These are interesting considerations. I can't say I've read all of the research and I might take issue with some of the criteria but for the sake of discussion let me try to assess how HAI either satisfies or does not satisfy these criteria.
1. They lack adequate participant-selection criteria.
>> Personally, I don't understand this factor. Is baseball a cult, because they let anyone that paid 20 bucks in for a seat? HAI charges a reasonable (not excessive) fee for food, lodging and the workshop. What would be adequat selection criteria?
2. They lack reliable norms, supervision, and adequate training for leaders.
>>>HAI discloses the credentials of all of their facilitators. They aren't hiding anything. Here is the current list.
[
www.hai.org] Since they do not represent the workshop as a substitute for seeing a licensed therapist or mental health professional, I am not sure why they need to have those credentials. I agree it might be helpful, but individual participants have the ability to ask who will be facilitating a work shop and make those choices for themselves.
3. They lack clearly defined responsibility.
>>>Well, I think this sounds either nice or hoaky but here it is from their site.
"The Human Awareness Institute (HAI) empowers individuals to be potent, loving, contributing human beings. HAI promotes personal growth and social evolution by replacing ignorance and fear with awareness and love. HAI aims to create a world where people live together in dignity, respect, understanding, trust, kindness, compassion, honesty and love. The Human Awareness Institute is committed to "Creating a World Where Everyone Wins." "
4. They sometimes foster pseudoauthenticity and pseudoreality.
>>>Not that I experienced but maybe others would disagree.
5. They sometimes foster inappropriate patterns of relationships.
>>>Again, I didn't see any of this but obviously people have different views about what's inappropriate. Again, I've only done 1 level.
6. They sometimes ignore the necessity and utility of ego defenses.
>>> The do invite participants to stretch and I some exercises were more difficult for me. They actually specifically told people they had a choice to stay clothed or not and several of us did. No pressure. No big deal.
7. They sometimes teach the covert value of total exposure instead of valuing personal differences.
>>> The whole workshop was about valuing personal differences and understanding how we are - underneath -- all quite similar. I don't see this as having been satisfied.
8. They sometimes foster impulsive personality styles and behavioral strategies.
>> Someone may need to explain this, but other than permitting or inviting people to be comfortable in their nudity, they weren't encouraging anyone to do anything impuslive. Heck, the told everyone not to drink or do illicit drugs (or have any sex) during the 2 days of the workshop.
9. They sometimes devalue critical thinking in favor of "experiencing" without self-analysis or reflection.
>>> It's a workshop, so you are doing "exercises". They often invited the participants to close their eyes, take deep breaths and think about how the exercise felt, what it ment to us, to think if we were uncomfortable or comfortable. This was quite helpful. Critera 9 wasn't satisfied in my experience.
10. They sometimes ignore stated goals, misrepresent their actual techniques, and obfuscate their real agenda.
>>> This seems open to conjecture but not in my limited experience.
11. 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.
>>> There were both opportunities for individual and group sharing. Again, maybe I am misunderstanding but I don't think this was satisfied.
12. They pay inadequate attention to decisions regarding time limitations. This may lead to increased pressure on some participants to unconsciously "fabricate" a cure.
>>> Eh? No one was offered a cure for anything!
13. They fail to adequately consider the "psychonoxious" or deleterious effects of group participation (or] adverse countertransference reactions
>>> I would need a different degree to understand this question and reply to it, but I'm open to someone explaining it further.