I was just thinking about Mormons and their love of MLMs. The ex was forever getting involved in these schemes-then lose lots of money then go right back to being enchanted by the thrill of the excitement of the Next get rich quick scheme.

I just figured it was a way to be a 'gambler' -because he loved the chance of becoming a millionaire-getting in on the ground floor-- so I wonder-- if when all these nice Mormon people (usually ladies) fall for the magic do-terra oils:
Is it saying - I am practicing witchcraft?? LOL.??

Now I know some of you out there are just loving the essential oils and all their healing properties-so don't preach. But I love hearing your thoughts.


My dear son's MIL sells the oils and then those stretchy clothes LuLusomething.
She has Lyme disease and claims the oils are curing her - but I really hope she is seeing a physician as she has not looked well for some time.

MLMs are not a form of gambling; you know your odds of walking away with millions are slim when gambling. MLMs peddle the old lie of "if you work HARD ENOUGH, you can be a millionaire" to a) seem legitimate and b) draw in suckers-I-mean-salespeople. And at least gamblers admit the house always wins.

As for the healing properties of the oils, two words: Placebo Effect.

I think that HARD ENOUGH point you make about MLMs applies to Mormonism as well.

If it is not working for you, you are just not working hard enough; just not praying hard enough; just not studying your scriptures hard enough...

At least in modern English, "essential" has two distinct meanings. The common meaning is "necessary, of crucial importance". The secondary meaning, which I assume is now considered archaic, is "having an odor, or essence".

MLMs and others peddling essential oils are quite happy to have you confuse the two meanings. While it is nice that lemon oil, or lavender, or peppermint smell nice, it doesn't hurt sales to have people think "essential? This stuff must be really important!"

P T Barnum was right.

I have an entrepreneurial daughter. She is a published author, has a very successful website that markets to the LDS community and she does quite well for her family. She recently got involved in the oil thing and oh boy, it actually kind of scares me. She seems like a true believer to a point I have never seen before. I hide her posts (i.e.sales pitches) on FB because it is just too much.

Along with her TBM devotion to everything mormon, she now seems to have found a secondary religion. I hope it blows over. It makes me wonder what goes on in those pep rallies they go to.

High School was a long time ago for me so I was surprised when an old friend from back then called and wanted to come visit. You guessed it! They were peddling an MLM. They spent a half hour or so telling me how rich I could became if I got in on the ground floor. When I asked how good the products actually were the presentation kind of stalled. I didn't buy in and haven't seen the 'old friend' since.

I dunno. I think essential oils are cool and probably helpful on some level, but I can't stand MLMs. I almost bought some oil once from a friend, but she insisted on giving me what suddenly felt like the First Discussion of DoTerra, and that was super creepy. I backed out. Maybe LDS people go for that because it is familiar, it feels like being on a mission again.

Essential oils can be purchased at Whole Foods, Sprouts, your local health food store....

....or Follow Your Heart (in Canoga Park, California--and I don't know if they sell by mail order), but if you're able to physically visit the store/restaurant (the menu is vegetarian, with vegan options), FYH does have a good selection.

In the last few years, I usually order takeout from the FYH restaurant, but the time before last when I ate at the sit-down tables, Alec Baldwin was eating at the table next to ours.

[Similar occurrences happen all the time at FYH (it is a major favorite place throughout the industry), so the etiquette is:

Do not initiate conversation or contact with celebrities who are on their own time, rather than them being at a public place for a public performance of some kind. If they're not getting paid for performing, they deserve their "private life" downtime. On the other hand, if they want to initiate contact with you, that is a different thing.]

Essential oils can be found in many different stores. Buying them through a MLM is not what I would consider good sense.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2019 09:39PM by Tevai.

Nah. The real charmers who know who they owe their career to will always wave back, smile and be polite to those that recognize them. You don't have to be a bother. A friendly wave or hi is sufficient pleasantry for anybody. If they are rude or complain and about private time they can go jump off a cliff or get a new career. They chose their poison. Now drink it.

I'm usually in a rush.

In that category I'd put Keanu Reeves (I was double parked in an alley) David Crosby (I had a group of fire victims to feed) and Jim Messina - a long time ago (I was more interested in guy in front of me in line who had just taken a shower and smelled really good.)

Of course, I don't hardly know who the celebrities are these days.

Buy my essential oils at Autozone

Pennzoil, Chevron Delo, Quakerstate
They really are essential

Ldsbull Wrote:
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> Buy my essential oils at Autozone

Ha!

Great video about those essential oil MLM's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsDrIAsVgTQ

My dad got involved in a couple of Utah based MLM's later in his life. He'd suffered through a financial collapse and bankruptcy at the hands of a Mormon shyster and was desperate to try and recoup some dollars. I tried to discourage him but he persisted. Glad he didn't have a lot to invest by then or he would have lost that too.

Mormons are predisposed to scams because their religion expects them to suspend common sense and fork over money.

I just saw an account on youtube of a woman who lost around $ 1 million dollars to a guy scamming her by corresponding on an LDS dating site.
She never actually met him but he wrote all the right words.

Probably some guy(s) in Nigeria. Romancing lonely women for cash is a also a common fraud.

I had a church calling in the regional LDS (older) singles. The single women with a good income were all prime targets for this sort of thing. Oh, the stories! This stuff really did happen! We tried to warn the victims, but they would never listen to us--100% failure for the warnings.

It the 3 years I endured the calling, 4 widows in our neighborhood lost their homes, after marrying someone they met in the Mormon singles. The courtships were usually fast and exciting. One TBM woman met her TBM man, while they were both selling MLM USANA vitamin supplements. She mortgaged her house to keep their "business line" going, but, of course, it failed, and when she lost her house, he left her for another woman with more money. A slick doctor married my beautiful friend, and they took out a mortgage on her house to add on to it, and it was beautiful. He left her for another woman, and got her house in the divorce. When they Mortgaged the house, he had it put in his name. She had raised her children in that home, but there was nothing she could do about it. The doctor's brother was an equally slick lawyer, and our bishop. The doctor moved into the house, with his woman, and later married. No excommunication, or reprimand, or anything.

Back to MLM's, the prices they ask are much too high--40% to double, sometimes, for the oils. They operate on the principle that if people have to pay more, they think the product must be that much better. A lot like the cult, in every way, but monetarily, Mormons think they are getting a superior dose of nonsense, over the cheaper religions.

exminion Wrote:
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> The single women with a good income were all prime targets

Thank you for these stories and reminders, Ex!

If the church were really true, and operated for good instead of for profit, these things would either not be allowed, or severely punished.

I bought some oils because the smelled good. I don't put them on my body or ingest.


I know a person who is way up there in Amway. Their downline is forever changing and not producing and they spend more hours working on their crappy $20K business rather than spend time at a regular 9 to 5 office job, add some skill and make twice that with less time.

The only positive is for when this person's spouse gets a new job, the flexibility to change wherever they are and continue doing their business can't be beat.

I just don't think the invested time shows that much of a return. If the spouse wasn't earning the real money they would shape of real fast and ditch the mlm business and get a real salesjob and make the money.

I thought you were maybe talking about the one where grown men pay 10% of their annual income to the MLM, so that they can carry little vials of magic oil around with them and rub it in people's hair as a way of doing magic healing.

Different oil. Different MLM, I guess.

Wally Prince Wrote:
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> I thought you were maybe talking about the one
> where grown men pay 10% of their annual income to
> the MLM, so that they can carry little vials of
> magic oil around with them and rub it in people's
> hair as a way of doing magic healing.
>
> Different oil. Different MLM, I guess.
You just made my day...ha ha

I got conned into a Kyani meeting with Mormons I never met. How do I know they were Mormons? They were greeting each other as brother and sister. Kyani has lots of awards and FDA approved or something. I saw it in a slide show.

Drink the koolaid and you'll be cured of inflammation, depression, and anxiety. Oh, and it's good for (said in a whispering voice) your sex drive. BUT only if you're married! Nervous little giggles like tweens instead of adults.

I do give my child CBD oil and they basically told me I don't know where it comes from and if I switch it will do more for my disabled child. Stupid mofo's. Not winning any points with me assuming I don't research what goes into my kids mouth who has multiple issues.

The Holy Ghost has strongly confirmed to me that my current MLM is finally going to be the one that makes me SUPER RICH. Yes the Holy Ghost did the same on the last eight where I lost everything and wasted so much time. But this time the Holy Ghost says its all going to be alright :)

Young Living oils is like the Catholic Church, as in the original oil
Doterra is like the Protestants, spun off from Young Living,
and Zija ( Moringa oil) is the one and only true restored oil church.

Ah, Utah, you crazy SOB

I was perusing one of the "mommy blogs" that focuses mainly on recipes. The blog author talked about how she and her husband made the joint decision that she would give up her career to raise their family, and that as a result, they had to engage in belt-tightening. As far as I'm concerned, fine. That's a reasonable trade-off. She then proceeds to sing the praises of essential oils, stating that she had tried them all, and a certain MLM essential oil was superior to all. And conveniently, you could order it through her site.

And I was thinking, you just stated that your resources are slim. And you are spending some of your precious money on essential oils? And how convenient is it that the oil you think is the best is coincidentally the one that you can get a cut of the proceeds?

*sigh*

It was all so predictable.

what "healing properties" ?

It heals your wallet and bank accounts of obesity.

Thanks for all your comments. I was thinking back to when I joined the church and then married into the church (I was very young) and I had never heard of any MLMs until I was Mormon. My only experience was my mom went to one Tupperware party but she did not ever consider being a salesperson. My step-mother had a ton of Avon around her house.

That was pretty much it.

Then I get married to a Mormon--His whole family is selling one diet drink MLM after another, one get rich quick scheme after another, magic oils, prepper packages & amway so on and so on---and I was supposed to buy into this whole idea of buying and joining their 'pyramid down line' whatever they call it.
I was less than enthusiastic and they did not like me very much when I questioned their ethics and the validity of their product and claims.
My dad was an accountant as I am and we are both introverted so this social culture of bothering friends and family to buy stuff was not what I was accustomed.
To top it off-none of this family ever made any money with their MLMs. They spent a lot of money.