Rocco Castoro of Vice wrote an article about a multi-level marketing company called Amega Global. He told me, "Basically they are the Amway for people who think a metal tube full of 'granulated minerals and crystals' can fix your bad back, make crappy wine taste better, reduce the acidity of lemons, energize your food, etc. I went to a 'wanding party' in Westchester, and it was very weird indeed."



The AMwand was released in the US in January, and since then a steadily growing number of Amega associates across America have discovered that the wand and the company's other products are capable of grand things. The short list of its supposed powers includes relieving various body aches and pains, stimulating the circulatory system, reducing the acidity of lemons, increasing the potency of food, alleviating migraines, and "energizing" just about any organic or inanimate object you can shake a stick at.

According to the company's website, Amega Global was formed in Singapore in 2006 by a consortium of three companies: a wellness-product manufacturer, an investment firm, and a "people-development company." Most of their products are made in Asia and Australia. If you were wondering, its founders came up with the name Amega Global because they wanted to create "a mega global company." And if you're to believe Amega's distributors, the program has been a runaway success. Other Amega dealers told me that the AMwand produced approximately $42,000 worth of presales in December 2009, $885,000 in its inaugural month on the market, and an astounding $2.5 million in February. (More recent figures were not available at the time this piece went to print.) There is no way to ascertain whether Amega's sales figures are legit. None of the emails I sent or voice mails I left for administrative members of Amega were returned. In fact, the only direct employee of Amega who would speak with me on the phone was a customer-service representative who told me they do not have a public-relations department and he did not have access to sales information; he advised me to send an email to a general address (which was never answered). Yet every distributor I spoke with was extremely enthusiastic about the products and claimed to be making a healthy supplemental or full-time income from their sales. In fact, many of the Amegans I contacted mentioned that the program has been so successful it's spawned cheaper bootleg wands available on the internet (which, according to them, do not work).