Devotees denounce senator

The West Australian/May 8, 1999

Adelaide -- Two Adelaide women named in Federal Parliament as the operators of an insidious cult have accused a Liberal senator of attacking them to help a friend win a custody battle.

South Australia Senator Grant Chapman told Parliament last month the Vibrational Individuation Program (VIP) brainwashed its followers and forced them on to bizarre diets, which always included offal, and required them to wear pink or white underwear.

He said the cult targeted pregnant women and instructed members to break relationship if their partners were not with the group.

But the two women named -- Joan Phillips and Marie Steinke -- said this week the statement was inaccurate and had been made to help one of Senator Chapman's friends who is involved in a custody battle with a cult member.

Mrs. Phillips said Senator Chapman was using the legal cover to denigrate the group and help his friend's case.

She said the program was not a cult but a charitable, Christian-based group which used kinesiology to help people whose illnesses did not respond to traditional medicine.

Mrs. Phillips said each person was given a separate food program based on testing the vibration of the muscles, which showed the different energy levels of a person.

AI learnt it was not the nutrition of food, but you also had to know the vibrations of the body, which part was weak, which part was strong. We are talking about the body as a processing machine, not the five different food groups, she said.

Mrs Phillips said Senator Chapman=s statement that the group targeted pregnant women and encouraged relationship break-ups was untrue, as less than 2 per cent of members were pregnant women and the VIPs believed strongly in family.

Senator Chapman said his statement in Parliament was based on a thorough investigation of the VIPs and not on any friendship.

He said he had many documents from victims of the group and had written to State and Federal attorneys-general to advise them of possible breaches of State or Federal laws.