A Letter to Stars Edge

As part of this expose, we have reached out directly to Stars Edge, Harry Palmer and Avra Honey-Smith in the form of an email, accompanied by a list of critical questions we feel every single Avatar and Avatar Master since 1986 should get answers to. 

We believe ALL ex-Avatar Masters and current Masters deserve to know the answers to the following questions and that transparency and true care are part of creating an enlightened and compassionate planet, especially when the organisation has received approx. $20k per student and often the sacrifice of their whole life. (some are in debt hundreds of thousands and some Masters have handed over Millions of dollars EACH to this organisation).

Note: to this date (March 2023), there has not been any response from Harry, Avra or Stars Edge regarding any of our letters, our expose or requests for the release of confidential information, which is now being used as part of a smear campaign (i.e. that Amanda Reed is crazy) thus discrediting a body of work, information, evidence and support provided by dozens of contributors (i.e. ex-Avatar Masters, ex-Scientologists, family, friends, loved ones and cult experts).

Original Email Dated: 5th January 2018 AEST

Dear Harry Palmer, Avra Honey-Smith, Stars Edge Trainers and Stars Edge International

I am bringing to your attention an exposure in the name of Avatar Uncovered, led by myself, which has recently gone live on the Internet regarding the abuses, violations and injustices experienced by Avatar Masters and their friends, family and loved ones by your organisation over the years.

You may have some record of me on file as an Avatar Master and Junior Intern between the years of 2013 and 2015.  I will not get into the personal reasons for my exit, nor my experiences of your organisation in terms of abuse, lies, deception and financial exploitation.  These will be published shortly in the form of a Statutory Declaration, along with evidence I have to back up some of my claims within this document.

After recovering from your organisation, which has taken me years, I began to investigate your abuses, injustices, violations and the nucleus for a destructive cult.  I have been absolutely horrified with my findings and the many people I have spoken to about the practice of Harry and Avra as individuals, and Stars Edge as an organisation.

I got into your organisation to help people, not to abuse or exploit people.  I took on the mission with my heart and soul.  When you spoke of honesty and integrity – I thought you meant it. It appears you do not hold the same “genuine” intention as myself and all the other Avatar Masters you have exploited over the decades.

These shocking discoveries, in addition to me worrying sick about people I care about who are still caught up within your Network, has led into an investigation and exposure of your true intentions and history of abuses.

As part of this exposure, we are now giving you the opportunity to answer questions in relation to the many claims and accusations which have been made about your organisation over the decades. Many people have chosen to remain anonymous as they have been frightened to speak out about your abuses, with critics having backed off over the years due to the harassment they have received.  I have found the nature in which you deal with your critics to be quite frankly shocking and inhumane.  The way you use others within your organisation to lie, harass and speak on your behalf has disgusted me.

Attached are questions that ALL Avatar Masters since 1986 deserve to hear the answers too.  I should not have to speak to Avatar Masters individually about your practices.  This is your responsibility! This is your opportunity to show that you practice genuine care and sincerity regarding your vision for an enlightened and responsible planet.

This letter, along with the questions we seek answers too, will be published on our website later today.

We look forward to hearing your responses.

Kind regards

Amanda

p.s. I had to send this email again several hours after the original.  The first one disappeared from my ‘sent’ box so I am not certain you received it.   Therefore, you may now have received two emails from me.

DOWNLOAD PDF COPY HERE>> Letter to stars edge

Critical Questions Sent as an Attachment

Critical Questions for Harry Palmer, Avra Honey-Smith and Stars Edge International

1. Many former members have documented extensive abuse from your organisation from the launch of your Avatar course, including verbal and psychological, with severe abuse being aimed at the QMs and Trainers. What is your justification for this behaviour?  Why do you feel this is important to enlightenment? At what stage in their involvement in the group were group members made aware that this was a standard part of your practice?  Do you feel such abuse is right and necessary?

2. Such abuse goes back to your Elmira Scientology Mission days, with several accounts made by ex-Scientologists, some who have testified in a court of law in the past, and 3 who have personally been interviewed by myself over the last 2 months. What is your justification for this abuse? Why have you never been open and honest about their experiences of abuse to potential Avatar students? Why has none of this ever been made transparent before people spend tens of thousands of dollars with your organisation and give up their friends, lives and family for the sake of the bigger picture and your personal agenda(s)?

3. Why do you feel that severe psychotic breakdowns on your courses, and also by long term Avatar Masters who were part of your inner workings, is not your responsibility? There have been dozens of claims of these breakdowns.  Why has this not concerned you?  Why have you not changed “the tools” and your practices to prevent such harm happening again?

4. If you are practicing psychological practices on individuals, some who are vulnerable, why do you feel it is not your responsibility if something goes wrong? Why do you not have a mental health practitioner on site?  Why are you expecting un-qualified Masters to deal with these situations?

5. We understand you are aware that some of your departing group members have required severe psychological intervention in order to recover from their experiences with you. Why do you think this is?  How do you feel about this?  Why does this not concern you?

6. Why are you still persuading and unduly influencing people to progress on the Avatar Path and attend Advanced Course when you are fully aware they are in a vulnerable state? Why have you not instead referred them to a professional?

7. Are you aware that parents are being advised by Avatar Masters and QMs to just allow their child to “come around” if they are struggling after Wizards and have signs of mental instability? Do you feel this is responsible?  Are you aware this is considered neglect?

8. Are you aware that in some countries such as Australia and New Zealand it is illegal to conduct psychological practices without a license?

9. Are you aware that your exception clauses are illegal? Are you aware that you need to bring to the attention of a new student the real risks of undertaking courses before they sign?  Why have you never disclosed to potential students that your courses and practices may lead to hospitalisation and possibly even suicide? Why is there a lack of disclosure within your organisation regarding this?

10. Are you aware that your materials are not really confidential? Are you aware they are not original? Are you aware that they are officially in the public domain by your own organisation? Why then do you keep these secret?

11. We understand that you practice “personal responsibility” as the essence of your teachings and agenda, and that former members of your group going back years have called it a cult, including documentaries made and your organisation having been listed on cult education and support websites – yet you never disclose this to new or current members. Why is this?

12. Have you ever blackmailed a past member in terms of them either leaving or speaking out?

13. Have you ever implicitly and explicitly encouraged your followers to blackmail departing group members to prevent them from speaking out?

14. Have you ever carried out extensive 1 to 1 brainwashing sessions in order to silence a member?

15. Have you ever threatened a critic with harm or death for speaking out about injustice in your organisation?

16. Have you ever implicitly and explicitly encouraged your followers to send threats of harm and/or death to critics who speak out about the injustice in your organisation?

17. We understand you hold the belief that the family unit and romantic love are not important within the inner workings of your organisation and that they are lower modes of consciousness. Why do you not make this transparent to new members? Why is this not transparent to masters who commit to your Advanced Intern Program?

18. Are you aware that many of your beliefs and doctrine conflict with various religious beliefs and values, yet you market your organisation as being open to all faiths?

19. Are you aware that you are actively coercing a person into changing their beliefs and values to conform to your organisations agenda(s)?

20. Have you ever suppressed a love connection or potential relationship using coercive persuasion and the use of the tools? Have you ever encouraged Avatar Masters to carry out these practices on your behalf? Have you ever expected these Avatar Masters to lie and twist the truth in order to carry out your suppression?  Have you ever encouraged the use of peer pressure to enact this suppression?

21. Have you ever throughout your practices encouraged your members to take birth control pills?

22. Have you ever given advice and even ultimatums to your members as to who to date, who to marry and demands of divorce or separation?

23. Have you ever told trainers to abandon their children and commit to your cause?

24. There are many cases of you using “the bigger picture” and “the end justifies the means” to control and suppress members, including who they can and cannot talk to. Please explain further this doctrine? Please explain what the Guardian Heart means within your organisation and how it is implemented at your higher levels?

25. Please explain your use of “transgressions kept secret”, “hidden agendas and their accompanied exercises and rundowns? Have you ever used it to control another? Have you ever used it to take control of a master’s sense of reality? Have you ever used it to create false memories or create an event which did not happen?

26. We understand this is one of the most damaging practices of Scientology. Are you aware of this? Why did you a) steal this practice from Scientology, b) practice this damaging practice in your organisation and c) implement this despite knowing its severe effect on someone’s mental health and their handle on reality?

27. We understand that Harry Palmer stole the higher levels of Scientology’s tech and materials. What is his justification for this?

28. We understand that Harry Palmer has NO qualifications and experience regarding mental health issues. Why then does he refer to the The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) when analysing who is or who is not an Avatar Basher? What is an Avatar Basher? Why does he feel he has the authority to provide such a diagnose? How did he come to the conclusion that all Avatar Bashers are mentally ill? What is Harry Palmer’s source for this?

29. You claim that your organisation is not multi-level marketing, including making this claim to the Press, yet your organisation is clearly pyramidal with a multilevel marketing structure. Please explain your lack of transparency?

30. Are you aware that Avatar Masters with existing assets are making loans of approx. 5k per contract, with a student/master sometimes having multiple loans with multiple Masters to support them to the next course or keep them on the Path? Are you aware they are being approved by a Stars Edge Trainer? Are you aware these have even been made to the unemployed? Why are these loans not made directly from Stars Edge International as an organisation? What is your justification for this?

31. Are you aware that a huge majority of Avatar Masters have a) failed b) gone into extreme financial hardship and c) gone bankrupt. Yet you have not changed your multi-level marketing structure to be “fair” and provide a genuine opportunity for Avatar Masters who care about the cause. Why is this?

32. Please explain why your financial structure is not transparent? How do Avatar Masters really get paid? How do your QMs get paid? How do your Trainers get paid? What is the average salary of a QM for all their time and effort?

33. Please explain why you are not transparent in your financial structure and how one progresses up your organisational chart to new Avatar Masters?

34. Are you aware your internships are illegal? Are you aware that you should not have to pay to intern? Are you aware that interns should only be for a short period of time before the person is considered an employee?  Are you aware that many of these interns are providing you, not only with free labour of sometimes 80+ hours per week, but they have to pay you in order to provide this free labour. Why are you not transparent as to where your intern fee goes? Please explain where it does go?

35. You explain in Living Deliberately that you found Avatar in a sensory deprivation floatation tank. However, you have a disclaimer that this is fiction. Why do you still teach this as truth in your organisation?  Why do you not point out to your loyal devoted followers that your book Living Deliberately is pure fantasy, which you back up with your own disclaimer?  Why are new students not informed of this?

36. You have also claimed in the past that the materials were received by extra-terrestrials, including Harry Palmer having a space ship in his back yard. Is this true?

37. Harry Palmer claims that he has authority from extra-terrestrials to enact your enlightened planetary civilisation. Please explain this further.

38. If none of this is true, then please confirm the true origin of the Avatar Materials? Please confirm the true intentions of these materials?

39. Are you aware that the make-up of your Avatar Path matches the process “precisely” of a cleverly structured ‘thought reform’ program as per various cult expert models and psychiatrists and that you extensively use ‘undue influence and coercive persuasion to get new recruits and convince people to move through your courses and your pyramid structure? What is your justification for this?

[Dated: 5th January 2018 AEST]