Circles divide, rather than join
eight women investing at the bottom of the pyramid would have to recruit eight times that number, or 64 women, to get the payoff. Those women, in turn, must recruit 512 new people.
Being unsustainable, the numbers keep climbing until investors dry up and the pyramid crumbles.
Whenever a scheme putters out, at least 88 per cent of the people lose money, while the 12 per cent at the top make an 800 per cent return.
By the time a circle reaches its sixth level, there are 37,449 people involved. Of this number, 32,768 people will be on the bottom losing level. That’s a loss of more than $163 million.
The circle conditions its members through mind-control into believing the power of manifestation and positive thinking can override any of the emotional, mathematical and legal realities of the scheme. It exploits genuine spiritual values through a thinly veiled new age rhetoric that discourages free thought, and divides communities through secrecy and exclusive membership.
A ‘‘circle invitation training’’ document from Bali in 2014 instructs members to be ‘‘private’’ about circles and ‘‘discerning’’ about who they invite.
They are not to talk about circles in public places, to keep all documents in a private place, not invite women in the legal professions and only invite by telephone or in person.
One Auckland woman says she was always uncomfortable about the secrecy.
‘‘We are told not to do any research on circle, and they say anything bad written is all very much about men wanting to control women, that’s where they push it.’’
She says it reminds her of abuse: ‘‘The reason abuse can continue is the secrecy; people are too scared to speak out. There’s the big elephant in the room and no one talks about it.’’
FitzPatrick says certain types of women use circles as a ‘‘craft in commercial gain’’ and become passive-aggressive liars, pushers and promoters.
But there’s no grand group of kingpin operators at the top. Circles spread at a grassroots level between friends and networks and the majority of participants are naive and vulnerable women seeking financial freedom and a sense of community.
But when circles collapse, reality floods in.
Stunned, they wonder how they did it, having traded friendships in for prospects and commercialising every woman in their lives as a potential recruit.
They go into hiding, feeling immense shame and embarrassment.
‘‘It has a very corrosive effect on communities, breaking up families and relationships. You will seldom see people come forward and say, ‘let’s make this right and let’s tell the truth’.’’
An Aucklander says once a woman decides to leave circle, they often cut all contact and she completely loses her community.
‘‘Some feel trapped because of that. I imagine that’s very devastating for some, especially vulnerable ones.’’
Others dismiss the possibility of personal gain, insisting they gave their gift to offer spiritual and financial support to another woman.
Like one Golden Bay woman said: ‘‘I actually believed that my positive intention would see the abundance returned to me even if it didn’t come from circle. You know, ‘cast your bread upon the waters and it shall return a thousand fold’. So I did it in complete faith.’’
A Nelson woman says she watched in disbelief as the circles divided the communities around her.
‘‘My friend told me she felt she should join because she was being excluded from her friends, who had now all joined this gifting club, and a lot of their energy and focus was there now.’’
It became obvious to another Golden Bay woman what circles are really about when the one she was in collapsed.
‘‘During the discussions, it was made very clear [the money] was a gift, but when things turned around you could really see they were very devastated. They obviously hadn’t done it as a gift, it was an investment. ‘‘I don’t think anybody joined because they wanted to give their money away. It was kind of like the words they used to get around it. That really showed what the true motivation was: a money making scheme.’’