by Katherine Jones, Brisbane, Australia

8 September, 2012

Dear Josh Robertson, Liam Walsh and the editors of the Courier Mail,

I am writing in regards to the article published in today’s Courier Mail about Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, titled “New age ‘medicine’ of Serge Benhayon leaves trail of broken families”.

As a sometimes resident of Brisbane, and as someone who up until two years ago lived in Brisbane and read the Courier Mail almost daily, I am well aware of the style and journalistic approach you take in publishing your paper. Sometimes it’s newsworthy, sometimes it’s beat up rubbish. Most of the time I give the public the benefit of the doubt, and the truth comes to light. Most of the time your paper presents the story in an honest and open way, and is enjoyable to read. I hope you realise you’re not giving Brisbane the whole story in this article and have sold Brisbane short, which is a shame as your paper has a long and lovely history as a part of my hometown city’s lifeblood and day to day way of operation.

Serge Benhayon has always presented to me as only holding the highest integrity in his way of being and in the way he presents his workshops. My personal experience with the Universal Medicine clinic and its practitioners, has been one of integrity and of the highest practical application of massage and the other modalities that I have experienced there. By this I mean that I have had massages in other clinics, and from my own observations I found that Universal Medicine’s methods and practices are second to none in method, hygiene, openness and simple application. I feel that you have skewed the truth and misrepresented key facts in this article that colour the reader against the supporters of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon. I don’t know who this advantages, but it isn’t an honest and open representation of the individual or the group you are presenting.

Also, as to what you have presented in your article – ‘and to not allow their partners to touch them without permission’. Hey guys, last time I checked, if you touch a woman and she hasn’t given you permission, it amounts to sexual assault. Since when is the woman not allowed to decide who touches her body and when – ESPECIALLY in our society? And going to bed at 9pm is a pretty accepted means of bettering one’s health. Massage is an accepted form of healing as a complementary healing modality in terms of its benefits in lowering stress and therefore at times heart rate / blood pressure and other knock on effects, not to mention that lymphatic drainage as a result of massage is also accepted as generally beneficial to health in a number of different medically therapeutic scenarios.

And you know what? When marriages break up, it’s sometimes not a bad occurrence but just part of life. Not that I personally know what was going on in the marriages involved but I do know that whether people are married or not, sometimes a relationship runs its course for both parties or one party moves forward and the other one chooses to stay where they are. It is upsetting for many. But we actually live in a society that allows marriages to break down and does not force a man or a woman to stay in a relationship against their will, and we hold this as a very valuable reflection of free will and personal choice here in Australia. Personally, I would rather not be living in a lie or a marriage of convenience, but in a relationship that could stand the change of lifestyle that espouses drinking less, smoking less, going to bed early and eating more responsibly for my body, and choosing to be more honest in how I live on a day to day basis (which to my understanding is what I have personally got from my interactions with Universal Medicine – that these lifestyle changes can lead to a feeling of wellbeing and allow more room for the fun parts of being in modern society).

Anyway, my personal history with Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon began about four years ago, and during the period since then, through my own motivation and choice I have chosen to stop smoking marijuana, stop other drugs and alcohol, stop smoking cigarettes and stop going out ‘partying’ until the wee hours of the morning. I am in my 20s and still lead a perfectly normal life, having ‘normal’ relationships with my peers and family. Universal Medicine has been a support and a presentation of what can work for people based on how people ACTUALLY LIVE – with all the choices I have made coming from my own experience and observations and not because ‘Serge Said’. To allow a 40 year old man to tell me what to do as a grown woman is absurd, and classing me in your article as a ‘devotee’ is demeaning and personally insulting, as is the insinuation that the only people who follow Universal Medicine are women. Are you somehow telling women they are naturally fools? What era are we living in that you can honestly feel that it’s ok to print that?

As a young woman who lives in a world where the Kardashians are the norm and there is so much pressure to conform to look and act in ways that aren’t natural or gentle on my body, I have found that what Universal Medicine teaches in its workshops is simple and honest and very straightforward when it comes to modern living. You as journalists and as editors of a major news source have access now to a real story, that is the hundreds of people who are making changes simply and honestly in their life in ways that so many more wish they knew how – that is, being able to cope with the pressures of modern life, to have the strength to give up the vices that the media are already telling us are giving us ill health later down the track, and to live in a more harmonious way with the modern world. You guys already have a great ‘mind body soul’ section in your weekend paper, what a great vehicle to share the stories of those who are actually living better for having had contact with Universal Medicine in a variety of ways. It would be great to see this published and not just the stories of a few who have an agenda and are full of emotional backlash against those who they see as having responsibility for the parts of their lives they’re choosing as competent adults not to take responsibility for. Maybe you’d find that the reason Universal Medicine is actually so popular is that what Serge Benhayon is teaching actually works. Not to mention the modalities are lovely to receive and the workshops are very enjoyable.

I look forward to seeing the other (more true and more interesting) side of the story published in the near future.