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Lifespring can refer to a series of New Age/human potential training LGATs or to the organisation offering such trainings. New Age describes a broad movement characterized by alternative approaches to traditional Western culture. ...
The Human Potential Movement came out of the social and intellectual milieu of the 1960s and was formed to promote the cultivation of extraordinary potential believed to be largely untapped in most people. ...
Training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and attitudes as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relates to specific useful skills. ...
Large Group Awareness Training or LGAT offers a mechanism for promoting awareness-change and rapid, thorough commitment to a cause or idea. ...
Observers have made comparisons between Lifespring and the est seminars. Erhard Seminars Training, or est (always in lower-case), was a controversial New Age large group awareness training (LGAT) seminar program, widespread during the 1970s. ...
Overview
Lifespring was founded in 1974 by John Hanley Sr., after working at an organization called Mind Dynamics with Werner Erhard, the founder of est. Though similar to est, Lifespring trainings claimed to be based on more experiential learning, rather than ests's didactic process[citation needed].There are many similarities regarding EST, Lifespring and Scientology[citation needed] John Paul Jack Rosenberg (born September 5, 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and sometimes subsequently known as Werner Hans Erhard is an American businessman and educator. ...
Erhard Seminars Training, or est (always in lower-case), was a controversial New Age large group awareness training (LGAT) seminar program, widespread during the 1970s. ...
The former Director for Corporate Affairs of Lifespring, Charles "Raz" Ingrasci also worked with Werner Erhard, promoting an est mission to the USSR and the Hunger Project. Ingrasci is now President of the Hoffman Insitute Quadrinity Process, which offers exclusive and costly programs similar to Lifespring. John Paul Jack Rosenberg (born September 5, 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and sometimes subsequently known as Werner Hans Erhard is an American businessman and educator. ...
Erhard Seminars Training, or est (always in lower-case), was a controversial New Age large group awareness training (LGAT) seminar program, widespread during the 1970s. ...
The Hunger Project (THP) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization incorporated in the state of California. ...
The Lifespring trainings generally involved a three-level program starting with a "Basic" discovery training, an "Advanced" breakthrough course, and a 3-month "Leadership Program" which taught the students how to implement what they learned from the training in their lives.[citation needed]
Independent studies commissioned by Lifespring done in the 80's by researchers at Berkeley, Stanford, and UCSF (including Lee Ross, Morton Lieberman, and Irvin Yalom) found that an overwhelming majority of participants in these trainings found them to be either "extremely valuable" or "valuable" (around 90%).[citation needed] Less than 2% found them to be "of no value".[citation needed] Students were often eager to share their experiences in these trainings with family, friends, and co-workers, although they did not receive any compensation for "enrolling" others into the workshops.[citation needed] More than 500,000 people worldwide participated in these workshops.[citation needed] Lee D. Ross is a professor of social psychology at Stanford University, who has studied attribution theory, attributional biases, decision making and conflict resolution. ...
Many participants of these trainings found them to be among the most profound experiences of their lives and claimed they were able to produce substantial results in their lives as a result of their participation. [citation needed]
Some argued that these trainings might be a form of "mass brainwashing".[citation needed] Others found the workshops to be challenging and confrontive.[citation needed] There was much discussion of this among former participants of the workshops, some of whom felt that they were too stressful and disruptive.[citation needed]
Lifespring had been sued numerous times for charges ranging from involuntary servitude to wrongful death. The suits often claimed that the trainings place participants under extreme psychological stress in order to elicit change. The group had to pay out large amounts of money to participants who required psychiatric hospitalization and to family members of suicides[1].
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 jury decision came in 1984. Deborah Bingham was awarded $800,000 in a case where she testified she'd been in a psych ward for a month after attending two Lifespring courses. In 1982, the family of David Priddle accepted an undisclosed sum when they sued Lifespring after he jumped off a building; Artie Barnett's family also reached an out of court settlement, when Barnett, who couldn't swim, drowned during a Lifespring training. 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 that case out of court, as well.[1]
In 1980 ABC's 20/20 aired an investigative report about Lifespring. They interviewed 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.)[1]
While trainings continued until the mid-Nineties in certain parts of the country, the lawsuits and the bad press crippled the company. One Lifespring follower, Sue Hawkes, started a similar program, called Vistar, but it was unsuccessful.[1]
Lifespring training, once offered under a unified corporate umbrella, now appears in several guises delivered by differently-named companies called "centers." Some of these companies offering the training programs once offered by Lifespring include Millennium 3 Education in Dallas, TX, The Legacy Center in North Carolina, Summit Education in Florida, MITT, Accelerate, and WorldWorks in California, Personal Dynamics and Momentum in New York, Impacto Vital in Central America and the Caribbean, and Choice Center in Las Vegas. Many of these "centers" use the same trainers that originally worked for Lifespring. There are as many as 50 different companies offering these trainings worldwide. It is also known as AsiaWorks in Asia.
According to The International Survivor's Action Committee [2] Lifespring has been classified as a cult and refers to Rick Ross and FACTnet as references for this classification. Rick Alan Ross (born November 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio, United States) is a private consultant and lecturer in the area of cults who maintains a website with an extensive listing of articles about destructive cults, controversial groups and movements, and related research about mind control theories. ...
Cult awareness groups claimed that there was high pressure placed on participants to "enroll" family, friends, etc., in the workshops and to spend large sums of money on additional training. Many participants however, asserted that they found significant value in their participation and want to share the program with people around them.[citation needed]
References - ^ a b c http://www.citypages.com/databank/22/1092/article9923.asp?page=2
- Janice Haaken, Ph.D. and Richard Adams, Ph.D.: "Pathology as 'Personal Growth': A Participant-Observation Study of Lifespring Training" in Psychiatry, Vol 46, August 1983
- John Hanley: Lifespring: Getting Yourself from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be Simon and Schuster 1989 ISBN 0-671-72508-4
External links
Official
Pro-Lifespring - http://www.everybodygoes.com A website for and about Lifespring graduates
- http://everybodygoes.com/mailman/listinfo/graduates_everybodygoes.com Lifespring Graduates discussion list
- http://x.webring.com/hub?ring=lifespringgradua Lifespring Graduates Webring
- http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?topic=11030&forum=22&3
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