Landmark-Lifespring-Impact Training
Date: June 12, 2005 10:41PM
[quote="amrosie"...... During the third level of the training, there is indeed a big emphasis on enrolling people into the training, which serves both financial (keeps the training running) and personal (assists the trainee to put into action the leadership and empowerment tools they've been garnering throughout the course of their own training) purposes.]
--(No.....not "assists," but "compells" the "trainee" - the one "trained," as you would train a dog - not "leadership and empowerment tools," rather "emotional coercion, domination, and manipulation tactics," they've been, not "garnering," but "covertly inlfluenced and persuaded into accepting" in the course of their own "indoctrination," not "training.")
[I tried desperately to get my own family to do the training five years ago, but have come to realize that they are own their own unique journey in life, and Impact doesn't have to be a part of that. Fortunately, unlike many major religions, Impact DOES NOT suggest to its trainees that NOT doing the training will lead to an individual being lost or suffering eternal damnation.]
--Desperately? Sounds kind of scary. And pathetic.
And just because they don't use the words "lost" or "damned," doesn't mean they don't get the same sort of idea across.
[As far as spousal relationships go, I find that it has been best with both my partner and myself as graduates. As one could imagine, with involvement in any organization, when both partners are involved, there is a higher likelihood that they will both 'be on the same page' philosophically and in lifestyle.]
--Yes, not as likely to want to "deprogram" one another, at least initially.
[One final note: the training is supposed to be a lifelong process]
--Yikes!
[.... and often, new graduates are very diehard in their approach to learning lessons from life and instituting life-changing decisions. Impact does not support this, and asks the trainees to commit to not make any serious life changes (occupational, spousal, etc.) for, I believe, at least thirty days]
--Thirty days! You can't be serious.
[.... after the completion of the training. After this period, the initial feelings should have worn off and been replaced by a deeper wisdom that life is life,]
--Huh? "Life is life" constitutes "deeper wisdom?"
[and that there are some things just left well enough alone.]
--And you paid (?) how much for this "deeper wisdom?"
[I agree with an earlier post that if you simply allow them to make their pleas for you to enroll, they will eventually stop. If you feel like there's something for you at Impact, then, by all means, go. But Impact is not supposed to be something about force, and know that your family member's desire to see you all go is founded in love.]
--No it's not. It's founded in cult recruitment of others as a means to personal "salvation," "deliverance," or "transformation."
[They have seen the deep connection that they can share with seeming strangers through the course of their training, and now they wish to have that same connection with their partner, family, and friends.]
--No, they have seen an artifical and contrived "connection" designed by professional manipulators and hucksters to create false intimacy for recruitment and retention purposes.
[Perhaps they will realize that they can achieve this without having everyone they know go through the training, perhaps not, but at the core of the training is the idea that it is up to each of us as individuals to change the world, with or without Impact.
Best of luck to you!]
--Well, yes, the "love-bombing," rah-rah, high energy, focused attention, camraderie, and "learned optimisism" can be intoxicating for lots of people. But after and underneath that is a "core" change, that is, in exchange for all the feel-good aspects of participation, one has unwittingly given over "permission" to have his or her beliefs altered. These beliefs are such deeply held convictions and conjectures as those that concern how the world works and how other people behave. They are impressions, most coming from very early childhood, that have cohered or solidified into basic personality and character traits. Do you imagine people should be lured into this "deal" without knowing about the tactics that will be used on them? Do you think it is moral or ethical to sneak or worm your way into the innermost parts of another's mind without a full disclosure that that is what you are doing? What cults and LGATs do is more closedly related to religious conversion than to propaganda, though they are both in the same business - changing people's minds covertly to benefit mainly the leaders and owners.
Ellen