From: dfavor@logan.tivoli.com (David Favor)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Lifespring
Date: 29 Jul 92 11:00:45 GMT

|> I was wondering if anyone out there had any tales to tell about Lifespring.
|>
|> Do you feel it is worthwhile? i.e. what about Lifespring made you change?
|> Do you think it is a cult and why?
|>
|> I am most interested in people who have gone through it and feel they got
|> nothing out of it.  Can you explain what happened and why you think it was a
|> waste of time and/or money.
|>
|> The few people I have come across who were involved with Lifespring have
|> nothing but wonderful praise for the program.  This makes me somewhat skeptical
|> in thinking that there might me some sort of brainwashing in effect.
|>
|> Also can anyone refer me to studies that were run to show how effective
|> Lifespring is.  By way of study I mean true scientific measures were used to
|> show that a person actually felt better rather than some survey at the end of
|> the program which leads you to answer in a positive manner towards the program.
|>
|> I will summarize the replies if there is a desire.
|>
|> Thank you,
|>
|> Eva Fried
|> eva@cad.ucla.edu
|>

------- my history with LifeSpring

I participated in... the Lifespring experience during 1987... all told I was
involved for 6+ months. I attended their Basic and Advanced workshops, then
spent 4+ months in what is called the Leadership program.

------- my personal bias

I attended Lifespring as a part of processing a near death experience (NDE).
at the time I was searching out any consiousness altering technology that would
allow me to access the Death-state. because I had a clear objective, that had
nothing to do with fixing myself, my observations of Lifespring may be a bit odd.

------- views/observations


> Do you feel it is worthwhile?

for me yes. the environment was very intense. the exercises are geared toward
tearing down protective constructs generated throughout a lifetime that tend
to leech off a person's energy.

> what about Lifespring made you change?

during the course of the trainings I was able to permenantly erraticate several
protective constructs that were no longer useful.

> Do you think it is a cult and why?

in a sense yes, although I consider many aspects of our culture cultish...
including more mainstream, organized religions. (oh no I said the 'R' word
in a psychology news group!) I prefer to say I was able to observe and deeply
participate in a set of group ritual with 75-150 other emotionally charged
individuals. given some of the... manifestations during this ritual I'd say
it was the hottest magickal ritual I've ever been part to, or observed. in
short their ritual 'crackles'! the manifestations remind me somewhat of LSD-25
reports of shared... experience. from what I can tell the intense emotive energy
that was released opened up non-standard streams of information. for example,
in many cases there appeared a consistent shared telepathy between many people.

the cultish aspect arises because LifeSpring is a for profit business that uses
its membership as its sales force. this, appears to me, as a conflict of interest
in that dependence on the organization seems to be cultivated to insure the
organization's continued revenue.

so in my estimation it is cultish in the same way organized religion is cultish.
members are brought to an emotionally vulnerable space then taught that they
need continued interaction with the priest, preacher or shaman to get gain
some intangible benefit. being a successful escapee from organized religion
I was somewhat immune to the glazed over look/feeling, much to the dismay of
the LifeSpring staff.

------- summary

I feel the experiences I had with LifeSpring were worthwhile, for me. the
changes I used LifeSpring to generate were based on bending their rituals
to my desires. I would participate, and many times take over control of the
ritual to uplevel the energy content, then use the resulting energy as I
desired instead of going in the direction that the instructors desired. (this
is afterall the point of ritual, to cultivate energy to create change.) I
think LifeSpring is cultish, but I hold the same view of organized religion,
organized education and organized employment. that is why my religion is of
my own making, I have no degree and at 32 I work as a consultant. these systems
may, in my estimation, be cultish... but they are all still useful to me. 

------- trailer

if you are planning on attending their trainings let me know and I'll offer
some suggestions on how you might maximize your benefits.
Xref: sparky sci.psychology:3233 misc.education:3002 sci.cognitive:237