Lifespring

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Lifespring was an American for-profit human potential organization founded in 1974 by John Hanley Sr., Robert White, Randy Revell, and Charlene Afremow.^{[1] [2][3]} The organization encountered significant controversy in the 1970s and 1980s with various academic articles characterizing Lifespring's training methods as "deceptive and indirect techniques of persuasion and control", and allegations that Lifespring was a cult that used coercive methods to prevent members from leaving. After these allegations were highlighted in a 1987 article in the Washington Post as well as local television reporting in communities where Lifespring had a significant presence, Lifespring changed its name to the "Legacy Center." The Legacy Center was also met with controversy, and when it was under investigation by the North Carolina Attorney General's office for allegedly defrauding its members, it changed its name to the "Gratitude Center."

Before becoming defunct in the mid 1990s, Lifespring claimed that it had trained more than 400,000 people through its ten centers across the United States.

Key people[]

Lifespring was founded by John Hanley Sr. along with Robert White, Randy Revell, and Charlene Afremow. By October 1987, Hanley owned 92.7 percent of the company.^[4] Prior to Lifespring, Hanley had worked for the multi-level marketing organization Holiday Magic.^[4] He and the other founders had also worked for Mind Dynamics with Werner Erhard, the founder of est, which became the basis for Landmark Education.^[5] Holiday Magic was founded by William Penn Patrick, co-owner and Board Member for Mind Dynamics.^[6] Holiday Magic later folded amidst investigations by authorities and accusations of being a pyramid scheme.^[7][8]

The Director for Corporate Affairs of Lifespring, Charles "Raz" Ingrasci,^[9] had also worked at est to promote a mission to the USSR and the Hunger Project. Ingrasci is now President of the , an organization founded in 1967 and also part of the human potential movement which offers programs which are similar to Lifespring's.^[10][11]

Course overview[]

The Lifespring training generally involved a three-level program starting with a "basic" training, an "advanced" breakthrough course, and a three-month "leadership program" which taught the students how to implement what they learned from the training into their lives. "There is no hope" is a fundamental tenet in the course. The fundamental purpose of the leadership program was enrollment, participants were told the city and the world is at stake and the only solution was enrolling as many people into the trainings as possible.

^[12] Less than two percent found them to be "of no value".^[12] Graduates were often eager to share their own experiences in the training with family, friends, and co-workers, although they were precluded from sharing fellow trainees' experiences. There was never any compensation for assisting in enrolling others into the workshops.^[12] However, another, independent study found that, "The merging, grandiosity, and identity confusion that has been encouraged and then exploited in the training in order to control participants is now used to tie them to Vitality (Lifespring) in the future by enrolling them in new trainings and enlisting them as recruiters".^[13]

The basic training was composed of successive sessions on Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday day and night, Sunday day and night, a Tuesday night post-training session ten days after graduation, and a post-training interview. Evening sessions began at 6:30 pm and lasted until 11:30 or 12 or later. Saturday sessions started at 10 am and lasted until approximately midnight. Sunday sessions started at 9 am and lasted until approximately 6 pm. The trainings were usually held in the convention facilities of large, easily accessible, moderate priced hotels (i.e., mid-town New York). A basic training was usually composed of 150–200 participants, while an advanced training was composed of 75-100 participants. Approximately 50 percent of advanced training graduates participated in the leadership program. Training also included alumni volunteers who served as small group leaders, several official staff, an assistant trainer, and a head trainer.^[13]

The training consisted of a series of lectures and experiential processes designed to show the participants a new manner of contending with life situations and concerns and how other possible explanations and interpretations may lead to different results. Some individuals complained that they felt harangued, embarrassed, or humiliated by the trainer during the training. A few individuals choose not to complete the training. Additionally, the trainer used many English words in a manner different from their usual meaning. "Commitment", for instance, was defined as "the willingness to do whatever it takes". "Conclusion" was defined as a belief. Also, words such as "responsibility", "space", "surrender", "experience", "trust", "consideration", "unreasonable", "righteous", "totally participate", "from your head", "openness", "letting go" were redefined or used so as to assign them a more specific meaning.^[13] "Stretch" was an activity that was outside the participant's comfort zone. During the advanced course the participants were sometimes sent out to perform certain tasks. If any participant did not complete their task the group was considered in "breakdown ".

The book Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training made comparisons between Lifespring and est.^[14]

Lifespring has been characterized as a form of "Large Group Awareness Training" in several sources.^{[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][14]}

Lawsuits[]

Lifespring claims to have trained more than 400,000 people through its ten centers across the country.^{[citation needed]} A number of lawsuits were filed against Lifespring (personal communication with trainers), including two cases in which deaths allegedly resulted from trainings. Lifespring settled most of the suits.^{[citation needed]}

In one case an asthmatic was allegedly told that her asthma exacerbation was psychological and later died from the exacerbation. The lawsuit was settled for $450,000, and Lifespring admitted no wrongdoing. In another case a man who could not swim was made to jump into a river and drowned. This case was also settled out of court.^[22] Many suits said the trainings placed participants under extreme psychological stress.

The Washington Post published an article about the company in 1987.^[4] It quotes Hanley as saying, "If a thousand people get benefit from the training, and one person is harmed, I'd can it. I have an absolute commitment for having this training work for every person who takes it." However, according to the Post, by 1987 Hanley and other Lifespring executives had known for more than a decade that some people were not suited for this level of personal inquiry. As evidence, the Post cited:

• Talk among top company officials about how to make the trainings less harsh while maintaining their effectiveness
• Dozens of reports submitted to Hanley in the late 1970s and early 1980s by Lifespring staff about participants who became panicky, confused, or nervous

Over time, the training company began qualifying students and required doctors' signatures for people who might require therapy rather than coaching.

Criticism[]

The Post also reported in the same article that Hanley had been convicted of six counts of felony mail fraud in 1969, and was given a five-year suspended sentence.^[4]

In 1980, a federal judge rejected Hanley's request to have the felony conviction removed from his record. His request for a presidential pardon was also denied.^[4]

In 1990 KARE-TV (Channel 11, Minneapolis-St. Paul) ran a segment called "Mind Games?" that Lifespring said was deceptive and sensationalized.^[9]

One prominent critic of Lifespring is Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Mrs. Thomas said in an interview with the Post that she chose to seek counseling after her decision to stop participating in Lifespring. In her interview with the Post she stated that after she chose to publicly criticize the organization, she received dozens of phone calls at 3 or 4 AM, was mailed a picture of her 3-year old daughter at daycare, and received a death threat from a former member at a local mall.

References[]

Further reading[]

• Haaken, J; Adams, R (August 1983). "Pathology as "personal growth": a participant-observation study of lifespring training". Psychiatry. 46 (3): 270–80. doi:10.1080/00332747.1983.11024199. PMID 6622602. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
• Hanley, John (1989). Lifespring: Getting Yourself From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780671646431. OCLC 19128147.

External links[]

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