The Art of Deception

[Sarama]

Dear Skeptics,

I am writing to you today to ask for your help. More than a year ago now the subject of Christopher Hansard was introduced and a fairly lengthy discussion followed which I myself took part in and though not in defense of this gent, but in the absence of any real argument from his detractors I encouraged them to go directly to the police with their allegations and how going online and simply name calling would do little save hinder their cause. It just seemed to me that no real argument was being levied, and as pointed out much later in the discussion, it was difficult for us entering the thread to understand just what the subject was about. In due time and rightfully so, one of the moderators closed the thread. Since then I have been in contact with one of the posters through email and have found myself in contact with many others as well, all sharing similar stories of sexual abuse, coercion, and all claiming that this gent lied to them and is falsely advertising himself as a Tibetan spiritual master or physician in 3 books. He has no credentials, yet he is still practicing in Victoria London in a clinic that apparently his former partner set up for him, something undoubtedly she regrets now. However many letters have been written to the Trading Standards and Health and Safety at Westminster which have been met with what I feel is an appalling lack of responsibility and response on their part given the seriousness of the allegations. It has also highlighted the need for regulation of anyone practicing in the public sector, or dealing with the public in the capacity of a health care provider or in this case healer.

It seems that while I was suggesting they take their concerns to the police that many of them had or were doing so on their own accord, but because Christopher Hansard had somehow convinced them –and sadly this is not uncommon- that the sexual favours he was requesting were part of their healing and or teachings, many of them are left with more or less paralysed with feelings of guilt and shame having consented to what was in reality an abuse of their practitioners power and authority over them when they were turning to him for help.

Below is the response that many were met with when they wrote about their various concerns to the Westminster Council.

“From: < principaltradingstandardsofficer@westminster.gov.u k>
To: <Courant Contributor>
Subject: Re complaint made to Westminster Trading Standarsd Service

Dear Courant Contributor

Your complaint concerning Mr Christopher Hansard has been forwarded to
Westminster Trading Standards for consideration. It would appear that
your complaint can be categorised into four main areas;
1) Firstly that Mr Hansard holds himself out as being a Doctor /Physician,
2) Secondly that he has inappropriate relationships with his clients,
3) Thirdly that there are hygiene issues associated with his practise
and.
4) Lastly that Mr Hansard has no formal training

The first area has previously been investigated by this Service and the
matter was raised with the General Medical Council. The GMC advised that
the controls on the use of the term Doctor or Physician only covered
such claims where they related to medical doctors or physicians of
recognised medicine rather than ‘alternative medicine.’

The second matter concerning inappropriate relationships is not matter
that Trading Standards can deal with as we have no jurisdiction in this
area.

In relation to the third matter concerning hygiene issues at Mr

Hansard’s premises I would advise that you contact the Environmental
Health team on 0207 641 3161 or email
EHConsultationTeam@westminster.gov.uk with the details of your
allegation.

With regards to the matter of Mr Hansard having no formal training it
would appear that there is no legal requirement to have formal training
to practice alternative medicine.

I am sorry that we are unable to be of assistance in this matter.

Regards

Principal Trading Standards Officer
Department of Community Protection
Westminster City Council

5th Floor
City Hall
64 Victoria Street
London SW1E 6QP
Tel: 020 7641 2474
Fax: 020 7641 1702
Email: tradingstandards@westminster.gov.uk
principaltradingstandardsofficer@westminster.gov.u k
Website: www.westminster.gov.uk“

Contributor’s also wrote to Balen’s insurance who presently insure Mr. Hansard, without such Christopher Hansard could at long last be legally closed down as it is illegal to practice without liability in the U.K. Below is Balen’s response and denial of coverage. Something we have come to learn was not so, though one can hardly blame them for denying their support of such an individual, Balen’s was indeed still insuring Mr. Hansard at the time of this reply,

“From: “Balens Specialist Insurance Brokers” <info@balen.co.uk>
To: <Courant Contributor>
Subject: RE: info@balens.co.uk - Attention Balens

Thank you for your message- all very distressing

We do not insure Chris anymaore, but you and others could contact
Witness who give help to sufferers of abuse by health and other
professionals“

The Christopher Hansard Courant

Christopher Hansard’s claims to be a "Lha Khu" or Thunderbeing from the Tibetan Tradition of Dur Bon.

Christopher Hansard's "Lineage"

His biography has appeared in many interviews and newspaper articles, but unfortunately I had to drag this up from the internet archives

CHRISTOPHER HANSARD & TIBETAN DUR BON MEDICINE

Christopher Hansard is a leading practitioner and Master Physician of
Tibetan Dur Bon Medicine. Director of the world-renowned Eden Medical
Centre in London, England, he is the author of the best selling book The
Tibetan Art of Living, Wise Body, Wise Mind, Wise Life as well as the newly
released The Tibetan Art of Positive Thinking . Until recently, Dur Bon
Medicine has been relatively unknown in the West. Coming from traditional
knowledge 17,000 years old, Christopher will be participating in a Solstice
Summit Celebration to honor the longest day of the year, National Aboriginal
Day and Mother Earth at the top of Mount Washington on Vancouver Island.
Thanks to Christopher s work as well as that of other Bon practitioners,
this knowledge is now being integrated into mainstream medicine in various
centres of Bon teaching.

How Christopher became a Master Physician of the Dur B&#246;n Medicine Tradition
is a remarkable story. His personal selection by the Tibetan Dur B&#246;n
cultural community, and the timing of when he was found was influenced by
astrological and cosmological phenomena present at the time. The B&#246;n
Community predicted Christopher s birth and when he was 4 years old his
teacher, Urgen Namchuk, found him in New Zealand.

Urgen Namchuk was a member of the Nam tribe who came from the remote
province of Amdo in Tibet. The tribe is known for their mystics,
physicians, adepts and shamans. He had been watching Christopher and
recognized him as a gifted child. Christopher says of this meeting: "He
arrived late one afternoon as I was playing on the beach with my parents. I
had been expecting him, and hadn't wanted to leave too soon. We recognized
each other immediately and my training began that day."

After 4 years of initial tutoring in the pre-Buddhist and B&#246;n spiritual
teachings of Tibet, Christopher was deemed an appropriate student for
complete medical training and at that time, began a nineteen-year study of
Tibetan Dur B&#246;n Medicine in the B&#246;n Northern Treasure School.

His education was vast, spanning major surgery, 27 forms of acupuncture, 27
physiotherapies, 11 million herb combinations, 11 forms of psychological
therapy and 108 psychiatric practices. I was taught a system of medicine
whereby I could look at a plant substance and, based on instinct and
extensive botanical training, would know how to use it, no matter where I
was in the world . Study of the Ancient Tibetan Dur B&#246;n culture, herbs and
acupuncture went side by side with a modern western education. By 13 he was
preparing herbal remedies and observing treatments and at 18 he was eligible
to practice medicine unattended. His training was considered "complete" at
the age of 27 and he was then encouraged to travel the world. He lectured
extensively in the USA and came to set up a practice in the UK in the early
90's.

Christopher is known in Tibetan B&#246;n culture as a Lha-khu or "Thunder Being".
A Lha-khu creates the right processes to fulfil his purpose and consciously
designs his life before being born. According to B&#246;n tradition, a person of
this quality comes along only once every 700 years. A Lha-khu is an
incarnation of the energy of medicine, a person specially chosen and trained
from an early age to transform this vast knowledge into human experience.
Coming at a time of great worldwide upheaval and dissatisfaction, the
Lha-khu shows people how consciousness manifests itself in illness and
thereby awakens them to their innate healing potential.

By reading 300 pulses on each wrist and looking at the eyes, skin and
tongue, he can immediately interpret illness and essential life problems. A
Lha-khu sees beyond the medical, interpreting energy levels and instantly
knowing a person s state of consciousness, past, present and future. We
create a lifestyle which is an expression of an inner state, and blind
ourselves to who we are. When I treat people, I reveal to them what their
illness is saying to them. Usually they have been doing things which are
merely a statement of their deepest angst and do not understand their
motivation. Most of us allow little time to heal, filling our life with
busy-ness to create the illusion of enhancement, but at a certain age we
come face to face with this and find a need to come alive to our deadness.
Humanity's collective energy and consciousness is speeding up and many
people will be unable to tolerate the shift. Everything is moving faster
and people are feeling each other s pain around the world. This is an age
creating a need born out of dissatisfaction like an itch at the end of your
soul that you can t quite scratch. But the desire for change is enough to
set things in motion and it has already begun. This desire means that we
have the same energy consciousness as the Lha-khu, but we must let go of
preconceived ideas of what constitutes medicine. Medicine is never what you
expect it to be.

All biographies were written by Christopher himself and then submitted for various websites, workshops, Public Relations campaigns, and of course his books.

I think many of the forums were an attempt to draw attention to this matter only after their many pleas to the authorities had left them demoralised and traumatised.
Probably the most upsetting thing is that he was, is attracting just the sort of passive, compassionate, and somewhat religious people to him that are self blaming or whose only way of coping with their encounter is to tell themselves it was part of some higher lesson or power and such beliefs are only exasperated with all the self-help crap currently lining the shelves which constantly encourages us to “look on the bright side” or in this case “look the other way” entirely.
If that is what helps to cope with this tragic situation, then who am I to take that away, however it has left them and many others impotent and not able to do anything at all in regards to stopping these abuses from continuing and so they go on.

Please Remove Christopher Hansard From Practice


In the meantime Christopher Hansard is merrily writing his blog everyday, his books continue to enjoy circulation that in turn guarantees not only his income but future ‘willing’ victims. He also continues to blatantly deny any wrong doing claiming to have never had any inappropriate relations with clients or students, and is attempting to gain any credentials presently to uphold his story.

It would seem that his victims are either still in therapy themselves, too frightened, scared and ashamed, or trying their very best to forget and put he and the entire ordeal behind them, and those who have tried to do something have been met largely with apathy sending them further into depression or other such equally demoralising states of illness.

What to do Skeptics, because surely something must be done?
This is not a man who is going to stop on his own accord and it would seem those hoping that going online and telling their stories would serve as a wake-up call to him, are sorely mistaken. In the absence of consequences, it seems to have only given him that much needed thrill and the challenge he is seeking in his own treatment rooms.

[Sarama]

New sCAM Regulations do not cover "Master Physicians of Tibetan Dur Bon Medicine", "Lha Khus", "Thunderbeings", "Spiritual Preachers", "Tantric Teachers"... you get my point

I do not like my odds here, 152 views | 0 replies
but will be back to post some more, and possibly some ideas for others who run across the same problems I have found in confronting those who do not seem to fall under any of the proposed regulations.

Strange non-response from the Trading Standards, no response what so ever from Environmental Health, GMC, and statements have been submitted to the Met. There is a petition targeting some of these organisations and "Bonny Prince Charlie" and a number of blogs, but I do not think any of these things are bringing his victims any closer to redress, nor have they managed to remove him from practice thus far.

If anyone has any ideas of who to direct concerns to in the government, please post them here, or any other suggestions for that matter.

A quandary of quackery to be sure!

[Dubious Dick]

Sounds like a real sh1t. Hope that some of his victims get up the courage to follow through with criminal proceedings. Probably the only way to get him unless he makes unsupportable claims to be able to cure specific illnesses.

Somehow maybe you can get through to some of them that they will be saving others from the same fate, and that in doing so they may be able to come to terms with their own sense of gullibility?

I would like to offer more help but not sure how right now. I will ponder on it though and get back if anything useful comes to mind.

[NorthernSoul]

Has anybody who has researched this situation contacted newspapers. "Government turns back on Sexual abuse victims" would be a great seller for The Sun, The Mirror, or any other newspaper for that matter.

[Croydon Bob]

Is this the address of his clinic?:

CHRISTOPHER HANSARD LIMITED
Victoria House
64 Paul Street
LONDON
EC2A 4TT

It is in London but is in the Shoreditch/Bethnal Green area near Liverpool Street station (the Borough of Islington?), not in the Victoria area.

Or is this just a front address for his company and the actual clinic is elsewhere? If so, where?

[Pebble]

Quote:
His education was vast, spanning major surgery, 27 forms of acupuncture, 27
physiotherapies, 11 million herb combinations, 11 forms of psychological
therapy and 108 psychiatric practices.


My thoughts are that this guy's CV screams charlatan at you. I doubt even in Tibet he would have been involved in 'major surgery' as for 27, 27 followed by 11, 11 clearly just figures pulled from the air or with supposed mystical significance.

If the victims won't come forward, then the options are I think very limited. While the CV is pure fantasy, you would have to prove that and that it is only because of specific claims that his customers attend to show a breech of Trading standards.

His claims from a 'therapeutic' view point are so nebulous as to be meaningless, and unless he claims to cure conditions then the use of the term physician is not legally restricted.

I agree that only if a newspaper or television program could be convinced to take up the challenge of gathering sufficient evidence to publish would you have any real chance, however, having been burned relatively recently on this score, I imagine they are being rather cautious.

Without something concrete, I cannot see any legitimate way forward. Picketing his clinic might raise awareness though.

[NorthernSoul]

Here are some more things to consider:

A Downing Street petition urging them to investigate the clinic (post the link to the petition on skeptical websites)

E-mail charities that deal with sexual abuse about the clinic.

E-mail every news source imaginable, Al Jazeera, BBC, etc etc, even e-mail independant shows, Loose Women, Jeremy Kyle would be good ones. E-mail each seperately, if they think its an exclusive and no other broadcaster or news media knows about it, they are more likely to report it)

Create a myspace profile and myspace group, post the links to skeptical websites and any website that deals with sexual abuse.

E-mail Trading Standards informing them that following their complete lack of concern, you have taken the action of informing main stream news sources and will pass on the names of Trading Standards staff who have ignored these abuses to those media sources as you see fit (nobody wants their name plastered across a newspaper as aiding an abuser)

E-mail skeptical podcasts and blogs.

E-mail the MP for the applicable areas.

E-mail the insurers telling them that you have e-mailed main stream news sources about the situation and have felt it necessary to name them as the insurers of the clinic.

Contact local universities and colleges Journalism students,

E-mail any and all staff at the clinic other than the gentleman and inform them of your suspicions.

Finally e-mail the gentleman involved and tell him every step you have taken and send him every link to any groups, blogs, petitions, you have created and give him the oppotunity to defend his practises.

It might also be a good idea to e-mail GP's in the local area, and e-mail other people who practice what this gentleman claims to practice.

Make the subject line of your e-mails as shocking as possible. As I mentioned earlier "Government turns back on sexual abuse victims" might be a good one.

[NorthernSoul]

Inform book stores or websites selling his book of the allegations.

I would suggest contacting his ex-wife, but that might not be a good angle if people decide she is just trying to spite him in some way.

If you can convince just one of the victims to talk to the media, annonymously even, then that would be a huge leap in the right direction.

[NorthernSoul]

Always make it clear that you are seeking an investigation in to the allegations, and that thus far government agencies have failed to undertake such an investigation. Remember that these are just allegations and if they turn out to be untrue and you smur the mans name you're going to feel awful later, however convinced you are now.

[Pebble]

Always make it clear that you are seeking an investigation in to the allegations, and that thus far government agencies have failed to undertake such an investigation. Remember that these are just allegations and if they turn out to be untrue and you smur the mans name you're going to feel awful later, however convinced you are now.

There is the rub. Raising awareness and trying to get allegations investigated is very different to harrassment. If you go down the suggested route of internet based harrassment, then it is sufficient that you cannot prove the allegations, not that he is innocent, for this to blow up in your face.

[NorthernSoul]

I agree, any campaign should not be aimed at the man himself, but at the failure of organisations responsible for protecting consumers and their failure to investigate, I think that is the avenue you should persue.

[NorthernSoul]

Investigate Christopher Hansard rather than Stop Christopher Hansard. The media are going to be far more intested in attacking the government than in attacking one guy who's written a couple of books and tricked a few people. I'm sure that sounds like I'm underselling the case to those who are interested in it but it's how the media will see it.

[Sarama]

That all sounds like 'sound' advice and I think everyone I know is involved needs some fresh perspective or at least to hear the perspective of those that have not been directly affected.

Approaching the press then sounds like the best route to go then really after all other possibilities have been exhausted, and to press foward with an investigation.

There are more then enough people willing to come forward I believe to testify to the fact that the man created the entire story who knew him before in New Zealand and when he first came to London.

Not long ago they posted a letter on Rick Ross that Christopher Hansard sent around trying to dig up more business. He is currently practicing at 6 Lower Grosvenor Place in Victoria, just above Bravo Travel. Bet he's wishing he could take a trip to anywhere else right about now.

Thank you all, and please keep it coming. It is very much appreciated!

[Sarama]

Just one more thing, he practices alone. His clinic on the Kings Road went out of business due to some rather suspicious business practices on his part and on the part of his sponsor and various investors. Allegations started appearing on the internet around the same time, or perhaps a little before the demise of that clinic, though it seems he has had many close call or scrapes through out his career. Like his ex-wife, and former fiancee, all his reported victims who have come forward or attempted to confront him directly, are of course being accused of being scorned or spiteful women and many ex-patients are strategically being referred to as "affairs", as opposed to abuses. Again, not an entirely surprising tactic, if not for its overuse and obvious predictability.

After the Kings Road, he and his partner at the time moved his practice to Victoria. His partner it seems chose to stand by him in the midst of allegations and attempted to get him professional help, but it was reported he hand-picked his counsel and his present therapist was a fairly recent past patient herself, thus another person with a serious lack of ethics and boundaries. Her name has not been released yet. So it would seem that Christopher has chosen to surround himself in like company and only with those who support his delusions. Nothing surprising there.

Partner has since bowed out and is reportedly in contact with the police.

[Sarama]

If anyone has contacts in the press who would be interested in a story, by all means drop their names here!