An Influencer Gets Roasted for Claiming She Can Help People Ditch Their Glasses Forever

The Gist:

• Samantha Lotus is a wellness influencer who describes herself as a holistic master coach.
• She recently claimed to know how to heal people's vision so they can go without glasses.
• A reporter took her master class and roasted it on Twitter.

Who among us hasn't heard the phrase, "There is a sucker born every minute"? While its origins are murky, the sentiment is quite clear, though it's a bit too victim blamey for my liking. Sure, some people are more gullible than others, but there are a ton of con artists in the world who are completely fine with taking advantage of anyone and everyone.

Some scams are obvious, a few seem pretty clear-cut in hindsight (hello Theranos), while others toe the line enough to split people down the middle. The bulk of the gray fraud areas seem to live in the world of wellness influencers who love to peddle snake oil over science. By all accounts, Samantha Lotus might be one such tastemaker. According to an Instagram post of hers, we don't need glasses, and she can tell you how to ditch them forever. Hint: essential oils are involved.

On Sept. 5, 2023, Samantha took to Instagram in order to drop off some big promises and more than one unfounded claim. "What's the one thing that your optometrist doesn't want you to know about," she asks while removing a pair of glasses. "The fact that you do not need glasses." She goes on to say that if you've been told you need glasses by a medical professional, that it's a lie.

"There are mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual reasons why you may not be seeing, and I'm here to tell you that can be healed." We are then directed to read the comments for more information. Samantha asserts that she has "reversed her need for glasses" and would like to help others do the same. According to her, it's not your bad vision that's the problem. You need to be "open to holistic, multidimensional healing." Don't worry, these "practices and methods are backed by science."

Apparently all of the answers regarding better vision live inside a master class taught by Samantha that only costs $11. To be clear, she has no medical background to speak of. The professional bio on her website is kind of lacking when it comes to the professional bit. One of the more alarming parts is when Samantha says she "plays psychology, sociology, natural medicine, ayurveda, NLP, epigenetics and metaphysics, as well as the creation of transformational experiences." How does one play in these fields?

A woman by the name of Mallory, who often debunks claims made by wellness influencers, signed up for Samantha's class and tweeted out some of the more shocking revelations. Samantha begins by stating she is not a doctor or medical advisor. The class is for "holistic educational as well as empowerment purposes." She then directs people to Andrew Huberman, a professor of neurobiology and opthomology at Stanford School of Medicine.

The thread is pretty wild and filled with questionable information and suggestions. The hits include, but are not limited to, alleging we can change our eye color using vision healing, claiming glasses are a barrier that allow us to hide from the world, stating that if we decide to see our bodies will begin to heal, and then product placement.

It becomes abundantly clear that the master class is a vehicle for Samantha to sell Doterra essential oils because she is a rep at their company. While pushing this product, Samantha suggests her little brother's eyes were healed by a "near fatal motocross accident" when he put Doterra essential oils around his eyes.

Please don't do that.

In subsequent tweets, Mallory shared that Samantha is accusing her of "intellectual property infringement and defamation." Samantha found Mallory on Facebook and LinkedIn and messaged her using legal language, stating Mallory violated the terms of condition she signed before watching the master class.

People in the replies didn't think Samantha had much of a case as Mallory was just posting screenshots of the class as opposed to the entire video. Also, Mallory was commenting on what Samantha herself said, which isn't the definition of defamation.

Distractify reached out to Samantha for a comment and received a long and somewhat confusing email in response.

I replied, asking for clarification on two specific things that were mentioned in the email. One was the 20-plus sources and scientific studies included in her masterclass. Samantha offered to send them, so I respectfully requested she do so. She also claimed to have "double honors degrees in psychology and sociology with an emphasis in quantitative research," to which I asked which schools she attended. As of the time of this writing, I have yet to receive a followup response.