Responding to other posts on this topic:
-->How is Clairvision held accountable?Is there any board certification, licensing board or anything that offers checks and balances?
There is no board that offers checks and balances. The Clairvision School is registered as a non-profit in the state of California under the name Point Horizon Institute, EIN: 20-3884348. If you know about illegal, fraudulent, unethical or otherwise questionable activities you can report that information to the government entities that govern them. Some of these sites allow you to report anonymously:
California Attorney General File A Complaint:
[
coag.gov]
California Attorney General Report Consumer Fraud:
[
coag.gov]
State of California Department of Justice Charity Complaints: [
www.oag.ca.gov]
California Department of Consumer Affairs:
[
www.dca.ca.gov]
If you know of fraud, you can report this information to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission):
[
reportfraud.ftc.gov]
The Clairvision school originally started in Australia, the headquarters are now in the USA, but the school does still have a registered business entity for their Australian branch. The entity name is Clairvision School Limited, ABN - 90 050 633 237.
Info about the Australian branch:
[
www.acnc.gov.au]
How To Raise A Concern About an Australian Charity:
[
www.acnc.gov.au]
I suspect this is one of those things where they would need to receive multiple reports from different people in order to do something about it. The more people that make reports, the more likely something will be done about complaints.
--> There are many high demand religious groups that are actually much harder to stay in than to leave. In fact some groups routinely kick people out who 'don't make the grade" in one way or another. Not trying to get you back does not necessarily mean a group is "safe" or "good" imo.
I would say Clairvision fits into this - it's definitely a high demand group. Some people really make Clairvision their whole lives. Once you get to a certain level of the training you have to keep up with your peers to stay in that same group or get dropped to a lower class level. There's a lot of pressure to "put your will into it" to make things happen, and if you can't make it work to make it to courses or do the other things they might deem appropriate for you, there is the real possibility of being dropped down or kicked out or told you need to take a break.
I've heard it said repeatedly that you're always free to leave Clairvision, therefore it is not a cult, but other legitimate cult leaders have said the same thing, and I don't think that alone is enough to disqualify this group as a cult.
-->Does the group take money from anybody, or do they attempt some kind of psychological assessment to prevent people who "aren't ready" from attending courses?
There is a questionnaire that they ask you to fill out before being accepted to a course, but that's it, and as I understood it, the majority of people who apply to a course are accepted. I was never a screener, but it was my understanding that they mostly tried to screen out people with serious mental illness or who were on psychiatric medications for more serious issues.
-->Are people with PTSD, childhood abuse and trauma etc screened in any way?
There is a pre-course questionnaire where people can reveal this information but people are not screened out because of that, in fact many of them would actually be encouraged to get involved to help resolve these issues.
-->People with PTSD, abuse and trauma are very likely to receive significant benefit from CV techniques. There is no reason to prevent them from attending.
This was not my experience. At first it seemed that way, but after being there for many, many years what I started to notice was that people who had been in the school for 10, 15 or 20+ years were still replaying their same traumas and dramas as they were when I first met them. Of course this is hard to see at first because you don't know everyone and their traumas/dramas, but as time went on this was really in my face. Students were just replaying their traumas/dramas in what seemed like much more sophisticated ways, which leads them to believe they've made progress or have changed, but this isn't what I saw. See for yourself know for yourself right?
In my opinion (and experience) trauma treatment has improved significantly over the last 10-20 years, and much about IST I feel never progressed beyond the 90's with regards to trauma. I definitely don't recommend IST for anyone who has real traumas and/or PTSD. The problem with this is that so many people repress trauma memories, so in essence you may have no idea how much trauma you've actually been through till you start going through the IST process. IST will dig at all the things you repressed, for better or worse.
-->Is anyone supervising the group who is a mental health professional, working under licensure?
No. Samuel Sagan used to be a licensed medical doctor. He did at some point let his license expire, but I don't remember the when and why of that. Samuel Sagan passed away in 2016.
When I left the school none of the people who were in charge had any kind of mental health professional licensure or even much formal training in any mental health field. I would be surprised if this had changed.
-->What does the group do if they induce PTSD in a client through regression , or does this never happen?
If it does happen - they "put vision on it". They don't really have a protocol as far as I know beyond that. I know some people have been sent away, but I always questioned how people dealt with some of the crazy stuff I saw come up for them after they left the retreat center. There is no support after you leave the retreat unless you are willing to pay for it with an IST practitioner.
-->Does the group take any responsibility for those who appear to have been harmed through regression? Or is it just a case of "Ah well, they weren't ready; onto the next client with money...:?"
No they do not take any responsibility, it is more of a "they couldn't take the spiritual fire" or "they weren't ready" kind of hand waving gesture they do around this. The waiver they have you sign is pretty intense - completely waiving all your rights for whatever could possibly happen there. Here's some of the language from it:
"I agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Point Horizon Institute, its affiliates, and any of their agents, volunteers and representatives of each of the foregoing entities (such entities and individuals, the “Indemnified Parties”) against all claims, causes of action, damages, judgments, costs and expenses, including attorney fees and other litigation costs, that may in any way arise from my participation in the Workshop or my presence upon the facilities in which the Workshop is conducted, including actions resulting from the negligence or recklessness of any of the Indemnifed Parties.
I recognize that there are certain risks involved with the activities conducted in the Workshop, and that my participation in the Workshop may result injury to myself, including the occurrence of emotionally disturbing and/or cathartic experiences. I assume full responsibility for any personal injury to myself that may result from the activities conducted in the Workshop. I hereby release and discharge each of the Indemnified Parties from any liability, loss or damage for injuries to myself that result from my participation in the Workshop or my presence upon the facilities in which the Workshop is conducted, including damages that result from the negligence or recklessness of any of the Indemnified Parties."
Volunteers aren't really taught anything about appropriate interactions with others at the retreat centers. Negligence and recklessness happen all the time because everyone is a volunteer, not an employee who has something on the line. The whole "anything goes except for a few no-no's" is more the way of the school. Many people sign waivers without taking in the true reality of the situation - good to know that this place has no code of ethics or training of its volunteers around recklessness and negligence before signing that waiver.
-->Or is no one ever harmed?
People have been harmed but mostly it seems like people just don't come back rather than trying to pursue anything to hold the school accountable.
-->What exactly have you seen happen to people who "weren't ready"? What kind of symptoms did they have? Do they become suicidal? Is there any follow up with these people after the week ends?
I'm not really sure how to answer this because I didn't usually see what happened to people after they left a retreat, especially people who just came for a one off. I do know some people were written off as crazy or as not disclosing something on the screening questionnaire (which I question if that was true or just an excuse) - essentially a lot of misinformation gets spread around for the reasons someone might leave.
There is no follow up after you leave the retreat unless you pay for additional sessions with an IST practitioner.
Even people who "were ready" sometimes had a hard time after a course. I did have many friends in the work who told me they had a hard time integrating back into the real world after leaving the retreat center. I definitely had that happen a few times myself and needed to take additional time off work to integrate, sometimes more than a week.
-->(By the way, the idea that regression to bad events is helpful to all people is questioned quite a bit by some modern psychologists .)
Yes, this is true. IST (Inner Space Techniques, formerly known as ISIS - Inner Space Interactive Sourcing but changed due to current political climate around 2015/16) is essentially a cathartic regression therapy practice. No one in the school ever told me this, it wasn't till years later I was describing IST to a friend with background in psychology and she named for me that IST was a cathartic practice. I had an ah-ha moment when I looked up more about cathartic practices and why they could be dangerous if not facilitated properly. The Clairvision school describes IST as a more meditative exploration process, but that's not all it is - it is definitely a cathartic practice.
In the retreats you'll see people acting out all kinds of things from the past in an effort to clear the energy from the system - fighting, screaming, crying, etc. With both regression and cathartic types of therapy, the integration phases after are really important, but you don't get this with Clairvision. What you get is being completely blown open all day every day with session after session of IST and no time to integrate the experiences till after you leave - and you don't get any support after you leave without paying more. The intensives are run more like military boot camps than anything else.
Because there can be much acting out during IST - yelling, fighting, pushing, catharsis! - it can feel SO GOOD, but that doesn't mean it will solve your problems. In fact without proper integration, these kind of practices can be more harmful than helpful. And considering the lack of consistency in training IST practitioners and the fact that most of them don't have mental health training outside of the school's theories and models, I question whether they can really facilitate that integration.
-->If a psychologist treats someone they have to follow a strict code of ethics. This is to protect a client from being manipulated by the power holder, for example for sexual favors, money beyond fees, or free labor. Does the group have a strict code of ethics, or is it ok to expect people to donate extra money, free labor, sexual favors etc?
The Clairvision school does not have a code of ethics or much of anything written about ethics, they never did while I was a part of the group anyway. You'll be hard pressed to find anything about ethics on their websites.
I know of multiple situations where IST practitioners and instructors have abused their power, most of them with little or no consequences - there are no checks and balances within the Clairvision school. IST practitioners have married (and of course subsequently divorced) their clients. Dual relationships with clients pretty much always happen since none of the practitioners are licensed. I would be surprised if most IST practitioners even comprehend why understanding dual relationship would be important.
Ethics is not something that IST practitioners are taught about as part of their training. In my estimation, at least 90% of Clairvision IST practitioners are not licensed in any mental health field and their background/training in mental health extremely questionable. Most of them don't have mental health training outside of the Clairvision school's models and theories, which in my opinion are outdated.
The process of becoming an IST practitioner is not standard - it's more about convincing the powers that be that you're in line enough with the Clairvision tradition rather than any kind of standard training they provide or require. And there are no requirements for continued education in order for someone to maintain their IST practitioner status - at least not requirements that are in any way formally or consistently enforced.
There are some really questionable sexual politics things going on within the school. And yes, you are expected to give, give, give, give, give to the school - money, time - whatever you have available they will take.
--> I'm curious about is the 'Esoteric Christianity' bit--I know that Clairvision at least acknowledges relationship with Rudolf Steiner's work, but it definitely does not present itself as any variety of Christian in its forward-facing materials...for those who have been more involved with the school, is this part of the material once people get more deeply involved?
I'm not sure if orangegrl answered your question, but as far as the esoteric part of things, there are initiations and secret rituals that might be considered in line with what you're talking about. Like, for example they don't tell you until you're there that the Thunderwand course is a full on initiation and changes your energy such that afterwards they tell you that you're not supposed let anyone manipulate your energy outside of Clairvision school practitioners. So no one like a chiropractor or massage therapist or other energy worker should be messing with your energy. That sure would have been nice to know before I showed up!
They had higher levels of initiation rituals that I was not a part of. So if you meant do they have initiations and secret rituals, the answer is yes. I don't know if things went so far as physical branding like the NXIVM cult did, but it did seem to me like there was some form of energetic branding going on, which could be good or bad depending on who you ask (and whether people knew they were consenting to this or not).