Quote
army-of-meQuote
formerimpactgradexImpact mentioned that, in his opinion, LDS people tend to have the most difficult time being involved with the Impact Trainings because their beliefs are regularly challenged and often belittled. I fully support everything that was said in his paragraph.
I am not LDS myself but while in the training I became aware of a release from the head of that faith regarding "self-awareness groups". I have added the link to a copy of the Salt Lake Tribune article reporting the release of this statement. [
www.culteducation.com]
I'm sure the original release can be obtained from an LDS ecclesiastical leader if anyone wants to check my sources.
The release contains a list of criteria that LDS church members should look to avoid if considering an "awareness training". In the words of the release:
"Church members should not participate in groups that:
1. Challenge religious and moral values or advocate unwarranted confrontation with spouse or family members as a means of reaching one's potential.
2. Imitate sacred rites or ceremonies.
3. Foster physical contact among participants.
4. Meet late into the evening or in the early-morning hours.
5. Encourage open confession or disclosure of personal information normally discussed only in confidential settings.
6. Cause a husband and wife to be paired with other partners."
All six of these criteria apply to the Impact Trainings. I will address each in order;
1. As a part of the Lift Off training, trainees are asked to write a letter to a family member describing all of the ways that their relationship has been disfunctional in the past. As a "Plus One" challenge, trainees are told to mail or read the letter to that family member. While the intent of the exercise is to foster an improved relationship, the act of mailing or reading the letter definitely "advocates unwarranted confrontation as a means of reaching one's potential."
2. As a part of the Summit Training, trainees are encouraged to wash eachothers' feet as a part of a particular process. This is an obvious imitation of a rite or ceremony that is sacred to people of many faiths.
3. Hugging and other physical contact is encouraged and expected.
4. Most of my core trainings and nearly all of my TIT trainings ended long after midnight.
5. In the first day of the Quest Training, I was asked to disclose my "deepest and darkest secret" to another member of my training group.
6. Husbands and wives were paired with other partners at every level of the core trainings, often with another member of the oposite sex.
In short, if you are LDS I can assure you that involvement with the Impact Trainings will be a source of confusion and tension. Your beliefs will be challenged and your organization will be ridiculed at every level of the training. Many of the backhanded remarks will be presented as friendly jokes, but the intent is clear. Also, let no one delude you into thinking that the LDS church's release does not apply to the Impact Trainings. It meets all six of the listed criteria.
Oops, I just found where this Former had already posted the LDS' First Presidency's warning about Self-Awareness Groups... However, my posting had the full text and the LDS.org link... AND it also gives me an excuse to quote Former's original post detailing how Impact meets each of the criteria.
Hi there, board members, it's me again, Mother of Impactees, with an update to the continuing saga.Soooooo.... I just got back home from another PAINFUL week-end in Utah. If I didn't love my children so much, I would never put myself through these exchanges of information which the Impact Training Seminar Series has seemed to facilitate so well.
The bottom line was that I, again, willingly sat there while my beautiful 20 something daughter, who is in the middle of her Lift-Off series, REINTERPRETED WITH AN IMPACT SPIN ON THINGS several facets of her childhood, teen-age years, and young adulthood. I allowed her to process her pain, and quite frankly, I let her poop on my parade, again, for not being a better mother to her. I took being a mother very seriously, and poured my whole heart and soul out on my children for 25 + years, and yet, I am being criticized right and left for things that I did, with good intentions, that are now being interpreted as negative for my children's well-being, due to the fact that my children are now looking at things with an Impact Trainings Worldview.
I honestly felt as if my children had to stretch, to come up with things about my parenting that they now see as negative, after their Impact Trainings. For exmple, my son said that he felt that I always pressured him to succeed in sports. What? Where did that come from?
I have reached a point at which I am very concerned that my younger kids be exposed to all of this. I honestly don't think that there is enough merit to what they are doing at the Impact Trainings facility in order to justify the attendance of my children at these seminars. I'm a little tired of the whole thing, but I do need to approach this board this one last time for some "assistance."
I have quoted the very thorough messages above in which army-of-me is quoting the formerimpactgrad in his list of specific examples of how the Impact Training Seminar Series is in violation of a letter which specifically listed 6 warning signs from the First Presidency of the LDS church.
As stated earlier, I am no longer a practicing member of the LDS church; however, I feel that the list of 6 warning signs include many common sense concerns that members of any faith might want to consider before signing up with a self-help seminar series.
I would like to ask the additional members of this board, if you have any personal stories you can add to the post above, with specific examples of how Impact Trainings are crossing the line, into the area of concern mentioned in the letter, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share the examples with me.Also, as I have stated previously, I have not attended the training seminars personally, but have had 2 adult children attend the seminars, and I did make a special trip to Utah to attend their graduation.
My PERSONAL observations from the graduation night for Quest, and my personal experiences with my children since their trainings have included violations of the following warnings, listed in the same order in which they appear in the posting above:"Church members should not participate in groups that:1. Challenge religious and moral values or advocate unwarranted confrontation with spouse or family members as a means of reaching one's potential.
Both of my adult children who have attended these seminars have engaged me in what I would easily consider "unwarranted confrontation" as a direct result in their participation in the Impact Training Seminars. I have had lengthy conversations with both of my kids regarding negative memories that re-surfaced as a result of their training, whether real or imaginary. My adorable mid 20's age son, with whom I have always had a very loving relationship, accused me of spanking him at an early age, and he claimed he remembered the spankings as part of his Impact Trainings. I NEVER in my life laid a hand on my son, but now he claims that he remembers me spanking him.
2. Imitate sacred rites or ceremonies.When I went to my children's graduation from Quest, I noticed jewelry for sale in the lobby. I saw a specific hand symbol, or sign, on several of the pieces of Jewelry. When I asked the young woman who was selling the jewelry about the hand sign, and what it meant, she told me that it was a secret that I could only learn if I took the trainings. I later learned the meaning of this secret sign of the hand. Those of you who have gone through an LDS endowment ceremony may recognize the similarity in the hand sign, and one that is given in the Temple.
Additonally, when I asked the employees of the Impact Training Facility specific questions regarding what goes on the training seminars, they told me that they could not tell me what was being taught in the seminars, because the information was secret.
3. Foster physical contact among participants.When I attended my children's graduation, I was amazed at the lack of boundaries that the participants had, in regards to giving and receiving full body hugs. After the graduation was over, it seemed as if the entire auditorium was melting into one big group hug. Males hugged males, females hugged females, males hugged females, etc. And some of the hugs were not just quick, grandmother type hugs, but long, full body hugs. In my opinion, the use of the graduation for a big hug-fest, even among strangers, was in clear violation of the warning regarding "physical contact among particants."
4. Meet late into the evening or in the early-morning hours.A quick visit the main informational and advertising website for the Impact Trainings Seminars provides easy proof of what I consider to be a violation of this warning. Both Quest and Summit training weeks include a starting time of 11:30 am, and an ending time of 11:30 pm, on a daily basis. My daughter said that the ending time was only a "suggested" ending time, and that her group stayed until at least midnight, or 1:00 in the morning, on a routine basis during both Quest and Summit.
Even the graduation started at 9:30 on a Saturday night, and I had had enough by 11:00 pm, and left. I have been told that the graduation ceremonies, and the meet-and-greet part afterward, may extend as late as midnight, on a routine basis.
5. Encourage open confession or disclosure of personal information normally discussed only in confidential settings.I do not wish to violate confidences that my daughter has shared with me, but she reported to me that the trainers sometimes push the participants to work through their pain, and their issues, by publicly disclosing personal or painful information with the group.
6. Cause a husband and wife to be paired with other partners."I have not seem a direct violation of this advice, but perhpas others have seen a violation of this warning, that could be shared with the group.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Overall, I am very concerned with the POWER that is willingly being GIVEN UP to this VERY QUESTIONABLE ORGANIZATION.
And, again, I am amazed how my very staunch LDS ex-husband can continue to turn a blind eye to the violations of the warnings in this letter, from the First Presidency.
I would be very interested if anyone one else would care to share additional examples of violations of this list of common sense concerns.Mother of Impactees