王族の名前を利用して霊感商法にはしるノルウェー王女マッタ・ルイーセの件

　たまたまこんな記事を見つけた。
こんな記事とはノルウェー王女、天使と話す特殊能力あると公表なんだが、ありかはREUTERS（日本語版）。

　タイトル目にした瞬間は「あああの話ね」って程度だったんだけど、中身を読んでビビッちゃったよ。

　［オスロ　２４日　ロイター］　ノルウェーのマッタ・ルイーセ王女（３５）は２４日、自分には天使と話す特別な力が備わっており、ほかの人にもその方法を教えて人助けをしたいと表明した。
　ノルウェー国王ハーラル５世とソニア王妃の娘で、理学療法士でもある同王女は、自身が設立に関わった特殊教育センターのウェブサイト（www.astarte-education.com）上で、子供のときから天使と交信していると明かした。
　王女は、声明で「代替的な治療の形に常に関心を抱いてきた」と説明。「初めて天使と接触したのは馬の世話をしていたとき。後になってこの素晴らしい能力について理解し始めた。他の人々とそれを分け合いたいと思っている」と語った。
　王室は、同ウェブサイトの内容が王女の見解を正しく伝えていることを確認したが、それ以上のコメントは控えている。

　これはオスロ発のREUTERSなんだが、先月の24日あたりから一斉に報じられ、最後にして一番長文がSPIEGEL（English ver.)の8月14日付けの記事だと思う。

　僕は天使101というのが具体的になんなのかはおろか宗教には全く関心のない男なので、そのへんあたるのが面倒くさくて放置しましたが、（BBCはREUTERSと似たようなものだけど）SPIEGELはよりは詳しい報道をしていて、実態はこの記事にあるような静かな印象ではないでしょうね。
　どこだったか今更思い出せないけど、いま名前を挙げた以外のどこかの記事タイトルは日本語に訳せば「ノルウェー王室の問題児またしても．．」ってな表現でした。

　このREUTERSがなんでこんな押さえた記事になったのか？　果たして王室に対する遠慮なのか？　そこんところはわかりませんが、とりあえずいま手元にあるREUTERSの英文記事、BBCとSPIEGERの記事だけ貼っておきます。

　面倒くさいので訳文はつけませんが、こんなインチキ臭い話で一年間の講座料が日本園で50万円弱。

　批判者の主張するのは「王女を名乗る資格を剥奪しろ」とか「教会から破門しろ」とか「インチキ商法に王家の権威を利用するな」とか、かなりすさまじい批判です。

　王女を名乗る資格ってのは、彼女は作家と結婚して皇籍を既に離れてるんですね。
ところが彼の国は我が国とは異なり、そういう人でも王女を名乗れるんだそうです、たとえて言うなら黒田さんちに降嫁された内親王がまだ内親王を名乗られるようなものです。

REUTERS(7/24)

Norway's Princess to teach how to talk to angels
Tue Jul 24, 2007 4:46PM BST
OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian Princess Martha Louise announced on Tuesday that she is clairvoyant and wants to help people by teaching them how to talk to angels.
The 35-year-old trained physical therapist and daughter of King Harald and Queen Sonja said on a Web site for her alternative education centre that she has been communicating with angels since childhood.
The Astarte Education centre which she co-founded promises to teach students to "create miracles" in their lives "with angels and with your own force".
"I've always been interested in alternative forms of treatment," Martha Louise said in a statement on Web site http://www.astarte-education.com.
"It was while I dealt with horses that I first got in touch with angels.
I later came to understand the value of this enormous gift and would like to share it with others."
The Royal Palace confirmed that the Web site accurately reflected the Princess's views but declined further comment.
Martha Louise's younger brother, Crown Prince Haakon is next in line for the Norwegian throne.
The alternative centre's three-year programme costs 24,000 Norwegian crowns (2,000 pounds) per year.

BBC NEWS(7/25)

Norway princess 'talks to angels'
Norway's Princess Martha Louise says she has psychic powers and can teach people to communicate with angels.
The 35-year-old daughter of King Harald and Queen Sonja made the announcement on a website promoting her plans for a new alternative therapy centre.
She says she realised as a child that she could read people's inner feelings, while her experiences with horses had helped her make contact with angels.
Princess Martha Louise is fourth in line to the Norwegian throne.
The royal palace says it has no official link to the princess' planned alternative therapy centre, the AFP news agency reports.
The princess, who trained as a physical therapist, says on the website for her Astarte Education centre that she has "always been interested in alternative forms of treatment".
Students at her centre, she says, will learn how to "create miracles" in their lives and harness the powers of their angels, which she describes as "forces that surround us and who are a resource and help in all aspects of our lives".
"It was while I was taking care of the horses that I got in contact with the angels," she says.
"I have lately understood the value of this important gift and I wish to share it with other people, maybe with you."
A three-year programme at her centre costs 24,000 Norwegian crowns ($4,150; 3,000 euros;￡2,000) per year.

SPIEGEL(8/14)

NORWEGIAN PRINCESS MARTHA'S NEW COURSE OFFERING
Communicating with Angels 101
Norwegian Princess Martha Louise is under fire.
She wants to open a school to teach people how to communicate with angels.
Now, some are calling for her to renounce her royal title.
When one thinks of European royalty scandals, it is generally Prince Harry (dressing as a Nazi) or Ernst August Prinz von Hannover (caught urinating in public) that comes to mind.
But as Norway is demonstrating these days, its royal family can hold their own in the headline-generating department.
To whit: Princess Martha Louise, fourth in line to the Norwegian throne, has generated a storm of criticism in the Scandinavian country for her plan to start a school that will teach people how to communicate with angels.
On Monday, one influential paper from the western town of Bergen demanded that the princess renounce her royal title.
She has also been blasted by politicians, prominent journalists and TV pastor Jan Hanvold who accused her of blasphemy and said that Martha was "an emissary from hell." There have also been calls for her to be excommunicated from the state Evangelical Lutheran church.
Most critics accuse her of trying to use her royalty status for profit.
"As a princess and theoretically an heir to the throne (the princess) needs to relate to the rest of us others within a certain framework," Bergens Tidende wrote in a Monday editorial.
Norway's leading daily Aftenposten also carried an editorial on Monday questioning Martha Louise's business idea.
Dubbed by the Norwegian press as the "angel school," the princess' institution, named "Astarte Education" after "one of the oldest goddesses in the Middle East," offers a three-year program on communicating with angels, healing and hands-on treatment.
The courses are scheduled to begin on August 22, with a weekend session in September devoted to helping participants "get into contact with the angels" and teaching students "how to create 'everyday miracles' in your own life."
The course of study -- slogan: "Use angels and your own power to create miracles in your life" -- costs 12,000 Norwegian crowns (1,504euros) per semester.
"Angels, or light beings, are encountered in all religions," the Web site claims.
"In our courses you will have the possibility to learn how to discover your inner source of truth and renew the natural contact you have with the angels and the divine Universe.
The result will depend on your own approach and openness."
But even as the establishment continues to lampoon the princess, a trained physiotherapist who claims she is clairvoyant, her courses are reportedly already full.
Furthermore, a recent survey conducted by the newspaper VG found that fully 40 percent of Norwegians believe that some humans possess supernatural powers and that communication with angels is not outside the realm of possibility.
The royal family has been traditionally taciturn in commenting on Princess Martha's plans, though on Monday, fresh back from holiday, Queen Sonja said: "This is her own business venture. It's her responsibility."

　最後に問題の霊感商法のThe Astarte Education centreへのリンクを貼っておきますが、ここの英語版ページのABOUT USには彼女とその共同設立者Elisabeth Samnoyのメッセージがあります。
この主たる設立者であるElisabeth Samnoyってのは見るからに怪しい顔してますね。ｗ