r/DecodingTheGurus

I’m sure many of you are already aware of them. they keep it light. And skewer that Rogan bs

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-know-rogan-experience/id1788550490?i=1000782117400

For anyone heading to UPW who doesn't want to get upsold the way I did.

When I was at UPW, the Tony Robbins feeder event, before stupidly spending fifteen thousand dollars on upgrades, I googled Joseph McClendon III. The guy running Days 2 and 4 while Tony's on video. Billed as Senior Head Trainer. Tony's right-hand man since the 80s.

Not much was to be found. Definitely no deep valid criticism. So I did the research myself because I wanted to write about him.

Holy shit, I didn't expect to find this much.

The most brutal detail: he isn't really a doctor. And he claims he's a doctor everywhere.

He calls himself a "Doctor of Neuropsychology." Tells ten thousand people in an arena that their doctors are wrong, that medicine is broken. But his degrees are from Corllins University and "The University of Lydon State." Both are documented, unaccredited diploma mills. You pay them, they send you a credential based on "life experience." No coursework. Corllins was literally exposed by CBS News in 2017 for selling fake degrees.

And there is zero evidence he holds any license to practice psychology or neuropsychology in any U.S. state. None.

That's the lead. But it's not even the worst part.

In the full write-up I also cover:

• Where his "alkaline diet" and "4 Poisons" framework actually comes from (hint: the guy he borrowed it from is currently in a California state prison)
• The story about his mother's cancer that makes the entire arena cry, and how the details shift by a full decade depending on which version you look at
• The supplement companies he's financially tied to, and why that matters when he's telling you to ignore your doctor

Before posting any of this, I reached out to his team directly. I'm not a journalist, I didn't have to do this. But what I found was so brutal I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Laid out exactly what I found, gave them a real deadline, then extended it when they asked for more time. That deadline passed. Silence.

I wrote it all up with sources for the next guy at UPW either looking before purchase or during the cancellation window.

Happy to answer questions in the comments.

He did it on Sam Harris's podcast right after the rally in August 2017. Sam had made a tweet criticising white identity politics in the wake of the rally which got massive blowback from his community of rational skeptics. To be fair, Douglas acknowledged Neo Nazis were at the rally, but stopped short of saying it was a Neo Nazi rally and tried to argue the legitimate grievances angle.