Harry Palmer

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Harry Palmer (born April 3, 1944 ) is an American author and founder and owner of Star's Edge International, which markets the Avatar course system he developed worldwide. According to the German Avatar website, Avatar teaches course participants a "series of mental processes". "And as the procedures developed, they literally became a key to the secrets of the universe."

Education

Harry Palmer attended the Clarkson College of Technology in Potsdam , New York State , in 1962 , but dropped out of engineering studies. He received a Bachelor of Art in English from Ithaca College, New York , in 1969 . He was qualified to teach English in a high school and initially worked as a teacher. In the autobiographical part of Palmer's main work The Art of Liberating Life, it says on page 22: “I took 69 exams. Magister majored in English, History, Philosophy and Educational Psychology ”.

Scientology Mission in Elmira

From 1972 Harry Palmer ran a Scientology mission in Elmira . In 1975 he founded The Elmira Mission of the Church of Scientology and the following year he received a license from Scientology that allowed him to use materials and brand names to which L. Ron Hubbard held the rights. In addition to the company name Scientology Elmira , Palmer also offered Scientology courses and auditing under the name Center for Creative Learning .

The mission initially had to pay 10% of the income to Scientology as license fees. Later the license fees were increased to 15%. When Palmer stopped making payments to Scientology in 1984, his Scientology license was revoked. Since Palmer continued to offer Scientology courses, he was sued by the Church of Scientology for illicit use of the Scientology brand name. Scientology won the trial in the second instance and the Elmira mission went bankrupt. In May 1987, Palmer and the Church of Scientology finally came to an agreement. The parties have agreed not to disclose the exact content of the agreement.

According to former employees, when the mission was nearing its end, Palmer's supporters were asked to take out bank loans and purchase course packages at a "special price". They would have paid an average of $ 60,000 for such a package, while customers paid over $ 160,000. When Palmer left Elmira, some of his former supporters in Elmira were facing financial ruin.

Avatar

1986, began to develop the Palmer course system "Avatar", and founded in Orlando , the company Star's Edge, marketed worldwide, the "Avatar". According to Palmer, what a person experiences is determined by their beliefs or by what they believe deeply. According to Palmer, if a person wants to change something in their life, they can do so by changing their beliefs. Avatar should enable the course participant to "create" desired and desired beliefs or realities of life and to "discreate" undesirable beliefs. Those who have reached the level of the “wizard” at the end of the complete course series have “such an understanding and control over creation” that their “skills seem magical or supernatural”.

The first version of the course used Scientology jargon . Palmer initially marketed Avatar as a "rundown" that was the "final conclusion of the case". The rundown covered "the whole span of the Scientological bridge", as well as "the way of Buddha". The term rundown is used within Scientology for a series of thematically related so-called auditing steps, closing the case means for a Scientologist to have reached the goal and not need any further auditing. The language of the course was later revised and terms typical of Scientology were removed. Star 'Edge today markets the course as "a series of experiential exercises that will help you unlock the knowledge that is already in your consciousness and align your consciousness with what you want to achieve."

The Avatar course system consists of an Avatar course, a master course and a wizard course, whereby the Avatar course consists of three and the master course consists of two course parts. The individual course parts cost between 267.75 euros and 7500 US dollars. The Avatar course is offered by Avatar licensees who pay between 15 and 25% of their course income as a license fee to Star's Edge. The provider of the remaining parts of the course is Star's Edge.

Course participants receive a brief description of the main technique of the Avatar course, the so-called Creation Handling Procedure (CHP), which they can take home. The remaining course documents must be returned to the trainer at the end of the course. All participants must sign a contract in which they undertake not to copy the course materials, not to take legal action against Star's Edge and to acknowledge that no Star's Edge employee or representative has promised that they will achieve certain results by attending a course be. According to course participants, extensive notes about the content of the course materials are undesirable. According to Harry Palmer, the course content is kept secret for economic reasons, to ensure that only qualified trainers can offer the avatar content, and to protect the course content from profaning .

Protagonists on German-language sites are u. a. Uwe Bühler, Lindau in Germany. What is striking is their claim to also cover medical / psychological topics without corresponding support, which in turn could correspond to the all-encompassing claim of Scientology.

Avatar is viewed critically by former course participants and Avatar Masters, cult experts and the media. Some are of the opinion that Avatar is selling old wine in new bottles at inflated prices, others see Avatar as a "psycho cult" or see similarities between contents of the "Wizard Course" and contents of the operating thetan levels of Scientology . Relatives and disillusioned course participants often report disturbances in their perception of reality and massive conflicts with the social environment, which apparently not infrequently occur after taking part in Avatar courses.

Harry Palmer, Star's Edge versus Eldon Braun

In 2000 , Harry Palmer began legal action against former Avatar Master and Palmer critic Eldon Braun. Since 1989 he has offered the Avatar course as a licensee. In 1991 there was a break with Palmer, who withdrew Braun's license to offer Avatar courses. The latter then published an article critical of Palmer on the Internet and developed as a competing product a course for self-study called The Source Course, which, in contrast to the Avatar course, whose content is kept secret, was designed for the general public. Braun offered The Source Course free of charge to people who could not afford the course.

Palmer sued Braun for copyright and trademark infringement, unfair competition , breach of contract, interference in business relationships and defamation. After several instances, Braun was eventually sentenced to pay damages of US $ 56,000 in 2005 . Palmer also claimed attorney fees in excess of US $ 350,000. In July 2005 Braun went bankrupt .

Missing license as a psychologist in Florida

In February 2006 the Department of Health of the US state Florida conducted an investigation into, among other things, title abuse . Harry Palmer was accused by his critic Eldon Braun (see above ) of calling himself a psychologist without having a license valid in Florida. Palmer signed a cease and desist agreement. Nevertheless, German Avatar Masters still claim on their websites that Palmer discovered the so-called technology (see Scientology) as a "psychologist".

Works by Palmer

literature

Web links

Critical Articles:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from April 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.avatarepc.de
  2. ↑ The art of living liberates. 6th edition, pages 15, 20
  3. ↑ Scans of documents in the avatar critic site avatarcult.info
  4. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 19, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / avatarepc.de
  5. ^ Eldon M. Braun (1991): The Wizard of Orlando
  6. ↑ sekten.ch: Conversation with Marianne, former Avatar Master ( memento of the original from October 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sekten.ch
  7. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated May 1, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.avatarepc.de
  8. ↑ http://www.religio.de/dialog/198/12_18-19.htm
  9. ↑ Harry Palmer and Star's Edge vs Eldon Braun, Case No. 6:00-cv-1662-ORL-31JGG
  10. ↑ United States Bankruptcy Court for Northern District of California Case No. 04-33139 DM7
  11. ↑ Statement from Star's Edge ( Memento of the original from May 9, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.avatarepc.com
  12. ↑ Page on the subject of “License as a Psychologist” on avatarcult.info
personal data
SURNAME Palmer, Harry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1944