Large Group Awareness Trainings (LGAT's) millenium 3
Posted by:
freeheart68
()
Date: March 02, 2005 06:43AM
Hello everyone... I am a new member and I would like to ask for help, information and what ever else is out there.
I have recently had the privilege and misfortune of being involved with an LGAT (large group awareness training) that has been both a high point and a low point in my life. I am wondering about what others expereinces have been and if there are any others that have been taken advantage of by this one company in particular. This company is known as millennium 3 education at the moment, it used to be and/or/is affiliated with lifespring. The man in charge of this particular center is Bernie Nathan, and not exactly what I what would call the most ethical. I am also wondering if there are any attorneys or anyone that knows any attorneys that I could talk to about legal recourses. There are some legal matters that are coming up and he is actually threatening to sue me. Help please, This site was instrumental in getting me clear of their hold on me and I can only hope that there is more help here to be found. Below is an accounting of some of what my experience was with them up til now, if I was to detail everything I have figured out so far, it would take me days to write it all out, so I am just covering key points right now.
I spent two days and a night being "deprogrammed" in a mental ward in regards to millennium 3, and it looks as though my wife is finally about to break free of them too, but not before they did everything they could to split us up. I am getting ahead of myself, let me start from the beginning. My wife and I experienced a lot of wonderful and valuable things in the first two workshops, known simply as "the basic" and "the advanced" courses... after each of these, there was significant pressure to continue to "the next level" where we would continue to learn about our spirituality. The third phase is called the "leadership program" where we are expected to be a part of a team and make firm commitments to the program and the team and give our word that we won't let anything get in the way. I never anticipated that meant my marriage might be construed as something that is in the way. I made it about halfway through the "leadership program", where I was first encouraged to create a 90 day plan that included such things as following my dreams, being a source of community service, and enrolling others into the program. We were assigned "coaches" who, we were told, would be there to coach us along the way when we had our "breakdowns". We were also told that this was an "enrollment game" and that for 90 days we would "transforming" into who we were supposed to be. After everything I had already experienced in the two previous workshops, this appeared to be an ideal next step in the process. Looking back, what it ended up being, in my opinion, was nothing more than a scam using us to enroll people in their program at the cost of our free will. In short they put us in a position of either doing things their way and making it look like we were choosing it, or they wouldn't give us our pat on the head and tell us what a great job we were doing… I know, it sounds silly, but unless you have experienced it, this is where the REAL brainwashing occurs.
What I experienced with them was after I had set in place the goals and "declarations" I was making about the next ninety days, all of which were up to me, with the exception of how many people I would enroll, I was to put my plan into action and be coached on a daily basis as to what would be the best way to handle the problems I came up against as they occurred. Ok, so first things first, one of my goals was to have my own business, I was encouraged to pursue that by contracting with Bernie Nathan to fix a fence of his. So I quit my regular job, made arrangements to fix his fence in the spring to fund the next seminar, and started working on my business.
So now there is an issue about money, and my wife is having problems regarding it… ok, so she isn't talking to me about it, she is talking to her "coach" about it. She is being advised to pressure me about it and begins doing so without even telling me that she is under pressure. So my wife and I sit down and work out what we are going to do, we recreate our plans and start working on them again. Things aren't going very well, we need another vehicle and the money is becoming more and more of an issue. (we were encouraged to spend 4200.00 dollars that we really didn't have and ended up mortgaging our future to get it) Aside from all of this, we are both being badgered on a daily basis to keep enrolling people. Out of the required 25 people that were on my list, more than two thirds won't speak to me any more and I am still being told to keep at them, that I need to keep my vision of them being a part of the program in my head while I am working on enrolling them. The coaching is now no longer about ALL of the goals, only about enrolling people. When I took a stand and said I needed to be worried about my life as well, I was coached that I was being "inward focused" (selfish) and that if it was such a problem, then I needed to get a job that would "make me feel like man" so I could get on with my other commitments and stop making excuses. The whole time this is going on, my wife's coach is telling her she needs to do something about the situation with me because it is affecting her achieving her "goals" (enrolling people, she is told that she is using our situation as an excuse for why her life isn't where it should be). I am currently not privy to all of what was said to her and I am not even certain at this point that she is being honest with me about all of it either, but the "coaching" she received boiled down to things like, "you need to make a decision about what is best for you" and when she said she would take whatever steps were needed, that wasn't good enough, they pushed her by asking "what e, what kind of people will tell you that a commitment to enrolling people in this sort of thing is more important than a committed lifelong relationship with kids?
With all of this said, where I am right now is still trying to rebuild the damage in my relationship with the help of a LICENSED counslelor, find a way to pay the thousands of dollars that it has cost me in both medical bills for psychiatric care, lost wages, and "tuition", and find a way to keep from this all costing me another 1500.00 which Bernie Nathan is now demanding from me due to a fence that hasn't been fixed. By the way, that 1500.00, 1200.00 of it went to the "leadership program" in fees and tuition and we never even completed it, I am not being allowed to finish it (not like I want to anymore) and my wife is on the verge of a breakdown as she is trying to leave so that we can actually get our lives back. They actually had the police come to my house last night at 1130 pm because we wouldn't answer the phone that was ringing every 15-20 minutes.
The hold they have on people is almost unebelievable, I would not have believed it if i had not expereinced it myself firsthand. Things at one point had gotten so bad for me mentally that I told her I felt like my life had no value left in it and I needed her support to figure out which way was up. She chose to go to a seminar instead of taking me to the hospital and advised me that "I made my choice, now I get to live with it". I spent 28 hours in a psyche ward trying to regain myself enough to figure out that exactly happened… any advice, thoughts, or comments? Please help me here, is there anyone who knows how best to handle these types of situations? I am in serious need of legal counsel as well, I am considering trying to sue for damages. If nothing else can be done, I would be thrilled if someone would help me to spread the word about what a dangerous thing this place is. Before I signed on for the "trainings", my brother showed me this site and because I couldn't find anything about millennium 3 education, I thought they were ok. I will take whatever help I can get in what ever form it comes in.
Thank you all in advance for all of your input.
Jimmy P