IMPACT Trainings
Date: June 12, 2007 03:26PM
Unlike some of the members of this thread, the only thing I ever did with Impact Trainings was attend one their guest presentations, or recruitment nights for Quest. Do not disregard my comments because of this, some of my close family members have been participants of TIT 3 (in the fullest degree, Mt. Shasta, Hans Berger’s Doctrines, etc.) for years and I know much of their experiences, and eventual trauma and suffering after leaving the cult.
The reason I went to the guest presentation was because this close family member would bring up how Impact changed their life every time we would meet. After at least a year of hearing “Well then you don’t trust me” from them when I would say “no”, I eventually felt guilty enough to say “yes” to attending the guest presentation. Impact starts manipulation early.
Sally Berger was the main speaker during the presentation, I was there for at least two and half hours. We talked about animals and how they have different domains or characteristics comparable to humans, we were asked to meditate during a brief music session with our eyes closed that would help us focus or see into our inner self (like I said, the manipulation starts EARLY). But the thing that drove me from that place more than anything was that near the end of the presentation every person was coupled with a complete stranger that had gone through various parts of the trainings. We sat face to face, knee to knee. During this time I found myself listening to them speak of something terribly personal involving how Impact changed their life, then I was asked to share something from my life (with a complete stranger, mind you) that was life changing or deeply personal. After a testimonial from them and an awkward “I don’t think I want to share that” from me, then we were put into a very “Hard Sell” situation (I discovered this term after reading these forums). This new “friend” of mine almost ordered me to go sign up for Quest, after Sally Berger from her microphone commanded something like, “Order forms are in the back of the room, go now.” I got up, smiled at my “friend”, and said “No thanks, I’m fine.” Then a trainer saw me going for the door and said in a very guilt infusing tone, “Aren’t you going to the back of the room to register for Quest?” I didn’t know this person either. “No, I’m fine”, I said. I got a really “pity you” look from them, then went into the lobby. My close family member was the final person to seem disappointed that I was not going to sign up. I have never returned. As a side note, I commented to them (my family member) that the training center and its rooms, and the guest presentation, were shoddy and cheap after I calculated in my head how much Impact would be raking just from Quest tuitions alone. His response was, “You have no idea what it costs to run a training. Most of the money goes back into the building and ropes course.” My response was “Whatever…………what’s a rope course?”
Since then I have seen my family members, who are closer and more beloved to me than anyone, go through an extremely painful process of realizing that the Bergers are not interested in the positive or negative effects of their “trainings”, but rather it is more important that everything goes the way they want it to go. I have read every page of this forum. All the reports of being mental conditioned , falling victim to unqualified trainers, being deceived into thinking Impact is a place for therapy when in fact it is a religious cult headed by the Bergers, all this is what my family experienced. I am horrified that I could have lost part of family to their “new Impact” family.
For being an “Impact apologist”, Otter really didn’t do any favors for the Bergers with what he said, or attempted to say, in this forum. He never addressed the fact that the Impact Trainings, the Bergers in particular, from the first day in Quest on, ultimately want people in their religious cult. Look at their website, no explanations at all on what goes on in TIT, or Summit, or Quest. Not only that, but Otter absolutely danced around the core issues brought to light by Eximpact and Formergrad and others, including Rick Ross. As FormerGrad has said, if anyone wants to defend Impact, go for it, but realize you have to deal with ALL the issues and claims made against them on this forum. Saying,“Well, you just had a bad experience, live with it” deals with none of these core complaints, and restates and understates what has been talked about already.