MLM companies fall under various product categories, and a bunch of other names, but the mechanism that runs them are basically the same. They don’t usually market or sell their products via retailing outlets, but through the people that they can recruit which they will pay with commissions.
The structure of their business model can be literally viewed as a pyramid. This is because, in every unit, there is an upline, who will be the head of 2 or more downlines. The uplines get their earnings from the people under them. It is important to note that those downlines will become uplines too, once they attain their own set of recruits.
This may be a bit surprising to us digital-age inhabitants, but MLMs date as far back as the 18th century. The concept started with the basic products and commodities that sprung from farming and factories. Now, with the advent of digitization, it has truly transformed itself into these structures:
promotion of self-help reading materials.
big yearly gatherings
selling a lavish lifestyle
Statistics have it that MLMs are mainly focused on the female market. It can be observed that 74% of pyramiding marketers are women. Verifying this fact is easy. You can just search through social media for any MLM page and you can easily see that most of the members that flock there are mostly females.
Most of these women are single mothers, or those who opt to stay at home, or those who are struggling to make money online. The emotional vulnerability of these women makes them susceptible to the allure of the flash lifestyle that the ads and promotion of those companies are offering.
The Occultic Mechanism Behind MLMs
Spotting cults can be really hard and challenging. Just like pyramiding schemes, cults appear to be legitimate social groups – the people that organize them are so good at hiding in plain sight. If there are red flags that might appear, they would often not be enough to spell out a solid conclusion.
But if you’re going to look upon them closely, you can see bits and pieces of their greed and wickedness. And if you will just put a little effort into summing up those pieces, you can eventually perceive a pattern that can prove the real nature of that cult.
Their tenets and statutes can influence you as a person, one step at a time. And as you keep on following their rules and guidance, you will eventually see in yourself that you’re no longer the same person.
Indicators of cults often include the following:
A high level of commitment from its members – You must be committed to doing whatever it takes to further the interests of the group. Your actions should involve sacrifices and hard choices.
A seemingly unquestionable loyalty to its founders and leaders – Your leaders have the best wisdom that can make your life better. You must stay true to their orders and the philosophies they have taught you.
A sense of “higher purpose” instilled into the mind of the members – There is something better and much more important than the ones we have now in the future. You must focus on the bigger picture always.
The establishing of “familial” mentality – “It’s us versus them. We are a family. And if they’re not part of the family, they have to be treated as an enemy.” The leaders will not declare it straight, but their mandates can be summed up that way.
If you decide to leave the group, you will be shunned by your friends within the group and will be labeled as outcasts, rebels, or heretics. Because of these notions, critical thinking is highly avoided. This is because if you exercise your inquisitive rights, you will be deemed as disobedient or someone who promotes insubordination.
If you question the group’s ideologies, it is thought of as equivalent to betrayal. Your mind is gradually programmed to believe that you are totally dependent on the group, that without your “family,” you will be stuck in loneliness, and that the blessings that are waiting for you, will never come to you at all.
If you look at it, the methods involved within the group are actually designed to destroy your previous self. They will tell you that you are meant to be a new person, one that can really be vital to the cult’s structure and prosperity. You are made to believe that what you are doing is vital to making the world a better place.
From the outside world, however, anyone who submits his loyalty to cults will be labeled by observers as “fools and idiots.” But from the members’ point of view, however, this is not exactly true. Even if you’re not into cults or pyramiding schemes, you may actually figure out that many of the members are actually desperate and vulnerable people.
They are those who want to change their lives for the better: to improve their finances, to be totally free from monetary problems, to be a few steps higher on the platforms of society. They are not actually stupid people, they are just clinging to one very important living factor: hope.
When people are suffering from server problems like loss of a job, a death of a loved one, destruction of a relationship, or a feeling of helplessness. The methods utilized in cults as well as in MLM groups are designed to prey upon those people who are suffering those emotional struggles.
Now going back to the core concepts of pyramiding, we have now understood that, unlike other marketing structures, they don’t rely heavily on advertising, or on paying workers on a standard payroll system. From a business standpoint, many of these companies do not exactly appear as pyramiding schemes.
This is because many pyramiding businesses also take advantage of the product-selling category which makes it clear that people can indeed earn if they hop into the program. It is due to this loophole that many pyramiding businesses get away with the tendrils of the law.
But if you will look a little deeper, you have to ask some more crucial questions like: “Where is the majority of the money coming from? Is it from the selling of the products? Or from the recruitment activities?”
If the answer is from product-selling, then the business can really thrive. But if it’s from the recruitment, then there is really a huge problem that lies ahead. Based on first-hand experiences from those who are into pyramiding for many years already, the money-making portion hugely relies on recruitment, this is very evident.
And most importantly, how real is the “dream-state” that you’ve been promised with? How many people are actually living that dream? Where are those people located in the hierarchy of the pyramid? Are they just among the old members? Are there any new members who are also living the dream? How much money are those people actually making?
