large-group awareness training
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: large-group awareness trainings
Senses: examples: text: Some of the other procedures used in certain of the large group awareness training (LGAT) programs and their offshoots contain processes to humiliate people (they resemble fraternity hazing events).
ref: 1996, Margaret Singer, Ph.D., “Intruding into the Workplace”, in Cults in our Midst, Jossey-Bass, →ISBN:
text: est and Large-Group Awareness Seminars: Arising out of the human potential movement in the 1960s were a number of workshops, seminars and training programs. The most famous human potential program was erhard seminars training known as est. est was an intensive 60-hour workshop designed to alter a person's life view. There are a number of est clones including Life Spring, Actualizations and Forum, which is a successor to est. All of these workshops have several features in common. Participants are verbally attacked. The idea is to break down emotional defenses in order to allow new beliefs and attitudes to take over. There is a significant cathartic element in that emotional release is generated by the est techniques.
ref: 2000, Donald A. Eisner, The Death of Psychotherapy: From Freud to Alien Abductions, Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, →ISBN, page 60:
text: Both est and Landmark Forum could be classified as LGATs (large group awareness trainings), a sociological grouping that includes neuro-linguistic programming, Insight Training Seminars (see the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness), and a whole plethora of sales and motivational courses.
ref: 2004, Elizabeth Puttick, “Landmark Forum (est)”, in Christopher Partridge, editor, New Religions: A Guide: New Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 407:
text: Landmark Education, as it's formally known, is hardly alone. There are any number of groups that foster change in an intense, supportive environment. Formally, they are gathered under the rubric 'large group awareness training.' A few groups are relatively new. Some have been around for decades. Almost all owe a major debt to a Unity minister named Alexander Everett.
ref: 2006, Jonathan Black, Yes You Can!: Behind the Hype and Hustle of the Motivation Biz, New York: Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 133:
text: More direct evidence comes from a careful study of Large Group Awareness Training programs, variously known as Erhard Seminars Training (est), Lifespring, or simply the Forum. The basic procedure of these courses parallels the group training workshops ... but the emphasis shifts from group effectiveness to personal development. By talking through life challenges, aspirations, fears, and the like with fellow participants and professional counselors/teachers, individuals hope to change how they view themselves, their family and friends, and their prospects for a fulfilling life.
ref: 2010, John Gastil, The Group in Society, Los Angeles: SAGE, →ISBN, pages 228–229:
text: A large group awareness training (LGAT) program is a personal development training program in which dozens to hundreds of people are given several hours to several days of intense instruction aimed at helping participants begin to discover what is hindering them from achieving their full potential and living more satisfied lives.
ref: 2011, Robert Carroll, The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions, Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, →ISBN, pages Entry: "large group awareness training program (aka self-help and actualization movement)":
topics: human-sciences
psychology
sciences
glosses: (abbreviated LGAT) Activities usually offered by groups linked with the human potential movement which claim to increase self-awareness and bring about desirable transformations in individuals' personal lives.
Related terms: brainwashing
cognitive dissonance
cult
mind control
psychology
religion