In recent years, in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Public Security, public security organs across the country have severely cracked down on and investigated companies and institutions engaged in illegal training activities under the banner of "spirituality" and other pretexts, effectively curbing the development and spread of such activities, and effectively safeguarding the physical and mental health of the broad masses of the people and the safety of their lives and property. Since 2018, a total of 77 key cases have been detected, 269 people have been criminally dealt with in accordance with the law, and more than 217 million yuan of illegal gains have been confiscated.
Today, we understand the harm of "spiritual pyramid schemes" through a case of engaging in illegal training activities under the banner of "spirituality" and other pretexts investigated and dealt with by the public security organs.
Under the banner of "spirituality" and so on
Exercise mind control on trainees
At the beginning of 2022, public security organs in many places received reports from the masses and found that a certain organization had deified its ringleaders, exercising mental control over students and charging high training fees under the banners of "spirituality" and "soul shaping". As a result of the all-out investigation and investigation of the Xiamen City Public Security Bureau in Fujian Province, an illegal organization headed by Deng Haipeng that used "spiritual cultivation" to engage in illegal and criminal activities gradually surfaced.
Deng Haipeng and the training institutions he founded, under the guise of "soul shaping" and "collective field", carried out mental control over the students, and then used modern marketing models such as pyramid schemes, franchises, and advancements to achieve the purpose of collecting money and fishing. Deng Haipeng emphasized in the training that the "Xiamen Headquarters" is the center of the universe, the strongest place in the "collective field", and he is the channel chosen by God, and the students who do not surrender to God or withdraw from the field will be "operated" by God (that is, bad things will happen, similar to being punished by God), so as to establish their absolute authority.
Experts said that Deng Haipeng's mind control over the trainees was divided into three steps:
- One is to cut the students from normal life through long-term lectures and so-called centralized office;
- the second is to strengthen the students' sense of belonging and identity through ritualized content such as the same clothing, the same slogan, and the same theory;
- The third is to weaken the self of the students by belittling the students and humiliating them, and at the same time give some sweetness to win over the students for their use.
And the fundamental mystery of all these operations and theories is to vigorously develop new students, and then develop students into volunteers. The seven backbone members of the organization were all "cultivated" by Deng Haipeng step by step from students, volunteers, and core backbone members.
△ Illegal promotional materials confiscated by the police
At the same time, in the process of training, Deng Haipeng continued to create a persona, creating a "noble" image for himself who is diligent and thrifty, not close to women, and only pursues the true meaning of life. However, in fact, Deng Haipeng is diametrically opposed to his own personality, he is greedy for money, lustful, promiscuous and extravagant.
In front of people, he asked all his students to eat vegetarian food, and he would eat sea cucumbers every day; before people, he asked students not to have real estate and money from cultivation, but he used the money he had deceived to buy financial products; in front of people, he had no children and no daughters, but in fact he had a wife and daughter; in front of people, he pretended not to be close to women, but behind his back, he was a female student.
△ The scene of the first-instance verdict
In June 2022, the Xiamen Municipal Police set up a special case team, which lasted more than 4 months of investigation and control, and arrested all 46 arrestees on the evening of October 25, 2022. As of the time of the case, the victims involved in the training institution were more than 3,600 people in more than 30 prefectures and cities in more than 20 provinces across the country, including many minors, and the amount of fraud was as high as more than 1,100 yuan.
In October 2023, Deng Haipeng was sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison and fined RMB 8.1 million for the crimes of using superstition to undermine the implementation of the law, fraud, and rape. The remaining seven accomplices also received the trial they deserved.
In the name of "spirituality" ascension
The practice of "spiritual pyramid scheme".
It's a good thing to improve yourself through training. However, the training market is hot, and there are a variety of courses that may hide the scam of "pyramid scheme".
In recent years, a kind of "spiritual" organization with a hidden, short-lived, and lucrative nature has spread across the country. This type of organization, often dressed in the cloak of legality, in the name of "self-improvement" and "spirituality", through some carefully set courses, psychological suggestion and other techniques, to achieve mental control over the students, and finally make the students actively or passively help these training elements to "pull heads" and help the organizers to collect money. At present, the documents of the Central Political and Legal Commission clearly identify such behavior as "spiritual pyramid schemes".
△ Illegally organizing "spiritual" training sites
"Spiritual pyramid schemes" are extremely harmful.
First of all, some MLM organizations have foreign backgrounds, and once they are used by hostile forces outside the country, they can easily induce incidents and directly affect national security.
Secondly, the cost of this kind of training is often tens of thousands of yuan or even tens of thousands of yuan, and even requires students to pull in the number of people, develop offline, and recruit students, showing a situation of viral development, and a large amount of funds are invested in unknown accounts, which seriously endangers economic and social development.
Third, some illegal training activities have carried out illegal detention, rape, indecent assault and other personal infringements on trainees, and have engaged in collective sexual immorality activities in the name of physical and mental liberation, posing a major threat and potential harm to the physical and mental health of the masses, the safety of family and property, and social harmony and stability, and the masses have strongly resented them. Some students even committed suicide by refusing medical treatment and medicine and self-harming because of their mental control.
How to identify "spiritual pyramid scheme" scams
Generally speaking, "Spiritual Pyramid Scheme" fraud courses have the following three characteristics:
One is to let people talk about their painful experiences and private things. Through chatting, people continue to talk about their own experiences, increase the emotional level of the victim, constantly immerse the victim in the pain of the past, and lay the foundation for the brainwashing course.
The second is to keep shouting slogans during class, and through constant repetition, let these slogans enter the heart and brain, and achieve mental brainwashing.
The third is to create "human trust" and "active students". Trainers will have their own insiders pretend to be trainees, actively ask questions in various communities, and give feedback on the magic results they have received after listening to the lectures.
The public security organs reminded that at present, driven by economic interests, there are still some lawbreakers and institutions that have changed their appearance and continue to engage in such illegal and criminal activities. The broad masses of the people need to clearly understand their nature and harms, and consciously resist illegal training activities such as "spirituality".
The public security organs will continue to maintain a high-pressure posture of striking hard and resolutely safeguarding the safety of people's lives and property.
Source: CCTV