(gentle music) - [Blair] Hello, everyone, and
welcome back to the channel. My name is Blair or the iilluminaughtii, and today, I wanted to talk
about Celestial Seasonings Tea and their really weird cultish history. I've already talked
about this on my Twitch, which, by the way,
twitch.tv/theiiluminaughtii, if you don't follow me there, so I'm sorry if this
gets a little repetitive for some of you who have
already seen the Twitch stream, which, by the way, if you don't follow the Twitch
stream, you totally should. I talk about all sorts of
current topics, shorter stories, and sometimes, I decide
to turn those things into full-length videos
on the main channel like this episode today. So, yeah, after going over
this on my Twitch stream, I kind of realized it
needs a proper deep dive and that it really needs to
be on the main channel here and I need to do a proper analysis. So here we are. This is what today's episode is. And sit down, buckle up, and get ready for one hell have a ride. Let's go. (upbeat music) As always, we're going to start with the history of Celestial
Seasonings themselves. According to the website, Celestial Seasonings began
when one of its founders, Mo Siegel, handpicked wild herbs from the Colorado Rocky Mountains and use them to make tea in 1969. In the following years,
he sold Mo's Herb Teas to health food stores in
hand-sewn muslin bags. The site reads, "It was
in those early years that we began creating and
defining the herbal tea category. By 1972, two of our flagship
blends were introduced: Red Zinger and Sleepytime. These innovative blends
and their popularity, Sleepytime is the bestselling
specialty tea of all time, helped turn our cottage industry into a near-overnight success." From there, the Celestial
Seasonings talked about how they've grown,
they're so well-known now, you get the picture. plenty of patting themselves on the back. But let's focus on these early years. Mo Siegel, John Hay, and Peggy
Clute were all the grounders of Celestial Seasonings,
the names behind the brand. Peggy and Moe had a daughter
together, Sarah Siegel, and some sources online refer to John Hay as Wyck Hay for some reason, and I don't know why people
can't agree on his name, but I thought I'd let you know. The New York Times calls him Wyck. The Washington Post calls him John. It's just a bit of a mess. One blog states that Wyck was the founder and John was Wyck's brother
who joined the company later. Ha ha, John Wick. Sorry, I just realized that. So that may explain the name confusion, though that doesn't explain
why different sources don't agree on which Hay
brother is the founder. However, this Hay founder isn't the man we're going to focus on today, but the man that Celestial Seasonings was originally named for, Mo Siegel. Mo had some incredibly alarming beliefs, ones that he incorporated into the brand. According to my sources,
he was an avid believer in the New Age bible
called "The Urantia Book." I don't know if I said that, right? Urntia? Now, I try really hard not to discourage or hate on anyone's beliefs. You think what you want as long
as it's not harming anyone. However, this "Urantia
Book" does hurt people. There are some incredible racist beliefs buried inside this book, and it seems to promote
the idea of eugenics, and its cultish, alien-centric ideas remind me a lot of Scientology. According to Urantia's text,
a half a million years ago, six colored races existed on our planet: red, orange, yellow,
green, blue, and indigo. Again, according to the text, there was a racial superiority order with the indigo race at the
bottom, in which, as it notes, "the blue man subdues the indigo." It oddly States that strains of giantism can appear in
green and orange peoples. The upshot of all of this
is that on every planet in every universe, fair-skinned, blue-eyed
aliens named Adam and Eve come and up-step the natives, meaning that they eliminate
the inferior stocks and purify the planet. Says Giller, one writer
researching Celestial Seasonings about her research, "There were
so many instances of racism and very strange beliefs in the book that it was really hard to narrow down what I wanted to include in her article." It's worth noting that Siegel himself seems to have been on both
sides of these topics. He didn't provide comment to Gillers, so she relied on a
piece he co-wrote called "The Twenty Most-Asked Question." In it, Siegel writes, "belonging
to any particular race provides no spiritual
advantage or disadvantage. All persons are equal
in the sight of God." But he also writes, "At the present time, mankind loses about as much progress as it makes by ignoring eugenics." In 1969, the same year he
co-founded Celestial Seasonings, Siegel discovered "The Urantia Book." He was immediately taken by the ideas, writing in 2006 that, "I was not concerned
about who had written it or how it had been written
because it was so powerful." Later, he admitted that the book's ideas "were the inspiration
for the uplifting quotes we print on the side of our tea
boxes and our tea bag tags." As a former employee told Giller, "The Urantia Book" was a guide for making sure the moral values that underlay the company at the time. Siegel left the company in 2002, but he remained into Urantia. Eventually, Siegel became president of the Urantia Foundation, a
title he still holds today. So, to put it very simply, Siegel was taken by a
disturbing, racist book, didn't care who wrote it or why, and printed the text on the tea bags for the public to enjoy. That is a massive yikes on trikes from me. Well, although Siegel may not care who wrote "The Urantia"
text, I sure as hell do. So before we read it, and yes, I tortured myself
to read some of this thing, I figured we could learn a
bit about the "Urantia" author and see who inspired Siegel enough to associate his brand with them. This Food & Wine article speculated that the "Urantia" text was
written by William Sadler, a-turn-of-the-century psychiatrist who published three books about eugenics. Anywhere you look, "The
Urantia Book" is anonymous. However, William Sadler has
written about the history of the Urantia movement a lot, with his writings published
on the Urantia website. He also states that the main reason why the your "Urantia" author's identity hasn't been released is because, quote, "the Celestial Revelators
do not want any human being, any human name, ever to be associated with
'The Urantia Book,'" end quote. Whether or not you believe he wrote it, Sadler, as well as his
friends, former patients, and colleagues were the
first believers in his book, and they claim that it
materialized in front of them. Sure. Let's go with that. I want to talk about William Sadler because his history is
interesting, to say the least. Not the good kind of interesting, but interesting nonetheless. And no, don't get him
confused with William Sadler, the actor who played Heywood
in "Shawshank Redemption." Just FYI. This William, William Samuel
Sadler, was born in 1875. I know it might seem like we're
drifting a little far away from Celestial Seasonings here, but William was the start
of this Urantia movement, and whether or not you believe it materialized in front of him, even though it definitely fucking didn't, he's credited with
helping publish this book. The thing is, if a racist, eugenic book suddenly materialized in front of me, I wouldn't go out of my way to
find an agent to publish it. I'd probably burn the book
and the house down with it, because that would be horrifying. So his I didn't write it or aliens don't want us to
know who wrote it excuse isn't gonna work here. And that's beside the fact
that pre-World War II, eugenics was actually a pretty
popular hot-button topic globally, so I just, it
was on everyone's minds. I don't want to hear it that
it just magically materialized. But anyway, onto who William really was. According to one source,
Sadler was born in Indiana, but moved to Michigan
to work at a sanitarium. There, he met the physician
and health food promoter, John Harvey Kellogg, co-inventor of Corn
Flakes breakfast cereal, who became his mentor. Sadler married Kellogg's niece, Lena Celestia Kellogg, in 1897. He worked for seven
Christian organizations and attended medical
school, graduating in 1906. Sadler practiced medicine
in Chicago with his wife, who was also a physician. He joined several medical associations and taught at the McCormick
Theological Seminary. Although he was a committed member of the Seventh-day Adventist
Church for almost 20 years, he left the denomination after it disfellowshipped
his wife's uncle in 1907. Sadler and his wife became speakers on the Chautauqua Adult
Education Circuit in 1907, and he became a highly
paid, popular orator. He eventually wrote over 40 books on a variety of medical
and spiritual topics advocating a holistic approach to health. Sadler extolled the value
of prayer and religion, but was skeptical of mediums, assisting debunker Howard Thurston, and embraced the scientific
consensus on evolution. In 1910, Sadler went to
Europe and studied psychiatry for a year under Sigmund Freud. Sometime between 1906 and 1911, Sadler attempted to treat a patient with an unusual sleep condition. While the patient was sleeping, he spoke to Sadler and claimed
to be an extraterrestrial. Sadler spent years
observing the sleeping man in an effort to explain the phenomenon and eventually decided the
man had no mental illness and that his words were genuine. The man's identity was never publicized, but speculation has focused
on Sadler's brother-in-law, Wilford Kellogg. Over the course of several years, Sadler and his assistants
visited the man while he slept, conversing with him about spirituality, history, and cosmology
and asking him questions. A larger number of interested
people met at Sadler's home to discuss the man's responses and to suggest additional questions. The man's words were eventually published in "The Urantia Book," and the Urantia Foundation was created to assist Sadler in
spreading the book's message. It is not known who wrote
and edited the book, but several commenters have speculated that Sadler played a guiding
role in its publication. Although it never became the
basis of an organized religion, the book attracted followers who devoted themselves to its study, and the movement continued
after Sadler's death. Again, a different source
stated that it was materialized, but hey, whether it was
materialized or a sleeping or entranced man's words, I
still wouldn't publish it, and that's unfortunately
what we're gonna read soon. As for works that Sadler does
actually take credit for, those are also quite worrying, especially when you take into account that Sadler was considered
a medical professional. Though Sadler wrote many books, a lot of them about self-help, he also had an interest in eugenics and believed the Nordic
race was superior to others. Some say he believed in
Grant's books and state, "One of Grant's contemporaries
was able to dispose even more conveniently of the
German claim to Nordic stock. Dr. William S. Sadler, a surgeon and professor of therapeutics at a noted school of medicine, suggested that not only had the Alpines displaced most of the Nordics in Germany in the Thirty Years War, but many of the Nordics
who were left later emigrated to the United States. The new element, thus
contextualized is Dr. Sadler, who in 1922 wrote a book
called 'Race decadence: An examination of the causes of racial degeneracy
in the United States.'" This book is all about race betterment, or as the book itself
states, "human betterment." Madison Grant, who wrote "The
Passing of the Great Race," heavily inspired Sadler, as we just said. And Sadler was a part
of this Urantia thing, which is a part of Celestial
Seasonings and their brand. But Madison Grant didn't
just inspire Sadler, but Hitler, too. Yes, actually Hitler. One source claims Hitler
considered Grant's text his Bible. So Madison Grant was
next-level kinds of racist, inspired Hitler and Sadler to also spread the idea of racial purity. And then here is this fucking
tea brand made by Siegel who was influenced by these same beliefs, who claimed they were so powerful that it didn't matter who wrote them. But I'm just gonna say, if someone's book is endorsed by Hitler, then you might just
have a couple problems. All right, now that we know little bit about the kind of people
Siegel was looking up to, let's take a look at
the actual garbage fire that is this book. And let's just take a quick
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Urantia refuses to admit that their book is racist in any way. They state, "There are
many sections in the book that can bring consternation
when considered outside the context of
the full revelation, race being one of them. It's usually suggested that
a first and complete reading of the book from front
to back be undertaken as quickly as possible without
attempting to comprehend all that's being read. This provides an overall context and defines the scope of the material. Subsequent reading can then delve deeper into the terminology and meanings. It has been suggested, too, that rather than being
written like a textbook, 'The Urantia Book' is
more like a symphony, with themes and melodies being repeated in a myriad of variations
throughout the whole. One has to listen to a
symphony more than once to get a basic understanding
of the composition." However, as much as Urantia denies this, with flowery, meaningless
words, the Urantia Bible itself says something completely different. It's free online, by
the way, so don't worry. You don't actually have to
support anyone to buy it. You can just read it for free. Anyway, onto the first chapter. It begins by saying that
God created the heavens and the Earth, humans can't be perfect, and a lot of general ideas. It says that God is more than
reality or the desire of man but a loving Father to all
who enjoy spiritual peace. A lot of this doesn't
make a ton of sense to me, I'll admit, mostly because it
seems to jump around a lot. There's no concrete ideas or answers, but hey, that's better than
the racism I'm expecting. But on Chapter 51, or
Paper 51, as they call it, there's messages that, well,
I'll just read them to you. Remember that they believed
in red, yellow, indigo, people of literal shades
of the rainbow being races, and here's what they
say about those races. "On those worlds, having
all six evolutionary races, the superior peoples are the
first, third, and fifth races, the red, yellow, and the blue. The evolutionary races
thus alternate in capacity for intellectual growth
and spiritual development, the second, fourth and sixth
being somewhat less endowed. These secondary races are the people that are missing on certain worlds. They are the ones that
have been exterminated on many others. It is a misfortune on Urantia that you so largely lost
your superior blue men, except as they persist in
your amalgamated white race. The loss of your orange and green stocks is not of such serious concern. The more backward humans are
usually employed as laborers by the more progressive races. This accounts for the origin
of slavery on the planets during the early ages. The orange men are
usually subdued by the red and reduced to the status of servants, sometimes exterminated. When a planetary Adam and Eve
arrive on an inhibited world, they have been fully
instructed by their superiors as to the best way to
affect the improvement of the existing races
of intelligent beings." And I admit, I struggled
to make sense of this at some parts, because
of these races being red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and indigo, but the point is that on every planet in this Urantia universe, fair-skinned, blue-eyed aliens
named Adam and Eve appear to, quote, "up-step the natives." Cult Education talked about
this as well, and stated, "This process happens on every planet when Adam and Eve appear,
but on Urantia, i.e. Earth, it didn't go according to plan. Adam and Eve messed up. So having failed to
achieve race harmonization by the Adamic technique, Part II: The Local Universe
section of the book tells us, 'You must now work out
of your planetary problem of race improvement by other
and largely human methods of adaptation and control.' 'Biologic renovation of the racial stocks, the selective elimination
of inferior human strains,' Paper 70 of 'The Urantia Book' states, 'will tend to eradicate
many mortal inequalities.' In fact, per the text, evil in the form of
illness and disease exists because unfit peoples
like 'Australian natives and the bushmen and Pygmies of Africa, these miserable remnants
of the non-social peoples of ancient times haven't been eliminated.' Eugenics is the way to
correct this error." Compare that to Hitler's
words in Mein Kampf: "The demand that defective
people be prevented from propagating equally
defective offspring represents the most human act of mankind." It's pretty easy to tell that
these ideals were inspired by the same ones that influenced Hitler, seeing that comparison. From what I understand and how the Cult Education
Institute puts it, apparently everyone on this Earth were a bunch of inferior races. Adam and Eve were supposed to
purify everyone, but it fails, and this is why human
methods of controlling races have been implemented,
such as genocide, slavery, you get the picture. Urantia is condoning all of this, and it's been on Celestial
Seasonings' tea boxes. Great. Not the negative horrible parts, sure, but what Moe has called
"uplifting quotes." I think what bothers me so much about this is that Moe admitted, yes, he's read the whole
book and believes in it. It's not as if he stated
there were some parts he disagreed with, or he
wanted to bring new meaning to Urantia quotes. as Moe
puts it, "human achievement." I don't think this would be an
excuse for quoting "Urantia," but at least I would be less upset so long as Mo Siegel
were actually denouncing certain aspects of this ridiculous book. But Mo apparently can't
get enough of its teaching and stated, "When I first
heard people discussing 'The Urantia Book,' they
said it was a revelation written not by human
beings, but by angels, which I thought was just the
goofiest thing I've ever heard. I ended up reading it
in spite of all of that. After I read it, I was not concerned
about who had written it or how it had been written
because it was so powerful. I'd wanted bold. I found bold. I wanted spiritual adventure, and I was on the ride of my life. I'd wanted truth, and the
book was loaded with it. Since that time, I've
looked into it deeply, and I cannot find any author
associated with the book, but that is not the point
because I love what it says, and I'm a much better person
because of its teachings. I've learned not to pick
fights with the books I read. I'm appreciative, and I grow from them." If you find a book that makes you happy, and it teaches you some
incredible life lessons, that's amazing, but if it's
condoning genocide, perhaps not. I try to be open-minded and say that you can believe what you want as long as it's not hurting someone, but this is very obviously hurting people and spreading horrific messages. If Mo wants to read his racist
book in private, that's fine, but maybe don't print
quotes from it on tea bags and expect me to buy it once I find out what those meanings are and where they come from. Two authors, Canfield and Hendricks, have even published a book called "People Tell the Story of a
Book that Changed Their Life," and Mo's story is in there. I've got no idea how he can
shamelessly promote these ideas. Is he that blind that he can't see why "The
Urantia Book" is worrying? Or is he really that openly hateful and just doesn't give a shit? It looks like it could
perhaps, and unfortunately, be the latter, as Cult Education explains, "Illness and disease results
from evil and cause suffering," Siegel writes in "The
Twenty Most-Asked Questions" on "The Urantia Book" Fellowship Website. "Unfortunately, several
factors hinder progress toward the development
of a disease-free world. The laws of genetics are immutable and form the physical
cornerstone of evolution. At the present time, mankind
loses about as much progress as it makes by ignoring eugenics." I continued reading the book and found plenty of infuriating
eugenicist passages. It says that democracy is a
slavery to public opinion, and freedom does more harm
than good among the public. Don't get me wrong. People do abuse freedoms
from time to time, but that doesn't mean we should just throw freedom
of speech out the window because hate speech exists. Chapter 75 describes Adam
and Eve as noble souls that tragically weren't
able to complete their task, you know, turning the whole world white, but they did manage to make the world at least a little better simply
by being a superior race, according to the book. Here's what it said. "The human race has been uplifted despite the immediate
consequences of the Adamic fault. Although the divine plan
of giving the violet race to the year Urantia peoples miscarried, the mortal races have profited enormously from the limited contribution which Adam and his descendants
made to Urantia races." Honestly, just an honest moment here. What the fuck am I actually
reading at this point? Now, as inclined as I
am to call this a cult, Urantia technically is not a cult. The people that belong to
it may be shady as hell and act like they are, but it doesn't actually
quite fit the definition. The Cult Education Institute reads, "The Urantia Book"
itself does not represent a destructive cult, said Rick Ross, a cult expert who helped in
Waco with the Branch Davidians. "But some of its self-proclaimed
profits led groups that can be seen as destructive cults." "The book also purports
that there have been many, many sons of God like Jesus
on many different planets because there are a billion worlds. When evolution is complete, each of these worlds will
have 100,000 local universes with 10 million inhabited planets. Our earth is called Urantia
and its number is 606 and a planetary group called Satania, the headquarters of
which is called Jerusem. When we die, we're reincarnated
from planet to planet, then finally to Paradise,
where the Deity lives. There is a little piece of
the Deity in each of us, called a Thought Adjuster. The Fellowship will tell
you that it's not a cult, but in 'The Urntia Book,' the Revelator, named the Brilliant
Evening Star of Nebadon, calls for Urantians to replace
Christianity with a new cult that will be the true
religion of the future. 'The Urantia Book'
itself does not represent a destructive cult, but some
of its self-proclaimed profits lead groups that can be
seen as destructive cults." Getting some intense
Scientology vibes from this, like Urantia is its younger
sibling or something. Cult Education even
speculates that the reason Mo went from Mo's Herb Tea
to Celestial Seasonings is because this book was
written by celestial beings. It doesn't seem like that's confirmed, so this is only a legend, but I wouldn't be surprised
if this was the actual case. Mo Siegel may have left
Celestial Seasonings in 2002, but he actually became president
of the Urantia Foundation since then. According to the website,
Mo, father of five, lives in Boulder, Colorado
with his wife, Jennifer. During the last 30 years, Mo has served on the board of directors of 16 for-profit and
not-for-profit organizations. He has spent most of his
life in the food industry. Mo began reading "The
Urantia Book" in 1969 after spending two years
living and attending school at a Catholic monastery. He has hosted a "Urantia
Book" study group since 1972. During the past 27 years, Mo has served on the boards
of three organizations solely dedicated to "The Urantia Book." His also been a trustee of
Urantia Foundation since 1998. Mo has been invested in this
foundation for a long time and justifying racist
beliefs for a long time, too. The Urantia website
doesn't even fully address any criticism, and when
asked why professors and theologists don't endorse the book, their response is to quote
the Bible and say that, "Once upon a time, the
imprisoned John sent messengers to Jesus to inquire about the certainty of his teaching and his mission. Did Jesus send word to John saying, 'Go tell John that the doctors of the law and the professors of the
Rabbinic Academies of Jerusalem are accepting the gospel? The leaders of the Pharisees
are being baptized. Even some of the chief
priests and leading citizens of Jerusalem are flocking
to our standard.' No, he did not send any
such message to John but he did say to John's messengers, 'Go back and tell John,
he is not forgotten. Tell him what you have seen and heard, that the poor have good
tidings preached to them.' And the New Testament bears record that the common people heard
him gladly, Mark 12:37. It is true near the
end of his life's work, while the theologians continued
to reject his teachings, many leaders among the Jews
did accept the gospel message, seeing that many members of the Sanhedrin joined the kingdom." This doesn't actually
answer the question, though. They state that people didn't
believe the Bible at first, but "The Urantia Book" has been
out for quite some time now. The author, whoever they are, has most certainly passed
away at this point. So why aren't people
endorsing your book still? Could it be because it's absolute nonsense because I think it is, but okay. They even have to clarify that the book doesn't teach antisemitism, even though Hitler was
inspired by similar ideals, and claim that their critics
haven't read the book. One critic downright states that, "I can't make this read as anything other than extremely racist, and since the white
race has blue ancestry, particularly white supremacist,
talking about unfit, defective, degenerate,
and antisocial stocks seem to totally negate the
loving fatherhood of God. I am white by the way,
and I find it offensive. There is no way I could
recommend this book to my black friends." The Urantia website response
to this is laughable and insulting all wrapped into one. Whoever wrote this states, "I understand you are a new reader and have yet to finish a first reading of 'The Urantia Book.' There are many sections in the book that can bring consternation
when considered outside the text of full
revelation, race being one of them. Regarding race, regarding
humanity in general, and regarding the composition of the book, most of the first 119
out of the 196 papers are written by highly intelligent beings who have never been human, beings of higher origin
than humans, angels. As the lowest order of
free-will creature in existence, we humans now find ourselves reading about our origin, nature, and destiny as perceived from a higher
and non-human perspective, sources not so sentimental about our shortcomings
as we obviously are. It's interesting how we're
so aware of the necessity of animal husbandry to
produce improved results but feel it is a human right
to breed indiscriminately with no regard for the kind
of offspring being produced. If I had a choice, I'd want
to be born into a healthy body with all my arms, legs, fingers,
toes, hearing, eyesight, and normal mental capabilities as opposed to simply
being left to happenstance and finding myself having less
than these normal endowments. That's the point these teachings of 'The Urantia Book' make. We owe it to our offspring to provide them the best biological vehicle possible. Life on an evolutionary
world is challenge enough without also being faced
with confronting it in a defective body or
with a defective mind. You've also said, 'I can't make this read as anything other than extremely racist, and since the white
race has blue ancestry, particularly white supremacist.' There is no black race on Urantia, just as there are no other pure races. The indigo race, a deep purple hue, appeared about 500,000 years ago, along with the other five colored races. Africans are a mixed racial heritage just like the rest of humanity,
being a mixture primarily of the remnants of the indigo,
orange, and green races." And just based on what we know
and what we've already read, just let that sink in
for just a hot moment. This isn't even the full response. It keeps rambling without
saying much at all. Look, we do not owe it to
anyone to not breed with someone that Urantia deems defective,
AKA black people, apparently, because you say that indigo,
orange, and green races are secondary people, and you say that Africans
are of mixed racial heritage, primarily of the remnants of
indigo, orange, and green. So, hmm. What other message are you trying to say other than that one that
was very clearly laid out? If you have some genetic stuff going on and don't want to pass
that down to your children, that's up to you. You gotta do what feels right for you. That doesn't make people
defective, though. And that last part of their statement about the whole there are no races just sounds like it's
trying to be like colorblind or I'm really getting a
strong All Lives Matter vibe from it. If someone told me
they're African-American or Middle Eastern or
Cuban or any race at all, and I'm just like, "Oh,
well, like I don't see race," that'd be kind of a weird response. Race does exist and it is visible. Personally, I don't think
we're going to prevent racism by avoiding the topic of race altogether, but rather than saying yes,
I see you, I see your race, I see your life matters,
your experience matters, and no race is better
or worse than any other, why is that so hard to say? Plus, Urantia, newsflash, you were inspired by the same dude that held values inspired by Hitler. Yeah, no? We're not gonna acknowledge that? For fuck's sake, the man that literally wrote
the other book about eugenics, like, come on, stop pretending. If you're gonna be an asshole, at least be an honest asshole. Now, before my brain just melts
again into another puddle, let's finish this portion by stating that your Urantia can't even
get basic science right. Their belief system is messed up enough, but they're also just inaccurate too, because it kind of goes hand in hand. One source sites, "The Urantia
Book," UB as they call it, and says, "If the UB really were an extraterrestrial revelation, it should accurately
describe our universe. It fails this test miserably. The UB claims the universe is
over one trillion years old. Most scientists date it
at about 15 billion years. The temperature it assigns
to the sun's surface is off by thousands of degrees. It falsely says that Mercury keeps the same face towards the sun. The UB teaches that humans
have 48 chromosomes. It should be 46. Atoms supposedly cannot process
more than 100 electrons. This limit was broken in 1955 as any periodic table will confirm." Now, back to Celestial Seasonings. Some of their little quotes are from Henry David
Thoreau and other writers, and there's nothing harmful there. I doubt Celestial Seasonings
would be dumb enough to continue quoting this book now that the story has
exploded and gone pretty viral in the past couple of months. If you enjoy your Sleepytime tea, I'm not gonna tell you
to stop drinking it. Their founder is a pretty
nutty and horrible person in my opinion, but at
least he doesn't have to be or seem to be part of
this company anymore, so it doesn't look like your money is going to go towards him,
at least from what I've found or really the lack of findings. Although they've had a
few issues over the years, their other controversies
are pretty minimal. They were named in a
class-action lawsuit in 2013 for falsely labeling themselves as organic in order to mislead consumers
into buying their product. The lawsuit states, "This
is a consumer protection and false advertising class action. Defendant The Hain
Celestial Group, Defendant, markets, advertises, and
distributes various teas under the Celestial Seasonings brand name, which it prominently
advertises as 100% natural. The teas at issue are
Sleepytime Herbal Tea, Sleepytime Kids Goodnight Grape, Green Tea Peach Blossom,
Green Tea Raspberry Gardens, Authentic Green Tea,
Antioxidant Max Dragonfruit, Green Tea Honey Lemon Ginseng, Antioxidant Max Blackberry Pomegranate, Antioxidant Max Blood Orange, and English Breakfast Black K-Cup, collectively 'the products.' These products are not
natural, but to the contrary, contained pesticides, herbicides,
insecticides, carcinogens, and/or developmental toxins,
collectively 'contaminants.' Many of the products contain contaminants in levels violating federal standards, and some certain contaminants included in the current
Proposition 65 list, one for which no safe harbor
limits have been established. In short, the products contain potentially
dangerous contaminants, and most are definitely not
100% natural as claimed." They're called Hain
Celestial Group, by the way, because Hain Food Group
and Celestial Seasonings had merged in 2000, so that's why that's the defendant's name. A couple of years later in
2015, the lawsuit was settled. They agreed to a $7.5 million settlement and almost $2 million in coupons. I'm not gonna say the
behavior was excusable, but I'd say it pales in comparison to what we've already discussed. Overall, they took things a little too far with organic labeling, fixed
it, paid a hefty price, and moved on. This isn't a good look, but if this were their only controversy, then I probably wouldn't talk
about this tea brand at all. Companies make mistakes, and
they made one and paid for it, which I appreciate. However, what their
founder does to this day, acting as president of Urantia, that's just a different mess altogether. But hey, with that being said, that's where I'm going
to end today's video. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, make sure to hit that Like button. if you're new here, make sure
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you in the next one. Bye. (upbeat music)
This channel has been in my recommended for ages and wow I am about to binge the whole channel