Thank you, Corboy,

All of this is true. In addition, you can hold someone responsible/accountable for a specific threat, but when they deliberately make it vague and confusing, they can claim that it wasn't a threat. They can chalk it up to your interpretation, and if you push it, they will turn the tables; saying that YOU are being problematic, or just plain paranoid.

When this was done in the forum, I recall looking around at other people. Most of the other people in the room were doing the same -looking around in confusion. I think we were all trying to discern if anyone else knew what he was talking about.

Since this was at the end of the forum, it was already well-established that the forum leader was completely in control of the conversation. He kept it brief, and then moved on to other topics. By that time, anyone who would have demanded an explanation had either already left, or been removed, I think. Most people seemed uncomfortable, and I think wanted to get back on the "solid ground" of their possibilities and feel-good testimonials.

I wonder how many people remember this from the Tuesday night session. I wonder if many just mentally discarded it, as it seemed to make no sense, and didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the session.

corboy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Another person's description of the fear
> exercise.
>
> [medium.com]
>
>

Quote

Fear exercise
> this was the biggest no-no to me…and I actually
> stepped out after this…
>
> an hour long exercise had us all sit with our eyes
> closed and the coach walked us through feeling
> intense terrorizing fear. We were told to be truly
> terrified of the people sitting next to
> us?—?everyone in the room?—?everyone in
> california?—?everyone in the states?—?everyone on
> the globe. He dramatically dragged it out for
> roughly 30 minutes telling us to think of being
> traumatized, to think of our childhood and to
> truly meet fear. People in the room were
> screaming, crying, belting out “help me.” To be
> honest, I tried to participate because I wanted to
> know if there was somehting here but I ended up
> just feeling frustrated by the insensitivity and
> emotional abuse this was to people.
>
> after traumatizing probably a dozen of 150 people,
> he then said, “look beyond the fear and see what’s
> there….this whole time you thought you were afraid
> of people, they are actually afraid of YOU.
> everyone in the world is afraid of YOU. you are
> the most powerful person in the world.”
> bottom line is emotional abuse?—?they can’t keep
> doing this.

Thanks Corboy, as this is exactly what happened in the fear exercise I experienced but my mind had wiped the detail last night.

To add more details to this thread, in response to Kdag's experiences which jogged my memory.

One element that also destabilised me was the way they would always make it the participant's fault and never the LGAT's, if you experienced a problem. I'll give you a specific example.

On my 2nd weekend, a few months after the initial weekend, I experienced such a powerful sense of fear that I wanted to die. I went to the toilets,crying and one of the volunteers found me and took me to talk to one of the senior members of the company.

I told the man that I wanted to die and instead of being kind and concerned, he turned it back on me and said that I had hurt him by revealing this.I was stunned and apologised. Which of course what he wanted me to feel and do.

He then made it even worse by saying that I needed a man in my life and basically to 'shut up' and be grateful.

I was traumatisted by this back then but with the view of hindsight, it was a painful but useful learning experience in the way people attempt to control others.

I no longer blame myself for the pain all this caused and realise how I was being manipulated. And this helped release me from the depression I felt on leaving a LGAT.

Gloria G,

Yes, in addition to fear, they also instill a tremendous amount of guilt. If you are not susceptible to one, they will try for the other. It seemed to me that they aimed for everyone's Achille's heels, and exploited them as much as they possibly could.