James Burgess (Sufi) - You Want to Know This About Him

The James Burgess claims to be a professional astrologer, Sufi teacher, Spiritual leader, Spiritual healer, business owner and etc. and etc. I understand that he offers psychotherapy and relationship counselling sessions along with many other things he do and claims to be able to do.

He seem to be the one who endorses himself for having all above abilities. He says he has travelled a lot, met a lot of people, trained a lot, yet still he doesn't bring on a single name that his references can be checked with. 

What attracts my attention is a decision making system (7Words) which he claims to have come up with. The 7Words on the surface seem to be consistent and common sense, but I found it to be flawed in its fundamentals when he mixes simple and common sense logic of decision making with the spiritual things he also advocates (chukra, universal energy, etc. and astrology)

http://www.7words.co.uk

This become clear to me through a correspondence I had with him and through analysing some of his videos which are available on YouTube.

First thing to mention about my correspondence with him was that he only continued to correspond with me as long as he thought I was a potential customer of his 7Words system and as soon as I began to put questions and criticism of his ideas to him and requested answers he stopped communicating with me altogether.

 In his last response to me he said that I need to have “faith” in order to understand his point of views and since I don’t have “faith” I am unable to understand and he can’t therefore help me. So instead of answering my questions he offered to pray for me to find my “faith”. And that was the last time he replied to any of my emails and correspondence.

Also the highlight of my correspondence with him was when I pointed out to him the inconsistency I saw in the way he introduces himself. He often in his videos and his website describes himself as a Sufi, however when I began my correspondence with him - while he still didn’t know how I got to know him – in regards of Sufism he told me:

“It is a riddle that has lost its appeal to me. I do what I do, and people call me what they like”

So I replied to him and asked if people call him a Sufi, it is because you have a whole website describing yourself as one, and is because you keep acting as one!  And I requested that he clarifies if he considers himself a Sufi or not a Sufi finally. The reason I raised this question was that I found the way he introduces himself to be very “circumstantial” and “inconsistent” so wanted to know who he really think he is and what are his convictions.

James Burgess On-line Evasion in Response to my Questions

He never replied to my question in regards of his affiliation to Sufism and never tried to clear that up. But what happened later on was that I realized he closed down his website that he was introducing himself as a Sufi in there and removed all of his Sufi teaching and contents from there (Sufism, Zikr, DUP, Alchimical Sufism, etc.). He also removed the access to Russian and Lithuanian versions of his website with a note that he is going to Ireland.

www.jamesburgess.com

James Burgess Website before I asked him questions (click to enlarge)

(18-Aug-2013)

James Burgess Website after I asked him questions
you can see all the Sufi stuff are removed (click to enlarge)
(26-Sep-2013)

James Burgess Website after he left to Ireland
you can see all the mentions to Sufi topics and etc.
are now permanently removed (click to enlarge)
(15-Oct-2013)

The disablement of his website which was most likely in reaction to my question about his affiliation with Sufism made the situation more suspicious after all. Why he had to do this in response to my questions if he was comfortable with what he represented on his website for years about himself? Why he had to remove them if he sincerely believed those information about Sufism and Zikr and Dup where the truth? Or if he doubted their validity and value why he put them on his website on the first place?

Also another suspicious thing about James Burgess on-line reaction to my questions was in regards of the events he was claiming to have arranged for year 2013/2014 in UK on his website as per bellow screenshots:

James Burgess 7Words events before I questioned him

Number of UK events on the event list = 20 (doesn't fit on one screenshot)

(18-Aug-2013)

James Burgess 7Words event after my questions and his on-line evasion

Number of UK events on the list = 3 

(15-Oct-2013)

So as you can see he removed most of the events that he was claiming to have had arranged for 2013/2014 from his website as a part of his on-line evasion from my questions. I developed two more suspensions as a result of his particular reaction towards his events list!

1) Can it be that most of the events he had on his event list prior to my questions were in fact fake events? Just put there in the list to give a sense of being busy and popular to unaware individuals who were drawn to his website? And now fearing the publicity I was going to give him he chose to remove them?

2) He Particularly removed the part which he was mentioning:

leading to Certified Practitioner status
James Burgess and Richard Grey

What is illegal or controversial about this part that he also decided to remove it from his website? If he is happy and legitimate with issuing Certifications why he doesn't want these to be seen on his website any longer? 

James Burgess To be Exposed
Even though James Burgess stopped replying to my emails in that point but I didn't stop and continued sending more and more questions to him to give him a chance to clarify what I found contradictory and paradoxical in his ideas. However as he refused to answer my question and in a way just ignored them I am going to publish some of my findings about him and my analysis of his ideas for any other person who may become interested in future.

List of Blog Posts about James Burgess:
Why 7Words fails and has to be avoided - in context of an example of an abused wife 

(7Words a Cover to a Quackery Practice)
http://sandbadbehzad.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/james-burgesssufi-7words-sceptisem-why.html

7Words and its "Basics" and "Fundamentals":

http://sandbadbehzad.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/james-burgess-sufi-7words-scepticism.html

7Words and "Astrology":
http://sandbadbehzad.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/james-burgess-sufi-7words-scepticism_5513.html

7Words and "demand for specifc questions" and "wrong body language" :
http://sandbadbehzad.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/james-burgess-sufi-7words-scepticism_2.html

I am hereafter closing my case on James Burgess.