How The Daily Mail Manipulated a Recording of Lighthouse Global’s Paul S. Waugh

The Truth of How the Daily Mail Recording of Paul S. Waugh Was Manipulated To Falsely Paint Him As a Tyrant

“Lying can be divided into two types: white lies and black lies. A black lie is a statement we make that we know is false. A white lie is a statement we make that is not false in itself, but that leaves out a significant part of the truth.” ~ M. Scott Peck

In this article I will show:

1. How the Daily Mail and their long history of manipulating stories to sell papers targeted my mentor Paul S. Waugh with a doctored recording to falsely paint him as a bully.

2. The true character of Paul who has been my dad for the last 13 years after my biological dad left when I was 7.

3. The real truth behind this call that he was actually standing up for me when I was being bullied.

4. How one call taken out of context of someone being angry and extremely direct does not mean their entire character is like that.

5. How this is part of a wider smear campaign against Lighthouse Global and Paul S. Waugh by people who are bitter about not getting refunds and have instigated an unlawful smear campaign without any evidence.

6. Finally, I will share the opportunity we all have to make our wrongs right, to forgive, to repent and to atone. This is something we have offered the trolls behind this smear campaign multiple times.

In April 2022 the Daily Mail published an article on Lighthouse and Paul S. Waugh with the headline “Trendy life coaching company accused of fleecing middle-class devotees etc etc..” and used 5 ex-clients and ex-business partners as their “sources”. This was the culmination of a Reddit campaign by those same people who were bitter about refunds they weren’t due and concocted a whole fantasy that they all got together and believed and then told the Daily Mail (that bastion of investigative journalism). Sorry, forgive me a dig or two!

The worst crimes by these people have been committed against my mentor Paul S. Waugh and this culminated in a trashy, unsubstantiated, he said / she said article whose only agenda was so biased it was clearly intended to try and destroy a man who has essentially been a father to me for the last 13 years.

This campaign is not only failing but we as a team and organisation have never been stronger through our increasingly deeper relationship with each other and a deeper relationship with God; in my case as a Christian, a deeper and stronger relationship with Jesus Christ.

This article isn’t for people who believe such trashy nonsense, it’s not for the trolls, it’s not for soul hackers intent on breaking us down. This is for mature, open people interested in the truth, who have enough wisdom to not jump to immature conclusions to suit their own agenda, who can take the time to examine all the facts, then make up their own mind.

Jesus Christ commands us in the Bible to “Do not judge lest ye be judged” and he also commands us to see the truth, no matter how hard it is to see.

I wanted to address the doctored recording that was used as “evidence” by the Daily Mail in which they said;

An environmental consultant who questioned the value of the mentoring with other members said she was left 'terrified' and in tears after Mr Waugh bombarded her with abuse during a two-hour phone call.

When she later politely emailed requesting a refund on her £25,000 investment, Mr Waugh refused and reminded her that the group had recordings of her describing the 'long-term sexual abuse' she suffered as a child — which she felt was a threat.

You see, I was on that 2-hour call. I listened back to it in its entirety before writing this article and what was very clear was the 2-minute recording that the Mail published was cut and doctored to paint Paul S. Waugh in the worst possible light. The above simply isn’t true, the truth has been twisted to fit the story.

As renowned psychiatrist M. Scott Peck said:

“Lying can be divided into two types: white lies and black lies. A black lie is a statement we make that we know is false.

A white lie is a statement we make that is not false in itself, but that leaves out a significant part of the truth”.

Remember that last bit…

“...leaves out a significant part of the truth.”

That’s the key!

This is what the trolls on Reddit and trashy tabloids like the Daily Mail rely on. They lie. They LEAVE OUT a significant part of the truth. We all know that the tabloid press do this, that’s why they have the terrible reputation they have. That’s why Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia Co-Founder) has banned the Daily Mail as a source on Wikipedia because they are unreliable as my friend Kris Deichler wrote about recently.

"I think what [the Daily Mail has] done brilliantly in this ad funded world (is) they've mastered the art of click bait, they've mastered the art of hyped up headlines, they've also mastered the art of, I'm sad to say, of running stories that simply aren't true. And that's why Wikipedia decided not to accept them as a source anymore. It's very problematic, they get very upset when we say this, but it's just fact." ~ Wikipedia Co-Founder, Jimmy Wales.

The challenge we have nowadays is that people read newspapers and think they must have done some investigation. Well, nope, we sent them a 17,000-word document with 22 signed testimonies as evidence to the contrary of their claims and they hardly mentioned 2 sentences about it because as Mark Twain said…

“Never Let The Truth Get In The Way of a Good Story.”

10 Facts About The Daily Mail Recording

So here are some facts about the recording that the Mail left out…

Why? Because if they printed the truth they wouldn’t sell newspapers!

They wouldn’t be able to try to demonise a man who I have known personally for the last 13 years. Not to say that Paul is perfect by any means. He spoke about the recording, he explained why it happened and then held his hands up and apologised for swearing. BUT!! The key thing the Mail didn’t tell you is WHY!! Why was that call the way it was? That’s where the white lies kick in…

The facts below can all be proven and are all in the FULL 2-hour recording which we can’t release at this time due to data protection. However, I can share some snippets below.

Now you could argue… “Well aren’t you just using this to paint Paul in a good light?” Well the answer to that is yes! BUT the main thing I’m doing is bringing some balance to what has been put out there falsely that he is some kind of tyrant. This isn’t about making excuses, this is about bringing some truth to the situation and some balance.

FACT 1: The Daily Mail says the call came about because the woman “questioned the group's methods and politely requested a refund.” This is categorically untrue as the transcript below will show. This call came about because this woman was being toxic with me, her mentor.

"An environmental consultant who questioned the value of the mentoring with other members said she was left 'terrified' and in tears after Mr Waugh bombarded her with abuse during a two-hour phone call."

When she later politely emailed requesting a refund on her £25,000 investment, Mr Waugh refused and reminded her that the group had recordings of her describing the 'long-term sexual abuse' she suffered as a child — which she felt was a threat.

FACT 2: The Daily Mail says this call happened after one seemingly innocent incident when in fact it was the culmination of 12 months of negativity from this person. Namely towards me as her mentor. Paul was extremely direct because the lady in question had been very toxic and very manipulative towards me as her mentor which was getting worse over time due to lockdown and her family pressuring her to leave Lighthouse before she held them accountable for past abuse.

I was becoming increasingly drained after our daily 2-hour long sessions and she was putting her negativity and fears into me in a similar way that my mother did when I was younger, so I was not aware enough of it to stop it. I have now learnt hugely from this situation and am a lot stronger for it.

This is the real context for the recording and why Paul was being extremely direct…

“Stop bullying this boy. This is my son Jai. I will not put up with it. If you want to be my partner. You’re coming here and bringing anti-love to Jai. Stop hurting and damaging Jai who’s trying to develop himself. If you have a real issue about Lighthouse and time, money and effort, you come to me. You’re taking out on Jai what you ought to be getting justice for somewhere else. That’s why we’re having a chat about this. I’m just asking you to have some self-pride. You were negative with 4 other people and you’ve been consistently negative with Jai. If I had to play every negative thing you’ve ever said about Lighthouse and Jai your ego would squirm like a worm. Don’t you dare take it out on Jai, treating Jai like a piece of shit. I’m not putting up with it. We are loving here and we are candid here but you can’t be here and damage people. I will not allow you to do it on my watch." - Paul S. Waugh

FACT 3: After this call, the person in question apologised to me and to Paul for her behaviour. Paul spoke with this person a number of times and had incredibly gentle and loving calls with them. He apologised for his language and sent flowers and I witnessed deep care from him towards her even while this person left, as well as afterwards. She messaged him and I afterwards the below (which I have paraphrased).

- You are right Paulie when you pointed out I do many things I do not understand.

- What I am doing to me, to Jai and to you.

- I’m seeing it now for the first time and am truly sorry for my selfishness.

FACT 4: This call was not about this person requesting to leave and us stopping her. It was in fact the opposite! Paul offered this person a win-win opportunity where she didn’t need to invest anything further in herself and she could just attend calls once a week until such time that she was ready to be an active partner and produce a return on her investment.

FACT 5: This person on the team required the most amount of time and resources compared to anyone else to train her as a mentor and it was not in our business interests to keep her! Yet I went out of my way to help this person even providing unpaid mentorship for a year.

FACT 6: If you go into any senior environment, whether it’s the military or whether it’s a corporate boardroom, the kinds of discussions that happen are extremely direct and could also be twisted out of context to make it seem abusive to someone outside of that. The commanding officer in the military will swear and shout at the new recruit to break down their inflated ego while developing their character to one of being a humble, responsible and strong adult.

In civilian life where we are becoming increasingly precious about being offended by a single word and intonation, we don’t experience this. This was a call where the person in question was damaging other people and it needed to be dealt with. She understood this context and recognised her wrongdoing, as she later showed through her contrition.

FACT 7: This call was recorded and transcribed with FULL knowledge and consent of all involved and Paul insisted on it being transcribed and shared with her because he wanted us all to learn from it. This was not a secret recording made on the sly. The very fact this woman had a recording of the call is because Paul made sure of it. Again I would ask this person's permission to release the full recording and if not why not? What is there to hide if you really want the truth out there?

FACT 8: The recording was doctored and edited for the Daily Mail article WITHOUT permission of the 3 people who were on the call. Myself, Chris Nash and Paul S. Waugh.

FACT 9: This was ONE call out of THOUSANDS of recordings we have where Paul has been extremely gentle, kind, compassionate and caring. Everyone gets angry, everyone swears from time to time, but is it fair to brand someone’s character as always being that way because of ONE doctored recording?

FACT 10: Paul S. Waugh has offered every single person mentioned in the Daily Mail article the opportunity to sit down at a neutral venue and resolve any differences, to date, the grand total of NONE OF THEM have taken up his offer.

Context Is Everything

You see…context is everything.

It’s very easy to take that recording and not include the context and paint Paul out as a tyrant but he was doing the opposite.

He was standing up for me.

This is something my own dad would never have done, given he walked out when I was 7 years old and left me at the mercy of an extremely controlling mother.

As I’ve said, Paul is not perfect but thank God I have someone in my life who is willing to stand up for what’s right. Someone who has stood up to bullies since he was 7 years old. We live in a world where many of us are terrified of confrontation and standing up for ourselves. We often let people walk all over us.

Thank God I have someone in my life who is willing to be righteously indignant when needed, especially in the face of bullies.

People forget that Jesus Christ was confrontational. He smashed the money lenders tables in the Jewish Holy Temple and he called the Sanhedrin a “brood of vipers full of dead men’s bones”. Most of the world and many Christians alike see Christ as a soft “turn the other cheek” type character, but he was tough when he needed to be. We all need a bit of tough love sometimes!

This isn’t about justifying Paul’s actions. He did swear and shout, he was stressed and overwhelmed and this was the final straw of something that had been going on for over a year but he also publicly took responsibility in the areas he needed to, as you can see in his tweets below. Something these trolls have never done…

As Paul says, imagine if a recording was made of you in your own home when you were at your worst and you just exploded and that was shown to the world? Would that define who you are?

Wouldn’t that paint you out as some kind of lunatic when you know you’ve had hundreds of conversations that have been loving, kind and caring? Well, that’s what happened…

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story though, right?

What use would it be to have a recording of Paul expressing deep love and appreciation, compassion and empathy for the person on the call? That wouldn’t suit the story those accusers and the Daily Mail wanted to print, right? This is supposed to be the big nasty evil “Trendy life coach boss who’s swindling people’s money to pay for his £2 million home?” “Oh no, we can’t print something nice about him.” That wouldn’t make a good story and that’s exactly what it is, a story, a fictional one at that.

As an aside, I know for a fact his home in the Cotswolds wasn’t purchased with Lighthouse money. He had 17 businesses before this one and his Range Rover is second-hand and worth about £10k.

But never let the truth get in the way of a good story, right Daily Mail? Right trolls on Reddit?

The Daily Mail will be held accountable for the malicious manipulation of Paul's character. The person who released this recording without permission will be held accountable.

For those who are hell-bent on directing hate toward others, they are blind to the truth. We call them soul hackers and we are now helping others to deal with and protect themselves from these soul hackers both inside their homes and outside their homes.

Repentance And Atonement

This is my attempt to bring some balance. Not to excuse what Paul did, not to shift the blame or justify it. You can see he’s taking responsibility for that and for what it’s worth, I have seen in the last 6 months in particular how he has grown through his relationship with Christ. It’s like this whole situation has helped him, me and us to connect with our Lord in a deeper way and learn to love our enemy. We are all changing. We all make mistakes.

Do we use those mistakes to beat someone over the head for the rest of their lives or do we allow them to repent, to atone for their mistakes and make it right? What kind of world are we left with when it’s the former?

I know Paul has given me the chance to atone for things many, many times over.

That’s why Jesus Christ came to this earth, to atone for our sins, to pay a price for our mistakes and no other worldview, no other religion has redemption at its core. We have an opportunity through Jesus Christ to repent and turn our lives around. In the Bible King David was a murderer and an adulterer, the Apostle Paul initially killed women and children who were Christians. They were chosen by God to speak for him. God wasn’t looking for paragons of virtue, he was looking for broken, imperfect people (which we all are) who wanted to seek the truth (which less and less of us are), who wanted to know and serve God.

If there’s one thing I pray for you to learn from this article it’s the power of atonement, of forgiveness, of repentance.

I truly believe that no matter what we have done wrong in our lives, if we earnestly desire to repent, to make our wrongs right and atone for our mistakes we deserve the chance to make it right. In my youth, I got in trouble with the police and at school because things were bad at home. Later in life, I was given an opportunity to turn my life around and make my wrongs right and grow into a different person, to take a different path. That opportunity was given to me by Paul S. Waugh and this call recording was about him standing up for me…

“Stop bullying this boy Jai, he’s my son I will not put up with it.”

Again this is evidence that the Mail and the soul-hacking trolls aren’t interested in. We have so much more but we can’t release it without permission. The Daily Mail didn’t seek our permission to share recordings or text messages yet they published those of others here in the paper.

My message to the trolls is please stop, please go on and just live your life, get on with it. Either take us to court or be quiet! I’m sure you have better things to do and there are many many people we are serving who are very happy with how we help them. You can read about a few of them here from Maria, Letizia & Rob.

God bless those who have been hating us, they need love the most. I know I have been very hateful in my own life and I’ve spent the last 14 years learning to turn that into love. For that I thank God and I thank my Lord Jesus Christ for guiding me on this journey. If you or anyone you know has been a victim of online trolling or would like to learn how to protect yourself from online attacks and from the press then please get in touch here. We have a wealth of knowledge to help you from our own experiences. If you'd like to learn more about Paul and hear from him directly follow him on Twitter here.

God bless you and thank you for reading this x x

A photo of Sukhraj Singh (my brother), Paul S. Waugh and me (right) in Kutis Southampton 2011...