GREAT LIFE sells itself on creating an environment of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE within the group and then trying to spread it around the world.
The irony here is that for the first 2 classes they have you go thru FEEDBACK ARCS where your peers and trainers tell you how you show up to the group.
Most people break down into tears during this exercise not to mention the countless other exercises that make you truly want to change who you have been.

If GREAT LIFE loved you unconditionaly then why would you need this feedback?
Why would you need to change anything about yourself....they love you
the way you are....right?
The conditions of unconditional love are obvious. It must last forever, it cannot change a person, and it
cannot ask for anything in return.

GREAT LIFE before you even graduate asks for more of your money for enrollment for the next class!
They even encourage you to ask for it from friends and family if you dont have it!

They are basically saying....WE LOVE YOU UNCONDITIONALLY BUT UNLESS YOU CAN COME UP WITH $500 YOU CAN'T COME BACK!
THAT IS A HUGE CONDITION RIGHT THERE!

Unconditional forgiveness can have negative consequences. Endless forgiveness for the same offences
rewards the offender and guarantees that the bad behavior will continue indefinitely.

Forgiveness is often used
as a license to commit the same offence over and over.
Many women have forgiven their husbands for cheating
only to find the adulterous behavior repeated.

Thus, unconditional forgiveness, which is a part of unconditional
love, can open the door to victimization.
An unending cycle of forgiveness means an unending cycle of abuse.

Unconditional and endless forgiveness rewards mistreatment and reinforces abuse.

IT AMAZES ME THE PEOPLE THAT GO THRU GREAT LIFE COME OUT EXPECTING UNCONDITIONAL LOVE BUT THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW
HOW TO GIVE IT FIRST! IF THEY DID THEN NO ONE WOULD LEAVE THEIR HUSBAND OR WIFE OR LOSE FRIENDS AND FAMILY OVER A 4 DAY COURSE!!!!

The changes I have seen in my partner since she came back from PART 2... THE BRILLIANCE WITHIN...which should
really be called....THE ARROGANCE WITHIN are as follows:

1) More self absorbed than ever before. Takes no responssibilty for her actions or words and how they effect anyone around her.
"It's their fault for taking it personally!"......I laughf at this train of thought....she takes everything said to her at GREAT LIFE personally but has
no accountaabilty for what she says to others since she has come home.

2) Hasn't talked to any family members since she got back...hasn't called her brother or gone to visit her parents who live 8 miles away. She used to do this every sunday like clock work.

3) Uses the term SHUT UP alot in arguments...never used to say this before GREAT LIFE.

4) Tired and confused all the time. Naps constantly!

5) Stopped going to the gym and running and swimming...she used to do all 3 activities 4 times a week.

6) Eats fast food and has gained about 15 lbs because of lack of activity and healthy food choices. Drinks constantly and gets drunk to the point of
passing out every 4 days. She never drank before GREAT LIFE...ever! LOUDLY Claims.....THIS IS WHO I AM NOW!!!!

7) Believes this is her journey and everyone needs to either accept it or leave! Very crushing since we have been together for over 5 years and now I am just background noise.

8) She has signed up for PART 3 LIVING THE GREAT LIFE which is another $800. We haven't done anything together since she has started these trainings but she consistently makes time and finds the cash to disappear for 5 days at a time to worship BRETT HARWARD.

9) Has this desire for more training and wants to now be a trainer herself. She is trying to become BRETT in every way!
Her vocabulary has changed....no more HELP it is now ASSIST. No more..."I'm sorry" it is now..."Your playing the victim".

10) Wants UNCONDITIONAL LOVE and SUPPORT but clearly hasn't shown any sign of it towards me at all! You GET WHAT YOU GIVE!

GOD DOESN'T EVEN PRACTICE UNCONDTIONAL LOVE.......IF HE DID THE 10 COMMANDMENTS WOULDN'T EXIST!!!!!

HE IS COMMANDING US TO LIVE A CERTAIN WAY IN ORDER TO GO TO HEAVEN...OTHERWISE WE GO TO HELL!!!

SO HOW CAN THIS WOMAN DEMAND SOMETHING EVEN GOD DOESN'T GIVE?????????

GREAT LIFE IS SELLING A FAIRY TALE TO PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT IN A GOOD PLACE TO BEGIN WITH.......

The environment GREAT LIFE creates for 4 days is the most CONTROLLED and CONDTIONED envrionment trainees have ever been in. Done with dim lighting
and music much like a magic show! They feel after being CONDTIONED for 4 days that this envrionment is their new reality and quickly become unhappy
with the real world once the step back into it! Thus craving more training and the high of the manufactured UNCONDTIONAL LOVE they pay for!

THIS VIDEO IS SO EXTREME THAT IT IS SCRAY ON HOW ACCURATE THE PRACTICES IN GREAT LIFE ACTUALLY ARE!
THEY DO THESE TECHNIQUES IN ONE FORM OR ANOTHER. A MUST WATCH FOR ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN TO PART 1 OF
ANY TYPE OF LGAT( Large Group Awarness Training) such as GREAT LIFE,IMPACT,LIFESPRING,HARMONY,LANDMARK,PSI and the other countless clones.....

THIS SHOULD MAKE YOU LAUGH BUT A THE SAME TIME WAKE YOU UP TO WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnNSe5XYp6E

Great Life bases their training off THE SECRET.

Dave Chappelle sums up THE SECRET very simply in this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbS9jZOlQjc

If the training methods GREAT LIFE used were so great then they would stand behind them and let the results speak for themselves!
No high pressure selling on the last day to "COMMITMENT TO YOUR JOURNEY".
No guilt for not handing over a deposit so everyone will cheer and hug you again.
No peer pressure to continue on with your "buddies".

Your "Buddies" are the best selling tool they have! Peer accountability and acceptance is 100 times stronger than BRETT calling you himself and asking
when is your next class!


GREAT LIFE knows the longer you are away from the group that their training methods will evaporate...why? Because they were manufactured emotions that do not relate to the real world! If they did then everyone would be back as soon as the scraped up another $400 or $800 for the training! If it truly worked why wouldn't they?

To try and guilt someone into coming up with a deposit by telling them "You obviously didn't get it and you need more!" or "Your hiding from your commitment just like you did before you walked in here!" or "Your not really commited to your journey are you?". Is bullying at it's best!!!

What about my commitment my family? I have know them alot longer than you or anyone else in this filthy puke stained room!

A 4 day crash course in who I really am or want to be is basically saying "Your past doesn't matter!" Well then I might as well not have learned from my mistakes and get rid of all my memories and throw away my family albums and my resume is gonna be blank as well. They are part of who I am!!!! My past is my JOURNEY and my past makes up part of my life STORY! To discount every thing I have done up until now is BullS**T!

Found out on facebook that BRETT HARWARD the trainer for GREAT LIFE apparently dated a 20 year old trainee while he was married to his current
wife! They must have an open marriage or really practice UNCONDTIONAL LOVE for each other! Nice one BRETT! Lead by example!!!

What is chemicaly happening in the brain during a 4 day GREAT LIFE course

While not identical, most LGATs follow the following basic process:

1. Spend the first 80% of the training convincing participants that they are worthless "assholes"
2. Put the participants through numerous exercises and create an environment where participants feel inadequate, highly stressed and guilty
3. Pepper the stress with relaxation techniques before inducing stress again
4. Push this to a climax (breaking point / "breakthrough")
5. Deprive participants of sleep and create mental exhaustion by giving few breaks, having very long hours and giving home work on top of this
6. Spend the last 20% of the training telling participants that they have "graduated" and that they are now wonderful. Lots of hugging, dancing, affirmation
What these trainings are doing is simply creating stress and a sense of no self-worth while depriving people of sleep. By applying and removing stress the courses condition DOPAMINE production to remain at higher and higher levels (much like adrenaline kicks in quickly, but takes a while to calm down.) As the training ends the stressor is removed and replaced with affirmation - participants are now producing dopamine but are not using it and their synaptic clefts are flooded with dopamine, in much the same way as taking cocaine causes flooding of the synaptic cleft. Conveniently the follow up workshop is two days later - at this stage not only will most peoples' dopamine production still be up, but they will have had the chance to sleep and so the dopamine produced for staying awake will also flood the synaptic cleft. Excessive spending and generosity (who remembers either offering (or being offered) to pay for someone else's course - someone you'd met four days earlier?) are common symptoms of hypomania so for LGATs it's nice to get a group of people together - who are feeling a euphoria that they don't understand - and ask them to buy something. This is why you have to buy the next course NOW - the longer the delay, the greater the chance that the high (and impulsivity) will have worn off.

TO BE VERY CLEAR STRESS AND SLEEP DEPRIVATION BOOST DOPAMINE LEVELS BEYOND NORMAL AND, ACCORDING TO THE DOPAMINE HYPOTHESIS FOR BIPOLAR DISORDER, BEYOND NORMAL DOPAMINE LEVELS ARE WHAT CAUSE MANIC AND HYPO-MANIC SYMPTOMS. THE BEHAVIOUR, AND DESCRIBED FEELINGS, OF LGAT PARTICIPANTS READ EXACTLY LIKE HYPOMANIC / MANIC SYMPTOMS.

This is not rocket science – it is easy enough for any person to understand.

Interesting posts. A friend of mine had received a facebook message as well about Brett Harward dating a 20 year old. Apparently someone sent that out to a bunch of people on facebook. The guy who sent the message was a guy name Mark Vreeland. Kind of looks a little cooky on his posts. Anyway, this Mark guy quotes a someone named Kevin Reynolds as the person who told him about Brett's dating a 20 year old. Mark said in his messages he sent out that Kevn saw a post on Rhonda Nobles wall about Brett dating a 20 year old. My friend can't find a Rhonda Nobles that is friends with Kevin or Mark. That appears to be a fictional FB friend. My friend messaged Kevin and Kevin responded by saying he didn't know a Brett Harward nor has he posted anything about him. My friend then went to Mark Vreeland and asked what was going on and got back pages of wierd stuff about truth. So far it looks like just a wierd smear campaign with lots of hearsay. I would like to know if it's true though, so if you've got more information or names then I would love to know what those are. Who is the 20 year old trainee is is/was dating. How did you find out about it? Obviously you have a beef with Brett, but I don't want to discount what your saying because of your beef if it's true.

Interesting stuff on the Dopamine. My friends who have attended seem to be doing OK, sorry that you're girlfriend and you are struggling after she went through the LGAT program.

Let me know if you have anymore information other than some unamed persons facebook post. That would be good to know. I've been watching this training and others like it, and if fascinates me to watch people change. I've heard Brett Speak at some KSL stuff, so he seems like a pretty big name outside of Great Life. I don't think that is his main deal.

I did notice that most of what you posted was a month ago. Has anything settled down or changed since then or has it gotten worse?

Large group awareness training (LGAT) has a deeply troubled history of complaints, litigation regarding personal injuries and bad press.

The most prominent LGAT is Landmark Education.

See [www.culteducation.com]

You might find this research paper done by a psychologist who attended an LGAT helpful.

See [www.culteducation.com]

He notes 13 liabilities evident in most LGATs.

1. They lack adequate participant-selection criteria.

2. They lack reliable norms, supervision, and adequate training for leaders.

3. They lack clearly defined responsibility.

4. They sometimes foster pseudoauthenticity and pseudoreality.

5. They sometimes foster inappropriate patterns of relationships.

6. They sometimes ignore the necessity and utility of ego defenses.

7. They sometimes teach the covert value of total exposure instead of valuing personal differences.

8. They sometimes foster impulsive personality styles and behavioral strategies.

9. They sometimes devalue critical thinking in favor of "experiencing" without self-analysis or reflection.

10. They sometimes ignore stated goals, misrepresent their actual techniques, and obfuscate their real agenda.

11. They sometimes focus too much on structural self-awareness techniques and misplace the goal of democratic education; as a result participants may learn more about themselves and less about group process.

12. They pay inadequate attention to decisions regarding time limitations. This may lead to increased pressure on some participants to unconsciously "fabricate" a cure.

13. They fail to adequately consider the "psychonoxious" or deleterious effects of group participation (or] adverse countertransference reactions.

He also points out four danger signs.

1. Leaders had rigid, unbending beliefs about what participants should experience and believe, how they should behave in the group. and when they should change.

2. Leaders had no sense of differential diagnosis and assessment skills, valued cathartic emotional breakthroughs as the ultimate therapeutic experience, and sadistically pressed to create or force a breakthrough in every participant.

3. Leaders had an evangelical system of belief that was the one single pathway to salvation.

4. Leaders were true believers and sealed their doctrine off from discomforting data or disquieting results and tended to discount a poor result by, "blaming the victim."

Typically apologists for LGATs will attempt to discredit criticism by either dismissing people that have not done the LGAT as uninformed, or if they have done the LGAT and are dissatisfied dismissed that criticism as someone who was "uncoachable" or some other thought terminating label.

LGATs frequently use coercive persuasion techniques.

See [www.culteducation.com]

This research paper by a sociologist explains how such techniques are employed.

They rely upon four factors.

1. The reliance on intense interpersonal and psychological attack to destabilize an individual's sense of self to promote compliance

2. The use of an organized peer group

3. Applying interpersonal pressure to promote conformity

4. The manipulation of the totality of the person's social environment to stabilize behavior once modified

I would not recommend an LGAT to anyone for anything, given the history and problems they represent.

See [www.culteducation.com]