Tony Quinn (born 7 February 1946) is an Irish businessman, yoga entrepreneur, mind coach and cult leader who founded the Educo Cult.
Background
Quinn was born in Arbour Hill in inner-city Dublin. Quinn left school early and was a salesman for HB Ice Cream. At 17 he was an apprentice butcher in Phibsborough and then a bouncer at Club Go Go on Dame Street in Dublin.
Career
In the 1970s he established communes in Templeogue and Howth where members were often on limited pay.
In 1978 the News Of The World confronted Quinn with his claims he could cure cancer. They made him aware of the Cancer Act 1939, which states "No person shall take part in the publication of any advertisement containing an offer to treat any person for cancer." Quinn responded "I wasn't aware of that. It was a genuine mistake". In 2006 a follower of Quinn who operated an Educogym in Glasgow repeated the assertion that Quinn could cure cancer.
Quinn has been variously described as a yogi, "fitness expert", "health guru", "business guru", "mind trainer","mind coach", "saviour", "visionary", "hypnotist" and "cult leader".
He became well known in Ireland as a hypnotherapist and "mind trainer" for professional boxer Steve Collins before being sacked after 3 fights. Collins told Sky Sports "We fooled the world", and also stated in his autobiography he said "We've fooled him", after his first fight with hypnotherapist Quinn as advisor. Collins later said of Quinn that he was someone who helped him on his way but he was inferior when compared to other hypnotists.
Educo is categorised as a "Human Potential Group" and "Therapy / Counseling Group" by the Cult Education Institute.
In 2009 Sunday World journalist Nicola Tallant reported on the contents of video footage obtained by the newspaper of an Educo Seminar and stated "In the tape Quinn claims that he is able to programme children to ensure they have a much better future, claiming he uses the same techniques that Hitler used to programme children to carry out acts of genocide and Hamas use to create suicide bombers from kindergarten children." The Sunday World stated on the tape Quinn says "Children, if you realise, are almost like sponge. Their minds are sensitive and you can put programmes into children’s minds"
In 2009 the Sunday World reported that Mike Garde, who had campaigned against Cults in Ireland, had been issued a death-threat by a Cult in Ireland. In September 2009 Dialogue Ireland published an article that indicated it was Quinn himself that issued the death-threat.
Yoga
June Levine visited a Templeogue commune in 1974 where she stayed one night with 36 followers who told her they believed they were reincarnated with Quinn from the time of Jesus Christ; one follower believed himself to be the reincarnation of Saint Joseph.
One 21-year-old orphan follower had completed a 40-day water fast and weighed 5½ stone (35 kg) and had stopped menstruating. The fast was to reconnect with God, but "not the God of religion but to the Energy that is the life force." She explained that not menstruating she had no impurities in her body. When Levine challenged Quinn on this, he responded "The yoga diet of fruit or fasting improves the body so much it becomes clean. There are no impurities to be drained away".
Levine described how commune members David and Aideen Cowman had put their baby on a diet without milk, instead receiving "bone meal tablets and halibut oil". Later that year it was reported a lady who moved to the Templeogue commune and studied Quinn's form of Yoga became disinterested in her children and developed an obsession with the Essenes religion. On returning from the commune she required psychiatric care and refused one of her children milk in any form. Quinn was questioned by Sunday World about his form of Yoga which he explained was different to the Yoga Sutras.
Templeogue commune members wrote to the Sunday World saying the article was not fair in what was described as "an avalanche of letters" and were noted that "the similarity of their content is rather remarkable". The letters claimed the lady, who stayed at the commune for 10 days, was "mentally disturbed before she went" to the commune and there was no consistent explanation as to why she was allowed to stay.
One letter claimed many psychiatrists recommended Tony Quinn's Yoga for similar cases.
A photostat of a letter written by a commune member named Sean Nolan was in circulation and claimed "The classes were unique. And Tony was unique. He was taught by no man, followed no teacher, for he was born with certain abilities which made all of this unnecessary."