Today has a couple quotes, Courtesy of Robyn Dingledine and Nelson Mandela:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the World. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel unsure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just some of us: it is in Everyone. As we let our Light shine, we unconsciously give others people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
"Objectivist Ethics proudly advocates and upholds rational selfishness - which means: the values required for man's survival qua man - which means: the values required for human survival - not the values produced by the desires, the feelings, the whims or the needs of irrational brutes, who have never outgrown the primordial practice of human sacrifice.
I quote both to identify the goal and the gap of the LGAT.
LGAT: Large Group Awareness Training
Those giant business or personal seminars you attend (because you want to, or because your employer requires it.)
These programs aren't really unfamiliar to many who've seen them advertised on afternoon or evening infomercials. For those that are unfamiliar, often times these programs offer methods to quit smoking, lose weight, attain wealth through personal improvement or likewise. Fantastic notions!
So why the heck write about them.
Well, I've been exposed to them periodically in the past, as well as to some of the techniques they use. As of late, I gained a new curiosity and had to pursue. What I found was... not what I expected. Using google, with the term "LGAT" our first destination is wikipedia. This is where some of my information will be cited, short of some personal connotation. Yes, I'm FULLY aware of the argued reliability of Wikipedia as a source. Sorry, I didn't pay the $40 for the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Plus, I'm on Clay Shirky's side. (Here Comes Everybody)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Group_Awareness_Training
A few fun new terms to research came up in reading the articles and a few terms stuck out. In particular, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Self Hypnosis and a few other interesting things to read about. NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) sounds worse than it likely is, so as with many things, reading is necessary.
Then I come across an interesting section, which would provide the thesis for this essay.
"LGAT's In Comparison With Cults."
Wow. Where did this bomb come from in what would otherwise seem a harmless self-help class?
The typical LGAT seminar is intended to challenge existing phobias, depressions, habits, or potentially even learning disorders. However, the techniques they often employ have drawn some psychological, legal and other scrutiny, as well as a brand as a "Cult-Like" following... complete with groups being lead into the desert with some casualties. Ultimately, what they try to help you find could be good, could be bad, but ultimately the question lies in the word "Self" and whether or not you can identify what that is.
The most common LGAT seminars available today are through PSI Incorporated (People Synergistically Involved) and are designed to help you find "yourself" and recondition your behavior to hopefully provide a better, happier you. The first class runs you about $596 US, the second ~$1200 and the third going up from there (the top end nearing $7.5k!) Some of the smaller LGAT's that you see offering Smoking Cessation programs can be considerably cheaper, though PSI Inc doesn't provide any. Other companies included (I use the past tense here, without the intent to mislead) Landmark, EST and others.
Why the past tense? What happened to these programs. - Well, EST was Erhard Standard Training, a self-help program centered on personal empowerment that went defunct in 1981 (after some scrutiny.) This gave way to "The Forum" a class provided by a company called Landmark that still exists, but has largely fled the marketplace due to a massive amount of litigation, and scrutiny. It was large enough to garner it's own wikipedia page, if that's worth something. (Landmark Education Litigation) Also still in existence is PSI Seminars. Litigation there is limited to a few small claims suits filed, and one growing class-action lawsuit for Extortion and Imprisonment.
Question 1: Why so many legal issues?
So, what's so bad that they end up with all kinds of legal issues? I'd gather mostly the technique. The typical LGAT training seminar is 30-90 hours, often times over a very limited number of days. PSI's Basic class is 4 days and 30 hours. This means that typically courses range from 8 to 14 hours long. At the start, the doors where the seminar is held are closed and locked, with release only for restroom purposes. According to our source cited wikipedia page "Marathon, eight-hour sessions, in which [participants] were confined and harassed, supposedly led to the breakdown of conventional ego, after which they were in effect born again." The argument is that these techniques are often used elsewhere like marketing and such. After the psychological degradation and attempted rebirth, the support and often times techniques like Self-Hypnosis and NLP (see earlier) are used to basically condition (or program) ones responses to a more positive end, rather than the depressed, low-esteem and placated previous self. Essentially, it is group psychotherapy.
Question 2: If you're in such a suggestible state, what ELSE are they suggesting, and who is suggesting it? You? The Trainer? The Crowd? I'm obligated to suggest the ever-increasing cost element of their seminars, which, unlike tuition at a college or university, increases (whether proportionately or disproportionately) with the class level you take.
Next up, some researchers have referred to LGAT training techniques as some of the same thought-reform processes used by cults. Alright, be that as it may, who's to say it's not effective? I'm gonna go with consumer feedback. This is one of the FIRST websites I came across after searching for PSI.
http://psi-seminars.pissedconsumer.com/
Now, after I found this, I was kind of shocked and disturbed, reading stories about people having nearly identical experiences (down to their "workshops") that they presumed were wholly enlightening and unique. Other disturbing elements are the stories of husbands and wives divorced, families destroyed and friendships torn apart. Graduates and Trainers philandering and other elements. It invoked thoughts that I had when I saw a sign regarding a resort in Jamaica titled "hedonism."
So, I dashed off as fast as the internet would take me to look for good. This added an even deeper fear. There is none that isn't provided by PSI-Seminars. Zero. Not a consumer report, not a Youtube video, not a blog here or there... Nothing. So I tried a few videos from PSI Seminars. It's kind of scary. A whole lot about "togetherness, what I learned about myself" without a whole lot of significant elements. Some are as short as 30 second blurbs about "well i learned how to expand and improve my acting career." - No one can explain why.
All that being said, I CANNOT SAY THAT ALL PSI SEMINAR COURSES ARE BAD, but given the similar cult branding and review of Landmark, I have to ask... Where are all these people who think so highly of PSI Seminars? Why is there so many terrible reviews and cult branding? I may have an answer, provided by our friend, Wikipedia. (From the LGAT Page)
"Not all professional researchers view LGATs favorably. Researchers such as psychologist Philip Cushman,[26] for example, found that the program he studied "consists of a pre-meditated attack on the self". A 1983 study on Lifespring[27] found that "although participants often experience a heightened sense of well-being as a consequence of the training, the phenomenon is essentially pathological", meaning that, in the program studied, "the training systematically undermines ego functioning and promotes regression to the extent that reality testing is significantly impaired""
Well that may be our answer. A shot of verbal heroin straight to the ego. The cult association is that often times, cults use similar degradation and reconstruction processes designed to keep you following in tune. While there's little explicit research evidence, you can do your own and find similar elements. In addition, these seminars also typically involve some sort of relatively esoteric or religious context in their class. PSI Seminars seems to embrace Jung's notion of the collective conscious - That if you don't do it, someone else will because you both thought of it at the same time.
Well I said it may not all be bad - It's not. It's entirely possible that some may not react to an LGAT, or that it may be more beneficial than destructive to one's ego, and accordingly, rational thought. Regardless, this is where we get the cult perception, and I'd have to say... at the risk associated, I can't say that it's not without merit. The ego governs rational thought and long term planning. Most of the complaint cases you'll find in the links (or a quick google search) will probably shed some light on the irrationality demonstrated by a great many - possibly some of those stories are self-realized.
In the end, my concern, and the motive for my blog update, is that emotional regression to a child-hood state (where the id is more dominant) would seem to me to be VERY dangerous in many circumstances. Should someone not properly reconstruct (or take the time to do so. And a 30 hour course isn't enough time) the ego in a more beneficial manner, it could ruin a life. I'm not talking to the point of mental rehab, I'm talking potential suicide, theft, murder, etc, as the ego is where our rationality and much of our morality resides.
But as I said, perhaps it is good. I'm very clearly biased, but perhaps the regression and reconstruction is small enough that it clears up old fears, or childhood memories or regrets. Perhaps it's deep enough to go even further, but the reconstruction happens properly. Maybe you just don't take it seriously but get some good wisdom from it.
Who Knows? I'd treat it more favorably, if the positive feedback I could find was more expansive than the company promoting it's self. Any other product, school, service or likewise always follows with review. This does not.
Ultimately, I would argue that the proper resolution for all these same issues that people have is two fold.
1. Value Judgments. Every person who spoke on the PSI Seminar reviews always talked about finally achieving their goals (though not how they got there.) Perhaps we limit the pursuit of our values and what we seek as good simply because we're told that self-pursuit is bad, and we're conditioned through Church, School, our Parents, our Friends and Family, that you should sacrifice yourself for others, because it's noble. As you all know, I disagree.
You have to know what yourself contains and what's important to yourself to pursue it. If the barrier they're breaking is the one that keeps you from being you and accomplishing your goals, FANTASTIC. However, if you don't know what you want, what is moral, what is a value to you... that's where the hundreds of scary reviews come from.
2. Your friend, The Shrink. - I would advise anyone seeking to be subject to these techniques consult a professional psychiatrist first. Just because you go to a shrink, doesn't mean you're messed up in the head, it just means that sometimes, you need someone to talk to, who can see you from the outside. I chat with a shrink about once a month now. It's good to take a load off, and that's a GREAT place to do it. Plus, they can tell you if you're really stable enough in other aspects, to deal with the training without falling apart.
That's the end folks. Buyer Beware. Friends and family, beware too, but be supportive. That's my task over the next indeterminate period.
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