Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS)

If they only knew....

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Anonymous:
What I learned about the WWASPS seminars is there a lot of fucked up parents who actually believe getting in to touch with their magical child is some kind of miracle.

Crying, sobbing, beating their fists on the floor, gasping for air, you name it I have heard about it.

Why the histrionics?  Because the facilitators are damn good at impairing one's critical thinking skills.

They actually train for this crap.

Personally?  I say let the parents go to the seminars and pay lots of money to find their god damned magical child.

Just leave the children out of this crap and let them be a kid ... not some grotesque version of an adult magical child.

 :smokin:

Anonymous:
Antigen -  

What do you mean by promise the impossible?

PHX

BuzzKill:
PHX - Yeah I read it somewhere - the seminair rules leaflet and the BBS.

Antigen:
Hey BK, you care to answer PH for me? What did they promise you?
Drug War tells us everyone's body is common property
to be managed by the central government for our own
good, even if it kills us.  This is Communism!
Drug Policy Foundation of Texas

--Bob Ramsey
--- End quote ---

BuzzKill:
To sum it up, I was promised that Discovery was a life changing experience.
The thing was/is - I didn't want my life changed. I was/am happy with it the way it is.
What I found alarming was that this was not an acceptable state of mind in the program.
It was argued that my son wouldn't have a drug problem if I weren't somehow to blame; therefore - I obviously needed to overcome my faults, and inadequacies and preconceived notions and most especially the idea that I was "right" about anything - b/c ya know, there is no right or wrong.
I was promised that Discovery would free me of all that was holding me back in life. It would improve my marriage and/or make me more successful at work. It would enable me to more effectively communicate with my son as well as other people. All this was oft explained by the many seminar veterans on the BBS as well as the Teen Help lady who sold me the program.
A Life changing experience, was how it was described, over and over - as if life changing is always a good thing.
I was never happy with the idea of the seminars - but it was after enrolling and getting the rules that I really became alarmed. I became something of a problem on the BBS with questions not unlike the ones I posted here for PHX. I had a suspicion that there was something sinister about it all - it sounded a lot like a brain washing session.
Going back to the 1980's, I had heard James Dobson lament the common use of LGAT seminars by various corporations. He was encouraging people to resist and refuse to attend; and explained that they were cult-like and based on brain washing tactics - that they could be dangerous to a person's mental health, and these corporations had no right to pressure their employees to attend.
From reading the rules, and from the bits and pieces attendees let slip on the BBS, I became aware that these program seminars were much, if not exactly, the same as what Dobson had warned against.
Now that I understand the connection to Lifespring  -I know they are in fact the very same.
No doubt, it is for many people Life Changing. Change is not always good. There are common accounts of Lives ruined. Families broken and life long estrangements resulting.
I now view the seminars as the key to the whole scam. Its how they control the parents and keep them co-operating with wildly ridiculous program rules and procedures. Its how they make and maintain the legions of faithful, all stridently proclaiming the program saved their family. Even when the child has not done so well - even to the point of suicide - they will Still proclaim the program's saving grace. But most of those so loudly insisting the saving power of the program and the seminars, still have kids enrolled - often haven't yet spoken to them - So - something is wrong with this picture. These people are not thinking clearly. And I say - that is the whole point.

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