If you are a student stuck in a group led by Alex Horn or Sharon Gans-Horn, then the fact you are reading this is already great news. It means that you are smart enough and intuitive enough and courageous enough to have begun to distinguish between the ideas of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky and the people teaching them. Whether or not what Gurdjieff or Ouspensky taught is valuable and valid does not matter here. If you are someone who has a friend or companion who you know is involved with these groups and you don't know what to do, try to show them this.

You are being preyed upon by phonies-- very clever, manipulative, and charming (when they need to be) frauds. They crave three things-- money, power, and a sense of self-importance-- to excess. Any shred of self-doubt about their motives and behavior disappeared long ago-- they have convinced themselves that they are superior to you and others, further justifying their need for power, money, and self-importance. They manipulate, abuse, and misuse the ideas of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Nicoll, and Collin to suit their agenda. I repeat-- they do not serve the ideas, the ideas serve them. They are not conduits for higher influences-- they are self-deluded and power-mad with a long trail of exploitation and destruction of lives and families. They will dangle the carrot of "meaning," "consciousness," and "freedom" before you but at the same time undermine your self-esteem by showing you how mechanical and helpless you are.

Over the course of many years they have surrounded themselves with weak-spirited and wretched lackeys whose real motivation is also the lust for power, money and the need to feel important. The way to get away from them requires both a strong mental effort followed by action. Both will be addressed here.

First of all, you must believe in your suspicions enough to look further into what type of person Alex Horn and Sharon Gans really are. Do some research on your own and study the traits of "malignant narcissism" or "malignant narcissists." This should help to ground your suspicions in what you have observed about your "teachers." Your "teachers" are, according to the traits of "malignant narcissism," fully functioning sociopaths/psychopaths. That's right-- they are insane, but very dangerous so long as you think they have power over you because you continue to believe they are sane. The sad thing about the Work and these wretches is that the "Ideas" you have been studying-- when manipulated by them-- dovetail perfectly with the agenda of maintaining the state of Grandiosity that characterizes them as sociopaths.

How do they succeed? How do they get away with all of this? How do they fool so many people so much of the time? You might as well ask how did Hitler and Stalin get away with their agenda. It is the exact same chilling phenomenon, just a different scale. Hitler and Stalin liquidated people who got in their way or threatened them. Stalin, when he did not make people "disappear" sent them to the Gulags. With Sharon Gans or Alex Horn, when you are sent away you too become a non-person. You are in fact treated as a disease by the diseased!

Look at the following websites: www.geoffmetcalf.com/psychopath.html and www.halcyon.com/jmashmun/npd/dsm-iv.html Ask others in this forum on this website about the substance abuse they have witnessed too: food, tobacco, alcohol, mood-altering medications. Talk about "habit" and slavery!

The way to escape, once you have been convinced enough of what you read here and elsewhere, is simple. But the final obstacle to leaving is being aware of and being able to cope with the loss of all the friends you have made during your stay in the group. This will feel like a big and painful sacrifice. But ultimately they must take responsibility for their beliefs and their lives, too. Those beliefs that you once shared that brought you and your fellows closer to each other will now be the source of a divide. And the ideas that helped create that bond must now at this point not outweigh the evidence that is in front of your eyes-- that Sharon Gans or Alex Horn and their respective inner circles are not really for you. They are parasites and vampires who have successfully exploited you, and you must rid yourself of them even when it means losing many friends, misguided though they may be. Which is worse, remaining in a prison-- in a punitive and demoralizing environment with your companions-- or being out of prison without them? You must make an intentional decision to maintain that they are wrong and you are right. Can you do that? Yes, you can. Have the courage to get out of group-think.

What about "consciousness?" Are you frightened of losing "everything?" Consider this: Is it possible that the phenomenon called "self-remembering" is actually a form of auto-hypnosis? Is it a coincidence that Gurdjieff was a professional hypnotist before "discovering" the Ideas? Is it possible that the power that Sharon Gans or Alex Horn or the other ones has over you and so many others is based on your capacity to reach a semi-hypnotic state that they "teach" you in the first place? By considering these alternative explanations you may strengthen your resolve to get out as fast as you can.

What about the lure of Higher Sex, eroticism, and "sex energy" connected with "self-remembering?" Think about it: if it is possible that self-remembering is simply a way to hypnotize yourself, then it is also possible that the urges you repress that belong to your libido are freed a little bit. Unrepressed libido and "sex energy" are equatable-- yes, it could be that simple. Be courageous enough to think about it.

Again, after you have gotten past this obstacle of leaving your friends behind, the way out is simple: With either Sharon or Alex's group, the only thing that these people understand is force, threats, intimidation, power, and the possibility of exposure. After your last "class" or "meeting," leave pretending that all is normal. Say nothing of your intention and be resolved to never return. Then, when you are contacted by a partner for missing your next meeting...remain vague and inform them that you have decided to leave-- you do not need to give an explanantion no matter how coercive they may be. No, you do not owe them an explanantion! Whatever you do, do not be talked into announcing your departure in class! You do not owe your jailers anything! Tell them that you want no further calls and you are not open to any persuasion. If they persist, remain vague but allude to either an investigative reporter acquaintance at a local newspaper, an acquaintance at the local police department, or a friend at the FBI. Any threat of an authority or potential menace that can expose Alex Horn or Sharon Gans will scare them away for good. Be prepared for a lot of idle threats and violent language though-- that's the last-ditch effort of a so-called Higher Being having a tantrum. In the end, though, it is all bark. Alex Horn and Sharon Gans may be psychopaths but they are also cowards interested only in self-preservation. They will continue to "do" nothing but talk, as they have been "doing" for many many years. If there were such a thing as Sleep, Mechanicality, buffers, and real Conscience in the sense they speak of it, those two and their crowd are much worse off than you-- and incurably so.

you post is fantastic. Well written, etc. I was a child in this cult and am suffering now as an adult from the aftershocks. were you exposed to this all your life as well? were you abused by Alex/Sharon as a Boy? or did you join when you were already grown?
I wish you all the best

Blue

I've tried to reach you many times. Hope this one gets through this way. You would remember me from" school ". Ileft in 92, alone with no one to speak to about it. Many years later your letters have helped me even now to know I was correct in my conviction that something was very wrong there. I had to draw my own conclusions, especially after meeting with people from the Fellowship of Friends, and feeling that group out for falseness as well. Several years ago someone I brought to "school" left who told me about a grand exodus of people including you. I was pretty shocked. I hope you are doing all right. I've recently attended a couple of meetings at the Foundation, which even though is vastly different, I don't know if I can deal with anything Gurdjieffian. I don't believe he was a kind person, or led people to a path with a heart. Also I never believed The Work as it is called owns any of the ideas, or gives enought credit to places from where these were learned. May be In Search did a bit. Anyway, thank you for your work encouraging and offering help to others. I'm not very good with this mesaging thing.

Please don't post emails.

Wait until you have private messaging or post at the board to communicate.

We have had problems regarding posted email addresses.

Quote
cber7
You are being preyed upon by phonies-- very clever, manipulative, and charming (when they need to be) frauds. They crave three things-- money, power, and a sense of self-importance-- to excess. Any shred of self-doubt about their motives and behavior disappeared long ago-- they have convinced themselves that they are superior to you and others, further justifying their need for power, money, and self-importance. ... They will dangle the carrot of "meaning," "consciousness," and "freedom" before you but at the same time undermine your self-esteem by showing you how mechanical and helpless you are.

Over the course of many years they have surrounded themselves with weak-spirited and wretched lackeys whose real motivation is also the lust for power, money and the need to feel important.

Well said, Cber7 - I beleive that these statements could also be applied to many others in the guru business.

Hello Acurond, I was in the NY group around your time. I left in July of 91.
Please contact me via my email address posted under The Recovery section and the post "Sharon Gans quot the work quot"

Is Anne Haas (Alex Horn's first wife) the same person as Anne Haas Dyson?
Have you seen these websites:

www.seedsoflearning.org
www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~rsmith/overview.htm

OK

does anyone know where anne haas is today? is she still active in group activities in nyc? michael horn, son of alex horn, runs a theater in manhattan...and codirects plays with his mother "ann bowen"...is michael horn the son of anne haas or of sharon gans? why is his last name horn if he's anne burridge's son? is he still associated with alex horn? is he involved in cult activities? i would like to know as i'm an actor who has been approached by michael horn/ann bowen to join their theater company, and was surprised and alarmed when i googled them on the web and found all the cult history...also the fact that they charge their actors membership dues sounds suspicious...but i want to be sure before i write them off as their theater does produce good work....however i have heard that both michael and anne can be diabolical in nature and tough to work with (although this can be true of many theater directors who don't have a cult background)....any info would be appreciated!

Michael Horn is not the son of Sharon Gans.
Check this out:
[bbs.backstage.com]
Maybe you are onto something.