural power. Those two things always follow. When Jesus brought the kingdom he brought manifestation.”

That’s what the early Christians had and what many of today’s Christians don’t have. That’s what’s at the core of Judeo-Christian ethics that have transformed the world.

The early Christians weren’t risking their lives for unfinished scrolls on parchment or papyrus. And they weren’t risking their lives because Jesus was a smart guy who’d just laid some awesome philosophy on them. They risked their lives to remain true to what they’d just witnessed: Jesus performing miracles all over the place, raising people from the dead and then rising, himself, from being dead. And if that wasn’t enough, walking around and eating meals with them while detailing how He’d just fulfilled their scriptures. It was the resurrected Jesus that told them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”8

In that sense, I agree with Rosenberg, that Christianity is not a book-based religion. It’s a relationship with God centered around His presence in our actual lives. Without transformation of character and supernatural power there will be no great works. But, with them?

The world is yours!9

  1. “My contention is that, if our theology really derives from the biblical text, we must reconsider our selective supernaturalism and recover a biblical theology of the unseen world. This is not to suggest that the best interpretation of a passage is always the most supernatural one. But the biblical writers and those to whom they wrote were predisposed to supernaturalism. To ignore that outlook or marginalize it will produce Bible interpretation that reflects our mind-set more than that of the biblical writers.” Heiser, M. S. (2015). The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (First Edition, p. 18). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press. ↩
  2. Jackson, J. G. (Ed.). (2015). New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife. ↩
  3. There are four relationships that are used: Citation, Quotation, Allusion, and Echo. These terms are understood as:
    Citation: An explicit reference to scripture with a citation formula (e.g. “It is written,” or “the Lord says,” or “the prophet says”).
    Quotation: A direct reference to scripture, largely matching the verbatim wording of the source but without a quotation formula
    Allusion: An indirect but intentional reference to scripture, likely intended to invoke memory of the scripture.
    Echo: A verbal parallel evokes or recalls a scripture (or series of scriptures) to the reader, but likely without authorial intention to reproduce exact words.
    ↩
  4. “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ro 6:14). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. ↩
  5. “Yes – as I have said many times in classes: Scholars have a habit of embracing the obvious (redaction) and then extrapolating to the unnecessary (XYZ “universally accepted” critical theory that actually has significant weaknesses – as though there were no other options).” http://drmsh.com/does-higher-criticism-attempt-to-destroy-the-bible/ ↩
  6. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (1 Ti 1:3–7). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. ↩
  7. C.S. Lewis, The Joyful Christian ↩
  8. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mt 28:18–20). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. ↩
  9. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ge 1:28). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.” ↩
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A Life Without Words
Communication

Life without Words

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My mother had two strokes leaving her unable to walk. She hates not being able to walk. A few years later her eyes glazed over with cataracts and she couldn’t see. Since she lives with us, and we see her everyday, we didn’t notice it as it happened slowly over so many months. Her eyes were a tough case but the doctors were able to fix her eyesight with an operation.

Off all her losses, by far the worst was when she lost the ability to talk. We had to use a board with letters enabling her to point to letters to slowly make a word. To say that she hated it would be glib. She was furious! Her fury turned to desperation and then to depression.

Thankfully, over the next four months, her speech was largely restored through swallowing exercises. Along with the gift of that restoration to her was a restored confidence and insight given to me about words.

As a lyricist I felt I’d reached the limits of what words can hold or convey. I’d received the Irish “gift of gab” to the extent that, when my mother and I went to Ireland and had the opportunity to kiss the Blarney stone, I declined in disgust saying, “No thanks, mom. I talk too much already. You guys make me kiss that thing and see what kind of blabbermouth you’ll get then!”

To be fair to the legend, kissing the stone purports to confer “Eloquence and persuasiveness”; much loftier and more useful gifts than mere gab. Still, I didn’t kiss that thing and don’t regret it.

Kissing the Blarney Stone in 1897

While searching for a picture to portray the point of this article I found the poster for the film, “A Life without Words”. The trailer is fascinating with the film telling the story of a brother and sister in Nicaragua who are deaf and can neither speak, write, nor read until a sign language teacher comes along and teach them their first “words”.

Their father says (At 0:30 seconds on the film trailer) that, “Because they are disabled the authorities can’t touch them. They’re incomplete. The law can’t touch them.”

No Law? No Transgression!

True enough. When you have no words you can’t legally consent to contracts (That you can’t read!). As you look at the kids (Young adults, really) you can tell they’re intelligent and can think clearly even though they “have no words”. And yet, think of it from the state’s point of view: If the kids were to “sign” a contract they could always claim they had no idea what they were signing. If problems arose, later, how could one argue the point? “For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.”1

Self-Defense from Psychopaths

The father’s words remind me of another story where a known criminal psychopath was able to manipulate all those around him except for those who didn’t speak his language. The criminal spoke English and was perpetrating his schemes in a Spanish speaking country. The English speakers around him were manipulated, one by one. The Spanish speakers were immune. The psychopath could not “get inside their heads” with his words. His power was neutralized. Now that’s an idea someone could write a book about!

(I didn’t emphasize this phenomenon in the book I wrote about the story. However, if you’re interested in knowing more about the exploits and damage one psychopath can do, read “The Creature from Galt’s Gulch” (Free).)

That these two groups of people “with no words” were protected from their adversaries shows the power of words from the opposite side of the usual vantage point. Without words, you can’t be mislead or fooled by them.

The truth (And law) comes to us in words and can be taken away using words. Most of our liberties are not taken but rather given away by our own consent. We consent through various contracts and sign away precious liberties. I tackle these dangers in my book, “The Outlier’s Handbook”. In short, the wise must sometimes find ways to retain the advantages of the fool.

Better than Words?

Word Alternatives

These contenders are wonderful tools that may greatly assist your communication. They’ll probably decrease the number of words you’ll need to communicate. But, they won’t eliminate the need for words, entirely.

If you hand someone a picture without saying anything they’ll just look at you with questions in their eyes. You have to write or say something to put pictures in context. The inverse is not true: If you say something to someone you don’t have to follow it with a picture of what you talked about. Pictures and the rest are great, but optional.

Here to Stay, Forever

As long as mankind is walking the planet, words are here to stay. They’re the hardest ingredient to delete with any hope of communicating fully. “Use your words.”, the teachers at my children’s school say when the kids get frustrated. Those teachers know what they’re talking about!

Blindness is a dreadful affliction as would be the loss of any of the senses or faculties. However, take away someone’s words and you rob them of the dearest part of their humanity.

Postscript: My mother lives with us, now. We talk, everyday.

Mom and I on the cliffs of Donegal, Ireland

  1. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Ro 4:15). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. ↩
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Fairy Tales & Mythology

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Words are how the truth comes to us. They’re also how it can be taken away. Seen only as symbols and grammar, truth and lies are made from the same raw material. Your only hope is discernment. Your life depends on it.

Tolkien and Lewis regarded the fairy tale as a perfectly suited literary vehicle for expressing eternal truth. Lewis credits Tolkien and a mutual friend with helping him see that his love of myth and fairy tale blinded him to, yet prepared him for, the Gospels. He reluctantly came to believe the Gospels were eyewitness accounts of a “true myth”.1

“I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”2

Mythology or History?

Another term used as a pejorative is mythology.

All mythology is presumed myth as the victors decide what is official history. The history of the defeated is, by definition, written by outlaws. A generation later the history of the defeated is mythology or conspiracy if it’s remembered, at all.

It’s helpful to think of mythology as collections of potential truths inconvenient to the succession of political power. Likewise, “History” is as likely to be the glorification of bureaucrats and technocrats as an accurate re-telling of the facts.

A series of time-related truths, thoroughly vetted and discerned, is not mythology or conspiracy; it’s history.

Trivium & Quadrivium

The subjects of history and philosophy were considered to be so demanding, yet so important, that they weren’t even presented to the student until after they’d studied the subjects of the trivium (Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric) and, ideally, those of the quadrivium (Arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy).3

“These seven heads were supposed to include universal knowledge. He who was master of these was thought to have no need of a preceptor to explain any books or to solve any questions which lay within the compass of human reason, the knowledge of the trivium having furnished him with the key to all language, and that of the quadrivium having opened to him the secret laws of nature.”4

“… When a few were instructed in the trivium, and very few studied the quadrivium, to be master of both was sufficient to complete the character of a philosopher … The candidate, having reached this point, is now supposed to have accomplish the task upon which he had entered – he has reached the last step, and is now ready to receive the full fruition of human learning.”5

“Some day you’ll be old enough”

The ability to grasp eternal truths and history and bring them to bear on decisions is a high achievement of a classical education. Only philosophy, by attempting to comprehend meaning, imposes greater demands for greater rewards.

“Some day you’ll be old enough” to start reading fairy tales again to glean eternal truths. Someday you’ll be educated enough to distinguish real history from stories convenient to political power.

Words are how the truth comes to us. They’re also how it can be taken away. Seen only as symbols and grammar, truth and lies are made from the same raw material. Your only hope is discernment. Your life depends on it.

  1. A 1931 letter to childhood friend Arthur Greeves, Lewis credits Tolkien (and mutual friend Hugo Dyson). Paragraph reworded and reordered from an article written by Bruce Edwards (https://erlc.com/article/c-s-lewis-051101). ↩
  2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis ↩
  3. Cathedral Schools of the early Middle Ages (527) on which the curriculum of Medieval universities were based (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_school) ↩
  4. Hist. of Philos. Vol ii. P. 337 ↩
  5. The symbolism of Freemasonry: Illustrating and Explaining its Science and Philosophy, it’s Legends, Myths, and Symbols. By Albert Gallatin Mackey, M.D., 1869. ↩
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Galt’s Gulch Chile, Part 5 — Feedback from the GGC Recovery Team

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Last week, a GGC investor working with the Recovery Team sent me an e-mail with feedback on the four articles I’d written about the Galt’s Gulch Chile land development deal. Though I’d sent the first two articles to John Cobin and Wendy McElroy, this was the first correspondence I’d had with someone directly involved with the deal. The first four articles were written from what could be gleaned from all public documents, radio shows, forums, facebook, articles and their comment sections. Part 5 brings the series current with new information and feedback from those involved. My hope is that such provides a bridge to future articles that may be of more direct assistance to real-time recovery efforts. To that end, this will be the last article that refers to Cobin/Ezyaguirre, in any significant way, as their initiating role has already been addressed and they were cut out of the deal early in the development.

As you read the exchange (And any article in the series) keep in mind that the actions of those involved are either good, fine, questionable, wrong, or illegal. Much of the last three categories can only be decided, in retrospect. The legalities depend on “the law” of one’s vantage point: Natural, Chilean or US. My opinion is that most all of Johnson’s actions were wrong from the standpoint of natural law as I see nothing indicating he ever intended to keep his promises to those involved. The Recovery Team would prefer to remain diligent and prudent in refraining from making legal judgements without supporting evidence.

Recovery Team: Part I: It is not clear that the project had enough water for the development as Cobin advertised. As you know, it’s a dry climate, and scope of the project was large. However, another huge problem was that it is all environmentally protected. I have been told that the gov’t will allow only 12 parcels to be carved out of it.

Terence: Yes, Cobin’s water estimates could only be realized if all the wells were cleared, consolidated and inscribed to the property. Cobin said he and Eyzaguirre could do it (Restated by Cobin on his radio show during Berwick’s apology episode) and such was to be a crucial part of their contribution to the deal. Everything I’ve read indicates Johnson and Berwick cut ties with Cobin before the property was purchased. Johnson’s accusations against Cobin, or anyone else, for that matter, hold no weight because of Johnson’s clear pattern of accusing others of his own failures.

I hadn’t read that environmental concerns were tied in with the inability to zone the land, properly. If so, overcoming this obstacle would be as crucial to the project as consolidating the water rights.

Recovery Team: Also, I think you said–or maybe implied–that Cobin/Eyzaguirre somehow put money into the project. Other than pocket money, maybe, you are mistaken.

Terence: I see Cobin’s contribution as significant but non-monetary. He had the vision, chose the location and got the project rolling by involving Berwick to attract capital. This is what enabled Berwick and Johnson, neither of whom had stepped foot in Chile prior to flying down to meet Cobin, to connect with a large development deal within hours of their arrival.

Recovery Team: I doubt that Del Real and Johnson lived together. At one point early in their business (if you could call it that) relationship, Del Real bought office furniture, put it at the farm office and he and his daughter were working there. I’ll double check on that.

Terence: Berwick made this comment when talking with Cobin on his radio show. Since Johnson’s “sale” of GGC stock to M. Del Real and his daughter, Pamela, is important to the recovery, perhaps their living and working arrangements are worth knowing about.

Recovery Team: You imply throughout that Cobin/Eyzaguirre were necessary to the success of the project, but I doubt it. I have not met either person, but I have heard Cobin on the internet and have seen his astronomical consulting fees. Why Berwick/Johnson would agree to the equivalent of a finders fee of 25% for that property that can’t be developed is beyond me. Further, see attached the ridiculous marketing material that Cobin spearheaded. This wreaks of scam–$1M revenue per year for fish? Selling electricity? Selling water??? Too bad they didn’t continue on this vein, I would have been spared my losses since I wouldn’t touch the project with a ten foot pole with Cobin and his spin involved.

I am sure that had Johnson not been Johnson, he would have been able to find someone in Chile to develop the project. Cobin/Eyzaguirre were never necessary.

Terence: It appears Johnson did only enough “work” to muddy the waters for his cons and overpriced Chilean side-deals. Cobin/Berwick say the finders fee and GGC sales percentage was based on Cobin finding the land, creating the deal, negotiating the price of the first property, El Penon, to be $270/acre, and consolidating and inscribing the water rights. However, what Berwick and Cobin promised each other is between them. Nothing I’ve seen ties Berwick’s promise to Cobin to the GGC investors who probably never set eyes on Cobin’s business plan. Aside from his optimistic estimates the significant part of the document, for me, is that it shows that Cobin was fooled by Johnson’s persona, as well. It also shows that he had no idea that Berwick and Johnson would shortly cut him completely out of the deal.

Recovery Team: Part IV: Johnson lived off us for 2 years, not 3–from sept 2012 to sep 2014.

Terence: Very glad to hear that! I’ll update the article.

Recovery Team: The biggest hole in your articles is that you don’t even touch on the real story. This is NOT a purely gringo on gringo scam. Johnson could not have done what he did were it not for willing accomplices in Chile. There is a string of crooked notaries and lawyers enabling his illegal activities. Further, the Chileans, being good scammers themselves, sniffed Johnson out and then scammed him. Our problems now are that the overt scam artist, Mario Del Real, took control of the company and will not give it back, and that the seller, Guillermo Ramirez, appears to have 1. gouged Johnson on the price of the property, 2. misrepresented the water situation, and 3. may have been in partnership with Johnson in running up huge late fees. Johnson was never able to pay any but the first payment on the land on time. One document I have says that $1.14M in late fees were paid.

Terence: Wow! I stayed out of all the swaps (Sales?) and side-deals referred to in the “Kerfuffle” document to focus on the overall story and the gringos, first. I certainly understand that, from the GGC investors point of view, these are the most important aspects of the current recovery.

Recovery Team: Further, the whole time that one would think that Johnson would be very busy with obtaining the proper permits, managing the development and farm, as well as overseeing marketing and sales, he was looking for other “great deals” in Chile. That’s how he was scammed with the Rio Colorado deal. He also pursued buying water in Patagonia (?), and various bitcoin projects–he stole $100k from one of our investors with a bitcoin deal. He even put bids on a neighboring property and tried to negotiate a sort of lease-option arrangement with other neighbors. To the bitter end, he was sending emails telling us about how he was going to build a large solar greenhouse. Yet during all that time, the permits to subdivide the property were getting nowhere, the farm was deteriorating, and employees and vendors were being stiffed.

No vat tax was ever paid by Johnson for the sale of the lemons harvested and sold on the property. Last week, we finally had a visit from SII. Why couldn’t they have shown up when Johnson was stiffing them?

Terence: Whew! What a tangled mess. How intriguing that Johnson, himself, might have been scammed while he was using GGC investor money to protect himself from GGC investors. Unfortunately, lying to the bitter end is another characteristic of psychopathic behavior. For those who haven’t yet watched the documentary, “I, Psychopath” it’s worth the time:

I noticed Mario Del Real is described as having previously worked for the Chilean IRS (SII). Perhaps there’s a connection between his expertise and the timing of SII’s visit? Either way, bad timing all around.

Recovery Team: I have a descriptive timeline I’ve been working on. It definitely needs more work, but I’m supplying documents with nearly every entry. I’m also working on a financial timeline with documentation. I’m waiting for more accounting information to finish these.

Terence: I can’t think of anything more important to recovery efforts than such a timeline and the documents that go along with it. I’ll update the timeline in Part one with anything you can pass along.

Recovery Team: Btw, Jerry Foltas posts on the GGC webpage are not correct. I’ve caught him several times in contradictions. His only response to me is that I’m not reliable. yeah, right. I provide documents for everything I say, and I am trying to be especially careful to make no accusations. I try simply to present the documents and let them speak for themselves.

Terence: As an outside reader I can barely get through Folta’s “Newsletters”. I thought him a Johnson created sock-puppet prior to reading that the team had met with an actual person of the same name outside the GGC office. While reading Jerry’s “Newsletters” my theory was that he had taken advantage of the absence of a shareholders agreement (Which would have given a Right of First Refusal of IGGSA shares to all investors) and coaxed GGC shares out of Johnson in order to gain control of GGC. This would be “playing both sides against the middle”. A more tragic reality for Folta would be if, having lost his initial investment, Johnson scammed him again and Folta lost more money in return for GGC shares that were not Johnson’s to sell.

Where’s the Libertarian Media?

What’s with the absence of Libertarian commentary on Galt’s Gulch Chile? Even the Libertarians that spoke at the GGC Fall or Spring event held on GGC grounds in Chile seem to have little to nothing to say. The Recovery Team knows that the attendance of these libertarians was never an endorsement and that they had no access to information that would enable them to vett or endorse the project. It would be nice, however, to hear more from Ben Swann, John Tolley, Bob Murphy, Luke Rudowski, and others that actually set foot on the grounds.

Note: All articles on McGillespie.Com may be reposted in full, or in part, per Creative Commons license “By” and “Share-alike”.

Regarding Investors

I didn’t say much about the Founders or the investors in my first four articles because I didn’t know anything about them. As of today I do know this: The Founders had no idea what Johnson was doing. It’s beginning to appear that Johnson used Founder money to hire lawyers to protect himself against the Founders, themselves. They were confused with Berwick’s incompetence, and Johnson’s series of thefts and counter accusations, until mid-2014. They probably thought disagreements between Berwick and Johnson were that of typical partners, each with 50% ownership but neither with majority control. In fact, even today, it’s a tough forensic task to piece together the timeline and documents Johnson withheld from investors to the end.

Prior to his investment, Josh Kirley (One of the first investors) hired a Chilean law firm and offered them an additional bonus, above and beyond their hourly rate, if they could come up with any reason to not move forward with his investment into GGC. When they came up with nothing Kirley followed up with a background check of Johnson and still, no red flags appeared. Onlookers may protest that any number of items on some personal due diligence list were not covered but Kirley’s first two efforts at protecting his investment were quite bold. Contrary to popular understanding, lawyers are trained to find fault with, not enable, contracts and deals. And yet, they came up with nothing.

I’d also point out that the sophistication level of those who were fooled by Johnson’s psychopathic behavior is rising with every stone of this story unturned. Cobin’s business plan even documented Johnson’s many possible contributions to GGC as if they were additional selling points of GGC. It would be a mistake, therefore, for readers to believe that such behavior will be obvious should it be encountered, personally.

What’s Next?

The money and ownership trail of GGC has been greatly muddied and confused by Johnson’s complex maze of stock swaps (Sales?), director appointments, multiple bank accounts, additional overpriced purchases, missed payments, secondary entities, bitcoin theft, and suspicious penalty clauses, etc. These are the sorts of things Johnson was “working on” while claiming to investors that he was busy developing GGC. Even today, the investors are attempting to piece together the basic financial statements and reports that Johnson had been denying them for so long. The documents they’re discovering reveal a maze of deceit rather than land development.

Money invested into GGC was always about purchasing land. There are still many reasons to hope that, if investors can’t recover money, they might recover land. It wouldn’t be a total restoration but it would restore control of what was always at the heart of the deal.

It took four articles to tell the story of what happened, why and what others may do to avoid problems like this in the future. I didn’t follow the maze of Johnson’s deals (Likely made possible by Chilean collusion) as it wasn’t relevant to those purposes. However, it most certainly is relevant to efforts to recover money or control over the land. If I can make a contribution in that area, I will. The focus now is on substantiating Johnson’s activities and the gaggle of Chilean swindlers that may have followed in his wake.

I’ll conclude Part 5 with an open message to Jeff Berwick: I’ve run across the name of the investor Berwick referred to as left homeless having lost everything on his investment into GGC. This investor is, indeed, in dire straits. If Berwick is ready to keep the promise he made on the Freedom Feens Radio Show then now (1/28/15) would be an ideal time for him to help this investor. I’m sure someone on the Recovery Team would be happy to pass along his current location. Contact them at ggc.pressrelease@gmail.com.

 

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Galt’s Gulch Chile — Story, Timeline & References

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The story, timeline and references in this article (Part 1) were put together for reference in my next article (Part 2), “The Creature from Galt’s Gulch“.

All publicly available documents, articles or references to Galt’s Gulch Chile (GGC) are cited or linked to in this article as of 12/9/14. The best overall narrative was written by “someone who left a great life and a job, to move to Chile, in the hopes of building this ambitious project” and posted on The International Man Forum. I’ve added comments (TG:) to fill in or correct the narrative where I know it to be inaccurate or where perspective would be helpful.

Intro

As introduced by “Dave322” on the International Man Forum just before posting it on August 27th, 2014:

“A large number of employees and investors received the following email. It was sent by a producer for an American television programme, who happened to work at GGC, in its early days. They were looking for people to interview for an upcoming show they are doing. It is titled, “Kenneth Dale Johnson, The Bernie Madoff of Bitcoin”.”

TG: It appears the intended show was never made.

Following the narrative, below, is a timeline assembled by reading all GGC related documents and listening to all GGC related radio shows and podcasts, multiple times.

Narrative

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you are receiving this email because of your investment in or association with Ken Johnson and Galt’s Gulch Chile (GGC). What follows is a brief time line of this project – a short summary of a much larger story that is still being written. This will be the first of many emails detailing the scheme of which you are a victim.

In 2012, Ken Johnson and Jeff Berwick (The Dollar Vigilante) explored the idea of creating a community in Chile that would appeal to people worried about the financial and political stability of their home countries. Chile, they believed, would be a welcoming home for those of a libertarian/anarchist and free market bent, much as Argentina is home to Doug Casey’s Cafayate. Turns out that John Cobin (Host of Red Hot Chile) and his associate German Eyzaguirre also had plans to launch a community In Chile. When Berwick and Johnson met Cobin and Eyzaguirre in Chile in late 2012, they decided to join forces. Cobin and Eyzaguirre had tried to purchase land near Curacavi – a plot of land referred to as El Tranque (aka Freedom Orchard) – but could not raise the funds to fulfill the contract. Cobin and Eyzaguirre helped Johnson find a tract of land nearby – Caren, known locally as “El Penon” for a large rock formation near the crest. In exchange for finding the property and helping to facilitate the deal, Cobin and Eyzaguirre would receive $250,000 and 30% of the shares of the holding company. Berwick and Johnson would evenly split the remaining 70%.

TG: Cobin and Berwick agree that only 20% of the shares of the holding company were to be assigned to Cobin and Eyzaguirre and the $250k finders/negotiation fee was later increased to $285K. They discuss this on Cobin’s 9/5/14 radio show, 42 min, 30 sec. Therefore, Berwick and Johnson could split the remaining 80% of the deal, not 70%. It is possible the 30% figure in this narrative was a direct quote from Cobin, Berwick or Johnson. However, the only recording I have is from the principles, themselves, who say it was 20%.

$1.75 million was raised from four Founders, known as the “First Round.” Within a month, the sale had been made for $1.18 million – the majority of the money that the four founders (funders) had put up. None of the founders was Johnson, Berwick, Cobin and Eyzaguirre, or any of his associates. They were just regular people who wanted to move to the proposed community.

TG: The only “regular” person in this group of four would have been Johnson, who ostensibly brought nothing but a moving mouth to the deal. Cobin and Eyzaquirre found a near perfect property, created a detailed business plan, suggested the GGC name, contacted Berwick through his TDV employee, Johnson, and persuaded them to start attracting investment capital for the project. Cobin also setup the holding company, negotiated the price/acre to be an amazingly low $270 US. For Berwicks part, all public articles about this project suggest it was his efforts that attracted the four founders to purchase the property. There were many subsequent “regular” people who just wanted to move to the proposed community but Cobin, Eyzaquirre and Berwick were not among them.

As quickly as the sale had been made, it was discovered that the land would be unsuitable for the promised development. They told the first rounders it would be subdivided into 3,000 parcels. Turns out it could only be divided into 12 parcels. And even those 12 had building restrictions due to the elevation and being zoned for agricultural use. To top it off, though there were water rights (surface only), there was very little water. Johnson failed to register the few wells that existed,within the required time frame, making matters worse. The entire deal was a spectacular failure. Johnson would later place fault with Cobin and Eyzaguirre for misrepresenting the possibilities of the land. That should have been the end of Ken Johnson’s tenure as developer or manager of a community of expatriates in Chile. Instead, it was just the beginning.

TG: The property had more than enough water through consolidated wells and dam water access, but Johnson, who didn’t speak Spanish or have any local contacts or knowledge of the process, bungled the clearing and consolidation process to get them inscribed to the property. Cobin and Eyzaguirre would have done all this had Johnson not gone incommunicado (See RHC Radio show, 9/12/14, 14 Min 30 sec.). The correct water inscription process, alone, would have increased the number of lots allowed in the subdivision and Cobin and Eyzaguirre had similar solutions at the ready to resolve other zoning challenges. Such is the nature of land development for which the involvement of Cobin and Eyzaguirre was crucial. Johnson’s pattern is clear: All obstacles he couldn’t overcome after cutting himself off from the talent were blamed on the talent. This is like blaming a broken pipe on a plumber whom you’ve never called! This insane pattern of blame is important to the psychopaths scheme: It elicits the sympathy of other parties who, having no time to investigate the situation, assume the psychopath has been wronged and is in need of help. In short order, all who even listen to a story are drawn into the web and even blamed, themselves, for one thing or another.

To rewind a bit, before the sale of Penon was registered to one of many legal entities tied to GGC, Berwick and Johnson managed to nullify their deal with Cobin and Eyzaguirre, and register title to the albatross Penon land to a Chilean entity – Inmobiliaria SA – that only they had 50/50 control of. Johnson’s swift move to oust Cobin would foreshadow Berwick’s own treatment by Johnson.

TG: What follows are the, possibly true, details of a series of purchases and land swaps that Johnson engages in after bungling almost every aspect of the first property deal of El Penon. I find it unnecessary to follow Johnson’s rabbit trail in order to learn most of the important lessons from this deal. I will interject comments only if I can clarify something or know that something has been written is not true or described, poorly. I have no direct knowledge of all these swaps so must leave the accuracy of these descriptions to the original author who remains unknown to me as of 12/9/2014.

In a display of pure brass, Johnson doubled down and found another property adjacent to El Tranque and Penon: a land known as Lepe. Without a penny to his name or a single investor, he negotiated a cash deal (to be paid in installments), agreeing to pay a staggering $6,850,000.00 USD for land and water rights. Now, why would the seller, Guillermo Ramirez, make a deal with a total stranger, from a foreign country, who had no money and no reputation? In short, he did so, because Johnson was offering him nearly 4 million dollars more than the price he had already agreed to sell the land for (to Cobin and Eyzaguirre). Locals were astounded by the price tag. Some allege there was a kickback scheme between Ramirez and Johnson; this theory is buoyed by the fact that in addition to the inflated purchase price, Ken Johnson was to issue a 5% stake in Galt’s Gulch Chile to Mr Ramirez, when payments were completed. Still others believe this is just another case of a foolish Gringo being taken by a wise local who grossly overstated the value of the land, the profitability of the farm, and the amount of water. (Johnson would later exaggerate these already inflated figures to potential clients.) The actual amount of water is not known because Johnson, for a second time, going against the advice of his paid legal counsel, performed no due diligence. Not a single water test was performed.

Upon hearing that his employee and partner had unilaterally entered into another hasty land deal, Berwick panicked. Johnson had no credibility or reputation. This entire venture was on the shoulders of Berwick. The initial debacle could have been enough to destroy his reputation. He had been heavily promoting the idea of this community, shared 50% of the holding company, and had even given Johnson 50% of his organization, The Dollar Vigilante. Ken was also doing other business development for The Dollar Vigilante, most notably a questionable Paraguayan passport program. Berwick apparently felt he was in too deep to turn back. And even though he had doubts, he continued to play the hand he was dealt, and went about promoting the community and stood behind Ken Johnson’s efforts to secure the additional land purchase.

On both El Penon and Lepe, Ken Johnson paid a premium and did no due diligence. He did not sufficiently verify the zoning status or perform water tests, either time. And he did not commit a cent of his own money to either purchase. The same can be said for Cobin, Eyzaguirre, and Berwick. Since Johnson had no skin in the game and he was not a public personality like Berwick, Casey, Black, or Cobin, he never had anything to lose. And, he would behave accordingly.

TG: Cobin, Eyzaguirre and Berwick had money, time and reputation “skin” in the game, in my opinion. From what I can gather, Berwick had the least money and time (And expertise) at risk but his reputation was more at risk than any of the others. I have no idea why the author of the letter refers to “Casey”, presumably Doug Casey, in the paragraph above. The only time Casey’s name comes up, at all, in this drama is Berwick’s mention that Casey told him in a personal conversation to “think very carefully” about what he was doing. Berwick later laments not heeding Casey’s advice.

At one point, the lawyer for the New Zealand trust – Evgeny Orlov – described Johnson’s behavior as follows: “Ken has accused almost everyone I know of extremely serious things when he appears to be playing with his investors money like a child in a sandpit.” (2/26/14).

In defending his rushed purchase, Johnson misrepresented to Berwick and other investors that there were several competing bids on the land purchases. He made it appear that time was of the essence in both deals; this high pressure sales tactic would later be used on potential investors. With Ken Johnson it was always: “We must act right away, the time is now.”

His malfeasance would not be limited to acquisitions. His behavior would, within a year, alienate almost everyone who was associated with the project: partners, employees, professionals, vendors, the local community, and investors.

Ken Johnson partners with someone, uses their money, time, reputation, and resources, and when they are no longer of use to him, he discards and vilifies them. And even though Ken Johnson has been the sole director of Galt’s Gulch Chile since inception, he has taken no responsibility for its continued failure and downward spiral. It is always everyone else’s fault.

TG: An excellent description of Johnson’s overall pattern. Please take note of this pattern as it relates to The Creature From Galt’s Gulch.

In April of 2014, Johnson showed his true self and his true motives. Even though he was not paying his investors, his employers, his contractors, or the landowner, he negotiated to purchase 51% of a company called Rio Colorado from a local “businessman” who had worked for the Chilean IRS: Mario Del Real. Johnson agreed to pay del Real the mind numbing sum of $8.1 million USD. This was to be a private, personal purchase for the sole benefit of Ken Johnson, having no benefit for, or relation to GGC.

TG: Cobin was called by an interested party and told “These guys are gonna kill each other!” referring to Johnson and Real who were apparently living together at the time. See Cobin’s radio show of 9/12/14.

Let that sink in. Someone with no backers, a negative net worth, and owing millions of dollars, agreed to make a private purchase of this magnitude. Why did he think he would get away with it? Because he already had. Twice. It began with El Penon, then pulled it off with Lepe; now he figured he could do it again with Rio Colorado. When the money came due, and he was light $8.1 million out of $8.1 million, he decided to trade the equity, held by GGC.

TG: Yes, “let that sink in” and see my next article on the subject.

This would be tricky for a couple of reasons. First, he told his investors and clients that all shares were held in escrow. Second, it would need approval. Knowing this would not be possible without support of the board of directors, he simply named a new board of directors: the very family he was trading GGC’s assets to: the Del Real family. What was interesting about this maneuver is that it was done twice. Both times through official notaries. Each times with drastically different signatures, proving that at least one, if not both, documents are forgeries. The new, hand picked Board, had no assets, investments, or interest in GGC and were granted control of the entire project. Mario, after receiving over a quarter million USD, became majority shareholder; his daughter Pamela became managing partner, treasurer, and accountant. And, his children were each given 10% ownership. Since Ken no longer had the ability to receive international wires because he refused to identify the source of funds, Pamela Del Real’s personal bank account became the corporate bank account for GGC. Including bitcoin wallets, this would be one of more than 15 accounts used by Ken Johnson to receive client funds.

TG: If these swaps and giveaways can be overturned for lack of consideration of the parties there may be some hope in the above paragraph.

At this point, I bet you are wondering, ‘How did this happen?’. How was someone with no experience, no reputation, and no money, able to pull off a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme? Well, first it took big balls. And each time he was allowed to get away with something, he got even more brazen.

Second, he had a lot of accomplices. Some were willing, but most were unwitting.

By aligning himself with established names, these accomplices gave Johnson an air of respectability. People saw that Johnson was aligned with people who they knew and trusted, so they transferred that trust onto him. Initially, it was his association with Jeff Berwick that raised money for the first land purchase. Later, it was his direct association with media personalities like Josh Tolley and Ben Swann that gave him credibility within the Freedom movement. Others were swept into his web when Johnson mentioned that he had worked with Jay Leno, Ed Begley, Jr, and Mario van Peebles. The fact that he was represented by the Carey Group, the largest and most prestigious law firm in South America, got many investors to let their guard down. This was a most curious pairing because Johnson actually paid these attorneys, with investor funds, to represent himself against those same investors. As recently as 8/18/14, Johnson forbade the Carey Group (and all of his former legal advisers) from sharing any information with GGC clients. And, ignoring their own code of legal ethics, they complied.

In fact, to date, Johnson has never shared a budget, a financial ledger, a business plan, a mission statement, or any formal documentation with a single client. He refuses to reveal how much money he has taken in, how much money he has spent, how it was spent, how much money he has, and how much money he owes. He cannot or will not even say who owns the land and who is running the project. These are all very basic, straightforward questions that every client and investor deserves to have answered.

I do not expect you to accept the story from an anonymous email. I implore you to do your own investigation. Do not make the same mistake twice, by taking another stranger at his or her word. Blind trust created this situation. Be accountable to yourselves and to each other. Do some research. Reach out and contact your fellow investors/victims. Email or call former employees, former attorneys, architects, builders, salespeople. You will find a single bond that joins them all. Every single one of them was lied to by Ken Johnson. Every single one of them was mistreated by Ken Johnson. And, every single one of them is owed money by Ken Johnson.

Ask what he did with the millions of dollars that he has taken in. Ask how many bank accounts he has. How many bitcoin wallets has he used? Why did he pay over a million dollars for land that could not be divided or lived on? Why did he agree to pay $6,850,000.00 (over 8 million, after late fees) for land and water rights , when the owner had already agreed to sell them to someone else for only $3 mill USD? Why did he refuse to identify the source of his funding to his own attorneys and his own bankers? On more than 10 occasions. Why has he physically and verbally abused employees and issued “cease and desist” orders or threatened suit against more than 2 dozen current investors and former workers?

Who owns GGC? Who is the managing director? Who holds the bank account or accounts that new investor money flows into? Who is the sales director? Who is the general contractor? Who is the accountant? Who is the attorney? Where are the financial records? Why has a master development plan or business plan not been created or approved? Why have farm and orchard owners not received dividends? Or any information, for that matter? Press Ken on why he has not fulfilled his repeated promise to turn the project over to the clients, whose money he squandered, in the percentage that they invested.

Here are a few unsolicited suggestions, from someone who left a great life and a job, to move to Chile, in the hopes of building this ambitious project. First, you have to accept that you have been conned. Most of you are probably not shocked by this news. Some of you understand the nature of investments, and know that there are not sure things. For others, this may be more difficult. But, you must accept that your money is gone. It was taken by a crook. A con artist without a conscience. He is a tyrant whose only power has come from the money that he has received from trusting investors. Needless to say, it is incumbent upon all of us to make sure that he receives no more. To do so would be abetting a Ponzi scheme.

TG: I appreciate your loss and efforts to document your point of view in this letter. Please contact me if you have anything to add to this post or would like your name attributed to it, here.

Second, you need to extricate that crook from the equation. With the amount of damage that Johnson has done to this project, the road to success is much longer and more difficult than it otherwise would have been. But, there is no doubt, in anyone’s mind, that as long as his claws are in GGC, there is absolutely zero chance of this community ever becoming a reality. He and Mario del Real have proven they will sell off every marketable asset GGC owns, while neither of them have ever put in a penny. Meanwhile, you all, the real owners, are left on the outside looking in. Federal authorities, in both Chile and the US, have been alerted to his actions, and are acting on them. But, a lot of damage can be done between now and the time that justice is served.

Once he is removed, there will be a great deal of messes to clean up. Johnson has made enemies around the Curacavi region, in Santiago, the United States, and on four continents. He did this in the name of GGC. Whether it is through active marketing or total rebranding, the damaged parties need to know that there has been a clean break between Ken Johnson and the people he purported to represent. Finally, he needs to be replaced.

TG: The GGC Rescue team seems to have agreed with your assessment, here.

His replacement should be everything he is not. This person should have experience. They should have references. They need to be bilingual. They need to be local, or have a knowledge of the local culture. Most importantly, they need to have their own skin in the game. Johnson behaved so recklessly because he had nothing to lose. He spent so frivolously because it was not his money. You need to align with an equity partner, whose success is tied to your own.

TG: Experience, references, bilingual, local, knowledge of local culture and with skin in the game? That’s another way of saying that Cobin and Eyzaguirre were a crucial part of the original deal and it went off the rails, in large part, due to their involuntary absence. One may then ask a rhetorical question: Of what use is investment capital applied to the recovery of this project if it is lacking such qualifications?

Finally, there needs to be transparency and a system of checks and balances. Johnson kept this sham alive for so long because he was able to compartmentalize and separate so many parties; there was no transparency. He refused to introduce investors to each other. If he found out that clients were communicating, he denounced it as meddling. If employees talked to one another (ostensibly, about the fact that they had not been paid in months), he reprimanded them for “gossiping.” There was no oversight, no legitimate Board of Directors, no accountability. Secrecy begat tyranny.

Finally, you all need to become involved. This should not be a passive investment. Get your asses down to Chile. Live on the land. Oversee the construction. And, take it upon yourselves to build this community into your own vision. All is not lost. But, it will be, if you do nothing.

Timeline & References

  • Late Spring (May?), 2012: Berwick meets Johnson at a conference in Palm Springs
  • July 6th, 2012: Representing The Dollar Vigilante at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas, Ken Johnson says, “Getting A Second Passport Has Never Been Easier“.
  • July 11-14, 2012: Johnson claims to have met John Cobin at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas. Cobin describes a property in Chile to Johnson “because he knows Jeff Berwick is interested”. As Cobin clarifies later with Berwick on his radio show, the meeting was by skype and Cobin’s interest was in obtaining investment capital to move his already formulated business plan for Galt’s Gulch Chile (Cobin’s Name, plan and location) forward. In other words, prior to Berwick or Johnson setting foot in Chile for the first time Cobin, who has been in Chile since 1996, is making calls to attract investment capital to his project.
  • August, 2012: After Freedom Fest and Before their trip to Chile Berwick has problems with Johnson running sales and business at TDV. Berwick decides it’s best for Johnson to focus on sales at TDV while limiting his contact with people(?). Johnson spends the month trashing well-known and good employees at TDV and physically assaults one of them.
  • September, 2012: Johnson goes to Chile to meet with Cobin and see Property #1, El Penon, 17 Kilometers north of Curacavi Berwick flies to Chile for the first time in his life to join Cobin and Johnson and see the property.
  • September 30th, 2012: Berwick and Johnson meet with Cobin and partner in Santiago to discuss the land and Cobin’s detailed development plan for what Cobin refers to as Galt’s Gulch Chile. During the dinner meeting Johnson and Berwick almost get into a fist fight over strategy and ethics. Even so, shortly thereafter Berwick agrees to be 50/50 partner with Johnson on 80% of the deal with a $250K finders and negotiation fee due to Cobin (Later raised to $285K) with 20% ownership in the holding company retained by Cobin and Eyzaguirre.
  • October 14th, 2012: Cobin forms Galt’s Gulch Chile SA (GGCSA) and opens a bank account. This is a partnership of Cobin, Eyzaguirre, Berwick and Johnson formed to hold and develop all lands purchased for Galt’s Gulch Chile.
  • October, 2012: Berwick departs Chile leaving Johnson to do the Real Estate work of their partnership to be funded by money brought in by Berwick’s marketing efforts on TDV. Listen to Cobin and Berwick describe the details of their meeting and partnerships on Cobin’s Red Hot Chile radio show on the 9/5 and 9/12/14 episodes.
  • November 14th, 2012: The four partners have a meeting and informally agree to dissolve the company GGCSA. However, Cobin is due $250k for finding the location, negotiating the price of the land and creating the initial business plan. He most likely would not have to signed any dissolution documents until being paid for his services. Indeed, GGCSA is not formally dissolved until 8/30/13 when Berwick and Johnson realize they can dissolve the entity without Cobin’s cooperation due to their majority share ownership.
  • November 30th, 2012: Johnson forms his own personal entity, Inmobiliaria Galt’s Gulch S.A. (IGGSA). Johnson and Berwick have a verbal agreement they are 50/50 partners but Berwick is not listed as a principal in the corporation nor is he listed as a director or a shareholder.
  • December 12th, 2012: El Penon is purchased by IGGSA from Sarrazin. IGGSA is an entity that is 100% personally owned by Kenneth Dale Johnson. As Johnson never informed the first four investors that he was the now the only one involved in the project. This is a material ommission as the investors still think that all four of the original partners are involved in GGC.
  • January 3rd, 2013: El Penon is registered to IGGSA.
  • January, 2013: The investing “GGC Founding Fathers” are attracted to the project by Berwick’s marketing efforts and supply the money for property #1 to be purchased. Johnson breaks contact with Cobin and registers the property to an entity owned and controlled solely by himself. Johnson then bungles Cobin’s detailed instructions to consolidate and inscribe the water rights on property #1 within the 90 day period allowed. To cover-up his bungling, Johnson accuses Cobin of having recommended a property that doesn’t have sufficient water rights for the project. In fact, the property has more than enough access to water but Johnson, who doesn’t speak Spanish, is unable to the navigate or comprehend the consolidation and inscription process to get them assigned to the property.
  • April 26th, 2013: Johnson’s lawyer, Jose Cordoba, officially gives all shares of IGGSA to Johnson and none to Berwick.
  • April 30th, 2013: Johnson tours El Lepe with its owner, Ramirez.
  • May 13th, 2013: El Lepe Deed of Sale by IGGSA, Closing on El Lepe doesn’t happen until 8/14/13.
  • June, 2013: First GGC “sale” after the first four investors.
  • October, 2012 to November 2013 (Best guess): “Since I had already brought in thousands of leads to GGC throughout 2012 and the start of 2013 and Ken had begun to market this new property that GGC didn’t even own I was very distressed.” Nevertheless, Berwick continues to market GGC on TDV. Those who trust Berwick think he’s intimately involved in GGC and many invest their money, as a result, including Wendy McElroy.
  • June 2013: Berwick gets an alarming e-mail about a purchase Johnson has initiated and flies down to Chile with his financial advisor. Johnson assures Berwick that they remain 50/50 partners.
  • July to October 2013: Berwick continues to market GGC.
  • August 14th, 2013: El Lepe purchase from Ramirez by IGGSA closes.
  • August 30th, 2013: Berwick and Johnson realize they can dissolve the original partnership with Cobin and Eyzaguirre becaues, together, they have a 70% quarum of ownership of the entity. Thereyfore, they didn’t need cobin and Eyzaguirre to close the entity. However, they still owed Cobin and Eyzaguirre the money they promised and the value of the partnership shares they owned.
  • November 2013: GGC has it’s first event to which Berwick is not invited. However, someone hired by Johnson assumes Berwick is to receive an invitation and sends him one and he attends the event. Attending the event are Josh Tolley, Ben Swann, Angela Keaton, Luke Rudkowski, Jordan Page and Bob Murphy.
  • November 15th, 2013: Jeff Berwick on Galt’s Gulch Chile and Bitcoin on Bloomberg TV.
  • December, 2013: Josh Tolley Interviews Ken Johnson on the Josh Tolley podcast.
  • May, 2014: The founders conclude that Johnson was not only lying to them but had not even given them the shares of the company in which they had invested in more than a year and a half earlier and had begun treating them like enemies.”
  • August, 2014: Wendy McElroy documents her experience explaining that she and her husband were defrauded as were other sophisticated investors.
  • August 27th, 2014: Berwick tells his story.
  • August 29th, 2014: Cobin describes, in his own words, what actually took place between himself, Berwick and Johnson in September, 2012. “Jeff Berwick is as guilty as Ken Johnson with respect to scamming us. He made the agreement as much as Ken did. He is not a righteous victim despite what Wendy wants to say about him. He has had plenty of time to come clean with Eyzaguirre y Cobin SA and has not done so. Those that trust in Jeff Berwick will be making the same mistake and throw their money away once again. He made an agreement and and has not stuck with it. He has paid us NOTHING. He would now like to distance himself from KJ. Good choice but that fact does not change what he agreed with us. He scammed us. We set up a company with his team. He went around our backs and purchased the property with another company. Then he did not know how to deal with the local authorities or water rights and screwed it up. We would have handled all of those issues. That was our part of the business. They had no intention of including us. Jeff and Ken are scammers, plain and simple.”
  • September 1st, 2014: Ken Johnson “weighs in” on Facebook.
  • September 5th, 2014: Berwick’s apology and full on-air acknowledgment to Cobin of their primary business deal, contract and power of attorney’s assigned to Cobin by both Berwick and Johnson, on the Red Hot Chile Radio show of the same date.
  • September 6th, 2014: Freedom Feens interview with Jeff Berwick.
  • September 12th, 2014: John Cobin and Jeff Berwick discuss how to move forward in Chile.
  • September 28th, 2014: The latest from Wendy in a follow-up interview with The Daily Bell.
  • October 23, 2014: GGC Rescue team takes control over the property. This “Raid” is described, in detail, on page 42 of this document.

Other References

Galt’s Gulch Chile Website

Galt’s Gulch Chile on Facebook

Latest Update from the GGC Rescue Team

Freedom Orchard’s Website

Freedom Orchard on Facebook

Atlas Mugged: How a Libertarian Paradise in Chile Fell Apart – by Harry Cheadle

Berwick’s Penance

The Promise of a Liberal Paradise that Resulted in a Fiasco

Gringo De Lepe Sale a Encarar a Su Compatriota John Cobin y Anuncia Acciones Legales

Galt’s Gulch Chile Rehab and The Exposing of Ken Johnson
is on Facebook

Gringo Cobin Califica De “Mentiroso” Y Sinvergüenza A Gringos De Galt’s Gulch Chile

John Cobin, el gringo que quiere “colonizar” Curacaví: “No hay una persona más neoliberal que yo en este país”

Ken Johnson answers questions about Wind Turbines

Jeff Berwick’s “Penance” on August 30th, 2014

Jeff Berwick’s “Redeeming Galt” Reports on the Efforts of the GGC Rescue Team

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Ladies with Wine
Diet

How To Stop Drinking Wine

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The best way to quit drinking wine is to replace it with something else. For wine you’ll need direct and indirect replacements.

The indirect replacements are for the routines, sights, sounds, textures, tastes, feelings, circumstances and occasions that surround your wine drinking.

The better your choice of replacement(s) for the drink and all these other things that surround your drinking the easier the quitting will be.

I wrote similar words about quitting coffee, last week. And I’m testing their limits by simultaneously giving up wine and coffee. Wine is the tougher of the two because I like wine more. It’s also become more ingrained in my lifestyle and eating habits than coffee ever did.

I thought about calling this article, “How to Give Up Alcohol”, but, I don’t have experience with drinking other forms of alcohol, besides wine. I can’t tell you how to stop drinking alcohol unless its the alcohol in wine your trying to give up. Like every article I write this is about my direct experience. In this case my direct experience is in giving up wine.

It’s possible that some of my experience may be useful for wine alcoholics, but, that would be presumptuous. If you have a more extreme form of addiction than I’m writing about here the additional benefits of an isolated environment, group support and a counselor is probably warranted. It’s never been easier to find an Alcohol Treatment Program near you.

Should you stop drinking Wine?

The biggest stumbling block for quitting anything is knowing if and why you need to quit. In the case of wine you have to be very clear and honest with yourself on your reasons for giving it up. Wine, itself, is not a harmful drink. But, you can make it into one by drinking too much of it.

How much is too much? I’ll give you my answer, but, you’ll have to come up with yours. In terms of health one glass of wine a day is good. Between one and two glasses the benefits drop off, rapidly, according to bodyweight. There is no literature anywhere recommending more than two glasses, regardless of bodyweight. So, if health is your value there’s your answer.

If you exceed the amount good for your health its bad for your body. At that point you can no longer claim health benefits as your excuse for drinking more.

I am giving up wine for the following reasons:

  • It’s interfered with the length and quality of my sleep.
  • Lack of sleep has compromised the clarity of my thoughts and the quality of my writing.
  • I’ve been exceeding the small quantity that’s good for my health.

These are not acceptable tradeoffs for my enjoyment and they’re certainly not Optimal. I won’t be having wine until its just another drink option and I can take it or leave it. Here’s how I think about it: “Wine that detracts from my health and productivity has got to go.”

Being this clear on my why and if is probably the only thing that enables me to actually stop drinking it. Seems to me the more wine detracts from your life the more motivation you have to stop drinking it. I highly recommend being honest here and getting extremely clear on your motivations.

Replacements

Quitting is a transition to something else. With wine its a transition to alternative beverages, routines and choices . With that in mind here’s a few important points to keep in mind about picking and using replacements:

The best replacements usually have a lot in common with what you’re trying to quit. Things we have to quit often involve routines, sights, sounds, textures, tastes and feelings surrounding the thing we’re trying to quit. You need replacements for them, as well. For wine, there is the taste, the wine buzz, the smell, the cool liquid flowing down your throat, the occasions where its served and the mood and social interactions that occur around it. Since we live up in wine country in northern California there are many events that occur on vineyard grounds, as well.

You may need a series of replacements to step into the routines that are optimal for you. That means that your optimal final replacement may not be the best choice to use first. Your body may have to detoxify or have other reactions and compensations it has to cycle through before you can ultimately quit. In extreme cases that may mean moving from something toxic to something less toxic and eventually to something non-toxic.

It may be effective to allow yourself as much of the replacement as you want (Assuming your replacement is not toxic). It may serve as a psychological reward for following through on the quitting.

My Replacements for Wine

My first replacement for wine is sparkling water.

Sparking water is fun, cold, quenches my thirst and is poured out of what looks like a wine bottle. Like wine, I have to make a separate trip to the fridge to find a cold bottle. After opening it I pour it onto a wine glass. When we’re eating out at a restaurant and I have wine I usually pour sparkling water into the empty wine glass. So, there’s a psychological sense that I’m finishing up a good meal and a few glasses of wine at a restaurant when I pour the sparkling water without having had any wine, at all.

My second replacement is a RockStar energy drink. This is similar to the sparking water but comes in a can. Like wine it gives me an energy boost and usually gets my writing started if I’m procrastinating on an article. Many people don’t know that wine gives an energy boost, as well, and that’s part of what’s missing when you stop drinking it.

My third replacement, used in the afternoon, is a nap. I was using coffee and wine as a crutch to power through the afternoon without a nap or a break. I decided not to fight afternoon naps any longer and just take one. The benefits of afternoon naps have been enormous! If fact, I feel it gives almost a full extra day of productivity every day! Wow, talk about a replacement.

My fourth replacement is my ace in the hole: Exercise! Physical exercise is the best way to get high. And when it comes to drinking wine the physical high from exercise completely wipes out desire for anything but water or electrolytes.

I have a RockStar after waking up from my afternoon nap. So far, its been a great way to start my ’second day’. It’s one of those sugar free health drinks that has healthy ingredients. I’m skeptical about the pink, blue and yellow stuff they use in sugar free drinks and prefer stevia. But, for now, I’m enjoying the Rock-Star until I find something better. Leading candidates are pelligrino with a little fruit juice added for taste or some of the exotic teas my wife gets on her trips to China.

Exotic teas will probably become my number one beverage replacement for wine in the future. I don’t think they are the best first beverage, but, they are probably the my optimal replacement. There are an infinite variety of them, they are excellent for a wide variety of health aspects, its fun to make them and experiment with preparation and taste. They are also like wine in the sense that it feels like I’m drinking the earth. Call me nuts, but, I think drinking wine and tea feels like drinking the earth. They make me feel like I’m absorbing all the best minerals and herbs from the leaves and trees and fruit that they were made from.

How Long Does It Take?

It took about three weeks before it didn’t occur to me to have wine with dinner, any longer. That’s longer than I thought it would take and shows how much I associated food with wine.

As much as I was addicted to coffee it was easier to stop drinking coffee than wine. That was another surprise because I craved coffee but never wine. I think wine was actually providing more energy and calories than the coffee was. I was actually using wine like an energy bar. Who knew?!

One of the surprising things for me was how much I slept. Without the energy from the wine I was more tired, even during the day. I could not have a cup of coffee to bridge this gap because I was giving up coffee at the same time. This is all ok with me because one of my goals was to sleep more. I just didn’t expect to be more tired in the afternoons. This may be the temporary adjustment of my body making up for lost sleep. I sleep much better at night, now, and that has enourmous health benefits.

How Will You Know When You’ve Quit?

You’ll know you’ve quit when you can take it or leave it. Wine will take its place among the multitude of drink options available to you depending on the occasion and what you’re in the mood for at the moment.

You’ll be able to have a meal and not automatically think of having wine with it.

You’ll be able to engage in social interactions in a relaxed and enjoyable manner without the wine buzz that used to loosen up your inhibitions.

A few days ago, we were over at a friends house and I was starting to fade. We were late in getting together and didn’t want to leave, yet. The conversation was interesting and another couple had just walked in the door that we wanted to socialize with. This is the point at which I would normally pour a glass of wine. Instead I had one cup of coffee. Luckily, I had already gotten to the point of not needing coffee to start my day and it was just another drink option to me. It was just the thing needed to keep the conversation going for a little while until it was time to go. One cup of coffee and that was it. No coffee needed the next morning and no problems sleeping that night. And best of all, no wine either, which probably would have kept me up all night.

Unlike coffee, wine has never been a drink I couldn’t do without for things like starting my day or thinking clearly or what have you. It’s always been an optional drink added to the existing circumstances. My desire for it was mental more than physical because I never really craved more of it unless I was already drinking it. And that’s just part of my obsessive nature. Most of the time my obsessive nature helps me finish things. I’ve learned to redirect that urge into finishing a bottle of pelligrino instead of a bottle of wine.

Being straight is the ultimate high. Spend time with any 5 year old if you need to prove this to yourself. You’ve always known it. Children don’t need anything but a glass of water and a baloney sandwich to be ecstatic about life. And the only way to experience the full bandwidth of life is to be straight.

The irony is that If I have a glass of wine in a few months one glass will probably provide more enjoyment than three glasses used to. One glass is all I’ll want. And, its all I ever did need. If a second glass is poured I’ll be thinking about sleepless nights and less productivity the next day. Hopefully, I’ll be thinking about that while reaching for the pelligrino.

Copyright © 2014 by Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com

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Lew Rockwell Poster
Banking

Read Lew Rockwell!

By

I read LewRockwell.com, every day, because he writes or posts the best line-up of articles in the world…every day!

For a modest incentive to checkout Lew’s site (And put it in your daily reading routine) please see the following articles on Lew’s site:

Mr. Party’s Gun Bible

Selecting Your Optimal Armory

Ammo for Barter – Ammo vs. Money

The Best Gun in the World

Fractional Reserve Banking Made Easy

Checklist for Hard Times

76 Reasons To Have a Gun

The Ten Best-Read on LRC for October 2009 Source of readership stats: Google Analytics

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ONUS Book Cover
Freedom

One Nation, Under Surveillance

By

Book Review by Terence Gillespie

“Privacy is an insurance policy against oppression. Privacy allows a tyrannized citizenry to think independently, freely and clearly.”

– Boston T. Party

Such is the clear and historical perspective of Boston’s new privacy book, One Nation, Under Surveillance — Privacy From the Watchful Eye. In this most up-to-date and comprehensive book on the subject the author accomplishes three feats for those of us interested in state-of-the-art privacy:

  1. A complete analysis of why privacy is more crucial than ever, still possible and still works!
  2. A detailed description of who and what to protect our privacy against.
  3. An exhaustive and up-to-date implementation guide for achieving our own “sweet spot” of insulation.

In fact, Boston intentionally overdid his own privacy to learn how far it can be taken before it begins to work against you. This makes him one of the few Americans that can give first hand knowledge of the true costs, details and tradeoffs to balance in putting together our own plan.

Those familiar with the subject know that privacy cascades into multiple areas and down many rabbit trails of implementation. Because of its completeness and the inclusion of the three elements above it’s quite possible to implement a complete privacy plan using only this 480-page book as a companion.

More Crucial Than Ever (And Still Works!)

“Too many wrongly characterize the debate as ‘security versus privacy.’ The real choice is liberty versus control. . . . . that’s why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide.”

– Bruce Schneier, “The Eternal Value of Privacy”

If you thought the battle for privacy was over after watching “Enemy of the State” Boston would ask why everyone still wants your data with every transaction or activity. The authors’ short answer to that question is that privacy still works!

If you’ve got black helicopters over your shoulder your cover is blown. However, using the same movie reference how much more peaceful would our lives be if everyone had 80% of the cover of Gene Hackman’s character?

The author would advise not turning yourself into a paranoid hermit obsessed to the point of having no life to protect. His suggestion is to commit to 20% of the full effort to achieve 80% of the results. In the authors’ experience going for 100% privacy consumes too much time, joy and money diminishing the quality of the life you’re protecting.

Keeping Your Nose Clean is Not a Plan

‘Doing nothing wrong and keeping your nose clean’ is normal rational behavior; it is not a privacy plan.

Viewed as a ‘privacy plan’ here’s the hard truth about ‘keeping your nose clean’: It might have worked in 1910, it was naive 30 years ago and it’s hazardous to your health, wealth and peace of mind, today.

As Boston describes, “What we are facing is, in effect, an environmental issue regarding tyranny’s pervasiveness. It’s as though the toxic gas of oppression is everywhere.” Going on to say “I may be wrong, but I don’t think that this force can any longer be fought and won on a national scale. Any inroads made there will evaporate after the next disaster or emergency or attack.”

The Data Beast

For an inside look at how hungry our state rats are over ‘public’ data aggregation see Catherine Austin-Fitts’ six-part series, The Data Beast. It’s a rare inside perspective on how important your live data is to those who pretend they already have it.

In benevolent hands accurate data is the beginning of discovery and optimizing the delivery of value. In evil hands it’s the most crucial element for manipulating the truth.

The State is selling an agenda not discovering a truth. The agenda is decided prior to data collection. Information that doesn’t support the agenda, although coveted within the agency, is squashed or denied publicly.

Climategate, Pandemics, the unemployment rate, the HUD scandal, the inflation rate, etc. . . . . The official story has nothing to do with the truth.

Beware of hungry data beasts masquerading as public servants.

The Cops and the Mail

Why does the average law-abiding heart race when seeing a cop or receiving a piece of mail from the state? Gee whiz, if you’ve done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide, then . . . blah, blah, blah.

Perhaps because the last guy “protected and served” owes $1500 or was “served” into the emergency room. Or, maybe you’re still paying the fine or tax levied on ‘no services rendered’ or violating some conjured up prohibition. If your news hasn’t covered such unpleasantries Will Grigg has expertly chronicled the increasing steady stream of such incidents. It’s especially alarming that police brutality is on the rise at a time when the police are in less danger of being killed in the line of duty than ever before.

The architects of our depression are hungry to fund their next crisis. With a broad legislative brush anyone can be painted guilty of something or other. This creates the target rich environment necessary for profitable selective enforcement.

I’m a generation behind the boomers, but, you guys better watch out: Your upcoming social security and medicare costs are a big liability to a hungry, broke and desperate state wolf. Maybe the timing of this universal health non-care ruse is no coincidence?

Let’s face it: We’re nervous when we see the cops or get state mail because these guys are either desperate for money or psychopaths that need to control us as part of their therapy.

Getting Back to Normal

Most of the modern day battle for privacy involves reclaiming information that, not long ago, could not be tracked or didn’t even exist!

In 1910 there was no:

  • Social Security number to give
  • Business income to track
  • Income taxes to pay
  • Phone number to hide
  • Credit card to track activity
  • Computer, Database, e-mail, internet
  • Barcode to track shopping habits
  • Gun registration
  • DNA testing

And yet we had a higher quality of life than the world had ever seen.

We need to shed this notion that personal information is the price of better service. We’re not being served by its disclosure. We’re being numbered, branded, looted, sheered, taxed and vaccinated into a stupor.

We’re living in an age of laws so numerous and incomprehensible that enforcement can be focused on anyone ripe enough to harvest. Selective enforcement is a matter of revenue generation per the mood or balance sheet of the tax feeding agency.

There’s no shame in getting back to normal private behavior. The only shame is in what we’ve already given up.

Know Thine Enemy

“As long as you do not mistake a sociopath for a person of character, your privacy is generally safe from those whom you rightfully consider your friends.”

– Boston T. Party

One of the unique aspects of Boston’s latest privacy book is his crystal clear description of the enemy: The Psychopathic (Or sociopathic1) 4% of the population and the organizations they’ve infested.

“A sociopath is somebody who, through a combination of heritable condition, genetic predisposition and upbringing, has no sense of interconnectedness (bonding) with living beings and thus no foundation for an active conscience (Like the 96% rest of us who do have one). Studies indicate that sociopathy involves an altered processing of emotional stimuli at the level of the cerebral cortex, and thus sociopaths simply cannot process emotional experience, such as love and caring.” Chapter 6, pg. 11.

The author provides an extensive list of character flaws and behaviors to enable recognition of the psychopaths among us. A abbreviated list for the purposes of this article would be:

  • Grandiosity
  • Shameless lies
  • Unreliability
  • Lack of empathy
  • Flair for manipulation
  • Scheme further ahead than moral people can anticipate
  • Audio/video record their victims much more often than vice versa
  • Make Plans for Justice Backfire
  • See sudden adversity as a challenge; they thrive on it
  • Always act behind the scenes, which is difficult to discern
  • Masters of manipulation through compartmentalization

Recognition of psychopaths is difficult for normal people. We tend to project our own innate goodness onto strangers and find ways to forgive their endless transgressions until its too late. By the time we recognize them, or dare to call them out, they’ve either damaged us or teamed up.

(To improve your recognition skills you can see one under a self-imposed microscope in the documentary film,”I, Psychopath“).

Apparently, these mutants recognize one another and tend to team up to take control of powerful organizations. “Psychopaths have this dream that they would like to govern. ‘We want to be the government,’ they think, and this dream is realized from time to time in the human history and this is a gruesome time.”2

“In the case of work, a psychopath may feel envious of another’s position and prestige, but will not actually work to achieve that position. Instead he will brutally manipulate and exploit the work of others in order to achieve domination. Hare and Babiak describe this phenomenon in their book, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work.”2

The enemy is most likely to present in one of five entities:

  1. Individuals who make their way into your personal life.
  2. Gangs, the leader of which is likely to be fully psychopathic (Ralphie, if not Tony in the Sopranos).
  3. Organizations who, despite their benevolent banner, have been infiltrated to the point that their internal controls are largely psychopathic (SEIU, Climate Change Orgs, in some cases local police).
  4. Individual members of the state exerting direct psychopathic influence on policy.
  5. Any combination of the above who exert psychopathic control of state apparatus through indirect means (Enter our beloved illuminati and their NWO).

To all of these entities we (Normal, productive, law-abiding and rational human beings) are just one thing: Supply.

Once you realize who the enemy is privacy takes on the same urgency as your desire to continue living a moral and rational life. Without insulation we are in a constant state of derailment with a severe lack of freedom in making optimal choices.

“A right-thinking man – with puppet strings attached – cannot be a right-doing man.” (ch. 22, pg 20)

Batten Down these Hatches

The following outline was gleaned from the index of ONUS and provides a glimpse into the scope of implementing a complete privacy plan.

These are the elements of life most likely to cause exposure. Each element represents a privacy ‘hatch‘ to be batoned down in its own way. One of the major feats of the book; each element is addressed to the point that the reader could close the exposure, themselves. That would be an impressive feat in any one area, let alone all ten.

It would be possible to break out the computer sections and present them as a complete book on privacy in that area. Luckily, the author grants himself no such reprieve and we get it all in one book.

  1. People
    1. Friends
    2. Family
    3. Spouse
    4. Children (Schooling)
    5. Relatives
    6. Business contacts
    7. You
      1. Your mouth
      2. Your plan
      3. Your passport
      4. Your SSN
      5. Drivers License
      6. Other ID’s
  2. Mail
    1. Business
    2. Personal
    3. Vehicle Registrations
    4. Sending
    5. Receiving
  3. Business
    1. Asset Protection Entities
      1. Car
      2. Boat
      3. House
      4. Business entities
    2. Contacts
    3. Employees
    4. Assets & Data
    5. Offices
    6. Income
      1. W2
      2. Corporate
      3. Barter
    7. Insurance
  4. Communication
    1. Mouth
    2. Phone
      1. Cell
      2. VOIP
      3. Voice Mail / FAX
      4. Landlines
    3. E-mail
    4. Internet
      1. Social Networking
      2. Forums
      3. Blogs
      4. Web browsing
  5. Computer
    1. Windows (A surveillance virus masquerading as an OS?)
    2. MAC or Linux
    3. Data Backup
    4. Passphrases
    5. Physical Security
  6. Money
    1. Credit?
    2. Debit
    3. Cash
    4. Money Orders
    5. Digital Gold
    6. Gold & Silver Coins
    7. Checks
    8. Loans
    9. 401K / IRA
  7. Guns
    1. Private Sales only
    2. Minimal onsite
    3. The Purchase
    4. Ownership
    5. Selling
    6. Tracking
    7. Storing
  8. House
    1. Address
    2. Utilities
    3. Census
  9. Travel
    1. Car
    2. Hotel
    3. Bus
    4. Air
    5. International
    6. Border Crossings
  10. Insurance
    1. Life
    2. Car
    3. House
    4. Health
    5. Business

A complete plan would combine the private version of the elements, above, with behaviors that minimize exposure during interaction with untrusted people or entities.

Many life areas can and should be trimmed down and the author offers frequent tips on doing so. For instance, friends or relatives who can’t be trusted probably don’t belong in your life. And, trimming down business entities, employees, vehicles and office space leaves much less work in eliminating exposure to prying eyes.

In fact, it’s not easy to tell where Boston’s own well-researched techniques and experience blend with his accumulated knowledge of privacy. Hence, one of the author’s points: “Much of wisdom is using the hindsight of others as your foresight. . . . there is not enough time to learn the lesson from purely your own mistakes . . .”.

For those with the foresight to use ONUS over the next several years it’s an exhaustive and up-to-date implementation guide for achieving your own “sweet spot” of insulation. Beyond that, the universal principles outlined will have to be combined with your own improvisations as the data noose inevitably tightens in years to come.

The private lives we all have a right to will require a fight to reclaim.

Privacy Premiums

“To govern oneself is a natural imperative, and all tyranny is the miscarriage of self government. The first requisite of freedom is to accept responsibility for the lack of it.”

– E.C. Riegel, 1949

The Rules

  1. Don’t draw attention to yourself
  2. Privacy is complicated – think it through
  3. Privacy is expensive – don’t be greedy
  4. Privacy is inconvenient – don’t be lazy
  5. Privacy is private – don’t be glib
  6. Be consistent – be thorough
  7. Work your story out in advance
  8. Privacy requires your alertness

You Are Your Data

To most entities you are known only by your data. There is no personal relationship. Change your data and you’ve changed your ‘relationship’. Another way of putting it is that what happens to your data happens to you. Since we’re not talking about friends why not make the data version of yourself unavailable for:

  • Tracking and control
  • Subpoenas for bogus civil suits
  • Visits from stalkers
  • False arrest arising from bureaucratic screwups
  • Unlawful search and seizure
  • Forfeiture of personal possessions to agencies who are broke

Opportunity in Crisis

A move to another location is an excellent opportunity to reclaim lost privacy. The number of people leaving/losing their houses and renting provides good cover. With this book you could start tackling the problem in a big way during the move. What a great time to make privacy a part of your new life.

Never Take Candy from a Psychopath

Bargains with the devil always come with an incentive package. Turn them down:

  • Loans from strangers
  • Tax deductions that blow your privacy
  • Child tax deductions if you’ll just get baby a social security number (Fight this: No baby needs one. Even the boomers won’t get their booty)
  • Free medical tests or ‘screenings’ as an excuse to get your DNA into a database (All babies born in a hospital are now subject to this outrage).
  • 10% off if you’ll just sign up for our in-store credit card

The candy offers go on and on. You’ll recognize them when you see them. Walk away. Consider the forgone ‘service’, discount or deduction to be a small cost of freedom.

A Little Goes A Long Way

Don’t get overwhelmed. Make privacy an extension of a normal civilized life. Change your mindset from within and calmly privatize one piece of life at a time.

Just a few pieces create a working bubble:

  1. Keep business income discreet.
  2. Never take candy from a psychopath (See list, above).
  3. Pay with cash or prepaid debit card.
  4. Keep computer and online activities private (Extensive tips on this in the book).
  5. Keep phone activities secure (Extensive tips on this in the book).

Use the peace from this privacy to map out a plan for the rest.

“Privacy is like fire insurance; you can’t get it after you need it. You get it first, and then hope that it never becomes necessary. (ch. 2, pg. 2)

The ONUS is On Us

“We’re not what we believe. We’re what we’ll fight for.”

There’s going to be a scuffle or two when reclaiming lost privacy. And, there’s going to be cost and inconvenience in maintaining the insulation level you decide on. Slowly, but surely, however, the river of trivialities that derail life can be brought to a trickle.

Reading through the implementation part of the book it’s evident the author has become quite brilliant at improvising privacy solutions as new exposures present. I believe the most valuable contribution of the book is that it tends to impart such improvisational skills to the reader.

“Do not confront, but learn to mask yourself and circumvent.” (ch. 22, pg. 17)

My overall take on ONUS is that it’s so thorough, comprehensive and actionable on such a complex (And urgent) subject that it was a practical sacrificial effort to get it all current and in one book. Apparently, this parting gift of liberty is no accident as it’s the authors last “Boston T. Party” book.

It would be a shame not to have this privacy tool available now that it’s needed most. But, it is available. All the mistakes have been made, we know privacy is crucial and possible, we know what the enemy looks like and have a detailed roadmap to get to a safe place.

The only shame would be in not taking privacy and shelter from the psychopathic storm.

Try imagining a place where its always safe and warm

Come in she said I’ll give ya’ Shelter From The Storm, —B. Dylan

Privacy Reference

1Psychopath and Sociopath are rough synonyms with pychopath implying inherited traits and sociopath leaving open the environment as a main contributing factor in causing the same behavior. The author uses the word sociopath perhaps to expand recognition of the traits to be present in seemingly normal everyday encounters, as they certainly are. I chose to use psychopath because the three friends I asked were better able to identify the word with the behavior.

2Interview with Andrzej M. Łobaczewski, author of Political Ponerology: A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes.

Copyright © 2014 by Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com

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20 Ways to Be Self-Deployed in the Next 10 Minutes

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Either make a list or work on someone else’s. Be deployed or get deployed.

It’s that simple. What’s hard to grasp is how small steps, decisions and work accumulate over time, multiply and lead to freedom. And, yes, I’m bypassing “Self-Employment” and going right to the heart of the matter. State conjured terms don’t lead to a purposeful life. The truth shall set us free and it begins with precise language.

People who’ve done it know that deploying yourself is a project that can’t be checked off as done. There’s always something needed to keep it going. Through it all . . . one thing matters most: The next thing. The next thing is never so critical than when it’s the first thing. So, say a prayer and align your being and talents with the Creator of all things . . . and then make a list and get to work. That’s what Self-Deployment is. The first 100 steps are the hardest. Here’s the first 20 to optimize your trajectory.

Bet they’re not what your think.

20 Ways to Self-Deploy

  1. Find or create a place where you can think clearly. Bring a notebook, pen and ten bucks to get a cup of tea, snack or whatever else keeps you from concentrating. If you have a desk at home then . . . .
  2. Clean up your desk – Until it doesn’t distract you anymore.
  3. Make a list of everything you have to do until you can’t think of anything else. If you’re returning to this list from a previous session do this step again until your mind is clear.
  4. Write down everything you can’t get off your mind. Anything you can’t stop thinking about is eligible. Keep writing even if it takes all the time you have available. If you’re returning to this list from a previous session do this step again until your mind is clear.
  5. If you get stuck or overwhelmed go workout at the gym. That’s it, you’re done for the day. Don’t feel bad. This is the best thing you could possibly do to get unstuck for tomorrow or later.
  6. If you already have an idea –Brainstorm. – It’s no good to move on to the next step if you can’t wait to write everything down about a new business idea. Who knows? It may just be the one! But, hold back that judgment for now.
  7. Get organized – Build the Ark before the flood. If you’re scattered now it only gets worse. All this this purging and brainstorming tends to overwhelm personal organization. Start improving your system now. Ideas are the fuel of the freedom machine. Learn how to capture and organize them. GTD may be the optimal place to get started..
  8. Learn How to Discover Your Life Purpose in About 20 Minutes. Purpose is key to everything even if you don’t know what yours are, yet. Nobody wants to climb to the top of a ladder only to find it’s resting against the wrong building.
  9. Understand Your Optimal Equation– This is how the big picture fits together. Knowing your purpose is the best way to start. However, even when you do other variables of your life can still drag you down. The more self-knowledge you have about the complete range of your strengths, weaknesses, values, goals and purpose the better chance you have at optimizing the work you do in any environment. For now, move on to discovering you strengths.
  10. Build on your strengths. Purchase and read StrengthsFinder 2.0 to discover your strengths. If you want to move forward without the benefit of the book then go ahead and attempt to list them all out. I recommend the book, however, because it’s hard to recognize our own strengths.
  11. Learn How to Find Work in Any Economy– See if any of those jobs interest you. If they do, can you provide those services as a business instead of working a job? If so, then vett that business after you . . .
  12. Learn How to Vett Any Business Idea in 20 Minutes or Less
  13. Create a Bucket List. We all have one. The only difference between you and everyone else is that you’re going to write yours down. Want to climb the pyramids? Dive the Great Barrier Reef? Fly your own helicopter?
  14. List every Life Goal you have. Unlike your bucket list, these are personal development milestones, levels of expertise, accredidations, states of being that provide inner satisfaction.
  15. Create a Not To-Do List. – This is a great technique to free up the time needed to work yourself free. If you’re currently working a job then you need all the little snippets of time you can get your hands on.
  16. Cut Back to The Essentials. Make a list of all expenses you could cut to make your life easier. Be brutal. By now you know that nothing matters more than freedom. Let go of all the crap costing money you could use to get free. Don’t make others free in exchange for things you don’t need. Get back to basics and Tools that multiply your productivity.
  17. Take a Little Trip – Not even at step 20 and I’ll bet your exhausted. These ‘little’ steps pack a punch. Alright, forget about everything and take a little trip off your beaten path. Go feed the ducks at the pond or ice skate around them. Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. Don’t come back until you stop giggling for no reason.
  18. SELL what you can, DONATE what you will and TRASH the rest. Trash everything you don’t need. List what you could sell to free up space, clutter, maintenance and money. Look in your garage. Stuff you don’t use is expensive in more ways than one.
  19. Outsource your weaknesses. Yeah, I know you can’t afford it. Be creative. Swap services with a buddy. Anybody from church need a place to stay for the summer? Offer a college student a part time job for room and board. Honey, can you do me a favor? etc., etc. . . .
  20. Use your job to break free. Purchase and read The 4-Hour Workweek. This is a great tool if you’re trying to work yourself free of a job.

What, no business plan? Uhhhhm, those are for getting others to loan you money.  By step 21 you’ll be on your way to creating money . . . but that’s a topic for another day. Work on one or two of these per day until they’re all done. On the way to completing the first 20 you’ll map out the first 100 or more. Those are the hardest, remember? If you lose your way repeat these rather haunting two sentences to yourself:

Either Make a list or work on someone else’s. Be deployed or get deployed.

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The Fateful Fork

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Book Review by Terence Gillespie

“The human body has not changed much since its inception, so your foods do not need to change either. Eat the delicious meals of your forebears.”

That simple truth from Eve Gabriel is followed by equally clear guidelines for implementation:OK

“Avoid any food that is advertised on television, radio and magazines. Transition to biodynamic, traditional organic or small diversified farm’s animal foods. Start with the five foods you consume in greatest quantity.”

That’s one truth and a few guidelines covering almost every choice we make about the food entering our bodies. Going further in her new book, The Fateful Fork, Gabriel narrows the fate of our health down to the only food choice that matters: The next one.

“Every mouthful of food you eat presents you with 2 options: To build-up your health, or destroy it. Each bite is a fork in the road: Depending on your choices, you head towards health or disease. Your food leads to predictable destinations.”

Digestible wisdom like this doesn’t come easy. The Fateful Fork is the culmination of a Master’s degree in Naturopathic Nutrition, 15 years of clinical nutrition counseling practice, two decades as a professional chef and a lifetime of research. The vast fields of nutrition, science, food, farming and traditions in health are Gabriel’s life’s work. Her latest book is a condensation of her considerable nutritional wisdom.

The Perfect Diet?

Many of Gabriel’s clients turned to her, as a last resort, to learn which foods to eat and which to avoid to break their reliance on pharmaceutical medications. Although the author initially set out on a journey to find the perfect diet she returned with something better: The knowledge to help others discover what their own optimal diet may be and how to achieve it.

The perfect diet cannot be put on a laminated card and tucked in a universal wallet. It’s a discovery process of what your particular body needs. What can be given to everyone is high quality food and the ability to find, recognize and prepare it. Start with nutrient-dense foods and the optimal ratios for your body will surface naturally if you know how to listen.

Nutrient-Dense Philosophy In One Egg

The criteria for determining nutrient-density is detailed throughout the book. Each criteria forms a level and each level has a range of qualitative possibilities. The basic four levels of quality are:

  1. Growing Methods.
  2. Processing Techniques.
  3. Freshness.
  4. Preparation Techniques.

The author applies the four levels of quality to an egg:

  1. Soil – Chickens ought to be eating foods grown in good soil;
  2. Intact – Eggs are best whole, not just the whites or yolks and not processed;
  3. Fresh – Not old. Local eggs are best;
  4. Preparation methods – Many for eggs which are also easy snack and travel foods.

“This boils down to local farm-raised eggs, which are quite easy to come by once you do a little digging in your specific locale.”

Whole and Intact

An important aspect of food that echoes throughout the Fateful Fork is the wisdom of eating foods in their whole form. For instance, lycopene can be isolated from a tomato, but what’s the point? A lycopene pill will never provide the benefits of eating a whole tomato. Applied to an egg that translates into eating the whole egg. No separating the yolk from the white. Protein powders do not supply the nutrient-dense protein of an intact egg delivered by nature in its perfect vessel containing a myriad of other ingredients all in balance with one another.

Nutrient Dense ‘Superfoods’

All this hype about superfoods had me fooled. Our every day food has the potential to be the superfoods we’ve been looking for; from the right source, unprocessed, fresh and well-prepared. As sources become less and less available it’s no wonder the superfood folklore has arisen.

We don’t have to seek out exotic dark chocolates and honey from specialized regions of the world in hopes of being among the lucky few to be blessed with good health. The main staples of our diet are the superfoods we’ve been seeking. The knowledge of recognizing and insisting on them is the holy grail.

The Naturopathic Way

One of the reasons I trust Gabriel’s advice on food is she has a Masters in Nutrition from Bastyr University where the curriculums adhere to the principles of Naturopathic medicine:

  1. Let nature heal.
  2. Identify and treat causes.
  3. First, do no harm.
    1. Use low-risk procedures and healing compounds.
    2. When possible, do not suppress symptoms.
    3. Customize each diagnosis and treatment plan to fit each patient.
  4. Educate patients.
  5. Treat the whole person.
  6. Prevent illness.

Naturopathy builds on the belief that the human body has an innate healing ability. Practitioners craft comprehensive treatment plans that blend the best of modern medical science and traditional natural medical approaches to not only treat disease, but to also restore health.

When my wife and I disagreed with an orthodox medical (Conventional) doctor about the vaccine schedule for our son it was to a naturopathic doctor that we turned. It is serious and wholistic medicine and we’re glad to have a superior alternative to the insurance-dictated conventional. Naturopathic (And Gabriel’s) advice is not given to fit into an insurance reimbursement category. It is customized to individual needs and designed to keep people well. It’s no wonder this comprehensive approach to health is thriving!

Nutrient-Dense Foods Replace Supplements Replacing Drugs

“You can let go of confusing dietary rules and supplement programs, which are only necessary when you eat processed industrial foods.”

Hypertension is a family trait. So far, I’ve been able to control it by non-prescription means. Dr. Atkins Vita-Nutrient Solutions helped me get control of my blood pressure forsaking prescription drugs for a combination of diet, vitamins, minerals and other supplements. After reading The Fateful Fork it’s obvious that many of the supplements recommended by Atkins could be replaced by nutrient-dense foods.

Can I replace all of them? We’ll see. I’m looking forward to trying (With naturopathic assistance). Each pill eliminated is one less expense and hassle even if it’s only a vitamin or herb.

Vegetarian Escapes and Train Wrecks

“If abstaining from animal foods prevented diseases you would know it by now, beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

I think the natural reaction to a juicy steak is to cause the human mouth to water. It’s through disgust, unrelated to the animal itself, that many learn to squelch that natural reaction and turn to vegetarianism to escape. After discovering the disgusting conditions under which animals are grown for the slaughter, injected with hormones and antibiotics and fed unnatural foods to maximize profit it’s inevitable that those same toxicities are delivered onto the dinner plate. How can you blame someone for for trying to escape by going veggie?

Unfortunately, the vegetarian escape leads to another set of problems and, if one is not extremely careful, to a train wreck.

“Eating the grain-based substitutes in place of animal foods is unpleasant and foolhardy. Industrial grains (corn, wheat, rice, barley, and all others, even “ancient grains”) are nutrient-deficient, insulin-triggering, processed foods that continually evolve into ever-stranger renditions as technology changes. . . .They are cheap surplus commodities posing as healthful foods.”

“A side effect of animal product avoidance is rampant deficiencies of fat-soluble vitamins A, D and K. It is not surprising that these are now top-selling supplements. Heart disease, vascular degeneration, cataracts and osteoporosis are some of the consequences of fat-soluble vitamin deficiency.

While reading The Fateful Fork my wife, who had recently ‘gone veggie’, was experiencing many of the above symptoms. A blood test and an appointment with her naturopathic doctor revealed the truth of Gabriel’s words, up close and personal. Vitamin D deficiency, low blood sugar and many other stressful symptoms. The doctors prescription was along the lines of “The Paleo Diet”. There’s much to learn from the metaphor in the Paleo books comparing the modern human diet with that of our ancestors. The Fateful Fork is scientifically consistent with most of the Paleo recommendations but Gabriel’s knowledge is far more comprehensive in addressing every aspect of food.

“Try as they might, the long-term, million-dollar studies funded to prove the health benefits of low-fat vegetarian diets, consistently prove otherwise. Instead, the studies show that carbohydrate-rich diets cause heart disease, diabetes and obesity. The more processed carbohydrates you eat, to the exclusion of animal products, the more likely you are to acquire those diseases, and yet the unsound Federal Nutrition Guidelines are ever more restrictive.”

Avoiding Train Wrecks

The Vegetarian ‘movement’ and desire to escape crummy food may never have happened if the food philosophy and accumulated knowledge put forth in the Fateful Fork was understood and widely adopted. Faced with crummy alternatives people took the path of least resistance: Eating only vegetables and fruits and grains which have the appearance of being fresh and natural.

Contrarianism is catchy. When it comes to industrial foods and the chronic health problems they create it’s hard to resist an idea to do the opposite. Fine, but going veggie is not it. The real escape from industrial foods is to biodynamic, traditional organic or small diversified farm’s animal foods and fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables.

Paleo Plus

The Fateful Fork is what the reader is left hungry for after reading the Paleo diet. If you haven’t read either, yet, you can safely skip Paleo for Gabriel’s book and learn more about every aspect of food in the process. While Paleo backs into proving a metaphor, Gabriel builds every component of a meal from the ground up describing the science, lifestyle, tools and challenges you’ll face from the soil to the dinner plate. Her practical explanations for how to prepare foods that Paleo forbids make for wholistic treatment and a better companion for navigating the vast world of food.

When contemplating grains or legumes, for instance, Paleo just says no. The Fateful Fork tells you the science behind it, how different sources mitigate the downside effects, how preparation affects health values and how it may be combined with other foods to aid digestion.

Raw Milk or No Milk

In The Paleo Diet Cordain says no dairy, period. His reasoning is that “Paleolithic people ate no dairy food. Imagine how difficult it would be to milk a wild animal, even if you could somehow manage to catch one”, he says.

What kind of Paleolithic wimps is Cordain talking about? I can think of a few modern-day engineers, writers and computer programmers who would gladly wrestle a cow into a milk pen to prevent starvation and provide a steady source of food.

In contrast, Gabriel says drink “Raw Milk or No Milk”.

“Raw milk from pasture-fed cows is the ultimate in high-quality food. It is completely different from industrial milk in its composition, freshness and its effects on your health. Historically, raw fresh milk was used therapeutically to cure all sorts of illnesses. The persistent hype in the media, schools, medical field and government about industrial milk’s importance in your diet is based upon the characteristics of traditional raw milk from pasture-fed cows, not on industrial milk. Industrial milk has no redeeming qualities; it ought to be avoided. . . called something else to distinguish it from unadulterated milk.”

And the author does mean raw. Gabriel and her family know the names of the two Jersey cows that produce their milk. Apart from putting it into a bottle the only ‘processing’ is in getting it delivered to the back kitchen door!

Similar advice is given for the forbidden paleo categories of grains and legumes. Gabriel delves further than simple prohibitions based on a metaphor. She provides the science, recommends sources, and gives specific consequences of preparation and combining them with other foods.

Industrial Food, Inc.

“Industrial foods are created to produce one thing: Corporate profits, not healthy people.”

In every area of life, nowadays, we expect technological advances. When it comes to food, however, Gabriel says high-tech innovations are rarely our friend. Technological advances that skirt around quaint notions of high-quality soil-based food may increase corporate profits but only at the expense of human health. The problem is, “You are not periodically updated so that you require new or less nourishment. Despite space travel and cell phones, you are still firmly tethered to this planet earth and the primeval foods it produces. There are no new answers to feeding yourself properly.”

Salt of the Earth, Not the Lab

The real salt of the earth is exactly that: From the earth, not the lab.

“Sea salt contains 92 essential minerals and trace elements such as potassium, magnesium, iodine, boron, selenium, manganese and copper, among others; they do not contain merely sodium and chloride [Like Industrial Table ‘Salt‘].” Even the iodine (Originally added in to prevent goiter –a common thyroid-malfunction-based condition) has become a modern-day ruse with little to no quality iodine in market salts.

Gabriel points out that natural foods don’t have the high amounts of salt we’ve gotten used to. You can add the real salt with more enjoyment and nutrition without fear of adverse effects.

Industrial Food Primer

  • NPK Soil Fallacy – Tragically flawed science concluding that only Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) was necessary to replenish soil has lead to soil sterility and pollution. The hundreds of nutrients in animal manure and post-harvest plant materials are now dubbed “Waste” and replaced with severely lacking and dangerous NPK ‘fertilizers’. How can you get live foods from dead soil?
  • GMO Seeds – Alter the genes of a seed and you own the ‘new’ life-form. These dangerous and unproven altered life-forms convey more property rights than landowners because the patent holders have billions of dollars to enforce them. Farmers have the burden of proof of patent infringement should a scintilla of airborne seed take root in the farmers soil. As this is all but impossible the farmer goes broke just preparing to defend themselves. When they go bust another farm is forced to purchase GMO seeds rather than use the natural seeds from his own crops. Many GMO seeds, once planted, corrupt the soil making the land unsuitable for natural seeds in the future. The farmer landowner is now, in effect, enslaved by the seed provider as is any future purchaser of the land intending to farm.
  • Additives – Additives make foods easy to ship, give them a longer shelf life and make them appear the right colors to entice us to buy them. If the label has more than three or four ingredients (Total) you’re probably in trouble. The most benevolent ingredients you can’t pronounce are a lousy attempt to ‘fortify’ the food with something that shouldn’t have been taken out or killed through processing in the first place.
  • Protection That Isn’t – Under the guise of protection Amish milk farmers are raided while the FDA claims to lack the authority to intervene in the affairs of industrial meat processors who provide a steadily predictable source of deadly e. coli bacteria. Senate Bill 510 does not protect the public from unsanitary conditions of local farms whose natural approach is routinely pristine; it simply eliminates thousands of local natural food providers producing such high-quality alternatives that industrial food companies cannot compete.

We’re Not Sick, We’re Starving

Many of the supposed diseases– for which we’re told some new pharmaceutical drug is needed— are, in fact, the result of simple nutritional deficiencies.

Healthful ‘lively’ foods contain the enzymes necessary to digest the foods that contain them. Industrial foods are dead on arrival and leech the enzymes necessary for digestion from our bodies. Enzymes, vitamins and minerals are drawn from our bodies quickly causing a dangerous deficit. Ironically, getting ‘supersized’ is an efficient way to literally starve yourself of nutrition. Eating ‘live’ foods with enough enzymes for proper digestion is a complete motivation, in and of itself, to ban industrial dead foods from our diets.

Three Votes Per Day

As overwhelming and powerful as these conglomerates and regulations seem they cannot withstand something much more powerful: The three votes a day each of us may cast in favor of our health. By simply refusing to take empty calories and disease ridden foods into our bodies all the products that disgust will remain unsold and rotting on the pallets that deliver them. That message trumps anything you could put on letterhead or voice mail. It will be delivered loudly and clearly to every food producer and representative in the country with the simple act of lifting a forkful of truly nourishing food to our mouths.

ROrganic!

The word “Organic” is being misused by industrial food processors as a means to sell their disease causing crap. Gabriel recommends a new name for the excellent foods being grown and provided by traditional organic farmers: “Rorganic!” meaning real organic. The author explains . . .

“As with industrial milk — which is so completely different from traditional, raw milk from healthy cows — it ought not to be called “milk” at all; the same is true for USDA Organic.”

“Traditional organic farmers have established their reputation and consumer base due to hard work and long years of persistence. Now that their methods are at last economically viable, traditional organic farmers are suffering from being grouped together with the National Organic Program and its infiltration into a market in which they do not earn a place.”

“Since we cannot seem to stop this federal invasion, the real organic farmers need a new name. Rorganic! seems fitting to me.”

Comprehensive Food Philosophy

Gabriel’s food philosophy is comprehensive and easily digested to cover every area necessary to conduct the food choices for a large family (Or restaurant!):

  • Meal Frequency
  • Defining a Meal
  • The Science of Food
  • How to Shop
  • Best Sources
  • Setting up your kitchen
  • Handling snacks
  • Food Storage
  • Handling Leftovers
  • Kitchen Tools
  • Social Challenges
  • Food Groups Redefined
  • Practical Daily-Life Integration
  • Money Saving Charts

Reclaiming Delicious

Our bodies are hard-wired to prefer food with high amounts of salt, fat and sugar. Industrial food processors have mastered the trick of including them in almost everything available. Is it any wonder that we’ve lost touch with what the word delicious means?

Delicious is when everything about a food is enticing because it’s what your body needs to live. Media sources would have us believe that means thick-crust pizza, mac ‘n cheese mix, a bag of potato chips and lucky charms for breakfast. Our bodies know that delicious is fresh blueberries and a glass of pure raw milk, wild-alaskan salmon with asparagus, pasture-fed beef and cauliflower, local farm-raised eggs with sprouted bread toast or a handful of pumpkin seeds with a piece of dark chocolate.

Optimal Food Philosophy?

Optimal solutions provide benefits beyond solving the initial problem. They address every dimension rather than merely splitting the difference between a short list of comfortable alternatives. The discovery process screens to match the true context of reality where preconceived notions are, at most, a starting point. The food solutions put forth in Fateful Fork provide the kind of multi-dimensional fruit one would expect from this kind of exhaustive approach to nutrition. They:

  • Increase Quality
  • Require Less Intake
  • Cost less
  • Increase Health
  • Satiate Appetite
  • Realign Imbalances
  • Promote Health
  • Prevent Disease
  • Save Future Health Care Costs
  • Are Delicious (The real non-twinky, what your body needs kind of delicious).

The cost is finding sources, sometimes spending more in the short-term, reorienting lifestyle around re-supply and preparation, and abstaining from bad choices.

The author strikes me as someone who has been so immersed in every aspect of her passion about food and nutrition that merely writing about it didn’t make the priority list, until now. Now that it has the reader benefits from Gabriel having faced the challenges of translating and implementing her nutrient-dense philosophy in every conceivable environment, circumstance and context.

If I could choose the experience, qualifications and lifestyle of the optimal person to write about food the theoretical author would have an identical resume to Gabriel’s: A Master’s degree in Naturopathic Nutrition, 15 years of clinical nutrition counseling practice, two decades as a professional chef and an avid gardener. Luckily, we get all that from a person who can also write! What she’s written may enable you to avoid train wrecks and unnecessary health care costs by learning how to load your next fateful fork with the nutrient-dense foods that lead to optimal health.

Copyright © 2010 Terence Gillespie. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given to McGillespie.com.

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