to think my friend has joined a cult?

[PumpkinPieInTheSky]

Known my friend for years, she is lovely. Funny, clever, friendly, raises loads of money for charity etc. One day she got her eye lashes done as a one off for a party and got chatting to the lady who was doing them. This lady persuaded her to buy a product from her - I remember my friend saying at the time that it was a hard sell and she didn't want to buy it.

She did buy it though and she is now hooked and now sells it too. She thinks others need to be persuaded as hard as she did to buy it. She genuinely believes she is providing a really helpful service and has stopped all her usual charity fundraising and all time is spent on "helping people change their lives" - ie sell them this product too.

On FB of anyone questions it she shouts them down and copies and pastes paragraph upon paragraph of "research" on it and then blocks the person.

She is being tagged in all sorts of posts about it now after some kind of huge meet up at the weekend, examples -

"So totally mind blowing experience over the past 4 days with amazing people. Abso loved every min of it guys thanks so much. Can't even put into words how i feel right now. The emotions, the ambitions, where this company is going. The scientific research is flawless... the peer study reviews OMG this is just the start... & where we not only as a company but where we as a team are going... this is ready for take off..."

"This was by far the most amazing experience ever, and to think this is work is just insane. Love the products, love the business, love the people and the positivity surrounding everything we are doing. "

"I'm sooo motivated to take my business to the next level and I want you all to join me!!! I want to make your life better, your family and friends life better. I promise... I can do this for you, all you need to do is PM me and give me a chance to prove it.
Life is too short to wait!
I don't want you looking back in a years time thinking "I wish I took a chance" own your own life starting today. I guarantee it'll be the best thing you've ever done ??
Come to this event tomorrow night (Details in the poster below) I will sort transport for you. An hour is all I ask, it will change your life. You've got absolutely nothing to lose but everything to gain XxX"

What has happened to my lovely friend? It is all she talks about now :( I miss her. Any problem you have she has an answer...her product! Some friends have bought it to shut her up but she doesn't even stop then - she wants you to buy more and more and then start selling.

a large % of the population are looking for some magic way to eat crap and still be slim and healthy.

^this!

She probably couldn't afford to eat Kate

I had a friend who got into Aloe Vera. It was all she would talk about, except the price. She was very tight lipped about that! We don't speak any more but I hear from mutual friends that not much has changed.

So is JP just well erm juiced veg?

I have a lovely friend who has just got into Forever Living - yes the brochure does look wonderful and everyone is brimming with health but omg it's so expensive and well I dunno just doesn't look plausible. She's trying to get me to go to one of the parties and I just hate all that crap, I think my dial for these kind of things is set to zero or maybe I'm just too cynical but it baffles me why anyone chooses to sell any of this stuff.

I also thought we had a mutual fb friend op, however mine is NuSkin, honestly, she is positively evangelical! It is painful!
I have never know her to be so, sort of, outspoken and amazed by life... 'Amazing weekend in spain with like minded wonderful people, taking control of their lives with a fantastic life changing opportunity'

I have know her since she was 4, It's like they have been brainwashed!!

I overheard a lady in my local Starbucks trying to hook a friend into selling a JP type product - she said it cures everything, even 'chest infections'!!

I felt like marching over & telling her that actually only antibiotics like doxycycline cure chest infections.

She was making the most ridiculous claims which are dangerous in my view if they stop people getting medical help for issues.

Have a 'friend' who does the FL thing. She posted a pic last weekend of the 'breakfast' her 'amazing' Dh brought her in bed, it was a few pills and 2 plastic beakers of some juice. I was browsing whilst tucking into the mahoosive fry up Dh brought me in bed. Was soooo tempted to post a pic of it with the same crap about how lucky I was :)
Same person constantly mentions how amazingly family friendly her company is yet she seems constantly away from her kids and has yet to make a school parents meet up due to her 'network marketing' career.
Its all a bit sad and fake

What I learnt this weekend is that Juiceplus isn't about our amazing products, it's not even our phenomenal business opportunity....juiceplus is about giving people a platform to create a better life for them and then families. It's about being part of something bigger than yourself. It's about understanding in life that when you put others first you'll be rewarded with everything you want.

Please give me a platform on which I can create a better life for me and my family. I want to be part of something that is bigger than me.

And as a bonus, I suppose I won't have to eat the carrots?

I have a friend who is a recent convert to the FL. It really upsets me. She is vulnerable and suddenly it's taken over her life and Facebook. Someone else I met once at a toddler group found out where I lived and turned up on my doorstep and blinking well tried to see the FL stuff to me.

I wasn't v polite.

Who is buying this shite, that's what I don't get.

How much does a platform cost ?

As an alternative to this platform, here is a link to a free booklet about how to eat more fruit and "veggies" (it is an Asutralian site).

OP, perhaps your friend would like a print-out?

You can buy fruit and veg cheap in asda and whizz em up in any old blender. Works a treat and a lot cheaper than Juice plus

Ah, but if you buy your own fruit and veg you don't get The Platform. You only get a teeny tiny step - hardly even a step. And how are you then going to create a better life? How can you be part of something bigger without The Platform?

And don't ask how much The Platform costs - how could you put a price on creating a better life?

What a lot of bollocks.

There are a loads of these things around. One car locally has what looks like one of those 5 litre bottles of engine oil as a decal on left and right of the rear bumper. On closer inspection it's advertising some sort of Forever aloe or some such fraudulent wank

The other one that fucks me right off is Thermomix advocates. It's a very expensive blender. But if you've heard the sales pitch how you cured your kids' autism with home-made-in-one-wonderful-device soup, and you want, you can't just go online or to John Lewis and buy it. Oh no. You have to get a fucking personal in-home demo. And no, they won't tell you how much it costs before the demo.

Fuck that.

Yawn (at your friend I mean, not you OP!)

a JP rep once messaged me (friend of a friend) after hearing I had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, she told me it was AMAZING and I should talk to the women whose been on JP for years now and is now in 'remission' from fibromyalgia...

I told her where she could shove it.

My Facebook is full of Herbalife evangelists. Amazing business opportunity etc (yawn)

There are a loads of these things around.

I was quite surprised at just how many there are. You can see some of the brand names here

This is the kind of nonsense they spout at the training sessions:

I'm so sorry your friend bought in to it, OP.

A friend of mine has got into the aloe vera juice thing and was trying to recruit me, showing me 'evidence' and business plans.

I couldn't understand how a mature, sensible and intelligent business woman could be so taken in by what is obviously a pyramid selling scam.

I've had to hide a friend's fb posts thanks to her obsession with 'igniting' her life/future/business and the lives of those around her by flogging FL. If you didn't know her the superficial image of her life that is projected looks amazing, fact is her 'amazing husband and business partner' is a lazy oaf and that she lives 'an aspirational lifestyle that is available to all who choose the path to financial freedom' does not reference just how much she has on credit to 'project the right image' for her business. She is/was a lovely woman and I do feel as if she has been brainwashed in some way, I hope she wakes up.

Given that I live a sheltered life and I've never heard of J+, am I right in thinking that it's basically a smoothie?

Oh it is so much more than a smoothie. So much more

It's nutritional supplements and shakes that are supposed to contain lots of concentrated fruit and vegetable juice extracts. I looked into Juice Plus because I am genuinely interested in health products and earning opportunities but I heard that the sellers manual actually tells people to post exaggerated claims on Facebook like they are going to quit their job and sell Juice Plus full time, they are going to buy a new car/holiday etc, even if that's not the case, which I don't think is right. The hype surrounding it really put me off, I'd rather hear real facts and figures.

Oh, my lord, does anyone remember "women empowering women"? There were a lot of families and friends broken up after that particular pyramid selling scambot.