I am trying to get information on a Jim Hellam. A friend of mine joined his group and I have found that he is currently DBA New Era Trainings in Concord, but has also been affiliated with Personal Dynamics, The Negotiation Lab (ACCD), I-Impact, Culture ROI, AsiaWorks and looks to be right up there with John Hanley Jr in John Hanley Sr's entourage. I am worried about my friend and am wondering if anyone can tell me what they know about this man and why he keeps on having to change the name of the organization he is with? I dont understand how one person can be affiliated with so many different names but sell the same product.

Jim Hellam is in fact right up there with John Hanley Sr. He is one of the head trainers for Accelerate (that was the name last year they seem to be going through names like most people go socks) Make no mistake this is the Lifes Spring training in disguise. He does the basic trainings for them. He actually boasted the Dr Phil went through his training. He is of course very compelling and good at his job. My advacedcourse had the pleasure of having John Hanley sit in on our first day as we were labeled "a handful" by Jim Hellam. Apparently we were just full of free thinkers who wouldn't break. That man is probably the creepiest man i have ever met in my life, and i have been in the mortgage industry for 10 years...Ive dealt with my fair share of creeps.

I posted my experience of the Accelerate trainings in this forum last year about this time. Its been about a year since I escaped, and I still feel the affects today. You can read it here. [forum.culteducation.com]

I hope your friend is'nt in the LP program. If so he is in deep. Hell be taken away from his job with phone calls all day long from either his buddy or his group or his "senior" its impossible to get work done when they wont leave you alone. The phonecalls wont stop at normal hours they continue on all hours becasue you need to be able to stand for your group always! Blech makes me ill thinking about it again. Its all about commitment to them, and them alone, no matter what they pretend to to be about.

Thank you for your response. I would like to also chat with other Accelerate, New Era trainings who attended the sessions on Stanwell. If anyone is willing to share their experience you may also private message it to me.

I've been through the training as well. Jim Hellam comes across as quite impressive, but it's because he's so well rehearsed and very good at coming across as someone who cares. I went through the New Era training program and was a pretty avid believer at first. Five months later, it took some family intervention before I realized just how much I had been brainwashed. All for the purpose of filling these people's wallets. Another leader in New Era is a lady named Lynn, and she is ridiculously ruthless and is not as good at hiding her greed as Jim, who does it quite well. My experience is something I look back on now as almost a nightmare. I'm embarrassed that I got sucked in and fooled.

Let me know if you have any further questions. I would certainly provide additional information if it means keeping just one person from doing this program.

STAY AWAY!!!

A lot of Thought Reform methods goes on in the first two the "trainers" play good cop bad cop. The last part is more rigorous Thought Reform + Group Think...if you snap out of it all you gonna be dealing with some cognitive dissonance to get your mind back. Critical thinking is unacceptable. Grey ares of life are overlooked, everything is simplified to "BLACK" or "RED". They sell you the idea that justifications are made by the self righteous, but they make justifications for those who leave saying the person was not willing to own up to their experience, or they didn't "Show up" to begin with etc...when you see a different "possibility" it suggested away as "selling your self short" or "not setting yourself up to win". GRHHHHHHHH!!! Save your time and money (spend it well), see a licensed therapist, get frank and honest feedback from trusted friends, love ones, coworkers, bosses etc...if you feel you need to look at your unconscious behavior!!!

Here's some food for thought below

Intruding into the Workplace
An excerpt from the book Cults In Our Midst
by Dr. Margaret Singer
[caic.org.au]

LGAT Wiki
[en.wikipedia.org]

Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training: A Longitudinal Study of Psychosocial Effects
[en.wikipedia.org]

Mind Control Made Easy Video
[lgattruth.wordpress.com]

Can you give more specifics, like how much does this cost? What are the community service things all about? Why do they have women do "stripteases?" What is the recruiting requirement? I keep hearing from a friend of my friend about this going on, and I'm worried!

Hi,

I participated recently and quit after the 1st weekend of the advanced portion called "ACT" It will set you back about $1400, for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd phase plus money spent out of pocket for meals and other extra expenses.

I never witnessed any strip teases, but for an exercise that they call a "stretch" you are broken into 4 or 5 person groups and given a "stretch" example...4 of the more attractive women were required to find suitable outfits to perform as the Pussycat Girls, 3 of the more Masculine or macho type men were required to dress as Ballerinas, and dance for the rest of the group, I saw these exercises as being designed to build confidence and self esteem. Which they did but they also reinforce the demand for complete and unbridled obedience of the group as dictated by the Instructor. Another group of women that were on heavy side were required to dress up as "belly dancers" and perform for the rest the group. Which I will say they did very gracefully and tastefully.


I will say that although I felt, and do feel that are benefits to some if the curriculum, I don't advocate it to anyone. It was obvious after the 1st weekend of "ACT" that main objective is to recruit more people, for the program. This in my mind negates all of the benefits. They will admonish you as being week and self serving if you protest the recruitment portion, which is involved in all phases of the training, but very important in the last piece, They premise the recruitment part as "giving back" but it is clearly promotional and serving the interests of the owners. Incidentally a major requirement for successfully completing the program is recruiting a minimum number of new people ( you will excluded from attending the final weekend retreat which is part the cost of the program and is not refundable).

Somethings that really went against my grain were...

1. They expect you to put the program first and foremost over even your family, I personally went hoping to be a better Husband and Parent. Putting anything before that is contrary to my objective.

2. They are an elitist group, telling us to forget trying to enlist anybody that doesn't have 2 nickels to rub together. They are clearly looking to recruit folks in the higher middle to upper economic demographic.

3. The female Instructor "Lynne" was extremely verbally abusive to individuals in her efforts to silence any decent, or questioning minds. (You are basically directed to give up higher thought and embrace the group directives).

4. I believe that this program could be risky for people already dealing with deep psychological problems, they say that the screening process minimizes this risk, they have a few questions relating to your mental health, but this screening assumes everyone is honest or aware of their current mental state. There is no screening performed by any mental health or medical professionals, the questionnaire is really just for their protection from liability if there is a problem.

A footnote regarding Jim Hellum...


He is so well rehearsed and practiced that he can cry real tears at will....I saw him do this on more than 1 or 2 occasions and I'm sure that some folks were really taken by this I, was unsure the first time but the 2nd time confirmed for me that he is very well rehearsed. Other portions of the training make this obvious also, I found it very interesting to actually analyze his performance when I was supposed to be in an exercise. The music and words used are all very well choreographed.

Also interesting... they claimed to be a struggling startup and they themselves (Jim, Lynn and her boyfriend) are making huge personal sacrifices to bring this to the people, and that we could make it possible for others to receive their great gift to the world via enrolling as they called it.

A quick internet search, and I see they are actually part of "Life Spring" which boasts of 40 centers, "New Era" in Concord included.

They are a bunch liars, and money hungry vultures BEWARE!!! There is nothing good about New Era, and I believe Jim Hellam is way at the top of the food chain in this organization.

Here's a link to Life Springs Center list [www.lifespringnow.com]

I think we need help. Please respond!! How did you "get out?" We don't know where to turn to help our friend!

Hi dewey5,


I don't know where to go for help, I just realized that all my earlier suspicions about this outfit were valid. I would have left after the first night if it weren't for my tendency to trust people until it's to late. I was only there because I trusted a person that I was close to and they kept me excited when I was going sideways on the program, I finally just quit responding to anybody affiliated with the program I didn't answer phone calls or emails and left nasty messages on the voice mail at New Era warning that any attempts to contact me are not, welcome and also, I informed them that my Doctor was treating me for anxiety related to the program, and has strongly advised me to cease and desist any activity with the trainings.

Do what ever you can, you show him this website, show him printed data about these programs. The data that New Era presents on there website as scientific data is not its and endorsement that was solicited, by the industry.


Good luck I hope you have success.