Expert: Scientology’s Grant Cardone ‘helping sell fake stem cell products to the public’

Last May, the New York Times published a lengthy story about the explosion of stem cell therapy as a business and questions about whether it actually worked as advertised.

The article largely focused on a Des Moines company, Regenexx, that has convinced some large employers to internally insure procedures that most insurance companies won’t pay for, based on the idea, for example, that injecting live stem cells into an arthritic knee is a lot less expensive than knee replacement surgery.

With several large employers on board, Regenexx has been able to vastly multiply its number of procedures and revenue, even as questions remain whether the treatments really produce any benefit at all.

The Times described the Colorado physician who started Regenexx in 2005, Chris Centeno, as “a pain medicine specialist in Broomfield, Colo., who had no background in stem cell research, but saw potential after reading about a study that hinted that stem cells could be used to treat spinal conditions in rabbits.”

So, we think it’s important to keep in mind that the Times expressed some skepticism about Centeno and Regenexx, even as it’s pretty plain that Centeno is a legitimate physician and Regenexx documents its work thoroughly and is conducting clinical trials to prove the efficacy of its treatments scientifically.

Centeno clearly takes his reputation and his stem cell work seriously, and he works hard to separate himself, and Regenexx, from other stem cell companies that he says are selling pure bunkum.

At his website, Centeno blogs about bogus stem cell therapies and the people who peddle them. “Through the website, Dr. Centeno regularly criticizes other stem cell businesses, and has acted as an expert witness for injured patients suing his competitors,” the Times noted.

And recently, Centeno’s withering gaze has fallen upon someone we’ve regularly lampooned here at the Bunker as a buffoon and charlatan: Scientology’s professional ham hock, Grant Cardone.

Centeno blogged that he’d never heard of the motivational speaker and promoter of the “10X” lifestyle until a friend forwarded him this web advertisement, claiming that Cardone could help a company increase its sales of stem cell therapy some 30 percent within a month…

 
Wondering who Cardone was, Centeno quickly grasped that Cardone’s schtick is mainly about getting people amped up about themselves, and then convincing them to essentially work around the clock, with a short break for “honey time.”

 
As for stem cells, Centeno watched a video from “GCTV” — Grant Cardone TV — that showed the huckster talking to a physical therapist and a chiropractor who were telling him about stem cells in umbilical cord blood administered in IV drips that they said would cure the opioid crisis.

In a second blog post, Centeno explained that the chiropractor in the video was from an outfit called Advanced Medical Integration that, as far as Centeno could tell, was selling treatments claiming to be made up of stem cells when it was clear that whatever they were injecting in people could not possibly have any live stem cells in it. And there was no evidence, he added, that these umbilical cord tissue IV infusions were effective at all, even while they put patients at real risk for serious side effects.

And now, professional blowhard Grant Cardone was getting involved in blowing up the sales of such products. “In my opinion, Mr. Cardone is involved in helping sell fake stem cell products to the public. I have no idea if he knows that what AMI teaches chiro clinics to sell is misrepresented,” Centeno wrote.

Sales gurus with books are a dime a dozen. There are countless self-help guys who tell you how to improve your life and your business. They often have become successful because they know how to build social media hype and sales funnels. The most disturbing thing for me is when they move from selling books or helping chiropractors book more adjustments, into selling investigational care or therapies like this which are misrepresented. For me, that crosses a line that should never be crossed. The upshot? Every sales and marketing guru is now officially in the fake “stem cell” business, helping clinics push these treatments. If federal regulators want to get at the heart of how the regenerative medicine space is spinning out of control, a healthy look at the sales funnels created by Mr. Cardone and many others would be a good place to start.

In a third blog post, Centeno points out that Cardone isn’t the only Scientologist selling dead stem cells through chiropractic offices. WISE members David Singer and Brent Detelich have long histories with Scientology and with pushing its business ideas on chiropractors, dentists, and veterinarians.

In an earlier blog post, Centeno had demonstrated that Singer was selling dead tissue to chiropractors, not realizing that Singer had a long history as a Scientology promoter.

Detelich, meanwhile, is a convicted felon who continued to appear on Scientology’s WISE list after a 2007 federal trial found him guilty of health care fraud.

“The fact that we have exosome and umbilical cord salespeople linked in with the business arm of the Church of Scientology is very strange indeed,” Centeno concluded in his most recent post.

We have a feeling that if Centeno was more familiar with Scientology’s long history of fraud and its resentment for “wog” law, he wouldn’t be so surprised!

 
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Attorneys hoping to be admitted to Scientology/Masterson lawsuit make their case

On February 22 we told you that Scientology had filed an overheated opposition to some out-of-state attorneys who are representing Chrissie Carnell Bixler and the other women suing the Church of Scientology and actor Danny Masterson, and who are seeking to be admitted formally to the lawsuit.

Even though they filed the lawsuit last summer, Brian Kent, Stewart Ryan, Marci Hamilton and several other high-profile attorneys, mostly from Pennsylvania, are still not formally admitted to the case and have been relying on Burlingame attorney Bobby Thompson to handle things, with some disappointing results.

But now Thompson has filed what appears to us to be a very effective and well written response to Scientology’s objections which, we had pointed out, seemed rather overblown to begin with.

Check out the filing here, and we’ll see how things go in the March 11 court date when the matter will be heard.

Ask a Scientologist!

Here’s a question that came in to askascientologist@tonyortega.org, and we thought Christie Collbran would be the best person to answer it. If you have a question for one of our many experts, please send it in!

I know Sea Org members are not allowed to have children but it would be interesting to know the difference between a Sea Org Scientologist and your everyday Scientologist. The many courses and auditing sessions should probably take a toll on a new mother. I’ve also heard that women are not allowed to make noises during birth? Is there a preferred type of birth — C-section/ vaginal/ all natural meaning no drugs at all?

Since Scientologists do not like drugs in general, most Scientologists lean toward having a natural birth experience and avoiding pain medication. Many Scientologists are likely to give birth at home with a midwife and to avoid going to the hospital altogether. Others do opt to go to the hospital to give birth there. Yes, L. Ron Hubbard did write about being silent during labor and birth in the book Dianetics. He said if there are words spoken during labor and birth they could supposedly have a negative affect on the baby and have lasting effects for life. So it depends on how literal the individual Scientologist wishes to take this information. I know of many ex-Scientologists who were not silent during labor and birth, and some that tried very hard to implement this idea. Some even educated local midwives in the community about their “silent birth” wishes so that they could be supported by their care providers to accomplish this goal. Regarding the course load and auditing sessions taking a toll on a new mother — I’m sure this has happened to some new mothers because this happens to Scientologists in general. It just depends on their dedication and involvement in Scientology, their ability to withstand the pressure of the church and how much money they have to spend on it. There are a lot of Scientologists who are not active, but still consider themselves Scientologists. Maybe they volunteer in some other Scientology activity because they can’t afford services at the moment. Remember these services are really expensive! You have to have a lot of money to burn to be on course and doing auditing sessions full time.

— Christie Collbran

 
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Source Code

“Scientology has various ends. Out of Scientology you could formulate, for instance, a very fine type of ‘thought warfare’ which — much better than an atom bomb. No, an atom bomb just kills people — but you could take in ‘thought warfare,’ you could enslave them utterly. You could, you’d make complete slaves out of them, with a very simple contraption. Very simple. We’re doing it the honest way in Scientology, because with a very simple contraption, with the greatest of ease, we could go around and anybody who was opposing Scientology would all of a sudden start being madly, insanely in favor of it. But that’s the easy way to do it, and that’s what’s wrong with the race, is everybody has tried it the easy way — control, restraint, more engrams, more punishment.” — L. Ron Hubbard, March 3, 1952

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“All of history of man is about off-world implanting during the past long amount of time. It’s quite apparent that meatballs aren’t dead in the head because they made a mistake in 3rd grade about the nature of consciousness. If you push the matter of consciousness is NOT brain, your preclear may die that night. It has happened to me.”

 
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Random Howdy

“Seeing as how boxers get knocked out more than any other group, RTC is missing a golden opportunity to prove the efficacy of Dianetic theory by grabbing some punch-drunk pugilist off of Skid Row and giving him six months of auditing and then calling a press conference where the former rummy could recite Shakespeare and explain quantum theory to all present. Why doesn’t C.O.B. think of these things?”

 
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Jay Spina: Sentencing set for April 3 in White Plains
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members: Trial set for April 14 in Los Angeles

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Waiting for an appellate decision from the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ (Valerie’s options.)
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology: March 11 (plaintiff attorneys pro hac vice, defense motions to quash), March 20 (demurrers by Masterson and Scientology), March 27 (motions to compel arbitration)
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe’s attorneys have asked for discovery, April 20 hearing set (motion to compel arbitration)
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach bankruptcy appeal: Oral arguments on March 11 in Jacksonville
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Complaint filed.

 
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Start making your plans…

 
Head over to the convention website and meet us in St. Louis!

 
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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientology claims to be the experts on drugs — their actual materials beg to differ
[TWO years ago] Garcias ask for hearing on farcical ‘arbitration’; Scientology files 600 pages in Laura D case
[THREE years ago] LAPD PROBING SCIENTOLOGY AND DANNY MASTERSON FOR MULTIPLE RAPES, COVER-UP
[FOUR years ago] Scientology, in forced-abortion case: It’s not abuse if you don’t complain when it’s happening
[FIVE years ago] How’s this for a gift on L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday? ‘Going Clear’ in theaters March 13
[SIX years ago] John Travolta’s fun night at the Oscars
[SEVEN years ago] Sunday Funnies: Get Your Infant Audited!
[EIGHT years ago] SCIENTOLOGY FILES FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AGAINST DEBBIE COOK

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on March 3, 2020 at 07:00

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The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2019 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2019), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

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