Momentum sounds like just another mass marathon training program, or what is often called large group awareness training (LGAT).
LGATs seem to have the same problems over and over again.
See [
www.culteducation.com]
[b:bcca988196]Here are the liabilities of LGATs.[/b:bcca988196]
They lack adequate participant-selection criteria.
They lack reliable norms, supervision, and adequate training for leaders.
They lack clearly defined responsibility.
They sometimes foster pseudoauthenticity and pseudoreality.
They sometimes foster inappropriate patterns of relationships.
They sometimes ignore the necessity and utility of ego defenses.
They sometimes teach the covert value of total exposure instead of valuing personal differences.
They sometimes foster impulsive personality styles and behavioral strategies.
They sometimes devalue critical thinking in favor of "experiencing" without self-analysis or reflection.
They sometimes ignore stated goals, misrepresent their actual techniques, and obfuscate their real agenda.
They sometimes focus too much on structural self-awareness techniques and misplace the goal of democratic education; as a result participants may learn more about themselves and less about group process.
They pay inadequate attention to decisions regarding time limitations. his may lead to increased pressure on some participants to unconsciously "fabricate" a cure.
They fail to adequately consider the "psychonoxious" or deleterious effects of group participation (or] adverse countertransference reactions.
[b:bcca988196]Here are the four danger signs:[/b:bcca988196]
Leaders had rigid, unbending beliefs about what participants should experience and believe, how they should behave in the group. and when they should change.
Leaders had no sense of differential diagnosis and assessment skills, valued cathartic emotional breakthroughs as the ultimate therapeutic experience, and sadistically pressed to create or force a breakthrough in every participant.
Leaders had an evangelical system of belief that was the one single pathway to salvation.
Leaders were true believers and sealed their doctrine off from discomforting data or disquieting results and tended to discount a poor result by, "blaming the victim."
See [
www.culteducation.com]
[b:bcca988196]These are the characteristics of a "thought reform" program, commonly called "brainwashing."[/b:bcca988196]
Body of knowledge centers on changing people without their knowledge.
No meaningful exchange occurs, communication is one-sided.
Change occurs rarely; organization remains fairly rigid; change occurs primarily to improve thought reform effectiveness.
Takes authoritarian & hierarchical stance; no full awareness on part of learner.
Group attempts to retain people forever.
Is deceptive.
Individualized target; hidden agenda (you will be changed one step at a time to become deployable to serve leaders).
No respect for differences.
Improper and unethical techniques.