Ray’s training programs consisted of a similar structure to that of Tony Robbins and other large group awareness training (LGAT) methodologies, or motivational seminars held around the world. All of these trainings seduce people with their pseudo-psychobabble into paying hundreds or thousands of dollars (and signing a questionable contract) promising to unleash your potential, to teach you how to become happy, wealthy and successful – even more so if you already are. And how to have better relationships with people.

But when something goes wrong and a participant gets hurt, whether by performing some kind of risky stunt meant to take them out of their comfort zone, or by going into potentially suicidal psychosis when forced into confronting or reliving strong fears or emotions, or by suffocating to death in a sweat lodge, these so-called gurus stop at nothing to let the world know that they are not responsible in a desperate attempt to protect their fame and fortune. In fact they tend to find a way to blame the victims, and outright lie all the way through it.

The part where it all gets blurry is pinpointing if and how these gurus are actually forcing participants into these situations. There are many critics, and ex-participants who would say they were brainwashed into believing they had to push themselves in order to receive the benefit of what the leader was touting in the first place. And whenever a leader or guru is confronted, they tend to lie about their own involvement.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper interviewed Beverly Bunn, one of the surviving participants brave enough to speak publicly about that deadly incident. Here is a revealing excerpt demonstrating the kind of lies Ray has told so far: http://rumorrat.com/2010/02/04/more-damning-eyewitness-information-about-fatal-james-ray-sweat-lodge/#more-9490

And if you’re interested in reading Ray’s point of view, check out the “Setting the Record Straight” page he posted on his website in his own defense before he was arrested: http://jamesray.com/sedona/

Since this unique case seems to be making headlines around the world I am hopeful that it is the beginning of the end of for-profit, big business spirituality. But I am not going to let it lull me into thinking it will happen without people like myself continuing to research and write about it in an effort to inform and educate.
__
UPDATES:

Feb 4, 2010
• The charges against Mr. Ray, as of now, are three counts of manslaughter.
• The defense has said all along, “It was all a tragic accident” and pleads Not Guilty on February 4, 2010
CORRECTION: Just the initial appearance, not an actual plea. Attorney says they “would plead guilty” at upcoming hearing
http://www.prescottenews.com/editorials/editorial-not-guilty-plea-errr–not-so-fast

Feb 5 2010
• Ray’s attorney tells Larry King “this is not a criminal case” http://cnn.com/video/?/video/crime/2010/02/05/lkl.sweatlodge.attorney.defense.cnn
• Ray’s attorney says he cannot make bail- JAR assets not liquid.

Feb 6, 2010
• Hoping they have a good New Age psychobabble translator: Two of Ray’s employees granted immunity http://bit.ly/coXGHg

The other side of the coin is that the victim is threatened with a lawsuit brought on by the LGAT if they try to speak out against them, or facilitates a public forum to do so. Such as in the case of Dan, a Legacy Center graduate who had to shut down his LegacyCenterTruth.org forum due to legal threats.

So, what exactly is Mandatory or Forced Arbitration?

• Forced arbitration generally binds the consumer—not the company. The way most mandatory binding arbitration clauses are written, the seller or employer retains its rights to take any complaint to court while the consumer can only initiate arbitration.
• Forced arbitration severely limits consumer and employee options for resolving a dispute. Before any problem arises, you lock yourself into only one option—binding arbitration—for resolving all future disputes or problems. The contract typically also names the arbitration company that must be used.
• Arbitration does not follow clear, well-established, consistent rules and procedures such as those required for litigation in the court system. The company or employer generally picks the arbitration company—”the judge, ” which is not how the legal system works.
• Forced arbitration frequently costs more than taking a case to court.

~Source: FairArbitrationNow.org

Additionally, when the clause states “final and binding” it  means that the settlement is final – no turning back, no appeals, and all conditions set forth must be met.

I believe the majority of people who sign these contracts do not realize the extent as to what kind of rights they are giving away. For example, the Landmark Education Notice attempts to give Informed Consent with their own unscientifically unverified data. Since Landmark Education has conveniently, though not obviously, made their Notice available online in an ironic and twisted attempt at transparency, I have a solid resource to work with, here are some excerpts:

ARBITRATION AGREEMENT
I agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of my participation in the Program (or any of its associated activities), including the interpretation, application, execution, performance or enforcement of any provision of this Agreement or concerning Landmark Education LLC, its officers, managers, employees, agents, people who assist and/or other participants in the Program (“Landmark Education”) will be submitted to and determined by final and binding arbitration…

…From time to time, during or shortly after participating in the Program, a very small number of people who have no personal or family history of mental illness or drug abuse have reported experiencing brief, temporary episodes of emotional upset ranging from heightened activity, irregular or diminished sleep, to mild psychotic-like behavior. An even smaller number of people have reported more serious symptoms ranging from mild psychotic behavior to psychosis occasionally requiring medical care and hospitalization. In less than 1/1000 of 1% of participants, there have been reports of unexplained suicide or other destructive behavior. While we know of no independent studies to suggest that people who are physically, emotionally and mentally healthy are at risk in the Program, certain persons have claimed that the Program has caused or triggered in them a psychosis or psychotic event…

…I acknowledge and understand that the Program was designed for people who clearly understand they are responsible for their own health and well-being before, during and after the Program and who wish to enhance their living skills. I represent that I am not participating in the Program to handle any physical, mental or emotional problems and I fully understand that no portion of the Program is delivered or supervised by health professionals….

…I am aware and understand that some people have personally perceived the Program to be physically, mentally and/or emotionally stressful to them. I have been informed that certain persons with no personal or family history of current or previous mental or emotional problems and no history of use of psychotropic or mood altering drugs reported having experienced psychotic episodes following the Program….

~Read the full Notice

Who, in their right mind, would agree to sign such a contract after having read and considered such statements? Are people reading these and fully understanding what they’re reading? Are they being hurried into signing these contracts, encouraged not to spend too much time thinking about it, being told to sign NOW and not waste any time? Are the stats “In less than 1/1000 of 1% of participants” even accurate? How do they know if it’s only 1% percent? And what about this statement: “we know of no independent studies to suggest that people who are physically, emotionally and mentally healthy are at risk in the Program” – why aren’t there any independent studies they know of? Are they not allowing anyone to conduct them for fear of exposure? And how did they get the 1% number if there are no known independent studies? That contract is riddled with question inducing statements and clauses. And though I have not yet seen any other LGAT contracts, I think it’s safe to assume they all use similar language.

To conclude, the Mandatory Arbitration clause in LGAT contracts must be done away with so that the public can have more protection, rights and access to information regarding the potential dangers of these LGATs, ultimately forcing these groups into regulation. And I ask you, my readers, to consider joining the fight against unfair forced arbitration increasingly and quietly being used by more and more companies by checking out sites like FairArbitrationNow.org – they even have a petition!

More about the downside of Mandatory Arbitration

> LGAT Matrix Spreadsheet

You’ll notice there are two sheets at this time- one for Lifespring (John Hanley Sr.) and one for est (Werner Erhard). The founders of each methodology have either sold licensing of their methodologies to spinoff founders (usually Leadership graduates), or have acknowledged the use of their methodologies- replicated or modified.

NOTE: I’ve discovered that John Hanley Sr. of now defunct Lifespring, has partnered with his son, John Hanley Jr. to create “Innovention Consulting”, specializing in company/organizational transformations. This company has been added to the spreadsheet.

Perhaps the forum would still be up and running saving people from harm if he knew that the ACLU or a pro-bono attorney advocating anti-SLAPPs in NC may have been able to help. But then again, maybe the fact that there is no anti-SLAPP bill in North Carolina is enough to keep anyone from starting up their own forum, thus allowing Legacy Center to thrive.

However there is still evidence of the legacycentertruth‘s existence on the handy Wayback Machine. It’s an archived cache of the site, can’t click through to the discussions, but you can read some of the user discussion titles (for now) so I went ahead and took screen shots:

(Click image for larger view)

(Click image for larger view)

I also found an archived discussion thread in FACTnet’s forum that discusses the disappearance of the legacycentertruth.org, where ‘dan’ reappears to post what happened:

I’m posting because I thought LCT needed closure. The sudden shutdown created a lot tension and speculation, so here’s the official story of what happened… I shut down the site because Legacy threatened a lawsuit. They cited copyright infringement on certain posts. I didn’t like the idea of censoring, but I originally agreed to remove those specific posts.

When Legacy sent their listing, they said if they see any more posts they will sue for damages the website may have caused them. Some posts they listed did appear to maybe contain copyrighted information, but many others seemed to do nothing more than put Legacy in a bad light.

So after careful consideration, I determined it would be impossible for me to censor my site in the way Legacy wanted. I could easily remove those posts, but due to the anonymous nature of my site, someone could just post it again. Furthermore, with the reasoning behind what stays and goes being so subjective, and Legacy being the ones who decide, it most certainly would happen again.

So I shut down the site. I decided that was the surest way to avoid legal problems. I’ve received a lot praise from my site during its short time span, and I hate to shut it down, but I don’t have the time nor the financial means to defend myself against a lawsuit.

So that’s what happened, as for my plans for the future… Legacy mentioned that if they caught me interfering with their business anymore, they would sue. This is why my sudden silence and hesitance to mention anything at all. However, since I’ve already shut down the site, and I’ve been silent over a month, I feel like I’ve dropped off their radar by now. Still, I don’t want any trouble, so my future plan is to just stay out of the way. If somebody asks me a question about my thoughts, I’ll answer it, but that will be end of it. I’m just not going to go out of my way to be an advocate for either side.

I hope that cleared up some confusion or concern.

Thank you,
-Dan
Source: FACTnet forum archive

More discussion, the good and the bad of The Legacy Center can be found here: FACTnet.org forum , RickRoss forum

NOTE: I have yet to find anything else online devoted to open information and discussion on The Legacy Center.

Here’s one woman who was led to believe Landmark Education would help her sell her art and save her marriage. Unfortunately she learned the hard way what Landmark Education’s true goals were. Watch her compelling story here:

*Lifespring & Landmark Education
Both Landmark Education (The Forum) and Lifespring had a similar business model and methodology structure. Landmark Education CEO is Harry Rosenberg, Werner Erhard’s brother. Erhard is the founder of est (Erhard Seminars Training). Erhard legally changed his name from John Rosenberg  after a string of bad business moves as a young man. Then he created est. After troubles with the IRS and personal scandals he fled the USA, but not before licensing his est ‘technologies’ to his brother’s new company to perpetuate the money machine.

Lifespring founder, John Hanley Sr. and Erhard were colleagues in Mind Dynamics in the 70′s. Mind Dynamics, founded by Alexander Everett pioneered human potential seminars with inspiration from Jose Silva‘s Silva Mind Control techniques.

**Choice Center & Legacy Center
Hanley’s Lifespring was unable to withstand the multitude of lawsuit settlements and bad press and therefore dissolved, but not before proliferating its business model and methodologies through its graduates to create the various Centers that exist today.

This time was different than my first experience because this friend has been, unbeknownst to me, deeply involved (though on and off) with Lifespring and the Legacy Center for the last 15 years. This friend attempted to recruit me during a phone conversation, albeit subtly, into the Legacy Center in Raleigh, NC.

To help illustrate why I use the word insidious I will first explain our connection. We had been friends for about two years after having met through a local social networking website for photographers. We developed the kind of friendship where I regarded him as a confidant. I thought of him as a safe, older, wiser friend to have of the opposite sex. I felt like he was one of the very few people I could tell all to. He was a patient listener, and was there when I needed someone to just vent, or use as a sounding board if I found myself at some kind of turning point in my life. Especially comforting since I don’t have close relations with my own immediate family, and I was in a new city making new friends and trying to make a new life for myself. However there were times when he would say things that just didn’t appeal to my common sense, intellect or critical thinking. Even at times some things were even just a little off-putting in a boundary-crossing sort of way. But I would just shrug those moments off and take from the friendship what did help or make sense.

Looking back on some of our email conversations, he would use phrases that I now recognize as common LGAT jargon, such as:

• choosing to choose
• creation of vision
• I promise to help you process
• communicating your authentic experience
• asking me to pass on a hug to a friend of mine he’d never talked to or met for “a personal leap” (starting up her own business)
• “no inauthentic flouting of God” when discussing the ’08 Presidential election
• we are all in this world together, and share the responsibility for it
• find the way to participate in -be the Sources for- a world that’s fully connected and ‘in The Dance’
• to choose the next challenge as one that stretches me
• setting myself up to win, but win big
• I know why the choices I am making are important to me
• who I can see experiencing myself being on the other side of the challenge…

You see, I never asked him to coach me, or be a mentor, but this is obviously what he felt he needed, or wanted to do anyway for his own purposes. I generally went along with it by never questioning him or engaging him in further discussion about some of these things mentioned above. Like I said, I just appreciated having (what I thought) a safe, neutral friend to talk to. In hindsight, I realize now that he literally fed off of this and would frequently probe me for my news, thoughts, and personal developments. I generally tried to be careful of what I would tell him to a degree, some things are just best kept to one’s self. But there were times where he would successfully lead me to opening up.

The thing that really irked me and turned me off of our friendship was his timing in his attempt to recruit me. I was in a bad spell. I was feeling confused, lost, alone, stressed and frustrated with the way things were going in my life at the time. He then offered me an “opportunity for transformation” that he claimed had helped him through such difficulties. My first question was “does this transformation cost money?” I reminded him that I had no money. But then he offered to help pay, again in a subtle way. His words were something like “if you’re willing to make the commitment I will help you through it”. I didn’t see any sense in it at all, especially since I knew he wasn’t much richer than I was. He’s basically retired and lives on a fixed income. My final words on the subject were that the last thing I needed at this extremely stressful turning point in my life was to drop everything to devote myself to a mysterious transformation that he wouldn’t describe or reveal the actual cost of. It just didn’t make any sense to me. No thanks. End of conversation.

Afterward, I continued to work through my problems on my own. Then one day something clicked out of the blue and I made a connection that spurred me to do a little research on the Legacy Center. My Raleigh friend was trying to recruit me into the same thing my Las Vegas friend did with the Choice Center. Ack! Moreover, I found out that my Raleigh friend had attempted to recruit at least 3 other mutual friends that I know of. Mutual friends that we had made through the same social networking site. I communicated with each one, and they all mentioned he was uncomfortably aggressive in his manner. Apparently his tactics with them were variably more aggressive than with me. In two cases they were contacted out of the blue for a coffee or lunch date, then basically probed about their personal and professional life, dreams, wants, and wishes before the surprising sales pitch was presented at the end.

They each felt that, as a result of his recruiting tactics, they could no longer trust him and wouldn’t answer any more calls from him. Such a crappy feeling to have your trust betrayed like that. They each also stated in so many words that they really wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt that, as a friend, he truly wanted to share with us what he thought would be a wonderful experience. At the same time, myself and one of those friends both felt completely disturbed by the thought that we were just being used all along as pawns for his “game”.

Once I realized that I was not the only one who was unwittingly being coached by a wannabe guru with hidden motives (a wolf in sheep’s clothing?) it became a huge motivator to gear my research and interests towards helping the public be aware, and to be careful of who you trust. Thus, this blog, and hopefully bigger endeavors in the future.

NOTE: In a future post I will discuss the last phone conversation I had with this man. But to give you a preview, I asked him as many questions I could think of to get as much information as I could about his involvement with the Legacy Center before I revealed to him the research I had done, as well as my previous experience with a similar group.

THIS WAY TO YOUR POTENTIAL
If you could have the relationship, career and lifestyle of your dreams, what would that experience feel and look like….and, what is stopping you from having them? In this training, you will get the answers to these and many other questions.

I tried to be as supportive and accepting as I could be during this new chapter in her life. As I felt increasingly less significant in her life it became more difficult to continue to support her. Through it all I attended a guest event with her, and even a graduation ceremony. I was uncomfortable with both experiences, particularly the graduation ceremony where the glass ball room doors were curiously covered in white paper specifically for this event. I went for her in an attempt to hang on to any shred of the “her” I had dearly cared for and began to miss.

We even had an agreement: I agreed I wouldn’t verbalize my disapproving thoughts of this transformation process while she agreed to stop trying to recruit me into it. Whenever we happened to get together, during her advanced stages of the transformation, her cell phone was constantly ringing. And she would take every call. And every call was someone coaching her, or checking up on her, or needing coaching, or staffing. Gah! It became insane. I started to see how she was always ‘doing’ for them. I realized she wasn’t living for herself anymore. That’s how it seemed to me. She would never tell me anything about what was really going on or what she was doing when she was with these people. She would disappear on mysterious retreats that she wouldn’t discuss. She was spending a lot of money and complaining about debt. I didn’t see anything authentic about her. The truly authentic friend I had was lost.

Eventually I reached the end of my rope and blew up at her by telling her I didn’t know who she was anymore. I didn’t understand any of the decisions she was making, or the destructive relationship with a man who didn’t even show up for their own engagement party. She somehow defended it all with a smile on her face. That’s when I knew that I was on the outside looking in and she wasn’t going to listen to a word I said. I pretty much walked away after that. We’ve been in touch on and off since then, and I’ve moved away. She didn’t marry the guy, who was also doing the courses, as she found he was cheating on her. Our conversations have never really been the same since and are few and far between. We’ve since not had any extensive conversation about that period of time. I hope to one day get more of her story about post-Choice Center and her current thoughts and conclusions and how it all relates to her life today, for the purpose of research and education.

> Read about my Second Encounter, in a different city & state