February
2007 Newsletter
This is the
February newsletter. I hope that there will be some items of interest
here to readers.
Although the
legal issues referred to in this newsletter are intended for healers in England,
it is likely that there will be similar legislation affecting healers in
other parts of the world and it might be helpful for overseas visitors to
check this out.
Thank you.
Robert
28th February 2007
Training Manual Updates
I have posted
a file about the acid alkaline balance within the physical body. This file is part of Chapter Three in those
training manuals that have the Foundation Studies Chapters and follows the
file about DNA. This is a file that
was not in my earliest manuals but was in my later manuals. This file has
been rewritten as part of the ongoing updating of my training manuals and
should replace the earlier file. Please click here
to access it.
Legal
Framework
 I am continuing to work through issues arising from
the legal framework within which healers in England need to operate and have
posted some more guidance pages to this website so that this information does
not have to go into my training manuals. My intention is that in due course
the law most relevant to our work as healers will be online as a look up
resource and will prompt people to seek professional legal guidance when
necessary. Working through this material is not the most interesting of tasks
but it is helpful to know how the law affects us. I have not come across evidence of many
prosecutions of people within our sector for contraventions of the
legislation that I have been researching but it is clear from general browsing
on the internet that some healers in the UK are not in compliance with the
law and it is probably only a matter of time before somebody catches up with
them.
Since the last newsletter I have posted up pages
relating to the following commercial matters.
Distance Selling Regulations
Legislation exists to establish a reasonably fair
framework within which buyers and sellers can do business by distance. The
legislation requires certain information to be given by sellers to buyers and
also gives cancellation rights to buyers. Compliance with the legislation is
reasonably straightforward for healers in the case of the sale of goods such
as crystals and books by distance but the provision of distance healing
services and distance training services requires a bit more thought. You can
read this page by clicking here.
Trade Marks
Business
names and logos and designs help to create brand images for businesses. They
create a focal point for the recognition of a business and although
intangible can be valuable business assets. The legislation which provides
the framework within which there can be registration and protection of such
assets is the Trade Marks Act 1994. I have posted a page about this which can
be found by clicking here .
If
a healer has a distinctive name for a healing and teaching practice or a
distinctive logo which help to support a good brand image in the market
place, it is worth considering applying to trademark the name or logo to
prevent somebody else from copying or adapting it. The process to apply for a
trade mark is reasonably straightforward and not very expensive.
Healers
need to be aware that both in the UK and across the EU it is an offence to
use a registered trade mark belonging to another business without permission
or a licence to do so. Online checks to find out what trade mark approvals
are in place may be found for the UK by searching the Patent Office
records at http://www.patent.gov.uk/tm/t-find/t-find-text.htm or in the European Union by searching the
records at the EU Office of Trademarks and Designs at http://oami.europa.eu/.
The Trade Marks Act also makes it an offence to
purport that something is trademarked when no trademarking approval has been
granted and again healers can make the necessary online checks to find out
what has been trademarked.
Any healer who advises other healers that they are
using a name or term that has been trademarked would be advised to check
first what trade mark approvals are in place.
Anybody challenging the use of the word Sekhem would be advised to check what
has been trademarked around this name as there are
known issues with these challenges. I cannot find any record of there being a
trade mark approval within the UK or EU for Kathleen Milner’s
Tera Mai. It might be helpful if members of the Tera Mai Association in the UK
could check what trade mark approvals are in place when challenging any
unauthorised use of the name or when indicating that it is a trademarked
name. William Rand’s Karuna Reiki is a
registered UK
trade mark but I cannot find a trade mark approval for it at EU level. In the
USA there are various trade marks in place in connection with Barbara Weber
Ray’s Reiki lineage but in the UK and the EU I can only find record of THE
RADIANCE TECHNIQUE and The Radiance Technique, Authentic Reiki
having trade mark approvals.
Misleading Advertisements
Where
advertisements contain incorrect information or where comparisons with
products and services offered by competitors to the advertiser are incorrect,
consumer purchasing behaviour can be influenced to
the detriment of the consumer and to the detriment of other suppliers in the
market place. The Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations 1988 were
introduced to provide a remedy in law to deal with misleading advertisements
and the guidance that I have posted can be found by clicking here. These
Regulations provide the basis in law for Court injunctions to be issued to
prevent misleading advertisements. Misleading advertisements can place the
advertiser at risk of prosecution under the related Trade Descriptions
legislation. I am still working through the Trade Descriptions legislation
and some guidance on this will be posted soon.
The
outcomes from our healing work often varies between
clients and cannot always be replicated exactly across different
clients. Our work has not been subject
to acceptable standards of research. In the context of misleading
advertisements, therefore, it is advisable that healers do not make excessive
claims about what the healing energies will do. Also it is advisable that
healers do not start saying that their energy x is a better healing energy
than somebody else’s energy y if they cannot prove this.
The list of all the legal guidance notices posted to
date can be found in the Legal Framework section of the Information
Centre.
Cygnus
In the days before we were all on the internet a mail
order bookshop was established in Wales called Cygnus. The failure
rate for new businesses is usually very high but Cygnus was successful from
the very beginning back in 1991 because it offered good products, good
service and because it had people at the end of the phone who would always
try to help customers. Cygnus was set up in the spiritual and personal
development niche of the book market and thrived. Although the world has
moved on since then and we now have companies like Amazon from whom we can buy
books online, Cygnus has survived and is still doing well. I thought I would
post a note about Cygnus on the website in case people might be interested in
checking this company out. Cygnus retain their
original approach of sending out free of charge regular monthly magazines
with details of their books stock. They have also adapted to the internet age
and there is information about books on their website. Purchases can be made
on line or by telephone. They also sell tapes and CDs. Cygnus prices are very
competitive and are discounted against standard bookshop rates. The packing
and postage rates are very reasonable. Cygnus will post worldwide. The Cygnus
website is at http://www.cygnus-books.co.uk.
Here in London,
the Cygnus Books Spring Lecture will take place at the College
of Psychic Studies in South Kensington on 20th March. The subject will be ‘The Presence of Other
Worlds and Other Lives in Therapy and Healing’ with presentation by Dr Roger Woolger and sponsorship by Cygnus. Details can be found
in the Events section of the Cygnus website.
 SKHM Workshops
I
do not teach SKHM workshops but do let people know about SKHM workshops held
by Georgy in Cornwall
in case they would like to learn the SKHM approach to energy work. Georgy’s next workshop will be held in the Mevagissey area from 30th March to 1st April and will
include attunements to the new Seichem energy of silver with gold which has
been given to her through channelling. You can find
out more by clicking
here or by
contacting Georgy on 01726 – 844362 and healingsthatwork@tiscali.co.uk.
SKHM
workshops are different to workshops for specific energies like Reiki in that
a specific energy is not being passed from teacher to student. The focus is
much more upon members of a group working together and the structure for
these workshops is much looser than for a traditional energy workshop.
Divine Dine and
Event Management
Divine
Dine is London's first Spiritual Supper club and was created out of a desire
to mix good food, the opportunity to dress up, to be with friends and to make
new ones, and the desire to learn more about the spiritual side of life. The
next Divine Dine evening will be 13th March 2007 with Anne Jirsch as the guest speaker. Please click here to
find out more.
The
Divine Dine experience is a concept that has been developed by Lulu and is
available in similar format for events such as fund raising, book promotions
and seminars. Lulu is also available to manage your training course workshop
arrangements. She is based in West London
and may be contacted on 07748 454142.
Plant for
the Planet - Billion Tree Campaign
For those
visitors to this website who are not aware of it, the United Nations started
a campaign from Nairobi in November 2006 to encourage the planting of one
billion trees worldwide during 2007 as a contribution towards reducing the
impact of global warming with the new trees acting as carbon sinks. The
intention is to sign up non-governmental organisations, charities, local
communities, etc., to commit to plant trees during 2007 under the overall
umbrella of the Plant for the Planet Campaign. You can read about the
campaign at http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=485&ArticleID=5417&l=en
and at http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/index.asp.
Here in the UK, Trees for Life has signed up to the
campaign with the intention of planting 100,000 new trees in Scotland
during 2007. They are an official UN partner (http://www.unep.org/Billiontreecampaign/CampaignNews/20nov06.asp).
Anybody interested in making a financial contribution to support the Plant
for the Planet Campaign can make a contribution to Trees for Life at http://www.treesforlife.org.uk. Trees for Life is a charity that has been
around since 1989 and has been involved with projects to restore some of what
used to be the Caledonian Forest in the Scottish Highlands. Europe went
through its own deforestation a long time ago but in recent years
organisations such as Trees for Life have been successful in increasing the
amount of land under tree cover in Northern Europe.
March Newsletter
The March Newsletter will be posted
towards the end of March.
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