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20 Years of conflicts. Kathleen McGowan, author and self-anointed minister complains about bad reviews, kidnapping attempts, death threats, and ghosts, oh my. ____________________________________________________ I purchased ‘The Source of Miracles’ by Kathleen McGowan and read about a third to half way through a few days ago. At the amazon.com kindle edition of her book, 'Source of Miracles', someone posted a question to her years ago asking about McGowan’s claims to be ordained clergy. This led me to seek answers, and what I found is alarming. Someone showed me a post on Facebook where McGowan admitted that she was not an ordained minister in the traditional sense of the word. She is a "self-declared" minister. A "real” ordained minister spends years in Seminary school. It is college-level education. In the United States, freedom of religion is a constitutionally guaranteed right provided in the religion clauses of the First Amendment. Although many ministers become ordained after studying at a seminary or other religious educational institutions, many are also self-ordained. This is legal as long as the proper procedures are followed and nothing conflicts with the laws of the country. The procedures vary from state to state. Many ministers become ordained online. While several organizations that offer ordination online are legitimate, many are scams. Standing under a full moon howling, dancing, walking in circles around a labyrinth or praying to a moon goddess are all protected religious freedoms under the First Amendment. McGowan claims she was moved by her inner goddesses and/or her background as a witch to declare herself "ordained" at midnight, alone in the dark under the full moon. Bizarre as this may be to most of us, she is protected by the United States Constitution. If the particular denomination or ordination is not recognized by the state, it will be void. If McGowan did not make any attempt to register herself with the State of California, then legally she has no right to identify herself as an ‘ordained’ minister. She is not. Any nut case can make a declaration of ordination. It becomes a matter of serious discretion, yours and mine, if we choose to believe, follow, and support them. Consider what can go wrong if bad choices are made. David Koresh broke off from the Branch Dravidians to form his own group of followers, "Students of the Seven Seals." They perished at Wako Texas in 1993. James Warren "Jim" Jones (1931-1978) was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, best known for the cult murder/suicide in 1978 of 915 of its members in Jonestown, Guyana. Over 300 children were murdered at Jonestown, almost all of them by cyanide poisoning ordered by Jones, who then died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. These are extreme examples of cults led by self-ordained people. It emphasizes the need to be wary. There are thousands of people who believe they talk directly with Jesus, or Magdalene, or Michelangelo. For the most part they are harmless people just seeking a union with God. There are quotes in the Bible that encourage them to take this path. "God anointed me with the Holy Spirit and with power and I go about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God is with me." Acts 10:38 There are many good people who follow paths of truth and righteousness. We know them through their examples - the way they live their lives. We must investigate thoroughly before accepting someone's word, especially if they claim to have special access to God, angels, aliens, witches or spirits. Look carefully in to their public and private lives. The truth is there. Matthew 7:20...'Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.' The Catholic publishers of McGowan's book should have fully informed people she was self-ordained; otherwise this is deliberately misleading the buyers and readers. I feel this was a deliberate deceit made by this author to increase her credibility and her book sales. Why? After years of conflicts in her public and private life, many questions have been raised about her integrity. She has tried to mislead people on numerous occasions. Since I began writing this a few days ago, people have contacted me with more information. During my searches online to learn about her ordination, I stumbled upon numerous major concerns posted about McGowan. These include liable, slander, copyright infringements ( I refer to articles published by author Bettye Johnson, "Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls"), vindictiveness (I refer to an article by Theresa Welsh -The Seeker- Book Review of ‘The Expected One”- the author attacked her for a bad review and exhibited other vindictive behavior). Accusations against McGowan also include theft and fraud. I refer to numerous articles and statements in on-line forums where she claims to be an 'expert’ in areas such as Mary Magdalene, Tarot cards, numerology, hypnotherapy, witchcraft, Bible history, French history, Egyptian history, labyrinths, Cathars, Templars, old scrolls and symbolism in ancient art, and most recently UFO’s, none of which are substantiated. She once claimed that she "worked for the IRA" (inside scoop, Charlie's post- Aug 12, 2006 7:06:35 PM and at the Linda-Goodman forum, post of September 1, 2007 8:09 AM made by Richard) and that she was editor in Chief of the Irish Times. A glowing review by them was splashed all over the Internet. Then someone asked the Irish Times to verify their review. After all, the way McGowan worded her version, she was in Ireland during this time. However, the famous and respected Belfast, Ireland newspaper never heard of McGowan. Then she alluded that it was perhaps the San Diego Irish Times. They had nothing to do with the interview either. When the truth finally came out, it came down to a little printed band schedule she wrote at home that she called the Irish News. So she never had a real glowing review with any other Irish newspaper. She made it all up and spread it around the Internet in a way meant to deceive and mislead the readers. She also claimed on her former websites (according to one researcher who found the article in the ‘slushpile’ 2006)) that she has a college-level degree as a hypnotherapist. However she also admits that she only has a high school education. Did she take an online course in hypnotherapy? They are online, just like ordination for ministers are online. This issue became important to her employers at Disneyland (California) where she worked as an office girl in the marketing department. After gaining the trust of fellow employees by telling them she was a hypnotherapist, she gathered their personal information into a ‘tell-all’ book that she attempted to peddle to publishers. Disney threatened to sue her (source: Linda-Goodman forum, post of September 1, 2007 8:09 AM made by Richard). The book was never published and she was expelled from Disney. She claims she went to Egypt and the Holy Land to obtain the secret lost Emerald Tablets as part of her spiritual awakening and worship of Isis and Osiris. She said there were also secret scrolls and she would get them. However, there were no secrets. These Tablets were readily available online. She claimed that Linda Goodman guided her to go there. Later, all these stories would change as she began changing personas from a witch to numerologist, to hypnotherapist, to being a child of the Jesus-Magdalene bloodline. From there she began declaring herself ‘expert’ in a wide assortment of fields. Her conflicts over the estate of Linda Goodman, and issues with Crystal Bush also come up quickly in search engines. Here we find many conflicting statements she made about her relationship with Linda Goodman-who was an author and astrologer that McGowan seems to admire greatly. At some times, McGowan claims that she and Linda Goodman were close friends, and Linda appointed her "from beyond the grave" to carry on her legacy and write her next book. But when cornered, McGowan has to admit that she never actually met Linda Goodman, and they only had a ten minute phone conversation one time. How hard is it for McGowan to simply state the truth? Why all these misleading statements? These issues resulted in yet another failed book deal. Linda Goodman, now dead, was not available to clear things up. McGowan claims that she contributed most of the information on the star-charts being published or the deceased Linda Goodman. However, the publishers quickly disagreed and openly stated they had dismissed McGowan from the book project early on because she was difficult to work with and had “recurring mental problems”. (Comments appear throughout the linda.goodman.com forums). Although McGowan sometimes denies any mental health problems, at other times she admits she needs therapy from time to time because she hallucinates. (The Guardian book interview August 19, 2009) Currently, there are accusations that McGowan cheated and defrauded a French tour company, Occitania, of huge sums of money. These charges were first published by author Tim Wallace Murphy of France February 25, 2014 on Facebook and corroborated by the tour company owners. McGowan made much of her membership in a support group in India called "Made by Survivors." Recently on Facebook, founders of this group openly rejected McGowan's further participation, calling her a troublemaker and a drama queen. This is an example of her reputation as a drama queen: She made many public comments that she was nearly kidnapped by sex traffickers twice! She is sure the guys who offered to buy her coffee, or bumped in to her on the street were really kidnappers. This happened once in Israel and again near the Bosnia Pyramids. Now I am not here to make judgment on her personal appearance, but give me a break! Do you honestly expect me to believe that anyone -especially sex traffickers in Egypt and Bosnia- would waste time on an overweight-frumpy-middle aged housewife with terrible over-dyed bright red hair-someone who manages to scream and shout foul names at anyone who dares write her a poor book review...ya think it's really gonna happen in Bosnia or anywhere else in the world? (Her picture is posted at the top of this page. You choose your own adjectives to describe her physical looks. Would you kidnap her?) Here’s more drama….She seems to imagine death threats every week. They might be the result of that red dyed hair driving people crazy. She is sure that at least two authors are jealous haters of her success and threaten her. She has named Suzanne Olsson (author of "Jesus in Kashmir, The Lost Tomb") and Tim Wallace Murphy (author of 13 books including "Hidden Wisdom: The Secrets of the Western Esoteric Tradition"). Ms. Olsson lives in Florida and New York, has years of work experience with the International Red Cross, appears in documentaries, and as an honored guest speaker in Washington, DC., and is the leading world expert on the tomb of Jesus in Kashmir, where she lived and researched directly for many years. Mr. Murphy is a noted speaker, scholar, author of 12 books, physician, psychologist and great humanitarian. He is a sought-after tour guide in Languedoc, southern France. Both authors are senior citizens and both reject McGowan's claims as ridiculous fictions of her mind. In other words, more drama from her to get attention and increase book sales. Do you think someone with as fertile a mind as McGowan would stop at the lesser drama of a lowly tour guide in Bosnia? Of course not! McGowan believes she is worthy of the Vatican’s attention too! In an article she wrote that appeared in the Huffington Post-May 5, 2009-"Angels and Demons and Death Threats, Oh My.") She mentions the Vatican, and claims death threats resulted in cancelling her book tours and going in to hiding. Yet none of her claims have been supported by her publishers, nor by local or international police records (Someone living in Los Angeles checked through his local police station for me.) Finally, there are numerous accusations that this author writes her own glowing 5-star reviews. This, according to her critics, is determined by the vast number of reviews that are virtually identical word for word and posted following all 4 of her books. The same authors post the same reviews over and over for each of her books. The reviews are for the most part silly and trite. They say: "This book changed my life. Finally I know the truth! I love this author. She has restored my faith in mankind. I will buy all her books. Thank you for the truth! Truth against the world! You are so brave.” All these reviews appear with 5 stars. Of course. One of these might be convincing...but hundreds of these are the giveaway. These are not book reviews- these smack of self-promotion and self-adulation. I have to agree with the critics. The reviews with less than five stars (the honest reviews) point out errors-the author's bad knowledge of history and local customs, childish writing, and outright plagiarisms. One of those criticisms involving McGowan’s unchristian attitude toward fellow authors and appears on the same page at amazon as the Kindle edition of ‘Source of Miracles’. It starts by saying: "Disappointing. Practice what you preach Kathleen"... And finally (well, not final, the Internet has years of this stuff to go through) are the blog entries by “Rollan's Censored Issues Blog”-Sunday, August 12, 2007- and Jason Colavito on 11/29/13. Jason tears in to the ‘History Channel’ and ‘Ancient Aliens’ for allowing someone like McGowan to appear on their shows as a self-proclaimed "expert"..expert in what? Ancient Aliens? What happened to the Magdalene expert? Oh. Wait. She’ll be a Magdalene expert on her summer tour to France. Colavito has this to say about McGowan as an ancient alien expert….. "’Bible Secrets Revealed’ (on TV) did not identify McGowan's credentials, and presented her as a Bible “expert” even though she is in fact a (fiction) novelist, not a historian. McGowan holds no academic degrees, and by her own admission has only a high school diploma. McGowan blankets her website with references to the History channel, using her appearances on History and H2 in order to legitimize her tenuous claim to "expertise" on ancient spiritual mysteries. “Everyone's going to think I'm on The Da Vinci Code bandwagon, but I'm not," McGowan told USA Today in 2006....In ‘The Expected One’ she explored in fictional form her ‘divine’ ancestry (claiming she is the DaVinci child, offspring of Magdalene and Jesus). McGowan told the Los Angeles Times that she quit her Disney job and maxed out her credit cards because God told her she needed to reveal the "true" story of Mary Magdalene, which she experienced as a series of "visions" in the 1990s. This came shortly after the deceased astrologer Linda Goodman began communicating with her from the spirit world about numerology. (But wait...didn't she say earlier that she went to seek the lost Emerald Tablets?) She wrote “The Expected One’ as "nonfiction," but converted it into a novel when publishers rightly refused to print evidence-free speculation and visions as academic history." McGowan is fond of repeating a mantra that her books have sold millions worldwide. Yet Jason uncovered this information; “Reviews of her book were devastating; reviewers uniformly found the writing slipshod, dull, and uninspired and the story uninteresting. Somehow, though McGowan convinced some less demanding readers that her "divine heritage" gave her "unique insights". According to the Nielsen BookScan, the leader in the industry, the novel sold 50,000 copies in its first six months. The publisher, however, claimed that an additional 50,000 copies were sold through outlets not tracked by BookScan. ‘The Expected One’ briefly entered the bestseller lists in 2006 (probably due to desperate promotional pushes by her publisher) and today McGowan claims that the book (or all of her books together, depending on the source) sold one million copies worldwide. (Do the math. “If” one hundred thousand actually sold. That is just ten percent of the one million sales she claims.) Her two sequels must not have sold well either since I haven't been able to find any sales figures for them. Her nonfiction Touchstone book, ‘The Source of Miracles’ must not have performed to expectations either, as I can find NO reported sales figures. All the comments published about a million books sold in 50 languages are more marketing deceptions generated by McGowan herself. McGowan's vindictive and nasty behavior, her obnoxious ego, her lies and deceits with the world span twenty years and three continents. I cannot believe anything this author says, not in her books, nor in claims she tries to cram on an unsuspecting public. My moral compass tells me it is wrong to support deceit and fraud being perpetrated on others for the author's own nefarious needs and wants. In her case this seems to be an overly-egotistical need for fame and glory- and to provide her with enough money to sell designer shoes on EBay. Enough is enough. I am done with this author.