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Posted by: catnip ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 01:26AM

DH went to a required continuing education seminar (he is a mental health therapist) at a local casino, and met a lady there who had a booth set up, selling Do-Terra products.

I very dimly remember discussions about it here - isn't it a MLM thing out of Utah? DH asked if the lady could come to our house and tell us about the products. To hear her tell it, those magic scents could cure everything from paranoid schizophrenia to hemorrhoids.

I stayed pretty quiet during the presentation, but hubby was semi-intrigued. He ordered a few things. I didn't.

Can anybody share prior experience with this stuff? I'd appreciate it.

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Posted by: Tevai ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 03:06AM

My advice: Do not join any MLMs.

If essential oils are wanted, they are available at your local health food store, at GNC stores, and online from various sources.

Some essential oils do work. Peppermint oil can repel insects like cockroaches (put some on a cotton ball and then put that cotton ball wherever insects are gathering, and use as many cotton balls with peppermint oil as you need--in cupboards, underneath the sink, etc.--to deal with the problem).

Tea tree oil works well for many things (although I really don't like the smell). One of the toothpastes I use (brand name: Tea Tree Therapy) is from Follow Your Heart (my local health food store), and it has Tea tree oil in it for oral health (gums and teeth both).

There is nothing wrong with many essential oils, which have been used for various purposes throughout history. (Google any oil you are interested in and you will learn all kinds of interesting facts about it.)....

....but joining an MLM (or, in most cases, buying "retail" from an MLM) is usually, definitely, not a wise thing to do.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2019 03:35AM by Tevai.

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Posted by: summer ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 05:37AM

I agree with Tevai. If your husband is interested in essential oils, there are multiple other avenues to obtain them. Do-Terra is considered to be good quality, but so are other brands. Plus, he can likely find them for less money elsewhere.

While some essential oils have their uses, you will have noticed from the woman's presentation that a lot of false claims are often attached to them as well.

I personally think that MLMs are an unethical way of doing business, so I avoid them. They only often benefit the early adopters, and those further down the chain earn pocket change at best.

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Posted by: Dave the Atheist ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 09:26AM

Essential oils are not essential.

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Posted by: CateS ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 11:25AM

True. But they’re nice. I consider them a hobby.

As far as healing properties are concerned, were I living in the Middle Ages they would likely be my go to for ailment treatment. But now we have scientifically proven pharmaceuticals. So other than something like a mild skin condition or bad breath, I’ll stick with a medical professional’s advice rather than a —-oil saleswoman.

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Posted by: Potpourri ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 05:41PM

Dave the Atheist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Essential oils are not essential.

"Essential oil" means "essence-tial oil" here, not essential in the sense of "compulsory". It is supposedly the essence of the plant.

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Posted by: Elder Berry ( )
Date: August 22, 2019 03:49PM

They are essentially oil.

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Posted by: gemini ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 11:21AM

I agree with you about the wild claims. I have a close relative who is mixed up with one of these companies..not Do-Terra but same idea, and no matter what the problem might be, she "has an oil for that". It's to the point that I just keep quiet about anything that might be bothering me.

Also, the near religious zeal that comes with their rah-rah meetings make me wonder what pie in the sky promises are being made to these distributors.

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Posted by: elderolddog ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 11:47AM

gemini Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Also, the near religious zeal
> that comes with their rah-rah
> meetings make me wonder wnhat
> pie in the sky promises are
> being made to these distributors.

Probably the usual: money, fame, adulation, respect, more money...

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Posted by: robinsaintcloud ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 12:18PM

They are the off shoot company of Young Living Essential Oils. Totally rah-rah MLM. Yes, oils smell great. Beyond that, whatever you want to believe.

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Posted by: stillanon ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 04:46PM

Just another Utah MLM scam company. They are banned in most States, but Utah is a haven. Stay away. Definitely don't buy or invest.

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Posted by: Tevai ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 06:55PM

stillanon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just another Utah MLM scam company. They are
> banned in most States, but Utah is a haven. Stay
> away. Definitely don't buy or invest.

I didn't know that MLM's, or even specifically Utah MLM's, are banned in most states.

I didn't know that even one state has banned MLM's.

Do you have any idea when this happened, or what states have banned MLM's?

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Posted by: [|] ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 09:22PM

They haven't been banned in most states.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing
"The Federal Trade Commission issued a decision, In re Amway Corp., in 1979 in which it indicated that multi-level marketing was not illegal per se in the United States."

The legal perspective:

https://www.internetlegalattorney.com/business-mlm-pyramid-scheme/

https://www.mlmlegal.com/statutes.html
This link includes links the laws in each US state.

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Posted by: stillanon ( )
Date: August 23, 2019 02:36PM

No, what's illegal in most States, and why Utah is a haven for scam supplement companies, is that for 40 years, Utah mormon Senator Orrin Hatch, worked to allow supplement, wonder drug, juice companies and now, essential oils to be exempt in truth and advertising laws. It is legal in Utah to make unregulated products WITHOUT and stated ingredients and sell them to the public. You, or I, can legally make and market vitamins and supplements, in Utah, without having any of the ingredients in the product. Not a reduced amount- zero amount. We could make and sell Vitamin E with 100% corn syrup- no vitamin E. St. Johns wart with 100% sawdust or powdered cardboard. Other states prosecute companies that do that. Utah, enables them.

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Posted by: messygoop ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 07:04PM

My car is approaching its next oil change. Can they get me a good deal on a case of pennzoil?

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Posted by: NeverMo in CA ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 07:45PM

I've posted about DoTerra before, but briefly, I was tricked by a friend (a TBM friend, incidentally) about five years ago into attending a DoTerra sales pitch. The presentation/pitch was delivered by a Mormon woman also. (I discovered she was LDS later when I checked out her Facebook page--no idea if it is a Mormon-owned MLM, though.)

Her presentation really angered me. Among the insane claims she made was that DoTerra oils brought her mother-in-law out of a coma...I kid you not. There were at least two dozen women attending the pitch, and amazingly, no one in attendance seemed to raise an eyebrow at that claim. I also recall clearly that at one point, a young mother with a few toddlers who appeared to be very financially-strapped (her clothes looked like they had come out of a dumpster, seriously) announced to the rest of us that she never got her children the flu vaccine--she just dabbed a drop of a particular DoTerra oil on each child's upper lip once a day during flu season. (Yes, I know the flu vaccine is not foolproof against getting the flu, but I'll take that over an essential oil, thanks.) It was disturbing to see how shabby this poor woman looked, considering how expensive DoTerra oils are.

Anyway, two of my never-Mo frends got suckered into signing up to be DoTerra "consultants"...naturally, neither has a lot of money, and neither has ever earned a cent of profit. In fact, I know both of them never recouped their original costs for buying the starter set of oils.

The only positive aspect of the experience for me was that it out me off participating in MLMs in any way once and for all. I've always known they were scams, but I would occasionally attend a "party" and buy something, if invited by a friend who was selling, just to be "supportive." I finally realized that it was not supportive to encourage my friends in wasting their time and money.

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Posted by: Flip ( )
Date: August 21, 2019 08:21PM

If that stuff really worked, people would be lined up for miles to buy it. Doctors would be shutting down their offices, and the hospitals would be empty.

Why doesn't this occur to people?

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Posted by: Cathy ( )
Date: August 22, 2019 03:28PM

To add to all of that, if you start feeding into someone selling DoTerra, quite often they will NEVER leave you alone. You'll always be looked at as a target for a potential sale. We have family members who sell a different product and have for years - they wish we would buy some and wish even more we'd sign up to sell too. There is NO WAY we would go down that road, though, and they're deeply disappointed in us because of it. MLM's and Mormonism have many of the same qualities - I listened to him on a phone call with several other sellers, and it was a rah-rah, congratulatory session bucking each other up when a person showed even the tiniest bit of interest. They then discussed how to push that person into knowing the truth about the products and coming on board fully. Sound familiar?

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Posted by: catnip ( )
Date: August 23, 2019 10:37AM

The one thing that has me intrigued is that she made up a formulation of stuff to treat an open lesion on one of DH's very fragile skin on lower leg (diabetics are notorious for skin problems on lower extremities) and I examined the lesion this morning, and it is beginning to heal around the edges, just as it is supposed to, and I have to admit, I am impressed as I can be.

Of course there is the mitigating factor that his doctor gave him a course of antibiotic capsules.

This lady has taken a two-year course in something called "Energy Medicine" that sounds like "Advanced Woo," but for someone who is hoping for a miracle, it sounds like just what they have been hoping for. At this point I realize that I am very susceptible to anything that promises to work, which compromises the cold, hard intellect that is back in there, probably knowing better.

Thanks to all of you for grabbing my hand (so so speak) and dragging me back onto higher territory before I slip and fall. When it comes to healing or helping our loved ones, we are willing to do just about anything. Trouble is, not "everything" is as good as it is promised to be.

I appreciate your collective wisdom more than you can know.

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Posted by: elderolddog ( )
Date: August 23, 2019 11:13AM

Wow! The Wikipedia article is not very kind to Energy Medicine, a term I heard for the first time in your post!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_medicine

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Posted by: Honest TB[long] ( )
Date: August 23, 2019 12:57PM

It is a MLM in Utah with lots of us [long] people in it; and now for my testimony as I use every last bit of credibility I have left in me to get all of you hooked on joining my DoTerra downline :) In the past I've been super pumped and excited about becoming super rich (for the sake of building up the Kingdom that the Holy Nelson currently manages for Jesus) through various MLM's where the Holy Ghost revealed to me that I should get involved. Unfortunately I was always fleeced. But I don't blame that Ghost but just recognize it was a test on me. But this time, once again, is going to be different. The Holy Ghost has revealed I need to be all in on DoTerra. I'd do it full time but with chapel cleaning assignments, temple assignments, family history work to be done, teaching classes, firesides to watch, huge army of kids to raise, etc. I just don't have all the time yet I need for DoTerra and the billions I'll earn in it, assuming this sacred Ghost was right with those feelings I got when given the DoTerra sales pitch. So now I need to go bother all my relatives, members in my Stake, neighbors, and everyone to get them harangued into joining my downline. While I'm bombarding each of you could you please pass along the names/info on each of your bosses, relatives, neighbors, and everyone you know so that my delightful army of kids can be loaded up into our old Suburban dressed in some splendid comely clothing we got for them from a Deseret Industries Thrift store, and have them descend upon all these homes at insanely early or late hours of the day to get them all assimilated into my DoTerra downline?

After much long suffering patience for a very long time I'm sure optimistic about getting my very first DoTerra downline person :) I got a feeling it's going to be one of your temperamental bosses who hates getting up early so my tribe will be yelling and screaming on his front porch at 5am on Saturday to get him signed up :)

My testimony of DoTerra is growing stronger than ever. In each of my monthly long winded monologues at F&T meeting I remind all in the Ward of this. And oh yeah I bear testimony of Joseph Smith too.

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Posted by: stillanon ( )
Date: August 23, 2019 02:42PM

Ha! That's exactly some of the mentality here- don't look at the facts-pray about it! People should look at the facts- not their feelings-especially in Utah. With MLM's, 98+% lose money. Especially if it's pushed through your church. People are stupid.

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Posted by: exminion ( )
Date: August 23, 2019 04:36PM

Pyramid schemes are illegal in the US. The MLM schemes claim that they have an actual product to sell, and that the product has a benefit to the purchasers. No one can prove there's NOT a benefit in aromatherapy, so far. When the product turns out to be a fraud, the company doesn't lose much, and it simply moves onto creating a new product.

Out of curiosity, if Hatch convinced the US Government to not check into the actual ingredients of some of this MLM stuff--I wonder if the manufacturing companies can ADD extra stuff in there? Such as caffeine, to make you feel good? Sugar can give you a burst of energy, too. The RS president gave me a few vitamin pills to sample, years ago, ("Nutra-something", I can't remember) and they gave me instant, through-the-roof energy.

Every ward I've been in, in various states, has had its resident MLM pushers. In my last ward, it was usually the same few neighbors who would go from one product to another, starting with Avon, Tupperware parties, lingerie and jewelry. I'm not sure if these were MLM's, but they all relied on the unrelenting hard-sell to family members and friends. These same people moved on into nutra-vitamins and supplements, Melaluka and other teas (which they swore were not against the WOW), that overpriced berry juice, Do-Terra, Young Living, Eden's Garden.

All of these products also promised weight loss and beauty, and targeted women, especially. The RS sisters could not say "No" without feeling they had betrayed their friend, neighbor, or relative. They relied on "fellowshipping", just like the Mormon cult, and these women were good at it. The operators knew that women were highly susceptible to group pressure; hence, all those parties in people's homes. With some of the Mormon women, that was the only time I was ever invited into their home.

They were fake friends wanting to sell me something useless.

My answer to MLM and door-to-door salespeople has always been: "I have a permanent, long-standing rule, to never buy anything, except from a regular retail store." No other explanation was ever necessary. (Online, as well, I use regular chain stores's websites, and Amazon.)

I love perfume, scented lotion, shower gel, shampoo, etc. I like scented candles in the seasons, the smell of the flowers in our yard right now, new-mown grass, burning pumpkins in the fall, piney Christmas trees, cocoa and candy canes, cookies baking, vanilla, spices--who doesn't?

The olfactory sense is the most powerfully connected to memory, of all the senses, and aromatherapy really can boost your mood! Perhaps it can help in bringing back old memories, who knows? It's fun, and no harm is done, as long as quacks don't claim it cures anything.

Eucalyptus and camphor can help clear the sunuses, and I put almond oil on my cuticles every night. Peppermint oil also chases away mice, so there are exceptions. Orange oil gives me energy and good cheer, because of a specific happy memory it evokes, having to do with California and oranges--nothing mysterious or magical.

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Posted by: stillanon ( )
Date: August 25, 2019 02:03PM


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