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curiousnycgirl
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Last week he had his first i group meeting. He felt it was great, he felt supported, he felt the guys gave him really great advice - specifically on how to gain a relationship with his son (he would say repair, but I don't feel they have one). Interesting that they told him to do the same things I've been saying for years, me (who actually knows and has a realtionship with his son) he ignores, them he listens to.
Thanks very much for your report, curiousnycgirl.
THe phenomenon of a woman making a point, being ignored, and then a man saying the very same thing and being acknowledged is widely documented in the sociological literature. You might want to look up a few articles.
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curiousnycgirl
Anticult I appreciate your passion on this subject, however I have not been able to find any factual documentation to support that MKP is a pyramid scheme, multi level marketing, or any other profit making enterprise. If you have proof of such I would appreciate your sharing it.
Obviously, I'm not speaking for Anticult; I'm just adding my own perspective.
LGATs aren't structured like MLMs or pyramid schemes. They usually aren't directly focused on sales and products. Rather, they latch onto topics of wide public interest -- for example, how to have better relationships, be a better parent, use time more efficiently, lose weight, be more loving, etc and use lower-cost seminars on those topics to lure people through the door. Then they hook those people and drain their bank accounts, because--and here's where they're like MLMs or pyramid schemes-- LGATs don't exist to serve members; they exist to serve top leaders. And that fact alone makes all of them manipulative, exploitative, and destructive.
What LGATs actually offer is the emotional experience -- feelings of bonding, coming home, feeling whole, and so on. Those experiences are the reason people who take these workshops have such a powerful, memorable experience. This "workshop rush" is physiologically no different from the rush a heroin user feels the first time, and it leads to the same disastrous outcomes. Leaders use those emotions in order to create dependence in members, dependence they can then exploit to sell more workshops. They don't arouse emotion to serve members' personal growth, because nothing leaders do is primarily meant to serve members. Any genuinely useful knowledge or skills members might learn is incidental.
And that would have to be the case, because people can find everything offered in an LGAT cheaper and better somewhere else. No information is special, new, or different-- it's all derivative, or plagiarized, or wholly invented. It would have to be, because legitimate researchers and teachers don't use this format.
Scientology is the template for all US-based LGATs. It offers free "personality testing" which is designed to show that the test-taker has problems only Scientology can solve, and the first few courses are quite cheap. Then, as people become convinced that Scientology has all the answers and is the only way to a fulfilling, worthwhile life, the courses become costlier and the demands for money unceasing.
The numerous deaths and bankruptcies that Scientology is responsible for are well-documented (as are the sad consequences ex-participants in many LGATs have suffered). Nothing built on this template has, or can have, a long-term positive impact on anyone's well-being.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2010 07:25AM by Christa.