ministries

[Guest guest]

Dear Duncan,

Your ideas are interesting.

I am not going to offer an opinion as to whether it " will

work " .... I don't know, and I expect it depends a lot on

the particulars.

Here are a few things that come to mind, which I think would

be worth your time to look into:

1. the universal life church. Headquarters is in Modesto CA

I think. They will make anyone a minister. They would

like a small donation for this (a few bucks) but it is

optional. They have been fighting for the fight for

religious freedom for MANY years, and winning when last I

checked. They DO have religious tenets: something like

" we believe in doing what is right. We believe each person

knows best what is right. "

2. Halleleujah Acres (hacres.com) is a Christian group

(seems pretty fundamentalist to me) that runs a DIET

and HEALTH program. (It is " God's diet " , from their

point of view.) (The diet is 85% raw, all vegan, with

lots of carrot juice and barleygreen powder). They

have an organized program of some sort where one can

train to be a " health minister " . I think the people

thus trained then work with local churches, but I'm

not sure about that part. The whole thing is supported

(I think!) by profits from sales of barleygreen and

other MLM products. (I am being DESCRIPTIVE here folks,

please don't throw any tomoatoes. I didn't say they were

insincere, or even swayed one millimeter by money.)

3. The Optimum Health Institute, in San Diego CA (technically

it is in Lemon Grove, a suburb of San Diego). They are

a non-profit religious organization. www.optimumhealth.org

I don't know anything about the particulars of this,

just that they ARE a non-profit religious org. They

do residential health training programs, and teach

a cleansing program. (It is very " Ann Wigmore " inspired:

wheatgrass juice, sprouts, rejuvelac, enemas and " implants " ,

raw food, etc.) Also, their programs are VERY inexpensive,

which seems congruent with the " non-profit " part.

They are VERY clear that they are a TEACHING facility and

not a medical facility. (They tell people to go to

local medical facilities for medical help if needed.

If I recall, there is a sign with some words to that

effect posted in the main lecture/eating room.)

I am wondering about some legal fine points of your proposal:

a. can you charge money for services? at what point does that

get you into trouble?

b. can you work with physicians? can they recommend your

services to clients? is that a problem? if not, how

can professionals be involved in your efforts (in a

way that does not endanger them, of course)

Of course, it is VERY important to NOT say that cure is

ever involved. (Which is easy: our bodies and nature are

what cures. I believe that.) And it may be important that

you are not treating disease. How to say things is

important, but there should be lots of info on this

available from other groups. (Dr. Schulze has the most

" creative " disclaimers I've read. I find them remarkable

and fun. The wording seems to be different on each of

his books and tapes, but the general message goes like

this: " due to the intense medical and legal repression

in this country we are required to tell you the

following: this inforamtion is published for informational

purposes only. See a physician before undertaking any

of there programs....blah blah blah " .)

Oh! One more reference to check on just came to mind: the

Naples Institute (Naples FL, I think) has a program similar

to Optimum Health Institute's, however they also have ozone

available. There are several references to ozone use there

in the book " Wheatgrass " (forgot the subtitle) by Sproutman

(Steve Meyerowitz), which I read recently. From what the

book says, they have ozone available for people there, but

they do not charge for it, and people must " self

administer " the stuff...... It would be interesting to

know more of the details on this, as it would seem they

know some details about protecting themselves while

still being able to make the ozone available. (Let me

know if you try to find them and have problems, I know

I have a phone number and URL for them somewhere.)

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts as you develop

your ideas (or don't).

regards,

Moria