I wrote this email to the Earth Day organizers. Email addresses are here:
http://earthdayconf.businesscatalyst.com/contact.html Wrote to Neale, Gorlin, Low, and Hawk.
Here's my email to them. I urge others to write also, feel free to use my email as a model. With any luck we can get him pulled. If not we can contact local media and police and urge an investigation since likely he's going to be recruiting students there to come to his workshops and take drugs.
-----------
Hello,
My name is Dr. Al Carroll. I'm a history professor at Northern Virginia Community College, teaching American, American Indian, and Latin American History. I'm also a moderator and volunteer researcher at NAFPS or New Age Frauds Plastic Shamans.
We investigate and put out warnings to the general public about imposters and exploiters who pose as American Indian medicine people for profit, to gain a cult following, or otherwise abuse those with an interest in Native spiritual traditions. More on NAFPS is here at this link.
http://www.newagefraud.org/about.htmlI'm writing to each of you with strong concerns about one of the presenters at your Earth Day Conference, Erick Gonzalez. We have a thread devoted to research on Gonzalez.
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3420.0As you can see, Gonzalez is an imposter who poses as a Mayan healer. He is not Mayan at all. A true Mayan would identify which of the several dozen ethnic Mayan groups they are part of, Kiche for example, and likely would also identify by their community.
A further sign of him being an obvious imposter is taking an alleged Native name which is not even Mayan, but Nahua or Aztec, from central Mexico and not Guatemala, and him not even knowing the meaning his allegedly Indian name.
Gonzalez is criollo, Latin American but entirely of white European ancestry. He has no standing or support among Mayans in Guatemala. What he does is sell "pay to pray" ceremonies that he pretends are Mayan to non-Native people in northern California and elsewhere.
A true Native medicine person would not be trying to profit off of Native traditions. They would not go to make money in the US, but would be where they are most needed, among their people. Both his imposture and exploitation of Native traditions are deeply offensive to Native traditionalists and regarded as crass and unspiritual.
In addition you can see at the link that Gonzalez promotes illegal drug use and abuse. His "ceremonies" involve heavy use of amanita muscaria, which is very dangerous, destructive, and illegal.
He also gives out peyote at his "ceremonies". It is illegal to sell, possess, or use peyote, unless one is an enrolled tribal member and a member of the Native American Church (NAC) who use it under very limited controlled circumstances. Gonzalez is neither an enrolled Native nor an NAC member.
Gonzalez is listed as doing a "workshop" at your event:
Is Gonzalez planning to give out or encourage the use of illegal drugs?
How would it look if the media were to receive reports of illegal drug use (or promottion of drug use) going on at a conference at a public university?
Even if he is not planning on handing out drugs, likely he will recruit students to come and take drugs at his "ceremonies."
As you can also see at the link, there are complaints of Gonzalez operating an outright cult or cultlike conditions, of people pressured into giving him all their money or valuables, of dissent not being allowed at gatherings, and of damage done to the health of those at his faux ceremonies.
In the strongest terms I urge you to reconsider having him at your event. Such an exploiter should not be given legitimacy by having his name associated with such a noble cause as Earth Day.
Though it is unfortunately only a short time til your event I am urging other members of NAFPS to contact you. And should Gonzalez be giving out "workshops" at your event and recruiting for his cult, I will do my best to contact local media and law enforcement and urge them to investigate him and any drug sales or abuse he carries out at his workshops.
Thank you for your attention to this matter,
Dr. Al Carroll
