Hm...What could they be referring to:

[i:ff479903b2]How is Pathways different from other training programs?
Pathways is all about you and your journey. We do not require that you put someone else through this training. We focus on providing you with life changing skills, not teaching you how to market our programs. We do not offer advice or coaching for your life. Instead, we provide a safe place for you to figure things out on your own. Pathways is also a non-profit corporation.
[/i:ff479903b2]

On Monday Sept 15, Dr Phil is starting a new season with a series on helping overweight folks lose the fat!
What is interesting, is he appears to stick all the people in ONE HOUSE, and i would imagine he will be doing a bunch of "confrontational get real about your fat" stuff.

Obviously, this fat thing is a cash cow and money-maker, as everyone wants to lose that fat, BUT, it would be interesting to see if any of the experienced folks from here can spot any cultic, coercive, or "est" based techniques Dr. Philistine is using.

I am going to tape the show, and see if i can pick out any stuff!
[www.drphil.com]

Perhaps we can discuss Dr. Philistine's methods a bit, for good or ill.

Coz

My boyfriend and I spoke with someone earlier this week who went through Pathways (Dr. Phil's LGAT). In comparing their experiences, they are remarkably similar.

I've given him the link to this site and invited him to post here.

Lori

I caught part of a Dr. Phil show about obesity, hosted by Katie Couric. Phil's assessment is that it's a choice. A medical doctor was on who politely disagreed with him and gave some info on leptin, a substance in the body that programs how a person gains or loses weight. Dr. Phil, in response to Katie asking him his thoughts on what the doc said, seemed to say he agreed, and IMO twisted his definition of "choice" so that he wouldn't look bad.

I think if one of the overweight guests had just gone with Dr. Phil's advice, they'd be thinking pretty much like it was their fault they were overweight. Granted, this particular guest admitted to eating fast food 12 x a week, but there are people who don't do that, eat relatively well, and still have a problem losing. Interestingly, Dr. Phil started giving dietary advice. That's something Tony Robbins began doing also.

Dr. Michael Gershon at (oh shoot - NYU or Columbia?) is doing a lot of research on the nervous system in the gut, where much of the body's serotonin is made. Functional problems like irritable bowel syndrome are generally thought to be emotional, but his reasearch and that of others over the past 20 years, is showing that depression can be CAUSED by IBS and the problem stems from the serotonin receptors and transporters being screwed up by malabsorption and other chemical imbalances. Gershon states, "Many physicians still have yet to learn the lesson Hippocrates drew from epilepsy in his ancient book, On the Sacred Disease”. Hippocrates had no idea why patients with epilepsy had fits, but that made no difference to him. The cause, he was certain, would eventually become known . In the meantime, however, it was useless to attribute the condition to a supernatural origin. So, too, pain from the gut. The fact that doctors do not yet always know why disease occurs is no reason to dismiss its severity or to attribute the pain to what substitutes in the modern world for supernatural cause, psychoneurosis.that a lot of magical thinking goes on when science cannot find an answer.

Dr. Phils assessment that obesity is a choice is the same reasoning I found in Landmark. Sickness is a choice.

[thezeroboss.com]

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Judi from How Judi of You posted a ditty about a recent Dr. Phil show that got me thinking again about the subject of est. McGraw is from the est school of therapy, which is why I reject his existence.

For those of you never exposed to est or its creator, Werner Erhard, Bitch Panic lays out the basics as they relate to Dr. Phil’s form of “therapy”. Rick Ross’ site is, as usual, a great source of information .

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wolfy

After doing Landmark I realised that I wasn't responsible for the pressure I'd felt...

Plus, I got to see that there was no point beating myself up over it...

It's about going to someone who has been a major source of trauma in your life and saying, "You did, a, b, c and I made it mean x, y and z."

It took you paying hundreds/thousands of dollars and attending some seminar to realize these things?? Umm... I think you can realize such things by just aging and maturing as a human being.

And Scientology helps you not get angry when you lose your wallet, says Milton.

These "technologies" really do seem to amount to remedial schooling.

[www.john-hanley-sr.com]

Interview with Dr. John Hanley - Page 8

INT: Can you just give me a rundown of the history of the development of Lifespring from its inception?

JH: I can. Actually we started in San Francisco and then we expanded to Portland, Oregon. Then we went to Orange County, and then from Orange County to L.A., and then we went way across the country to Washington D.C., and then we spun off the East Coast from Washington, and then ultimately the hub of the East was New York. Then from New York--sorry, we did Washington, Philadelphia then New York--and then from New York we had people coming in from Florida and Atlanta. Then eventually we spun Atlanta and the Miami area after that. Then we went back to the Midwest. We had Dallas, then we opened Chicago, and so it goes, you know. I think we had fifteen or eighteen centers in the US.

INT: Over what period of time did this expansion take place?

JH: Well, let's see. The first three or four came within the first couple of years, and then the next ten took about five or six years more.

INT: So you started in the mid-70s…so that takes us up basically to the mid-80s, right? So you're at that point?

JH: Yeah.

INT: Then at that point you just worked on continuing to develop into these cities?

JH: Yeah. We started also to work on new products. By that time we'd come up with several workshops. We had invented a new training called the Masters Course which we felt was a premium piece of work, and we really took it upon ourselves to continue to develop our staff, our trainers, and our trainings.

Then we began to look overseas. We opened up Tokyo, Japan in 1977 and then, about 1990--I cannot remember exactly, maybe '92--we sold the license for Asia to a company called AsiaWorks. And then we trained all their trainers as well as our own. AsiaWorks is a big company today and is doing very well. Again, all Lifespring trained personnel and Lifespring technology.

And then we saw several spin-offs around the world, with several here in the US. I think the most interesting spin off is Dr. Phil. In fact, the first day somebody called me and said, "Did you know that Dr. Phil on the Oprah show has the Lifespring training?" I said, "No, I did not." And they said, "Well, you should tune into this and watch it." And I did, and I was simply amazed that somehow this guy had gotten our manual and, verbatim, took the basic training as his own and then followed with the Advanced course as his own. Really, if you watch Dr. Phil, for those who've seen the show and have done Lifespring trainings, you will know that there's only one place he could have gotten that information and that is the Lifespring Basic and Advanced courses.



INT: So you're not aware of how he ended up having that information?

JH: No, I'm not, actually. But, he got it.

INT: That is wild.

JH: Yeah, it really is. Well, it's wild because, when we started out, we were (how would you say?) 'high risk.' And people were sort of looking at us cross-eyed saying "Come on now, is this really possible that for five days you can give me my life back--you can turn my whole life around? I don't think so." So this was met with a lot of scepticism, and I think most everything is. FedEx was met with a lot of scepticism too, so we're in good hands. You know, today, if you really look carefully, you will see experiential learning and, really, the center-points of the Lifespring training in almost every corporate training in America. I think, globally, you'll see pieces of it here and there, and I think the next step is going to be seeing pieces of it in the high schools and colleges around the country.

Great find, Hope.
Dr. Phil has done many LGAT type things over the years, the most recent was the Dr. Phil House, where he locked people up for a week to get some TV drama, and cussed them down, to "change their life" in a weekend.

I wonder if Dr. Phil is really doing Lifespring though, or if Lifespring is trying to legitimize itself by claiming that Dr. Phil is doing what they do? They could say to their critics, "hey, we just do what Dr. Phil does".
Because if Dr. Phil truly did "steal" their "technology verbatim" you can bet they would have sued him to get some money.

Its clear Dr. Phil does all sorts of LGAT type stuff, as well as anything else he can get his hands on.
He also promotes his business partner, Frank Lawlis, who is selling all kinds of expensive Quackery to make a buck off people, like "brain imaging" and "muscle testing" and tons of other stuff which is not scientific.
You will constantly see Dr. Phil promoting Frank Lawlis' businesses...which is a conflict of interest, as they are business partners!!

Dr. Phil is a businessman, first and foremost, in my opinion.

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Hope

And then we saw several spin-offs around the world, with several here in the US. I think the most interesting spin off is Dr. Phil. In fact, the first day somebody called me and said, "Did you know that Dr. Phil on the Oprah show has the Lifespring training?" I said, "No, I did not." And they said, "Well, you should tune into this and watch it." And I did, and I was simply amazed that somehow this guy had gotten our manual and, verbatim, took the basic training as his own and then followed with the Advanced course as his own. Really, if you watch Dr. Phil, for those who've seen the show and have done Lifespring trainings, you will know that there's only one place he could have gotten that information and that is the Lifespring Basic and Advanced courses.

INT: So you're not aware of how he ended up having that information?

JH: No, I'm not, actually. But, he got it.

Yeah, and Dr. Frank is on Dr. Phil's board, even dicier as far as ethics go.

[drphilfoundation.org]

And Dr. Phil apparently learned it all from being coached by Dr. Frank, and so can you!

[www.learndrphilfromlawlis.com]