The above was just a "lead in" by the way. What I want to address is the position of the Roman Catholic Church. I have met some very fine Roman Catholic people by the way, including two priests whom I could call friends. But by its nature I believe that the Roman Catholic church qualifies as a cult for the following reasons (a) the clergy have to be celibate. But when we dam up our
Forum: Destructive Churches

I would like to bring this up as it is something that has followed me all my life. A dear friend in my youth, later a Baptist minister was caught in a sexual affair with a member of his congregation. I think he left the church -- or was asked to leave. A friend of mine, married to an Assemblies of God minister, found out her husband was being unfaithful to her. The whole thing was swept under
Forum: Destructive Churches

Hi Cultnomore, What you describe is violence and control in the extreme. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. As a parenting professional I am working mostly with babies and young children, but I thank you for keeping us up to date with what is happening to older kids. One can't help wondering how people who are abused in this way are going to "turn out" later...
Forum: Destructive Churches

Thank you Maranatha Trail. I have checked out the site. Anne Marie and Gary Ezzo are just a couple of radical fundamentalist ministers abusing children and I would like to bring a few of the others to the attention of people here. Michael and Debbie Perls were very much in the news about a year ago. They recommend "breaking a child's will" and this is done by starting hitti
Forum: Destructive Churches

Hi Corboy, I added a long post, but for some reason it got lost, and I don't have the time to redo it. I think like any other kind of psychotherapy, how long you need to do it depends on the amount of childhood damage you sustained, and how well suited primal therapy is to your particular needs. There is a lot of stuff out there being called primal therapy that actually has nothing to
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

If you have read what Wikipedia has to say, you will have noticed that Ezzo recommends not picking up babies when they cry, or feeding them when they are hungry. This is very serious, because at this time the baby's brain is developing and the task they are working on is "trust". Not meeting their needs when they express them, makes it impossible for the baby to trust his/her car
Forum: Destructive Churches

What Wikipedia has to say about Babywise and Gary Ezzo -- they are looking at it from the secular position. I will follow this with a few remarks about what Ezzo claims that could make him be seen as a "cult leader" from the Biblical viewpoint:
Forum: Destructive Churches

In about 2000 I came across the work of Gary and Marie Ezzo and the parenting course they were teaching -- both within churches and in a secular version. Babies and young children were being severely emotionally and physically harmed, and the American Academy of Paediatrics tried unsuccessfully to get the Ezzo's "Raising Kids God's Way" shut down. Gary's own history was
Forum: Destructive Churches

"Sane Again" -- in response to your post in 2007 -- I'm fascinated to hear from someone who has actually done the course. In the past I had personal dealings with people who came to me for help (including some of the trainers) but was never able to find out what actually went on, because they are not allowed to disclose anything. So I have a question for you. If someone felt tha
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Sorry, I think I put this in the wrong place -- I'm new here. So please ignore, and I'll try to get it into the place where it belongs.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I must confess that I haven't actually seen Byron Katie take someone back to childhood abuse in front of the TV cameras and was responding to what I read somewhere above. (I stopped watching her on the internet because what I was seeing made me feel very uncomfortable). But what I have seen her do is (a) get the person to open up and become vulnerable and then (b) turn it around so that thei
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I find this thread very interesting on a number of counts... (a) I have been through primal therapy and find it is very much misunderstood. This is largely Janov's own fault because he made outrageous claims, failed to produce good peer-reviewed studies, and wasted a lot of energy telling other psychologist that they were wrong and he was right. (Psychologists don't like that! :)
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I'd like to open up a new thread here, because child abuse in the name of religion is so very prevalent. People like Gary Ezzo, Michael and Debbie Pearls and Roy Lessin come to mind. (There are others too). I look forward to hearing what other people have to say about them.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Hello, I'm new. I browsed though the posts here, but can't find the ones I wanted to reply to in this long string of posts, so will just address the issues one by one. I came across "The Work" of Byron Katie through a young relative of mine, who seems to have been helped. So I dismissed her as just another "New Age Flaky." But when I read one of the posts abo
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"