I've just read this thread. The methods that seem to be used by " Meridien"
make me cringe.

I can understand why jaxtb was so very angry early in the thread,having lost his/her job as a result of this groups involvement in "Acme". I applaud
Mr Ross for apparently understanding this situation and keeping his cool with rational explanation.

Meridien give themselves away when they proudly declare their expertise around "rapid cultural change". From all the descriptions it really does sound like identity assassination , with all the destabilization,emotional pain
and feelings of worthlessness that that can entail.

I belonged to a cult for over thirty years. I feel that at the recruitment stage my sense of self and identity was undermined and stolen in a rapid process.After that any doubts were forbidden and fear kept me on message for all those years.

What I read here about this training company truly makes me SHUDDER.

Good for you jaxtb for being very angry ( although I don't think Mr Ross was really your target :? ) .It's a healthy response but keep channelling it in a [b:3782f04caa]constructive[/b:3782f04caa] direction.

Best wishes for you future career.

Many of the things that Meridian now CruxPoint tries to do are good. They trying to show people that they have a choice and try and help people understand what is means to be personally responsible for their actions and those actions against them. They also want to empower people to act out for what they want and go for it... But they also, dont have a clue what it feels like to be inside of an organziation and deal with the day to day activities. They are a group of people that dont have to worry about money themselves. Is it not what drives most people? Their teachings about if this is not right for you, leave. This is an attitude of given wealth and not the true reality for most people. It is easy to make those decisions when your parents cover you financially. It allows you to be bold.

The issues that CruxPoint creates is that they do brain wash you into believing that where you are now is bad and if you dont change and listen to what they say you are doomed. Not much different that a cults process to persuade. They attach peoples weak spots to make them believers. Do they make progress, yes but only to a select few. Not the whole...

Having some knowledge of their organization, I can say that their hiring practices are to be questioned. One person interviewed with them and was told their weight was a problem. These personal attacks on a persons weight seems to lend to the notion that they are looking for a single type of follower. This again seems to be cult like. More of the people that feel and believe the same way they do increases their numbers etc... Seems like there is a patern. But just my thoughts.

Some of what they say is mere common sense to the average person. They're not saying anything new. That is a cover for their real purpose...to brainwash the employees into believing what management wants the employees to believe...that the financial situation of the company is "the employees fault" and "not management's fault." Another purpose is to "kill the culture of the company (the one that made it great) and create a superficial one." Notice that you don't find many people with more than a decade with the company in upper management (and those who remain are shaking in their shoes)? There's a reason for that. The "new people" have little respect for the company culture, and they feel intimidated by that. I know...I'd been there for two decades. So, they hire TMI/CC to come in and blame the problems on the "old culture" and the employees, and brainwash the employees into believing it. That is the simple purpose of their being with your company.

Keep in mind that the Meridian Institite/Cruxpoint (TMI/CC) is an offshoot of the Lifespring cult. Their programs are almost identical. The head of TMI/CC, Gary Koyen, is a Lifespring graduate. The main difference between the two are that TMI/CC was "altered" a little to fit the needs of your company. The tactics are exactly the same (i.e. pick on the llast person back from lunch, move seats after every break, etc.). These tactics are designed to remove your personal identity in an effort to control you. Considering the dangers of Lifespring (and the dead people associated with it), I would hazard to say that your company may have potentially put the employees in harms way by exposing them to this cultish group.

I've been to the TMI/CC seminars. I know the leaders who brought them into your company. I know what's going on behind the scenes in management at your company. And I know that [u:d9d6781a96]all employees should be insulted by the lack of integrity and personal accountability of the company's senior management[/u:d9d6781a96]. The fact that they brought TMI/CC in to brainwash employees into believing the state of the company is their fault is grotesquely insulting and outlandishly cynical. The poor financial state of your company is solely the responsibility of it's management's poor decisions.

Your company is on it's last legs...regardless what you read in internal memos. And while it can't afford to pay its bills, it is shuffling hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars, to TMI/CC for doing nothing but brainwashing employees into believing their propaganda. In the end, the employees will be holding the bag.

Where do you think your CEO, CFO, etc. will be when you're in the unemployment line? You can bet they won't have to worry about that. In fact, they'll never have to work again.

Think about it.

The Meridian Institute has now changed their name to: Cruxpoint Consulting (cruxpoint.com). They have an interesting list of supposed clients, also (I've noticed that alot of companies like this often have similar long lists of names, although actual ties are often dubious at best).

They're not fooling anyone, however. It's still the same old Lifespring garbage "reinvented" yet again.

For some reason, they still have ties to that airline whose employees hate them (or should I say, ex-employees now, considering the professional and cultural genocide prevalent there in the last year or so).

Gary Koyen and his bunch (The Meridian Institute/Cruxpoint Consulting) are largely responsible for alot of the damage that has taken place in that company. It is a shell of its former self...the best apples have either been run off or exterminated from that culture. There's not much left of the company but a mass of corruption and unprofessionalism. I've never seen such brainwashing on such a scale before...unbelievable!

No one has anything good to say about that company. No one in their right mind who has experienced The Meridian Training forced upon the employees has anything good to say about it either (only the mindless kiss-asses do).

The company's flirtation with The Meridian Institute/Cruxpoint Consulting, for the purpose of destroying the culture that made the company great, is an insult to all the employees, as well as a nail in the coffin of the company.

There is absolutely no honor there whatsoever.

Cruxpoint Consulting = Lifespring

Don't forget it!

I want to report that Cruxpoint is still alive and continues ..................... I can't say that it is alive and 'well'. I believe this organization is unethical, immoral, and not qualified to do 'consulting' and the psychological mind games that they put out--- what are their qualifications? It is all shrouded in secrecy, and when asked, one of the leaders said to 'check the website'. The answer was not given to our group, and I found out why. When checking the website- NO counseling, psychology, consulting, or business, experience or credentials were given. How misleading is this? Very evasive as to their actual training- but their point- to bring everyone to a 'breakthrough' was pressed on upon our group. These people are all related and in my opinion, pushing a scam on the corpoations that buy into their mumbo jumbo. It was emphasized that Cruxpoint was the'Life Coach' to our CEO and others high in our corporate structure. We were told many times how close they were personally and professionally to our corporate leadership. How could we or why should we question their doctrine or authority? We thought we were attending leadership 'training'. How wrong did that turn out to be?

I was scheduled to attend a Cruxpoint 'Leadership Breakthrough' Seminar by my employer. ALL management has or will be attending. Cruxpoint is traveling all over the country giving these 'seminars' at various locations. How much mega bucks is this generating for this pseudo 'Consultant' group? This 'seminar' is being given to all levels of management of my company. The seminar lasted 4 days- 3 of them being 8am to 6:30pm. The 'exercises' and mind control activities are still as has been outlined by others on this forum. The first day was ok- I thought it would be the same kind of leadership pep rally as I have attended many times in the past. Encouragement, new ideas, 'go forth' and bring change, etc. IT WAS NOT ANYTHING LIKE THAT. I can't believe that this group engages in the destructive mind control tactics that they do- People were crying, confessing deep feelings, we were encouraged to be 'honest' and open and all of that. Personal emotions and confessions were encouraged. This is a BUSINESS SETTING and attendees were encouraged to put forth personal issues and if anyone didn't buy in, they were made to come to the front and 'sit on the chair' and then they were put on the spot and questioned by the Cruxpoint 'leader' until they gave the answers the leader was pressing for.
I found the entire experience demoralizing, humiliating, and I left two nights crying and wondering 'what is wrong with me'? I came to the seminar a confident and competent manager, and left there questioning myself and feeling demoralized and inadequate. MOST people there totally 'drank the koolaid' and thought this was the most life changing experience they had ever had. But not everyone- This approach was not for me- and there were several others that had a very negative experience. I as taken aside by one of the leaders as I had become very upset- whcih is embarsing in a BUSINESS setting. She told me that I was hired because I was 'different' and that I bring positive change- then why did I feel so alienated, paranoid, humiliated?
Only later did I realize that the whole Cruxpoint philosoply and their 'exercises' and methods are straight from mind game and mind control activities from the 60's and 70's- and they are being put forth as 'conculting' and leave some of their victims psychologically affected- hopefully my issues are not permanent, but it has been 3 weeks since I attended this seminar, and I still find it painful to think about, write about, and move out of.

Cruxpoint has somehow packaged a very expensive and well marketed (to employers) 'experience' that evidently bought into-
Beware!!!

I actually did some internet searching about this seminar before I took it and found this discussion thread (and others) before I attended this mandatory company seminar. To be honest, I was very apprehensive before the seminar.

I was going to add my thoughts to this thread after I took the seminar. I decided to wait several weeks to see if my feelings and impressions about the seminar would remain the same.

I went through the seminar under stress, and even had high blood pressure on the Saturday after the seminar. I had difficulty sleeping at nights during the seminar, and went through a difficult emotional experience that the program forces you to go through. Given my personality of being shy and quiet and private person, the exercises generated so much stress on me.

In a nutshell however, this has a positive effect on me. It made me to become a better me. It allowed me to be prepared to what is ahead for me, in the company and in life. This was a difficult seminar to go through, but it was worth it.

To me like anything else in life, it is how you open yourself up to other new ideas, and hope to have enough wisdom to see which one will make you a better person.

1. A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose power.

2. A process [is in use] call[ed] coercive persuasion or thought reform.

3. Economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.


I met Gary Koyen during the early '80s. He is a "(1) Charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose power." I saw this happen, at the time of the dissolution of his earlier Koyen & Associates, which then became Wings. The more disillusioned of his "followers" or "disciples of training" as they referred to themselves, were the ones who took over.

They, as he did before them, used "(2) A process called coercive persuasion/thought reform..." to get their point across and get people to "Walk Along The Proper Path."

Both groups used "(3) ...other exploitation of group members by the leader and ruling coterie," e.g., the humiliation mentioned by others who have been in his later "Dynamic Leadership Training Session(s)."


The breakaway folks from GK&A founded Aspires first, before Wings. It was their interim organization, in which Gary had unofficial say but no visibility. It definitely went down like an internal, hostile church takeover. There WERE allegations of sexual misconduct. Of course, no one was ever able to prove anything; so no charges were ever filed. The police showed up more than a few times, back then.

Things typically missing from THIS CULT are images of 'The Father, Our Founder.' Instead, the veneration is toward the organization as a whole, with the Symbol (Icon, really) of the "Wings Logo" forefront on all correspondence, covering the inner and outer walls of the Compound. Reinforcement, in the form of special messages, are scrawled along the walls in bold, flowing script. Initially they had them on paper, taped to the walls, then laminated, eventually painted -- between one Aspires training seminar and the next.
It is a compound, now; surrounded by walls with lights and hidden watch towers on the 3rd floor/roof area. I thought for years this "fortification" the facility had undergone was due to the proximity to the Lane County Jail. Not the case, as no businesses have been harmed within a full block, except by people furious with the owners of those businesses. (In other words, not your typical criminal element...disgruntled employees.) No One bothers the Wings compound...they know better than to do so.
Though Gary Koyen is officially persona non grata among the Wings Leadership, he is typically granted audience in people's homes, like the guru he styles himself to be. If you've never seen a REAL CULT in action, you would think it was just a harmless gathering. Unlike others, I remember what it was like when the Baghwan Shree Rajneesh was here in Oregon. The feeling around the people who venerate Gary Koyen is so much like BS Rajneesh it's nearly palpable. (Meaning that you can almost TASTE IT on the air.)


I understand the hesitancy to call the man and the groups he leaves trailing behind him as cults or cult-like. However, do you know of ANY Leadership Training Seminar which requires annual or semi-annual Dues to be paid? Along with requisite "refresher seminars?" That's a organization you find with a Church, not a Management Training Regimen.
The holographic training seminar, taught out at Lane Community College for many years, made it all the way to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. They have their mandatory "tapes," now CD's...which you're told can't be copied (the subliminals can't be copied...you have to BUY the tape/CD to get the Real Thing, they insist). Under cover of Teacher Training, they require dues as well. Monthly, semi-monthly, semi-annual and annual dues, depending upon how devout, I mean...highly-trained you are. For years they stormed through businesses, leaving a swath of destruction behind them. Anyone who didn't adapt and conform to their teachings was outcast, just as described by the two people RE: The Meridian Institute.
Which is exactly what Koyen & Associated did, back in the early to mid-80s, here in Eugene. They (mostly himself or his apostle woman...not his wife) traveled as far north as Seattle and as far south as San Francisco. They went to LA once but their was a territorial skirmish which forced them back north. I think they went as far west as Denver for a while; just before the organization imploded from within/was taken over.


As to the LDS Church? I've personally known people who've lost businesses in the SLC metro area. They crossed mid to upper level church membership over one thing or the other -- never relating to business practices, always due to personality or the fact they, themselves are Not Mormon. Several have had homes foreclosed, though they were never late on payments. Cars repossessed. Things like that. It's a subtle form of discrimination. More like what blacks experience in the Southern US (and elsewhere in America). Unlike a true Cult, the LDS members will leave people alone, if they express dislike at the constant home visitations (Spiritual In Home Meetings...I forget the exact phrase for it.) So long as you pay your dues, they generally leave you alone, once your children have left your home. (Once again, from personal experience.)