Re: Looking for anecdotal accounts from LGAT victims, familiy members of victims, or other concerned individuals
Date: November 08, 2019 12:06PM
StopLGATs wrote:
"But violence is most likely just the tip of the iceberg of domestic abuse. I'm sure there are countless more relationships where physical violence is not a factor but nevertheless there is a strong psychological imprisonment/enslavement..."
Physical violence is just the tip of the iceberg. I wish that I could cite, but I have read several recent articles stating that psychological abuse is a part of any other form of abuse, be it physical battery, sexual abuse, financial abuse. Psychological abuse underlies all of them.
"For example why do people repeatedly go back to abusive partners after leaving them? Perhaps there is a similar psychology in people who are addicted to LGATs and and their advanced courses."
It's due to trauma bonding. There are tons of articles about that. In my case, the people in my LGAT had access to 12-step and other support group information. By the time i realized what was going on, they were so deep into my personal life that i wanted to know:
What do they want?
What else have they done?
I spent a lot of time trying to assess the damage. All that accomplished was to allow them to do even more of it. I felt as if I had been psychologically impaled. I felt paralyzed. There is no way to repair that kind of damage.
Most people in 12-step groups talk about people in their lives, often family members, who are doing things that drive them nuts. These behaviors often thwart efforts to overcome whatever they are dealing with. For example, husbands sabotage diets, drinking buddies tell the alcoholic that "just one won't hurt." Almost everyone faces people on the outside telling them, "I liked you better when... (you were fat, you were drunk, etc)." People in 12-step and other support groups commiserate on these things.
LGATs recruit from 12-step groups. I met my recruiter in a 12-step group. When you are in the group, what you say is never supposed to leave the room. My Landmark recruiter got to a level in the organization where she was willing to throw me under the bus to advance her position at Landmark. I could tell that she was rationalizing that it was "for my own good." Then, everything that I had told her over the years became fair game, no matter how private, to use as Keth Raniere- style "collateral." She, and a couple of other people could remember a few names that i had mentioned. They knew what my interests were, and the communities I hung out in. They contacted people and blabbed. Although she told me that she was "taking a stand" for me to "get it," the motive was purely malicious. There was nothing to "get." People at Landmark were repeating 12-step group information back at me. It had no potential to do anything but destroy.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2019 12:17PM by kdag.