Post by: Anonymous on July 30, 2005, 07:08:00 PM
This is my oponion on this:
I would not do this!!!
*** No Christian Should ever do this!!!! ***
They claim to transform the world, yet they are only in one city... And the founder makes about 350k plus a year in the name of transformation!!! their website is http://www.worldworksinc.com (http://www.worldworksinc.com) .
Some will claim this is a new age cult... They are very aggressive... They curse, they humiliate, they use sleep depravation and they use group manipulation to recruit for them.... They are a slight spin-off of LifeSpring....
Check out this links on their Courses...
This is what happens at the intro!!!! They know what they are doing!!!
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awa ... -intro.htm (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awareness/v-intro.htm)
day1: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awa ... v-day1.htm (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awareness/v-day1.htm)
day2: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awa ... v-day2.htm (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awareness/v-day2.htm)
day3:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awa ... v-day3.htm (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awareness/v-day3.htm)
day4:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awa ... v-day4.htm (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awareness/v-day4.htm)
day5:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awa ... v-day5.htm (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awareness/v-day5.htm)
Their second level course that costs 1k:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awa ... ourse1.htm (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awareness/advanced_course1.htm)
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awa ... ourse2.htm (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/eldon.braun/awareness/advanced_course2.htm)
Their third level training is very easy to explain... Its call leadership practice... Which means you are a leader by
1- enrolling people into their expensive trainings
2- accomplishing 4 goals
3- Raising money for charity....
What do you guys think?
Post by: Antigen on July 30, 2005, 07:19:00 PM
RAMPANT talking out in group!
Hands that help are far better then lips that pray.
--Robert G. Ingersoll, American politician and lecturer
Post by: Anonymous on August 01, 2005, 08:38:00 PM
Post by: Deborah on August 01, 2005, 09:02:00 PM
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... =210#31955 (http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?topic=3865&forum=9&start=210#31955)
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... um=9#60648 (http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?topic=6552&forum=9#60648)
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... rt=0#65238 (http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?topic=6976&forum=9&start=0#65238)
Post by: Anonymous on February 23, 2006, 04:25:00 AM
One of my closest friends was relentless about my getting enrolled. My gut feeling was that by her being able to recruit me-somehow gave her "points" in her favor.
I had a bad feeling about enrolling but did so against my better judgement.
The 1st class was tolerable. However, by the 2nd course-I found it not-and was able to confirm my suspicions...
In my opinion...(So as to not sound ARROGANT (a popular word used at the workshop)...and not make my words be like of "higher authority")..lol
...The class came off very much Cult & Scientology like...Funny that these words kept repeating themselves in my head like something telling me to be cautious of what I was getting into.
I went home and did research and found the group did indeed have Scientology roots and was a spin off of "Lifespring" and "Landmark Forum"-who are considered to be a cult on another website(s).
LESSON I LEARNED-Never allow a person to determine for you who you are,what is right for you and manipulate you-let alone be abusive toward you.
One more thing. I am no longer in touch w/ persons whom I briefly befriended at the courses & as for that one close friend who enrolled me?...She has NOT EVEN returned my call after I abandoned the 2nd course on the 2nd or 3rd day...
(It's already going on 6 months since we've last spoken -and we WERE very close)
Going back to the time I had abandoned the course...I was supposed to show up wearing a bikini-wasn't ashamed of this at all-Just felt enough was enough not to mention trying to heal from Bronchitis at the time- Boy did they have something to say about that one: To them I was only having a reaction to the course and not really sick(psychosematic) The bronchitis was already present b4 the class was even thought of.
I noticed that people with health problems were shot down from leaving the course and openly scrutinized for this in front of the entire classroom audience.
In fact...When I was starting to feel weak from not eating properly and on a timely manner-(we were all rushed in this and not given enough time-a poular cult method to wear and break you down to brainwash you I've found)...
I attempted to leave but one person-no exageration- grabbed me by my arm and asked sternly where I was going and after telling him that I needed to leave...he said "LIKE HELL YOU ARE" and made me sit back down.
The trainer/staff commented about "my racket" but I soon realized that everything they accused me of being-They indeed were- Especially with this thing of "being a racket and arrogant and manipulative".
I'm curious to know...What happened that one day I decided not show up at all...Does the person hold up or screw up the class or something?
All I know is that my home phone & cell phone were feverishly ringing off the hook and my voicemail become full before noon with their messages such as "WHERE ARE YOU, you're TAKING from the group-you NEED to show up, because I NEED to show up"! AND..."It is IMPERATIVE that you come-doesn't matter if you're late -we'll all PAY your cab fare"!
Wow-that's 80-85 bucks! I feel bad because I just blew them off-figured this is what they all get for being rude to me-after being humiliated by the trainer -I noticed others didn't seem to be nice to me anymore -like they didn't respect me anymore because the trainer didn't and she made a spectacle of me in front of the entire class.
Does anyone know what happens if an individual does not show up?-because they were sure raising a lot of hell about it. I did not think it a big deal but when I had staff members calling me-even the vice president and the recruiters-I became curios to know...
Sincerely,
Amy Braddock of Whittier, CA
Post by: Anonymous on February 28, 2006, 10:38:00 PM
WorldWorks (www.worldworksinc.com (http://www.worldworksinc.com)) in Orange County California = To
Lifespring.
This page contains information The Rick A. Ross Institute has
gathered about Lifespring.
Description of the Behavioral Structure of the Training (http://www.rickross.com/reference/brainwashing/brainwashing44.html)
"Do what
it takes" (http://www.rickross.com/reference/lifespring/lifespring2.html)
Why We Love Gurus (http://www.rickross.com/reference/general/gurus.html)
Pathology as "Personal Growth": A Participant-Observation Study of Lifespring
Training (http://www.rickross.com/reference/lifespring/lifespring4.html)
Visitor Comments (http://www.rickross.com/reference/lifespring/lifespringvisitor.html)
Post by: Anonymous on February 28, 2006, 10:46:00 PM
http://www.factnet.org/discus/messages/ ... 1127951671 (http://www.factnet.org/discus/messages/6/658.html?1127951671)
Wow!!!! I wonder why their founder Lisa Kalmin does not respond to all these allegations???
Post by: Anonymous on February 28, 2006, 10:47:00 PM
The writer links these groups to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur California.
I am not endorsing the viewpoint of the writer in its full text, (I have not read it all yet), but am acknowleging the relatedness of the LGATs to each other and their founders as factual.
http://www.talkaboutreligion.com/group/ ... 17770.html (http://www.talkaboutreligion.com/group/alt.religion.buddhism.theravada/messages/17770.html)
- Silvan Mind Control (1966, Jose Silva)
- Mind Dynamics(1968, Alexander Everett)
- Leadership Dynamics (1970, William Penn Patrick)
- EST (1971, Werner Erhard from Esalen and Scientology)
- LifeStream Personal Growth Seminars (1973, Jim Quinn from Mind Dynamics, Janet Quinn)
- PSI World Seminars (1973, Thomas Willhite from Mind Dynamics, Jane Willhite) http://forum.rickross.com/viewtopic.php?t=1202 (http://forum.rickross.com/viewtopic.php?t=1202)
- Lifespring - San Jose (1974, Bob White, Randy Revell, Charlene Afremow from EST, John Hanley)
- Life Dynamics-Japan (1976, Bob White from Lifespring, Duncan Callister)
- Actualizations Education Seminars (1977, Stewart Emery from EST)
- Insight Seminars (1977, John-Roger, Russell Bishop from Lifespring)
- Inward Bound (1977, Alexander Everett of Mind Dynamics)
- Context Training (1978, Randy Revell from Lifespring, Judy Revell, Phil Holcomb)
- Life Training - Kairos Foundation(1979 (Roy Whitten and Brad Brown from EST)
- Sterling Institute (1979, Justin Sterling from EST)
- Trimtab Fund in Ottawa (1981, Val Scott from EST, Actualizations, Lifespring)
- Impact Training (1985, Hans Berger and John Webb from Lifespring)
- New Warrior Training (1986, Robert Bly from Sterling Institute, Ron Hering, Bill Kauth, Rich Tosi)
- Pathways - Temenos (1986, Carole Kammen and Jodi Gold from Actualizations)
- Resource Realizations (1988, David Gilcrease from Lifespring)
- Lifespring in Russia (1989, John Hanley, Candace Hanley, Svetlana Chumakov which split in two in 1995, up to seven companies in 1997)
- Landmark Forum and Landmark Education Seminars LES (1991, Werner Erhard of EST)
- Integral Transformative Practice - ITP (1992, George Leonard and Michael Murphy from Esalen, finally getting in on the flood of revenue they started)
- AsiaWorks (1993, Jim Cook, Amelia Davis), is linked with
- ArgentinaWorks,
- ChileWorks (Gabriel Nosevich from Lifespring),
- WorldWorks ... formerly Lifespring DC (Lisa Kalman and Gabriel Nosevich from Lifespring),
- The Legacy Center ... formerly Lifespring North Carolina,
- Essential Education ... formerly Lifespring Florida, and also
- Humanus Institute - Formerly Lifespring Chicago
- Landmark Forum in Russia (1993, Werner Erhard)
- Momentus - Association of Christian Character Development (1994, Daniel Tocchini from Lifespring) http://forum.rickross.com/viewtopic.php?t=1178 (http://forum.rickross.com/viewtopic.php?t=1178)
- Phoenix 2000 (1995, Mike McKeon and Martha Borst from Lifespring, Jaimes McNeal), is linked with
- Vistar/Serendipity (Ray Blanchard and Betty Spruill from Lifespring) and also
- LifeDesign Education (Janet Beasley)
- UltraMind ESP System (1997, Jose Silva of Silvan Mind Control)
.... and finally, these movements influenced and trained the trainers for Scientology (this was a two-way sharing of training).
Post by: Anonymous on February 28, 2006, 10:49:00 PM
http://forum.rickross.com/viewtopic.php ... worldworks (http://forum.rickross.com/viewtopic.php?t=2029&highlight=worldworks)
Post by: Anonymous on January 17, 2007, 07:00:50 PM
my good friend has been harping on these seminars/workshops and has offered me his home and a room there and to hook me up with a date if I come out there........all seemingly inocuous (SP?) sounding things on their own......but he kept on suggesting, hinting and like one of the other posts here I felt like he would get "points" or something in his favor for bringing in other people. I started to get that "SOMETHING's UP" feeling in the pit of my stomach. Images of Nike sneakers and purple cool aid filled my head but I couldnt' put my finger on it. So with the idea that World Works INC could help me and that I was being crazy I did a "GOOGLE" and luckily found many information and like minded posts.
It's seems now it's as much a pyramid scheme as anything out there.
Thanks to all of you who shared info. and experiences you saved me "$" "face" and probably our friendship which among the three means the most to me!!
Cheers, th anks a lot.
Post by: Anonymous on January 18, 2007, 03:10:19 PM
IdealCoach - 2002; Betty Spruill, Sue Lindgren
SayYess - Sue Lindgren
I found the latter site via a google for LifeDesign Eduation (I thought the name Janet Beasley sounded familiar), which brought me to a list of organizations benefiting from Lindgren's largesse, which included 4 years of volunteer work for LifeDesign Education (1999-2003).
Post by: Anonymous on January 18, 2007, 03:35:31 PM
"VISTAR Youth Horizons ? 1997 ? raised $6,700 for birth of this non-profit 1998 ? raised $58,000, generated 100 volunteers and mentors"
http://citypages.com/databank/22/1092/article9923.asp (http://citypages.com/databank/22/1092/article9923.asp)
In which the author struggles to escape the psychological shackles of a self-help seminar
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ADAM LARSON By Kirsten Marcum
"Look around the circle and decide which four people you find most attractive."
It is mid-August, 1996. I'm in a conference room in the basement of the Regency Plaza Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. Like everyone here, I'm doing as I'm told.
"Now narrow it down to three," the trainer says into the microphone.
I do.
"Two."
I do.
"Look around the circle again and decide on one person. When I say so, go stand in front of that person. Don't break eye contact. Don't say anything. If someone's already standing there, just get as close as you can." He demonstrates how this will work. Presumably, a very attractive person could wind up with a small congregation of spectators.
"Do we understand?" We do. Go.
James and I make a beeline for one another. We stare as instructed. I feel naked. Charged. James is wearing cook's pants and a military haircut. He seems gentle and sad. We have never spoken. In three months we will be engaged.
We are both here because someone we knew has promised that this weekend seminar would turn our lives around. I'm convinced it's working. In fact, I'm about to abandon my job hunt, lose my friends, alienate strangers, work for free, and go broke. If you had tapped me on the shoulder and told me so, I would have said you were crazy.
I would have had that backwards.
I graduated from Carleton in June 1995. I spent college preparing for a business career. The summer after junior year I had already started work on an M.B.A. Senior year I founded a Women in Business group on campus and had already interviewed for jobs in New York and Minneapolis. But as June approached, I began to lose confidence.
I have been a writer for most of my life. As a kid, I used to look for the spot on the library shelf where my work would someday sit. At Carleton, I majored in English and edited the newspaper, assuming that one day I would manage a two-career life--business from nine to five, writing at night. But all along, my creative-writing professor thought I should wait tables at night and write all day. And then an alum I called for career advice suggested I go to work in a laundry. One day, thinking about the thank-you notes I didn't want to write, the résumés I didn't want to send, I decided they were right: A business career would be a distraction. If I wanted to write, I should write.
After graduation I moved to Minneapolis and began working minimum-wage jobs: shelving bottles in a liquor store; serving coffee. I was working 60 hours a week to make ends meet, and before long I was jealous of the people I waited on, jealous of my career-oriented friends. I wasn't writing. I felt like a failure. A year passed. In April of 1996, my parents announced they were separating. In July, my boyfriend moved to Japan to teach English for two years. Disappointed, frustrated, bored, and lonely, I convinced myself that what my life lacked most was a full-time career.
Then I bumped into Alex.
I was having coffee with a book distributor when he appeared at the table. We had dated in college--briefly, turbulently--and he seemed very happy to see me. "We should catch up," he said. I gave him my number, and when he called I agreed to meet him that weekend. To my surprise, we talked for hours. I told him about my job search. I told him I wanted to work in magazines, then get my M.B.A. and become a publisher.
Alex seemed completely different to me. In college, I'd thought he was selfish, impulsive, and scattered--all good intentions and no follow-through. Now, he was a generous listener. Everything about him suggested a newfound discipline. He was professionally successful, financially stable, and had dozens of friends. When I mentioned the change, he credited a company called Vistar. He had watched it turn people's lives around. It had helped him identify and deal with the things that had been holding him back. He stopped smoking pot and addressed his attention deficit disorder.
A week later I went with Alex to hear a motivational speaker sponsored by Vistar. I was skeptical but intrigued. The speaker repeated an empty brand of corporatespeak I had heard before--clichés about the importance of mission and vision. And I found it odd when Alex hugged everyone there. Still, it was a relief to be around adults in business clothes again, people speaking the language of success. I hadn't realized how lost I felt, how unidentified.
My admission to the lecture included a free, one-hour coaching session the next day with Julie, a Vistar staff member. We talked about Vistar's three-course series--two weekend seminars followed by a seven-week immersion for $1,950. That night, as I did almost every night, I wrote in my journal.
"Today, I had a one-hour interview with Julie. Against my better judgment, I'm signing up for the Vistar seminar. What got me, actually, was her answer to one of the reasons I was resisting: I don't have the money now. Julie said that I was choosing to let the rest of the world decide when I would have something rather than deciding when I would have something."
As Julie explained it, Vistar was about identifying the life you wanted and then making it happen. I recognized the hype, but it still sounded nice. If it helps me get a full-time job, it will be worth it, I told myself.
That same night, Alex called me after midnight and begged me to sign up. "I'll pay for it," he said.
"It's all right," I told him. "If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it myself."
I have the microphone now. I'm trying to speak, but the trainer keeps interrupting.
"You're coming from your head," he says. I'm supposed to come from my heart. I start over several times. By the time he lets me finish, my knees are shaking. I mutter something about how I limit myself in order to protect other people's feelings, then sit down.
"Who makes you feel that way?" he asks from the stage. I stand again.
"Um," I whisper into the microphone, "my parents?" I burst into tears. The trainer asks a series of questions about my family. When he's done, everyone applauds. I don't stop crying all day. I seem to have experienced some sort of psychological breakthrough. If this is what it takes to make me a better person, I want more.
Level I: The Stand lasts four days. Like all Vistar courses, it happens in a hotel conference room. Against one wall, there is a small stage with a microphone stand, a stool, and an easel. The trainer either paces the stage or perches expectantly on the stool. When he wants to illustrate something, he draws on the easel paper with a black marker. We sit uncomfortably close, in chairs that are hooked together at the sides.
My 34 fellow enrollees are mostly white, middle-class professionals. A psychologist from Reno, Nevada, is there because her husband's Vistar experience worked wonders for their marriage. A 73-year-old minister signed up because his son, who was in the midst of the Vistar training, got down on his knees and begged his father to do the same.
For two evenings followed by two full days, we are led through a series of games, lectures, and exercises. In between, we are encouraged to share personal epiphanies. Some exercises are uncomfortably intimate. During one, I sit across from someone, stare into his eyes, and complete sentences the trainer provides: "What I don't want you to know about me is..." "The way you can love me is..." In another, we split into pairs and take turns lying in each other's lap. One of us plays parent, the other child. There is a lot of nervous laughter, but in time the physical closeness begins to seem normal, even comforting.
The games explore themes that are amplified in the next lecture, and the exercises that follow encourage personal exploration, which lead us to our epiphanies. People participate enthusiastically, even when it gets difficult. Periodically, there are tense moments. On the first day, a participant refuses to attend a followup seminar and, after a brief confrontation, he is asked to leave. On the second day, a quartet of smokers is late getting back from a break. They are called to the front of the room.
"What was more important to you than being on time?" the trainer demands. The four hang their heads. "What was more important to you than being on time?" he asks again. When they don't answer, he mocks their behavior. He tells them this is a perfect example of why their lives have stalled. He calls their smoking self-indulgent. Resistant. Weak. He asks them to confess other ways they are self-indulgent, resistant, and weak. They do. "You want a better job?" he asks one woman. "Tell me why you deserve it. What do you have to offer? Indulgence?"
When the smokers sit down, they're sobbing. The same thing happens to other people who question the training or are uncooperative. Sometimes it happens for no reason. But I assume the pain has a purpose.
Early on, most epiphanies are weepy stories of failure and disappointment. But by the third day, the stories are self-congratulatory. We begin to pinpoint, in various exercises, the major stumbling blocks in our lives. In my case, it is arrogance. I sought success as a means of self-glorification, rather than serving the world and humanity. I failed to keep my commitments. So, I decide it is time to stop cutting myself slack and start, as Vistar put it, "holding myself to greatness."
By then, "commitment" is a crucial concept. The trainer mocks the wider world, where promises are rarely kept, calling it "the drift." He implies that we are in on a glorious secret: We understand, as few people do, that the success we are seeking will arrive as soon as we learn how to make commitments, and then "enroll" other people. Enrollment, we learn, is key. For one thing, we can't do everything alone. But more important, enrollment is the only true test of our commitment.
As the seminar ends, our trainer asks us if we want to practice enrollment. Of course we do. He tells us Vistar is sponsoring an evening lecture. We commit to enrolling a certain number of people, then discuss what resistance we might encounter.
"Not enough money," someone says. The lecture costs $10.
"Is it really about money?'' the trainer asks.
We laugh. We know better. Of course it isn't about money. Lack of money is a cover story--a lie you tell yourself to resist what you really want.
We list other possible excuses. Then someone says, "They might think it's a cult?" There is a tense silence as we brace for an attack. Then the trainer laughs and soon we are laughing along: Oh, the lies people tell themselves to avoid success. To me, the idea that Vistar could be a cult is absurd. These people want to help me reach my goals, not change them.
That night there is a graduation ceremony. We stand in a circle with our eyes closed while friends and family sneak into the room and stand in front of us. When I open my eyes, Alex is there. "I'm so happy for you," he says, hugging me.
The following Monday, a friend from college comes to stay with me. I try to tell him about Vistar, but he won't listen. "I'm going to call the Cult Action Network and have you deprogrammed," he says. He calls the Better Business Bureau to ask if there are any complaints against Vistar. There aren't. I think he is being obnoxious. When we go out that night, my other friends won't listen either. When I invite them to the Vistar lecture, they start to choose their words carefully, the way you might talk to someone standing on the wrong side of a balcony railing. It makes me furious.
"Listen, I don't want you to run off with these Vistar people," someone says later that night. I ask him his reasons, and listen politely while he explains about jargon, recruitment, and brainwashing. Secretly, I think he is an idiot.
Most people assume they would know if they were being brainwashed. They think it involves great force, or some obvious, epic struggle in which the mind slowly and grudgingly succumbs. But mind control only works when the subject cooperates. And cooperation requires that a reasonable person not know what's happening. You have to lead her where you want, but she needs to think she's going someplace else. In Vistar, self-help is the distraction.
To brainwash someone, you first have to break her. Both Level I and Level II: The Reach began by helping participants break themselves. Under the guise of identifying our obstacles, we were encouraged to catalog our failings and confront fellow participants about their own. Even though the early exercises and lectures were confusing, anyone who asked for an explanation was ridiculed--told to stop thinking so hard. Doubt, we were told, came from arrogance and certainty. Arrogance and certainty had caused our failures. Instead, we were supposed to trust the process, let ourselves go, and just be. There was a certain amount of relief in the idea.
According to experts who study groups like Vistar, people faced with stressful, incomprehensible situations begin to defer "ego functions" like logic and reason to the nearest available authority. In other words, Vistar participants quickly learn to rely on the trainer to interpret their reality. At this point, about two days in, the trainer starts to talk about responsibility. Vistar's philosophy is based on the assumption that you caused everything in your life, including the selection of your parents. The death of loved ones. Rape. Abuse. Job loss. All yours.
Psychologists Janice Haakken and Richard Adams published a paper about a Vistar-like seminar in Psychiatry magazine in August 1983. They found that introducing the concept of responsibility turns what had been an "infantile helplessness" among participants into an "infantile omnipotence," that allows "grandiose fantasies of unlimited power." In practical terms, this meant that suddenly I felt in control again. After two days of self-doubt, I believed there might be some hope for my future. It didn't mean I agreed with the whole Vistar worldview. I didn't have to. I just had to believe enough of it to keep participating.
Once we began to play along, our cooperation was rewarded with exercises that promoted intimacy and community. Presented with different situations, we were asked to "choose" how we would respond to each other. Feeling fully in control, we responded generously, which meant that exercises kept collapsing into group hugs. The more it happened, the more I wanted it to keep happening. The more it kept happening, the more central it became to my existence.
That's brainwashing.
By the time I graduated from Level II, I was hooked. And I wasn't alone. Of the 34 who went through the first seminar with me, 20 returned for the second. Of those 20, 13 returned for the third. Some who dropped off stayed in touch and finished the training later that year.
Those who remained became the civilian equivalent of foxhole buddies. Increasingly under fire from our friends and family, we sought comfort and community among people who understood how we were trying to live. This informal support network included fellow seminar participants and, in increasing numbers, Vistar alumni from earlier seminars. At the end of Level II, the group linked arms to rock each person in a human cradle, telling them they were "unconditionally loved and accepted." It felt that way, too.
By that time, James and I had started to spend time together outside the seminars. We met for dinner or talked on the phone for hours at a time. I was certain that the Vistar seminars had laid the groundwork for a powerful and intimate relationship. I'd stopped thinking about my boyfriend, who was doing his best to keep our relationship going from half a world away.
Graduation from Level II fell on my 23rd birthday. We were supposed to invite family and friends to our graduation, and I took perverse pleasure in extending invitations to people I knew would never come. A few days later, one of those friends came over to use my computer. While he worked at my desk, I lay on the bed behind him and called each person from Level II. I had long, personal conversations, and before I hung up would always say, "I love you." I remember watching my friend's back. He didn't turn around once. He never said a thing. When he finished his paper, he said good night and left. I figure that was the day my friends wrote me off for good.
In 1969 John Hanley, a 23-year-old college student, was fined $1,000 by the U.S. District Court in Des Moines, Iowa, and placed on five years probation. The social-science major had been selling franchises for toilet-cleaning routes that didn't exist. In 1974, Hanley invented a three-course "human potential" training series, and then founded a company called Lifespring to sell it. Over the next 15 years, nearly a half-million people took the courses at branches around the country, including one in Minneapolis. The company ultimately raked in some $15 million a year.
More than 30 lawsuits were filed against Lifespring, alleging that the training had caused everything from emotional damage to psychotic breakdowns to suicide. The first unfavorable jury verdict came in 1984, when Deborah Bingham, a 30-year-old blackjack dealer, was awarded $800,000. She said she'd been in a psych ward for a month after attending two Lifespring courses. In 1982, after David Priddle jumped off a building, his family accepted an undisclosed sum; so did Artie Barnett's family, when Barnett, who couldn't swim, drowned as fellow participants egged him on. And Gail Renick's family received $450,000 after she died from an asthma attack during a training session. She had been led to believe her medication was unnecessary. Gabriella Martinez testified that she heard her trainer's voice in her head the night she swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. Lifespring settled the case out of court.
In 1980 ABC's 20/20 aired an investigation of Lifespring. It included an interview with cult expert Dr. John Clark of Harvard Medical School, who said the group practiced mind control and brainwashing. In 1987 Virginia Thomas, who is married to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told the Washington Post she had had to hide out of state to get away from Lifespring. In 1990 KARE-TV (Channel 11) ran a segment called "Mind Games?" that Lifespring claimed was deceptive and sensationalized. (The Minnesota News Council rejected the company's claim.)
While trainings continued until the mid-Nineties in certain parts of the country, the lawsuits and the bad press crippled the company. In Minneapolis many Lifespring grads were sad, angry, and determined that the work should continue. One of them, Sue Hawkes, founded Vistar in partnership with two California-based Lifespring trainers. She ran the company out of her home in Plymouth. It's a good guess that Hawkes's idea was to grow Vistar into a self-help empire like Lifespring, where people took the training seminars in groups numbering several hundred. It never happened. During my involvement, Level I enrollments hovered between 15 and 50 people. Despite ample free labor, the company couldn't have been very profitable. Unlike Hanley, who invented the seminars for profit, everyone running Vistar had been through the program and they believed in it. I sometimes wonder if that's why they failed.
Today, all of the phone numbers associated with Vistar have been disconnected. There are no new directory listings, no Web pages, no evidence that the organization is still active in Minneapolis.
It hardly matters. There are approximately 3,000 groups like Vistar operating in the U.S. today. Exit counseling has become a viable career, and mind control is an academic subgenre, complete with schools of thought, theories, and counter-theories. Most people who study cults conclude that groups like Vistar's, classified as LGATs (Large Group Awareness Trainings), are pathological, but they disagree about the extent of the damage. Are they cults? Cultlike? In the 15 years since the American Psychological Association released a report condemning LGATs in general, and Lifespring in particular, no one has brokered a clear consensus. This might have something to do with the fact that specificity can be dangerous; lawsuits are an occupational hazard.
Last year the Phoenix New Times reported that Landmark Education, a company that markets a class similar to Vistar's--known as the Forum--was distributing a letter from UC Berkeley's Dr. Margaret Singer stating that their approach does not warrant cult status. The company had sued the professor emeritus of psychology for mentioning Landmark in her book Cults in Our Midst. As part of the settlement, she agreed to write the letter and strike references to the group in later editions of the book. She declined further comment to the New Times reporter, saying, "The SOBs have already sued me once."
Landmark trains 125,000 people annually in 100 cities worldwide, including Minneapolis.
On October 29, 1996, I wrote in my journal: "I know I am loved---deeply, and for the rest of my life---by all of these people in my Leadership Program, and by James...I am willing to devote my life to that love."
At that point I was halfway through Level III: The Edge. A seven-week program, Level III was advertised as an opportunity to practice the Vistar model of success in a group setting. It would teach participants to stretch the limits of what we believed to be achievable. After all, the only thing holding us back was the lies we told to keep ourselves small.
Level III was structured around a group challenge and a series of personal goals. The group was to raise $27,000 and use it to rehab an abandoned house in Minneapolis's Phillips neighborhood. Individually, we each wrote a "Letter of Intention" or "LOI," setting multiple, measurable objectives in seven areas of our lives. Under "Work," I committed to finding a job. Under "Health," I dedicated myself to running twice a week, giving up dairy products, and eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. My LOI contained 22 goals in all.
Almost parenthetically, we were asked to commit to enrolling at least one person in one of several upcoming Level I seminars. After all, our success in enrollment would be the best indication of whether or not we "got" commitment. I committed to enrolling one person. Some people committed to as many as four.
It was a frenzied time. There were daily coaching calls with Vistar graduates called "seniors," who were not unlike camp counselors. There were daily calls with an assigned "buddy." There were weekend meetings to gauge our progress on the project. Weekdays, there were 5:00 a.m. meetings and midnight meetings. We were expected to demonstrate total commitment.
I spent every available moment at the house in Phillips, laying carpet, peeling wallpaper, plastering ceilings. When I wasn't working, I made phone calls or went out looking for people or money. One day, relying on family friends, various canvassing schemes, and sheer adrenaline, I raised more than $1,000 before a midnight meeting, most of it in cash. The money went into a bank account that was to be used for tools, supplies, and contractors. Other Level III participants reported that friends had accused them of fundraising for a cult. We rolled our eyes. People in the drift clearly didn't get it.
I don't know how those with full-time jobs and families managed it. On a good night, I got four hours of sleep. Awake, I tried to make the rest of the world work like Vistar, tried to generate the same love and connection. Walking down the street, I said hello to everyone. I made friends with the homeless men who rode my bus. I sat with them in the back and laughed.
I was exhausted, but I couldn't afford to stop. Tiredness was a lie, something I had to push through. Rather than withdraw from the group, I turned to it for coaching and support. When people did withdraw, missing a meeting or a phone conference, we bombarded them with calls or went looking for them. After all, we had promised to hold each other to greatness.
As the weeks ticked by, we grew frantic. We worked harder, slept less. Our seniors kept focusing on enrollment, and so we did too. We called people at midnight or at work. We approached strangers on the street. We offered to pay their fees if they would just give Vistar a chance. Between this recruiting and the house (and the rest of our lives), there was little time left for our personal goals--so we started to cheat. My buddy had committed to hiring a salesperson for her graphic-design business, and I had committed to finding a job. She hired me and we each crossed a goal off our list.
Finally, the seven weeks were up. We had raised the money, we had all but finished the house, and we got 53 new people to enroll in Vistar. The Star Tribune published an article about our house project and the family who was moving in: There were four kids, both parents were recovering addicts, and they moved in the day after Christmas. The first week of January, the father sold the house to drug dealers and took his family back to Mississippi. (Most Vistar-inspired success stories would last about as long.)
Meanwhile, I broke up with my boyfriend in early October and James and I started dating (starting a relationship was one of the goals on his LOI). One week later we were engaged. When I called my best friend to tell her, she hung up on me.
After graduation from Level III, my social life revolved around Vistar. The sense of community was staggering. When someone moved, dozens of people would help carry furniture. When you needed something, 50 people who would instantly drop whatever they were doing, whether you needed a shoulder to cry on, a ride, a meal, or help paying your property taxes. Everyone in Vistar believed in you. They showed up when they said they would. They delivered what they promised. Every week there were events packed with people who were thrilled to see you. There was nothing like it in the outside world.
Then again, in the outside world, my life was falling apart. I had an internship and some part-time work, but I was spending too much time working for Vistar to look for a job. I didn't have a car, health insurance, or money for food. The worse it got, the harder I worked the Vistar formula, which promised: Once you get enrollment, you get everything else. Desperate to master enrollment, I joined the Vistar sales team. But despite endless hours of phone calls, heart-to-heart talks with anyone I could corral, I failed. I never enrolled a soul. After a while, I became unhinged. I cried myself to sleep. I cried walking down the street. When I ran into old friends, I accused them of jumping to conclusions about Vistar. I told them my life was better than ever. I was beginning to doubt it myself, but what else could I say? If I told the truth, to myself or anyone else, I would never enroll anyone in the courses and my life would never work.
Things finally came to a head when I applied to senior a Level III. It was June, seven months after my own Level III graduation. And I was chosen, with one caveat: I had to enroll someone first. I spent two weeks trying. During the last two days I worked out of Sue Hawkes's basement in Plymouth, where Vistar was headquartered, cold-calling people from stacks of cards collected at various recruitment events. In between calls, I would set down the phone and weep. Just hours before the Level III kickoff, someone finally agreed to take the course and I copied down his credit-card number over the phone.
The following weeks brought a series of confrontations. The small group I was coaching wasn't enrolling anyone, and I was held responsible. One evening I was summoned to an emergency midnight meeting, where two staff members cataloged my failings in excruciating detail. I cried. I promised to try harder. A week later, there was another emergency meeting because I'd told someone I wanted to quit. I was attacked again. I promised again to stay and try harder.
A week later, two of my three fellow staff members skipped a 5:00 a.m. meeting. One of those absent was Hawkes, who ran Level III. Midway through the meeting, she called to lecture the participants about their lack of commitment. There was no speakerphone in the room, so she delivered her tirade, piece by piece, to the guy who answered the phone. Piece by piece, he delivered it to the rest of us. It was absurd. Still, I wasn't planning to quit that day. I was just tired. There was a staff meeting scheduled for 8:00 p.m., and that afternoon, I took a nap. While I was asleep, a storm knocked out the power. It took out the alarm and the cordless phone. Messages piled up in my voicemail. I slept until the next morning.
The next day, in an ugly, curt telephone call, I was removed from my position. I was both elated and mortified. Mostly, I was relieved. I figured I would take a break and then throw myself back into Vistar. I would try even harder. After all, that's what a lot of people did.
My deprogramming happened by accident. A week after I lost my position as a Level III senior, I was in Barnes & Noble when the word cult caught my eye. When I picked up a book called Cults in Our Midst, I felt triumphantly traitorous, until I came to a detailed description of Level I. I put the book back and fled. Later that same night, I went to a different bookstore. Another cult book. Another description of Level I. I visited several more bookstores in the next month. It was awhile before I could bring myself to believe it, much less buy it.
After I had read the books, I told James that we had been conned. It took him some time to come around. We talked about it for months. We planned a lawsuit. We planned to blow the whistle. When we heard that Vistar had scheduled a teen seminar, we planned a disruption. In the end, these plans went nowhere.
One reason people stay in cults even when the experience is deeply painful is that it can be far more psychologically painful to admit to being unreasonable and wrong. For me, throwing off mind control was a matter of education and time. I learned that what keeps people in difficult and painful situations is an unwillingness to admit that they might have made poor choices. Before long I applied the same logic to my marriage. James and I were married in July 1998. Shortly thereafter, he started drinking heavily. We fought about it for a year, and then I left. Eventually we agreed that without Vistar, we never would have married.
During my marriage and afterward, I had nightmares in which I would suddenly find myself in a training room. I would know what was coming, and I would know there was nothing I could do. I felt a similar dread each time I spotted Vistar people around town. I didn't feel safe until I moved out of state.
One day, in the thick of my Vistar involvement, I was downtown with a fellow grad. We were talking about a WCCO-TV employee who had gone through the Vistar program with me. She mentioned the media coverage that had brought down Lifespring. "I've always wondered if Beth was in undercover," she said thoughtfully. I was immediately certain it was true. Though I didn't say it out loud, I wondered: "Could we kill her?"
I was reminded of that conversation last summer, three years after leaving Vistar. Late at night, driving home, I was sitting at a stop sign when a passenger in a white van behind me leaned out the window with a gun. He fired 12 times before I managed to drive off. My first thought, when I had one, was that people who shoot at you 12 times probably want to kill you. And it would be just like someone in Vistar to tackle a job with great enthusiasm and no expertise. I had recently pitched my story to a City Pages editor in a public place. Had the wrong person overheard?
As it turned out, it wasn't Vistar--just wrong place, wrong time. You could say I'm familiar with the concept.
Editor's note: All but two of the names used in this story were changed to protect privacy. James is the author's ex-husband's real name. Sue Hawkes did run Vistar out of her home in Plymouth.
Post by: Anonymous on January 18, 2007, 03:46:09 PM
http://perso.orange.fr/eldon.braun/awar ... arexp.html (http://perso.orange.fr/eldon.braun/awareness/vistarexp.html)
A Vistar Experience
A reader in Minneapolis shares this experience
I have been involved with Vistar for a year. I have 'enrolled' five people to take the courses and brought a dozen or so people to guest events. I was pressured so hard (during the third workshop) to get my enrollments - that I turned to desperate measures to get them (we are told not to use these techniques, but a large portion of the grads that - I - know will agree that they also used coercion or manipulation to get friends or family to take the workshop - just to get the seniors/coaches 'off their backs' and to quit being told that their life wouldn't work out if they couldn't learn to enroll and/or stand for the people they love in making a difference for the community.
One of my 'enrollments' (a work acquaintance) dropped out the day of the course - I believe that she was scared and had heard rumblings of 'cult activities' our relationship has been very cold since.
Another work friend went to work shop for two nights, on Saturday morning day 3 - there was a storm the evening before and her alarm clock didn't go off - she was terrified to show up at the workshop late, as she knew that the trainer would make her stand in front of everyone while he reprimanded her and told her that her life would never work out if she couldn't even keep these kinds of commitments. So, she didn't go and it made her sick to have to call me and let me know that she didn't finish the course. Again, a very cold relationship since.
I told both my father and step father that if they didn't go to the workshop that I was ready to end any future relationships with them (I truly meant it, because they were a part of the enemy, the 'drift' any one not involved in Vistar.) They both went - one had a good experience for the most part and the other did not. We all do have close relationships now, so that is the good news.
My worst experience was that I pushed and pushed and pushed my best friend in the world to take the workshop - I know that he only went because he cared about me so much. He tried very hard and was virtually ripped to pieces by the experience. I was told by Vistar that they have 'exit' conversations with people when they don't finish the course - just to make sure they are 'clear' or 'complete' I can't remember the exact words they use. No one contacted him after he left the workshop early - he needed to talk to someone, so I left 3 messages at the directors office over the next few weeks - letting her know that he needed some kind of closure and neither he or I ever got any response from her at all. I felt very helpless...
Below is the letter that I received from my friend after his experience in the Stand - he gave me permission to share it.
"Hi, I wanted to write down my feelings about Vistar now while they're still fresh in my mind. Maybe it's just me trying to make myself "right" but it's what I'm experiencing now. I've found that I kept feeling worse and worse about myself as time went on.
I got there Thursday night scared to death with a very negative attitude. I had a hard time and I almost gave up. We did the exercise about trust and I couldn't bring myself to approach people. I was terrified and couldn't bring myself to do it. The trainer talked about people standing on the edge not really participating, and I was the only person that I'm aware of who was doing that. He said in his sarcastic mocking tone "come on people, get over it". I felt very incompetent and alone.
I talked to you on Friday and said a lot of mean things attacking the program. I said that the workshop focused on the problem and not solutions. You told me I need to participate to get more out of it. I argued with you a lot, but after you left, I tried to muster up as much of a positive attitude as I could. I did my homework and rated my openness and risk taking for Thursday as very low, but put all five's for my goal on Friday. I went in there less scared and it wasn't so bad. The trainer said some things that seemed directed toward me, but I'm sure many people felt that way. I still wondered if you all got together as a group and discussed feedback from the participants because he specifically discussed shyness and the fact that it's just a cop-out for not trying. I felt hurt, but I pushed it back because I had my new positive attitude going. We did the exercise with another person where we took different postures and explored our feelings. All I honestly felt was fear and nervousness but it wasn't as bad as the night before so I thought maybe I was making progress. We had to describe our thoughts about our parents with body language. It was a form of expression I'm not comfortable with so I didn't do a lot. Still I had my positive attitude and I was trying. People were asked on and off to share the experiences they were having and many of them showed a lot of emotion and courage for sharing that emotion. I thought, maybe the exercises will come that I'll feel this emotion and feel the need to share it. Maybe this is a great workshop.
The red/black game came up. I still had my positive attitude and listened very hard to the instructions. Most of it was pretty simple. When it came to 'how to win' it was emphasized "the maximum number of positive points". This was great! I've got it, the only possible positive points are 3 if both teams vote black, and 5 points if we vote red and the other team votes black. 5 is obviously more than 3, so to achieve the "maximum number of positive points" we had to vote red and hope the other team voted black. I went into the room with my team totally sure of myself. I took a leadership role, spoke out casting all my fears and insecurities aside. People listened to me! It was great, I was making progress! When the other team voted red in the second frame, it seemed our chance of winning was ruined but at least we had more positive points than they did. When the game was over, I returned hoping for a pat on the back for at least understanding what the object was. The trainer was furious. He spent at least an hour screaming about how "fucked up" it is that we live our lives this way. He's right, I do try to win and assume there must be a loser. I felt pretty bad.
I came in today with more fear and apprehension than on Friday but still less than on Thursday. I new that if I quit, I would be disappointed in myself for not even giving five days effort trying to improve my life. The trainer spent the first 20 minutes reminding us how "fucked up" it is to vote red in our lives but let us know he did the same thing and that he's not angry with us. It was kind of like his message about how we wake up forgetting to be angry, and then remind ourselves. I had kind of forgot how bad I felt about myself, but "oh yeah, you're fucked up". We did the exercise on who we find the most attractive in the group (I hope I got that right, maybe it's my interpretation of the exercise) and it was hard. The fear came back really strong but the message I'd been getting from you and The trainer is "Get off it" or to paraphrase "Just do it". So I went for it. It left me with very uncomfortable and unpleasant feelings but that's what risk is about. Then came the exercise about who we find the least attractive in the group. I was terrified. I thought to myself "if we have to approach this person and tell them that we find them the least attractive of all the people in the workshop, I'm going to leave. I didn't have the courage to speak up anytime during the last three days and I didn't have it at this point either. I felt very inadequate. I admired the people who stood up to The trainer and said no, they weren't going to play. I almost went and sat with Laura but I was too curious about who would find me the least attractive. I also decided that if I made someone cry by telling them why I thought they're the least attractive, it wasn't my responsibility, it was Ray's. I was saved by the huge group of people that surrounded me. I'm sure that more people found me the least attractive than anyone else because every time The trainer asked if we were done there was still someone who hadn't got to me yet. This didn't bother me too much. At least I was noticed, and most of the reasons were that I won't share, and that I look angry. I was surprised that people noticed it about me more than anyone else because I was sure there were others that hadn't shared anything either. The emphasis on me took so much time that I didn't have to confront the person I was least attracted to and I found it a great relief.
We did the exercise where we had to say what "giving" is, what "taking" is, what "love" is, what we want, and how the other person could love me. My partner went first and he didn't have any problem expressing himself. He didn't get to finish because time ran out on him every time. When my turn came, I said the generic answers and drew a blank. I felt inadequate. The hardest for me was "what I want". I thought back to signing up for the course and how hard it was to come up with three goals for the course. After the exercise was over, I decided that I don't want a huge change in my life. I'm not ready for the growth offered in the workshop. It's not that I suppress my emotions as much as that I don't have them. I've taken the security and safety process a little further than I thought. Making this decision made me feel safer and more relaxed right away.
At lunch we discussed what we've opened up for ourselves, how it relates to our lives, and what we are going to do about it. There were some good people in my group. I wished I knew that I wanted something as much as them. I felt inadequate. I told them that I didn't want to change my life, that I'm afraid of risk. They were very understanding. They were impressed with the fact that I at least came to the workshop. I felt guilty.
After lunch we did the "get from a to z in the most bizarre (?) way" exercise. I was determined to finish the workshop. I wanted to feel the sense of accomplishment, not the disappointment of quitting. I was terrified of the exercise but I did it anyway. For many minutes after it was over with, I still felt the terror. The trainer was talking about it and he said once it's over with you realize it wasn't so bad. Everyone agreed with him. I felt so different, it was a really bad experience to me. I thought; Maybe I'm not trying hard enough. Maybe I'm not getting it. Maybe there's something wrong with me.
We did the exercise about whether we kept our word or not, and why. This wasn't so bad. I kept my word because I was afraid not to. We did the exercise that The trainer emphasized was "for us only". We imagined ourselves in a beautiful field drawn to a path that led up a hill that we had to climb to get to a wall that we had to penetrate to get to a dark smelly place. This place was the junkyard of our lives. So far the exercise was pretty easy. We had to find an item from our childhood. All I could see in this junkyard was garbage, dirty cans, banana peels, thrown out cups. I struggled until I found an old building toy I played with as a child. I think I remembered this toy because of a picture I have of it. We were asked to remember how we felt at this time in our lives, what dreams we had. I couldn't remember any dreams from my childhood. I wondered what's wrong with me, don't I have any imagination? I was still trying to remember this as The trainer was asking us to remember other experiences. Someone we love breaking our trust and how we felt. I kept drawing blanks and I was getting behind. The exercise went on, I could here people around me crying, they were remembering their experiences, why couldn't I? Finally we got to the gate, shed our armor, and went back to the field. Then we stood up, opened our eyes and were asked to leave our armor off and, without speaking, walk around and share ourselves with others and accept them sharing with us. I was again terrified. I couldn't bring myself to approach others. The trainer said there's no reason why anyone should be standing alone and I just felt awful about myself. That was when I realized that I wouldn't feel worse about myself for leaving, and might even feel better. So I left."
Our relationship has never been the same. At the time - in my Vistar mask - I felt that he didn't really want to make the effort to have his life turn out. And I know, that he had to lose much trust and respect for me. I truly miss that relationship I wish I could do something to turn back the hands of time. Not everyone's experience will turn out this way, but if you lose just one friend over something like this, it is just one too many. Please be careful and don't risk your family and friends - who knows what their experience will be, because you can be sure that it won't be the same experience that you had. You have no idea what will come up for them.
Post by: Anonymous on January 18, 2007, 04:00:26 PM
http://www.citypages.com/letters/detail.asp?TID=1100 (http://www.citypages.com/letters/detail.asp?TID=1100)
Cult Status
LINK: http://citypages.com/detail.asp?ArticleID=9923 (http://citypages.com/detail.asp?ArticleID=9923)
Think you're too smart, savvy, and successful to be brainwashed? Think again.
A Landmark Assertion(#)
As the general counsel of Landmark Education Corporation, I am writing to strongly object to the characterization of Landmark contained in Kirsten Marcum's November 7, 2001 story "Cult Status." The article contains an extensive description of the negative consequences to the writer resulting from her participation in a seminar program presented by an organization named Vistar. In addition, both the article's title and its content imply that Vistar practices brainwashing and mind control, and that it is a cult or cultlike.
The article contains a paragraph about Landmark that includes the following (with emphasis added): "...Landmark Education, a company that markets a class similar to Vistar's--known as the Forum...."
Given the above quotation, all of the negative statements regarding Vistar were understood by readers to be statements that pertained to Landmark. These statements are false and defamatory as to Landmark Education and the Landmark Forum, and depict Landmark Education and the Landmark Forum in a false light.
Art Schreiber, general counsel Landmark Education Corporation
San Francisco, California
Editor's note: Kirsten Marcum's story dealt with her experiences with Vistar. She did not intend to imply that either Landmark or the Landmark Forum practices brainwashing and mind control or is a cult.
*The Vistar Experience(#)
Having read Kirsten Marcum's article, I knew I had to write ("Cult Status," November 7). The woman whom I refer to in this letter is the woman who contributed the "Vistar Experience" link at the bottom of your online version of the story.
I believe it was 1997 when a dear friend of mine, having determined to make her life better, enrolled in Vistar. While she was adamant about my attending with her, I refused. It was partly the unwillingness to give up precious personal time, but I was also distrustful of the confidences that they were encouraged to share with each other. One month after she started, she came to a Christmas party I was throwing. She stayed for five minutes, leaving immediately after hitting my father up for ten dollars to re-carpet an inner-city daycare.
She had been in Vistar roughly three months when I started questioning what was going on. I told her that it sounded like a cult and that I was afraid for her and that she was so "up" all the time that she seemed manic. She was spending large amounts of money; she saw very little of her family and was no longer sleeping. She swore she knew what she was doing and that she appreciated my concern. She said I kept her "honest" and she was grateful for my being a "watchdog." She told me to continue to keep an eye on her, and if anything she was doing seemed unusual, I was to tell her.
The deep and loving relationship we had disappeared. I heard about her only from other friends--those who were concerned, and those who had written her off. She had become "flaky."
In December of '98, she learned that Vistar was a cult and called me. We talked for hours. Roughly two weeks later, I received an e-mail from her wherein she seemed to fall apart emotionally. She was distraught, paranoid, distrustful, and accused me of not being who I appeared to be. Despite my pleadings for her to tell me what she meant, all she could tell me was that a "dark cloud" hung over her. In retrospect I can see that she was depressed. I am only sorry now that I did not recognize how terrible her unbrainwashing was.
She came to my house two weeks later with a huge bouquet of flowers. We talked. I cried. And while she is now out and well on the road to recovery, it was months before she seemed to really "feel" again.
Peggy Zambory
Robbinsdale
* Letter published online only.
*Kirsten Strikes a Chord(#)
Congratulations, Kirsten! This article was so raw, it struck a chord in me that is hard to explain. I am proud of you and the fact that you shared a very dark and intimate personal story with an unlimited amount of strangers.
While reading about all of the "help groups," my heart sank. It is hard for me to realize that people out there can look at themselves in the mirror every morning knowing they are taking advantage of others. Not only that, but taking advantage of people while they are at a low point in their life, emotionally and mentally. When I began reading I was rooting for you, thinking Vistar was truly going to help you, then it turned dark, and it got darker. Finally sweet victory was yours. I could feel the chain break, letting you free.
May you enjoy each day of your life to the fullest. Stay positive and be aware of those imposters! Thanks again for sharing your experience; may it touch others out there and show them there is a way out--a positive one.
Melissa Wagener
St. Louis Park
* Letter published online only.
Veiled Threats and Last Jabs(#)
Any doubt that Kirsten Marcum's story "Cult Status" (November 7) was true was dashed by Jennifer Moates's letter the following week. Does Ms. Moates expect us not to see her letter as what it truly is: a veiled threat and a last jab by a follower of the same ideology?
Ms. Moates, psychological warfare can take many forms--and your letter is a known form. As a psychology minor in college, I can confirm that once you get an individual in a group setting, you can convince them to do almost anything. Yes, Ms. Moates, that is brainwashing. It is also called "group psychology." For an example, the German people were worked up into a frenzy of anti-Semitism by Hitler and his henchmen because their economy was ruined by Germany's defeat in World War I. The easiest scapegoats were the "financially savvy" Jewish people. Am I suggesting that Kirsten was looking for a scapegoat? Not at all. But I am suggesting that sometimes people who don't have strong self-esteem, or an idea of what to do or where to go in life, seek out that guidance. That is a very natural thing to do. These "seminars" prey on that vulnerability; they denote group trust and personal responsibility.
It is a dangerous and foolhardy viewpoint to teach people that everything that happens in their lives is in their control. Control is an illusion; personal character is what you are without that control. And Kirsten seems to be doing a lot better out of her "group setting."
Ms. Moates, I'd suggest a round of deprogramming for yourself. And leave those strong enough to get out of the twisted world you live in alone. You are doing no more than seeking to destroy those who expose what you cannot bear to admit, or see. Good for you, Kirsten, and I wish you all the best.
Melody McPherson
Minneapolis
Mind Games à la Molière(#)
After reading recent articles regarding the hazards of cults and Prince's newfound "truth," we've decided that anyone still not convinced of the power of mind manipulation needs to see Theatre de la Jeune Lune's production of Tartuffe (reviewed in brief by Max Sparber in the November 21 issue).
Their interpretation reminded us of our own frustrations with not knowing how to show a loved one the deception within their beliefs. Steven Epp portrayed the absolute arrogance that mimics a cult's tactics, which could ensnare anyone with heartfelt intentions, as was convincingly shown by actor Vincent Gracieux (Orgon). The play took the realistic stance that followers need blatant proof instead of the testimony of those whom they would normally trust.
It's our opinion that Molière's original ending would have had the king as fooled as Orgon had been. Bravo to the cast for depicting the anguish of the family affected.
Denise and Britta Lundstrom
Minneapolis
A Little Enlightenment(#)
I'm disappointed with your rag in printing something so incredibly biased and linking a self-help program with cult activity ("Cult Status," November 7). Apparently your paper could use a little enlightenment.
Kirsten Marcum's whining diatribe of self-righteousness is simply one person's experience, shallow as she may be. (Let's face it, she has the depth of a cookie sheet.) The ultimate idiocy is the fear this twentysomething woman continues to relish. It is true that the director of LifeDesign, the current education company that produces Vistar seminars in the Twin City area, drives a white minivan. There is no room in it for guns or other violent weapons. It is packed with food for the needy or homeless, gifts for children of incarcerated parents, and items to assist an African village in its goal to be self-sufficient. Thanks to Vistar "Edge" teams, homeless families have homes, Russian children have medical supplies, and one family moved back to Mississippi with a buck in their pocket. And what did she expect from that--eternal gratitude? Didn't she realize the deed was not done to feed her ego? Obviously not.
I completed all three levels of the Vistar program two years ago. I have some contact with alumni but never felt it was a cult. My intelligence allows me to understand the seminar (which is exactly what it is) to be responsible, honest, and to participate in my life. This is exactly what Oprah's Dr. Phil is doing every Tuesday on her show the past few months. The personal questions and observations, the confrontations (such a naughty word for some people), revealing intimacies, sharing of strengths and weaknesses are the same. Dr. Phil is conducting a training very similar to Vistar in a multitude of ways--and the audience is thinking about how they "play" in their own game of life. "Oprah's Cult"--the National Enquirer will love it. What a scoop.
My life has changed from two and a half years ago when I did "The Stand." My marriage, my relationships with my children and family, my job, as well as what I give to my community are so much more than I ever had before. Vistar was a part of this transformation. It is a tool, not the machine.
It is clear a 22-year-old with limited life experience has chosen to continue her life as a victim. It's taken her five years to confront this issue she created. Get over it!
Name withheld by request
Savage
A Cult by Any Other Name(#)
I think it is very interesting that no one has spoken about the methods that a group like Vistar employs. If you do even a small amount of research on what techniques are considered to be psychological manipulation or mind control, you will find that these are the very techniques that groups like Vistar use. These techniques include, but are not limited to, sleep deprivation, hypnotic dyads, and "love bombing."
Of course a graduate will not tell you what goes on during the seminar--they are not supposed to talk about it. The reasons given appear on the surface to be reasonable: to protect attendees' privacy, and so as not to ruin the experience for you, should you decide to take the class. The truth is that if people heard beforehand what goes on, most would think of the word cult and probably not pay the money to attend. While Vistar's message might be acceptable, the manner in which it is taught is not.
Why is signing up others to take these classes such a mandate that it becomes part of the participants' "Letter of Intention"? If what they are teaching and how they are teaching it is so fantastic, why are others pressured by graduates to attend? Why isn't everyone flocking to this organization?
As far as Sheila McCutchan's assertion in last week's Letters column that Vistar is not associated with Lifespring, what I can tell you is that if you read a description of the first Lifespring seminar, it is almost identical to The Stand at Vistar. And as to her assertion that Vistar is about giving back to the community, many organizations use charitable work or giving as a front for their other activities. Is there any public accounting of the amount of funds raised and then what percentage of those funds reach the charity? I for one would be very interested to see those numbers validated and published.
I remain convinced that organizations like Vistar do more harm than good and that they are indeed a cult.
Ann Mitchell
Minneapolis
On a More Positive Note...(#)
I was in the Lifespring trainings about ten or eleven years ago. About every two years since then (on average), I either staffed a training or was a "coach" in a training.
While staffing I have seen and been a part of the "confrontation" of people who have been late at the seminars. I have never seen nor participated in a confrontation of the type described by Kirsten Marcum, in front of the other participants. The "confrontations" were not about being late but were to call attention to the "students" that they had not kept their word, since all had agreed to be on time for the entire seminar. The participants were never made to feel "wrong," as that would be counterproductive. The issue was about keeping one's word in their lives, that others could count on them, and they thereby could count on themselves.
As to the people I have known in my experience with Lifespring and other trainings, fewer than one or two percent have been involved with any degree of regularity for four or more years. Typically, less than 50 percent of the people who attend a seminar will attend a second seminar. Of those, less than 50 percent will attend a third course, and of those who do attend, only about 70 or 80 percent will complete the course. Of those who do complete the third course, only about 30 percent will become involved with staffing or other activities. Some cult!
My overall experience with the Lifespring training has been very different from Kirsten Marcum's. The methods given to me through the courses have made a huge difference in the manner I interact with the world. I discovered that I am the source of my feelings and my experiences. In no way do I wish to lead anyone to believe that the seminars are the answer to all of life's problems or that there are not things about the Lifespring training that I feel could be improved. However, my experience has been very positive and I would and do recommend to others that they try the seminars and determine for themselves if the courses will benefit their lives.
Alfred Freitas
Los Angeles, California
Free Your Mind(#)
Twelve years ago this Thanksgiving, I sat in a basement room with several people who loved me--and had conspired to kidnap me--desperately trying to sort out truth from deception. In my confused mind, I was making a life-or-death decision about whether or not to leave the cult that had enslaved me for six years. I left, shaken, confused, fearful for my temporal and eternal life (my group happened to be a religious cult). It took about ten years for me to fully reintegrate as a person, and I'm incredibly grateful that the Twin Cities has a unique network of caring volunteers who helped me to do so.
Free Minds, Inc., is a nonsectarian, all-volunteer nonprofit that exists to educate the public and to offer informal support and referral services to individuals concerned about cults, individuals, and other groups that use deception and unethical coercion to recruit and retain unsuspecting victims. Most of us are cult survivors from groups ranging from political leftist groups to ultra-fundamentalist Christian churches.
If anyone would like more information on mind control (which prevails in everything from domestic abuse to some multilevel marketing scams), we can be reached at www.freemindsinc.org (http://www.freemindsinc.org). Because we are a small, self-supporting group, our resources are few, but our hearts are big. We welcome new members and inquiries.
Teresa Kelly, president Free Minds, Inc.
Richfield
The Magnificent Lives of Vistar Graduates(#)
If you had contacted LifeDesign Education prior to printing Kirsten Marcum's article, we could have shared with you the hundreds of community-service projects that Vistar graduates have created over the years ("Cult Status," November 7). In the past six to seven years, Vistar Edge teams have fundraised over $1 million for agencies and organizations in the Twin Cities, including YMCA-YPartners, Phoenix Alternatives, New Foundations, Temporary Living Center, and Thunder Spirit Lodge, to name a few. I invite you to contact any of these agencies and ask how Edge graduates have impacted the people who receive their services. Vistar received the Dream Keepers Award presented by Gov. Jesse Ventura and St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman for outstanding community service in 1999.
It is interesting that you would publish an article that related to incidents five to six years ago. Kirsten's experience is just one out of hundreds of Vistar graduates. It's really unfortunate that you did not solicit others' experiences, or any current information about these training courses. As a matter of fact, the course that Oprah Winfrey is currently showcasing on her Tuesday programs is quite nearly a replica of our courses. Does this make Oprah a cult leader?
I think you'd be surprised at the magnificent lives that Vistar graduates lead and the contributions that they bring to their communities. The Vistar courses are designed to enhance professional and personal relationships, generate new foundations for goal setting, and be measurably more effective in generating the results in your life that you say are important. Vistar graduates learn to take personal responsibility for the results in their lives, they set high standards for excellence and achievement, and they are effective leaders in their families and communities. All this comes from conscious choice, living in integrity, and having a clear vision for your life.
I found Marcum's article to be poorly written, as it grouped together John Hanley, Lifespring, Landmark, and Vistar. Vistar has not been involved in a lawsuit that I am aware of; nor does it have any affiliation to Lifespring or John Hanley or Landmark.
The suggestion that Vistar would send out a hired gun to shoot down a graduate who attended a course six years ago is utterly ridiculous. The inference is shameful. How could you even publish it? If you'd like to truly find out what benefits the courses provide, I invite you to attend the three-level series and then write your own article.
Sheila McCutchan, executive director LifeDesign Education
Maple Grove
Thanks, But Myke Prefers the Drift(#)
Kirsten Marcum's story about Vistar confirms what I've been suspecting is going on with LifeDesign Education. A close friend of mine recently completed Level II: The Reach. I was there for her "graduation." I quickly could tell: The "graduates" had been broken down psychologically--you see it in their eyes--and then like some kind of magical Humpty-Dumpty, put back together again, sans the emotional baggage. The price ($495 for four days) for this apparent masochistic/sadistic process is expensive. There is a lot of money being made here. Where is it going?
My friend is trying hard to recruit me (and others) into Level I: The Stand, which starts in January. She's even offered to pay for it for me--as if following a cue from Ms. Marcum's story. The publication of your story was timely; it helped this skeptic continue to be a member of "the drift."
Myke P. Golben
St. Paul
What Would Don Henley Do?(#)
I want to thank Kirsten Marcum for her courage and strength to write "Cult Status." Having attended the Level I class "The Stand" in October of this year, I identify with her situation. Fortunately, I took "a stand" and left the seminar the first evening, never to return.
To paraphrase the Eagles: We are all like sheep without a shepherd and end up following the wrong gods home. Word to the wise and foolish alike: Be careful of what ideas you let inside your head. If you don't think this could happen to you, think again.
Karl Koenig
Minneapolis
Moates to Marcum: Brainwashed, My Eye!(#)
Brainwashing n. to cause (a person/persons) to change attitudes or beliefs through the systematic application of torture, drugs, or other psychological-stress techniques.
Kirsten, were you drugged and tortured at Vistar ("Cult Status," November 7)? Surely it was stressful to realize how you haven't been living your life to its fullest potential. But to interpret Vistar's coaching as brainwashing is blaming them for your negative results and denying the positive ones. Take responsibility for your results!
Though I don't agree with some of Vistar's methods, the point is actively living your life as you choose and create it to be. It's easy when it's fun, and difficult when there are challenges. Seems you dropped out when the challenges arose. Where else in your life does this happen?
By deciding to call Vistar a cult, you gave in to your doubt. Clearly you were searching for someone else to say this was a cult. It must be true if you read it in a book. That would give you a convenient exit from your newfound responsibility. After all, it's much easier to wish for a full-time job than to go get one. It was much easier for your husband to drink than to deal with his life with you--derogating the very education that brought you together and turning him against it besides!
Didn't they teach you that communication is the core element in making their program effective? Did you communicate with your housing-project group that you were feeling overworked and smothered by phone calls and meetings? They'd have been understanding, and some would've been relieved you felt the same way and relaxed the pace a bit!
As for taking responsibility for incidents beyond one's power, such as rape and gunshots, though often we cannot control that it happened, we do control how we deal with it. Leaving it in the past is the beginning.
As for enrolling, please realize they were a business. Their survival depended upon word of mouth. If you had effectively enrolled those around you (i.e., shared your personal breakthroughs, not just saying, "You must go to this") your whole environment would have been transformed. Those fellow Vistarians you longed to be with would've been all around you--friends, family, neighbors--positively supporting you and each other. Instead of writing "Cult Status" for City Pages, picture yourself writing "Sharing the Possibility" for Time magazine.
Jennifer Moates
Minneapolis
Cheryl's Story(#)
Reading Kirsten Marcum's article was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. I read it online and it took nearly an hour to finish, as I had to take it in very small doses. I literally froze in fear when I realized that one of the links at the bottom of the page led to an article that I submitted to The Awareness page back in January 1999.
I was involved with Vistar for a year. During that time I attended five workshops, staffed two workshops, enrolled five people, brought dozens of people to introduction courses, participated in graduations and celebrations; volunteered unbelievable amounts of time and money to the community projects, attended weddings, funerals, birthday parties, house-painting parties, you name it--there was always something to do in the Vistar community. Except there was no time to spend in "the drift"--friends, family, jobs, homes, dreams, and goals all went to hell while we were saving the world.
"The Exodus"--as a group of us endearingly came to call it--occurred in December 1998. About a dozen of us left the program in the grip of fear and panic. We came together in a "secret" meeting in a secured building, instructing the front desk not to let anyone in the door. Seniors and staffers always knew what was going on and we were sure that they would find out about the meeting and show up and there would be hell to pay. What kind of a loving, supportive program puts that kind of fear into its trainees for discussing that maybe the program isn't all that they tell us it is?
I can appreciate the author's description of her paranoia after leaving the program, as the week after I left was the most terrifying experience of my life. I had been so immersed in the program that when I drastically cut myself off from the "support," I lost hold on reality. I am grateful to a local exit counselor who met with us and supported us through the horror.
It has been three years since I was involved with the program and I am able to forget about it for months at a time. But many things still trigger the Vistar grad in me--I hear a song on the radio that was used in the trainings and it brings me right back into the trainings. I drive by the food shelves where we worked so hard side by side to help others and begin to doubt my decision to leave.
I lost trust in myself and others and it really ticks me off that I paid loads of money to lose so much. Thank you, Kirsten, for your courage to bring this information to the public; there are many of us who wanted to do this ourselves, but the fear and guilt overcame and kept us silent. Peace!
Cheryl Kozicky
Minneapolis
The Telltale Cigarette Break(#)
I really enjoyed Kirsten Marcum's article, and it gave me a chill. At the encouragement of a close friend and avid Vistar cult member, I also attended a Level I seminar. Based on the timing, location, and description of the "smokers" incident, I'm convinced it was the very same seminar attended by the author.
I did not buy into the Vistar lifestyle. It was very interesting to hear another person's perspective on the experience, especially one who was no longer worshipping Vistar's leaders.
Scott Shumway
Eagan
The Semantic Question(#)
To me Vistar looks more like a swindle than a cult. But of course, it is very difficult to draw the line between cults and swindles. Just last week there was a news item in my local paper telling that the "missing" leader of a very small Danish cult was found on a millionaire's paradise somewhere in the Caribbean. And the news item still called it a cult, not a swindle. So there you are.
Marie P. Prins
The Netherlands
The Allure of the Cult(#)
I applaud Kirsten Marcum for the courage it took to write this excellent article. People don't join cults! They simply join (or participate in) something that looks soooooo good and makes you feel really special, like your life can make a difference. The message that Kirsten brings out so well is that we are all vulnerable at certain times in our lives--transition times.
Carol Giambalvo
Flagler Beach, Florida
Taking The Stand(#)
Thank you for the article on Vistar. I just want to let you know, about three weeks ago I attended a free informational seminar on The Stand. It was put on by a nonprofit organization called LifeDesign. My friend asked me to go after she attended the full seminar. So it appears that Vistar has morphed into LifeDesign.
Thanks again for the article! I'm sending the link to my friend who just last week completed The Reach. Ouch!
H. Rogers
Minneapolis
Editor's note: Kirsten Marcum wrote last week that "there are no new directory listings, no Web pages, no evidence that [Vistar] is still active in Minneapolis." A number of readers have informed us that Vistar does continue to have a local presence.
In fact, some graduates of the program formed a nonprofit called LifeDesign Education. Sheila McCutchan, the group's executive director, confirms that LifeDesign does "produce" classes for Vistar. Additionally, the new organization's Web site (www.lifedesigneducation.org (http://www.lifedesigneducation.org)), claims that "the Vistar Integrated Program courses are the pillars of LifeDesign Education."
On a somewhat related topic, we inadvertently omitted an editor's note from last week's cover story. We meant to inform readers that all but two of the names in the story were changed to protect privacy. James is the real name of the author's ex-husband. Sue Hawkes did run Vistar out of her home in Plymouth.
Post by: Anonymous on January 18, 2007, 04:52:01 PM
-----------------------------------
From the Lifespring Grads message board:
From: Maria Strong www.LandmarkEducation.com (http://www.LandmarkEducation.com)
Radical Honesty
Northern Virginia, call 1-800-EL-TRUTH (800-358-7884)
Web: www.radicalhonesty.com (http://www.radicalhonesty.com)
C A L I F O R N I A
WORLDWORKS, INC.
Orange County / Southern California
Call (949) 916-1585; Email: www.worldworksinc.com (http://www.worldworksinc.com)
IIMPACT
San Francisco Bay Area
Call (707) 554-6033; Email: www.iimpact.org (http://www.iimpact.org)
MITT ? MASTERY IN TRANSFORMATION TRAINING
Los Angeles County / Southern California
Call (310) 305-7855;
Email: www.summiteducation.com (http://www.summiteducation.com) and
Email: www.theindianacenter.com (http://www.theindianacenter.com) and
Email: www.lifedesigneducation.org (http://www.lifedesigneducation.org) and
Email: www.phoenix2000.org (http://www.phoenix2000.org) and
Email: www.choicenter.com (http://www.choicenter.com) and
Email: www.synergytci.com (http://www.synergytci.com) and
Email: www.PersonalDynamics.com (http://www.PersonalDynamics.com) and
Email: www.insightny.org (http://www.insightny.org) and www.insight-seminars.org (http://www.insight-seminars.org)
N O R T H C A R O L I N A
The Legacy Center
Morrisville, NC, call (919) 678-6000
Web: www.thelegacycenter.com (http://www.thelegacycenter.com) and
Email: www.wings-seminars.com (http://www.wings-seminars.com) and
Email: www.tumomentum.com (http://www.tumomentum.com) and
Email: www.millennium3education.com (http://www.millennium3education.com) and
Email: [email protected] (http://mailto:[email protected])
Date: Sun Mar 7, 2004 12:08 am
Subject: Training in Orange County March 31st
Hi Everyone,
I just started my own training company called "Empowering Results, Inc." We are doing a Basic or what I call "The Discovery" on March 31st - April 4th. We are also doing an Advanced or what I call "The Awakening" on April 28th - May 2nd. Both trainings will be held at the Ramada Inn, 1331 E. Katella Avenue, Anaheim, CA 92805.
Please let me know if you are interested in staffing or have local enrollments. I appreciate your support for transformation. I have posted this under "Events" on this website - it gives - dates, times, etc.
4 to all,
Elisa
Elisa Bridwell
Empowering Results, Inc.
(949) 400-1162
www.empoweringresults.net (http://www.empoweringresults.net)
Post by: Anonymous on May 18, 2007, 01:18:19 AM
Here is the information if anyone is interested for any reason:
**Cradling starts at 6:30pm**
The Holiday Inn Grand (not the Santa Anna Plaza )
2726 South Grand Avenue
Santa Ana, CA 92705
(714) 481-6300
Please wear black or dark clothing (and don't be seen!)
In addition and also at the Holiday Inn we have:
The Experience Celebration
When: Sunday, May 20th - 7:00 pm
Guest Event
When: Monday, May 21st
LP clearing: 6:30pm
Registration: 7:00pm
Guest Event : 7:30pm
Post by: Anonymous on June 05, 2007, 08:08:17 PM
Thanks!!
[email protected]
Post by: Oz girl on June 05, 2007, 09:06:41 PM
tihs is what someone posted on a message board
Post by: Anonymous on June 08, 2007, 02:56:09 AM
Post by: Anonymous on June 20, 2007, 03:21:21 PM
Post by: Ursus on June 21, 2007, 08:32:48 AM
Quote from: ""smiley""
I did the whole first entro and actually liked the fact that it was about love and peace and giving back to the community and helping each other. I did feel some of their ways was a bit harsh and out there but I also know ( I am a psychologist) that sometimes people are afraid to see themselves and they need a little push. I was fine with the whole course until when the guest event came...at that point I felt they were pushing people HARD and it became about SIGNING up and I felt bad. I felt what the heck happened to world peace and love. Why are the pushing people so dang Hard. That was my warning sign! I still liked the concept and I actually did learn things from the class about myself and may even do the next class but again I know the psychological forms of manipulation and just use from the class what I need and leave behind the rest and when pressured..I DID NOT BREAK...where someone who is younger or more naive, would.
I think you are fooling yourself if you think it's all about "love and peace and giving back to the community and helping each other." It's all about $$$ and getting more suckers such as yourself plastered by the intro. That's why they are "pushing people so dang Hard."
They mix in a few truths so that people will bite the bait. I think you can learn a lot more about yourself elsewhere without compromising your community, not to mention your integrity, by giving these leeches credence they don't deserve.
Post by: Anonymous on June 21, 2007, 05:37:02 PM
Post by: Anonymous on July 06, 2007, 12:56:23 AM
Quote from: ""Guest""
Cool site-Wish I saw B4 spending $ on Worldworks Inc.
One of my closest friends was relentless about my getting enrolled. My gut feeling was that by her being able to recruit me-somehow gave her "points" in her favor.
I had a bad feeling about enrolling but did so against my better judgement.
The 1st class was tolerable. However, by the 2nd course-I found it not-and was able to confirm my suspicions...
In my opinion...(So as to not sound ARROGANT (a popular word used at the workshop)...and not make my words be like of "higher authority")..lol
...The class came off very much Cult & Scientology like...Funny that these words kept repeating themselves in my head like something telling me to be cautious of what I was getting into.
I went home and did research and found the group did indeed have Scientology roots and was a spin off of "Lifespring" and "Landmark Forum"-who are considered to be a cult on another website(s).
LESSON I LEARNED-Never allow a person to determine for you who you are,what is right for you and manipulate you-let alone be abusive toward you.
One more thing. I am no longer in touch w/ persons whom I briefly befriended at the courses & as for that one close friend who enrolled me?...She has NOT EVEN returned my call after I abandoned the 2nd course on the 2nd or 3rd day...
(It's already going on 6 months since we've last spoken -and we WERE very close)
Going back to the time I had abandoned the course...I was supposed to show up wearing a bikini-wasn't ashamed of this at all-Just felt enough was enough not to mention trying to heal from Bronchitis at the time- Boy did they have something to say about that one: To them I was only having a reaction to the course and not really sick(psychosematic) The bronchitis was already present b4 the class was even thought of.
I noticed that people with health problems were shot down from leaving the course and openly scrutinized for this in front of the entire classroom audience.
In fact...When I was starting to feel weak from not eating properly and on a timely manner-(we were all rushed in this and not given enough time-a poular cult method to wear and break you down to brainwash you I've found)...
I attempted to leave but one person-no exageration- grabbed me by my arm and asked sternly where I was going and after telling him that I needed to leave...he said "LIKE HELL YOU ARE" and made me sit back down.
The trainer/staff commented about "my racket" but I soon realized that everything they accused me of being-They indeed were- Especially with this thing of "being a racket and arrogant and manipulative".
I'm curious to know...What happened that one day I decided not show up at all...Does the person hold up or screw up the class or something?
All I know is that my home phone & cell phone were feverishly ringing off the hook and my voicemail become full before noon with their messages such as "WHERE ARE YOU, you're TAKING from the group-you NEED to show up, because I NEED to show up"! AND..."It is IMPERATIVE that you come-doesn't matter if you're late -we'll all PAY your cab fare"!
Wow-that's 80-85 bucks! I feel bad because I just blew them off-figured this is what they all get for being rude to me-after being humiliated by the trainer -I noticed others didn't seem to be nice to me anymore -like they didn't respect me anymore because the trainer didn't and she made a spectacle of me in front of the entire class.
Does anyone know what happens if an individual does not show up?-because they were sure raising a lot of hell about it. I did not think it a big deal but when I had staff members calling me-even the vice president and the recruiters-I became curios to know...
Sincerely,
Amy Braddock of Whittier, CA
Post by: Anonymous on July 06, 2007, 12:57:27 AM
Quote from: ""Guest""
Cool site-Wish I saw B4 spending $ on Worldworks Inc.
One of my closest friends was relentless about my getting enrolled. My gut feeling was that by her being able to recruit me-somehow gave her "points" in her favor.
I had a bad feeling about enrolling but did so against my better judgement.
The 1st class was tolerable. However, by the 2nd course-I found it not-and was able to confirm my suspicions...
In my opinion...(So as to not sound ARROGANT (a popular word used at the workshop)...and not make my words be like of "higher authority")..lol
...The class came off very much Cult & Scientology like...Funny that these words kept repeating themselves in my head like something telling me to be cautious of what I was getting into.
I went home and did research and found the group did indeed have Scientology roots and was a spin off of "Lifespring" and "Landmark Forum"-who are considered to be a cult on another website(s).
LESSON I LEARNED-Never allow a person to determine for you who you are,what is right for you and manipulate you-let alone be abusive toward you.
One more thing. I am no longer in touch w/ persons whom I briefly befriended at the courses & as for that one close friend who enrolled me?...She has NOT EVEN returned my call after I abandoned the 2nd course on the 2nd or 3rd day...
(It's already going on 6 months since we've last spoken -and we WERE very close)
Going back to the time I had abandoned the course...I was supposed to show up wearing a bikini-wasn't ashamed of this at all-Just felt enough was enough not to mention trying to heal from Bronchitis at the time- Boy did they have something to say about that one: To them I was only having a reaction to the course and not really sick(psychosematic) The bronchitis was already present b4 the class was even thought of.
I noticed that people with health problems were shot down from leaving the course and openly scrutinized for this in front of the entire classroom audience.
In fact...When I was starting to feel weak from not eating properly and on a timely manner-(we were all rushed in this and not given enough time-a poular cult method to wear and break you down to brainwash you I've found)...
I attempted to leave but one person-no exageration- grabbed me by my arm and asked sternly where I was going and after telling him that I needed to leave...he said "LIKE HELL YOU ARE" and made me sit back down.
The trainer/staff commented about "my racket" but I soon realized that everything they accused me of being-They indeed were- Especially with this thing of "being a racket and arrogant and manipulative".
I'm curious to know...What happened that one day I decided not show up at all...Does the person hold up or screw up the class or something?
All I know is that my home phone & cell phone were feverishly ringing off the hook and my voicemail become full before noon with their messages such as "WHERE ARE YOU, you're TAKING from the group-you NEED to show up, because I NEED to show up"! AND..."It is IMPERATIVE that you come-doesn't matter if you're late -we'll all PAY your cab fare"!
Wow-that's 80-85 bucks! I feel bad because I just blew them off-figured this is what they all get for being rude to me-after being humiliated by the trainer -I noticed others didn't seem to be nice to me anymore -like they didn't respect me anymore because the trainer didn't and she made a spectacle of me in front of the entire class.
Does anyone know what happens if an individual does not show up?-because they were sure raising a lot of hell about it. I did not think it a big deal but when I had staff members calling me-even the vice president and the recruiters-I became curios to know...
Sincerely,
Amy Braddock of Whittier, CA
Post by: Sidhe Shee on July 08, 2007, 10:27:09 PM
Post by: Anonymous on July 09, 2007, 02:02:25 AM
Post by: Anonymous on July 09, 2007, 02:03:45 AM
Post by: Anonymous on August 18, 2007, 06:04:04 PM
Post by: Anonymous on August 18, 2007, 06:15:41 PM
Does Lisa make good money, she sure does, and she should. She is providing people with an opportunity to change their lives, to empower themselves.
This program purposely takes you out of your comfort zone, because, for most of us, our comfort zone is not working. Its our comfort zone that keeps us from being all we can be in personal relationships and in careers - in life!
Post by: Anonymous on October 14, 2007, 02:36:06 PM
Post by: Froderik on October 15, 2007, 10:13:24 AM
Quote from: ""Guest""
Necropost time? Necropost time.
What is it that qualifies necropost time?
Post by: Anonymous on October 17, 2007, 11:24:58 PM
Post by: Anonymous on October 17, 2007, 11:26:48 PM
Post by: Anonymous on October 18, 2007, 12:23:08 AM
Especially the shill posts- you DO realize that they want to make you just like them?
Post by: Enlightend on December 08, 2007, 01:04:10 AM
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I went through the world works intro and the experience. If I had to say anything to anyone it would be to RUN from this training. They create a dependency on them, at least they tell you are dependent on them . They mention that how you need to have integrity and realize how your actions affect those around you but they will pressure you to let down your family and friends so you can be there for your "team mates" and the "program" in other words they don't practice what they preach. They become your family and you can't be a great person in the world without their support. It is so easy to get disillusioned I did at one point too. I am blessed to have the husband and mother that I do otherwise I might still be buying into their crap. I actually enrolled someone I love into it, then I pulled them out because my eyes were a little bit more open then. It is what everyone here is trying to say about it being a cult and bad. Please listen.....
Post by: Enlightend on December 08, 2007, 12:48:38 PM
Post by: Fr. Cassian on December 08, 2007, 01:31:40 PM
Post by: Anonymous on January 22, 2009, 05:25:59 AM
As far as the money goes...of course it's a business! you pay for groceries right? I used to pay to go to Yoga! starbucks makes more money than Worldworks and they aren't making the world a better place. yes, some people might have bad experiences, but that does no justice to the overall good of world works!
Post by: Ursus on January 01, 2011, 10:58:02 AM
Quote from: "peace"
World works is definately different thant the other transformational clinics. I am in the 2nd month of Leadership practice and I have changed my life and way of looking at life for the better. I would say the main difference is Lisa kalmin and Lynne E. Sheridan the 2 main trainers. They truely live a life of integrity, honesty, loving and giving. They care about everyone in the training, past and present and offer you coaching when ever you need it. I would say World Works is much different than other transformational workshops due to these 2 ladies. They truely believe in giving and love and in a transformed world. I never felt pushed into doing things I didn't want to do and I feel everyone involved truely cares about me as a person.In other words, the ends justify the means, eh?
As far as the money goes...of course it's a business! you pay for groceries right? I used to pay to go to Yoga! starbucks makes more money than Worldworks and they aren't making the world a better place. yes, some people might have bad experiences, but that does no justice to the overall good of world works!
Post by: Anonymous on April 17, 2011, 01:18:58 PM
They definitely try to take up most of your time and use you to do all the organization's work- so basically you PAY them to volunteer for them. Kalmin must be making SOOOOOO much money off of this! She is some kind of psycho witch in my opinion. This organization needs to be exposed.
By the way, all of these organizations are derivatives of EST, which was developed by a charlatan called Werner Erhard (not his real name). Do some research and you'll find out how far back this goes.
Good luck! Don't get scammed!
Post by: Froderik on April 17, 2011, 02:35:11 PM
Post by: seamus on June 08, 2011, 04:55:08 AM
Post by: Anonymous on May 20, 2012, 04:23:51 PM
When questioned by course members about the pressure and manipulation to register, the course leader told these "errant" course members that THEY were manipulating the course by asking questions. Earlier in the course, course members were derided for NOT questioning what the group was doing (and exercise to "show" how people do not question the status quo, and do not "stand up" for others) and yet here, when people stood up to the group, they were shot down.
The people I knew who had taken the course before me were irate that I left, told me I didn't "get it" becuase I didn't stay, so I "missed the whole point" , and have virtually stopped talking to me since - except to ask me when I am I going to re-take it, and/or if I will come to another guest even for another World Works course.
I have taken literally 20+ transformational courses prior to this one (also derivative of Alexander Everett's work - not Werner Ehrard, just for the record - he was derivative of Alexander Everett, but was better known, so people think it comes from him - also, for the record, Everett's work was extrememly powerful, but did not require "sharing" ie registering others, was NO pressure, and often involved no public sharing during a course at all - all these elements were added by Erhard later and became de rigueur for LGATs ever after ), so it's not that I don't have the stamina or courage for this kind of work. It's just that this course was sub-par, and as far as I've seen, the results are weak, at best. The people I know who have taken them are no better off than before, no more succesful, have no more power or results -other than a good FEELING - and seem to be in need of - or feel they are in need of - more courses.
AIso, took them months to refund me the money I had paid up front for a course I ended up not taking - just as a business practice, sort of bush-league.
Skip it. Landmark Forum gives far better results as far as I've ever seen, is cheaper, fewer days/hours, and has improved over time based on participants' feedback and results.