I'm looking for information about this cult.

Let us know when you find some. ;)

How about posting a link?



Ellen

I can give you info. Let me know what you are seeking.

www.option.org and www.autismtreatmentcenter.com

This place is a cult and an awful place to work!!!

Quote

We Are Belief-Making and Belief-Consuming Creatures.

Seriously. Do people who take Landmark "training" just go to thesaurus.com and find synonyms for Landmark "ideas?"

Landmark="We are Meaning-Making Machines."

Ugh.

Sorry if any of you are involved in this...from the website, it sounds like a carbon-thesaurus.com-copy of Landmark.

Glam

This is an interesting thread for me since I studied Option Institute materials and took one weekend course there about 20 years ago. I never really considered it a cult (even though I had previously been a member for about six months of what I later came to consider a "cult" - the Way International - at the urging of my sister, who is still involved). As a result of my involvement with the Way, I had read as much information about cults as I could.

As I have suffered from depression most of my life, I was always looking for a way to heal myself and so was very open to a lot of new age and cult-like belief systems. I finally realized that while sounding good, my experience with the Option Institute did very little to help my depression (they even have a seminar claiming to help people with depression). I think one of the problems with all these kinds of programs claiming to "transform" people's lives, is the unrealistic expectations that they foster - almost as if being a fallible human being with modest ambitions means being a failure. It's not about being accepting of yourself, but about turning yourself into someone else's idea of a perfect in-human being. Yuck!!!

P

As a former employee of The Option Institute, I can tell you that the 'deprocessing' of being around these crazy people day after day takes alot of time and energy.

First of all, anyone who 'omits the truth' or 'doesn't say what they are thinking' is considered - and CALLED - a liar. This includes the staff. I suppose this gives anyone who works there license to be as hateful as they possibly can to each other.

Employees are subject to 'staff classes' where they explore issues in the workplace. If you refuse to play along, you are said to be 'inauthentic' and treated completely unfairly.

Employees are called names, belittled and asked to believe in what they teach there in order to keep their jobs. Employee Improvement Plans are invoked when a staff member disagrees with what they teach.

Barry Neil Kaufman tries to take credit for creating "The Option Process", which he did not create. It's no surprise he used to be in advertising. He is everything a cult leader would be expected to be...deceitful, hateful, paranoid and yet, charismatic. His annual salary is outrageous, as is his wife's - who does nothing but sleep all day. I worked there over a year and only saw her at work one day - and that was to grace us with her mighty presence. She, too, is a fraud.

I worked at the Option Institute. I knew the Kaufmans. The cult aspect for me was for the people working there. Paying guests, those there just for the day or a weekend, are treated better.

I'm curious to know why there isn't more known about this place being a cult? It is a bad place, but why is it still so successful?

Are people contacting the Mass Attorney General? IRS? Unemployment? What is being done about the harm that the Kaufmans and their staff are inflicting upon others?

It seems to me that the people who are harmed are not speaking out or at least not to the authorities.

I don't know who the other people posting are, but I was a borderline sub-clinical manic depressive person, again subclinical rage-o-holic, and other things. I felt bad and functioned below my abilities most of my life. I still struggle and am on the road to functioning better and making my life go somewhere as the result of the thinking they teach. Whether they created it or not, their teaching that what you believe about everything you take in is what makes your reaction, both emotional and behavioral (eg. whether you're excited, upset, frustrated, curious, etc. as well as whether you leave the room, ask a question, kiss someone, or yell). It's huge and takes people who are struggling but never badly enough to see a psychologist or psychiatrist (or who just have problems with doing so) from dysfunctional to more functional, wherever that is.

Also my daughter has autism (and I believe I had high functioning asperger's, again though not diagnosed by a professional, since people didn't get that diagnosis easily until recently - you had to be spinning plates or dropping out of school to see a psychologist back then). She is indeed recovering dramatically using their Son-Rise program. You can see my blog about me and her recovering together at barbararose.com. I'm not the only one. I personally know people who I met in my fist class that have children leaving or who have left the autism spectrum. They are in regular school and noone can tell they ever had it. check out their website at son-rise.org and look at testimonials by former autistic people who are having normal lives and can reflect on this earlier part of their life. My daughter went from serious autism to more than halfway recovered, speaking in normal sentence length, saying she loves us, etc. and that website son-rise.org is loaded with other testimonials. I'm actually on there talking about adult autism - you may need to search for adult aspergers and barbara rose (I usually leave out my last name but I'm a mediterranean woman - you'll recognize my story about my daughter Anna there.)

Anyway, I don't vouch for their hiring and staff handling practices, I don't work there. As a participant I happily forked over money to spend my vacation time taking programs there and recommend those who are whipping up controversy over their material to seriously read a bit. Many find it life changing and positive. Noone is perfect. I think they on balance are a benefit over a detriment to myself and the world. That's just my 2 cents, but then again, I've actually been there and seen with my own eyes, and sampled the fruit.

[Moderator note: posting contact information is against the rules you agreed to before posting at this message board]

Best wishes : )



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2013 12:46AM by rrmoderator.

barbararose:

OK.

You are a supporter of the Option Institute and its programs.

You have come to this message board specifically to defend Options and express your support.

Got it.