Saturday, March 16, 2013

Irresponsible marketing by Tony Robbins?


Check out this video (at 4:15), where Tony Robbins claims that he makes someone who stutters fluent after 20 years of stuttering! We have all experienced spontaneous fluency, that goes away very quickly. In my opinion, Tony engages in irresponsible marketing.

Tony is inspirational, in general, but he should stick to change the possible and not the impossible. Tony's mission is to change other people's lives, maybe we as a community should change Tony's life and increase his understanding of stuttering. Stuttering is not a learned behaviour; it is an adaptation of a brain that is prone to jamming due to neurobiological issues.

As he is coming to England with this video in 2013, the BSA might be able to report him to the I-cant-remember-the-name agency for irresponsible marketing. NOTE: Maybe we can find this guy called Waschad (spelling?) and get him to "say" a few words. I doubt he is still fluent.

21 comments:

lolocopter1231 said...

advertising standards agency

Anonymous said...

I am rashad and i have been given 1000 pounds to act like i have achieved the impossible :)

Who is this guy fooling? Not me atleast. His talk can just boost people for a few minutes then our brain goes back again to its normal activity.

Its not easy to change a habit. :)
Same holds for stutters. We can be fluent to a great extent if we practice practice practice.

harry said...

Here's a video of Rechaud Bell : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rNiWw9IVyc

Anonymous said...

Its not irresponsible marketing. Tony Robbins teaches us that ultimately, the condition of stuttering is deep embedded in our minds. He teaches us how to overcome this by Neuro Linguistic Programming or NLP.

I agree to some extent about the difficulty in changing habbit, but ulimately what is habit. Its our minds way of programming us. And who programs the mind...our past experiences. Highly recommend you read one of his books, whether you a skeptic or not, to see what I am talking about.

Tom Weidig said...

@Anonym: Stuttering is NOT a habit. It is a genetic condition in many cases, and neuroimaging has seen clear differences... You have no clue about the science behind stuttering.

Anonymous said...

Tom you have no proof that stuttering is a genetic condition. That literature does not exist and you know it. Stuttering is a habit, a way of coping. Neuroimaging is not evidence either. It is a static test which does not show abnormal wiring in every stutterers brain and also does not show whether this occurred from birth or later as a result of changed behaviours related to a stutter. I thought you were a scientist?
I know of people who stopped stuttering without therapy. I was highly sceptical but they have. Some did it by confronting their fears, others through therapy, others it just stopped they tell me. All of which would be impossible if what you falsely promote were true.

Anonymous said...


Anonymous is 100% correct. Stuttering is a 'learned behaviour' it is not genetic.

People who stutter do not have anything physically wrong with their speech. It's

all psychological.
People who stutter are fluent when they are alone, they can say whatever words

they choose without stuttering.

I have recently used Tony Robbins techniques in NLP to overcome my stutter. A

debilitating stutter, I had for 37 years. I concluded that I used stuttering

as a defence mechanism when I was a child to avoid being bullied by my older

brother. I then taught myself that I no longer had to keep the childhood mentality

I had brought into my adult life. I decided to become an adult, to step up and

take responsibility.

In just 2 weeks my life has totally changed. I am 42 years old and I have been

accepted into a Post Graduate Degree in Teaching Information Technology. My

general overall standard of life has also changed. I no longer hide in life.

Instead I step up and do!!

God bless Tony Robbins

Steve L. Vernon said...

Obviously "anonymous" above, who says he is "rashad" is not the Rachaud Bell with whom Tony Robbins worked to overcome his stuttering. (Why would he misspell his own name?) So let's wipe out that comment right now.

Cynics are a dime a dozen, but (not to be religious here at all) wasn't it Jesus himself who said "if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed . . . nothing is impossible"? Tony Robbins' techniques are based on solid psychological understandings about how the human mind works, and his work with Cloe Madanes and the rest of the Robbins-Madanes team (http://www.robbinsmadanes.com) has provided much-deserved credence to his accomplishments. The media would have you think what I thought for many years, that he is nothing more than an overpaid "rah-rah-go-get-'em" motivational speaker.

While there is definitive scientific basis for genetic involvement in stuttering (http://www.stutteringhelp.org/genetics-stuttering-new-developments), there is also solid evidence that random anomalies and environment factors also come into play in many cases (http://stutteringtreatment.org/blog/2013/03/is-stuttering-genetic/), such as that of Rechaud Bell (original video of actual session at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uK4PfeXAWM).

Based on your own misspelling of Rechaud's name, it would behoove you to do your own research on Tony's work.

Anonymous said...

Tony did many "impossible"things, that is why he got famous! It is no irresponsable marketing since he really did cure people already from stuttering in one day, and also from other things like depression and multi personality disorder, (things that are also believed by many tharapapsits and psychiatrists that it takes years to cure, if even possible.)

Anonymous said...

Hey mister blogger...I'm asssuming you haven't met Tony yet huh? :-)

Mike said...

A lot of people commenting in here speak in absolutes. Nothing is absolute. Genetic triggers or predisposition doesn't mean you were destined to stutter, nor does it mean you can never overcome it. A cause for stuttering has yet to be determined. Are there cognitive or neurological aspects to stuttering? Yes. Psychological? Absolutely. Biological? Very likely. Stuttering runs in families so there is no doubt some aspect if genetics involved. But just like the potential causes are vast, so are the treatments. NLP works. I know a stuttering specialist in Atlanta, GA who uses it successfully in his practice. He is also a licensed SLP and former stutterer. Don't be so naive to think that just because you don't believe it to be possible or that it seems far-fetched at the time, that it can't be true. After all, the world is flat, right?

Tom Weidig said...

I challenge all the people who made posts to make contact with the guy who got cured and see how is doing...

I have seen so many who have been cured, only to see them relapse.

The brain of a person who stutter is neurobiologically prone for jamming. This cannot be change by 1000 Tony Robbins in the world. Yes, everyone who stutters can learn to better handle his condition but he cannot be cured.

Any evidence of genetic component is very strong.

LeeSun said...

Tom, I appreciate what you're saying, but I wonder if it might be a more helpful message to say that "everyone who stutters can learn to better handle his condition ... even to the extent where for 99% of practical purposes he doesn't stutter"?

What Tony does brilliantly is help people to discard "self limiting beliefs" and take a new perspective on their lives using "empowering beliefs".

Rechaud Bell may indeed not be "cured", but in his "therapy" session with Tony, he was suddenly able to find a way to view his stuttering in a way that helped him to handle his condition with far more power than he ever had before. Tony tells Rechaud that Rechaud is a "warrior" and Rechaud taps into that part of his emotional identity, and when he steps into that identity, Rechaud doesn't stutter.

Perhaps to say that Rechaud isn't "cured" is a rather self-limiting, self-defeating way to look at this? Perhaps the more helpful way to look at this would be to say that stutterers do have the ability to not stutter, to navigate the jamming with power, even in the here and now, if they can tap into the emotional state that enables that for them? And perhaps the first step to tapping into that emotional state is to believe it's possible for them?

Let's suppose that people who stutter are all indeed genetically programmed to "jam" neurologically. But those same person can learn to take command of the "jamming", as demonstrated by Rechaud Bell in his session with Tony.

The genius of Tony Robbins is in helping people to believe that.

PS This video shows more of Rechaud's experience with Tony:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eOJaprDCDA

Anonymous said...

Unlike most people here posting opinions and links, I can say I have spent years studying with tony personally, and I was there in person to see Rechaud both before and after, as well as talk to him in person.

The suggestion he is an actor, is a joke.

After stuttering every other word multiple times, I watched him take the stage in front of thousands of people and speak as clearly and as powerfully as Tony. It was such a moving experience the entire room was filled with tearful eyes.

Now, Rechaud is not a friend of mine so I can't speak and say he is still completely and 100% healed, nor would I try and suggest that Tony is also not a salesman and an amazing marketer, but the fact someone can experience such a drastic improvement after a lifetime of other 'professionals' attempting it is a testament both to Tony's work, and to Rechaud's willingness and ability to change.

What he keeps from the experience, and what further advancements he makes, is all up to Rechaud.

Anonymous said...

I think this video misrepresents what actually happened. Did Tony help Rachaud Bell improve his stuttering. Maybe yes. Did Tony "heal" or "fix" Rachaud's speech for good. No. There are NO short cuts in life. Stuttering simply doesn't go away that easily. The only real way to prove that Rachaud Bell was actually helped is to ask him. I would love to get his e-mail address and ask him about it. I am completely open to whatever he has to say; however from my own experience, thoughts, and research Rachaud could not have been "healed" of stuttering in this way. It is simply impossible.

Anonymous said...

I think this video misrepresents what actually happened. Did Tony help Rachaud Bell improve his stuttering. Maybe yes. Did Tony "heal" or "fix" Rachaud's speech for good. No. There are NO short cuts in life. Stuttering simply doesn't go away that easily. The only real way to prove that Rachaud Bell was actually helped is to ask him. I would love to get his e-mail address and ask him about it. I am completely open to whatever he has to say; however from my own experience, thoughts, and research Rachaud could not have been "healed" of stuttering in this way. It is simply impossible.

Anonymous said...

http://thesundial.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/rechaud-bell-at-a-tony-robbins-seminar/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnPaZ3vZY60

Lazer said...

Before I watched some other videos from Tony, I'd definitely say that this is fake.

However, after watching how he created change in so many lives, I see that everything is possible.

If you follow the links above, you'll see from Rechaud that it really happened.

I believe that Tony gave Rechaud the courage to heal himself and he showed him that when he wants he can really talk fluent and he came a long way after probably hard work. If you listen to his latest video, you can still see some spots of stuttering, but this is nothing against how it used to be.

There is no impossible!

michel zou said...

Go meet tony robbins,confront him and put it all on youtube.Don't speak behind his back

Tony D said...

It worked for my client.. but needs refreshing bi monthly

Anonymous said...

Are you daft Michael? First off, it is not talking behind someone's back to post a comment about a public figure on the internet. Why don't you contact Tony and have him come make a comment here. I do not think it would be so easy to even gain access to him to talk to him, especially as his seminars cost over $5,000 to attend. Also can you imagine confronting him in front of a thousand people who think he is some sort of divine prophet? He is like so many other charlatan gurus. Some of the formula is you have some good stuff to give, some thing that you say that are helpful to people. Being encouraging, say things like be kind, be good, that sort of thing. You make it very much about yourself and how special you are. A big part is charisma, which he has tons of. You also promise things in some very easy way, where there is not the hard work that real life takes. And of course you set it up so that people will give you lots of money and adulation and power over them. Entry level psychology is presented as deep. I have been taken in by this sort of person, so I know it well.