A FAMILY HIT BY THE "AMO WRECKING BALL"
OF MIND CONTROL
I put four years of intense effort into building an
Amway business through an AMO system of costly tools, sales aids and functions.
For four years I did everything I was told to do by the leaders in the AMO.
I became an exemplary Amway distributor and because of my good performance
was invited to exclusive strategy meetings with top distributors. I "showed
the plan" 10 to 15 times a month. I prospected and invited everyone
and their dog to plan showings and house meetings. We lined up a score of
babysitters and, according to AMO teaching, benignly neglected our three
children while "building the business for the sake of their future".
For four years I did everything "right". I endured net business
losses, ongoing fights with my spouse (Ambattles), insidious family destabilization,
financial starvation and loss of personal identity all because I was PROGRAMMED
to believe that this was the price I was supposed to pay for "success".
I was one of those fired up and excited distributors and was happy with
Amway - knowing that someday if I just kept doing what I was doing, my family
and I would be "free". Then I found out one day that my wife was
SECRETLY siphoning off funds that were intended for the mortgage and food
so that we could meet Amway motivational expenses (tapes, rallies, major
functions, etc.). We were, after all, told a thousand times by our upline
to get the funds by any LEGAL means. They didn't say a thing about REASONABLE
or ETHICAL. This pillaging of our budget and the attendant fighting went
on for months and months until I woke up one morning and realized that I
could no longer say I'm excited, ain't it great when I really wasn't and
it really ain't. That morning I told my wife I could no longer be an Ambot
and that I was through with the whole enterprise for good and I quit.
THEN MY REAL TROUBLES BEGAN.
The bad dream turned NIGHTMARE. This was directly the result of my AMO's
system of Though Reform which is the term used by AMO's for their methods
of mental conditioning and attitude-improvement but actually is simply a
euphemism for psychological manipulation . Through thought reform AMO's
program distributors to restrict their thinking to a dangerously narrow,
self-righteous and prejudiced band on the spectrum of values and ideas.
For example, anyone who commits to the business and then decides to get
out for any reason loses his or her status as a human being. They become
objectified as some form of subhuman entity. Wimp, loser, failure, dreamstealer,
wiener and so on are some that come to mind. So it was inevitable that my
wife would so objectify me for getting out of the business, leave me, and
search for that winner, that ideal diamond material, that Amway distributor
who would build her dream.
My x-wife freely admits that she left because I quit Amway. We differ, however,
as to whether we would still be together if Amway had never come into our
lives. I believe we would but, of course, she does not agree simply because
her AMO-inspired opinion of me has lowered to the point where she believes
I was born a loser and will always be.
My now X-wife has been in the Amway business for over 7 years. She has still
not achieved even the direct distributor level. Indeed, when last I heard,
she has yet to reach the level of 4000 PV a month. In the 4 years I worked
the business, the loyalty and commitment that originally went to me slowly
but surely shifted to Amway and the leaders in the AMO. These mentors did
not discourage this estrangement. Keeping her as a potential direct distributor
was more to their advantage than having her leave their business and stay
with me. Further, there is compelling evidence that she was even encouraged
along the way by her upline associates and elements of the AMO system in
her efforts to put Amway before family - a most appalling irony and contradiction
considering that the vast majority of Amway distributors and the founders
themselves are fundamentalist Christians and supposedly value family (spouse
and children) just below God (see letter next, below). Amway and her AMO
are still telling her when and where to jump and she's still asking "How
high"? They run her life completely. Further she still spends thousands
a year on motivation causing a partial abdication of her financial responsibilities
to our children. So, in effect, the nightmare continues.