Original subtitles

[glass tinkling]

[woman 1] Essential oils used to be pretty fringe.

[ominous tune]

Over the past decade, you start seeing them in magazines,

and Target, and Walmart, and yoga studios.

Now, they're a multi-billion-dollar industry.

[woman 2] Essential oils are extracts from plants.

They can be sedative, relaxing,

antibacterial.

They can help with our mood.

[woman 3] People talk about aromatherapy as if it's got some, sort of,

mystical property.

It's touted as an alternative to mainstream medicine.

[man 1] I've had people tell me, "Medicine has failed me."

They had cancer. They used essential oils.

Now they don't have cancer.

[woman 4] It is who I am. It is a lifestyle for me.

[woman 5] It's like a cult.

They prey on housewives and mothers.

[man 2] I do think there's this pervasive feeling,

at least among women we've spoken to,

that they got tricked.

We allege that this is a pyramid scheme.

[woman 5] They say it is non-toxic.

Well, it can be toxic.

[women 3] There's no evidence as to what levels are safe over time.

We are swimming in the unknown waters, you know.

Don't know what's out there. Might be sharks. [laughs]

[opening theme music]

[narrator] Wellness. A global industry worth trillions of dollars.

Does it bring health and healing?

Or are we falling victim to false promises?

Are we really getting... well?

[suspenseful tune]

[cart rattling]

[woman 2] Western medicine,

as good as it is,

really has its limitations.

-Hey, there. Hi, Andy. -[Andy] Yo.

I'm Amy, from integrative therapies.

-[Andy] Hi, Amy. -How're you doing?

I'm doing fine.

Good, good, good. I understand you just had surgery.

I did.

My name is Amy Quarberg.

And I am the integrative nurse clinician for M Health Fairview Systems.

What kind of surgery did you have?

I had a, uh, lumbar fusion.

Ah, okay.

So, part of what our department can offer you

is things to help you relax, or help with pain.

[Andy] Anxiety is my problem right now.

I'm supposed to get up and walk and move...

-[Quarberg] Uh-huh. -...and I don't want to. I'm thinking,

jeepers, they just took and fused my... back and...

-Right. -I'm not too crazy about walking.

I've got some essential oils we can offer,

that can be specifically helpful for not only anxiety, but pain.

[Quarberg] I didn't know a lot about essential oils

coming into this role.

I needed more understanding, because

patients and staff were asking about different oils,

and I didn't know how to answer.

So, I decided to get certified in clinical aromatherapy.

The program that I did was over a year's coursework of study

and 250 clinical contact hours for nursing.

It was fairly in-depth.

[Quarberg] Aromatic oils have been around for over 5,000 years.

I'm gonna let you smell a couple. Tell me which ones you like the best.

This isn't... new.

It's just new to be using it in a clinical setting.

First one is better.

First one. All right.

And that would've been my first choice.

And you know which one it is? It's called orthopedic oil,

and this one is made specifically for orthopedic issues

like musculoskeletal aches and pains.

-Look, it's the one you chose. -[Andy] Go figure!

-The body doesn't lie, right? -[Andy] No.

It tells you what you need.

We have essential oils offered in a variety of ways,

uh-- primarily through inhalation,

putting a couple drops on a cotton ball.

We also can use it for massage in lotions.

And then we also have oshibori, which is really a hot washcloth,

and so it's made to make you feel better

without any needles involved.

[mellow music]

One of the things we see often in the hospital

is a pain and anxiety relationship, or a loop.

As pain goes higher,

anxiety goes and rises with it.

Breathing it in.

So, as we can bring the anxiety down, that often relaxes the body enough

that they can bring the pain level down.

Would you say it shifted at all, some of your anxiety

from when we first walked in the room?

I feel more relaxed.

Right. Yeah.

It actually changed a little pain level in my back slightly too.

We've got such an opioid epidemic

and dependence on pharmaceuticals to fix all our problems.

And I don't want to say that essential oils alone

is gonna treat that pain that you're having.

But an essential oil in a combination with perhaps something...

pharmaceutical, that's not as strong as an opioid,

together can enhance each other

and improve the effectiveness of a medication.

How did that feel actually?

It's really good, yeah.

We're gonna get you through this.

Yes. You and me and God.

-That's right. -And frankincense.

And frankincense!

If it was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me.

That's right. I love that.

I don't know if it's the attention, or if it's the oil.

-But it had such a... It was relaxing. -Yes.

Some of it's placebo effect. It totally could be.

But so is medication. And we've done a lot of trials on that.

Ready, are you going to try and walk?

-We're gonna give it a try. -We're gonna give it a try.

A little stiff.

Yes, to be expected,

but you'll feel better after this.

The pain is...

very low.

[nurse] Okay.

[Quarberg] I don't see this going away.

I only see it getting bigger.

[car humming]

[woman 6] I'm kind of excited.

This afternoon, I'm gonna talk to someone

about aromatherapy for my daughter, Sarah.

I don't really have much knowledge or experience about essential oils.

What I do know is they're plant-based.

I like that.

My name is Julie Marshall,

and I'm a mom to Sarah, who's 15, and Jazzy, who's 12.

[Marshall] Being a mom has changed me, especially being a special-needs mom.

I'm much more patient.

I don't worry so much about the little things.

My neighbor says, "My daughter won a trophy in gymnastics."

I'm like, "My daughter used the toilet, and she's 15." [laughs]

It's just a completely different way of looking at things.

So, yeah. [chuckles]

[somber music]

[Marshall] Sarah was born... Our pediatrician said she was floppy.

It kind of ruined my first baby wellness visit.

I was really excited, I had my camera,

and then the pediatrician, who was really a good pediatrician in hindsight,

he just said, "I'm really concerned. She's floppy.

You need to go get more tests at children's hospital."

[Marshall] She missed all her milestones,

and didn't get a diagnosis till she was four.

A lot of it is, I think, because she's a girl

'cause it's more likely that boys have autism.

And she loved looking at her face in the mirror

and connecting with people through their eyes.

So, that was atypical for autism.

So, I think that's why it took so long to get a diagnosis.

Sarah, I gotta open the door, sweetie, we're gonna...

You mad? We're gonna go visit our friend, Lora.

Wait, what's she doing?

She's not wanting to get out of the car.

-What? Oh. -[Sarah wailing]

Do you need more time?

Say "time."

-Time. -Okay.

We'll give you one minute, okay?

Even though she's 15, cognitively she's younger

and delayed, so she requires my help with everything.

Oh.

Dressing, brushing her teeth, getting ready,

I can't just say, "Go get dressed!"

or, "Get a shirt on," even.

So it takes a little more time.

Okay, Sarah, it's time to go.

I know...

I know. It's been a long...

It's been a long day. Say "I'm mad."

-Say "mad." Mad? -Mad.

Yeah, I know. I understand, it's been a long day, but you can bring...

[Marshall] She gets frustrated. She'll... They call it self-injurious behaviors.

She'll hit her head. And we just don't want that to increase.

One thing about being a special-needs parent,

especially with autism,

is you're constantly looking for something that will help.

We've done OTPT, speech therapy.

We have done horse therapy.

What else... Behavioral therapy. ABA, it's called.

We have done so many different therapies.

She did it!

She did it.

I had never even considered using essential oils

as a therapy for autism,

until I met Lora

in a parent support group for families like mine.

Come on in. Come on in.

[Marshall] Sarah had a hard time getting out of the car.

We got some head-hitting. But she's had a long day at camp.

-Sure... I'm sure it can be exhausting. -Yeah.

Come on in.

My name is Lora Cantele.

I've been a clinical aromatherapist since 2003.

So, essential oils are derived from plants.

The ones that we see most often are found in the leaf.

We also get them from the seed.

We get them from fruit.

Essential oils can be distilled with steam,

or they can, in the case of something harder like cinnamon,

they would be hydrodistilled,

which is where they're put in water, and the water is boiled.

And what happens then is, as the steam rises,

it comes through the still, it goes through a cooling coil,

and then when it comes out, the resulting liquid starts to separate.

And the oil generally sits on top, and then they siphon off the oil,

and we use that for therapeutics.

You could put them in roll-ons.

You could put them in little inhalers or in diffusers.

But there are very few scenarios that I can name

where it would be beneficial to ingest an essential oil.

They can burn your mucous membranes over time,

and they could cause internal damage.

So, on the whole, there really isn't any reason

why somebody would really need to ingest an essential oil.

[Sarah whining lightly]

Lately, Sarah's been stealing my lotions, my shampoos.

She likes to hold them and smell them.

Why not use this and see if there's a scent she likes

that can help her when she's distressed to calm her body down.

I have a specialty in working with children with special needs.

You know, my son is autistic,

and I used essential oils with him

to help calm him

when he would have these episodes of rage and was inconsolable.

And it was very beneficial for his sleep.

And I thought, "Wow, this is the best-kept secret ever.

I need to tell everybody."

So, I got certified,

and then I became a registered aromatherapist.

I know what the oils are capable of.

And it's just finding that right blend for your client.

Okay, missy. You can hang out here.

We're gonna talk.

Okay, kiss.

We get to smell stuff today.

You get to smell stuff.

This is war!

[man 1] Hey, come on! Not too crazy.

Stop, stop.

Close your eyes.

That smells like peppermint.

It's peppermint and clove. I crushed it.

Hey, kisses.

Kisses.

[man 1] We use essential oils throughout the day.

It's just happiness in a bottle.

And so, it's become a culture that we've created here.

[humming and singing indistinctly]

[keyboard clacking]

I never wanted to be a blogger.

But our blog reaches more than 5 million people a year.

All right, we're good?

Essential oil masterclass, take one.

-Aww. I love you, baby. -Love you.

Hi, my name is Dr. Eric Zielinski.

You might know me online as Dr. Z.

[mellow music]

My wife and I run a website known as NaturalLivingFamily.com,

and we specialize in helping people use essential oils safely and effectively.

If you could give me just 15 to 20 minutes a day,

I promise you that you'll know all that you need to know

to start using essential oils in just ten days.

All right, I'm gonna get the makeup. Touch you up.

In my world, I'm one of the more successful bloggers in the industry.

We're blessed to be able to help people

through buying our master classes and books.

And we've reached multiple seven figures in our business.

-Mama! -Kissy?

You got sweet kisses.

[Dr. Z] Uh-oh! You have makeup on you.

You got lipstick on her nose.

-Occupational hazard. -Occupational hazard?

My family is made of my beautiful wife, Sabrina...

I need you to run the swivel sweeper.

I don't like bananas.

...our daughter Esther, who's 11...

Isaiah, who is eight...

Elijah, who is six...

Yeah, let's go.

...and baby Bella, who is three.

My daddy!

-You want your Elsa tea? -Yes!

Okay.

So, a day in the life of the Z's and how we use essential oils

on a daily basis is,

it starts at the very beginning, when we get the kids ready.

We have diffusers running throughout the house

depending on the kind of mood.

The hand soap or lotion that we're using, it's--

They're everywhere, and we make a lot of our own products.

We use them as we want to in our culinary purposes.

Let's get two drops of peppermint.

Wanna help?

Many aromatherapists claim you should not ingest essential oils.

I'll argue this till I'm blue in the face.

Keep it. Do it again. Okay.

I mean, what do you think flavors your favorite soda pop and ice cream?

So many things that are naturally flavored are essential oil-based.

That's there on the Food and Drug Administration website.

Look it up.

-Elsa tea! -Elsa tea.

Go back! Go back! Go back! Go back!

[Dr. Z] There's a lot of evidence

to suggest that essential oils can help in a variety of ways.

Mmm. Try it!

Yummy? Knuckles.

No, not kiss, knuckles!

Aww. [laughs]

[mellow music]

One of the reasons why I'm so passionate about what I do

is because I really know what it's like to be sick.

So, when you look at my childhood, I just was chronically unwell.

When I was a teenager, I started to develop significant depression,

like clinical depression.

I started self-medicating.

Alcohol, started smoking a pack of cigarettes a day,

cocaine, ecstasy, narcotics, street drugs.

And I hit my proverbial rock bottom when I was 22 years old.

Okay, guys, we're gonna say a quick prayer before y'all go, okay?

Close your eyes.

Heavenly father, God, we thank you for this beautiful day.

So, when I was just about 23 years old, I had a spiritual revelation.

I was blind, and then I could see.

I became a Christian, and within a moment,

the addiction, the depression, the anxiety,

the suicidal thoughts, all went away.

I can't explain it other than it was a miracle.

I'm a living miracle.

And, Lord, we just know people's lives are going to be transformed.

The suffering that they're experiencing will be eased.

But some things didn't go away.

Like my gut issues. Like the acne. Like sleeping issues.

And when you look at the Bible, when you look at the references to gold,

frankincense and myrrh, to Mary, the prostitute, anointing Jesus' feet.

What do you think that was?

It was an essential oil-based extract.

When I started looking at research and seeing the direct impact

that essential oils have on the limbic system,

where your mood, your memory, your emotions lie,

balancing blood pressure,

helping with the symptoms related to a number of diseases, including cancer,

I was astounded.

-Amen. -Amen.

All right, bring it in. Whoa, team Z!

All right. Let's go.

Yay.

I know the secret to how to do something. I wanna share that with somebody else.

So while we're doing this,

Sabrina's gonna be doing three different scenes or segments.

Yeah, I'm gonna get it printed out. You'll get the notes.

Working together, it's actually been the best thing for our marriage.

If a woman is married and has kids,

her dreams aren't done yet,

and there's still so much that she can accomplish.

I competed from the time I was 17 to 24 in the Miss America competition.

I just-- I loved it. I loved the development.

I loved what it did for my career.

And then, a few years and three children later,

I thought, you know, I might not be done competing.

[make-up artist] Look at me.

[Sabrina] One thing I didn't expect was that

all that speaking I was doing,

I didn't know it was also preparing me for what I would do with my husband.

We're using what God has given us

to help benefit other people.

That's what we signed up for. That's what we committed to.

All right, here we are in the kitchen with Mama Z.

Yes.

We're gonna talk all about the essential oil supplies

and everything that you need in order to make your own products.

I gotta say, my wife and I, we're just as real as anyone else is.

And I think that, out of everything,

is the reason why our online popularity has soared,

because people can relate to us.

We've had a couple hockey puck muffins that came out of the oven.

And that's it. We're not trying to pretend we're something that we're not.

Absolutely.

[videographer] Cool.

Okay, all right, we'll set up for that.

[indistinct chatter]

You know, we keep our prices so affordable.

I mean, our most expensive master class is $77 for digital access.

Like, anyone can afford that,

even if you're on food stamps, government assistance.

Hey, stop drinking Starbucks for two weeks in a row,

and there's 75 bucks, right?

That's our master class.

And I want you to join me on this journey.

I believe God has a solution for you.

I actually consider Natural Living Family a for-profit ministry.

And the stories that we get are amazing.

People, medical failures, that are just suffering

with anxiety, and depression, and panic, and cancer, and they're like,

"I stumbled. I stumbled."

I heard that many times, "I've stumbled upon your stuff."

No, you didn't stumble, God directed you to my stuff.

God knew what you needed, and he showed you.

[Dr. Z] All right, ready for church?

Many people ask, "Can essential oils cure cancer?"

I'll get crucified for this.

I've seen documentation.

I've seen the reports.

They had cancer, used essential oils. Now they don't have cancer.

How am I going to say that's not possible?

Essential oils can help people with cancer.

But what the Food and Drug Administration has done in the United States

has made it illegal, actually illegal,

to make any sort of medical claims associated with essential oils

if you're selling an essential oil.

And so, that's one reason why we don't sell essential oils.

The system has been designed to keep away this message.

But we have the freedom of speech to share what we do.

Really, by God's grace we're protected.

And we've been able to help millions.

[all cheering]

[woman 3] You get quite a lot of

serious claims being made, you know,

essential oils can cure x, y, and zed.

They can cure cancer, blah, blah, blah.

There's not the clinical evidence. There just is not.

My name is Dr. Joy Boyles.

I'm a researcher, an educator, and an author.

And the title of my best-known book is The Chemistry of Aromatherapeutic Oils.

[Boyles] Essential oils are not regulated as medicines.

There are strict guidelines on how they can be used in the flavor industry,

like recommended dosages for candies and drinks.

The trouble comes about when people are making claims

which they don't have substantiated evidence for.

People say, "There's lots of studies."

I used to think that was impressive, too.

But just because bacteria, rats, cells,

respond to the essential oils,

it doesn't actually correlate necessarily with the human experience.

So, the evidence base that we have

for the clinical effects of essential oils in humans,

it's pretty scanty.

They've done three or four good quality human experiments.

For example, lavender oil.

They did a clinical trial.

They had one group of people taking the lavender preparation,

and another group taking the drug called lorazepam for anxiety.

So, both groups didn't know whether they were getting lavender or lorazepam.

And at the end of the trial,

both groups reduced their anxiety equally.

[Boyles] So, lavender oil is as good as lorazepam.

That's the kind of level of clinical evidence that we have.

Using essential oils to help people cope with their pain,

helping them cope with their anxiety,

helping them cope with their insomnia.

And notice I use the words "help them cope with," not "cure."

Proper aromatherapy isn't claiming to cure anybody.

[Marshall] Sarah, I got music for you.

[classical music]

So, I put together a couple of blends.

This is for sleep.

[whispers] Oh, that's good.

This blend has vetiver, sandalwood,

there's some ylang-ylang, and just a little bit of rose.

Sarah's always moving around constantly.

I heard a teenager who has autism once explain

the reason he flaps his hands so much

is 'cause he can't feel his body.

And so he's trying to get the input to feel his body.

So, I'm thinking that's why she always needs to move.

A lot of times, she's just wired.

So it's just hard for her to get to sleep.

[Cantele] ...still having a hard time falling asleep. So wait...

[Marshall] So, we're always looking for ways to calm her down before bed.

And then when she's ready to go to bed,

and you open the door,

she'll have the scent in the room.

So, this one... oh.

Did she run away?

Sarah Marshall!

Did she run away?

Sarah's, like, super happy on your daughter's bed.

We could take these upstairs. If Sarah's happy up there,

we want her to stay happy up there.

[Marshall chuckles] I'll take my shoes off.

[laughs]

Sarah, just make yourself at home, missy!

We don't get a lot of sleep.

So, I tell people Sarah parties in her room.

'Cause she's not upset,

but we hear a lot of banging, a lot of noises.

And I don't really wanna give her melatonin,

'cause she can't verbalize how it makes her feel.

So that's kind of why I'm looking for alternatives.

Okay.

So, these are both for sleep. I kind of want to get a preference.

Both for sleep? Okay.

As an authentic aromatherapist,

I'm going to choose oils,

and I'm going to blend them together in such a way

that they could be beneficial for what my client has come to see me for.

This is something I would put in a diffuser in her room.

What works for one person might not work for another.

And the best way I can explain that is,

for some children, they need to be stimulated to calm down,

and other children need calming oils to calm down.

-Smells like chamomile tea. -There's a little chamomile in there.

In working with special-needs kids,

I try to do my best at recognizing the cues from the child.

I think you really might like this one.

You wanna hold it and smell it? Oh, wow.

No?

No, that's-- Yeah. Ooh.

That one's kinda nice, isn't it?

-We got a smile out of that. -That was good, yeah.

Thanks, Sarah, thanks for smelling.

-Yeah. That's a definite yes. -Okay.

You did a great job.

Yeah. -[Cantele] She was awesome.

Yeah, I'm really surprised that she smiled.

I mean, I guess I'm just, kind of, optimistic.

Car. Time.

-[Cantele chuckles] -[Marshall] Thank you.

-You're welcome. -Bye.

All right, bye, girls.

Success for Sarah would be...

something that could help her in her sleep.

You know, they always talk about

how important sleep is for growing brains and mood and development.

Then you've got a kid like Sarah who is developmentally delayed.

Good night, sweetie. Kiss?

So, sleep is so important.

[woman 4] I fully credit the essential oils for saving my life.

My name is Allison Huish.

I'm from Mesa, Arizona.

-I am a wellness advocate with doTERRA. -[bottles clink]

The way for me to grow my business

is by sharing these products with my network,

with people at church, or family, or friends.

I invite people to a doTERRA class.

I'm always very upfront, and I say, "I would love for you to come."

Come on in, everyone.

There is no obligation to purchase.

It's so good to see you.

I believe in the phrase, "Serve more to sell more."

These are three of my favorite oils that I love to put in water.

Lemon, lime, orange.

So, I'm gonna pass around the first oil that I was introduced to.

This is wild orange oil.

Take a drop, and then rub your hands together,

and you can pass it around.

So, I assume that you're here today because you are looking for solutions

for a health concern that's going on in your life.

Let me tell you my story,

how I got into oils.

When I was 12 years old,

I was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

This was three weeks after junior high started,

and I went into almost like a state of shock.

My tumor was about the size of an egg.

The morning of my surgery, my neurosurgeon said,

"We can't make any guarantees."

And so, for eight hours,

he slowly picked away at that tumor.

But part of it was considered inoperable.

My neurosurgeon said, "Enough is enough," closed me up, and said,

"We'll figure out what to do with the rest later."

For my tumor...

chemotherapy was not an option.

And radiation, as a 13-year-old, to your brain stem

just sounds pretty, pretty scary.

A family friend heard about my story.

He said, you know, "Are you open to natural solutions?"

I took frankincense and clove oils,

which have anti-cancer, antioxidant properties.

And then also oils like oregano or tea tree,

help fight viruses and bacteria.

If you go to a typical doctor,

they're going to give you a pill for one thing.

Every couple of hours, I was taking some form of essential oil...

internally or topically.

With every MRI, my doctor would just say,

"Keep doing what you're doing, and we'll see you in six months."

My mom was very careful that she never brought up

that we were using essential oils.

If she had told my neurosurgeon that,

he could have easily called Child Protective Services and said,

"This mom is trying to avoid radiation."

It was this big secret that we were hiding throughout the whole process.

Those are your only hospital pictures.

Yeah, the only hospital photos.

-I didn't want photos taken. -You didn't.

I never did chemotherapy.

I never did radiation.

And ever since that day, I've continued to use oils.

My husband has diabetes.

So, I'm interested in things that might help his pancreas.

And I'm having lymph issues,

so like, adrenal, kidney, things like that.

One of the most common questions I get, people ask with doTERRA,

is they say, "Hey, is there an oil for this?"

I would say 99.9% of the time,

the answer is yes.

I love citrus oils, because they make you happy.

Peppermint oil helps with headaches.

Frankincense is really good for cancers,

cuts, scrapes, emotional issues.

Essential oils help clean out the blood in the outside part of the cell.

But we're not supposed to say that essential oils cured this disease.

That is due to the FDA.

Our healthcare system doesn't really like essential oils.

It takes away from our Big Pharma, and all of those sales.

A 50-milliliter bottle like this has 250 drops in it.

So, it may look like, wow, I'm spending $20 for that?

But if you think about it in drops per cent,

most oils are about five to seven cents a drop.

They're really a very inexpensive way to take care of our health.

And so ask yourself for a second,

are you and your family any healthier

because of traditional medical care?

With oils, I believe they are safer,

they are cheaper, and they are more effective.

I see miracle story after miracle story happen

with so many people.

And that's why I wanted to do this business.

This is the form to fill out for those who have oils or are wanting to purchase.

[Huish] The last section is put down where you would like it to be charged to.

You guys are wonderful.

Have a great rest of your day. Thanks so much.

-Thank you. -Thanks, Allison.

Yeah, so great to learn this today.

[woman 1] I started noticing essential oils being everywhere.

It was something that was happening really suddenly.

There were multiple people selling these things

that I had never heard of before.

And then when I started to look into it,

I saw that there was a whole controversial industry behind them.

And so that seemed like something worth digging into.

The two major companies that are selling the majority of the essential oils

for sale in the United States today are

two multi-level marketing companies.

There's Young Living and doTERRA.

Multi-level marketing companies,

you make money by selling products,

but also by recruiting other people to sell the product.

[Monroe] Many people are familiar with companies like Amway, or Mary Kay,

but now multi-level marketing companies have really taken on a new life.

With the doTERRA business, I have definitely been very blessed.

I have reached the rank of diamond with doTERRA.

So, diamond is one of the top ranks.

My paychecks now are over $20,000 every single month.

I became a six-figure income with doTERRA.

-[on computer] Hello? -Hey, Cindy, how's your day going?

[Cindy] So far, so good. How about you?

I love it, congrats...

The larger someone's team is,

the more lives you've touched.

That's where the paycheck really starts to grow.

My doTERRA team is over 16,000 people right now.

I love that I can support all those people.

[Cindy] I have been working really hard

and the team enrollments, because it's just me,

I am just not capable of doing 14 enrollments a month yet.

Maybe eventually, but I am just not there yet.

[Huish] doTERRA isn't something that people come on board

and within a couple of months win a free car,

hit a couple of bonuses, and tap out.

It's not like a get-rich-quick thing.

I know the builders will definitely come, for sure.

[Cindy] Yeah, it's just time.

They'll show up when God wants them to.

This is the best career on the planet.

I just need to get it profitable.

Definitely, no, I completely agree.

It is an amazing company, amazing career to have, so...

What's problematic with the multi-level marketing companies

is that they're actually proposing this aromatic lifestyle.

You've gotta have the essential oils in your laundry detergent,

you've gotta have it in your cooking,

you've gotta have it in your air,

you've gotta vaporize it, you've gotta put it in your cleaning products,

and the cumulative amount...

there's no evidence of that being safe for humans.

What they're actually doing, unbeknownst to them perhaps, even,

is running the biggest experiment on human use of essential oils

that we've ever seen, planetwide.

[Monroe] When I went to the Young Living convention,

one thing that was really striking to me was that

what was for sale was not just essential oils

but this whole idea of an essential oil culture and essential oil lifestyle.

The way women described themselves was not just "I'm a person who sells oils,"

but "I am an oil person."

[Monroe] Everything at the Young Living convention is over-the-top.

You see just the enormous crowds.

This entire stadium is just packed.

There's the pyrotechnics,

making the thing feel like an enormous spectacle.

And when you're talking about this world, there is a key figure.

And that's Gary Young.

Folks coming to convention is very much like that.

If you don't come to convention,

you're going to miss some of the most fundamental elements

that could be important in building your success.

[Monroe] Gary Young is the founder of Young Living Essential Oils.

And he was a real showman.

[crowd cheering]

At the Young Living convention, he always made a dramatic entrance.

One year, he was pulled by a team of huskies.

Gary Young was this larger-than-life figure.

And he really helped create

the billion-dollar essential oil industry we have today.

Gary Young's origin story is a key part of Young Living lore.

He was born in Idaho, and grew up very poor.

In his twenties, he was in a terrible logging accident.

His spinal column was ruptured,

and he's told by doctors that he's never going to walk again.

But, as the story goes,

Gary Young decides to subsist on nothing but lemon juice and water

for over 200 days.

And after 253 days,

he can twitch his toes again.

This recovery spurred his interest in alternative medicine.

Gary Young doesn't have a medical license.

He has a degree in naturopathy

from an unaccredited university.

So, in the early 1980s,

he opened a health facility, and he offers birthing services.

One of the babies that he attempts to deliver in an underwater birth

is his own daughter,

and, really tragically, she died

after spending an hour underwater during a water birth.

The death is ultimately ruled an accident.

In the early 1990s, Gary Young became fascinated

with the medicinal properties of essential oils,

and started Young Living Essential Oils in 1993.

We know, without question,

that we produce the finest quality oil in the world.

That's why Young Living

is the world leader of essential oils and always will be.

He opened a clinic in Utah,

but a patient sued him

claiming that a treatment including the infusion of vitamin C

had almost killed her.

He closes the clinic in Utah,

and opens one in Ecuador

where he gave essential oils intravenously to patients,

and even apparently performed gallbladder surgery without a medical license.

His persona was that of a cowboy.

Somebody going against the rules, breaking the rules.

He promoted this idea that essential oils

could have these miraculous healing properties.

As his empire grew, he really contributed to the spread of these ideas widely.

[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,

welcome to the Young Living International Grand Convention.

[cheering]

[Monroe] By the time Gary Young died in 2018...

the industry he helped create was booming.

[woman 5] I want to remain anonymous

because I'm not doing this for notoriety.

But I feel like my story needs to be told

because people don't talk about it,

because they're afraid.

When I decided to do this business, I was a stay-at-home mom.

I ran into a friend from high school,

and she introduced me to Young Living.

They're like, "You can work around your schedule of your kids, and it's easy.

All you have to do is talk about the oils, and people will buy."

It's the dream job for stay-at-home moms.

When I do stuff, I try to go all-in.

So I bought books that they recommended.

I bought all their promo material.

I bought oils for samples.

You know, I ended up spending a few thousand dollars.

It seemed like a good business opportunity, and it wasn't.

I'm one of probably hundreds of thousands of women

who have been taken advantage of by Young Living.

Someone needs to stand up to them.

[tense music]

It came across my news feed.

I just saw "class action lawsuit," and I'm like, what's this about?

When I read the complaint,

I was like, this is me.

And if it's the same thing for me and for her,

then how many other women are there out there?

[man 2] Almost as soon as that story hit, my phone started ringing.

"I read the complaint. I feel like I'm the Julie of Arkansas."

"I'm calling you from Louisiana.

I read her story, and that is my story."

My name is Austin Tighe. I'm an attorney with Nix Patterson

and I'm co-lead counsel on a class action against Young Living

having to do with their multi-level marketing scheme.

We allege in this lawsuit

that Young Living is an illegal pyramid scheme.

-[Tighe] G'morning. -[Connie] Good morning. How're you?

Good. I'm Austin Tighe. Welcome to Nix Patterson.

-Nice to meet you. -You as well.

There are more people like you than not like you.

I suspect that there are thousands of our class members

who are afraid to come forward.

So, thank you for coming in and talking with me.

I thought multi-level marketing companies are more like Avon or Cutco.

More like door-to-door sales.

I didn't understand that they were this whole other thing.

The way that their business model works,

you don't make your money off of selling the oils.

It's not like I can just have a party and sell oils.

People have to sign up and become a distributor.

In addition to that,

in order to earn commissions,

they require that you enroll in, it's called essential rewards,

where you have to purchase

at least $100 worth of product a month yourself

to be able to collect commissions from the people below you.

So, if I didn't do that essential rewards,

I wouldn't get any commission.

What you just described is exactly a pyramid scheme.

Pyramid schemes operate

by building downlines.

It's the lifeblood of a pyramid scheme.

If you're a member,

and you go out and get someone to join Young Living,

they become part of your downline.

Revenue generated by them, you get to share in them.

But that's not the real crux of the money. Here's the real crux of the money.

Once you're in the pyramid,

you have to, every month,

fulfill your personal volume.

It was $100 per month on inventory.

Whether you ever sell those products or not,

that hundred dollar monthly

feeds the upline until you get to the very top of the pyramid,

which is not just where most of the money is made,

it's really the only place the money's made.

I tried to sell Young Living products by holding classes

but then I felt like that was lacking.

And then they're like, "Just create an Instagram for your business."

So I did that, didn't get anybody.

They tell you to get your best friends involved,

get your family involved,

look up people from high school, people you haven't talked to in years,

tell him about the oils, they'll love 'em.

And I could not get anyone to do it as a business.

I'll say the area's flooded,

and they'll say, "No, you're not hustling,"

that "There's always more people to join."

My Royal Crown Diamond,

she reiterates all the time, "Anybody can do this.

Anybody can accomplish this goal."

Royal Crown Diamond is the top, top level of the pyramid.

Now, if you reach that level,

boy, is it a great company.

$1.8 million a year average income.

It's fantastic.

Unfortunately, there's only been 46 of those

in the history of the company.

Out of millions,

millions of members.

That's .0015% of members.

And it gets worse. In 2016,

94% of members made an average of one dollar per month.

What's particularly insidious about this particular pyramid scheme,

is that once you become a member,

who do you go and try to recruit?

You call your friends, you call your neighbors.

You call your niece.

So, if my premise is correct,

and if this pyramid is built on a house of cards,

when it tumbles,

your neighbor's tumbling,

your daughter's tumbling,

your aunt's tumbling,

your friend from college is tumbling.

That's going to be the collateral damage of these types of pyramid schemes.

[Woman 5] I'm embarrassed that I fell for this.

It made me feel kind of stupid.

I lost money,

and then I also have numerous family and friends

that are still using the products.

I mean, how do you tell them you don't want to use them anymore

when you've pulled them in?

I want other women to understand that what they do is predatory,

that you're not going to make money off of it,

that you're going to lose money.

It's not what they... make it sound like.

[woman 7] I was brainwashed.

I drank the Kool-Aid.

I trusted the teachings that I was getting from this multi-level marketing company.

I've chosen not to name the brand or the company,

because it really doesn't matter what brand of essential oils you're using,

'cause this can happen with any essential oil.

I've never been part of a multi-level marketing company before,

but my friend,

she's done a ton of research on the company, and the oils,

and she told me that they were of the highest quality that you could get.

And that you could take them internally.

I've never known that you can take essential oils internally,

but it was so pure that you could.

And I thought, wow, this is a game changer.

The company said you could use them three, four, five, six, seven times a day.

I started drinking lemon in my water every day.

My favorite was the lavender, it was so calming and soothing and...

I was using them every way.

Internally, topically, all day long, every day.

The first sign of reaction was,

I noticed this little bit of a rash on my forearm.

I thought, oh, that's interesting.

I'm not sure where that came from.

So, I put tea tree oil on it.

The next day, it was even worse.

So, where do you turn to but the Facebook groups of your peers

who you believe are educated, but they're not.

The answers were always, "No, it can't be the oils.

You cannot have a reaction to them.

It's a good thing that you have a rash,

your body is just detoxing, keep taking the oils."

I wasn't going to the doctor initially.

I was believing the jargon.

So, on top of what I was already doing,

I'm now taking,

you know, extra essential oils to help detox my body.

So, that's when it went really bad.

The rash spread to the back of my neck,

my leg,

and my stomach.

My body had swollen up so bad that I couldn't even bend my limbs.

It felt like someone had locked me in a room

with fire ants, mosquitoes, and wasps,

and then poured molten lava on my body.

The first time the rash had ever went to my face,

my face really swelled up, and it was oozing fluid,

and that was when I stopped all of the oils.

When I got the allergy test back, it showed allergies for ylang-ylang

and tea tree oil.

So, I'd inundated my body with these chemical constituents

that are in the essential oils,

which became toxic to my body.

My body was still having rashes and reactions up until March of this year.

So, that was over a five-year period.

If something is natural and organic,

everybody wants to jump on board with it.

However, there are things in mass quantities

that are not good for us even though they're natural.

And the damage has been so severe, that I'm now allergic

to these essential oils.

And then I became angry.

Why did this happen to me?

Has it happened to anybody else?

I wanted somebody who could answer that for me.

And I figured the medical officer of this company would have the answers.

Every time I asked if my information was sent to the chief medical officer,

I got a, "Yes, it was sent to him. He's out of town."

And I said, "I can't believe that somebody would see these photos

and not get back to me."

I never received a response from the chief medical officer.

When I first went public with my story,

there were so many people contacting me, saying,

"Oh, my gosh, this is what I was going through."

There are databases where they collect this data.

So many people have had reactions to essential oils.

But now I know.

I fell hook, line, and sinker.

So, that is where I'll take my responsibility.

The responsibility that I'm putting on the MLM company

is the poor training that they provided,

the lack of safety information,

and the fact that their bottom line is the bottom line.

The more essential oils you use, the more products you're going to sell,

the more money that they're going to make.

Essential oils are powerful.

Why are they so readily available

without any regulation or training?

[Marshall] Did you have some good sleep last night?

I'm gonna get your medicine.

Do you want TV?

The first night, we followed the protocol,

and we used Sarah's sleep blend with her diffuser.

It was successful.

You're all done with the medicine.

She wants more.

You look really well-rested this morning.

She seems, like, better.

You know how sometimes she's completely groggy and out of it?

She looks like she's better.

I don't think I'm reading into it, do you?

No, she slept pretty soundly last night.

Since we started about three months ago,

for Sarah, the diffuser has been working really well for sleep.

[Marshall] She's getting good, long, restful sleep,

and I think not waking up as much during the night,

and we feel like we're in a much more calm, peaceful routine.

Ready, set...

Go.

She's more attentive at school.

Everyone's noticing it. The fussiness has, like, dialed down.

Fast, fast, fast.

Fast? Oh, I heard fast. Okay.

The other day she woke up really happy,

and she said, "Dora and milk,"

and she has never used the word "and" in a sentence, ever.

Like, oh, my God, this is huge. [laughs]

So, I do attribute that to good sleep.

The essential oils,

I mean, they couldn't be the be-all, end-all for us...

but I'm feeling like it is a really good, important tool.

I've learned so much.

It's not one-size-fits-all.

You don't just pick up any old bottle off the shelf at the store.

You have to find the right things for your family needs.

Oh, my gosh, she's so happy.

[Marshall] Having the essential oils has really...

I guess "empowering" is a good word for it.

I mean, we're definitely in a better place.

[mellow music]

[closing music playing]