Thanks for the Mother Jones links, corboy. If only the Obama administration could achieve 10% of what David Cay Johnston proposes, my heart would leap with joy.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

When I took the est Training here in midtown Manhattan (January 1979), at one point my bladder felt like it was bursting. I had too much dignity to lose control and pee in my pants, so I walked out of the hotel ballroom where it was taking place. I'm sure some assistant tried to dissuade me, but nature was callling far too loudly for me to care about it or even remember. I relieved myself
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

A friend exhibits his photography at a gallery here in New York. While exploring this gallery's website, I noticed that they also exhibit the work of a fairly prominent female digital artist who's name I was familiar with. One of the shows she had was called "The Vibhuti Series", which consists of large polaroid prints of "vibhuti", the ash that the notorious India
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Eek! The horrors! The aching bladder! I looked at that website for two minutes and stopped. I did the est training back in January 1979, in the midst of a binge of doing whatever LGATs I came across here in New York City in a vain attempt to "transform" myself. I earnestly suffered thru many useless graduate seminars and terms of assisting, including an exhausting period of a
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I found a brand-new mention of our old pal Bayard in a recently published book, and thought I'd quote it here, as it is of historical interest. The book is "The 99th Monkey" by Eliezer (aka Eliot) Sobel, and came out in early 2008. The subtitle is "A Spiritual Journalist's Misadventures with Gurus, Messiahs, Sex, Psychedelics, and Other Consciousness-Raising Experim
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

It couldn't hurt to give them a copy of the chapter from Randi's book, or even loan the book itself. They might learn something from Randi's investigations of the other more flagrant hucksters that might prove useful to them.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

You're welcome! I'm actually reading "The Faith Healers" right now, and finished the chapter on DiOrio last night. I had never heard of him before.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

James Randi devoted an entire chapter to DiOrio in his book "The Faith Healers" from 1989. It's Chapter 13, entitled "Father DiOrio: Vatican-Approved Wizard".
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

prefersprivacy, I understand. I will not use specific names in future posts. With some people mentioned in this thread, I deemed it fair play, as they are media figures and I had web links to share, or they have a current and very visible relationship to Bayard. If you wish, as your identity is now protected, I would love to know what your take on your time with Direct Centering/Nexus is
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

andyb4, I just sent you a Private Message (twice by accident--sorry!). I was attempting to be a cartoonist way back then, but I sucked. :-( I believe I know who you are (see the PM).
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Quoteandyb4 So Laaree, how did you manage to break away from DC? And, what's brought you to this forum at this time in your life? If you don't mind me asking. I left DC around 1983. I had a lot of guilt early on, but finally came to realize that I deserved to live my life free from Direct Centering. I wrote a longer piece for this forum but it hasn't been approved yet. I might try
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I understand that this forum is moderated and when I visit, I seem to have access during week days and evenings both from my home and work computers, but not later at night or at all on weekends. If I attempt to visit during those time periods, I either see "Cult News from Rick Ross" or a message "Not Found. The requested URL /read.php (or /control, etc) was not found on this serv
Forum: Tech support for this board

Quoteandyb4So Laaree, how did you manage to break away from DC? And, what's brought you to this forum at this time in your life? If you don't mind me asking. I left Direct Centering around 1983. I had a lot of guilt early on, but finally came to realize that I deserved to live my life free from Direct Centering. I wrote a longer piece for this forum but it hasn't been approved yet.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

An addendum to my post from a few minutes ago: if you go to , you will see a forum posting by "asavage" about doing the Direct Centering course 20 or so years ago. With a little web searching, it looked like this was actually Adam Savage of the tv show "MythBusters". I met Adam at a conference back in June and confirmed that he actually did do the DC course back around 1985
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Quoteandyb4Hi Everyone! I can't begin to tell you how elated I was to read all of your posts here about Direct Centering. For me it's been almost 25 years and no one that I hang out with now can begin to understand what it was like being a part of whatever that was. While I was waiting for my registration information to be approved by the Rick Ross people, I started to write a draft o
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteREALnothingsDoes anyone know what's with all the names? The man's given name is Gavin Barnes, isn't it? Where did "Bayard Hora" come from? When I Google the name, I find a famous scientist shares the name. Is that just a coincidence? I looked at something recent, which identified him as "Bayard Barnes"... Anyone know about this? His birth name i
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteharaQuoteREALnothingsLaarree, it's still fascinating to hear about the origins of what Bayard was doing. And yes, I'm also glad to hear from ex-members. Here's another choice tidbit about Bayard's early history. In the early years of Direct Centering, he would tell a story about how he was busted for selling pot when he was a young man in Florida. He said he faked bei
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

The confrontation that was encouraged around Direct Centering probably had its origins in Bayard's pre-DC work as an unlicensed primal therapist. Years ago, I did a bit of phone calling around to therapists who were doing primal-style therapy in New York in the early 1970's, and found a couple of them who remember Bayard from groups of theirs, before he started up his own "therapy
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Hey, thanks for the link. :-)
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Quotemjr40Thank you for the information - are they usually outside the turnstiles to the A, C and E trains? I think I know the area you are speaking about. QuotelaarreeThey've also been set up in the 42nd Street/8th avenue subway station for years. I see them all the time, as I enter the subway to go home at this station. Their table is in the underground area right by the entrance to
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteharaThanks, Laarree. Both might be productive. I am definitely interested in this "species" of cult, since it was the kind that sucked me in. After Naexus it had a phase of being called something else; not Naka-Ima -- that is an offshoot by two former staffers. (I actually visited Lost Valley, which at the time hosted those workshops; but it didn't really have much draw. Proba
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

QuoteharaWow, finally something about this group! I knew Immunics was their latest thing ... the outgrowth of the more woo-woo sounding direction they were taking when I left in 1994. They had changed their name to U-I-Ku (or something close), but when I joined the group was called Naexus. I didn't realize it was a cult, because all the descriptions in resources I could find back then sounde
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I see that this thread has been quiet for a while. I thought I'd alert anyone visiting here that I posted a lengthy message today in another thread regarding Lester Levenson, the Sedona Method and their influence on cult leader Bayard Barnes of WHUM/Immunics (current names) / Nexus/Direct Centering (old names).
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I did some searching today on these forums, and found a long thread on the Sedona Method at Peculiarly enough, there is a connection between Bayard Barnes and Lester Levenson, the originator of the Sedona Method. I thought some other forum members might find this interesting. During the mid-'70s, at some point before the founding of Direct Centering, Bayard (then called by his nickna
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

They've also been set up in the 42nd Street/8th avenue subway station for years. I see them all the time, as I enter the subway to go home at this station. Their table is in the underground area right by the entrance to the pedestrian tunnel connecting this 8th Avenue station to the Times Square subway stations. This tunnel typically has a group of Christian nutjobs soliciting in it.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

What, you're double-posting??! The more the merrier. ;-) I've googled Immunics, WHUM, Immuners, Bayard Barnes, Bayard Hora, etc. many many times over the last many years and there is very little on the web that is critical of Bayard's ever-mutating playpen. Hopefully with these threads going some seeds will be planted, and other discussions will be initiated. I have found
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Nice to see a response on this thread. Bayard apparently is back to calling himself by his birth name, Bayard Barnes, on the immunics/whum website, FWIW. I'm very curious about what similarities there are between how the group operates these days and how it did in the old days, i.e. late 1970s thru the 1980s. Similar recruitment tactics? Similar obsession with documenting Bayard'
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Yep. Some of those faces are very familiar to me from c. 25 years ago. Actually his birth name is Bayard Henry Barnes -- Gavin is an old nickname he called himself by for many years.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"