I recently had an exgirlfriend start talking to me about these courses that she's been taking, that have made her "enlightened" to the world. She invited me to come see what she has been doing. The way she talked to me was so weird. It was nothing like the way she used to talk to me. But anyways, I had to tell her no. I asked her what the courses were called, and she told me Impact Training. So I started doing a little bit of research and found myself on this thread. Impact Training seems very evil to me. But when anyone talks to her about it, she gets very defensive. What is the best way to approach someone about the dangers that can come, if they keep pursuing what they are? With talking to some of my friends, it doesn't seem rational that people even do this stuff. But we're the type of people who are comfortable with who we are, and if we seek answers, we usually can find them by doing just a little bit of FREE research and reading. I guess she is having a "graduation" here in a week or so? What does that mean really? I've noticed a calender at work that she's written "lift off" on. So tell me if I'm right? "Lift off" is the first step of Impact Training. It lasts a couple of sessions, then after you are done with the sessions, you "graduate." What happens after graduation? Is it a continual process of them forking over money so that they can keep "advancing" in life. I hate when she says that she is "enlightened" about life. That just seems like such a vague answer to me. Life...Ok what part of life are you enlightened about. But I can never get any sort of specific answer. So anyways, I'm just a little curious about this whole process, and I was kind of looking for advice on a way to open up her eyes about the dangers she could be in.

get your friend a copy of "Cults in our midst" by Margaret Singer. If she is not 100% preoccupied with time spent in her 'group', insist she read it. When she discovers how well Dr. Singer has dissected and described her group even without having ever been a member of it, this may (or may not) cause your friend to ask herself, 'how does a non-follower possibly know, without having participated in the training?' (this suggestion is being optimistic, it may not turn out that way)
Hopefully, she detects a disturbingly mysterious pattern as she reads the book and begins to see a rather generic structure being described but knows that her group fits the bill. How will she explain that away, when she supposedly belongs to such a 'new', 'unique', and 'original' group? Anyway, just a hypothetical sort of optimism. She may or not be impacted by reading this book but if nothing else, you yourself can read it and see for yourself the kind of monster that has hold of your friend.

markymark1341,
You should look at the other Impact threads I have contributed to. If she is in Lift Off, she has taken Quest and Summit, which are the primary mental conditioning seminars. I can tell you almost exactly what she has gone through up to this point, including processes day-by-day and the initial initiation into the religious cult that is the heart of the training she has (unknowingly) entered. It is evil my friend (I should know), and you may be better off bumping her up to ex-friend as opposed to ex-girlfriend, if things get really crazy. After Lift Off is the Trainer In Training mastery trainings. Look at this entire thread for more details: [board.culteducation.com]

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ON2 LF
get your friend a copy of "Cults in our midst" by Margaret Singer. If she is not 100% preoccupied with time spent in her 'group', insist she read it. When she discovers how well Dr. Singer has dissected and described her group even without having ever been a member of it, this may (or may not) cause your friend to ask herself, 'how does a non-follower possibly know, without having participated in the training?' (this suggestion is being optimistic, it may not turn out that way)
Hopefully, she detects a disturbingly mysterious pattern as she reads the book and begins to see a rather generic structure being described but knows that her group fits the bill. How will she explain that away, when she supposedly belongs to such a 'new', 'unique', and 'original' group? Anyway, just a hypothetical sort of optimism. She may or not be impacted by reading this book but if nothing else, you yourself can read it and see for yourself the kind of monster that has hold of your friend.

I'm looking over some of your old posts ON2. Ah, you say it so well. :)

This post made me think of my sister. I've sent her some excerpts from this book, along with other information, and she is very creative in dismissing, denying and REFRAMING every single piece of evidence that points to mindcontrol in lgats. She even denies that the lgat we were in is an lgat!

It is incredibly maddening trying to talk to her about this stuff. I am just way too emotionally and personally involved but a social scientist could have a field day with her sophisticated techniques of denying what's true and real. She has truly mastered it. I fear that she's doomed for the rest of her life, with the "filter" CONtext installed in her brain. She has been truly CONverted.

ON2, I see that you're near (or in) Vancouver. CONtext Associated is fairly "big" in that area. Have you heard of them? Their range is small and narrow and since their leader died I think it's even smaller. The Pacific Northwest is their stronghold, the Seattle area and north into the Vancouver area.

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Skeptic
I'm looking over some of your old posts ON2. Ah, you say it so well. :)

This post made me think of my sister. I've sent her some excerpts from this book, along with other information, and she is very creative in dismissing, denying and REFRAMING every single piece of evidence that points to mindcontrol in lgats. She even denies that the lgat we were in is an lgat!

It is incredibly maddening trying to talk to her about this stuff. I am just way too emotionally and personally involved but a social scientist could have a field day with her sophisticated techniques of denying what's true and real. She has truly mastered it. I fear that she's doomed for the rest of her life, with the "filter" CONtext installed in her brain. She has been truly CONverted.

I wish my lekkie friend thought I said it well the last time I tried 'saving' her sanity. I found my friend to be very proficient at deflecting anything I had to say as well but I wouldn't call it creativity, simply because creativity is not encouraged or even permitted in landmarkia.

I heard someone say once, "our family are God's chosen relationships for us but our friends are the relationships we choose for ourselves." I don't know what I'd do if a sibling were to get conned into a destructive LGAT. My brother got pretty sucked into scamway a few years back and tried to get me interested but I saw how much time, selling, promoting, and travelling it took to become one of those millioniares made only by amway that I simply ignored and tossed aside the topic. I had no idea that it was a scam back then, or that my brother was actually one of the conned. He isn't involved with it anymore, and after my rantings and information sessions about LGATs in general, he won't either. My point is that I don't know how you can manage not to get into it with your sister when you see her. She is a permanent fixture in your life whether she likes or not, or if you have regular contact with her or not. I don't know what I'd do in your situation. I only know from my own experience that the more you care about someone, the more angry and frustrated you're going to get as you witness their social, mental, and spiritual decay. I am so sorry for your predicament, I hope her involvement with a cult won't destroy or dictate to the rest of your journey in this life.

I don't intend on letting that happen to me. I have learned, I have lost this one, but I can't justify allowing another's mistake or victimization to control me forever. This time in my life was unavoidable, but letting it warp me forever is avoidable and I will not hold on to this forever.

When the sociopath, who had an epiphany on how to get others to work for free and make him rich believing they are privileged to be his slaves, knows from me personally what a sad and sorry f--k I think he is for choosing to make a chapter out of 'The adventures of Tom Sawyer' the reality in his life, then will I let this go and move on much wiser for the experience and living as though it had never happened.

That chapter would be the one where Tom has to paint (white wash) a fence on a saturday and one by one his friends come over wanting to hang out but he can't becasue he his aunt Polly expects him to have the fence painted. So, instead of making the fence painting out to be a bad thing, he convinces his friends that its a good thing. Such a good thing in fact that all of his friends end up doing the painting and each one has given Tom Sawyer a small gift or token of appreciation for the privilege of painting the fence. All the while Tom is resting comfortably in the shade all day watching all his friends (suckers) do his work. He brainwashed them into thinking they would somehow be privileged too if they had the same chore he had to do.

Anyway, sorry for going off topic. All I meant to say is something I really believe in, the best is yet to come. My 'best' will include letting werner know directly that due to his 'epiphany' moment when he figured out with his sociopathic reasoning, how to 'help' others help him, he also distorted and upset the natural balance in natural processes in alot of peoples minds and lives and subsequently destroyed alot of true potential. I know he won't care because he has no conscience, but he will care that there is yet one more person who wasn't stupid or gullible enough to give him their apple for the privilege of painting his fence on a saturday.

Maybe its hard to deal with situations like this because we assume that loving a person means always having that person in our life on good terms. We never think that loving a person can also mean having to let them go when they or we are still alive. Its like death, many don't accept death as being a part of life until someone dies.

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skeptic
ON2, I see that you're near (or in) Vancouver. CONtext Associated is fairly "big" in that area. Have you heard of them? Their range is small and narrow and since their leader died I think it's even smaller. The Pacific Northwest is their stronghold, the Seattle area and north into the Vancouver area.

I had not heard of CONtext until this message board. I had not heard of many LGATS/cults until I learned of them on this site. If they have a stronghold in the Pacific Northwest, I am unaware of it, but then again I do not frequent CONtext circles. I am somewhat curious about them however.
I want to be able to recognize as many LGATs as possible. Thankfully, none are unique or terribly different in their so called mission statements, guiding principles, or methods, so it shouldn't take too long to have many identified.

If you all have friends and family involved with Landmark or any LGAT I suggest getting a copy of Steven Hassan's book "Releasing the Bonds". It is a book about the Stratigic Interaction Approach (SIA) to getting people out of cults and any controlling organization such as Landmark Eduaction. I am about through with the book and it is very informative and is helping me tremenously.

You can even contact Steven and his organization for assistance.

The web site is: www.freedomofmind.com

If everything else has failed with you loved one, this might be the ticket. But one thing to realized is that it will probably take time. Although they could just suddenly snap out of it.