Richard Bandler, Co-Founder of NLP - PhD Fraud and Acquitted Murder Suspect

Richard Bandler, who is accredited with co-founding Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), claims to have earned a doctorate. NLP was allegedly intended to understand and change human behavior-patterns. Many will argue that it's just a sham and is merely a money-making tool for those who teach it. But judging the validity of NLP is not why we're here. Let's talk about his fake doctorate.

On his website at richardbandler.com, and in numerous other locations, he refers to himself as Dr. Richard Bandler. However, we cannot find one confirmed source indicating what his doctorate is in or from where it was earned.  A Wikipedia article states that once he even identified himself as holding a doctorate in a seminar in Konstanz, Germany, and testified to such in a court in 2000. His fake doctorate was also corroborated in a 1989 article published in Mother Jones Magazine,  where "Bandler blamed his fictional Ph.D. on promoters, even though he is repeatedly identified as "Dr. Bandler" in a book he published." See http://www.american-buddha.com/bandler.method.htm

Having researched more about Bandler, we were shocked to see that Bandler was tried for the murder of his NLP student, Corine Christensen. After almost six hours of deliberation, Bandler was acquitted and the murder has still not yet, officially, been solved.

Many thanks to Richard Clark of HypnoThoughts, the Hypnosis Practitioner Training Institute, and California Mental Health Counseling Associates for alerting us about Mr. Bandler.

A Message From Richard Clark

We received a delightful email today from Richard Clark, who accused us of being "every bit as big a liar and fraud as anyone you write about."

Thank you, Mr. Clark, for confirming that everybody we have written about is "a liar and a fraud." Richard Clark is a licensed counselor in California. Yes, people actually go to this chump for help with their own problems. Sounds like he needs some counseling for himself.

In case any of our readers don't know who Richard Clark is, he is also Scott Sandland's right hand man. He operates the California Mental Health Counseling Associates in San Pedro, CA. We have outed several people that Mr. Clark is associated with, particularly the fake PhD "liars and frauds" that will be presenting at the HypnoThoughts Live conference that he is throwing together with Scott Sandland. So we give thanks to Richard Clark for further confirming that what we said about the frauds is true.

You see, Richard Clarke happens to be the Chief Operating Officer and instructor for Scott Sandland's Hypnosis Practitioner Training Institute. He is also a moderator on Sandland's HypnoThoughts blog.

We find it interesting that Mr. Clarke would like us to out that Mr. Richard Bandler as a fraud. Since the Hypnosis Practitioner Training Institute offers a "course" on NLP, a widely used approach that Bandler is credited with co-founding. We presume that, since you consider a co-founder of NLP a fraud then perhaps your course, "Introduction to NLP," is also based on a sham principle. Thanks for the tip, Richard. We'll get right on that.

Richard Clark wanted to see if we are "all hot air" and dared us to post this. Well, we did. And our next post will be to oust Richard Bandler as a Doctor of PhD Fraud.

So we ask the question of Mr. Clark, what makes us "a liar and fraud?" By bringing to the spotlight all of the persons who falsely use unearned titles to enhance their credibility? Many of these people who are your personal friends and business associates? We understand your anger, but perhaps you should direct it at those frauds who denigrate your profession.

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From Richard Clark, it's title was "Let's see if you are all hot air.":

Coming soon: Terri Lee Cooper, Edmonton Alberta, Canada

Terri Lee Cooper of Hypnosis For Life in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. Coming soon!

Redemption Day

Today alone we received hundreds of emails with great accolades about our mission to expose phony doctorates. We will try something new, an idea that several writers volunteered.

If you are one of those individuals who are exposed, we will give you an opportunity to redeem yourself. Eliminate ANY AND ALL references to your phony diploma from your site and marketing materials, and notify us of such, and we will remove your page from this blog.

This is our contribution to cleaning up your profession. Your fancy "ethical" organizations won't do it, but we can.

There's nothing wrong with admitting you made a mistake. You're only human.

So, go for it. Let's see how many of you can make things right.

Barry Neale, Fake PhD, Essex UK

Barry Neale, PhD Scam Artist. This jerk BOASTS that he is one of only a handful of hypnotists in the UK who has earned a Doctorate Degree in Clinical Hypnotherapy and a PhD in Counseling Psychology. He has claimed to have earned his doctorate through "Calamus University"

Looking closer at Calamus University, the Whois description of the website owner lists the address as 27 Old Gloucester Street in GB, which is a remailer so that a person could appear to have a prestigious address.

According to Calamus' website, their accreditation reads, "

Calamus Extension College Ltd. certificates and diplomas are private UK qualifications. The college is independently fully accredited by the International Association for Distance Learning, a private, non-governmental accrediting body that specifically accredits distance learning colleges.

 

Calamus Extension College Ltd. certificate and diploma qualifications are not under any British national or governmental qualifications accreditation framework. In the UK, it is legal to issue certificates and diplomas in many fields without government authority or approval and there are very many UK private sector schools that do so especially in the areas of complementary therapies, personal development, business training  and vocational skills.

So now we know they are not accredited. But let's look further at the the International Association of Distance Learning. Our research yields that absolutely no government entity in the world recognizes this organization to accredit any degree.

In other locations, we found that Barry Neale claimed to have earned his doctorate through Huntington Pacific University (see our page on Huntington Pacific University), the American Institute of Hypnotherapy, another degree mill that hands out unaccredited "degrees," and the American Pacific University, also an unaccredited degree mill (see http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/Education_Degree_Scams_Unaccreddited.php).


As such, we conclude that Barry Neale is a FRAUD and purchased his so-called "PhD" from a degree mill.

"Dr." Michael Harris - Richardson, TX - PhD Fraud

"Dr." Michael Harris of Richardson, Texas. This guy is so vain about his "credentials" that he uses it in his domain name and in his email correspondence (drm@drmichaelharris.com). He really wants you to believe that he is a doctor.

First we must examine Huntington Pacific University, where Harris claims to have earned his "PhD." A search of the internet found a page for "Huntington Pacific University" at http://c3e3.com/hpu/.
Here is a website, designed by an amateur. Take away the suffix "hpu" http://c3e3.com and you will find a very cryptic page with a number of broken links titled, "Spiral On Dudes!" Here, somebody named Spiralona claims to be the host of "Sacred Originality Televison." Ok, so this is getting weird. A whois search for c3e3.com yielded an address of at 809 N Branciforte Ave in Santa Cruz, California. Apparantly, it's a very nice house with about $400K. Not what I would call a University.

Anyway, going back to the original link of http://c3e3.com/hpu/, Huntington Pacific University claims to be accredited by the World Associations of Universities and Colleges.  A Google search yielded a defunct website at http://www.waucinternationalaccreditation.com/

Wikipedia says this organization is not recognized by the United States Department of Education. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Association_of_Universities_and_Colleges
but was created by a lady named Maxine Asher, directer of the unaccredited American World University. At one point, Maxine offered a New Year's special on all of her degrees, for only $1000. So here's what happened, Maxine created a bogus school that nobody would accredit. So she created her own accrediting agency. Now she's probably making a few bucks from other unaccredited "universities" for the privilage of being accredited (by a non-recognized organization). But hey, they are accredited -WHO CARES RIGHT? Whatever.

We affirm that since "Huntington Pacific University" and the "World Associations of Universities and Colleges" are not recognized, legitimate universities, Michael Harris is NOT a doctor. In fact, he has no academic qualification whatsoever. We can't say if he is a good "hypnotist" or not, but if he was effective, he certainly wouldn't have to LIE about his qualifications.

David J. Lincoln - FAKE PHD in India

We were tipped off about this guy, David J. Lincoln of WisdomTree Solutions in Uttar Pradesh, India, from a blog reader. I will admit that I know absolutely nothing about Naturopathic Medicine. I suppose that's a good thing because the legitimate medical community views naturopathic medicine as involving "fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation." I did a little bit of research about this approach and found the following written by Kimball C. Atwood, M.D.:

Virtually every naturopath-patient interaction involves "fraud,deceit or misrepresentation of facts in connection with diagnosis,evaluation or treatment" of that patient. When a naturopathclaims that "toxins" or"food allergies"or dietary sugar or "candidiasis"are the underlying causes of ear infections, learning disorders,fatigue, arthritis or numerous other problems, it is a misrepresentationof facts. When a naturopath uses "appliedkinesiology" or "iridology"or "electrodiagnosis"or "hair analysis" or "live cell analysis" tomake any "diagnosis," it is fraudulent. Whenever a naturopathrecommends a "cleansing program" to treat specific problems,it is a misrepresentation of facts. When a naturopath performs"cranial osteopathy,""binasal specific," "colonicirrigation," or "electrical current in the formof positive galvanism, applied transrectally," that constitutesfraud. When a naturopath tells a patient that it's not necessaryto treat strep throat with a genuine antibiotic to prevent rheumaticheart disease, it's a dangerous misrepresentation of facts. Eachtime that a naturopath claims that "natural antibiotics"such as goldenseal or garlic are adequate substitutes for realones, it is an example of fraud. Almost all examples of naturopathsrecommending "natural medicines," which are either knownto be ineffective, are unlikely to be effective, or have yet tobe studied, are fraudulent. Each time a naturopath sells her own"natural medicines" to a patient by claiming that theyare preferable to what can be purchased on the open market, itconstitutes deceit. Every instance of a naturopath warning a parentagainst childhood immunizations is a misrepresentation of facts.

Back to David J. Lincoln. On his website, David writes, "Alongside David continued his studies in psychology and his PhD thesis was on the body-mind connection. This study encompassed many modalities and drew him to yet another direction, Naturopathy. David studied Naturopathy in Kansas, USA and eventually was awarded his ND degree. His thesis for this degree was entitled "Soup our Salvation", soon to be released as another book."

I love it when people write about themselves in the third person. He wrote that he studied psychology and wrote a PhD thesis but he doesn't say from where. He also wrote that he earned a ND degree, "ND" meaning Naturopath Doctor (I prefer No Degree). He also doesn't state from where he earned an "ND," other than it was in the state of Kansas.

Holy epic tornado, Dorothy!

I looked on the website of the Association of Accredited Naturopathic Medical Colleges and found that there are seven accredited schools for Naturopathic Medicine, none of which are in Kansas. No accredited school = NO DEGREE.

We affirm that David J. Lincoln is a SCAM ARTIST fraudulently purporting to have earned a doctorate.

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UPDATE

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It was brought to our attention that this creep is advertising that he offers "Psychotherapy Training." We investigated his page at http://davidlincoln.co.uk/ and we were SHOCKED by what we read.

 

As you can see, he certainly offers "Psychotherapy Training." And look under his picture, he advertises himself as a PSYCHOLOGIST! Let's assume that he has a legitimate Bachelor's degree. He has no master's degree and fake doctorates. And he refers to himself as a PSYCHOLOGIST and offers PSYCHOTHERAPY TRAINING. Ladies and Gentlemen, this man is nothing short of DANGEROUS. Let us only hope that India has laws for dealing with such individuals.

 

"Dr." Vijah Shah - Florida FAKE DOCTORATE Hypnotist & NLP "Teacher"

Vijay Shah, of Advanced Breakthrough Inc. in Doral Florida is another king of scam artistry. On his website, he writes, "In 2009, he received his Doctorate in Clinical Hypnotherapy – this one is for my wife, Smita – 'I could not have done it without your support and inspiration!'" Now, I don't know if his wife is aware of this or not, but there is no such degree anywhere in the world. He also, very conveniently, leaves that part out. Some people like to mentioned some sort of "non-accredited" doctoral program, but Shah just likes to leave the potential fool for a client or student guessing. Shah claims to be a member of the Time Line Therapy Association, the American Board of Neurolinguistic Programming, and the American Board of Hypnotherapy. I don't know about the first organization there, but the last two are the same "organization" and are about as shady as the photograph that they posted on their website. Would you really want to give your money to THIS guy? This guy who claims that he can help you TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE?

Hey Shah -why not change the name of your company to Advanced Ripoff, Inc.?