The law is in effect. Complaints can be filed.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2008/uksi_20081277_en_1"Misleading actions
5.-(1) A commercial practice is a misleading action if it satisfies the conditions in either paragraph (2) or paragraph (3).
(2) A commercial practice satisfies the conditions of this paragraph-
(a) if it contains false information and is therefore untruthful in relation to any of the matters in paragraph (4) or if it or its overall presentation in any way deceives or is likely to deceive the average consumer in relation to any of the matters in that paragraph, even if the information is factually correct; and
(b) it causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise."
So, now all dishonest business people can be easily asked to take responsibilty...
In regards to Cleargreen inc., they advertising workshop in Great Britain this summer. All the ad material is going perfectly under the penalties of this new law.
We will go through this ad material point by point, but now i want to bring your attention to misleading by "it or its overall presentation in any way deceives or is likely to deceive the average consumer in relation to any of the matters in that paragraph, even if the information is factually correct; and
(b) it causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise."
This is how cleargreen inc. picturing their session with the nagual Carlos and his unforgettable character... one can get high reading about such kinda cute little fella encouraging kids to dream good dreamy...
From cleargreen's advertisement of Bath workshop:
~unquestionable bodily knowledge that you are a dreamer. You feel you are a dreamer with all the cells of your body.
The Art of Dreaming
"What do you want?" the nagual Carlos Castaneda asked a group of students gathered in a movement studio in Santa Monica.
"What do you long for?" Florinda Donner-Grau asked them.
"You've been recapitulating, reviewing your lives, for some time. You now have energy…energy to dream…So I'm asking you the same question don Juan asked me, the same question I asked each of you when I first met you: 'What is your heart's desire?'"
The students paused for a moment.
"Maybe some don't remember that you asked them that before," Florinda Donner-Grau said to the nagual.
"It takes energy to pay attention," the nagual said, "to retain new information, or new questions. And it takes energy to know what you want-and even more energy to claim it! So-What do you want? Eh?"
"I want to dream!" exclaimed one student
"Dream what?" the nagual asked.
The student paused.
"I want to be part of a collaborative team that builds a community," another student said quietly, "where people can live well and they can… well, I don't know," she hesitated, "it's a really big dream…"
"What is it? Keep going!" said Florinda.
"Well, I'd like it to be able to generate its own power, and have fruit trees and vegetable gardens, and lots of community space, a place where everyone can participate in decisions, and where people don't have to work two jobs to pay their rent and feed their families."
"And?" questioned Florinda.
"And?" questioned the apprentice back. "Do I dare dream that?"
"Yes!" said Florinda and the nagual in unison.
Everyone laughed together.
"We get caught in our fear," the nagual said, "fear that we are not enough, or we fear that others will say 'No'! And we keep our dreams small."
"So, how are you getting along with your sister?" Florinda asked.
"My sister?" the student asked. "We're getting along okay," she stammered, "not too badly, fine."
"Really?" Florinda asked.
"Well, there's just this one thing. I really want her to come with her family and visit me in Los Angeles, and for several years now she just doesn't come."
"You mean she says No?" Florinda asked.
"Yes," said the student. "I always have to go and visit HER. But I wonder, what does this have to do with my dream?"
"Everything!" The nagual said. "If you want to get along in a community, you could start with getting along in the community of you and your sister-dreaming her, and your relationship with her."
"We are far more accustomed to nightmaring than to dreaming!" Florinda added.
"True," the nagual agreed. "Recently, we've been practicing the Plumed Serpent magical passes," he went on, "a mythic form allowing us the freedom to integrate earth and sky, the dreaming body and the self, recognizing that we are indeed in a dream. Now, let's learn its counterpart - The Singing Earth Serpent - a form designed to help us practice the art of specific dreaming…here and now, on this earth!"
The students spread themselves out in the room and began to move, following the movements of Florinda and the nagual, swaying from side to side, balancing from foot to foot, opening the breath and stirring centers that had long been dormant. At one point, while on the floor on their bellies, each student started to hum. Then they sat and hummed…stood and hummed…until finally the air around them was a vibrating mass of sound.
"What do you feel?" the nagual whispered after a lulling moment.
"That my insides are vibrating in tune with my outsides!" said one student
"I feel tingling in my cells," said another.
"I feel that we are all connected," said a third
"You are feeling your essence," the nagual said, "which is intent itself, vibrating, alive, delicious! Intent is affectionate, the organizing web of the universe. From here you can track the trail of intent in your life, and how it links with the trail of your lineage. You can begin to dream with purpose."
"All dreaming, in some way or other, is group dreaming," the nagual continued. "This takes us to the second gate of dreaming. We don't open up to a new dream in isolation. Even our thoughts are connected to others'. As don Juan pointed out to me, awareness is an actual environment, where information travels instantaneously, just as it does within any tensegrity system, from a single cell to the universe at large."
"Now, what about your sister? How do you feel now?" Florinda said to the student who had expressed her dream.
The student smiled, her eyes beaming: "Well, from this new place, this issue of her visiting is really not so important. I can go see her. My sister is really a great gift in my life-there are so many wonderful things we've done together…"
"Track those moments!" said the nagual, "stalk them-those events of 'YES!' Write them down! And share them. And focus on those events, where doors were opened, rather than focusing on the 'No' moments and getting in knots over them. Let those 'Yes' moments form the trail you follow with your sister, with everyone, with everything in your life."
"I want to feel this way, all the time," the student said.
"A part of you, a part of everyone here, HAS been feeling this way your entire life!" the nagual said. "You just didn't know how to access it consistently-that flame of infinity inside, reaching out to touch and intermingle with the dreams of others-those that are like yours and those that are different-interacting with all that infinite diversity. Yes!"~
And here is another picture of the session with the nagual Carlos and his dreams:
From notes of Corey Donovan:
" March 28, 1997, Dance Home, Santa Monica 8 - 9 PM
[All of Cleargreen, including Travis from Mexico, with the exception of Florinda, Barbara (the Moon Child) and Karina, were on hand, along with 13 of us from the Sunday class: Daniel, Larry, Paul, Greg, Marcos, Thorton, Virginia, Nina, Darby, Keith, Pablo, Kathleen Seligman and me.]
Bruce greeted us with the Star Trek "V" salute, saying "Hale-Bopp" as we arrived.
Castaneda started with a breath with square fists raised in front of the body at either side about shoulder level, then bringing them in so that the knuckles were facing out in front of the body, arms close together, for the inhale. Then exhaling out as you bring them out to the sides and look upward.
"I heard that several of the Heaven's Gate group had had themselves castrated some months before they 'left.' What is this? You need your balls to be able to journey. They were waiting for a spaceship to pick them up and take them to heaven. There is no heaven. Infinity is a constant battle, a struggle. There is no heaven where they're going to be taken care of, where everything is going to be made nice. This is the Flyers talking." Taisha mentioned that they had had quarters and five dollar bills packed near them. Kylie excitedly added that the brother of the actress who played Lt. Uhura on Star Trek was one of them. Castaneda said that the same issue of the Los Angeles Times that had so many articles about the cult "had on the cover a big picture of rituals for Easter in which people are acting out the crucifixion of Christ." Carol pointed out that it was on the cover of the "Life and Style" section. "The newspaper didn't seem to see any inconsistency in condemning the cultish behavior of this little group and celebrating this accepted cult and its rituals.
"The leader had been in a mental institution. We love that. So they cut off their balls so they didn't have to think about sex. To be pure. You need your balls. Don't cut off your balls.
"It's some weird mixture of awareness and technology, that they think awareness requires this advanced technology of the aliens. This idea that their pure souls, what was left from their bodies, was going to be 'collected by the mothership' reminds me of China, when they used to have someone come around each morning collecting the shit. 'Any shit today?' People would be paid for their shit, because they'd use it for fertilizer. Here they have the idea that the spacecraft is coming down to collect our shitty souls.
"It's like the way they killed monkeys where I grew up. They'd build these cement holes and put nuts in them. The holes were just big enough for the monkeys to put their hands in, but not big enough to pull their fists out. I saw it: the next morning you find these monkeys with their hands bloodied. Sometimes they manage to break their fists and pull them out, but they can't let go of the nuts. We're like that. We're not willing to let go of this little thing we see--these little idealities. We grab and hold on and they take us to our deaths, just like the monkeys.
"Travis has changed a lot. He can't be Memmo. They've got Memmo by the balls, his parents and his family and everybody. Memmo works for them all." Nury piped up, "And now he works for us!"
"You'd be happy if your family wasn't in your life. That would make it easy. So pretend they're not. If they call you, don't answer. If they send you a letter, don't respond. That's hard for us to do. We're just trained--what a horrible thing not to respond to a letter. But it's . . . it's wonderful, to get a letter and not even read it. Just look and see if there's a check in it, and throw the rest away. So if you get a letter from your parents, just don't read it.
"He [travis] found the sacred lake where the Dalai Lama goes to meditate that the other one [meaning Tony Karam] couldn't get to. But Travis had no problem. And they don't like him because he's not even spiritual. I'm sending him a load of energy. He's become Travis McGee. Memmo--I don't give a shit about Memmo. Memmo's not going anywhere. But Travis McGee is a big question mark." He gestured behind himself and said, "We're not a group. There are weird genetic connections," then gestured to Nury, "That one. It's not that I own her. It's not like your parents who think that they own you. Like Lorenzo's father Morton, who hasn't seen him in 30 years but calls when he realizes he's getting close to dying. Then the great scene the following day when he calls to tell Lorenzo to get some things and to tell him to charge him for them, and he keeps calling him 'Joshua,' which is the name of his son by another marriage."
"Lorenzo had asked me if he should get together with his dad, and I told him, 'Sure. He's not your father anymore. You've changed. You can be with him and be completely unaffected.'
"It's because the Blue Scout is a horrendous being, because she moves so fast. It's not just because of the genetic connection. If that's all there was, go fuck yourself. I don't care about that. It's the fact that she's such a fighter and moves so fast. That's what has me delighted, and gives me no end of pleasure.
"Travis found some Mexican curios, made of orange peels, that spell out 'Tensegrity.' They look like something that belong on a Mexican shrine, for the Virgin of Guadalupe. Hey, we should sell a Virgin of Guadalupe that says 'Tensegrity' on it! The Germans would love it. They'd buy them. And since French won't be allowed to the workshop, we'll have Germans and Dutch. They'll buy all these little trinkets." Zaia said she would buy one. Someone wanted to see it, so Talia said they'd bring it in the next day. Nury suggested that he find some cheap shoes they could sell, and that they call them "Travis T's." Castaneda joked they could be pointy on top, to keep off the Flyers, and someone suggested "steel pointed tips."
"As Pope Carlos the first, I should sell indulgences. Wouldn't you like to buy an indulgence," he spoke toward Nury and Zaia. "For an indulgence, you could eat anything. Anything!" Lorenzo piped up, "Indulgences for indulgence, huh?"
"Memmo is this fat creature, and Travis isn't. But there's still this fat other creature."
"Nyei, when we're on the phone, has this computer that starts quacking." Fabricio started laughing, guiltily, since he must have been the one who selected quacks as the error signal. "But she's really malicious. I'll ask her, 'Nyei, is that you?' and I'll hear her quack too, but she does it in a lower voice, it's not the nice, pleasant quack of the computer. It's the voice of 'Frank.'"
For about 10 minutes we were practicing on our own and chatting. I talked to Greg and Keith, and then chatted with Carol, because Castaneda was talking with Nury, after he gave her a kiss.
In the last 15 minutes, he had us practicing the long form, which had had some modifications since I saw him do it two weeks earlier. I couldn't do the jumping parts of it very well.
"I'm going that way, and I'm not asking you to follow, but how great it would be if you could go there too. But it requires remaking yourselves." -Carlos Castaneda
So, in this instance, Cleargreen inc. will have to prove that they pictured Castaneda and their relation with him not in misleading average consumer way to influence his(her) decision to buy the service.
