Thanks for sharing your inside experience. I am glad that you had the presence of mind and the strength of your family to get out. You described it well as one sick, delusional mindf*ck that sucks everyone dry of money. I was a part of their deluded system for almost 3 years. I managed to deny, rationalize, and/or justify away everything unethical. I do think there is something we can do. People in the helping professions (which is what WI claims to be) are held to higher ethical standards. People come to the "experts" seeking help, exposing vulnerabilities, and looking to them for answers. There is an inherent imbalance of power. There is no way it can be otherwise. Ethical standards for the counseling professions expect that to be honored and not used to exploit people. An ethical therapist would never have you pay them for work you do for them in the name of building your leadership skills or to "transform your life". They may recommend you build a team of people to do something for a totally unrelated, non-profit group. They would avoid all appearance of dual relationship or conflict of interest. I am not an attorney, but I think we are hoodwinked into believing that our agreement to be responsible for our own experience limits our options. Would we have signed on if we knew how we were being coerced and manipulated or if we knew that what they were doing was so unethical? I believe that what they do to their clients is as unethical as a therapist manipulating a client to have sex with them in the name of healing their problem with intimacy. No matter that the client gave consent, the therapist would probably have their license pulled and perhaps be prosecuted. B and J surrendered their licenses, but there are others on staff who have licenses. Being licensed gives them a credibility and allows them to supervise other potential counselors to get licensed. It normalizes this whole delusional, abusive system. I would advise anyone who has been involved with any licensed person at the institute to file a complaint with the Illinois Dept of Professional Regulation. WI could continue to operate but could not boast they have licensed professionals on their staff and at their graduate school.

Let's keep getting the information out there.

Grateful

not wright's post reminded me of a wi zealot i knew who proudly went to a wi "black tie fundraiser." aforementioned zealot was proud to share afterwards z bought at "fundraiser" auction some "coaching" sessions with bob. z paid a ridiculous price for the "coaching" with "ubermensch" of course. sounded strange to me a the time-now it clearly sounds like some sort of circular "Project Money" fundraiser for wi.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2010 10:29PM by itsashame.

Can anyone explain the Wrightites gender role definitions? After some recent contact, it seems very focused on outdated models.
I kept hearing the term "aggressive male" thrown around. And the women? "feminine energy" There also seemed to be some strange assumptions of Oedipal stuff going on. It was all very creepy.

I also found out that they offer Masters and Doctorates - wow. Imagine, a PhD in abuse and manipulation! Anyone know where to write to stop the accreditation process?

Also, what is the sacred object or relic at their place in Wisconsin?

I also witnessed bastardized spiritual rituals - altered for their philosophy of MORE in ways that would really embarrass me if I were them.

And what happened to the group for gay men?

Hi.
I am glad you wrote in. I check the site occasionally to see if I can be of service to expose the unethical, dark side of the Wright Institute.

First of all, the agency to contact regarding the Wright Graduate Institute's Accreditation is the following:
Wisconsin Educational Approval Board. Here is their website link: [eab.state.wi.us]

They are not accredited in Illinois. I encourage you to contact them with your concerns. I had contact with them a little over a year ago. They were interested in my concerns regarding their ethics. They have been told that there approval depends on their clear separation of the Wisconsin Graduate Institute from Wright (Illinois) personal development aspect. There is to be no overlap, no recruiting, no use of Chicago weekends for their graduate student trainings. I believe the more people who expose their inconsistencies, the more likely they will be to loose their accreditation. The Board person that I talked to said, "that for the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would want their degree..." It seemed they were less concerned about content than process.

Regarding their gender role definitions, it seemed very fuzzy to me after I left. On the one hand, they preach the value and sacredness of the feminine. On the other hand, their presentation coach is a VP at Playboy, and they call their students, "playmates". Hmmmmmm. Also, they "childify" their students.

The sacred relic at their place in Wisconsin. Hmmmmm. I'm stumped on that one even though I spent a lot of time there. Perhaps it is something new they have come up with since I left. When I was a student there, all my commitments to them were imbued with a weight of a sacred covenant. They incorporate spirituality into their teachings and trainings. I am curious about the specific rituals you experienced as bastardized. I wonder if they are still doing the same old thing or if they have added something new.

And what did happen to the group for gay men? They still had it when I was there 18 months ago. Perhaps it was no longer profitable.

Grateful

FYI - Judith was recently on Fox News Chicago. Perhaps if enough of us write to Fox, they will stop having her on the show.

bump this back to the front

opinion supported with experience: dangerous scammers

See [www.cultnews.com]

The Rick A. Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups, and Movements has officially changed its name to The Cult Education Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements.

The new domain name entry point and gateway to the Internet archives of the institute will soon be culteducation.com.

The Cult Education Institute archives is a library of information about destructive cults, controversial groups and movements, which was initially launched in 1996 and has continued to be under construction and expansion for the past 17 years.

The public message board attached to the The Cult Education Institute will soon only be accessible through the domain name culteducation.com. More than 100,000 entries from the former members of destructive cults, controversial groups and movements and others concerned has accumulated at the board over the past decade. The message board content continues to grow daily and it serves as a free speech zone for those who wish to share their insights and concerns about the topics listed.

Any recent members of the Wright Foundation on here? My daughter is interested in the organization and after having read some of these posts, I don't feel comfortable with her participating. She went to a Foundations weekend last month and is saying that her life is changed. She wants to sign up, but I'm very wary of the organization. Have things progressed in a positive direction or does it still carry a lot of cult-like influence? Please contact me with any information!!

Hi. I left the WI in 2009. I am not recently involved, but I cannot imagine that they have changed in any way that would make them less a cult. This is who Bob and Judith are at their core. I was like your daughter when I first joined. I was excited, hopeful, felt alive, and that my life was transformed. This is the outer layer of experience. It was only as I went deeper in the group and deeper in debt, that I realized I was in a cult. It took me several years to see it clearly. I was fortunate that I could get out. I was conditioned to a kind of "group think". What helped was that a family situation made it necessary for me to be out of state for 2 months. It gave me the opportunity to look at my life apart from the spin of WI. I could see how much of my life was about earning money to pay for my WI fed and debts and how little time that I had left for the people and passions closest to my heart. I was incredulous that I had been conned by the Wrights to pay them for the "opportunity" to work for them: PR, housekeeping, errands,poison weeds to beautify their property. When I announced. I was leaving, I was verbally abused and shunned. There were some in my group that I thought would connect with me after the required 1 year shunning, but no one did. It took me almost 2 years and therapy to heal from the mind disturbance/trauma. I was afraid they would try to harm me, my family or my reputation in some way. That was probably not likely but shows the power I believed the Wrights had over my world. Bob and Judith are narcissistic and have perfected their con. How they package it may change, but Narcissists are not likely to change. The problem is, no one who joins a cult thinks they belong to a cult. It may be hard if not impossible for you to convince your daughter she is involved with a cult. You could ask her to explore how much debt that wright students are carrying. I was stunned when I started awakening to this. Good luck with your daughter.