Has anyone heard of this group that runs some "self-help" weekend seminar called "Turning Point"? Here is a news story about how effective they apparently are:

[www.smh.com.au]

Also see:

[www.theage.com.au]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/2009 06:02AM by Sparky.

Hey Sparky,

I've lobbed another articles in to the www.cultnews.net site, namely this one and this one.

To be honest I'd never head of this group before. Possibly they were just eeking along quietly as a new age wrappered version of the est / Landmark Education large-group-brainwashing thing. Their web site at www.peopleknowhow.com.au goes as far back as 2003.

Glad that it is being processed through the courts and hope that the prosecutors have had access to the relevent resources as to how these events work.

John

PS. This article just in. I really wouldn't be going to People Knowhow for advice if I was you. Peole Knowhow really aren't the brightest of the litter.

Hi, John Fox. I posted those links in my first message from your postings at www.Cultnews.net site. I really appreciate you keeping us abreast of all the cults and happenings down under.

I especially like the linked website. This 'new' LGAT looks like it is populated by poltroons. I wonder if they will take Rebekah's recent head-line grabbing news and link to it on their site.

Probably not.

Well, this one is continuing to rain headlines. Just added another six links to www.cultnews.net

So much to do, so little time ...

John

Actually, make that a total of seven additional links now.

John

Hi there

There seems to be some misinformation out there in regards to People Knowhow. I've done a couple of courses with them over the last two years, and maybe the insights that I gained will help.

1) I followed with great interest the coverage about the Rebekah Lawrence inquest. What I read in the Daily Telegraph and other papers was one side and misleading.
2) My understanding of a cult is that an organization wants to draw people back into its nets for the benefit of the organization. People Knowhow give you the skills to manage life. After the course was finished they told us 'and now go out there out there and have a good life'.
3) The programs People Knowhow run are based on Somatic Psychotherapy, Bioenergetics (Alexander Lowen), Meditation, Ken Wilber, authors like Roger Walsh (Essential Spirituality), to name the most important ones from my experience.
4) The staff and teachers at People Knowhow are trained and qualified psychotherapists. Somehow this piece of information has been omitted in the press.
5) I believe that 40,000 people have done the course. Of all the people I have met all had had a positive experience. My life has certainly changed for the better to an extent which I could not have imagined.
6) If Rebekah Lawrence's death was the result of her doing the course then that is one fatality too many. Corrective actions needs to be taken to ensure that something like this can't happen again. After all, when people started to get injured in car accidents, the authorities didn't ban cars, but put in seat belts and air bags.
7) My heart goes out to the family of Rebekah Lawrence.

I hope this was helpful.

Hi Bluedevil, and welcome to the forum.

I haven't been to one of the courses, but I expect that it will have the same characteristics as other Large Group Awareness Training organisations. The exception being that it's wrapped up in a New Age presentation, which is in itself a disconnect from reality. Essentially, a LGAT which targets the new age market segment.

As these events are ultimately an exercise in large group brainwashing, it is possible that you yourself are still compromised as you have attended a course.

Whilst it is possible for the media to be biased with editors pre-determining the angle and direction of reporting, you have to remember that all these reports are coming as a result of the Coronial Inquest in to the death of a woman. Standards of admisibility for evidence and testimony will apply. This is not the "misinformation" that you are hoping colour the reportage with.

Likewise, she lept from the window at the Royal Australasian College of Phyisicians in front of her colleagues. The witnesses to her character, behavioural changes and demise are as credible as it gets.

If you feel that the courses are taught by qualified instructors, then you have been lied to and deceived. To quote from a report, "The State Coroner's Court in Glebe was told that none of the teachers or support team at Turning Point had formal qualifications in psychotherapy or counselling to conduct the courses, during which people often became distraught."

And that's about as stark as it gets.

It doesn't matter how many people have done a course, it won't make a course any better or worse. To use a medical analogy, thousands of people have undergone chemotherapy to batter cancer into submission. The stronger and younger will tolerate chemo well whilst the weaker may not even survive it. It doesn't change the fact that chemotherapy involves injecting a cocktail of toxic drugs and (should the patient survive) there are negative consequences for their general health for the rest of their lives.

It could be that you have been wildly deceived when the course was sold to you ... or you have arrived as an apologist doing "damage control" for the organisation.

John

Welcome, bluedevil. As one who has participated with People Knowhow your views are of interest. One thing you did post that concerns me a little is that (in your experience) everyone taking the course had a positive experience.

I think this is a first for human history. Not everyone going to church has a positive experience. Not everyone receiving psychotherapy has a postive experience. Hell, not everyone getting married to 'their soul mate' has a positive experience.

Sounds kinda culty to me.

And to top it off ....

"THE owner of a company behind a self-help course attended by a woman who jumped naked to her death just days later admitted yesterday that its procedures and staff were "inadequate" -- and remain so, more than 3½ years after her death."

Both clueless and careless ... which is right up there with the reality-disconnect and lack of critical thinking that you get in the New Age sphere.

You can read that one and more here.

John

Hi guys

Thanks for the responses. Quite an eye opener really.

Now how am I going to respond in a dignified way after having been told by John that "it is possible that you yourself are still compromised as you have attended a course"??? John, what exactly makes you an authority on other people's state of mind, based on a posting on the Internet?

I find it rather interesting that people who appear to be very intelligent seem are willing to question seemingly everyone and everything that looks cultish, and on the other had are just as willing to believe everything that appears in the media.

What else can I say?

Sparky: We were 24 who did the course. I questioned the myself about my statement that everyone had a positive experience. Does walking away with a more positive outlook on life count? To have been given ways for stress and anger management, how to be more authentic in relationship with others? Does one person worrying more about losing his job because of cancer than about his health on Wednesday and having reversed this attitude by Sunday count as positive experience? I would like to argue so. I was there.
You are right, I did not enjoy every part of the workshop. Some of the exercises made me feel very uncomfortable. I am assuming that the others had similar experiences.
Still, I maintain that everyone walked away having had a positive experience, whichever way you may want to interpret it.

I am really struggling not to be sarcastic, but I hope you are doing a better job on this site with other comments than with mine.

Cherio