Hi Saneagain,

No, there is no pressure to attend, at least not anymore. The reason I am on this site (and boy is it interesting), is that Quest in SA is like a mystical organisation when you speak to any of the "Questies", especially when they refuse to tell you what goes on at these trainings, yet I must attend an evening to see what it is about.

It has just piqued my interest as I met someone on Saturday that was so insisted that I see"The Secret" video or whatever it is, that his whole attitude reminded me of my family members when they were trying to get me onto Quest ! So I thought ther is no way, I need to educate myself about this and so here I am on this site. Just wanted to find out more about it really.

My family members are fine now, still talk in some Quest speak like for instance a homeless dog wants to be homeless and it is the dogs decision to be homeless - nonsense like that, but I generally just tend to ignore it.

The only thing I am worried about is that it is engrained into their sub conscious without them even knowing it.

I just do not "get it" that a person would willingly hand over large amounts of cash to someone for something they know nothing about, allow themselves to be manipulated by individuals who have asolutely no psychological training (Buster is some kind of karate person, just search his name on google, I mean, you couldnt think this stuff up!), and then they want to go back for more! No offence, but I really think these LGATs prey on the weak minded or easily manipulated.

Who in their right mind would go one of these courses, then recruit for the organisation, then volunteer their time for absolutely no remuneration whatsoever except the "lead trainer"'s approval! Absolutely bizarre to me!

Also, something else is puzzling. A person would not pay a trained psychologist of psychiatrist that kind of money but people will willingly fork over cash for these courses without knowing much about them?

If I said to you "Give me 10k and I will give you something, I cannot tell you what it is, but you will like it", you would probably tell me to take a hike. So why do people so willingly sign up for these courses?

Sorry, I am just thinking out loud what the attraction to these things is.

Thanks for the info you sent, much appreciated!

wiseman wrote:

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Who in their right mind would go one of these courses, then recruit for the organisation, then volunteer their time for absolutely no remuneration whatsoever except the "lead trainer"'s approval! Absolutely bizarre to me!

You're totally right - no person in their right mind would make a cold rational decision to spend their money on this. That's why they don't 'sell' Quest, they recruit people into Quest using a range of manipulative techniques that they and all the other lgats have spent decades perfecting. The whole purpose of everything they do in Quest is designed to recruit people, according to a simple recipe:

On Quest they do four basic things:

* indoctrinate the idea that 'powerful people keep their agreements'. If you say you're going to do somethin, do it - no excuses. This is also known as commitment and integrity.

* work on people's emotions to get them to focus on their relationships with friends and family

* use a bunch of mental magic tricks to create a a false high similar to what you get from drugs like ecstasy. It gives a feeling of confidence and universal peace and love. The general consensus is that those three days are a total mind f*ck but by the end of it most people think it was a good mind f*ck because they're on a high and they've forgotten the things that pissed them off on the way there. Also Quest is pretty mild, compared to Inquest. Buster is pretty good, he cracks a lot of jokes and he's kind of entertaining.

* While people are in this high and easily suggestible (hypnotisable) state - right at the end of the course - they sit people down in groups and ask them how many people they are going to bring to the guest event - by then you feel you've had 'an awesome experience' and you want to share it with everyone you love, and they play on that and get you to make and AGREEMENT / COMMITMENT to bring people. This is after indoctrinating the importance of being in INTEGRITY and KEEPING AGREEMENTS if you want your life to work and if you don't want to be a disgusting insect or whatever. Then they phone you on the Monday afterwards and remind you about your AGREEMENTS and INTEGRITY etc.


The high lasts about three days (about up to a day after the guest event) so most people rush out and get people to the guest event. At the event they pull a few more magic tricks on the guests and use a lot of plain old sales pressure and get people to sign up.


So that's how its done. They take advantage of people caring about each other and trusting each other. So before the new recruit even steps into the hall, they've been abused in that their relationships have been exploited to meet Wendy and Buster's agenda.

Quest costs about 2 to 3 thousand, and most people don't plan to do any more courses. The other part of the business plan is during Quest (while you're suggestible) they promote the other courses. One of their favourite phrases is "Inquest is not for the faint-hearted" so its a challenge.


Then the plot thickens. Most people get at least one but usually two or three people to do the next quest or the one after. Then they call you up and "invite" you to assist on Quest to "support" the person and show some love the same way the assistants did for you - its an opportunity to "give back". And of course normally people are curious to see their friends or family have that "awesome" experience, so they're keen to go along and help out.

While you're assisting on Quest you meet a lot of people who've done Inquest. These people usually look really confident and attractive - they are 'models' to advertise inquest, only they don't know it. A large part of inquest is getting people to fix up they way they dress, walk, talk etc (did you notice these changes in your family members?) so that they are more attractive and better 'models'. And they make a lot of cryptic comments that makes Inquest seem great, and crack a lot of inquest in-jokes that make you curious. So you get hooked into that.



There are other tricks as well... e.g. on Quest you get your money back if you finish the course and don't get anything out of it - but only if you "participate" (play all the games that are mind magic tricks) and stay for the whole course including the guest event. So if you don't like what they do on course (I hated a lot of it) you'll get stubborn (like I did) and hold out to get your money back. But by the end your brain is done in - especially at that moment when they ask you to COMMIT to bringing so many people to the guest event.

Also, they don't claim to do therapy, they claim its "an adventure" or something like that. When I went I thought it was like a philosophy course with some rock climbing in between.

So... less of a mystery now? :)

I think you'll love this:

The Secret examined on "Nut Job of the Week"

[youtube.com]

Note "The Parking Game" a Quest (and other lgat) standard...

SaneAgain,

That was stellar stuff in your previous post about the recruiting methods! One of my siblings actually got her partner to go on Quest about a year and a half ago, so it seems that my siblings do still believe in it. Her partner is such a nice guy tha he went. HOWEVER, he stayed for the Friday night and decided "what a crock of sh%te" and did not go back for the rest of the weekend. When he told me, it made me grin from ear to ear!

My mother said (she is quite sane and see's Quest for what it is, even though she did Quest and Inquest - forced to go of course by my other siblings) that she was sitting thinking "this will get better etc.etc" and that is why she did not get up and walk out.

You are right about the people that do Inquest, well, at least they think they look the part and talk the part, but then again, if I sae someone with slicked black hair dressed in black (as they do on Inquest?) , I would probalby start laughing out loud! This aint no mafia movie people!

My siblings do still sometimes talk the Quest/Inquest talk and double speak kind of stuff, but overall far more better now than a few years ago. So I do think that with the passage of time this stuff can wear off.

My sister is still far more involved and still believes a lot of it (I create my own universe etc etc) than my brother. He is definitely more chilled out.

However, almost any straight thinking person I speak to, whose family members have gone on Quest have had negative experiences. My mothers partners sons went (my siblings of course got them to go) and I was speaking to him two nights ago (I was so excited that I finally find some decent info on these LGATs that I printed out a lot of info for my mother to read) and he said that after Quest his sons turned into such a$$holes he could not believe it! He says they were selfish etc etc for about 3-4 years afterwards.

One thing I noticed about Quest was that my siblings became very self involved, very selfish, "its all about me" kind of vibe and I will do what I want to do if it pleases me. That kind of vibe, no compassion for others or thought for others feelings. Did you experience the same kind of change in your outlook after these courses SaneAgain?


That youtube clip is fantastic!

I have only loosely followed this "the Secret" nonsense since it began, (Impact's Lift-Off training is nearly identical to it) but I finally gave in and clicked the Youtube link. You know, if that is all it takes to get what you want, I should have had Cindy Crawford as a girlfriend or at least as a sexual jungle-gym in junior high school. I don't think anyone EVER has focused on something so consistently and intensely as I did when I had my infatuation with her at 13. I should be stone blind even now because of her. :oops:

I did not ever get her. Not once. Believe it or not. :D

:shock: You're terrible! Imagine poor Cindy finding herself manifested from the catwalk into the arms of a 13 year old Utah boy!!!! :lol:

Wiseman, it sounds like you've been on the wrong end of a few "[b:75a31a92b7]its not about you"[/b:75a31a92b7] statements??? :)

Strangely enough I don't remember becoming particularly selfish after quest (some people would say I was selfish to start with :? ) ... what I remember is that I could go cold very easily if people were not behaving to my liking or if I saw something upsetting. I could flick a switch in my brain and feel nothing. I clearly remember on the day after quest driving past beggars at the robot and feeling nothing; before that I always felt sad for them and gave money, or some days I felt sad and irritated that they made me sad and gave no money - but I always felt something. After quest it was like they were just trees or telephone poles, "nothing to do with me" as they teach on quest.

After inquest was the opposite - I cried my eyes out and for every beggar I saw and nearly bankrupted myself dishing money out the window. After a while some inquest people tried to 'put me right' and pointed out that I must 'respect' that they 'chose that reality' and I mustn't support their 'victim mentality'. I think they deliberately teach two opposite and contradictory things just to do your brain in.

That reminds me - the mentalities. There is the 'victim mentality' - no real victims, just a mentality about it. And then there is the 'poverty mentality' - no real poverty, just a mentality about it. If you don't have money for food its just a mentality. You're not really hungry. If you can't afford to do another quest course its NOT because you don't have money, its because you have a poverty mentality. (But of course if you really focus your intention and open yourself to possibilities you could manifest a CREDIT CARD! I'll bet the banks love lgats).

Then in the middle of this charming approach to social problems, quest like to pretend that they helped end apartheid by 'shifting the energies'; they distribute the Marianne Williamson speech as part of quest claiming its a Nelson Mandela speech (It isn't, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was quest that started the whole urban legend over it).

So, they get a whole bunch of middle-class white people into a room, scream abuse at them, teach them that victims don't exist and hey presto! No more apartheid. South Africa had a "Transformation" because the "work" they do teaches "Transformation" and how to "Make A Difference" and the energy spreads into society.

Nothing to do with mass action, international sanctions and the hundreds of people who actually lost their lives fighting for freedom. Very insulting to all people who actually took real action in the real world to change things.

And then they get a white sangoma in to do a smudging ceremony to "clear" the hall's energy before a training.... getting rid of the tokoloshis no doubt.

Ah well, I'm ranting...

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You are right about the people that do Inquest, well, at least they think they look the part and talk the part, but then again, if I sae someone with slicked black hair dressed in black (as they do on Inquest?) , I would probalby start laughing out loud! This aint no mafia movie people!

The assistants dress like that on the first few days of inquest while they're breaking people down, to scare them. And there's some esoteric thing to do with chakras and colours that reflect or absorb energies... its not scary on its own but it is scary when you're locked in a hall with them for over twelve hours a day and they're screaming abuse at everyone and showing no emotion or humanity AT ALL. The first thing I remember of inquest is walking into the hall feeling kind of nervous and half-laughing and then I heard the door LOCK behind me and my whole mind and body went 'oh, f*ck' (I'm claustrophobic) and - in the next second you see these people dressed in black and glaring - trust me - sense of humour totally check out, along with the rest of me. Probably they were really normal nice people like your mom and sister, but you don't know that at the time.

At the end they start dressing in colourful attractive clothes, some symbolic thing.

During inquest they criticise the way people dress, their hair etc (in very graphic and metaphoric style) and do exercises where they dress them up differently. Its always more towards the mainstream, that is more acceptable to average people because you are not going to be good at recruiting if you look odd. So if men have long hair they cut it, for example, and they get them to shave beards and moustaches off . That's also to look 'clean'.

They're very big on everything being clean and clear and neat and pristine and controlled and in order. Gotto be clean on the outside to be clean on the inside. The hair gel is supposed to be to keep hair in place and in order. You're not allowed to have bits of hair flapping in the wind on inquest, it would be distracting. Part of the 'demand for purity' listed as a feature of cults, in my opinion. But also for sales reasons; there's research that shows some people are put off by beards but no real reaction to clean-shaven.

And they have to make people look different after inquest somehow because they're supposed to be 'transformed' remember, and it wouldn't do if nobody noticed the transformation. If you change your hair clothes etc most normal people notice and say something nice, because they have good manners. They won't say "that's a terrible new hairstyle" they'll say "oh, you cut your hair. That looks nice". And then the person thinks wow, all this great feedback, inquest really worked. I'm transformed!!

:roll: :roll: :roll:


Did you show your printouts to your sister who is still creating her own universes?

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SaneAgain
:shock: You're terrible! Imagine poor Cindy finding herself manifested from the catwalk into the arms of a 13 year old Utah boy!!!! :lol:

I did imagine it. Many, many times. :wink:

Sane,

I found your last post about inQuest insightful. particularly about the motivation behind LGAT's wanting you to change the way you look so that the conditioning can be reinforced by sources outside the training. Interesting. In Impact's Summit they make the men shave their faces clean and make everyone remove all body piercing that isn't in the ear. Since I left impact, I stopped shaving, got some tattoos and pierced a few things. I had to get my identity back, and I needed the visual aids.

Hi SaneAgain,

Yep, I have been on the end of quite a few "its not about you statements". The first year or two after my siblings went in Quest were terrible, the pressure, their arrogance etc. but most of all, the ludicrous requests for me to go on the training were really bad. Example, my girlfriend at the time (now my wife) was very ill in hospital, yet my sister and her boyfriend repeatedly visited her in hospital begging her to go on Quest and telling her how she needed to go and how it would change her and that they had paid for her (She was in hospital man!! Talk about choosing the right moment) - The now wife told them to pi$$ off by the way. I could not believe it. They were very intimidating at that time and I could speak till I was blue in the face, I might as well have been talking to a brick wall.

In addition, one of my siblings felt the need to "cleanse" with a few family members, and boy did she dump on them! My goodness, was it a very rocky time for my family!

I have not shown the articles and printouts to my sister as she lives overseas, but another brother of mine (large family), lives there as well and I am sure he will fill her in!

I did print out a lot of info and share it with my mother. She had coffee with a friend of hers a couple of days ago, and her friend mentioned that her daughter has been pressuring her to go on Inquest (both of them have done Quest). My mother promptly told her about the reading and research and I have done and told her that if she did not want to go, she shouldnt and must make her decision very carefully and not be bullied into going (she told my mother she felt no need to go). She was quite surprised to hear about the info I passed to my mother about LGATs, shocked as well. So, it seems as if this forum may have at least helped one person make an educated decision whether to go on these trainings or not.

I'm glad some of this information is reaching people, thanks wiseman.

I am shaking my head in disbelief over that hospital story! I keep thinking I know how crazy these things are, then I hear something even crazier!

Speaking of cleansing and dumping on people did you ever read this very educational thread? Off topic... comparing groups?

[board.culteducation.com]