For a complete breakdown of every aspect of The Age newspaper article put forward by Carli McConkey see here. Otherwise below is a copy of a very interesting email posted on the internet by a former member of Cult Information Family Services (CIFS) Qld, which can also be found at beforeitsnews.org/story/243/698/Carli_McConkey_Cries_Wolf.html

Response to Michael Bachelard’s Newspaper Article regarding

Natasha Lakaev - Sunday Age October 17 2010

It is now common knowledge that Natasha Lakaev has obtained, via preliminary discovery court orders, irrefutable proof that this smear campaign in relation to the cult allegations has been led by a couple of individuals who have previously pretended on the internet to be many different people, in an attempt to garner support to discredit Natasha. All this has been done in an attempt to hide things in their own personal lives from the public eye, and blame someone else for their own shortcomings.

With an impending court case in which Natasha Lakaev will be suing these individuals, they have groomed Carli McConkey to present the story in this latest newspaper article, in an attempt to scare off Natasha from taking legal action, and to garner support for their cause. However, once one reads the truth to be presented here (with evidence) about Carli McConkey, one wonders whether Carli has told these people the truth about herself and whether they will feel so confident about their idea of using her story to support their cause. There are many things that Carli McConkey would not have told them about herself and the truth of her situation.

These individuals have also now enmeshed themselves in a cult information organisation to create an official air to their claims, without any regard for what it may do to this organisation when the truth is revealed regarding the full extent of their harassing and stalking actions. Michael Bachelard is closely associated with this organisation as their key reporter, and recently acted as a presenter at a conference they held in March this year, putting forward his expert opinion on how to treat cults, the ‘Bachelard Doctrine’ as he describes it. Is Michael Bachelard qualified to put forward this advice? It is interesting to note that Michael Bachelard has previously been fired by the Age newspaper for making unfounded statements about a parliamentary person. After reading the evidence provided here the following statements made about Michael Bachelard in old articles may again ring true in the ears of those that manage the Age newspaper:

“the Ombudsman’s findings were a major shock and embarrassment to the Age as they exposed Bachelard’s claims as utterly false”

“The Ombudsman’s report basically accused Bachelard of sloppy reporting and inventing key aspects of his story”

The evidence presented here and other evidence that is readily available, seriously begs the question of how did the Age newspaper allow such an unfounded and untruthful article to be published without concern for the damages it would cause in many people’s lives including serious damage to Natasha Lakaev’s.

The expert psychologist Doni Whitsett that Michael Bachelard puts forward throughout this article in Carli McConkey’s defense was the key expert presenter at the March conference, flown out by this cult information organisation especially for the cause. It appears that Doni Whitsett is making claims regarding Carli McConkey’s situation, taking it at face value rather than investigating the facts herself (or Michael Bachelard has quoted her out of context, from statements made at the conference?).

As you can see Michael Bachelard and Doni Whitsett are not presenting this article from a neutral informed stance, have not investigated the facts regarding Carli McConkey, and when they were given or offered the facts they ignored it. It seems that they may be unwittingly caught up in the agenda of the others wishing to build themselves a case of defense regarding their defamation of Natasha Lakaev.

As a consequence of the impending court case some of the evidence discussed here would not be able to be presented in the public forum until it has been presented in court, so as to allow a fair court case.

Alleged leader of cult works as psychologist

Michael Bachelard

October 17, 2010

A WOMAN accused of leading a cult that has damaged the lives of scores of people is working as a psychologist with vulnerable patients at a community mental health service in Queensland.

Where is there evidence of Natasha Lakaev leading a cult and causing damage to the lives of scores of people? No evidence has been obtained or put forward by the Newspaper to support any of this article and this is a completely false statement.

Once the evidence presented below is read it will become apparent why Carli has fabricated this story, and why Michael Bachelard has an agenda of his own in writing it.

Natasha Lakaev’s Universal Knowledge organisation was offering courses until last year that prophesied the world would end in December 2012 and almost everyone except her devotees would die.

Universal Knowledge is not Natasha Lakaev’s organisation. It is owned by shareholders with a Managing Director that is not Natasha. Michael Bachelard was not even aware of this when he attempted to interview Natasha Lakaev, so he must not have been presented with the complete picture, by his informants.

Neither Universal Knowledge workshops or Natasha Lakaev have never prophesied that the world would end. Michael Bachelard was offered to inspect workshop videos and information to see that this statement is completely false. If this statement was true why is Natasha Lakaev working as a Psychologist to assist people over the long term with their mental illnesses?

A former member of her inner circle, Carli McConkey, has told The Sunday Age that Ms Lakaev was physically violent and psychologically manipulative, and had persuaded her followers that she was the Queen of Atlantis, a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, and one of 12 members of the Intergalactic Council of the Universe.

If Natasha Lakaev was physically violent then why did Carli McConkey not report it to the Police or a friend then or now? Carli McConkey has had many dealings with the police over the years so she is not unable to approach the Police herself. Carli took out AVO’s on a number of people, including her parents for harassing her, and also had the Police visit her house for other reasons. Why has she not reported it then or now and why does she not present any evidence or eyewitness accounts of physical abuse or the results of the abuse?

The people that lived with Carli over the years will attest to the fact that it is actually Carli that is psychologically manipulative and physically abusive. Every housemate in the last 13 years moved away from her home as they could no longer stand the fights, stress and manipulation of living with Carli. In fact Carli’s husband himself was the recipient of Carli’s own physical abuse and manipulation on more than one occasion. See the link to information from her most recent housemate who lived with her for a number of years. Names and contact details of other housemates can also be provided to verify this information.

Approximately nine months ago Carli approached Natasha Lakaev at her house and attempted to extort Natasha. Carli gave Natasha demands to agree to or she would go to the media saying Natasha is a cult leader. In the same conversation Carli told Natasha Lakaev that she would also destroy her son’s career and that all she was interested in was money and she would go where she could obtain the greatest amount of money. At his point Carli had already been illegally claiming single mothers pension while receiving child support from her husband.

Natasha Lakaev does not have any followers. Carli herself professes that Natasha has had nothing to do with her life in a blog she posted to her parents in 2008. Natasha has been to her property only a small number of times in the last 10 years, due to the stalking behaviour and harassment of a few select individuals The longest period of time Natasha Lakaev has been on the property was in mid 2008 for a two months when her son needed a place to recover from two major operations and a broken back. Documentation can be provided after the court case such as phone records, to prove Natasha’s whereabouts and who she has been in contact with.

Natasha Lakaev has never called herself Queen of Atlantis, a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, or one of 12 members of the Intergalactic Council of the Universe. These are metaphors and personal jokes used between friends, which Carli has taken out of context to paint her picture here. As mentioned later on in this response there appears to be reasons for Carli putting an esoteric edge to everything she does, and there are documents to show this.

Ms Lakaev is now working as a government-employed psychologist at the Ashmore Community Mental Health Service near Surfers Paradise.

By making these false cult claims and stating where Natasha Lakaev works the newspaper is putting at risk the stability of mental health patients from the area that rely on the service of this clinic. To become a Psychologist Natasha Lakaev has undertaken the standard University qualifications and two years supervised practice of the profession under the Psychologists Board of Qld, all of which is completely documented and recorded.  

However, after The Sunday Age raised questions about her history, Queensland Health agreed to investigate the claims against her, and invited ‘‘anyone with concerns’’ to raise them with authorities.

Queensland Health has already investigated this matter when Natasha Lakaev first obtained employment with them, as Natasha Lakaev told them of the upcoming defamation court case regarding the cult allegations. QHealth has dismissed the allegations.

All the documented evidence is available to refute such allegations against Natasha Lakaev, but Michael Bachelard refused to take up the offer to look at it.

Ms Lakaev denies all the claims of her former followers, saying she did not run a cult, had never been violent, and the theological claims were merely ‘‘metaphors’’, adding, ‘‘this stuff has been taken completely out of context’’.

Complaints against her by former acolytes have been investigated once by Queensland’s health regulator, but no action taken. The national health regulator will not comment except to say Ms Lakaev ‘‘has current registration and is therefore deemed fit to practise’’.

The Psychologists Board of Qld made this statement that Natasha Lakaev is fit to practice as they have investigated this matter and found it to be false and contrived. That is probably the only part of this article that is truthful. And it is astonishing that the Age would let something with so little evidence base go into the public forum.

Ms Lakaev’s lawyers wrote last December that she was working as a case manager.

‘‘A large proportion of her clients are often initially highly unstable with disorders such as schizophrenia, delusional disorders, major depression, major anxiety and personality disorders,’’ the letter said. ‘‘Forensic clients with homicidal backgrounds are also present on the clinic client list.’’

Ms Lakaev has faced criticism for more than a decade about the extreme practices on her courses, and accusations that she was a practitioner of ‘‘coercive persuasion’’ or mind control techniques.

The cult allegations were started over 10 years ago by a number of high profile individuals that wished to ensure that certain illegal aspects of their personal lives (that Natasha Lakaev became unwittingly aware of through secondary sources) would not be exposed to the general public. These cult allegations have been previously refuted, with evidence, and forgotten, and are now again being rehashed by a select few individuals again for personal gain. If you wish to see the full story, it is presented at the website aca.bullseyeforums.com

Ms McConkey, who spent 13 years under Ms Lakaev’s sway and only escaped in January this year, said Ms Lakaev had hit her and exploited her.

Ms McConkey lived on or near Ms Lakaev’s northern NSW property, Omaroo, near Burringbar, for many years, and during that time handed over $140,000 and spent nine years working without pay in her office.

Carli McConkey is not someone that can be personally swayed in any manner and makes her own decisions, as can be attested to by many people that have lived and worked with her in the last 13 years (names and contact details will be provided after the court case, however stories from previous housemates and friends can be found here).

In the last ten years Natasha Lakaev has barely seen Carli McConkey as Natasha has been living somewhere else away from the Omaroo property due to the harassment and stalking she has experienced there. Carli could not be under someone’s sway from someone who has barely seen her, barely talked to her or been near her. This can be proven after the court case with mobile telephone records.

Carli McConkey has been living her own life and has in no way been controlled or detained anywhere. For example, Carli has worked at McDonalds near Tweed Heads, Woolworths shelf packing and Civic Video and undertaken education courses and field trips at TAFE, just to name a few places. She has travelled on holidays overseas on many occasions to places such as Vanuatu and Samoa and travelled to the snow, These holiday trips are just the ones that have occurred in the last 5 years, which some families would say is a fairly high holiday travelling frequency for a single mother with three children, and for someone who claims to be so poor.

Carli and Michael visited Carli’s parents and stayed there when they were together and went to family functions on both Carli’s and Michael’s side regularly. When Carli and Michael were separated Michael regularly came and picked up the children to take them to his parent’s and his brother’s houses, to Christmas parties, childrens birthday parties and other functions. Carli and Michael also visited a grandmother in Tenterfield.

Carli had her parents visit her and the children when living in Pottesville and Burringbar for weekends and week long periods and quite regularly the children would stay at their grandparents house in Sydney for weekends and week long periods. This was a regular occurrence and the grand parents used to travel to Burringbar to pick up the children to take them back to Sydney for the week. In recent years Carli’s parents refused to take the children as frequently and for as long a periods of time, and refused to come all the way to Burringbar to pick them up. This was what precipitated the breakdown of the relationship between Carli and her parents as Carli reacted in payback in quite an extreme manner. This is evidenced by the fact that Carli’s letters to her parents (and her  notes regarding the AVO), that are quite forceful in her refusal to allow her parents input in her life, are all dated after the period Carli’s parents refused to pick up the children, from approximately 2007 onwards. So out of payback Carli made her parents chase her around to stay in touch just like they made her chase them around to initially ask for their help with the children. It was never understood why Carli took this harsh tact with the parents because when the children were with them they would get taken to the dentist, doctor and chiropractor, new clothes would be bought, and they would be well fed and well rested. It was always a pleasure to see the children after they had been with their grandparents. However, Carli was convinced that the kids were coming back lying and acting out after being around the grandparents (as indicated in her 2007 letter). But Carli didn’t see what her own role may have been into this behaviour displayed by her children.

The break down in the relationship between Carli and her mother in law came when at Carli and Michael’s wedding Michael’s mother made a speech where she stated in front of everyone Carli’s infidelities prior to marrying Michael, and warning Carli not do this during the marriage. This is the point when Carli no longer wanted to mix with Michael’s family, and she had a particular dislike of her sister in-laws.

Carli did not like the fact that her mother and mother-in-law spoke on the phone and discussed what was occurring with Carli and Michael. She went to great efforts to stop it. When Michael’s mother wouldn’t disclose to Carli conversations she had had with Carli’s mother, you would witness extreme tantrums from Carli. This seemed to intensify Carli’s resolve to not allow children to be near either side of the family and Carli would further cut herself off from any communication. This doesn’t sound like anyone influencing Carli. It is her personality and her way of dealing with her family issues as a result. And there are many people that are willing to provide affidavits to describe all the above information in detail from their personal experiences. Interestingly enough the breakdown in the relationship between Carli and her housemate and other friends of hers also occurred when each one of them started to say that they could no longer look after Carli's children as they were exhausted and had enough on their own plate to be able to help any longer. 

In the attached internet blog written by Carli in 2008 she vehemently describes that she is not in a cult or swayed by anyone, and that Natasha Lakaev is living her own life. In the blog Carli goes on to point out that a lot of her advice came from a woman called Deanna Reginato. In a handwritten letter by Carli to her parents, recently discovered by her housemate, Carli completely describes the true source of her frustrations being the way her parents brought her up without any proper input or teaching her responsibility. These latest ‘cult’ claims from Carli are merely part of an attempt to extort Natasha Lakaev and her family because it is an ‘easy’ avenue to take.

Carli is a shareholder with Universal Knowledge and decided to work in the office of Universal Knowledge to keep the business running to help it generate a turnover. There are company meeting documents in which the shareholders of Universal Knowledge each stated and signed that to keep the business running (especially during the downturn in business when the cult allegations were made) they wished to do extra unpaid work. Carli always approached the Universal Knowledge business with an esoteric edge from the onset, which concerned many shareholders. On many occasions it was suggested to Carli that she go home to her family and not work in the office. However she refused to, saying she wanted to generate income through the Universal Knowledge business.

For two years in the late nineties Carli was given paid a job on what was considered a high salary at the time ($1000/week) with Life Integration Programmes (before it became Universal Knowledge) as she had made it clear that she could do a more efficient job than those currently employed in the promotional, accounting and administration aspects of the business. It was later discovered that Carli turned off the phones in the office and returned workshop application forms to prospective participants as she did not wish to setup the courses, and instead wished to sleep in the office during the day. In ensuing years Carli continually professed that because her actions caused the downturn of the business and loss of significant income she wished to continue to work in the office unpaid in an attempt to fix the damage she had done. Carli herself describes all this to her parents in her letter. In addition, in the blog posted by Carli McConkey in 2008 she states that she has not done any work in the office in the last three years, which means it has been nearly 5 years since she was in the office.

Carli has caused similar problems for a Civic Video rental business in Tweed Heads where she worked for a while. Because of her actions while employed there (similar to what she did to Life Integration Programmes of pretending that she knew what she was doing) the business collapsed. When the business owner refused to pay Carli wages because of her actions, Carli attempted to take formal action against her to retrieve wages. This attempt was unsuccessful once the owner listed the reasons for not paying Carli. The Video store owner has willingly put forward an affidavit and documents regarding this.

‘‘Natasha Lakaev should in no way be a registered psychologist,’’ Ms McConkey said.

Carli McConkey is not in any position to be able to make this claim. Carli has never been counselled on an individual basis by Natasha Lakaev. Carli was counselled by a woman called Deanna Reginato which her counselling file notes held by Universal Knowledge would prove (and perhaps she is currently counselled by Annette and Warren Denny?).

After Carli left her residence in Burringbar her housemate found a folder of Carli’s that contained a documents from her life and copies of letters she sent to her parents over the years. Copies of these documents are available here where the housemate has posted the truth about Carli. These documents, if read by a trained psychologist, highlight that Carli McConkey has been suffering from developmental issues all her life and exhibits symptoms of either complex PTSD or mixed personality disorder with a leaning to Borderline Personality Disorder. However this is for an expert to diagnose. It is distressing that this group of people is now using Carli’s vulnerabilities for their own gain. She needs stability in her life. All of this will be fine for a period of time and then it will crash for Carli as she cannot cope with the circumstances she has now been placed in. 

Ms Lakaev’s business, Universal Knowledge, is styled as a new age personal development course. It has not offered courses since last year, but the program promises to cleanse the ‘‘cellular memory’’ of its participants and help them take the ‘‘next evolutionary step’’ by lifting them into the fourth dimension.

Universal Knowledge is not Natasha Lakaev’s business, it is owned by shareholders. These statements of what the Universal Knowledge workshops claim have been taken out of context by the newspaper to give it an esoteric edge.

Ms Lakaev told The Sunday Age she had not worked with the business for many years.

However, she founded the business in 1999 and she is listed on the website as ‘‘guiding individuals and groups for over 20 years in cellular memory cleansing’’. It is based at her property and is run by one of her devotees, and she and her children own 75 per cent of the shares.

Natasha Lakaev has rented the property to Universal Knowledge and there are rental agreements to indicate this. These rental agreements also indicate that Universal Knowledge agreed it was responsible for the upkeep of the property grounds as they were part of the workshop facilities.

Natasha Lakaev and her children were initially given 75% of the shares by the Universal Knowledge Director to pay for the intellectual property of the workshops that Natasha developed and provided to the business. The business was always run in a manner where each shareholder had equivalent voting rights no matter how many shares were owned, so that no one had the ability to make overriding decisions. The minutes of shareholder meetings that prove this have been recorded and can be provided.

She begged The Sunday Age not to refer to her work at Ashmore. She said:  ‘‘I don’t harm people, I’m really good at my job, my clients are fine, my patients are fine.’’

Nobody begged The Sunday Age. Natasha asked the Age to not refer to her work address as she was concerned for the mental stability of her clients when confronted with such wild allegations. Natasha Lakaev also asked the newspaper to not quote her on anything she said but this was also ignored. QHealth where Natasha works has investigated this entire issue and supports her in her work at QHealth.

In thrall to a cult: how the unwary fall victim to mind control

Carli McConkey lost 13 years of her life, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, to a New Age cult. Michael Bachelard investigates.

13 years of video and photos will be provided to prove that Carli, Michael Greene and their children have been living a happy, healthy, free and joyous life. See the photos and videos attached as an example. They tell an entirely different story than that put forward by Carli in this newspaper article.

As she left university to make her way in the world, Carli McConkey suffered all the workaday self-doubts. She believed she was overweight, was unsure of her chosen career and was worried about finding Mr Right. She was disillusioned with Catholicism and craved spiritual fulfillment. She was also bright, popular, academically successful. After she organised the 1995 orientation week at her university, a careers adviser wrote: ''Carli is my idea of an outstanding Australian''.

Thirteen years later, McConkey is broke and exhausted. She has been beaten up and has mistreated others. She has spent years estranged from her parents, neglected her children, misled the courts and has worked as a virtual slave. Fixed in her mind is the fear that in December 2012 the world will come to an end and all but a few of us will die. At 35, she is also sterile, having been persuaded to undergo a tubal ligation in the belief that she was an unfit mother to her three sons.

Carli McConkey is not mentally ill. Neither drugs nor alcohol has led her to this point.

Has Carli actually been assessed by a trained psychologist as to her mental stability or personality disorders? Is Michael Bachelard trained as a psychologist to be able to make such judgments? When he reads the evidence presented here he may think otherwise about this statement of his.

Carli McConkey and her partner Michael Greene have also had problems with alcohol over the years. Michael Greene was caught by the police DUI with his children and other children in the car. Carli knew Michael was doing this and still let him take the children to look after them. Whenever Carli drank alcohol she became very extreme and also looked to sleep with men other than her husband Michael. Carli cheated on Michael three times, with one of these incidences occurring only three weeks after she was married to Michael, while she was on a holiday in Samoa. A letter written by Carli herself to her parents admits to this. Photos of her trip to Samoa only weeks after her wedding show her being intimate with men other than her husband.

Natasha Lakaev was not even in the same State as Carli in the period before and during the time she got herself sterilised. A description of what really occurred with Carli getting sterilised has been provided by her housemate at the time (on the following website). The housemate was actually the one Carli approached for advice and information on the process, stating that she wished to sleep with a man she was working with at Tweed Heads McDonalds, but did not want any further children. Carli undertook a different procedure than her housemate had previously taken as she wanted the ability to reverse the procedure if she changed her mind. Tubal Ligation is reversible, which is not the picture Carli or Michael Bachelard paint in this newspaper article. I wonder if Michael took the time to look it up before writing this article. A simple Google search on the internet provides the following information, which Carli knows full well herself but has not elaborated to anyone (as it does not suit the picture she has painted):

“The reverse tubal ligation is a one-hour procedure by which the separated segments of the fallopian tubes are rejoined. This allows an egg to once again travel from the ovary to the uterus and be fertilized by sperm”

For information regarding why Carli actually stayed away from her parents, see all the documents provided by Carli’s housemate, which Carli actually left behind when she left. As she states herself many times it was completely Carli’s choosing, but against the sensible advice of everyone around her. For information regarding Carli’s and Michael’s mistreatment of their children, again this is provided in detail by Carli’s housemate from recent years, and can be further attested to by earlier housemates of Carli and Michael Greene who have come forward after reading the newspaper article. Carli did not want her parents in her life largely as she did not want anyone to comment on how she or Michael were bringing up her children. The examples provided by her housemate are just a few incidences of hundreds that, from their own choices, they put their children through as well as the daycare centres, babysitters and friends.

Carli’s fixation on the doomsday idea has already been discussed earlier in this response. It is also discussed on the website established by her housemate in response to the newspaper article, and further discussed below in regards to personality disorder traits.

Instead, in 1996 she joined a New Age personal development group called Universal Knowledge, seeking clarity. Once McConkey converted to its aims, the group's leader, Natasha Lakaev, manipulated her, hit her, took hundreds of thousands of dollars from her, and worked her without pay for up to 22 hours a day, seven days a week.

As mentioned earlier Carli McConkey chose to work in the office of Universal Knowledge as a shareholder to ensure that it could continue to make an income in the future despite the down turn of the business because of her own actions when she worked as an employee of Life Integration Programmes for two years, and because of the effects of the defamatory comments and harassment of Universal Knowledge by the few individuals mentioned at the beginning of this response. Carli states this herself in a lengthy blog she put on the internet in 2008, addressed to her parents. She also refers to it in a personal letter she wrote to her parents.

The statement that Carli is owed any money is fictitious and was part of the extortion plan that Carli attempted when she approached Natasha Lakaev before leaving the area. Natasha Lakaev is herself owed by Universal Knowledge approximately $400-500K through loans she provided to the director and shareholders to uphold the business during its difficult times. And it is interesting that Carli was quite happy for those loans to occur while it kept her shareholding safe. This has all been recorded through accounting records, which can provided from the accountant after the court case.

Carli McConkey is not capable of working 22 hours a day. An example of Carli’s work ethic is in her two years of employment with Life Integration Programmes. Carli slept in the office during the day, switching the office phones off. In her blog posted in 2008 Carli states that in the three years prior to the blog she had not been in the Universal Knowledge office, except to use their internet. Carli did not need to work 22 hours a day as she was receiving single mothers government child support at the same time as receiving child support from her husband ($500 - $1000/week), and selling organic vegetables for cash, all undeclared. Other previous employers of Carli have been approached and are happy to provide information on Carli’s work patterns before she worked for Life Integration Programmes.

If Carli was hit or manipulated by Natasha Lakaev at any point then why did she not report it to the police or anyone at all, or make a record of it. Because Carli McConkey was known to be a liar and manipulator, and to twist the facts for her own gain (after the lying about her office work when employed by Life Integration Programmes), any conversation that anyone (including Natasha Lakaev) had with Carli in the time that they knew her, they always made sure that a witness was present. Carli has not been near Natasha Lakaev without a witness to every conversation. This can be verified by anyone that lived with Carli or any shareholder that worked with Carli in the last 13 years. Read the information put forward by Carli’s housemate for a better understanding of who Carli has abused and manipulated herself, including her own children.

McConkey spent the best years of her life in a cult. She only escaped earlier this year. What's frightening about her story is that this could happen to any of us.

Carli did not escape anything. She approached Natasha Lakaev and requested that she accept her three demands or she would go to the media and say that Natasha was a cult leader and she would proceed to destroy the future career of Natasha’s son. All three demands are completely false and could not be accepted or acknowledged. At this point Carli proceeded to move out of her home and was not heard from again until this newspaper article.

Clinical Professor Doni Whitsett of the University of Southern California has been working with victims of cults and their families for 20 years. Carli's is ''a tragic textbook case'', she says.

Has Doni Whitsett actually conducted psychological assessments on Carli to ascertain if there are any personality disorders present and if she is actually telling the truth? And has Doni Whitsett actually investigated the situation with Universal Knowledge and attempted to collect collateral from other sources to verify the facts. These sorts of broad statements should not be made without such actions being taken.

Cults vary in theology and practice, but all employ similar techniques to recruit the unwary. Scientology uses the free personality test to suggest everyone has deficiencies that Scientology can best address; the Australian cult Kenja uses circus classes and the promise of counselling and personal growth; and the commune-based Australian group Jesus People uses the promise of a purer form of Christianity. Natasha Lakaev used a mish-mash of New Age theories and therapies, an end-times philosophy based on environmental disaster, and a powerful personality.

Lakaev vehemently denies all allegations, saying she does not run a cult and that McConkey is unstable. What she ran was ''just a series of workshops'', she says. But for well over a decade, a growing number of former acolytes have emerged with identical stories of a high-pressure, abusive organisation.

The use of the term “growing number of former acolytes” is completely misleading and untrue. The workshops have assisted 10’s of thousands of individuals (hand written testimonials are available on the internet). Yet at one point suddenly on the blogging sites some garbage information appeared, and it was found out later that it was written by two people masquerading as a large number of people. So are there actually any legitimate complaints? Evidence is now available (that will be used in the upcoming defamation court case) that proves that the few disgruntled customers have masqueraded themselves as many people in an attempt to gain support for their views. These people have now infiltrated Carli McConkey’s life and are taking advantage of her unstable personality and have groomed her for their own gain, to try and discredit Natasha Lakaev further before the court case.

Use of the word acolytes infers that Natasha is a figurehead of a religion. Natasha Lakaev practices Russian Orthodox in her life which can be seen by the videos and photographs of all her family Christmas and Easter celebrations. Every shareholder of Universal Knowledge and past workshop participant lives their own life and practices their own religion. Many hold prominent positions in society in their work and would be highly offended to be referred to as an acolyte of Natasha Lakaev or a member of a cult just because they attended workshops provided by Universal Knowledge. The workshop participants all practice wide and varied religions in their own lives. Carli McConkey attended a number of Natasha Lakaev’s family Russian Orthodox Easter and Christmas celebrations. See the photographs provided to show how happy and healthy Carli McConkey was and how much she enjoyed these celebrations with her children.

Most of us find it hard to believe that anybody could allow themselves to be brainwashed in the way McConkey claims. But Whitsett says people do not join cults, they are systematically recruited, often by charismatic narcissists whose need for adulation gives them the power to manipulate others. Their victims are not mentally ill or stupid. They are often of higher-than-average intelligence, but they have vulnerabilities that the leader exploits and amplifies using powerful techniques known as ''coercive persuasion'' or ''mind control''. And like religious cults, personal development cults target people looking for guidance.

Has Doni Whitsett ever met Natasha Lakaev before making such significant claims on her personality? No she has not.

McConkey was 21 when she encountered a recruiter for Universal Knowledge, then known as Life Integration Programmes, at the 1996 Mind Body Spirit Festival in Sydney. ''I was a bit lost … and I was definitely searching,'' she says. ''I just wanted to have a psychic reading to have a bit of clarity on my direction … and [the reader] said basically, 'This course has everything you need to get over your insecurities, to build your self-esteem, get financial freedom, a great relationship' … The brochure said over 10,000 people have done the course. It all appeared very legitimate.''

The workshop is entirely legitimate and the number of people that have received the benefits of this workshop is also legitimate, and can be proven with the hand written testimonials from workshop participants.

According to Whitsett, McConkey was vulnerable to these suggestions in part simply because she was in her early 20s - the transition from adolescence to adulthood. ''When people are 'searching', they are in an existential crisis, looking for answers to the great questions: 'Who am I? What is life all about?' They are … willing to suspend their own worldview and their own ideas for another that seems more promising.''

Has Doni Whitsett looked at the chronology of Carli McConkey’s history and upbringing and how her parents have handled things during her development? Carli herself provides an insight into her familial and developmental issues (in her handwritten letter) when she was bought up, even down to being molested in PNG and her father saying “well if that’s the worst that happened then it’s a good thing”. Has Doni Whitsett actually assessed Carli before making such broad claims on what has occurred?

McConkey took her discovery of Lakaev's northern NSW-based group as a metaphysical ''sign''. She immediately signed up to the course, ''The Next Evolutionary Step''.

Carli was looking for “metaphysical signs” the entire time she was involved with Universal Knowledge as a shareholder. This was part of the problem. Carli took the normal everyday workshops and put an esoteric leaning to them when discussing them with family, which exacerbated her problems with her family. The actions then taken by her parents in trying to infiltrate Carli’s and her children’s lives and harass her into living her life a different way, put Carli in a high state of stress all the time (see internet blog attached for an example of the continual stress Carli’s family situation placed her in). Carli took it in her own hands to remove her parents from all aspects of her life asking her friends to change their phone numbers continually so that her parents could not get in touch with her in any way. Carli herself was always changing her phone number and phone herself.

In person, Lakaev was sexy, powerful, charismatic. She told attendees to keep an open mind, to ''leave your logic at the door'', to avoid ''judgmentalism'' - a technique cults use to silence the internal voice of reason. She introduced the group to a technique called ''accessing'' - beating a black mat and yelling frustrations at parents, friends, teachers. She told them they needed to cleanse their ''cellular memory'' of the impurities of this and past lives, and those of their ancestors. They must live by ''intuition'' alone and if they did, they could ''manifest'' (or make) things happen in the real world. Wealth, happiness, success, relationships could all be ''manifested'' by the truly intuitive or ''super-intelligent''.

Natasha Lakaev offered for Michael Bachelard to visit the office of Universal Knowledge. He refused as he stated that she would only have there what she wanted him to see. If he had visited the office he could have seen the workshop information and videos and the misconceptions that he has presented above would have been obvious. One of the main concepts in the workshops is to achieve a balance in your life of the intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical. The comment of living by your intuition alone is completely false. The comments to leave the logic at the door are taken out of context. The workshop discusses to take the golden thread from the information that would apply to your life and the workshop provides exercises and lifestyle tips to allow the participant to maintain their health in their everyday life once they have finished the workshop.

To McConkey it was inspiring. And though she had been told that the first course would fix everything, at the end the group was informed that to become fully ''integrated'', there were no fewer than 17 other courses, all at considerable expense, to do.

These statements are entirely false. At no point is anyone ever told that a workshop will fix everything or make someone fully “integrated”. If Michael Bachelard had taken up the offer to see the workshop material and the Universal Knowledge office etc, and if he had discussed things in more detail with the Director of Universal Knowledge, it would have been obvious to him that he has not been told the truth.

The workshops that Universal Knowledge provides are not “at considerable expense” to the participants. The five day TNES workshop was advertised last year for $330 which is literally for free compared to most businesses which provide similar length workshops for $1500 - $2000 e.g. Mental Toolbox provided by Beyond Success. Universal Knowledge is a company with normal expenses such as  maintenance and repair of facilities, rent of venues, advertising, assistant staff, administration staff, first aid training, cost of workshop manuals etc All these things cost money and a company must make a profit also. Any workshop participant of the past will tell you that they got more than their money’s worth. Read all the testimonials scanned as pdf’s on the internet (through the Universal Knowledge website), and you will not see one complaint of the cost of the workshop compared to the benefits they have received. These are all the testimonials, from all participants, unfiltered, undoctored.

The term “considerable expense” seems to be one of those common cult statements that reporters like to make to create the picture that people have had money taken off them for nothing in return i.e., being conned.

''It's a bait and switch,'' says Whitsett. People who believe an organisation to be credible and moderate have little fear of it, and can be drawn in further. Only later are they introduced to its more dangerous (and often more expensive) elements.

Has Doni Whitsett ever investigated anything about Universal Knowledge personally? Has she met the Director or inspected the company premises or attended or witnessed one of the workshops? Either these statements by Whitsett are general statements about cults that have been taken out of context by Michael Bachelard or Whitsett is making considerable assumptions based on the stories of Carli McConkey, without obtaining any collateral from other sources.

Melbourne woman Madeline Hardess, a university student and former private school captain, was lured into the Jesus People in 2004 by a man she met on a dating website. He did not initially mention that the three-bedroom house he lived in was actually a commune of up to 25 people, including two families of five.

He also did not reveal that, for food, they begged compost from grocery stores and ate the less putrid scraps. Nor did he say that the women were often beaten and yelled at. Only after a series of revelations over eight months did the truth sink in. By the time it did, Hardess was engaged and was convinced that people on the outside were corrupt or evil. She wore a headscarf to signify her subservience to the men.

''Through that period you're so excited that you've found this new thing that you don't even question that much,'' she said.

''But then … it became a lot more intense and you had to quash thoughts … I used to be a feminist, but then you get to the point where you're not even allowed to shake men's hands.''

For McConkey, the first Life Integration course convinced her she had dozens of ''issues''. She immediately signed up for two more. At the next course, ''The Final Step'', 70 people went to a rural property in a bus with the windows blacked out. They handed over phones, wallets and identification. Their ''self'' was being removed, as was any means of escape. For a week they were yelled at, punished, pressured to complete tasks in a short time. In the attempt to ''cleanse'' themselves, they were made to go hungry, and would often only get two hours of sleep a night. They paraded naked in front of the group, which McConkey found humiliating.

The words in this paragraph are a direct rehash of a sensationalist piece put together by A Current Affair many years ago. A response has already been given regarding this media piece at aca.bullseyeforums.com. Here you can see numerous responses from the actual Final Step participants detailing these misrepresentations. Carli McConkey was a support person on many Final Step workshops. If she was so humiliated by the workshop and mistreated then why did she continue to assist people to partake in it? A Current Affair later agreed to never approach Natasha Lakaev again.

The next course was even more extreme. Called ''Personal Mastery and Metaphysical Counselling'', it cost $10,000 and lasted a year. It featured a punishing daily regime including a strict vegan diet, a daily 10-kilometre run and drinking two litres of fruit juice.

$10,000 is very cheap for a one year workshop considering the staff and time put into running it by the company. The health and diet regime is only one that is suggested to participants if they want to achieve the greatest benefits from the workshop. If they don’t wish to partake in the health and diet advice there is no one to force them to do so, unlike in these reality TV shows nowadays such as ‘Survivor’ and ‘Biggest Loser’ that are so widely accepted by the general public, where participants are pressured to stick to a regime. The regime that participants are put through on those programmes is far worse than anything that is suggested as a guideline to the Personal Mastery participants. In addition please see all the testimonials from Personal Mastery participants at www.universalknowledge-mastery.com. A vegan or vegetarian diet is common in today’s society and many cultures. Two litres of fruit juice is a common suggestion to flush impurities that have built up in the body over years of bad eating habits. These things mixed in with a run for fitness are hardly a “punishing regime”.

Previous participants from Personal Mastery (which Carli McConkey and Michael Greene attended) have recently stepped forward to describe what it was like doing Personal Mastery for themselves and also discuss how Carli and Michael never took part in any aspect of a diet and fitness routine. Photographs indicate that Carli was a well fed healthy individual, who ate meat and they show she does not look like she someone who runs at all. Descriptions provided by Carli’s recent housemate confirm these things.

'These techniques appear to be for health reasons but they actually have the effect of debilitation,'' says Whitsett. ''They reduce the person's ability to think critically, to reason, and when people are so weak the 'self' is impaired, they are easier to control and manipulate.''

Has Whitsett spoken to any previous Personal Mastery participants that don’t have a personal agenda such as Carli McConkey or the people she is associating with. Or is she just talking again about general concepts, that Michael Bachelard has taken out of context to draw parallels with Universal Knowledge workshops. As discussed above, a health and diet guideline is provided to participants at the beginning of the workshop and the level that they take it to is up to them. After the first three months the Personal Mastery participants run it themselves as a group and as a business to achieve certain goals. The decisions they make as a group are their own and not decided by anyone else. Participants of Personal Mastery have stated that Carli McConkey and Michael Greene never took notice of these health and diet regime guidelines or focused in on becoming any fitter or healthier.

McConkey recalls seeing visions of ''spirits'' - what Whitsett says were probably hallucinations or ''waking dreams'' caused by lack of sleep. Lakaev disputes these details, saying the vegan diet was only for a short time. One year's program, she admits, became ''quite extreme'' but she had tried to ''settle it down''.

Again in this quote from Whitsett she is either making assumptions without any personal observations to confirm her assumptions (or psychological assessments of Carli), or Michael Bachelard is quoting Whitsett out of context.

From the moment Carli participated in the first workshop in 1998 she always took an esoteric edge to the information put forward. This was what created half her problems with her family when she described to them the workshops she had done. Carli’s recent housemate, and many other willing witnesses, have all described how Carli put an esoteric spin on everything. Even in this Newspaper article it quotes Carli as taking her finding of the Universal Knowledge TNES workshop as a “metaphysical sign”. Descriptions are provided further below on how this relates to possible personality disorder traits exhibited by Carli.

The work that Carli McConkey did in the office of Universal Knowledge was her own choice as seen by the signed statements made by a number of shareholders including Carli (to be supplied after the court case). Carli wished to earn money from the company as a shareholder when the business was made viable again. Carli also professed constantly that she wished to work in the office to help fix the damage that she did to the financial viability of the company when she was employed to be in charge of the marketing, administration and accounting for two years. See page three of the handwritten letter to her parents, in which Carli states herself the damage she did to the company and the number of people that it took to clean the mess up. Carli was told by many people on many occasions (affidavits can be provided) over the years to just go home and live her own life and visit her parents and family. However Carli refused and made a point of doing everything possible to keep her parents out of her life as she had always stated that they were interfering (see the blog, handwritten letter and other documents left behind by Carli).

Carli set herself up financially so that she did not need to work or be short on rest and sleep. Carli was accepting a single mother’s pension from the Government (approximately $500/week) at the same time as receiving undeclared financial support from her husband ($500 to $1000/week). Also Carli McConkey used Natasha Lakaev’s organic property to grow organic vegetables for her family and at one stage obtained Organic Farming training at TAFE so that she could grow and sell organic vegetables for cash.

The IT consultant that often visited the offices of Universal Knowledge to provide computing services, requested that he did not want Carli anywhere near the computers ever again, because of the mess he had seen her cause in the computers when she first worked for Life Integration Programmes. An affidavit has been provided from this consultant who runs his own IT consulting business. He also describes how Carli was living her own life and what she was like.

See the photographs on this website to show how much Carli was a very lively, happy and healthy person over the 13 years since she first did a workshop with Universal Knowledge. Videos will also be provided on this website shortly.

Given the look of Carli in the photo in the Age newspaper article she has hit a downturn in her spirits and happiness since she started associating with the other couple that have their own interests in a future court case. What has she been indoctrinated to believe by these people, based on their personal agendas, such that any stability or happiness in Carli’s life completely disappears, replaced by confusion, depression and anger, and looking for someone to blame for personal shortcomings?

Always a conscientious student, McConkey was desperate to succeed. But Lakaev's comments to her and others were 90 per cent negative, convincing them they needed to work harder.

Please read the testimonials from all workshop participants and you find all the testimonials from when Natasha used to teach in earlier years. This will indicate to you that this statement is false, just from the sheer positive feedback all the workshop participants had with regards to Natasha’s positive influence in their life.

In addition Natasha has had such rare contact with Carli McConkey over the years that this statement about having a negative influence on Carli is impossible. Mobile telephone records can be provided that will show that Natasha was rarely ever at the property or near Carli, as Natasha was living somewhere else to gain some peace in her life. Also the telephone records will show to you that Natasha had barely ever had contact with Carli McConkey via mobile telephone. In fact Carli McConkey was changing her telephone number so many times over the recent years, in an attempt to evade her parents, that no one rarely ever had her correct mobile number to be able to contact her. Carli also made a point of asking other people to change their phone numbers so that her parents had no avenue to find out her movements or get in contact with her. She also asked the staff in the Universal Knowledge office to block her parents email address from the company email system and ignore messages on the office telephone. Staff from the Universal knowledge office initially attempted to communicate with Carli’s parents when they called looking for Carli, but they found they were quickly and unwittingly became caught up in the games between Carli and her parents. Affidavits have been provided on this fact from many people that knew Carli. Email evidence and telephone records are also available to prove this.

Adrian Norman, a former member of Sydney cult Kenja, said an apparently random reward-punishment system kept him on edge for years. ''You were built up as wonderful … and then a week or two later you are the worst person in the world and disgusting and smelly and no one would ever want to be with you. It's like couples in abusive relationships - you go into a state of hyper-awareness and you can't think critically because you don't know if you're going to be attacked.''

Whitsett says this ''continuous barrage of attacks on the 'self' keeps the person in a continuous state of failure, of low self-esteem, and attached to the cult''.

''They want to improve, to be better people, but they can never live up to the impossible standards set by the leader.''

Cult members are also often deliberately disoriented, and outside influences removed to reduce their ability to distinguish what's normal. McConkey says Lakaev insisted that she renounce her parents and never discuss anything that happened on the courses - claims Lakaev denies. But Carli's mother, Robyn, remembers: ''You'd just talk generally and she couldn't answer any simple questions because it pertained to what was happening up there, and it was all so secret. So there gradually just came a line where you didn't know what to talk about any more.''

Please read the blog, hand written letter and other documents left behind by Carli that her housemate has put forward. These documents show that Carli’s issues are developmental ones that she brought with her, that stem from how she was brought up by her parents, and it was her own decision to keep her family out of her life.

When you read these articles at another relevant website, describing people that have been raised by couples made up of one Borderline personality with one Narcissistic personality, it describes very well the situation Carli has found herself in growing up with her parents, and how she has developed the Borderline Personality traits in her life. It also helps describe how Carli has made so many other people around her feel crazy with her lying and manipulative behaviour.

On page 2 of “Haven’t We Met Before” (also found at gettinbetter.com/dance.html) the following excerpt is relevant:

“It should also be noted, that a person involved with a Borderline for even a limited time, will be prone to adopting psychotic (BPD) symptomology, due to proximal exposure. That's why we call their behaviors, "crazy-making."

The articles also describe succinctly the pattern Carli plays out of rejecting and blaming one party to move into the camp of another in order to meet her needs.....these are Borderline traits. If you look at the people she is now spending her time with and her own partner you can see that they all exhibit a similar pattern of being in a relationship consisting of one Borderline and one Narcissistic personality. This does not create a stable environment for someone to live in or feel positive about. Has Carli actually been assessed by Whitsett for personality traits to see the influence this is having on the stories that Carli is putting forward? Does Whitsett or the others Carli is associating with actually understand what they are dealing with here, or are they making comments based on the assumption that Carli is telling the truth?

The Universal Knowledge workshops are not designed to deal with Personality Disorders or mental health issues. They are personal development workshops structured to assist people in their everyday lives to live a more healthy and successful life. This was suggested to the couple that Carli is now associating with when they attended workshops provided by Universal Knowledge. It was strongly recommended a number of times that they seek professional assistance with Relationships Australia or something similar, to help deal with these Borderline/Narcissistic couple cycles that keep repeating themselves. Obviously from the flack Universal Knowledge and Natasha Lakaev have received ever since, they did not want to hear such advice.

The personality disorder traits Carli exhibited from the outset could never be sorted out within the parameters of the Universal Knowledge workshops, and she was told a number of times that it may be helpful for her to seek assistance from a Psychologist. In a signed letter from Carli to a solicitor, which she was communicating with during her AVO applications, she confirms that she started seeing a Psychologist. However, Carli only attended one session and never went back again. If Carli was being mind controlled, why would such expansive helpful advice like this be given? Why would it be suggested that her children see a developmental psychologist, and that Carli and her husband seek couple counselling through Relationships Australia or something similar? Why would it have been suggested that she do something constructive with a Psychologist through her family dynamics with her mother? It was also suggested by daycare centres that she have her children assessed, but she did not act on this advice. A number of daycare centres actually asked Carli to take her children elsewhere (evidence will be provided after the court case) for various reasons. It does not appear that Carli has put forward any of this information to Doni Whitsett, Michael Bachelard or the people she is associating with.

One of the other documented traits that people often have when brought up in such environments as Carli, that result in the Borderline Personality traits, is a “Magical Thinking”, a mechanism to avoid responsibility in the hope that something magical will occur to make things different. In Carli’s letter she herself can even see that she was not provided with any guidance as a child on how to take responsibility or how to function on her own.

A Melbourne family, who wish to remain anonymous, say their son is being recruited by the Jehovah's Witnesses and they are watching him drift away from them as the cult's persuasive techniques prove ''more powerful than the love of the family''.

''To have a heartfelt relationship with one of your children and then to have a superficial, plastic relationship, it's gut-wrenching,'' says the father.

Cults also try to make it hard to find external, verifiable information. Lakaev uses lawyers to vigorously patrol public comment about her. She has legally pressured Google to remove links to websites critical of her and she is suing some former members for defamation over information they published on blogs.

If anyone who has met Natasha Lakaev read the blogs that these people posted on the internet they would be shocked at the maliciousness and untruthfulness of the information posted. It has also been proven through preliminary discovery processes that these people have used the anonymity of the internet to post multiple blogs under many different user names in an attempt to convey the picture that there are more people with the same opinion. See the information posted on the following website, with a letter from the Director of Universal Knowledge, listing some of the behaviour undertaken or incited by these 2-3 individuals, and the havoc they have wreaked in many people’s lives. One blog website has already pulled down their website and posted an apology to Natasha Lakaev (see www.australianblogger.com and www.apology-to-natasha-lakaev.com)

It seems astounding that when Natasha Lakaev wishes to protect her reputation from malicious and vindictive defamatory behaviour, she is called litigious and treated as if she has something to hide. And yet the perpetrators seem comfortable hiding within a cult information organisation to use it as a tool to further their behaviour under an ‘official banner’. One wonders whether this organisation understands these people’s full agenda and the full extent of what they have been doing? The reputation of this organisation is being risked without concern by these few individuals who have their own agenda. This is a considerable shame as this organisation may have previously done some good things in helping people that are actually in need, and the ability to do this may be removed in the future when everything comes to light. This stunt by Carli McConkey is effectively going to make every person feel dubious about coming forward when they have genuinely been caught in a cult.

The defamation matter is being taken to court by Natasha Lakaev so that the truth can be heard in an open neutral forum, where identities cannot be hidden and all the evidence put forward. It is interesting to note that when Google was provided with the evidence they immediately blocked one of the offending sites. An organisation as large as Google does not block sites lightly without fair reason and without investigating the facts. It is even more interesting to note that since the defamation case has been taken to court, all negative blogging stopped immediately on the offending blog sites, highlighting again that it was only created by a couple of individuals. It will be interesting to see if, when this evidence is posted to shed light on the newspaper article, the malicious blogging starts again to try and distort the truth again (without facts or evidence).

Once Lakaev's disciples were hooked, their critical faculties broken down and their outside support cut off, Lakaev revealed her more extreme theology. McConkey says she claimed to be a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, and one of the 12 members on the Intergalactic Council of the Universe. She came from the ''Bird Tribes'' from a different dimension and she remembered all her past lives. In one of them she had been Queen of Atlantis. McConkey was told by Lakaev she had been a ''lady in waiting'' in Atlantis and she felt she was put on earth to serve her.

When people have undertaken the Universal Knowledge workshops they go home to their own lives, just like any normal personal development workshop. In the one year Personal Mastery course the bulk of the course is conducted external from the Universal Knowledge premises via external assignments and people only attend the property for a number of weekends. It is stressed that, during the programme, people should keep their regular jobs and maintain their relationships, so that their lives are stable. These are not parameters in which someone can be mind controlled, have their “faculties broken down” or have their “outside support cutoff”.

What is this “extreme theology”? If it exists then why has Carli not explained it in this article? Please contact the participants from all of the Universal Knowledge workshops including the one year Personal Mastery and ask them if this “extreme theology” exists and how it is affecting them as they go about their daily lives living all over Australia and the world as teachers, nurses, professors, chiropractors, environmental consultants, priests, public servants, psychologists, naturopaths, business owners, farmers etc.

As mentioned previously Carli lends an esoteric edge to the way she lives her life, looking for metaphysical signs in everything (i.e. the magical thinking from the personality disorder). The claims she makes about Jesus Christ etc are fictitious metaphors exaggerated here by Carli to build a “cult” story. Please do not forget that there are three witnesses to the fact that Carli approached Natasha Lakaev and stated that unless Natasha gave in to her demands she would cry cult, destroy Natasha’s son’s career and put herself where ever she could obtain the most amount of money.

Lakaev also claimed ''spirit guides'' who live in the sky told her what to do. This gave her divine authority when she insisted that the planet would soon be destroyed and most people would perish. Lakaev, though, would survive with her followers and become the dominant political figure. Cult leaders often describe their god-like powers, saying that theirs is the power of life and death. A number of sources back up McConkey's claims, but Lakaev concedes only that ''spirit guides'' sometimes give her ''very clear thoughts'', and that, ''from where I sit there are other dimensions that exist''.

These sources that back up McConkey’s false claims have already been discussed at the beginning of this response, regarding their agenda to build a story for their defense. If they are legitimate sources then why have they not put their name forward? Because it would not do their court case well for it to be known that they are the driving force behind the article. Terms such as “spirit guides”, and “dimensions” make up a significant portion of popular media including many reality TV shows to date.  Does this make these people cult leaders also? Are we heading back to the era of burning witches at the stake where the Spanish Inquisition is in control and an evangelical mindset determines what we can do each day? What happened to people’s rights of having freedom of thought and taking total responsibility for the choices in their lives? No one can stop anyone from developing a self-understanding. They have to do it themselves, just like Carli. It would seem to me that Carli wants to blame others for her decisions and choices, as can be seen from the information put forward in this article. Anyone picking up this story and running with it obviously hasn’t checked the stories from Carli and her husband.

Of the other claims, though: ''I do not consider myself the reincarnation of anything … There's no such thing as 12 members on an intergalactic council. These are just stories that we talked about, just stories to describe things and discuss things … They're just metaphors.''

The end of the world, she claims, was not a prophecy. Her ''survival'' course was simply designed to help people cope if the worst did happen. McConkey vehemently stands by her version.

In her 13 years with Lakaev, McConkey completed 15 courses, some more than once, spending $41,395 on fees, much of it begged or borrowed from her parents. She met a man, Michael, and married him. He spent $34,540 on fees. Lakaev insinuated herself into every aspect of McConkey's life. She was maid of honour at Carli and Michael's wedding. McConkey insisted that Lakaev, rather than her own mother, an experienced midwife, assist at the birth of her children.

These fees are not exorbitant given the number of courses Carli and her partner attended, and considering they repeated the year long Personal Mastery course worth $10,000,. A simple comparison of these costs with other companies commonly in the market will show . If we just type ‘personal development courses’ into Google and select one called ‘Beyond Success’ and have a look at their Mental Toolbox programme. Reading through their webpage it makes similar claims as to most personal development companies. In fact the Mental Toolbox programme claims to give you the tools to literally fix everything in just three days. Does this make them a cult? And that three days costs $1970! This must make them a cult by the definitions provided here by Michael Bachelard and Carli McConkey. If it costs $1970 for just three days imagine what they would charge for a year long course similar to Personal Mastery. In comparison the five day workshop The Next Evolutionary Step that was provided by Universal Knowledge at its’ most cost $990. The number of courses attended by Carli McConkey and her partner Michael Greene was always a concern for Universal Knowledge especially considering they did retakes of some workshops, including Personal Mastery. This highlighted that they were looking for the workshops to fix something that the workshops were not designed to do, such as deal with their ingrained personality traits. This requires long term psychotherapy with a trained psychotherapist which was discussed directly with Carli (affidavits will be provided here after the court case). In addition at least two of the workshops Carli attended were literally for free, with one of these being Personal Mastery in which she was only charged $1000 instead of $10,000. Carli expects to receive things easily as she was brought up by her parents with consistent financial support (but it appears limited emotional support or actual parenting input).

Once you read the documents and blogs written by Carli earlier it becomes clear that she has been lying when she states that it was anyone else’s but her own choice to keep her parents out of her life.

With regards to Carli saying that Natasha Lakaev infiltrated every part of Carli’s life, scores of people can provide affidavits to prove that this is a false statement, and Carli actually writes about it in three separate documents (the blog, hand written letter and typed letter) that she left at her home. When you also look at the phone record evidence to show where Natasha Lakaev has been living and how little Natasha has had any contact with Carli, it is further evident that Carli is lying. Carli chose to exclude her family from her life despite people’s best efforts to help her see otherwise.  Carli’s housemate provides a firsthand description regarding this issue also.

In December 1999, McConkey began working for Lakaev in the office without wages, and also cleaning and maintaining her properties. She and Michael bought a share in Lakaev's company, Universal Knowledge, for $20,000, believing they were buying equity, securing their future. They received nothing in return. Company documents show $420,000 was raised from investors in this manner, and Lakaev admits none have seen a return.

It has already been discussed above that Carli was intially employed by Life Integration Programmes (before it became Universal Knowledge), but that she destroyed the business financially by sleeping in the office instead of working and not following any company procedures, and then lied to people about this. After this Carli then insisted she do some work in the office to try and fix what she had done, despite many people’s attempts to ask her to go home (affidavits can be provided). Carli herself describes this in many documents. It has already been discussed that Universal Knowledge also owes Natasha Lakaev a considerable sum of money.

Lakaev later came up with spurious excuses to make McConkey and her husband pay her a further $140,000, claiming they were debts they owed. Both worked second and third jobs to pay this back. McConkey estimates that Lakaev owes them another $440,000 for their free labour over nine years.

Universal Knowledge is not Natasha Lakaev’s company. If Michael Bachelard had taken up the offer to see the company documents and meeting minutes it would have been obvious that this statement was incorrect. Someone has been feeding Michael misinformation as he was not even aware that there was a Director of Universal Knowledge and that this was not Natasha Lakaev.

The claim of $140,000 is a false one to cover up what Carli has recently done financially to a couple of well meaning individuals. In the year before Carli McConkey left the area she attempted to enter into a financial agreement with two other people to purchase a property. The two other parties took out large loans in their own names with the understanding that it would be the three of them purchasing the house and making the payments. When it came to signing some documents regarding the combined ownership of the property it was discovered that Carli had not been paying her share of the repayments for over two months leaving the other two in struggling financial situations. Carli was also living in this house while the other two were renting in other houses elsewhere near their place of work. Carli refused to pay rent to contribute to her use of the house. By Carli staying there without paying rent it was stopping them from being able to rent the place out to earn an income from the investment to make the repayments. Carli has conned these two generous people and documents will be provided after the court case to prove this. These are the issues that arose just prior to Carli packing up and leaving the area, and it highlights again that Carli has her own agenda in discrediting Universal Knowledge, Natasha Lakaev and other people that have been in her life in the last 13 years. Carli has a lot to hide.

Lakaev also convinced McConkey to seek an apprehended violence order against her parents and her brother. The court rejected the applications after McConkey gave misleading evidence. Lakaev claims instead that she had tried to help McConkey reconcile with her parents.

Natasha Lakaev and many people tried to convince Carli to see her parents and brother and include them in her life (affidavits can be provided). The documents provided at this website, written by Carli, show her describing in numerous forms how it was completely her decision to take AVO’s out on her parents and that she was having nothing to do with Natasha Lakaev. The documents describe her concerns over her parent’s intimidation, manipulations and lying behaviour and how much stress it put her and her children under.

At one point Carli’s parents sought out Natasha Lakaev’s personal residence away from the property and left a note requesting that she assist in helping them get in touch with Carli. At this point Natasha Lakaev asked Carli to please get in touch with her parents and sort out her familial issues (as always, witnesses were present to this conversation), so that it stopped affecting everyone else’s lives and brought some peace to her parents. Carli responded by taking out AVO’s on her family. This is the level of extremism that Carli approached everything with, as can be seen by this newspaper article as another example. The people that Carli is now associating with are going to have to deal with the fall out this article, and are going to have a taste of Carli doing whatever she wishes to do and distorting the truth to do so, without regard for the impact it will have on those around her. The evidence highlights that Carli gets caught up in her own thoughts on whatever monetary or emotional gains she wishes to achieve and she lies and manipulates to achieve this.

On another note, if Carli’s parents were so concerned about Carli’s children and having access to them, why when the AVO was dismissed, didn’t they take it then to the Family courts to gain access to their grandchildren. To make sure they could provide the input they felt the children needed. It could never be understood why this avenue was not taken. It seems like the concern for the grandchildren was just a superficial concern, and not an emotional one.

McConkey and her husband had more than one period apart as they dealt with the psychological and financial pressures imposed by Lakaev. In the meantime, McConkey says she was psychologically abused and physically assaulted by Lakaev, and was separated from her sons because Lakaev convinced her she was a ''human f--- up''. Lakaev also once beat McConkey's young son with a wooden spoon, she says.

Carli McConkey and her husband Michael Greene had many times apart due to their own relationship issues. If you read the letter hand written by Carli she admits to her parents that she cheated on her husband three times, one of these being three weeks after her marriage to Michael (on a holiday in Samoa – see photographs of this). Many times Michael Greene left Carli out of sheer frustration over her manipulations and the fights he would become embroiled in. If you read the articles on Borderline and Narcissistic couples you can see the never ending cycles that these couples get caught in of push pull and the difficulty that psychotherapists and counsellors have in dealing with this dynamic.

On many occasions Michael left as he did not want to be responsible for the children, commenting to people (such as Carli’s housemate) that they should be looking after Carli’s children not him, as he was paying Carli maintenance. Many times people begged Michael to come and look after the children as it was obvious that they were being neglected. However he refused. Michael Greene was caught swerving on the road under the influence of alcohol, in an unlicensed vehicle without a drivers license, with his children and other children in the car (this fact can be checked in the police records). Carli McConkey knew he was doing these things. Carli’s housemate and others can shed light on the dynamic between Carli and Michael, who against all advice refused to seek couples counselling from such places as Relationships Australia.

Carli neglected her children without telling anyone. At one point when Carli went to work for the day it was discovered that she had left her three young boys alone at home to babysit themselves (as attested to by her housemate who discovered this). The youngest baby was found running around in a dirty nappy while the other boys focused in on TV. On another occasion the boys were discovered unsupervised, by a young man who used to babysit them on occasions, and the eldest two boys had taped up the youngest child and locked him in a cupboard.

Regarding wooden spoons and Carli McConkey’s children she has again reversed the actual truth in this article. No less than seven people are attesting first hand to the fact that it was actually Carli that was abusing her children physically and verbally, and she had to be asked to calm down or leave the children alone on many occasions. Carli has been pulled off her children and is renowned for screaming and yelling at them. There are neighbours that are willing to step forward to attest to this. Carli would request that other people smack her children with wooden spoons. And if they refused she would storm off screaming and yelling at her kids.

Lakaev denies any physical abuse, saying McConkey was the violent one, who had ''done some very strange things with her kids''. ''She's going to end up in court herself … Carli's one of these girls who goes to psychics 24/7; she's not really that stable.''

Lakaev's supporters, who phoned The Sunday Age after my interview with her last week, said Lakaev was the victim of jealousy because she was a strong, independent businesswoman. They said they had seen McConkey leaving her young children home alone when she went to work. McConkey admits neglecting her children at times, but says she was forced to in the attempt to fulfill Lakaev's demands.

Once the evidence put forward here and on other website has been read, anyone will agree that Carli has an agenda to fulfill here and she is looking to blame someone for her own parenting faults. Carli neglected her children on a regular basis and daycare centres have commented that they were concerned about the behaviour of these children as a result. When Carli let her children be driven around in an unregistered car by her drunk husband, was someone also forcing her to do this?

For 13 years she stayed in thrall to the cult, living on or near Lakaev's northern NSW property, Omaroo. The promise of ''survival'', the hope of financial reward (from her shareholding in Universal Knowledge), and the occasional compliment was enough to keep her loyal. But in March 2009, in a state of exhaustion, McConkey agreed to something she will regret forever.

Carli never lived on the Omaroo property. This is false. She has rented at a number of houses in the neighbourhood and in Pottesville etc.

With regards to “exhaustion” see the photographs of Carli at Christmas, Easter, Halloween and wedding celebrations and holidays. Does this look like an exhausted, unhappy and unwell person?

''After the birth of my first son, from age 27, Natasha would tell me I was abusive, a liar and a manipulator and I shouldn't look after any children. She started saying, 'You should get sterilised','' McConkey recalls.

''After eight years, two more children and being repeatedly told to get sterilised, I gave in. I was separated from my husband at that time and I just knew I wouldn't be able to cope with another child in that environment and I thought, 'Well, I'll just do it now'.''

McConkey is strong. Many former cult members can never speak about their experiences. But after just nine months away from Lakaev, she held her nerve throughout her account to me. When she tells me about the sterilisation though, the tears flow.

''The doctor said, 'Are you sure you want to do this? You've still got 10 years of fertility left'. I said, 'No, it's what I want'. But it wasn't. Someone else had placed that idea in my head. I did it purely for her, to be able to focus more on her and her needs …

''After I left this year, I was in the girls' clothing section at Big W and I just had to really grieve that I wasn't able to have a little girl.''

McConkey says the process of cult indoctrination had led her, inch by inch, to a place she could never have imagined. But Lakaev denies having any role in McConkey's decision. ''I was a friend of Carli's … We had a symbiotic relationship,'' Lakaev says.

See the following link to the complete story of why Carli actually got sterilised, written by her housemate at the time it occurred. In short Carli started working at McDonalds and she was keen to sleep with a young coworker there, now that her partner was no longer around. Carli approached her housemate for information regarding sterilisation, stating these reasons for wanting to go through with it, to prevent herself falling pregnant again when she started sleeping with other men. Carli had a distinct reputation for sleeping with considerably younger men, even when she was married (as written in her own letter to her parents). In addition Carli had a tubal ligation done, so that she could reverse the process at a later date if she changed her mind. The above statements by Carli don’t correlate with the facts.

Finally, in January this year, McConkey could handle no more. She picked up her children and drove away into what she believed was certain death at doomsday. ''I was exhausted, had been beaten up again and was unable to cope with any more psychological and emotional pressure. I just said to myself, 'I don't care if I die in two years' time, I would prefer to be free and enjoy my children'.''

The feeling of freedom was almost immediate. But McConkey deals with shame and guilt over things she has done to her children, her family, her husband and other cult members. Some family members still will not talk to her. And she finds it difficult to plan for anything after armageddon, which Lakaev prophesied would be December 12, 2012.

I am not surprised Carli feels shame and guilt with regards to these things as she knows underneath this facade she has presented for her new group that she impacted so many people’s lives with her behaviour and that she always did exactly what she wanted, despite the ramifications to others. When her family members, partner and current “friends” read the actual evidence posted here, and elsewhere by others, they may think twice about this story put forward by Carli and question what they are now dealing with. The newspaper article begs the question, where is any evidence to back up Carli McConkey’s claims? Physical evidence to show the untruthfulness of her story has been presented here and on other websites, and more of it will be presented after the court case. When this evidence is put forward it will be interesting to see if Carli now claims that she was coerced by her current associates to say what she said in the newspaper. This is her pattern. But actually in this case I do think this time she has been coerced and used. This is a shame, because now that she has cried wolf no one will believe her ever again, and that is a very sad thing for her.

''I believe about 50 per cent that 'Survival' is going to happen and I just hope that it's not going to,'' McConkey says. ''If I wake up on the 13th [of December] and nothing has happened I'm just going to celebrate and hope to God that whoever is still caught up with that woman is just going to get up and leave.''

People sometimes ask why cult members do not simply exercise their free will and run away. But Kenja escapee Adrian Norman says his free will was reduced to a ''pilot light'' while in the cult. Mind control techniques are subtle and powerful. They turn your own mind against you.

''Prison walls and chains are not necessary when one believes these things,'' says Whitsett.

The good news is people can escape and recover, and McConkey is determined to do so. ''I go through bouts of feeling really down but I know I can get out of them because I don't want to be depressed any more … I still feel angry, but I don't feel as much fear.''

One begs the question why Carli is depressed? Aren’t anxiety and depression known to be side effects associated with lying and trying to hide an overwhelming number of things from the external world, such as from your close family and friends. Her subconscious world must be working overtime at the moment in an effort to hide all the above true facts from her family.

Again I feel it is important to state that it appears that Carli has been coerced, groomed and coached by the people she is now associating with to put forward this story as it will support their own agenda. And it suits Carli to play this part as it provides the avenue for her to be able to blame someone else for her actions when trying to justify her past behaviour to her family. Her husband knows full well the truth of the facts presented here.

As far as Michael Greene goes look at the Narcissistic partner described in the articles and you will start to see what has gone on. This is evidenced by the letter he has recently put forward to the editor of the Age when he tries to absolve himself from the many acts of abuse he has done to that girl Carli and her children. He took an innocent and beautiful girl and embroiled her in his controlling, confusing and unstable world.

Nobody can be blamed for how they behaved in their relationship or blamed for how they behaved as parents or toward their family. Look at the evidence presented here. Wouldn’t it be convenient if we could all say that everything we regret is someone else’s fault and have it posted in a newspaper?

In his letter to the editor Michael Greene professed how hard it was waiting for Carli for two years after he ‘left’. Has he forgotten that he moved away to get away from Carli and her manipulations (as part of one of these Borderline/Narcissistic couple cycles of push pull) and that in that time he went into a serious committed relationship with another woman and made plans to get married and have children with this other woman? Meanwhile other people maintained the lawns and property surrounding Carli’s home so that her children had a safe place to live.