The author, other IBLP staff members and directors, and Bill Gothard in the Indianapolis South Campus greenhouse
There is no denying that Bill Gothard has a persuasive way of presenting “newfound” products, ideas, and beliefs. Many trust that he is truthful in these things. They assume, as I did, that he would never purposefully deceive. During my time with IBLP (the Institute in Basic Life Principles) I was witness to a very different story. Bill Gothard didn’t seem to care for honesty and integrity as much as his own cherished ideas, even when those ideas were groundless.
The first time I heard of Sonic Bloom, I died laughing. It was that outlandish. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was living at the IBLP Headquarters in Oak Brook, IL, and at this time my older brother was also working there as Bill Gothard’s personal assistant. My brother and I were driving from one building on campus to another in the red and white “Gothard van.” I sat in the plush captain’s chair up front. A cassette was playing of an orchestrated accompaniment for a professional whistler. Yes, you read that right—a professional whistler with a full orchestra—hence my laughter.
My brother told me it was part of Bill Gothard’s look into how “godly music” could affect the growth of plants and actually make them grow better. I gave my brother a get-out-of-here look as “To God Be the Glory” swelled in the background and the whistler reached optimum pitch. My brother explained the theory: This music was played as plant leaves were sprayed with a special liquid called Sonic Bloom. The music was used to open stoma on the leaf surface and help plants absorb the solution. The inventor claimed that it grew larger plants that abundantly produced more fruit, all organically!
I was still laughing by this point and my brother was getting angry (something he rarely did with me). I looked at him and said, “Come on, really? You believe this? That is just silly. Music has nothing to do with plant growth.” I’ll never forget his answer. “Dani, I can’t think like that,” he said with a miserable look. “Like what?” I replied, confused. He said, “I can’t question things like that… not right now.”
I was taken aback. Here was my brilliant older brother telling me he couldn’t ask questions. I’m struck even now at the great manipulation he was under. My brother: deeply gifted, intuitive, able to multi-task under incredible pressure. He was rightly valued for his gifts, and sought after because of them. But it was clear he could only serve as long as he didn’t rock the proverbial boat.
In this moment it was obvious he knew something I didn’t, so I sobered my demeanor quickly. It was early in 2001 and I had only worked for IBLP for a couple of months. I was an idealist to the core. I innocently believed that, though this was a silly idea, Bill Gothard would surely let it go if the experiment proved untrue. I certainly never expected that Gothard would place his ideas and beliefs above honesty and deliberately deceive ATI (advanced Training Institute) families. I was still pretty naïve.
A few months after this conversation, because of my experience and interest in horticulture, I was sent to Indianapolis South Campus to be part of the Sonic Bloom project.1 I was told that this was a test project to see whether the product was valid. The greenhouse there was magnificent, a donated structure easily worth $50,000 to $60,000. My little job a couple of years prior, working for a greenhouse grower back home, hadn’t prepared me for the scale of this assignment.
My coworker and I loved working outdoors, and the greenhouse was beautiful and was our haven. Gothard wanted us to grow tomatoes. It was a huge undertaking of raising no fewer than 1,300 tomato plants. We planted them in long raised beds on the concrete floor of the greenhouse. Instead of the whistling music, we were instructed to use a high frequency clicking. This change seemed strange to me, given the point of the project, so we also played The Majesty and the Glory on repeat for good measure. If this project proved to be successful, it seemed it would be “proof” that Bill Gothard had been right all along about music not being “amoral.” Even nature would be shown to know godly music!
After a couple months of growing, I began to have doubts about the project. It was difficult to know for sure at that point, but it seemed that Sonic Bloom didn’t live up to its claims. The plants were a beautiful eight-to-nine feet tall and producing gorgeous one-to-two pound great tasting fruit, but was this due to Sonic Bloom or to the bi-monthly dose of 10.20.10 synthetic fertilizer we had to start applying? I was sure of one thing: Music seemed to have little or nothing to do with our results.
Gothard checked in on our progress regularly, either in person or by phone. He was keenly interested in promoting this project to ATI families at the annual national ATI conference in Knoxville, TN. Every time we talked he seemed more excited, and I got more nervous. But by this time a special handcrafted wooden booth was being built, from which we were to sell Sonic Bloom kits. The conference was in a couple of weeks. We had hundreds of kits packed with out-of-date seed packets someone had donated. Inside the kits were the seeds, instructions for using the Sonic Bloom liquid, and a single 8 or 9 oz bottle. That was it. The price tag was $30. I could’ve bought essentially the same thing at a local garden center for $5-to-$10.2
A few weeks before the Knoxville conference, Bill Gothard phoned to check on us. I happened to be the only one in the office at the time of his call. My stomach in knots, I carefully and respectfully told Gothard what we had found while doing the Sonic Bloom project: the music didn’t make any difference in plant growth. We also had no idea whether Sonic Bloom itself actually worked. I concluded by saying that my coworker and I had decided that we could not, with good consciences, sell Sonic Bloom at the conference.
Gothard’s disappointment was palpable over the phone. It was obvious he had really wanted this to work out, and was genuinely sad that it had not. Gothard said that he understood. He thanked me for all my hard work, and we ended the conversation with the mutual warmth of friendship. I had gotten to know him over the last year. I had worked fairly closely with him. I thought of him as a kind and good-hearted man. I was sure he would hear me and honor our request to let this project go. He had, after all, taught us that submission to authority wasn’t required if it violated our own consciences, and selling this product with these claims certainly did that.
The next few weeks are a blur in my memory, but I still feel the stress of them like it was yesterday. Our immediate boss came back with the word that we were to go ahead with the Sonic Bloom project plans. We were told that Bill Gothard was “too far in to back out,” that he had already “committed too much,” that it was a matter of keeping his word. My colleague and I were floored. It was confusing that he couldn’t just cancel the project plans, but we trusted Gothard.
We honored his “commitments” and continued preparations to make Sonic Bloom available at the conference, but did so sorrowfully. Working 16 hour days was usual by this point. When I asked myself why I was still going through with this, it was definitely a matter of honor to me. My thoughts were that, if Gothard had gotten himself in too deep, I would honor him by following through with the plan to sell Sonic Bloom in Knoxville. Probably no one would be interested in it anyway, since Gothard knew it didn’t work and wouldn’t be promoting it. I was not the least bit prepared for what Bill Gothard actually had planned at the conference.
Not only did Gothard advertise the Sonic Bloom product to ATI families as “proof that godly music matters,” he sold the heck out of it. I can still see the sea of faces, hands reaching out to me with $30 checks and cash faster than we could hand out the kits and explain how to use them. We would have a crowd of people thirty wide and six deep in front of our booth at every conference break. This was, after all, an “amazing” product that proved their belief in Gothard’s version of “godly music.”
When I was asked directly that week, “Does Sonic Bloom actually work?” I would answer, to the surprise of the inquirer, “No, I don’t think so. I wouldn’t buy it if I were you.” But only a couple of people asked such an insightful question.
In the months following, I definitely felt like I’d been used. What had been a thing of honor for me wasn’t met with honor, but with dishonesty and manipulation. Why, you may be wondering, didn’t I call Gothard up and confront him afterwards? The answer is simple: I was taught never to do that. I had been taught, starting in childhood (having been raised in Gothard’s ATI home school program), that to question an authority figure after already giving an appeal (my conversation with Gothard) was to challenge him. In challenging him, I would be refusing to submit to my “God-given authority.”
Submission to authority was one of the main pillars upon which the Institute was founded. In the hierarchy of IBLP, to disagree too strongly, to speak up too loudly against an injustice, or to challenge Bill Gothard directly was the same as handing in one’s resignation. It wasn’t a matter of simply avoiding rudeness, because we were all very polite and well mannered; it was that, if you didn’t agree with Gothard, you were suddenly not there anymore. He surrounds himself with those who say “yes” to him and little else.
I have found that Gothard’s teachings form a strong prison that, once built in one’s mind, is much stronger than a prison of physical bars and locked doors. Any control based on fear and use of emotional, spiritual, and social manipulation is very powerful. I was conditioned to submit without complaint or objection to Gothard’s wishes. All who worked for him were expected to do this. The social pressure to conform was massive, and very effective. I assumed (as did many others I worked with) that Gothard intended our best in all that he asked us to do. What I saw at South Campus was a rarely seen truth about Bill Gothard: he is so utterly convinced of his own ideas being truth that he is willing to do anything to promote them—even lie.
The point of my documenting this experience is not to say that Bill Gothard is a terrible man. No. He is kindly and genteel when you meet him, his manner disarming in its warmth. But warmth does not count when he is dishonest, untruthful, and untrustworthy. If these basic human values that we all hold dear are in question in his conduct, it is safe to say that much of what he does and teaches needs to be re-examined.
1. Sonic Bloom is a real product and is still sold today. You can read up on it and order it for yourself via the Internet if you’d like. I make no claim on the validity of Sonic Bloom itself as a product or the claims of its inventor. This article is about my experience within the IBLP program and with Bill Gothard. My observations about the effectiveness of Sonic Bloom apply only to our project in Indianapolis, IN. 2. It is my opinion that Sonic Bloom is essentially fish emulsion, an organic fertilizer. Having done dozens of applications of Sonic Bloom while on this project, I can say that the look and smell is nearly identical to that of conventional fish emulsion. I have no test data to back up this claim, so feel free to do your own research.
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Danielle Thornton Klueber grew up in ATI, Bill Gothard's homeschooling program. She worked and traveled full time with IBLP from 2000 to 2003, during which time she began two greenhouse businesses for the organization. She has a bachelor's degree in Psychology and lives in the stunning Pacific Northwest with her family. Her hobbies include hiking, stargazing and reading nerdy psychology books.
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I remember hearing about Sonic Bloom and about how the good music promoted plant growth and all... and I also remember that anytime Sonic Bloom was featured in news reports or publicity outside the Institute you heard the high frequency clicks (kinda like a car alarm), not music. At that point I began to realize that the original sonic bloom idea probably had nothing to do with music.
Danielle,"I have found that Gothard's teachings form a strong prison that once built in ones mind,is much stronger than a prison of physical bars and locked doors.Any control based on fear and use of emotional spiritual, and social manipulation is very powerful".Thank God you brought this out and told it for what it is;something that made me think for years that if I were more submitted,more self crucifying more passive, [an automaton], then I would be approved.This is the end result of non-grace.Its not just neutral,it goes beyond the surface.When at last I found that the truth was not really a focal point in Gothardism,then some other means must be utilized to keep the system intact.A prison of physical bars and locked doors.Absolutely.BTW,are you somehow related to Kara in Indy who married Seth Davies?
Hey David! Yes, that paragraph was a result of a couple years of research...
And no, there's no relation there that I'm aware of :)
Danielle, another comment in the physical bar and locked door analogy;Christ Himself said He opens doors no man may close,and closes doors no man may open,[for if man could he certainly would],nothing less than a promise in His Lordship,of eventual freedom.
There are two words that could be used to describe Mr. Gothard here, but as much as his supporters might argue for it, "salesman" is not the appropriate word here. A salesman passionately sells a product he believes in and knows to work. A con-man passionately sells a product he knows does NOT work, in order to take people's money.
Gothard was clearly (in this instance) operating as a con-man. He was using his godly reputation to take advantage of people's good faith in him, to sell a product (which included out-of-date seeds that might not work, a product that was unproven to work, and a small plastic bottle) for three to six times the price you would pay otherwise. He didn't just sell it--he sold it passionately, fully knowing it was a fraud.
This actually makes me very angry.
I have this to say to Gothard:
Do you know how many families scraped together their pennies every month, so they could be enrolled in your program? Many fathers had to work extra jobs just so they could afford your program, not to mention feed their many children. And then any extra money they made went into their one "family vacation"---your conference in Knoxville, TN. Many families never got a chance to go anywhere else. Every penny they saved was poured into this event---the gas to get there, the housing, the conference fees, and then any money left over went towards buying items you sold. These were families who gave up *everything* to be at this conference, and you sold them products you KNEW would not work so that you could make money off them. And not just a little money--a LOT of money!
I just want to cry when I think you were making $20-25 off of each one of those families, many who willingly gave what they couldn't afford to buy a product that wouldn't work. So how much did you make off of them buying that product? If 300 people bought it (which I think is a conservative estimate), you would have made $5,000-7,500 off a product that was knowingly out-dated and didn't work.
By any dictionary definition, this is not good salesmanship. This is the work of a con-man---someone who gains people's trust and then swindles them out of money for a product that doesn't work.
Thank you for commenting Beverly...your support is beautiful.
I have to restate that Sonic Bloom may work for some folks. It most assuredly did not work in the way Bill Gothard sold it. And this he did purposefully. I can not say what his motives were, only report his actions.
It is my opinion that Gothard truly believes in his teachings. This is slightly different from a con-man. it has been said that the greatest deception is the one we convince ourselves is true.
“There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy and civilization throughout the world – one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love…. That one thing is trust.”
(Stephen Covey, The Speed of Trust – The One Thing That Changes Everything)
Matthew,
So very true. And thanks to Danielle and so many others, the "trust" in IBLP, ATIA and Bill Gothard are RAPDILY vanishing...for which I'm grateful.
To Bill Gothard (he or his close associates will read this) its time to step down, close the doors. Your credibility is gone.
Thanks for sharing this story. I remember a weekend meal at HQ and Mr. Gothard excitedly passing out slices of tomatoes from the green house for us to try, gushing about how good they were. He was like a little kid at Christmas. Once he had an idea in his head, very few things could persuade him differently.
Very true. And if you presented data that contradicted his opinion, he would dismiss *your* source as unreliable.
Yes, indeed. I agree with BeverlyB--Gothard is a swindler.
I too thought that "truth" and "wisdom" were held as primary values at IBLP. I was disillusioned many times while I worked for the Institute. One example comes to mind: there was an article about the heart that Gothard wanted to promote at conferences in 1999. One paragraph contained "information" that could be construed as confirming something Bill believed about heart health. At 23 years old, even I could tell the source website and author were NOT reputable sources. That bothered Bill not one whit. He wanted to give the article to all the pastors who attended. Even though I had expressed my concerns, I still felt like an accomplice for my part in disseminating falsehood.
Oh, and another one. There was a story about how soothing harp music was and how listening to music played on a harp could bring harmony and peace to the home. Next thing you know, IBLP is selling CDs of harp music. Recorded on a synthesizer on the harp setting. Someone should research the effects of *that* on the nervous system.
Sonic bloom was actually one of my fist signs that maybe IBLP wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Other scams were subtle.... that one, at least, wasn't.
Thank you for a well-written article exposing the manipulation and lack of truth in some of the things Bill does. We were blinded for many years by his teachings. Thankfully, by God's grace, we have been freed! May our Lord continue to use this facebook page to open eyes to His amazing grace!
I was actually on staff and vividly remember the lunch where BG told us of the tremendous power that godly music had on growing plants and BG sending your brother upstairs to bring a big bowl of tomatoes to triumphantly display to the assembled staff.
I remember because I was drinking water at the time and ended up waterboarding myself when I laughed as bill held up a tomato and claimed it was 25-50% larger and more nutritious than a regular tomato.
Oh this is too funny! :)
Great article, Danielle!
My thoughts; even the most novice scientist (or gardener!) knows you need a control group before you can claim something is true. Was there a control group of plants that used music only, or Sonic Bloom only, and one without either? It seems that Mr Gothard is not concerned much with scientific methods.
My thoughts exactly! You have to have a control group to know the effects. *SMH*
Yes, Anne-girl, my thoughts exactly. Where was the control group? If there had been one he could have made a conclusion. Of course he tends to manipulate independent variables as well, (the eh, extra fertilizer that needed to be added. .. . ).
How many other things is he teaching that are dishonest?
Just a couple of questions that I had after reading this. Please don't take these questions as defending Bill Gothard or Sonic Bloom, the whole thing sounds ridiculous to me too. And I think a ministry leader has no business selling horticultural products, especially at a price higher that it is sold for elsewhere. (I also find it telling that i can't, for the life of me, find a place to purchase Sonic Bloom, and the webpage is shut down, while there is a facebook page that only 65 people like out there https://www.facebook.com/pages/Original-Sonic-BloomInc/407415775995776) But,
1) It looks like you were not instructed to have three controlled environments, one with music and sonic bloom, one with only the sonic bloom technique and one with neither version of "plant assistance." Without those controlled environments you can't know if the product did or did not work, am I right? On one hand, how can you say with certainty that the music didn't work when you did get favorable plant and fruit growth? But on the flip side, Bill can't say with certainty that it DID work either, hence the scamishness of this project before it even started.
2) Did I understand correctly that you were NOT instructed to use music, but just the high frequency "clicking" that apparently came with the original product? I guess the using the music was you and your partner's idea, is that right? How does the project you were given to do prove anything about music when you weren't even instructed to use that method? While I think that if an credible project where done we would find that music, or at least a specific kind of music, makes no difference at all, but at this point it looks like we are left not knowing for sure one way or the other.
Hey Brian!
I tried to keep this article as practical and easy to read as I could. It's easy to get lost in the details of the nuts and bolts of the project itself and miss the point. The point of the article is not Sonic Bloom but about Bill Gothard's manipulation and dishonesty.
That said, I understand your questions. The technicalities of how a research project is properly conducted was a new thing to me at this time. We (my partner on the project and I) talked about having a Control Group but we realized quickly that with only one greenhouse, true separation of the control was not possible. The idea was eventually abandoned.
I've been in the horticulture world for a long time. I think you would have a hard time finding someone who used music as their sole or main growth technique. Yes, it's safe to say that would be absurd and unsuccessful. Could music be helpful? Some studies say it is. Is it the main factor for healthy plants? I can confidently say, No.
We grew the tomato plants using only Sonic Bloom and organic fertilizer techniques for the first couple months. We nearly lost the crop and they were not blooming because of these methods. We called on other greenhouse tomato growers in the area and found the answer was a LACK of fertilization. This was when we began synthetic fertilizer application and the plants began to grow, bloom and produce fruit.
I don't know who suggested the music CD, just that the instructions that came with Sonic Bloom were to use the frequency. No music was mentioned. Perhaps we were still trying to help the project be about music, I don't remember that part sorry.
Your questions all point to one fact: the project was set up from the beginning to "prove" a specific point. True unbiased research was not a factor. Accuracy was not a factor. Gothard's "godly music"agenda was the point.
Thanks Danielle, that helps fill it out for me. Like you said, looks like just another scheme to sell more products. Especially when this product provides no spiritual benefit, I can just imagine Jesus coming through and knocking over tables if He were there in person and saw this happening. Its frustrating to know that so many people where duped into buying the product without having even basic answers to questions about its legitimacy. But of course, as you mentioned in your article, we were taught not to ask such questions. Really if you are going to set out to prove that a certain kind of music helps plants grow you have to provide at least the three groups I mentioned and an additional two or three more groups that have different kinds of genres of music playing. It would be hard to do the project to begin with, without tampering the evidence in some way to lean toward one or the other result, but even harder to come up with convincing evidence that the project proved anything. Bottom line, it seemed like you were given a task that made it too difficult to determine anything at all, and it was good that you were open about your hesitation to sell the product. In spite of all that, a lot of kits apparently were sold, sad story.
This whole situation exposes another problem with ATI too. Gothard sold ATI on the promise of providing "apprenticeship" programs where ATI students could learn skills from others while engaging in ministry at the same time.
Here, there was no training, and no supervision from someone who is more experienced. You are basically a 19ish old kid turned loose on her own. There is no learning, and you didn't even have the opportunity to learn and apply correct scientific method. Basically, he didn't care about the training part - Gothard didn't care about you learning proper horticulture or apply proper scientific method. He just wanted to use this to "prove" that his principles were true, even if the evidence he offered had no basis in fact.
One of the things that caused me to question IBLP/ATI was when I worked at a training center and noticed how BG seemed to be more concerned about pushing his principles than helping students. One of his biggest principles was (and still is) is that students should not attend college. He discouraged college, and told students (and their parents) to avoid college, even when the students wanted to go into careers that required a college education. He sold ATI to parents as providing an alternative to college, but in reality there was no alternative.
Hey now, I was 20 years old. Much more mature than 19. ;)
I did some quick math....pretty sure I could've paid for my private college education twice over with the cash I spent on starting IBLP's greenhouses. Little useless info for ya.
I wish I could've spent those IBLP years in college....they do feel wasted to me. I'd have my doctorate by now.
"...BG seemed to be more concerned about pushing his principles than helping students."
Such a sad observation. I would never want to do or portray anything that would come even close to where that was said about me. :/
I remember hearing about the Sonic Bloom stuff, but since we really weren't into growing things we didn't purchase any of it. However, I do remember the Y2K scare and we did fall for that and purchased one of the very expensive kits from ALERT. (Rolling my eyes and big sigh.............) So duped. Grateful to be free!!
Yes, it's great to free!
How much did the ALERT kits cost Tammy?
I honestly can't remember. I know it contained items such as a nice kerosene lantern, kerosene stove.... and I can't remember what else. Maybe someone else will remember more.
I think it was a couple hundred. Or something like that. But I don't remember for sure.
Very well done, Danielle. This leaves me feeling empty and sorry. But not very surprised by this time.
Bill Gothard imitates "The Tick." Really.
From an IMDB episode description:
That's from the animated superhero spoof series' season 2, episode 6, "Bloomsday." Not to spoil the ending, but the sunflower-headed villain El Seed manages to set off an enormous flower that would have destroyed The City, had The Tick not jumped atop it and calmed it down by singing opera.
It's on YouTube if you wish to find evidence.
But! seriously: again we see that Gothard becomes his own wacky parody.
Jerusha, I very much remember the harp music scam. My family bought that music fully expecting it to calm us kiddos down. It was an absolutely horrible recording, as you said, done on a keyboard. You think he woukd have been able to find at least one real harpist to do an actual real studio recording for him before he peddled his wares to the thousands of families at the conference. What a profit they must have made that year off those CDs!
HA! Gothard was a genius at coming up with off the wall, brainless ideas. I remember once when he told a group of us that if women would sleep with a lightbulb over our beds, it would cure PMS because when that was done in hen houses, the chickens produced more eggs. No one could make this stuff up!
Wow...lol. Weird, I've slept with a light bulb above my bed most of my life....still have PMS. Genetic anomaly I guess. *sarcasm*
yes, since we are chickens, that'll work just dandy.
I agree with others this was another eye opening, fantastic article.
Two words to describe BG: Con-Man.
Does anyone else remember the "venom of a snake is negativity" thingy and that you could negate the poison of a rattle snake by connecting yourself to the positive terminal of a car battery? BG even gave examples of people who had saved their lives using this method. I truly hope that lie didn't cost anyone their life.
Don't recall ever hearing about that from Bill Gothard, but my family heard about neutralizing venom with electricity from a group of scientists who had done research on it and even used it on themselves successfully. I was a little kid, so I honestly have no idea what the names of these scientists or their organization were. We carried a stun gun in our 15 passenger van for years, though - happily - we never had a rattlesnake bite to try it on. I do remember enough of the explanation of how it worked that, if I encountered a venomous bite on and had a stun gun available, I would immediately zap the bite 4-6 times- right before rushing to the nearest hospital. :)
It would take a lot more than 12v--need to run it through a coil to bump up the voltage. I've seen homemade snakebite shockers operated by crank through an old windshield wiper motor to generate the voltage then sent through an ignition coil with a set of breaker points to collapse the field.
Yes, it works, depending on the snake. Pit vipers' venom attacks platelets causing the blood to not clot and in deadly cases the victim bleeds out of every orifice and internally. Other snake venom operates as a neuro-toxin and it's effects can be reduced by high voltage applied to the bite as soon as possible. There are insect-sting zappers available too that work nicely--little piezo generated clickers.
A half strength stun gun is recommended, but it's like smoke detectors--easy to forget to replace the batteries.
Michael
Amazon Jungle Missionary
PS My dad was into IBYC early. I went to several of those. Parents got into ATIA late in my homeschool trajectory--it was essentially optional for me as I had already completed highschool and was working waiting until I was the right age to go to college. I was already headed that way to prepare for missionary aviation. ATIA was pushing apprenticeships over college at the time, saying that was the biblical way because nobody went to college in the Bible apparently. That was my first clue--Really? I asked if they knew of any apprenticeships for aviation--uh, nope. So I can't prepare to be a missionary pilot AND be in God's will by not going to college at the same time? Then I started to evaluate all the stuff I had heard before, 7 principles for this, 10 rules to follow for that, and almost nothing you could really say came straight from the Bible, way back to the demons entering families through Cabbage Patch dolls and the "backbeat" of music causing heart arrhythmias. Thankfully I was getting good education in church about the difference betwen exegesis and eisegesis. I was totally out before this music for plants thing came on his radar. Funny stuff--if it wasn't so sad.
Don't know what electric shock on a snake bite has to do with negativity.... OH, is THAT why he said the positive terminal??? Oh, that's even funnier. Anybody who has taken a beginning class in electricity knows that, contrary to "conventional theory", in Direct Current circuits the electrons actually flow OUT of the "negative" terminal and INto the "positive". So by applying the positive terminal to "negativity" he's actually meeting the negativity with what is in reality a negative charge!
In practice it doesn't matter in which direction the current is flowing through the envenenated (is that a word in English or only Portuguese?) flesh, but both positive and negative terminals need to be close to the bite. If the return terminal is too far away the body may offer too much resistance for the spark to fire and the current may flow unpredictably. You want it flowing right through the bite area. (And it hurts!)
Wonderful article.
Thank you for your willingness to share such a clear example of Bill Gothard's tendency to bend the truth to make it fit HIS convictions.
Ironically, the Mythbuster team determined in 2004 that plants grow best when death metal is played; even better than when classical music is played or kind words are spoken.
Sonic Bloom would be a great name for a death metal band.
That's completely hilarious.
Reminds me of a scene in the book Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (a hysterical parody of end-times fiction). One of the characters has heard that talking to your houseplants will help them grow, but being a bit unclear on the concept (and being evil), he talks to them mostly with death threats, describing all the horrible things he will do to them if they don't grow well enough. "Crowley's plants were the most luxurious, verdant, and beautiful in London. Also the most terrified.”
Wow, that's pretty blatant deception.
Last year I read a great book by a guy named Pope Brock called 'Charlatan'; it's the story of a con-artist salesman in the early 1900's named J.R. Brinkley. Incredible story. Brinkley, like the stereotypical snake-oil salesman, made all sorts of promises for products and medical procedures that were outright hoaxes. His malpractice actually resulted in several deaths (his main surgery, no lie, was stitching goat testicles into men with performance issues in order to increase their virility. As you can imagine, that didn't go well for some of the men...). But the people LOVED him; at one point they even elected him Governor of Kansas. He was a quack who knew how to sell a product. One person called him "a man with a pleasing personality, a smooth tongue, able to present his case with eloquence. He will claim educational advantages he does not possess... and always he will produce a large number of testimonials from professional testimonial givers." My wife says she thinks she knows a guy like that... :-)
For the record, remember last year's ATI report from Peru where a portion of a kid's gut was implanted in his brain, which Gothard used as a demonstration of the mind-body connection? Just sayin'...
Typical of Gothard to use made up results. It reminds me of his little talk on mental illness. He uses the opinion of an unnamed Jewish Psychiatrist to discredit the medical profession claiming mental illness is caused bu wrong thinking. But I digress!
it wouldn't be hard for someone to take one of Bills godly, super nutritious tomato's to a lab and test it to see if it is any different from any commercially or privately grown ones.
For anyone else to make such claims would be professional as well as academic suicide. I guess however Bill gets a pass on scrutiny because everyone around him is too busy kissing the souls of his shoes
I'll admit to long being skeptical of some of BG's teachings. Hearing this deception is very disturbing indeed!
I found this link to the "product" Sonic Bloom and the music CD's.
http://www.thepowermall.com/thecenterforhealth/healthy_homes/bloom.htm
Oh my, I do like this quote from the link you gave:
"Do not use the Sonic Bloom proprietary, patented sound frequency devices or audios with any other fertilizer or foliar spray. Dr. Dan Carlson spent 20 years developing the right combination of sound and nutrients. Other fertilizers will most likely permanently damage your plants, garden or crops, due to the incorrect nutrients or concentrations."
So anything other than the right combination of sound and nutrients might damage the plants? So what if you live in the flight path near an airport? Will the constant noise of jumbo jets mess up the plant growth? Or do you have to live in the country to use this? I grew up in Central Florida where space shuttles landed frequently at the Kennedy Space Center. Would a sonic boom mess up the sonic bloom? These are questions I am dying to ask the creator of this product.
Permanent damage to plants, garden, or crops. Must have been rough over those 20 years of research for him, constantly permanently damaging gardens. Must be like Chernobyl around that research facility.
And you gotta watch your language around the plants too.
Yes Beverly! Love it :) We did use only Sonic Bloom for the first couple month (and chicken manue tea...bleh!) and nearly lost the crop. So much for that claim. ;)
He he he, Kevin, that's right.
Seriously, the whole ATIA (hey, when we got into it it was ATIA), thing was one big sales pitch to parents enthralled by BG's wonderful storytelling at the seminars. I remember sitting in my first seminar so fascinated by all the amazing anedotes of how wonderful life could be if we just did A, B, and C. Then he proposed that the best educational system would be character-based. As we sat there wondering what that meant and how to do it, he gave us the answer: ATIA!
Yes! He already had just the product guaranteed to turn out godly, happy, families and build the Kingdom of God here on earth. All we had to do was get ourselves to the Advanced Seminar (Oh, my, we're really getting wise now, going to the Advanced Seminar!) So, like lemmings under a spell, we went blindly following this man and his "wonderful wisdom"
I do feel angry now over the way these "products" have been sold to so many under the guise of godliness. When I think back to those "wonderful" weeks of the conference every year, and to the seminars, what I remember is that we came out of those weeks more enthralled with BG, not with Christ Jesus Himself. I would re-tell all the awesome stories I could remember. But, though we sang wonderful hymns together ( and that was one of the greatest parts of the conference), I really didn't learn to love Christ more there.
This website has really opened my eyes to the way I was held in bondage still, though ATI is years behind. BG has had a great deal of influence in churches throughout the country. Now I'm living in a different area in a different church, and I find the influence there. Just recently I was with a group, and somehow the talk turned to Bill Gothard. The comments were that he was such a humble, wise, man. When I told them I was in a Bill Gothard/ATI recovery group, they laughed. But I was serious.
Sorry to be so long-winded here. Just venting.
I find it interesting that bible describes us as sheep. We often follow these people without questioning and looking deeper. Those who do are often accused of being critical or part of what they call a critical ministry or church.
The reaction of those you told regarding your association with ATI and IBLP isn't surprising.
Definitely rejoicing to be free from that prison. Such a great, detailed, well written article!
"...I can say that the look and smell is nearly identical to that of conventional fish emulsion."
You sure it isn't Snake Oil? :D
Seriously though, this is alternately hilarious (Sonic Bloom?!?) and humbling (I bought into the whole "godly music" line myself for more years than I should admit) and revealing (Gothardism rests on the integrity of a charlatan). Good job!
I've believed this for so long, that I even wrote a comment about it on a homeschooler's science project a month or two ago. This definitely helped open my eyes.
I've been wrestling with whether "rock" music is good or bad for the past 6 or 7 years. The questioning became stronger when I was really touched by Tenth Avenue North's "By Your Side" and couldn't figure out how God could work through it in my life if it was evil. Every time I had questions, I just read "Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement" by Dan Lucarini, which would satisfy my questions, for a while. I'm sort of free from that now, but unfortunately, I think that it will take years to get rid of the feelings of guilt and rebellion every time I turn on the CCM radio station.
I would never consider 'By Your Side' a rock song, by any means. It has a pleasant, rhythmic back beat to provide support structure for the song, but that's about it. I guess according to Bill's principles, anything with a back beat is rock, which really doesn't make sense.
Yeah....... As a musician, the whole ” striving for excellence” thing didn't hold water, technically...at all. Um, hey guys...... Bach has both syncopation and dissonance. :) the whole thing was total crap. There are also lots of contemporary christian songs that don't transgress the ” rules”, but at least when I was in Indy we weren't allowed to play them. Yes, different music sets different moods, but 1. A mellow mood can be accomplished with many different genres (Simon and Garfunkel's Sound of Silence is awesome) and 2. There is no biblical requirement to be in a mellow mood all the time. Sometimes you're on a long, solitary road trip and you need some Jethro Tull to keep yourself awake. :-) (full disclosure-I love classical music. It will always be my first love. But that has nothing to do with the misinformation disseminated by IBLP.)
the whole "striving for excellence" is a crock- mainly because if we could be excellent, there would be no need for what Jesus did on the cross- we can strive but scripture has already told us we will fail, thus the need for grace.
I really think it had more to do with Gothard's personal taste in music than anything else- like the ”godly hairstyles” all over again.
I've never heard of Sonic Bloom, probably because I've had almost no contact with IBLP since I left in early 1997. But I'm not surprised in the least. I was one of four (2 guys, 2 girls) picked to prove that rock music had a negative effect on the heart beat. We were taken to a doctor's office, hooked up to an EKG and listened to music through earphones. The first music was Petra "This Means War" then after a short rest one of the many instrumental albums IBLP sold was played. Guess what? It didn't prove anything. Didn't prevent Bill from telling all the attendees at Knoxville his theory was right. It also reminds me of this miracle cleaning solution called "Rub-it-Out" that Bill paid some 15 year old kid a ton of money for. I was in Purchasing at the time and somehow Bill made this my special project. It was basically dish soap, mixed with some other random items and was supposed to be the mother of all stain removers. I also ended up having to tell Bill it was no better than any other cleaner out there, in fact inferior to many. He wasn't pleased. I could go on and on, including being the one tasked to buy taser's to test for the snake bite theory some have mentioned earlier.
Oh my--I couldn't stop laughing over the fact that the poor innocent kid named his product "Rub-it-Out." How could his parents let him call it that? That's hysterical.
Also, Mike, my curiosity is killing me... After buying the taser, were you supposed to intentionally get a snake bite so you could test it out? What purpose would you have for buying a taser for testing purposes, unless there was a plan to get bitten? If that was EVER put into one of my job requirements, I'd be outta there! Hahaha!
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Sonic Bloom is just the tip of the iceberg. CharacterFirst and CTI is a massive cash cow to the tune of millions yearly. Have a look:
http://inthesetimes.com/article/2450
And this is just the beginning of the abyss... do your own research and share with your family and friends what you find. Silence is consent.
"And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dare
Disturb the sound of silence"