Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Large-group awareness training" in English language version.
Large-group awareness training refers to programs that claim to increase self-awareness and facilitate constructive personal change.
Aside from complaining that they were being put through programs tantamount to a forced religious conversion, employees also objected to specific techniques being used: meditation, neurolinguistic programming, biofeedback, self-hypnosis, bizarre relaxation techniques, mind control, body touching, yoga, trance inductions, visualization, and in some cases, intense confrontational sessions akin to the "attack" therapy methods that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.
LGATs typically take place over the course of three to five days or over sequential weekends. The time spent in the trainings is intensive, normally consisting of 12 to 15 hour days.
LGATs focus on philosophical, psychological, and ethical issues related to personal effectiveness, decision-making, personal responsibility, and commitment.
Large-group awareness training refers to programs that claim to increase self-awareness and facilitate constructive personal change. The Garden Company, Lifespring, the Forum, the Hoffman Quadrinity Process, and similar commercial programs are examples. ... Large-group awareness training[:] Any of a number of programs (many of them commercialized) that claim to increase self-awareness and facilitate constructive personal change.
... Werner Erhard trained as a Mind Dynamics instructor ...
Many LGAT principles are codified in catch phrases .... Many such phrases form the unique vocabulary that emerges as the training progresses. Use of LGAT 'jargon' (e.g., 'I got it,' 'that works for me,' 'get off automatic,' and 'shift!') may signal acceptance of LGAT norms ....
LGAT programs tend to last at least four days and usually five.
The first [category] is made up of the cults and cultlike groups who expose their recruits and members to organized psychological and social persuasion processes designed to produce attitudinal changes and to establish remarkable degrees of control by the group over these recruits' and members' lives. These cults deceive, manipulate, and exploit their members and hope to keep them for as long as possible. The second category consists of the commercially sold large group awareness training programs and other 'self-improvement,' psychology-based or miscellaneaous organizations that use similar intense coordinated persuasion processes but ordinarily do not intend to keep their customers for long periods of membership. They prefer that adherents buy more courses and products and bring in more customers, staying around for perhaps a year or two.
... cultic groups use large group awareness training (LGAT) techniques ...
There is ... an important distinction ... between the version of thought reform prevalent in the 1940s and 1950s and the version used by a number of contemporary groups, including cults, large group awareness training programs, and assorted other groups. These latter-day efforts have built upon the age-old influence techniques to perfect amazingly successful programs of persuasion and change. What's new – and crucial – is that these programs change attitudes by attacking essential aspects of a person's sense of self, unlike the earlier brainwashing programs that primarily confronted a person's political beliefs.
Thus groups in both categories use thought-reform processes.
Aside from complaining that they were being put through programs tantamount to a forced religious conversion, employees also objected to specific techniques being used: meditation, neurolinguistic programming, biofeedback, self-hypnosis, bizarre relaxation techniques, mind control, body touching, yoga, trance inductions, visualization, and in some cases, intense confrontational sessions akin to the "attack" therapy methods that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.
In the 1960s the encounter group movement was born. Advocating enhanced communication and intensified experience, this movement evolved into something that was part psychotherapy, part spirituality, and part business. In some scholarly articles, these groups were referred to as "large group awareness trainings" or LGATs. Erhard Seminars Training (est) was the most successful of these groups, and it has been widely imitated. Even though it no longer officially exists, in the minds of many est is identified with the entire LGAT movement. It is in a sense the progenitor of a myriad of programs that have been marketed to the public and the business community.
The groups I'm talking about are est (and its more recent descendant, The Forum) and Lifespring, both of which use structured activities; involve several hundred or more participants and one central leader ...
In general, LGATs espouse the idea that people are capable of changing their lives, not so much by modifying their external circumstances, but by changing the way they interpret them (Berger, 1977; Erhard & Gioscia, 1978), which is in accord with the principles of cognitive therapy (e.g. Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1985; Ellis, 1974; Meichenbaum, 1977).
... the dogma, recruitment focus, and high prices of Avatar courses are in themselves enough reason to be very much on guard with this organization.
In general, LGATs espouse the idea that people are capable of changing their lives, not so much by modifying their external circumstances, but by changing the way they interpret them (Berger, 1977; Erhard & Gioscia, 1978), which is in accord with the principles of cognitive therapy (e.g. Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1985; Ellis, 1974; Meichenbaum, 1977).
Most of today's commercial LGATs are modeled after the Leadership Dynamics Institute (LDI), a program developed by William Penn Patrick in the early 1960s.
In general, LGATs espouse the idea that people are capable of changing their lives, not so much by modifying their external circumstances, but by changing the way they interpret them (Berger, 1977; Erhard & Gioscia, 1978), which is in accord with the principles of cognitive therapy (e.g. Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1985; Ellis, 1974; Meichenbaum, 1977).
Lieberman suggests that at least 1.3 million Americans have taken part in LGAT sessions.
Lieberman suggests that at least 1.3 million Americans have taken part in LGAT sessions.
In the 1960s the encounter group movement was born. Advocating enhanced communication and intensified experience, this movement evolved into something that was part psychotherapy, part spirituality, and part business. In some scholarly articles, these groups were referred to as "large group awareness trainings" or LGATs. Erhard Seminars Training (est) was the most successful of these groups, and it has been widely imitated. Even though it no longer officially exists, in the minds of many est is identified with the entire LGAT movement. It is in a sense the progenitor of a myriad of programs that have been marketed to the public and the business community.
Most of today's commercial LGATs are modeled after the Leadership Dynamics Institute (LDI), a program developed by William Penn Patrick in the early 1960s.
The groups I'm talking about are est (and its more recent descendant, The Forum) and Lifespring, both of which use structured activities; involve several hundred or more participants and one central leader ...
In general, LGATs espouse the idea that people are capable of changing their lives, not so much by modifying their external circumstances, but by changing the way they interpret them (Berger, 1977; Erhard & Gioscia, 1978), which is in accord with the principles of cognitive therapy (e.g. Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1985; Ellis, 1974; Meichenbaum, 1977).
In the 1960s the encounter group movement was born. Advocating enhanced communication and intensified experience, this movement evolved into something that was part psychotherapy, part spirituality, and part business. In some scholarly articles, these groups were referred to as "large group awareness trainings" or LGATs. Erhard Seminars Training (est) was the most successful of these groups, and it has been widely imitated. Even though it no longer officially exists, in the minds of many est is identified with the entire LGAT movement. It is in a sense the progenitor of a myriad of programs that have been marketed to the public and the business community.
