“When you meet the friendliest people you have ever known, who introduce you to the most loving group of people you’ve ever encountered, and you find the leader to be the most inspired, caring, compassionate and understanding person you’ve ever met, and then you learn the cause of the group is something you never dared hope could be accomplished, and all of this sounds too good to be true-it probably is too good to be true!
“Dont give up your education, your hopes and ambitions to follow a rainbow.”
Jeannie Mills
Ex–member of The Peoples Temple cult (later found murdered)
The following is an overview, from beginning to end, of the Avatar Path. This is both a critical and alternative perspective of Avatar, rather than what is merely presented on Avatar’s corporate website, in their glossy materials, or what will be given to you by an Avatar Master.
It is based on dozens of experiences, including some long term devoted followers who were in Avatar for well over a decade (Star Masters, AIs and QMs).
It also highlights the unethical practices, doctrine and mind control ‘hypnotic’ exercises used in Avatar which are typical to those found in cults and deceptive business practices.
A Brief Overview
The first stages up to Section 1 of the Avatar Course (ReSurfacing) may vary person to person. The majority of people will not get past the Wizards Course.
The Wizards Course focuses more on the “collective consciousness”, the occult, entities, fully taking on the mission of an Enlightened Planetary Civilisation (an EPC) and also the concepts of secrets, transgressions kept secret and hidden agendas. This is when your psyche and your decision making subtly begin to be handed over to the Stars Edge Network. The agenda becomes about what is best for Harry Palmer, Stars Edge and the Mission. This is in ‘black and white’ within the Wizards course materials.
A quick analysis of these materials will highlight areas where there is clear ‘indoctrination’ and the hand over of your power to the Network.
From this point onwards the mission is all about creating an EPC and your role is “to get students” and support Harry/Avra’s mission.
Where the control and abuse really begins to kick in is from Internships onwards. Extreme control, abuse and exploitation is taking place within the Advanced Intern Program.
However, do note some people have had problems even with the basic Avatar Course. For some they get through it fine, for others, especially if you are more vulnerable, can suffer severely.
Recently, we have had cases in every fortnight from those who have suffered after the 9 day course and the Masters Course. Avatar will not be upfront about this!
What Avatar do not warn you about is the amount of hypnosis which is used on course. Hypnotic exercises are used EVERY DAY and are abused. Not everyone takes well to such mind altering exercises and they can be very dangerous for some.
For more information on unethical hypnosis used in Avatar, please go to>> ‘Avatar and Unethical Hypnosis’.
There are no mental health practitioners on course, nor anyone experienced to deal with really painful memories/issues. So please do keep this in mind. For the huge majority, you will be expected to go through past painful events and circumstances, which is not upfront to new students.
Avatar is as much about psychotherapy as it is consciousness exploration or belief management. Some students, even when I was “on-course”, said it was more intense than therapy. But note you are being led into these painful circumstances by the unqualified and they WILL NOT take any responsibility if anything goes wrong. The blame will sit with you.
Many of us have personally seen students who were dealing with extreme abuse in their life (sexual / physical) be made to feel responsible for these experiences (that they created it) and we still feel remorse for having been responsible for taking vulnerable students through the Avatar Course; only for them to be made to feel responsible for events they 100% were not responsible for (such as being continuously beaten up by their husband, raped, bullied by their peers or sexually abused as a child).
Avatar believes in “100% personal responsibility” which means you “create everything” and bring events into your world through your beliefs, no matter how painful, dramatic or unjust they were. There are no exceptions! This is despite there being no evidence to back up this philosophy which is taught as “truth” in Avatar.
Some may be able to deal with this and take it as a pinch of salt. For others, they will take it as truth and it can be very confusing for those who have had some shocking experiences in their life, or they are young and vulnerable.
For some others they can feel relieve from it, but this could be argued to be down to the fact that if you believe you “create it all”, then there is no unfinished business to be resolved or no questions which need answering. You created it through your beliefs….. end of story. You were never a victim and there are no perpetrators in the world. For the true fanatical Avatar Master, they will believe this to their core. They will believe this perspective makes them truly enlightened and they tower above those who speak out about abuse and injustice. There is little respect (if any) for the human rights of individuals.
From the prospective of many ex-Avatar Masters, the Integrity Course is pure brainwashing (focused on being ‘in Integrity’ in order to “create students” and build an “EPC”). The Professional Course is predominately about “group think”, “alignment” to the cause and “creating students”.
The Advanced Intern Program has zero transparency and is the subtle handover of your beliefs, your life, your commitment to the bigger picture and the worship of Harry Palmer and Avra Honey-Smith.
It is full of mind games and is psychologically and even verbally abusive. It has been very damaging for many who have exited Avatar and the Stars Edge Network (more than will ever be admitted by Harry, Avra and their Trainers). These types of exits have even resulted in hospitalisations and long term mental illness, only for the Master to be “dumped” by the group and blamed for it. Many have needed psychological intervention, have gone bankrupt, or are in severe debt. They can take years to recover and get their life back on track again. This part is not transparent to both new students or lower down Avatar Masters.
The Advanced Intern Program (AIs/QMs/Trainers) is what is considered within a cult to be the “elite inner layer”, whereas those on the “outside” of this inner layer are lower down and are useful by the cult to champion the agenda, and if any good, to bring in the money/students and positive PR for Avatar.
Important reminder: brain washing and thought reform is a slow process. It does not all happen in 9 days! It starts the moment you walk into the world of Avatar and continues into every course and internship you do….slowly striping away at your life, your relationships, your career, your sanity and your finances.
Some who never entered the AIP, but were at every single course for years, still lost everything. Their life fell apart around them despite ‘the front’ which was put on when attending course or interning. Again, this happens way more than Harry, Avra or Trainers will ever admit.
Also, different people have a different level of suggestibility (similar to hypnotism) to cult indoctrination. One person may also be more important to the group than another. For example, one person may have assets the group can use, another person may have the ability to be extremely loyal, or another may be a good recruiter.
There is a great deal of sifting, sorting and grooming going on ‘behind the scenes’. This is how cults work. Every person is treated differently.
It may also depend on your need to be loved and accepted. You may feel that the group is your “new family”, which is likely to pull you in further and deeper. At this stage you are in danger and need to step back, take a break and critically assess your situation, rather than be “in feel” as will be pushed on you within Avatar. Being “in feel” shuts off your critical mind and opens you up to cult indoctrination.
Feel-Its are just a form of both meditation and hypnosis. They are abused in Avatar. They cut of the critical mind for long periods at a time and severely alter a person’s sense of reality. People will react differently to them, just as people react differently to all types of mind altering exercises. This is not recognised or acknowledged in Avatar.
If you haven’t already, please visit the page: What is a Destructive Cult? And watch the first video. This will educate you on how they work, including the “outer and inner layers” of a cult.
Please also watch Margaret Singer’s video and her Six Conditions. She highlights the use by cults of empty mind meditations and hypnotic techniques used for days at a time, just as Avatar does. Even the voice of someone (such as Avra and Harry) can be intentionally hypnotic and is a mind control trick to get your attention and indoctrinate you.
Having this awareness is critical if you do decide after all your research that you still wish to take the Avatar Path.
If you feel uncomfortable at any given time, just remove yourself. Do not ever allow yourself to be manipulated, guilted or bullied into staying if it feels wrong. Trust your instincts!
The Avatar Path
Books
Most Avatar books are sold in Power Packs and accompany the courses. They are also sold individually as a way to entice people to do the courses. Harry Palmer claims that the books do the selling for you. However, hardly any of us actually saw this take place, with most courses being undertaken from manipulative and coercive practises, or the infiltration of business networks, corporations and schools.
The main books used in Avatar are as follows:
Living Deliberately
Living Deliberately is the foundation of the Avatar Course. The book is meant to be an outline of Harry’s search for a better way—for enlightenment—which ultimately led to the discovery and development of the Avatar materials, also presenting the background and foundation of The Avatar® Course in a clear and concise manner.
Deception: It is now clear the Avatar tools and materials were not found in the manner which is outlined in this book, but are instead borrowings of primarily Scientology, some Buddhism, Hinduism, NLP, Western Psychology, etc.
The truth is Harry Palmer created the Avatar Course within months of losing a course case to Scientology 1986. See the course case here <<
Thus, this book is pure fantasy and has little clout as to the development of Avatar.
There is now a disclaimer in the front cover that the events are meant to “entertain” and are not “facts”.
ReSurfacing Workbook
This workbook accompanies Avatar’s 2 day workshop – The Resurfacing Course.
[See Resurfacing Course for more detail]
The Avatar Path: The Way We Came
Harry Palmer claims this is the story of an awakening that has become a worldwide movement. However, hardly anyone has heard of Avatar or this book.
This book is used throughout the Resurfacing Course.
Note: that there are many events written in this book which are fiction. This is not brought to the attention of new students or practising Avatar Masters (even their devoted ones).
However, its important to highlight that tucked away in the front of this book is another disclaimer which says: “The characters and events described in this book are intended to entertain and teach rather than present an exact factual history of real people or events”.
The Avatar Path 2: Private Lessons
The 74 lessons contained in The Avatar Path 2: Private Lessons were extrapolated from the advanced Avatar Materials. They are intended to be contemplative slices of subjects rather than full explanations.
Deception: this book is used as “truth” in Avatar and many Masters, especially those on the Adv. Intern Program, are referred to this book for a reference point. There is also the talk of entities within this book, which shows that Avatar is leading you into an agenda which is not transparent at the beginning.
The Avatar Legacy
The Avatar Legacy is a book that follows the introduction and development of the Avatar story. The chapters are based on Harry’s recorded talks that he gave between 1995 and 2009. There are some new “lessons” within this book.
Harry quotes: “Here is a challenge: Take a starship crew, give them amnesia, and then sprinkle them across a planet with a few billion other beings waiting to wake up. Now see how fast you can sort them out and re-connect”.
Deception: Harry Palmer now makes it blatantly clear that the Avatar Course and Path is “religious” at its core. It is not about belief management, or merely a personal development course as has previously been claimed by Avatar. It is recruiting people into a cult which believes that they are part of an “elite few who have an ancient pact to save and awaken humanity”. And also to create, not only an Enlightened Planetary Civilisation but an “Intergalactic Civilisation”.
When you intern and/or become deeper immersed in the Group, your mission is to “awaken beings” and “awaken humanity”. This is not upfront at the beginning of your Avatar Path.
Info Hour
For an Avatar Master, we are encouraged to take all of our prospects through the Info Hour, no matter the circumstances.
An Info Hour includes:
- The Avatar Times Intro
- Watch Impressions video by Harry
- Read “what is Avatar” Brochure
- Read “The Compassion” Exercise
- Sign the person up to the Avatar Course
An Info Hour must run exactly as is outlined above.
If the person does not feel ready to do the Avatar Course, but shows potential, they will then be invited to do a Free 2 hour mini course (Introduction). Although this is free, and apparently no “strings attached”, this often can lead to pushing, manipulating, guilting and coercing someone to go onto doing the Avatar Course.
There are “no free dinners” as they say!
Be very aware if this is happening to you and be okay with saying NO and walking away!
Avatar Masters, especially the more devoted ones, can be master manipulators and know how to access your psyche. Be aware of this and walk away from it if it feels wrong.
The Compassion Project
The Compassion Exercise, although presented as being loving, compassionate, caring and enticing – is actually a front to lure people into the world of Avatar. It is not what it seems!
In the world of cults, this is considered a “recruitment tool”.
Although a Compassion Card may look pretty, consider the following key points:
- The Compassion Exercise, and project, are rarely referred to when you get into Avatar. You read it out once in Resurfacing and that is pretty much it!
- The Compassion Exercise is a stolen Buddhist exercise. It is not unique to Harry Palmer or Avatar.
- Avatar Masters are only compassionate throughout the recruitment process and in the beginning courses when you are getting “loved bombed”. As you get further into Avatar, their is little compassion in Avatar. Masters, QMs and Trainers turn from the most loving human beings, to being narcissistic, harsh, domineering and controlling. This gets worse the deeper you go.
- Once you get deeper into Avatar, everything is considered your Creation. You can even be encouraged to miss a loved ones funeral or the birth of your niece. There is no compassion if your family are upset or even you are upset. In this circumstance, you would be put on a program of Avatar exercises until you see the light and attend the next course, rather than your own mothers funeral!
The compassion project and the presentation of Avatar being about Love is a front! It is a good feel tool which makes you feel like Avatar is doing something positive in the world and to disguise its true intent and practises.
Please watch our video: The Compassion Project Deception.
Mini Courses and/or An Introduction
Often used as Free introduction sessions and used as bait, the mini courses are as follow:
- Awareness: Basic Attention Management
- Insight: Belief Management
- Determination: Basic Will
- Perspective: Creating Definition
- Compassion: The Forgiveness Option
- Integrity: Personal Integrity
- Alignment: Basic Life Alignment
These courses are also used throughout the main 9 day Avatar Course, which is not transparent. These accompany the main material for those students who are “stuck” and need to shift out of a “creation” or any resistance they may have.
Thus, the materials for the 9 day Avatar Course are:
- All books mentioned above.
- The main materials (see materials)
- The mini courses
- Back to back videos of Harry Palmers talks, watched every single day, whilst “in feel”.
Main Courses
2 day ReSurfacing Workshop (Section 1 of the Avatar Course)
According to Harry Palmer, ReSurfacing refers to the action of disentangling yourself from old creations and rising back into awareness. It is a process of revealing your self to yourself. The reward is discovering why your life works—or why it doesn’t.
Although many people do get something out of the Resurfacing course, it is important to note that there are mind control, hypnotic exercises, confessional exercises, borrowings of Scientology, belief management tools, borrowings of Buddhism, and a blatant “set up” to the future courses and indoctrination of Avatar’s beliefs system and doctrine. (this will be discussed more in our “detailed analysis section” shortly.)
Please note an Avatar Master will not take you through a Resurfacing course without holding the intention of getting you onto the main Avatar Course and through to the Advanced courses. They will have a QM they are ‘checking-in’ with to make sure you move along the Path, which is in alignment with the Group.
You will be discussed openly and freely. Nothing is confidential, no matter how personal. Your information is not always shared respectfully either and students have been know to have been discussed freely at lunch or dinner amongst AIs, QMs and Trainers.
Near the end of the course you can expect to be pressured and persuaded to sign up for the rest of the course (Part 2 and 3, see below), where you will find the good stuff. Instead it is advised to stop with Avatar for at least a week (especially if you are not sure) before making the decision to do the next course. This also gives time for the artificial highs of the mind altering exercises to wear of.
The Avatar Course (Sections 2 and 3) – 7 days
Section 2 and 3 are explained as being techniques to explore your consciousness and you begin to learn how to control your own mind. The end of section 2 is about bringing you “back to source” so you are creating as a “source being”. However, behind the scenes this will be about “your awakening”! It’s about awakening students from their “asleep” state into being ‘source beings’ who are “awake” and are “living deliberately” rather than by default. This is how an Enlightened Planetary Civilisation (EPC) will be born according to Harry and Avra.
This is one reason Avatar can be confusing. On the one hand it seems empowering and as though you are taking control of your life, on the other hand the intentions of a cult leader are the complete opposite. A common mind control technique is to teach you what the cult leaders are about to do to you (ie. teach you about indoctrination and beliefs, whilst actively indoctrinating you and spoon feeding you beliefs). It is a subtle process and a hard one to see unless you are aware, are able to use your critical mind and are able to question.
For example, you may decide you do not want to do a certain exercise or even continue and all of the sudden you are being pushed by an Avatar Master to move through your “resistance” or to go to the next course. Is it really your choice to move forward, even if you do not feel comfortable in doing so? Is there really ‘free will’ in these moments, if you are being unduly influenced, manipulated and even coerced? Is it really to do with something going on in your consciousness? Or is it genuinely because you just do not want to go to the next course?
The mind can play tricks on you, even when undertaking an exploration of your consciousness through Avatar techniques. Cult leaders such as Harry and Avra know this. What your mind comes up with may just be what it comes up with in that moment, but is it really what is going on for you? Or are you being manipulated to move through your natural knowing (instincts) which we all have been given to keep us safe?
Part 2 of the Avatar Course consists of meditations (called Feel-Its and Label-Its) which focus on objects, living things (including people), thought forms and labelling them with opinions and non-opinions. These will last several days until you are completely out of your mind.
The state you are expected to reach is not communicated to the student and this is when distress and past pain can arise. You will then check in with a QM and will work through any past pain or resistance you may have (you will be ‘checking-in’ several times a day for days at a time). Sometimes this may be fixed with a mini course if the student cannot get out of their mind and into feel, or they cannot move through their resistance.
How a student is progressed through the course and the state they are expected to reach is not even fully communicated with an Avatar Master, let alone the student. It is kept behind the scenes for QMs and Trainers. Some of us have seen terrible manipulations of a student’s reality through this process, including gaslighting (a psychological abusive technique), with the student having no awareness. This leads to the break down of the student and begins to strip the personality (although this is not obvious to a student as to what is going on).
Next you’ll do a series of affirmation statements (called the Source List and Reality Creation List), acting out (exaggerating) any conflicting thoughts (secondaries) until you create the primary affirmation as being real (i.e. you create in your reality “Im happy to be me”).
Again, the state you need to reach is not communicated and more manipulation of a students reality can take place. I had students leave the room and disappear for a good part of a day due to the stress they were under. This is seen as ok by a QM or Trainer and you are advised to leave them alone. For an Avatar Master, this is extremely stressful and their is no support by a QM or Trainer. Often the student may return (although not always – sometimes they request to leave). Again, it is all about stripping down the personality and bringing a student to their knees in order to “build them up” again. This is a common cult tactic and is even more common in Large Group Awareness Trainings.
Again, it is advised to stop and take a break before deciding whether to go onto the next step. For students that get through Section 2, they will be in a severely altered state with the feeling of “euphoria”. Please note this is not due to some mystical state of consciousness. It is prolonged days of meditative, hypnotic, mind altering techniques, the stripping down of the personal defences, which are built up with NLP affirmations and “self hypnosis”, topped with daily talks by Harry Palmer which are also hypnotic in nature and full of subliminal messaging.
You may stay in the artificial high for a few days, and sadly some completely crash back to earth experiencing depressive and anxious episodes. But at the very least you will have your own mind, with no influences as to whether you go on to do Section 3.
The same can be said about all courses and we STRONGLY advise against doing the Fast Track for this very reason. The reason for Fast Track is all about money. For the indoctrinated Avatar Master, AI or QM it is to keep you on the path of awakening. This is simply not true… it is about money.
If you struggle with anything outside of Avatar, you do not get any help, support or understanding. Your “awakening” is only important if you continue with courses and internships. It is fake friendship and fake community! The loving help and support you are presented with is purely to keep you on the Path of more courses and more internships. Once you stop attending, you will be forgotten about.
The Avatar Course (sections 2 and 3) is confidential, along with all other Advanced Courses. However, with the exception of Wizards, these courses are actually registered with the U.S. Copyright Office as being in the public domain, so the non-disclosure agreement you have to sign is meaningless. You will have to declare if you have read anything critical about Avatar and Harry Palmer too, which should set alarm bells ringing.
Your right to question and critique is important to your freedom and autonomy, so do not allow yourself to be manipulated to silence. This type of behaviour is again a sign that you are entering a cult and are being disempowered.
The Masters Course (Section 4: Awakening) – 9 days
Coming soon.
The Wizards Course – 13 days
Coming soon.
The Integrity Course – 9 days
Coming soon.
The Professional Course – 7 days
Coming soon.
Internships – 10 days
Coming soon.
The Advanced Intern Program (The Deeper Inner Layer of Avatar)
It can take “decades’ to get from a Junior Advanced Intern to a Stars Edge Trainer. The stages within the Advanced Intern Program are as follow:
1) Junior Advanced Intern
2) Tweenies
3) Advanced Intern
4) Qualified Master
5) Stars Edge Intern
6) Stars Edge Trainer
In some countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, if you are on the AIP you will be “constantly” on-course, with some AIs working 80+ hours a week and some QMs working 100+ hours per week. AI’s and QM’s are not on a salary by Stars Edge. They rely on the multi level marketing set up to get paid. They need students to survive and they need these students to progress to Advanced Courses to benefit financially.
Despite this, due to the low intake of students over the years, some barely get any money and are constantly borrowing of banks, loans and other Avatar Masters.
A rich Avatar Master is EXTREMELY rare and almost none existent.
If you are told otherwise, it is deception. At this stage ask them for the numbers, salaries and income levels for each stage of the pyramid.
Ask them to proof it!