Dear Americans,

I have originally posted this in another thread before but a friend told me to start a separate topic instead and post the message again. - If anyone has to read this twice now: Please forgive me!

A little information about myself and the case: I live in Germany. The setting here is very similar to the one Freeheart described in his original posting concerning his involvement in M3. My brother has been getting involved in the seminars of a company called "CoachingAcademie Bielefeld" who's leaders are Maria Craemer and her husband Stephan Craemer. Their seminars are held with 70 - 160 participants, my brother has completed the first level and is now working as an 'assistant'. He is completely extatic, happy and 'transformed'. He is runnning around trying to persuade everyone to take part and pay for being 'transformed' too. His wife is also very high on this, although she hasn't taken part in any training so far. Additional info: Both of them have desparately been trying to have a baby for the past years. My mom (who even is somewhat of an expert on religious groups) has been to one of their 'introductions' and after returning told me that she too would be taking part if she wasn't that old. Thank God she is!

The CA Bielefeld makes VERY shure not to give ANY impression that would bring them into conflict with German laws. - Still I have the firm impression that they twist peoples minds in these trainings. All the sentences I hear from my brother aren't his own anymore. They seem to be learned by heart! And you can find the SAME sentences with exactly the SAME wording everywhere on the (German) web by everyone arguing pro CA Bielefeld.

Years ago Maria and Stephan Creamer had a very similar company together with Maria's sister Reinhild. That one was even more evil, trying to subdue people even more and pressing every penny from them. As prosecution set in, Reinhild and her husband then fled from Germany to France to continue the group there. They later went to prison in France then. The Creamers now argue, that they have always distanced themselves from Reinhild and that in those times it has been only Reinhild who was the bad one.

Maria and Stephan have spent several years in the States years ago. I guess it might have been something like approx. 25 years ago. They even mention having worked in San Francisco on their website. According to what I know from a former 'soulmate' of Reinhild, it was actually THEM who took Reinhild to SF too.


I am now looking for people who knew Maria and/or Stephan in those days. Or maybe Reinhild.
I need to find out WHO they have been in touch with and if possible I need to have some kind of proof for this.
I need to find out where they have learned what they are now using to get to peoples money and to ruin their lives.

Could anyone PLEASE get in touch with me?!
Even if you don't know them personally you might know someone I could ask...


All the best from Germany
Thilo

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Unsere sympathische Ferienwohnung in Leipzig: [www.littlehome.net]

Hi,

your message drew my attention since I myself attended two seminares of the coachingacademie in Germany.
What you wrote made me think twice about the real motivations of the couple Stefan and Maria Craemer.
It´s true that I first found their rhetoric very convincing and the way they displayed themselves as the embodiment of the perfect couple very impressive.
Now I´m pretty sure that they try to induce trust and admiration in order to delevop a cultic relationship between the audience and them.
Since I read your post, I made some research in the German web and found very interesting elements concerning the firm Kontext GmbH which was run by Reinhild and her Husband such as the charges they faced.
Could you tell me if you know about the case of somebody working for the coachingacademie who got in trouble trying to get out of it.
I have a very good friend with whom I got to know the coachingacademie who is interested in doing a training to become a coach. I warned him about what I found on the internet but he won´t listen. Could you give me please more facts that made you think that they operate like a sect.
Thank you

J.

Dear Jeanne,

Thanks for picking up the thread. A lot has happened last year and is still happening:
- my brother's wife took the first training too
- so did her mother
- and several other friends of them, at least two I know personally
- my brother and his wife took the "Relationship Training" together
- my brother is still assisting "voluntarily" in the other trainings the CA Bielefeld gives
- contact between my brother and his wife and the rest of the family is growing faint (is that how you say it?)
- my brother's wife signed up for "Communication Training" and even convinced her new employer to pay for it (actually this must be happening these days sometime. I haven't heard of them for longer...)

Both my brother and his wife are very "successful" now in their jobs. However, with many things that happen, I have the feeling that they have been trained to what I would describe as "distort their perception of things." They call it "to put it in the right context." There is that word again... Remember Kontext GmbH, the company that Reinhild ran (and Maria and Stephan were deeply involved in). What they (quite effectively) do is whenever anything happens that they actually do not like, they look for an interpretation that makes it LOOK GOOD. And then they hammer that interpretation into their minds and become SOOOOO HAPPY about it!
Strangely enough, this really works! On the OUTSIDE...! Something NLP-like I guess... However, you don't even need to watch them closely to see that this really costs them LOTS of energy. They laugh, they smile, they are extremely (overly) kind even to people that confront them (me for example) and you can see that every little bit costs them energy. Everything that does not automatically match their way of looking at the world needs to be reframed, rethought, recontexted to fit into their picture of the world.

But to get to your simple question at the very end, Jeanne: All the main points that characterize a sect, can be found...
1.) a charismatic leader, the one and only... You have said that yourself! "Maria & Stephan Craemer, the embodiment of the perfect couple"
2.) a monolythic scheme... "The CA Bielefeld has a simple answer to all the questions in your life. As long as you live along the guidelines provided by Maria & Stephan you will be happy, prosperous, successful... Anyone who critizises something is said to grudge them their success, should possibly be avoided..."
3.) Money... The trainings cost a lot of money. From 600 EUR to several thousand EUR per person.
4.) Exploitation... The assistants work for free and are often asked to work more in order to get closer to achieving the goals.
5.) Recruiting... Every participant is asked to share their positive new view with their relatives and to "invite" them to join the informational evenings. Assistants even have to buy vouchers for these informational evenings themselves and sell them to their relatives. If they don't sell them all, they don't get refunded.
6.) Techniques... The seminars seem to involve a lot of hypnosis and NLP and many aspects common to other LGATs... closed eyes sessions, bringing innermost feelings into the open/group, singing, chanting, sounds and screeming, repetetive slogans, promises and vows, very long sessions exhausting participants, deprival of "normal" relaxational escapes like pauses and even smoking/alcohol in the evenings, etc...

As said in my first post: The CA Bielefeld has a "good" explanation for everything and makes VERY sure not to get into conflict with German law. Maria & Stephan have learned from Reinhild's plight. They don't bend the bow until it breaks... Rather, they make sure to shoot MANY golden arrows instead of shooting them too far!

I hope you'll be able to convince your friend - but honestly: I doubt it, if he is already in there! I have talked with several people by now who have been part of both Kontext GmbH and the now newer CA Bielefeld. All, so far, have told me that most people recognize what is going on at some point in the game while climbing the ladder. Especially in the higher courses, only for the ones that are already very close to the inner circle and who have already spent 10.000....20.000 EUR on the courses, the leaders open up parts of their secrets and openly explain how to get more and more victims involved. This, supposedly, is the point when many people recognize what is going on and quit. Next to loosing all that money, the worst thing is the STATE that victims sometimes are in when they quit. For some it takes YEARS of psychotherapy to get back to normal. Others quit at earlier stages either because they have a breakdown from all that mind-twisting recontexting or simply because they run out of money.

All the best for you! And please share your thoughts and experiences here.
Thilo

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Unsere sympathische Ferienwohnung in Leipzig: [www.littlehome.net]