Nick Begich profits from his father's debunked conspiracy theories, while staying silent

Republican Congressional candidate Nick Begich the Third has tried hard to distance himself from a company owned by his father, Nick Begich Jr., an enterprise that remains one of Begich the Third’s largest income sources.

Begich the Third claims he has nothing to do with Earthpulse Press or any of the ideas promoted on its defunct website about mind control, weather control, government conspiracies, etc. He merely collects money from the company as a 17 percent owner.

That’s not exactly true. For the past 12 years, Begich the Third has been a company director, treasurer and secretary of Earthpulse Press.

His father, Begich Jr., is the brother of former Sen. Mark Begich and former state Sen. Tom Begich. They are sons of the late Rep. Nick Begich.

To add to the confusion, Nick Begich Jr. now identifies as Nick Begich Sr., though he is a junior.

He has long identified himself as “Doctor” Nick Begich, boasting of a 1994 honorary doctorate from a diploma mill in Sri Lanka, the Open International University for Complementary Medicines.

His son, Begich the Third, has not talked about the Earthpulse Press products and there has been no substantial investigation of the candidate’s connections to the vehicle long used by Begich Junior to peddle conspiracy theories, crackpot claims, philosophy, self-help advice, ESP guidance, health supplements and gadgets.

His campaign released a statement two years ago saying he was not responsible for any content on the website and that “any views or opinions reflected by the work published by Earthpulse are not, nor have they ever been reflective of Nick Begich III’s views.”

I wrote about this here briefly in April 2022, but not in enough detail.

Among the devices the company once sold were the ThoughtStream USB for $99 to “enhance your mindfulness meditation training” and the “Pointer-Plus,” which was supposed to locate accupuncture points on the body for $149.

The Democratic Party has taken aim at the Pointer-Plus in recent over-the-top attack ads claiming the Pointer-Plus was a flawed medical device. Alaska Public Media had this story.

Begich Jr. claims the Pointer was not a medical device, his company did not aim it at seniors and it was accurate, reporter Liz Ruskin wrote.

Earthpulse listed its products for sale in 2022 as four old books by Begich II and five old DVDs, all of which were marked down. It’s not clear how much of the annual income of the company was from retail sales and how much from fees paid to Begich Jr.

Begich Jr. has long been a regular in right-wing conspiracy circles, going back to the Art Bell radio show nearly 30 years ago, on which he said the HAARP project was a secret government weapon for mind control, weather control, etc.

In a 2017 TV interview, Begich Jr. said he made more than $1 million over a 20-year period on the sales of “Angels Don’t Play This HAARP,” the book that features his debunked conspiracy claims about the Gakona radio transmitter site.

Begich Jr. is a friend of fellow conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. He has hosted and been a frequent guest on Infowars, the website that is to be liquidated to pay part of the $1 billion that Jones owes the families whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

There are many videos of Begich Jr. on the Infowars website under the title “Dr. Nick and the Hidden Monks.”

Begich III said his income from Earthpulse business for 2021 ranged between $100,000 and $1 million. That’s a lot of Begich books and DVDs.

It’s not a coincidence that the Earthpulse Press website and its contents were taken down by the Begich family before the 2024 campaign.

Begich the Third said in his financial disclosure statement that he earned between $15,000 and $50,000 from Earthpulse Press in the first seven months of the year.

He said his total income in that period was between $45,000 and $125,000. He said his only other income source in the $15K-$50K range was from “advisory services” for Dashfire Management.

Here is the Begich filing, which he submitted on September 30, more than a month-and-a-half late. The statement is opaque and largely populated with numbers that are impossible to check.

Since he began running for Congress, Begich the Third has reported total income from Earthpulse in the range of $200,000 to $1.2 million. In every case, he said the company was worth between $500,000 and $1 million.

The Earthpulse Press website may have vanished before this campaign, but Begich Jr. now sells his books and DVDs on his “hidden monks” website. He invites people to “join the great awakening.”

Begich II has a website that promotes the "Hidden Monks Master Class” and self-help: “Dr. Nick will address issues around self worth and healthy communication, relationships, and conflict resolution that can provoke love instead of anger. He'll also talk about how mind control, ESP and telepathy are tools that we can use for good instead of evil.”

In the late 1990s, Begich Jr. was a regular on the Art Bell radio show, claiming that the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program near Gakona was started with nefarious purposes in mind.

According to Begich Jr., the HAARP facility, now run by the University of Alaska, featured technology that could be use to control the weather, control minds and change brain chemistry.

“The technology is designed to manipulate the environment in a number of ways that can jam all global communications, disrupt weather systems, interfere with migration patterns, disrupt human mental processes, negatively affect your health and disrupt the upper atmosphere,” Begich Jr. says on his website.

Years after publication of “Angels Don’t Play this HAARP,” Begich II claimed hundreds of people had written to claim that they “were surgically implanted with communications devices to read their thoughts.” He also wrote that he didn’t know how many of those claims were real.

These are among the products once sold by Earthpulse Press, the company that GOP candidate Nick Begich III owned 17 percent of and served as a company directory, secretary and treasurer. A recent attack ad by the Democratic Party takes aim the Pointer-Plus.