Some more info from German Wikipedia:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Gr%C3%B6ningPublic Appearance
During the years following WWII, several persons claimed to have been healed from health issues by Gröning's efforts. In the aftermath of a press article in March 1949 on an alleged success, numreous persons seeking to be healed went to the town of Herford. Gröning claimed a „godly power going through him“, which he called the „healing stream“. The large goiter he had and which is to be seen in photographies, Gröning interpreted as a beneficial bulge caused by this power. Persons (predominantly women and elderly persons) sought to be healed by a personal contact, by participation in mass events with Gröning present, by applying an object sent to them by Gröning (usually a small ball made from tinfoil), by going to a place recommended by Gröning on which he promised to concentrate healing waves, or simply by concentrating their thoughts on Gröning.
The „Gröning balls“, tinfoil balls about the size of a pigeon egg, were distributed during events or sold, and sometimes even entered the black market economy in the town of Munich. According to Otto Meckelburg who managed Grönings enterprise for some time, they contained Gröning's hair, drops of blood, or footnails.
A large following built up who saw Gröning as a „miracle doctor“. The Bavarian government has files on inquiries containing reports on healings or improvements in cases of chronic pain, neuralgias, and asthma. On the other hand, health damage also occured, e.g. in a patient who stopped taking insulin relying on Gröning. In 1949, municipal authorities of Herford banned Gröning's activities, with the state government of Northrhine-Westfalia to take the same step shortly afterwards. Gröning then moved to the Bavarian towns of Rosenheim and later Mittenwald where he was able to practice unchallengend initially. Up to 30,000 persons came to see him per day. A German magazine during this time published sensational reports, making their edition soar by 100,000 copies to a total of 400,000 per week.
Pubilically, Gröning rejected payment, but received donations from many diseased. According to a media report, several assistants were needed to open the daily coming letters containing money. At least from 1950 on, Gröning's activities had to be paid for. A police file dated June 1950 said that persons seeking to be healed were made to pay amounts between DM 25 and DM 2,500 each to an „Association for the Research of Gröning's Healing Methods“; during two mass events, participants had to pay an entrance fee which went up to DM 300 in some cases. In 1950, a journalist reported that short group sessions with Gröning, seeing about 100 participants, cost an entrance fee of DM 10. It is not known where the money went. Gröning and his partners later on accused each other of having had an excessive lifestyle with „downright orgies“. Until 1950, more than DM 100,000 were said to have been taken in without any regular book-keeping being done. Gröning claimed not to known this.
Legal Action
His activities brought Gröning in conflict with the law, since he had no licence as a non-medical practicioner. In a first process in 1951/52 he was acquitted from having violated the law negligently, but nonetheless was banned from further healing activities. Gröning then applied for a licence as an alternative healer which was turned down August 12, 1953 due to his not being suited.
Gröning then resorted to so-called lecture tours to numerous towns in Bavaria and in the Southern parts of Germany, claiming Article 4 of the constitution guaranteeing religious freedom, with the further claim that lecture were no treatments as per the law regulating the activities of non-medical practicioners. However, Gröning did practice rituals in order to send the „healing wave“ to the audience, and had photos, tinfoil balls, and tinfoil plates distributed or sold. These events were usually organised by non-medical practitioners in the respective towns, or by locally founded groups called „Circle of Friends“.
I also add this, although it is not as much about Gröning and the existing organisations promoting him, but sheds a light on the environment which accepts and recognises these organisations, i.e. the Newage market.
http://www.agpf.de/Groening.htmGröning Circle of Friends fakes UN prize
This is a report on the CoF, in July 2013, claimed to have been awarded an international peace price by the United Nations. The prize,, however, did not come from the UN, but from an organisation going by „World Peace Prayer Society (WPPS)“.
„CoF claims WPPS was UN-affiliated which is not correct. WPPS is just one of numerous NGOs registered with the UN [and perhaps this may be worth given second thoughts as far as UN is concerned]. The WPPS website publishes no report about any prize allegedly bestowed on CoF.“
However, WPPS is probably worth a second and third look. They were founded by a Japanese author; nowadays, the organisation's president is the deceased author's adoptive daughter (it's always somewhat murky when organisational leadership is passed on in the family).
WPPS has plastered the internet, so many of the sites coming up sing their praise. So does this book:
„Oneness: How to Live with Joyous Expansion, Ease, and Lightness“, written by one Shalini Asha Baloo from Canada.
The author promotes several charlatans in the fields of alternative medicine, commercial life counseling etc. Baloo lists several books as references:
2 books by Newage author Deepak Chopra
3 by Hicks Law of Attraction, Money and the LoA
2 by Roman Living with Joy
2 by Doreen Virtue Angel Medicine
3 by Neale Donald Walsch
This is his entire list of references, and he only mentioned the last names of the authors.
Esther and Jerry Hicks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_HicksA former Amway distributor and before that a circus acrobat in Cuba, a musician and comedian, Jerry Hicks later in life turned an author. With his wife Esther, he wrote books like the Law of Attraction series which were „translated from a group of non-physical entities called Abraham“. Ah soooo.
Sanaya Roman:
Amazon says: „This text presents a systematic course in spiritual growth that aims to help the reader to transform their life, discover personal power, and awaken to the truth of who they are.“
Doreen Virtue:
She was married to Steven Farmer, a Plastic Shame-on we already got threads on:
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3596.0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doreen_VirtueNeale Donald Walsch:
http://www.psiram.com/ge/index.php/Neale_Donald_WalschWalsch has published several books and does lectures. He built up a network of spiritual enterprises: self-help books, seminars, study groups, films and world-wide lectures in which he seeks to prove the truth of his insights with his own biography of success, with him first being homeless and then leading him to economic and spiritual success through divine revelations.
There are support groups called Humanity's Team all over the world. They claim to be a „human rights movement for the soul“. A Humanity's Team Germany (HTD) was founded in 2004. They failed to gain the status of a non-profit. They claim that members were free to chose how much they pay in the way of membership fees („on average, members give about Euro 10 per month“). In 2013, the HTD website claimed a membership of 130 persons.
