First off i just want to thank everyone here for being so honest and forthcoming. I have been lurking here for several days. I recently went thru the Basic and Advanced coursed at the Accelerate center in Concord CA. I was also enrolled in the Leadership program. I feel so many of the things that everyone has described here its eerie.

I had actually been avoiding these seminars for about a year everytime a good friend brought it up I had a new reason not to go. Until one day i started a new job and the boss enrolled my husband and I in the course.

My husband never went, he didnt understand why my boss would send him to a training when we were not even in the same industry.

I went and like many others there was so greatful to the person that sent me there. After the advanced course I was already presenting my husband of 13 years with the ultimatum of go or lose me....Not to say that we had a perfect marriage but ffs in 10 days it was unsaveable unless he went. HE had to know the things that i knew now or it was over....HOw could i be so dumb?

3 weeks into my leadership program my uncle died. (I had previously given notice to the new job...to do what I have always wanted to do, Im sure Accelerate will take credit for that.) I took a week off to grieve, handle family matters and bury my uncle. I made those damn coaching calls every day and conference calls too. It took my uncle dying for me to realize these people had sucked me in almost to the point of no return. My commitment had never been questioned until this point when i stepped away. I started getting questions and rpessure from the group and leaders about how they could stand for me to come back and participate, well fuck people thank you for being so completely unreasonable that i woke up. I was still playing their game but i was "being in service" to my real family not to them, which is when they questioned my commitment. Like i said thank you all for being so freaking unreasonable.

The people that run these things and staff them have no format training and are in no way prepared to deal with the very real issues that they will birng to the surface when breaking you down.....

I was brought to tears several times and that is when i questionned how something that could make me feel so horrible could be ok. I stumbled on this forum this after a friend jokingly said i sounded like i drank koolaide. I was angry at him for thinking i was so ignorant. After all I am a college graduate and I consider my self to be intellengent and independent. There is no way I could fall for brainwashing! WRONG.
thank you to whoever pasted the link to Kristin Markums article. it made me ill to read it.

[www.citypages.com]
Smart intelligent oman snowed like me. Though i didnt spend the years that she did, I caould already see the iolation happening when the friends didnt enroll. I had 4 enrolled and have since told them under no circumstances are they to attend this. I have also sent them all here for light reading. lol

The phone hasnt stopped ringing in over a week. Its insane. My head isnt right. I am actually afraid to talk to anyone in the "program" for fear ill get sucked back in I have made an appt with a licensed psychiiatrist next week and I cant wait to get there.

As i think back over the 10 days I spent in the first two courses I am ashamed angry scared and many other things. I said things int here tha can be used against me if someone watned to. Secrets fears the whole shabang. I have never been ne to trust easily and boy they screwed years of that up.

I have to apologize for rambling and typos its late and it all just started coming out. Again thank you for having a place for me to come to when i need reminders of how bad it could have been.

I am a little scared to post his becasue i am sure that it will be seen and several people will know the screen name i used....but it is like a challange for me....I am free to do it!!!!!!!

I am falling asleep as I type this so i will stop rambling after one last point-

If anyone had any doubt ....Acclerate is Lifespring, and though it came from different parents than landmark, its all the same!!!! Scary shit that no one is immune to. PSI Vistar Personal Dynamics alll the same BS under a different name....BEWARE!

jtaylormade,
I am glad you saw what my wife failed to see when she started PSI. She too is a college grad and was one of the smartest women I ever met, and like you, she fell for the PSI "program' hook, line and sinker. I have read that 90 per cent of the people who attend these "seminars" fall for them and it takes some time to work your way back to critical thinking.

Thanks for having the courage to post your story here, it could serve as a lesson for someone else.

Hello Guys,

First off, I'm sorry to hear about your experience with Accelerate. It sounds like you were up against some hard life issues and you did not get the support that you needed. As someone who has attended Beyond Your Best (Great!) and has coached at Accelerate, I feel somewhat qualified to speak about this. I will say that I think the trainings are beneficial, when kept in context, and I will likely work with either or both of these organizations again in the future.

I think what happened with you is very common. There can be a "tunnel vision" in the trainings that enables people to see anything on the "outside" as less important. If you drop out, it can be seen as a lack of commitment, weakness or worse. The truth to me is that the trainings are just that, trainings. You gain tools to use in life. We all have lives and we all have our own paths. There is plenty of talk about trusting the process, but not much effort made to trust the individual's process. There can be a pretty heavy agenda going on which creates a limiting context. I have continued my journey beyond what these trainings offer, and I personally believe that there needs to be more focus on healing from the past, not just "looking to vision."

Now, I understand that's not the focus of this type of training. I believe that it's purpose is to be a wake-up call for areas of life where we have been coasting, and I believe that they are very effective. Anyone who goes to the training, goes because they chose to. If you stay, it is by your own choice and your actions in or out of the training are your responsibility. If the "pressure" is too much - walk. It's just that simple. It is no different than life. If it works for you, keep it up. If not, let it go.

I hope that you might find some positive interpretation of your experience so that you don't leave it as a total waste of time, or worse yet, something that was damaging. I am not at all suprised by your story, but I would say that you were at choice the entire time, and you made the choice that worked for you. Way to go! I'm sure it was in the face of some high pressure, so pat yourself on the back for standing up for your needs.


Although I found the workshops to be great for me and my life, my fiancee might tell you something very different! I can definitely see both sides of the coin.


Take care,

Geoff

Here are some meaningful links that relate to "mass marathon training"

[www.culteducation.com]

Note the liabilities listed and danger signs.

Also see [www.culteducation.com]

This explains how to recognize coercive persuasion techniques.

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mackpappy
Hello Guys,
First off, I'm sorry to hear about your experience with Accelerate. It sounds like you were up against some hard life issues and you did not get the support that you needed. As someone who has attended Beyond Your Best (Great!) and has coached at Accelerate, I feel somewhat qualified to speak about this. I will say that I think the trainings are beneficial, when kept in context, and I will likely work with either or both of these organizations again in the future.

Actually I wasnt "Up against" anything in life. If you read my statement again, I went there as a requirement of a new job. Please do not speak to me and pretend not to use the key phrases you have "coached" with. "Up against it" has no meaning to me anymore, and most people who have not been through the trainings dont know what you mean, it's gibberish to them. Juat because you are a "graduate" of an LGAT doesnt amek you qualifed to speak of my experience. For that matter being a gradusate of an LGAT doesnt even make you qualified to be a coach for someone.

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mackpappy
I think what happened with you is very common. There can be a "tunnel vision" in the trainings that enables people to see anything on the "outside" as less important.

Im sure you know its very common. Because they make it so. Everything in the course is designed to make you focus solely on it, recruiting, playing the game as they say. So please dont imply that it was my fault I had tunnel vision. You make me sick.

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mackpappy
If you drop out, it can be seen as a lack of commitment, weakness or worse. The truth to me is that the trainings are just that, trainings. You gain tools to use in life. We all have lives and we all have our own paths. There is plenty of talk about trusting the process, but not much effort made to trust the individual's process. There can be a pretty heavy agenda going on which creates a limiting context. I have continued my journey beyond what these trainings offer, and I personally believe that there needs to be more focus on healing from the past, not just "looking to vision."

I can see you think you are a better person than I after all you've coached. You speak of heavy agenda and limiting context, again I say this is the whole point. More bodies in, more bodies in this IS the agenda. Its all about making John Hanley money, lets not pretend its anything less. I watched my ex boss who sent me there conduct no less than 3 job interviews after I had given notice. In each one he broke down and cried as if on cue, and then sold Accelerate to these people as the fixall for anythign wring in there life. Nevermind that is was wholly inappropriate, this was after all a job interview. One of them he told me he had no intention of hiring because he felt she was underqualified, but he felt the need to pay for her to go thru Accelerate becasue her life was in such disorder. God help her I hope she didnt go. Apparently he is the leading recruiter for the Accelerate Center in Concord. People who run certain aspects of the cetner have told me personally that the center is very concerned with the fact that he doesnt live the work, but I notice they dont turn him or any of his paid students away. Hypocrisy at it finest.

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mackpappy
Now, I understand that's not the focus of this type of training. I believe that it's purpose is to be a wake-up call for areas of life where we have been coasting, and I believe that they are very effective. Anyone who goes to the training, goes because they chose to. If you stay, it is by your own choice and your actions in or out of the training are your responsibility. If the "pressure" is too much - walk. It's just that simple. It is no different than life. If it works for you, keep it up. If not, let it go.

I hope that you might find some positive interpretation of your experience so that you don't leave it as a total waste of time, or worse yet, something that was damaging. I am not at all suprised by your story, but I would say that you were at choice the entire time, and you made the choice that worked for you. Way to go! I'm sure it was in the face of some high pressure, so pat yourself on the back for standing up for your needs.

You'll excuse me if I dont thank you for your advice, because letting go isnt just that easy. Screw you and the fact that you say I was at choice at every moment. I think my choice left on or about the third day of the Basic course. Thankfully freewill or as you call it "at choice" is returning a little more every day, because even as I walked from the leadership portion of the course, I still had horrible feelings of guilt over it. How could their pressure not be too much????? There are coaching calls at the crack of dawn every day, conference calls late into the night almost every night, impromtu conference calls in the middle fo the work day, and some kind of event no less than 4 times a week. If you miss the event dont worry, you may get one on one coaching with the leader, or maybe one of the robots on your group will call you and find out how they can be with you or stand for you so that you may make better choices to allow you to be there for the team. Pressure you say, not if you dont mind leaving your sick kid with a babysitter, or your family without dinner on the table again, or taking an hour out of your day at work. after all its LP its what were about. HMM tunnel vision, pressure? ya I guess so.

You hope that I dont view my experience as damaging? I find what they did to all 47 people that finished the advanced course with me damaging. I think about what we all went thru in those 5 days and I hope that people reached out for the help they truly needed, From professionals not from Accelerate.

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mackpappy
Although I found the workshops to be great for me and my life, my fiancee might tell you something very different! I can definitely see both sides of the coin.

Take care,

Geoff

I hope apologizing for them makes you feel better because coaching or staffing for them shouldnt. And by the way I view the whole thing as a complete waste of time and money. I am thankful however that the 4 people i enrolled did not walk thru the door for the training, too bad my mom lost a 200 deposit even thought she withdrew from the course 8 weeks before she was due to start, and she never had that "prep call" which is when the staff say that the credit card is charged. The good news though is she can get her money back if she just goes thru the course. WHAT A JOKE. Good thing the credit card companies dont feel the same way as Accelerate, I wonder if they have ever heard the term chargeback?

Thank you to Rick Ross and everyone who contributes to this board. Thank you even to Geoff, because you allow me to see just how fucked up these organizations are. Too bad you just cant see it for yourself.

Hello Again,

It's obvious that you are upset about your experience, but blaming me won't change anything. Neither will taking my comments out of context, or twisting them to fit your agenda. I have seen too many people have enriching experiences in these types of workshops to cast a blanket condemnation as you have. It's great for some, not so for others. Just like everything in life.

I find it interesting that you are incredibly offended by a viewpoint other than your own, but then have no compunction about completely discounting someone whom you have never met. I don't know you and I don't doubt your experience. You might try extending the same courtesy to those who find benefit in paths that don't work for you.

"So please dont imply that it was my fault I had tunnel vision. You make me sick." I never implied that you had "tunnel vision." "I can see you think you are a better person than I after all you've coached." How can you see this?

I won't respond to everything that you posted, but I would ask you to take a look at how you replied to another human being who took the time to extend his perspective with kindness.

And I'd ask you why you did the trainings in the first place and why you stayed as long as you did.

Take care,

Geoff

mackpappy:

Read the previously provided links.

LGATs have a very bad history of problems.

The problems come essentially from LGAT design and the fact that typically the people that run them are not qualified to conduct group therapy, which is what LGATs seem to be.

What would you say this LGAT did wrong?

Was there anything you would criticize?

Did they do anything that might hurt people?

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mackpappy
Hello Again,.

And I'd ask you why you did the trainings in the first place and why you stayed as long as you did.

I dont blame you for my experience that would be ridiculous.

I am not offended by your viewpoint. I extend you the courtesy of engaging in a dialog with you, I didnt attack you. Sorry you cant accept the fact that you make me ill with your staunch defense of the organization. I am glad you found benefit from this path. But for every one of you who did, how many lives have been ruined?

If you had read either of my posts you would see that 1- I did the trainings as a REQUIREMENT OF MY JOB and 2- I stayed because it was a requirement fo my job for the first two days, then by the third I was succeptible to the LGAT and its brainwashing .....but oh yeah I was at choice right? WRONG. I stayed because thats how it works.

Hello Again,

I have decided that you are not open to views other than your own, therefore a dialogue is not possible. You have been hateful and disrespectful and apparently have a great deal of anger to work through. I have done my best to see your perspective and consider it with an open mind. Best of luck to you.

Take care,

Geoff

mackpappy:

People are not "angry," "hateful" or "disrpectful" simply becuase they disagree with you and express another view.

"Dialogue" means an exchange of ideas and information. And this may include people that may not always say what you want.