Scam On Top of a Scam — Research: Who Are the Winners and Losers?
“Harvard-Educated” carries a whole new meaning for me. Universities, especially the Ivies, are training our young adults to be bullies.
The Cult of Higher Education isn’t teaching critical-thinking skills, tolerance, or empathy. Instead, the well-meaning professors are pawns in the dangerous game of indoctrinating students into the Cult of the Privileged. Those who speak up against the abuses are silenced. The oppressed have no voice.
Enough is enough.
Garbage in — garbage out. Every researcher pretends to know what that expression means, but those in power ignore it all the time because it benefits the Privileged. Charming Bullies (covert narcissists) are allowed to live in feigned ignorance while maintaining the status quo that keeps them in power.
Why do supposedly intelligent researchers continue to ignore their own data? How do they live with themselves knowing that they are not revealing the full story of their research? How is it that these well-educated and well-intentioned “Experts” are able to ignore the harm they are causing to society?
Positive intent does not excuse, nor does it erase, hurtful impact.
Reviews of Glassdoor on Trustpilot tell a very different story of the data used in the MIT/SMR study. Were the researchers ignorant of the garbage data or did they knowingly disseminate the flawed study because it benefited their chosen agenda?
Culture 500 is nothing more than an enormous advertisement for Glassdoor and the companies who benefit from Glassdoor’s deceptive practices. This so called “study” merely encourages the continued abuse of employees by companies run by bullies. It is a disgusting example of a scam on top of a scam designed to hide the truth of the horrific amount of corruption and oppression in our workplaces.
2. Dr. Judson Brewer, Brown University (and MIT) / Mindfulness Research
I’ve been following Dr. Brewer’s work for over a year. Initially I was taken in by his apparent intelligence, kindess, and charm. I read his books, followed his program for anxiety, and shared his information widely with anyone struggling with addiction. I was a wide-eyed and naive convert to the Cult of Dr. Jud — until I started seeing the cracks in his research.
I tried to question his research methods and results in an online private community forum for his Unwinding Anxiety app. His answers were less than satisfactory, and when I asked harder questions, he ignored me.
Anecdotes Get in the Way of Science — A Dialogue With Dr. Judson Brewer
It makes me very suspicious when a researcher who claims to be an “addiction expert” has no interest in defending the integrity of his own research. I’m curious to know more about the demographics of his research participants. My guess is that Dr. Brewer’s subjects look and think a lot more like Anderson Cooper than they do George Floyd, which makes for dangerously flawed data when we are speaking of victims of trauma.
As with Dr. Brewer’s research, the BHI uses flawed data to push their own agenda.
The Benson-Henry Institute’s research center is dedicated to examining the effects and mechanisms of mind/body approaches to medicine, as well as the most effective clinical applications of these techniques.
“…mechanisms to mind/body approaches to medicine…” certainly sounds like a noble agenda, but whose minds and bodies are we talking about? The minds and bodies of primarily privileged people with resources? Or the minds and bodies of oppressed people who live with trauma every day of their lives?
I completed the 8-week Stress Management and Resiliency Training Program (SMART) at the BHI last fall. I can guarantee you that it is not effective for anyone with significant stress (trauma) in their lives. Since people like me were not part of their studies, the “treatments” based on their flawed data are harmful to the forgotten ones.
I tried to alert the “Experts” to the flaws, but they weren’t interested. As with Dr. Jud, they ignored me when I asked too many hard questions.
4. The Trauma Research Foundation / Neurofeedback Studies
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, author of the bestselling book The Body Keeps the Score, is probably the biggest name in trauma research. Fame and influence should come with a higher bar for integrity in research, but that’s definitely not the case with the TRF.
Dr. van der Kolk is clearly a brilliant man who has educated millions in the global crisis of trauma that we are currently experiencing. Unfortunately, his obtuse inability to listen to his critics demonstrates a lack of empathy. His good intentions are meaningless when he himself is inflicting trauma on others.
Bessel’s reputation as a Charming Bully is well known, though not well documented thanks to the Cult-like following of his Flying Monkeys.
I am speaking from experience as a former Cult Member. I had fallen hook, line, and sinker and attended both the TRF Trauma Conference last May and a week-long TRF Retreat with Bessel and his wife at Kripalu in July. Despite my own intuition regarding the ineffectiveness of Neurofeedback, I naively signed up for a Trauma-Informed NFB Training Course through the TRF last August.
Within the first couple of weeks, I was experiencing major cognitive dissonance between what the Charming Bully of an instructor was saying and my own scientific understanding of the brain. When I started to ask hard questions, I was silenced and ignored. I asked to withdraw from the program — initially they denied a refund, but when I pushed it, they acquiesced and gave me most of my money back.
They thought they were done with me. Not by a long shot.
I’ve been too traumatized by the betrayal to write my story of that experience, but a story is definitely forthcoming.
The main takeaway is that I no longer trust the majority of the TRF’s research and look elsewhere for guidance in becoming trauma-informed.
5. Heidelberg University / Study on the Impact of 12-step Mutual Help Groups (MHGs) on Recovery
I received the following message from a researcher at Heidelberg University in Ohio. It came as a private message to a private Facebook group that I moderate. Recovery FROM 12-Steps is designed to provide a safe space for anyone who feels betrayed by the Cult of 12-Steps.
Dr. Lazzari’s lack of insight into how her survey questions could be triggering to people in the process of trying to recover from the Cult that she is studying is disheartening, to say the least. Dr. Lazzari’s biases are evident throughout her survey, and yet most people can’t see it because our society just accepts the false claim that “12-Steps helps millions” — even though real science proves otherwise.
Good researchers need to take their blinders off.
I am a Professor of Criminology and Sociology at Heidelberg University. We are conducting some research about mutual help groups. This study is designed to help us better understand the impact of 12-step mutual help groups (MHGs) like AA or NA on the recovery process of addicts. The study hopes to learn more about what these groups do to help addicts and what could be done to improve the recovery process. Participants will help broaden understanding of the subject by detailing their own experiences with these groups and how they have impacted them. The study is an online survey completed through google forms. The study has been reviewed by Heidelberg University’s Institutional review board (HU#13801–242023). We are looking for participants who have had experience with 12-step MHGs like Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. The survey will ask about your involvement in MHGs, your mental health, your social involvement, your criminal justice interactions, and gather some other basic information about you. *Feel free to share with anyone you know, we would like to hear from as many people as possible. https://forms.gle/w8PT9M4zwwU54HqNA
I encouraged members of the group to complete the survey to give Dr. Lazzari another perspective. A couple of us tried to point out the shortcomings of the survey to her in a message thread, but Dr. Lazzari went into denial and defensiveness (gaslighting). This is the usual behavior of Charming Bullies who want to push their agenda on others without answering to critiques.
“Good research is anchored on a sound research question.”
A survey is not necessarily a study and a study is not necessarily research. Anyone can come up with survey questions. It takes intelligence, integrity, and humility to come up with a survey that is meaningful to research.
What is the question these researchers are trying to answer in this study? Why is it important? How will this research benefit society?
I’m angry. The five examples above are from my personal experience from only the past few months. Biased research runs rampant in our society. Intelligent, well-educated people should be calling out the abuses caused by biased research, but they can’t, because they are the ones doing the research — and/or the ones benefitting from it.
Who are the people harmed by flawed research? The rest of us. Those of us without power, without privilege, without a voice.
We need to unite to fight back against those in power. We need to share our stories. We deserve to be heard.
