pretty scary

[Guest guest]

The following article about a snake oil salesman was in today's WP. His book

has sold millions of copies and is on the bestseller list as contrasted with

Dr W's books which have never made the bestseller list.

Wait, There's More

By Libby Copeland

NEW YORK

On this, our lucky day, Trudeau is introducing us to his personal

electromagnetic chaos eliminator.

Trudeau, who has sold millions of books by touting the curative properties

of things such as magnetic toe rings and crocodile protein peptide, believes

the sole thing keeping his brain from being " microwaved from the inside out "

by cell phones and radio waves is this electromagnetic whatever. We are

intrigued.

" Would you like to see this magical device? "

Boy, would we!

On a publicity tour in the suite of a midtown hotel room, Trudeau unbuttons

his fine white dress shirt.

This seems like a good time to note how extremely well-dressed Trudeau

is, in the fine tradition of TV salesmen and televangelists. Over the dress

shirt is a butter-colored tie that precisely matches the pocket square

tucked into his luxury Brioni suit. He wears alligator shoes. On his left

wrist is a Rolex Masterpiece dripping with diamonds, and on his right ring

finger is a rock so big a child could choke on it.

Over the years, Trudeau, an ex-con who never went to college or medical

school, has been remarkably successful doing infomercials for everything

from how to achieve a photographic memory to how to cure your addictions to

how to beat cancer by ingesting a particular type of calcium that, as fate

would have it, he also happened to sell.

Now he sells the most popular nonfiction book in the country, according to

Publishers Weekly. In " Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About, "

Trudeau explains how a massive cabal formed of the federal government,

pharmaceutical companies and the media is keeping Americans from living well

past 100. He advises everybody to get off prescription drugs, even if they

have serious problems like diabetes or blood clots; he reveals how multiple

sclerosis can be cured by magnetic mattress pads.

He says sunscreen doesn't prevent skin cancer. Instead (wait for it),

sunscreen causes skin cancer.

But back to the microwaved-brain problem. Trudeau parts his shirt and

reveals a necklace with a disk of metal hanging on it. Glory of glories! So

flimsy, yet so powerful. This is the vaunted electromagnetic chaos

eliminator. It is called a Q-Link, and for a while lots of celebrities were

supposedly into it, before they joined the Kabbalah bracelet craze.

Beneath the Q-Link is another necklace with a black triangle pendant. This

is yet another electromagnetic chaos eliminator, and we stop Trudeau as he's

closing his shirt and ask him about it. Trudeau says he's not sure exactly

what it's made of or what it does; supposedly it offers some sort of

balancing " vibration. " He's just trying it out to see if it works, he says,

sounding a little sheepish.

" The guy who sent it to me is kinda way out there, " he says.

Trudeau's publishing company -- which he happens to have founded -- says

he's sold 4 million copies of " Natural Cures, " many of them through phone

orders. While those numbers can't be verified, his sales through traditional

outlets have been astonishing -- so far he's spent 16 weeks on the New York

Times bestseller list.

For those who want to save their $29.95, here are the secrets to health the

government is keeping from you, according to Trudeau:

Get an electromagnetic chaos eliminator. Do some " bioenergetic

synchronization. " Give yourself some enemas, and then give yourself some

more enemas. Wear white, for positive energy. Don't use a microwave or an

electric tumble dryer or fluorescent lights or artificial sweeteners; don't

dry-clean your clothes or use swimming pools or eat pork. Don't use

deodorant (causes cancer) or nonstick cookware (causes cancer) or watch the

news (stress alters your body's pH, which can make you get cancer). Remove

the metal fillings from your mouth, and you're all set!

Trudeau's " Natural Cures " also references several helpful Web sites. One

claims that if you stare into the sun every day while barefoot, you won't

need food anymore. Another sells an instrument that looks rather like an

index card but which promises to open a " temporal and spatial gate " that

" enables an individual's entire etheric system to interface with a very

large, complicated, partially automated, predefined healing process. "

Lastly, if you have depression, Trudeau writes, stop taking your medication

and by all means stop seeing doctors, who can't be trusted. Rather, go for a

long stroll outside every day and " look far away as you walk. "

If that fails, the book advises you to try Scientology.

Trudeau is a remarkable American success story in the grand tradition of

traveling salesmen with cure-all potions. He could sell you your own shirt

and leave you grateful for the bargain.

When he talks, his hazel eyes get big and he taps his listener on the knee.

He claims he knows important people in important places. He says he was just

on the phone with Kirstie Alley. He says he met Mikhail Gorbachev,

" fascinating guy. "

He's a victim. He's a martyr. He's just trying to help his fellow man. He

hasn't been sick in 25 years and he's going to stay healthy till 150 and he

might run for president one day because " there's 25 million people that

would probably vote for me. "

He is like a magician; you're watching his hands and all of a sudden there's

some confetti and a woman in a bathing suit and when you look back, lo and

behold, there's a dove. When you ask Trudeau over and over for proof of his

" natural cures, " he says his studies are unpublished; he says he doesn't

believe in studies; he says the studies are in the book -- but they're not

there. They're never there.

Watch the hands.

He does an infomercial with Tammy Faye Bakker Messner and manages to seem

utterly reasonable.

He makes the credit-card fraud and larceny he committed in his twenties

sound like no big deal.

Trudeau, who now lives in Ojai, Calif., east of Santa Barbara, grew up near

Boston. He says his dad was a welder and his mom a housewife. He went to his

first Amway meeting at 15, and there learned he wanted to be " financially

free. " He started a mail-order business, which he says netted him a $1

million profit by the time he was 18.

After high school he sold cars, then joined the seminar circuit, offering

techniques to help people improve their memories. It was during this period

that he says he got caught up in the fast life and making money. In 1990, he

pleaded guilty to depositing $80,000 in worthless checks. In the sentencing

memorandum, prosecutors said he impersonated a doctor when he met with bank

officials. Trudeau says he served fewer than 30 days.

In 1991, he pleaded guilty to obtaining and fraudulently using 11 credit

cards and served close to two years in federal prison.

Trudeau, now 42, has several explanations for his crimes: They were youthful

indiscretions and not as bad as they sound, and besides, both were partly

the fault of other people, and besides, he has changed. The larceny he

explains as a series of math errors compounded by the " mistake " of a bank

official. As for why the bank thought he was a doctor, that was just a

simple misunderstanding, because he jokingly referred to himself as a

" doctor in memory. "

He still can't quite believe he was prosecuted. " Give me a break, " he says.

The fraud he says he committed because he paid a bill late, which led to

American Express giving him a bad credit rating, which just wasn't right.

After that, no one would give him a credit card, which was " insane, " so he

had little choice but to apply for cards with fake Social Security numbers.

According to officials at the time, Trudeau also misappropriated for his own

use credit card numbers belonging to customers who'd signed up for his

memory improvement courses. The man formerly known as " Mr. Mega Memory " says

he doesn't think he did that, but adds that was a " very blurry time in my

history with all the stress. "

He calls that prosecution " outrageous " and says American Express and the

prosecutor had it in for him, rather like he believes the federal government

has it in for him now.

" It was a sad day because I remember walking into the courtroom and above

the courtroom it says these words which are completely untrue: 'Hall of

Justice,' " Trudeau says, relaxing in the hotel suite with fresh fruit and

magnetic water nearby. " And I thought, 'This is not the Hall of Justice

because this is not justice. This should say 'Hall of the Technicalities of

the Law.' Where's the justice? Where's King ? But I said, 'Y'know,

I've been focused on making money and what I did was wrong -- even though it

wasn't a heinous crime and I could justify it nine different ways.' "

In any case, in prison " everything got reprioritized, " and Trudeau says he

decided to stop focusing on money. He became buddies with a visiting

Lubavitch rabbi. He decided to try out being Jewish (he'd gone to Catholic

schools) and found out about " corruption in the Department of Justice " when

he had difficulty getting kosher food.

He decided his new mission was to help people. (The Jewish thing didn't

last.)

In prison on the West Coast, Trudeau hooked up with a fellow inmate named

Jules Leib, who was in for attempted distribution of cocaine. He gave Leib

some self-help books. When they got out, they went into business together,

making infomercials and selling health products as distributors for an

Amway-type multilevel marketing company called Nutrition for Life. Right

away the trouble started.

Bertrand, the former president of Nutrition for Life, remembers

Trudeau listening to motivational tapes " incessantly. " He says Trudeau was

" brilliant " and " one of the best salespeople I've ever known, " and recalls

that in 1996 the company nearly tripled its sales in large part because of

Trudeau. The man could sell because he seemed to really believe in what he

was saying, Bertrand says, but he repeatedly took it too far.

Bertrand says he became concerned that Trudeau was making overly optimistic

promises to potential distributors about how much profit they could make.

" We had a number of conferences where we asked him to cool it, " Bertrand

says. " It scared us. "

At one point, Bertrand says, he learned that Trudeau had promised free trips

to entice people to sign up as distributors. The trips never materialized,

there were complaints, and Nutrition for Life had to step in, says Bertrand,

and fund a weekend cruise for thousands of people.

" At the time he made the promise he fully intended to comply, " Bertrand

says. " He always intends to but he kind of gets carried away in his

exuberance. "

In 1996, the state of Illinois sued Trudeau and Leib, accusing them of

operating an illegal pyramid scheme. The men wound up settling with Illinois

and seven other states after agreeing to change their tactics. Trudeau and

Leib split up, though Leib still speaks fondly of the former " life coach "

who introduced him to the magic of multilevel marketing.

" He's probably one of the brightest guys you'll ever meet, " says Leib. " He

gave me Robbins's 'Awaken the Giant Within.' " (Later, Leib

encourages a reporter to try supplements. " I'm on this great liquid, " he

says.)

In 1998, Trudeau paid half a million dollars to settle a Federal Trade

Commission complaint that several infomercials he helped create were false

and misleading. The products included a " hair farming system " that --

according to the infomercial -- was supposed to " finally end baldness in the

human race, " and " a breakthrough that in 60 seconds can eliminate "

addictions, purportedly discovered when a certain " Dr. Callahan " was

" studying quantum physics. "

In 2003, the FTC came after Trudeau again. The complaint and a separate

contempt action centered on two products, one of which, Coral Calcium

Supreme, was being billed as a cure for cancer, according to the FTC.

Trudeau's guest on the infomercial, a man named Barefoot, went so far

as to claim that in cultures that consume a lot of calcium, people are so

healthy " they don't even have children until they're in their seventies when

they're mature enough to handle kids. "

This time, said FTC attorney Hippsley, the settlement was

" unprecedented " in its scope. In addition to paying $2 million (in part by

handing over his $180,000 Mercedes Benz), Trudeau agreed not to do any more

infomercials selling products or services. The only thing he would be

permitted to sell on-air was " informational publications, " and he has

greater leeway with what he can say in those because of his right to free

speech.

Hence, the book.

Trudeau points out that his settlements were not admissions of wrongdoing.

His attorney, Bradford, suggests that the terms of the most recent

settlement weren't terribly punitive -- indeed, this was a direction Trudeau

wanted to take anyway.

" Trudeau had made an independent decision that he really wanted to focus on

being an author and consumer advocate, " Bradford says.

Still, in his book, Trudeau claims repeatedly that he's the victim of

censorship. He likens the government to the Gestapo. He compares himself to

Parks and Gandhi. He says because of " this FTC suppression " he can't

recommend specific products to cure his readers' illnesses.

However, he says, readers can join his Web site. For just $9.99 a month or

$499 for a lifetime, they can gain access to the special members-only

section, and there they can e-mail him and he'll reveal his secrets.

Trudeau says he has considerable proof of the conspiracy working against the

health of the citizens of this nation, but the nation will have to take it

on faith. He says there are " government agencies " and " entire industries "

that are spending " billions of dollars " to keep people sick so they can

continue to make money. He says he has Nobel Prize winners as informants.

" I can't mention their names, " he says. " There's a lot of insiders that I

know, that are friends of mine, but I can't mention their names because one

of the reasons why I was capable of writing this book was I have so many

insiders that give me the information. . . . And this is why everyone in

Washington is frightened to death, and that's why the government is trying

to shut me up. Because they know that I know. They know I've been in the

meetings. You know what it's like? It's kind of like I've got the black book

with everyone's names. And they know: This guy starts naming names, it's

going to be out of control. "

Readers will have to trust that Trudeau knows of a doctor who found a cure

for AIDS, and that another doctor " discovered a serum that virtually made

cancer tumors vanish in 90 minutes " but " was completely shut down by the

FDA. " Trudeau never names these doctors. He says " researchers have concluded

that speaking the correct form of words and thinking the correct thoughts

actually changes a person's DNA, " but he never reveals who these researchers

are.

Readers will have to take it on faith that Trudeau will soon be putting

proceeds from the book and the Web site into nonprofit groups dedicated to

teaching natural remedies and suing the government. They'll have to trust

that they don't really need medications their doctors have prescribed and

that the supplements they're ordering over the Internet will work.

They'll also have to ignore the places where Trudeau stretches the truth:

What appears to be a back cover endorsement from a former FDA commissioner

is actually a 35-year-old quote. Quotes inside are purportedly from Bill

Gates in a television interview, but Trudeau puts more words in Gates's

mouth. ( " I paraphrased, " Trudeau says.)

Trudeau's book appeals to a nation that has been disillusioned by managed

health care, by rushed and impersonal doctors, by diseases that didn't use

to be diseases except these days everything has a name and a pill to go with

it. Ask your doctor if it's right for you.

Those who report success with Trudeau's book say they're discovering that

they've been overmedicated. They've cut down on this or that drug for this

or that minor problem and discovered they never needed it. They've tried the

book's most conservative recommendations -- eating organic foods, taking

supplements, cutting out sodas -- and write in to say they've lost weight.

Few appear to be curing their muscular dystrophy, or reporting success with

magnetic toe rings.

Some people post angry reviews on Amazon.com, saying they feel " ripped off "

and " gullible " for buying " Natural Cures. "

Some vacillate.

" It's a scary step to take, " says Joyce Nuuhiwa, 61, who lives in Honolulu

and has Type 2 diabetes. Nuuhiwa has read Trudeau's book, and she's

considering quitting both her medications and trying a combination of herbs

that Trudeau advises. (He writes in the book that this diabetes " cure " was

discovered at the University of Calgary, but officials there say they've

never discovered any such thing.)

Nuuhiwa is disappointed by what her doctor said -- that the disease is

progressive, that eventually she'll have to be on insulin. She wants to

believe the diabetes is reversible, and frankly, she doesn't trust

everything doctors tell her. She suspects, for example, that there's already

a cure for cancer, that Trudeau is right about the conspiracy. But she's not

sure if he's right about her diabetes.

She says there's something " slick " about him that makes her uneasy.

" If I could be assured that he's totally honest I would be diving into this,

but this is my life I'm talking about, " she says.

He is slick, but somehow likable, too. He curses and does voice imitations.

He is attractive, if not handsome, and people say he's popular with the

ladies. He says he has a girlfriend who's almost 20 years younger; she's a

student and part-time model.

He says he lives out his healthy living convictions. He says he recently got

back from an ashram. He says he carries a shower filter with him wherever he

goes, to eliminate the fluoride and chlorine he considers poisonous. After a

few hours with Trudeau, you think maybe it's not all just a show. Maybe he

really believes he's offering cures. Then he says this about that

funny-looking necklace he wears, the electromagnetic chaos eliminator:

" If it doesn't work, what's the harm? "

He reveals that when he was young he used to perform magic tricks at kids'

birthday parties.

Watch the hands.

" wouldn't allow us to have Equal in the office, " says Janine Contursi,

who briefly dated Trudeau in the 1980s and then worked for him in the '90s.

She remembers that once, when she worked for him, she threw out her back,

and Trudeau spent " thousands of dollars " to send her to an alternative

health clinic. There, she was offered tips on positive thinking.

Her back did get better, she says. But it could have been because of the

chiropractors.

Libby Copeland will discuss this article at noon tomorrow

athttp://www.washingtonpost.com/liveonline