Five days of deprivation of rationality: What exactly do people who fall into pyramid schemes experience?

If you make a promise in front of others, you will fulfill your promise to do it.

If you do something, you will feel that you want to do it.

If you feel like doing it yourself (without realizing that you are being forced by circumstances), you will believe that those thoughts and actions originate from within you.

-- Margaret Singer, "Cults Among Us"

You are surrounded by a group of people who want to brainwash you.

They may be strangers, but they may also be your acquaintances, friends or even relatives.

They originally had normal IQ and stable emotions. They worked and studied as needed, and got along well with their family, friends and colleagues.

One day, they went to a five-day training course , which was said to make people smarter, more efficient and happier. When they came back, they looked the same, even a little happier and more enthusiastic.

But they have been brainwashed. A new goal has been implanted in their minds to brainwash more people .

After reading this, you may wonder: "How is it possible that a 5-day course can brainwash an adult with normal IQ?"

But the fact is that the technology of "brainwashing" really exists . It is used by pyramid schemes, cults, and this type of "collective awakening training" (Large Group Awareness Training, LGAT).

Brainwashing can generally be divided into three major steps:

Set traps;

Open your heart;

Implant new ideas.

Next, this article will disassemble step by step each brainwashing method used in the "Collective Awakening Training" LGAT course, as well as the purpose and principles behind it .

The narratives about the LGAT course come from 6 sources and are arranged chronologically as follows.

1. Mark Brewer, 1975

In 1975, journalist Mark Brewer participated in the first generation of LGAT in the United States, Erhard Seminars Training (EST), and wrote an 18-page report titled "We'll Tear You Apart and Put You Back Together."

2. Hacken and Adams, 1983

In 1983, psychologist Janice Haaken and sociologist Richard Adams, who were involved in the Lifespring LGAT program, published a paper in the journal Psychiatry, “A Pathological Analysis of ‘Personal Growth’.”

3. Singh, 2003

In 2003, Margaret Singer, a psychologist specializing in cults, surveyed six LGAT courses, studied training manuals and course videos, interviewed dozens of LGAT graduates, and wrote a book titled "Cults Among Us."

4. Li Yaling, 2007

In 2007, journalist Li Yaling went undercover at the Life Source LGAT course in China and wrote a report about her personal experience titled "Unveiling the Elite Course Life Source: The Process of Forced Brainwashing."

5. Shi Xiyuan, 2010

In 2010, Shi Xiyuan, who was studying for a master's degree at Shandong University, was invited by his parents' friends to participate in a "Leadership Quality Training Course" organized by a T organization in Jinan. He lived in the course for nearly two weeks, completed three stages of training, and wrote his personal observations into a master's thesis entitled "Ritual and Mind Control: A Study of the Influence of a Training Organization's Courses on Its Members' Attitudes."

6. Hunter, 2015

Anthropologist John Hunter participated in a LGAT course in South Africa and wrote 33 pages of field research notes in the days after the course ended, which he wrote in his 2015 paper "Brainwashing in Collective Awakening Training?"

Step 1: Set the Trap

It was a carefully constructed trap.

The plan of the course from the beginning is to brainwash you.

The first step is the preparation work hidden behind the scenes. Except for the manipulator, no one else knows anything about this part.

Brainwashing, also known as mind control, simply means that the controller uses unethical means to change the thinking and value orientation of the controlled person .

The relationship between the manipulator and the controlled is unequal. The controller takes advantage of the trust and sacrifice of the controlled to exploit the controlled's economy, body, and credit to gain benefits.

When promoting LGAT courses, various “baits” may be used: leadership, marketing, success, team building, stress relief courses, getting rich quickly, spiritual growth, health and wellness, intimate relationship therapy…

But no matter what kind of "bait" it is, the only purpose is to lure people in . The actual course content later has nothing to do with the bait. The ultimate goal is only one - to make the controlled people willing to pay for the course, recruit people, and volunteer .

Psychologist Singer analyzed that the key to brainwashing lies in the "double plan". The manipulator guides the controlled person to experience a series of things and tells the controlled person that the effect of this series of things is plan A; but in fact, the real effect of this series of things is plan B, which makes the controlled person blindly abandon his past beliefs and values.

The "double plan" is the reason why the controlled persons cooperate. They only see the surface plan and do not realize that they are being brainwashed and transformed .

Deception and concealment

Graduates will not discuss the training content with people who have not received the training. This is an important and must-follow principle of the EST Training Program.

This principle stems from the course's motto: training can neither be explained nor understood, it can only be "experienced" .

An enthusiastic but vague recommendation from a friend or relative brings the potential couple to a course held at the hotel.

When the newcomers arrived on the first day, no one knew what they would encounter.

—Bloor, 1975

They were unwilling to reveal the specific content of the course , only saying: "It is an experiential course, there is no textbook, and no notes are required. The instructor will let everyone experience and understand through some games and exercises. It will not teach you anything specific, it just gives you a tool, but with it, you can apply it to everything in life."

——Li Yaling, 2003

Notetaking and recording were not allowed during training , so we took extensive notes during breaks and at the end of each day’s training.

—Hacken and Adams, 1983

Recording or writing with pen and paper is not allowed in the T organization. And the author is always under "surveillance" and cannot record the content of the interview on the spot. Therefore, after leaving the T organization, the author sorted out the experiences and interview records of life in the T organization based on his memories.

——Shi Xiyuan, 2010

The first unethical aspect of brainwashing courses is the deliberate deception and concealment .

Because in order to achieve brainwashing, the manipulator must first hide his or her brainwashing intentions so that the controlled person "does not know that he or she is being brainwashed."

Brainwashing is a process that cannot be completed in an instant, and it takes at least several days. The steps of brainwashing are progressive, and each step of change may seem small, but it pushes the controlled person step by step to a place that he would never agree to at the beginning.

In order to prevent the controlled person from escaping early, it is necessary to make the controlled person completely unaware of the content of the course so that he or she will not be wary or resist.

For example, the last step of this type of course is usually "inspiration" , which requires the brainwashed subjects to recruit new subjects. The subjects' graduation, performance, and whether they can enter the next stage of the upgrade course are forcibly linked to how many new students they recruit.

However, if people knew from the beginning that they had to recruit people, very few would volunteer to participate.

Therefore, this type of brainwashing course requires that the controlled person only share their "feelings" when recruiting new members, and not reveal the specific content and requirements of the course. At the same time, it is strictly forbidden to record the training process to prevent "new members from knowing what will happen in advance" to the greatest extent possible.

In order to prevent the subjects from escaping midway, the LGAT course also uses the "antibiotic analogy strategy" and claims that "a refund can only be requested if you have completed the entire course and participated in all exercises."

The coach made an analogy, saying that the course was like a course of antibiotics, which had to be taken throughout in order to work , and he also said that, just like antibiotic treatment, stopping the medication midway would be bad for us.

— Hunter, 2015

This analogy has no basis in fact. The principle of antibiotic treatment to produce "resistance" is completely different from the principle of psychotherapy or training courses. The strange refund policy is also completely unreasonable. When students "completed the entire course and participated in all exercises", the company can use this as a reason to refuse a refund.

These concealments and deceptions also bring up a very important question:

All the students in the LGAT course did not give true “informed consent.” They made a promise under pressure to “stick to the course to the end,” but they had no idea what they had agreed to or what they would encounter.

Environmental Control

The environment was carefully designed , like what an obsessive parent might arrange for their child. Lines were taped to the floor and chairs were carefully placed along them. If a chair was displaced, the teaching assistant would instruct the students to move it back to the line. The Star Wars theme song played at the beginning of each class, and everyone had to sit in their chairs when the music ended. The students followed the rules maniacally, even though they had no idea what they meant by them or what the consequences would be for breaking them.

—Hacken and Adams, 1983

The training course organized by T was arranged in a conference room of a hotel in the city. The classroom was a completely enclosed room without a single window. It was illuminated by lights all day long, and it was impossible to judge the time during the class based on the light. When I first entered, I felt that the air was very turbid. In the classroom, the podium and the desk were in the center of the front, higher than the ground level, and more than 200 stools were neatly arranged below. I couldn't help but think of a military academy.

——Shi Xiyuan, 2010

"Controlling the environment" is an important means of brainwashing.

Control the body first, then the mind.

Controlling the environment includes controlling the location, time, energy, companions around, and information received . The controlled person will be cut off from the original source of information, feedback channels, and social support system.

If a person is completely deprived of personal freedom and placed in a controlled environment for several days or even weeks, it is most conducive to brainwashing. Therefore, many pyramid schemes or cults will first trick people into going to remote places , such as campsites in the countryside or retreats in the suburbs.

Brainwashing courses are usually held in office buildings or hotel meeting rooms in the city. People who come here will feel that this is an open and recognized course and thus let down their guard.

But in fact, there are not only coaches and teaching assistants in the course, but also old students who come for "refresher training" and "shills" lurking among the students . These people will stand on the same side and act together.

The props of the course are also specially selected to clearly show the identity characteristics and status of the coach, assistant or student. As the leader of the ceremony, the coach has absolute guidance and control , and the participants can only follow the order and obey the rules.

——Shi Xiyuan, 2010

In other words, the brainwasher has the environment and props to support him, and a group of "shills" to assist him, while the controlled person has to fight alone - and the controlled person doesn't even know that a great battle in the spiritual realm is waiting for him.

At the same time, the newcomers are also "selected" .

People who attend brainwashing courses are often strongly recommended by acquaintances or asked by their superiors to participate in "job training."

Referrals from acquaintances are not advertisements to "non-specific people" that are posted on WeChat Moments. Instead, they are directly seeking out potential new people and recruiting them one-on-one. With the endorsement of acquaintances and the instinct to "maintain interpersonal relationships," the controlled person will agree.

If the request comes from a superior or employer, it will be even more difficult for the person being controlled to refuse for the sake of work and future.

This is the coercive nature of brainwashing courses.

Li Yaling recounted a case of failed escape.

When Mr. Fang, a builder, went to get his tuition refunded, the company called his "inspirer" friend, who used both soft and hard tactics to get him to stay, sometimes crying and sometimes saying that he would never talk to him again if he didn't take the course . Mr. Fang stayed for his friend's sake.

Shi Xiyuan also wrote about a 40-year-old student L who was forced by his family to participate.

Student L said, "I came to this course because of my wife's 'inspiration'. She also paid the registration fee for me without discussing it with me. She told me that I must come here to improve my quality. Some of my friends also joined under the strong recommendation of relatives and friends. After the training, many people said that they asked their husbands or wives to take this course as well, otherwise they would have no common language."

Finally, if there are indeed suspicious and rebellious people, they will be quickly and quietly screened out . The goal is to make the newcomers not notice that others are dissatisfied, so that even if the newcomers have doubts in their hearts, they will feel that they are in the minority.

A young man was invited to a sermon. When he arrived, he noticed many pairs of shoes against the wall and people were barefoot. So he took off his shoes and put them next to the other shoes. Everyone was talking in low voices, so he lowered his voice as well. Although the young man was full of doubts, he just sat there meekly and followed everything the group did.

The evening was almost over, and when the young man was invited again, he replied, "No, thank you..." Two people quickly pushed him out the back door so that others could not hear his unpleasant words.

—Singh, 2003

In short, all newcomers have gone through layers of screening, including recommendation, registration, and payment. Brainwashers tend not to touch stubborn, defensive, and self-centered people, because these people are difficult to control and change. In the end, most of the newcomers who stay in the brainwashing course are friendly, obedient, and selfless, because such people are easy to persuade and manage.

By the time the course started, most people no longer openly opposed it even if they had some dissatisfaction.

The trap is set and the prey has come in. The next step is to get the prey to open their hearts.

Step 2: Open your heart

Opening the door of the heart means that the controlled person lets down his defenses, voluntarily gives up rationality and logic, and allows brainwashing content to penetrate directly.

To achieve this within a few days, the brainwashing program will once again cross the moral line and use physical and mental abuse.

Suppression and denigration: "It's all your fault"

Newcomers will not expect that they are about to be scolded from head to toe, and their character and intelligence will be completely denied.

The coach got to the point. He barked in an imperative voice, You newbies are here because your lives are a mess and hopeless. You don't know what you are doing, you don't know how to experience life, you are struggling, desperate, confused. You are assholes! The coach paused for a moment, savoring the word "asshole", and then said it again. From then on, newbies were always called "assholes" unless they "got it".

Your brain is so confused about what’s wrong with you, what’s wrong with the world, or with other people, that you can’t experience life, let alone enjoy it. So the coach yells, “ We’re going to throw away your entire belief system… We’re going to tear you apart and then put you back together again. ”

—Bloor, 1975

The coach ranted about the destruction of the rainforests, the depletion of fish in the oceans, the pollution we were causing, and how greedy and selfish each of us was. He screamed and stamped his feet, telling us over and over again that we were all assholes, that we were stupid, that we were responsible for all the bad things in the world, and that he didn't care about our opinions or ideas.

— Hunter, 2015

Faced with such overwhelming verbal violence, ordinary people will of course feel fear, helplessness and shame. These strong negative emotions will weaken people's rational thinking ability . Newcomers feel that they are really unforgivable to come here, forgetting that they were deceived by "self-improvement" or forced to come by their superiors, relatives and friends.

In addition to direct verbal attacks, manipulators will also use games with carefully designed outcomes to attack the person being controlled.

One example was the “Red and Black Game,” which required two teams to develop a strategy based on a set of rules to score the most points. Neither team realized that the most points were scored if both teams won. Basically, both teams lost. This exercise could have been used to discuss what made it difficult for us to work together. But the coach chose to berate the students, saying in disgust, “You all make me sick.” This exercise was the last one of the night, and the students went home to reflect on what they had learned. Many were silent and in tears.

—Hacken and Adams, 1983

Li Yaling also experienced the Red and Black Game in 2007. Because the rules of this game are complicated and the results will affect the team, newcomers will naturally choose the conservative strategy of "non-cooperation". If they play a few more rounds, get familiar with each other, and find a better win-win strategy, people may enter the cooperation mode.

But the coach took this opportunity to attack and deny the student.

"Some people achieve a win-win situation, while others choose to lose both sides... Are you constantly playing this game? Are you playing this game with your colleagues, subordinates, and lovers? Why don't you try to choose to trust each other and give sincerely first?"

Edward's expression was very sad, and his words and tone were full of regret.

This made us who were just "scheming" in the game feel very ashamed. Then Edward suddenly announced that the class tonight would end early: "Please close your eyes, I will play a song for everyone to listen to. After listening, please don't talk and leave quietly."

LP, who was in charge of the sound control, played an exciting foreign song. Edward took the microphone and translated simultaneously: "Have you been playing the same game all the time? You never tell the truth, and few of the things you do tell are true..."

The lyrics and music were so infectious that I heard some people around me start to sob quietly.

——Li Yaling, 2007

In the United States in 1983 and China in 2007, the same game and the same predetermined ending. The coach becomes a strict and rejecting parent, and the student becomes a fearful and helpless bad child. This emotion will prompt the student to cooperate more and identify with the coach in order to become a sensible "good child".

Hacken concluded that this type of game directly attacks the students' self-esteem, makes them feel ashamed and worthless, and makes them vulnerable to judgment and manipulation by others.

The above two types of "map cannon" are general suppression . In addition, the manipulators will also carry out " targeted humiliation ", seizing the students' violations of rules or minor mistakes, and insulting them in an exaggerated way. For example, Hunter recorded the coach yelling at an old woman who simply sat in the wrong seat.

The coach suddenly appeared in front of her with the contempt of an abuser. "This is what you promised! You agreed to the rules! You knew you had to change seats! But you didn't!! Where is your dignity!!!" the coach screamed, and she was horrified. I couldn't believe that this bully was viciously attacking an elderly woman who was obviously overwhelmed, but I didn't say anything, which made me sad.

— Hunter, 2015

Hunter was upset that he did not stop his coach from doing evil. Why did no one stop this public abuse?

First, the coach said in advance that he was a "strict mentor", and the abuse was glorified as "a necessary measure for the good of the students."

Secondly, there were many people present and no one else objected, so even if someone felt something was wrong, they were more inclined to think, “Maybe I don’t understand,” and so remained silent.

Finally, once a student has condoned public abuse, his or her mind will automatically explain his or her cowardice - this is helping others grow, and if I don't stop it, it's for their own good.

This kind of general suppression and targeted humiliation will continue throughout the first half of the training. Trainees are repeatedly told "you can't do it" until they believe that they really can't do it and must learn from coaches who can do it.

The next step is to get the students to stop thinking with their own brains and to stop “coming to conclusions” on their own. The coach will take over, explain everything, and the students just listen.

Suppress rationality, "experience and feelings are the most important"

In order to make students accept that "their own thinking is worthless", the manipulators will instill a concept - experience and feelings are the most important, rationality is not important, and is even an "obstacle".

At this stage, the brainwashing course will try to devalue the value of "rationality", "experimentation" and "analysis". The coach of the course that Shi Xiyuan participated in emphasized, "Please temporarily put aside everything in your mind, put aside all analysis, evaluation and judgment, and devote yourself to the experience of the course, so that you can get the most out of it..."

Not only that, the brainwashing course also puts forward the requirement of " like an empty cup into which water can be poured " -

"No self" means that your heart should be as pure and clean as a newborn baby, completely open to the outside world, and completely accept everything from the outside world. "Do your best" means to wholeheartedly do everything you can to learn, imitate, and copy others.

To truly achieve "selflessness" and "doing one's best", one needs to overcome three major obstacles: doubt, contempt, and originality, which correspond to trust, seriousness, and compliance.

——Shi Xiyuan, 2010

To ask a person to overcome the "barrier of doubt" and "completely open up to the outside world and completely accept everything from the outside world" is actually asking the newcomers to suppress their rationality and open their minds.

After several hours of discussion, the first premise that the trainee is worthless was established. The coach then began to write a huge table on the blackboard, dividing mental activities into "experience" and "non-experience. " Belief, reason, logic, and understanding were all classified as "non-experience." These second-hand mental activities must be abandoned in order to gain the true meaning of life.

The students were skeptical about this, “But you still need to believe in something…”

“Don’t give me your fucking belief system, you stupid asshole!” the coach stormed off the stage, yelling at the student. “It’s not working! That’s why your life is screwed! Get rid of that crap.”

The coach's attack on belief continued. Each participant was deeply confused. The coach assured them that confusion was nothing serious, that it was the first step toward "natural knowing," the pinnacle to which the training would take you.

—Bloor, 1975

Reasoning and intellectual processes are minimized, while emotional states are heightened.

Regarding “Tools for Personal Growth”, the key words are “Humble Obedience”, “100% Commitment”, and “Spontaneity”.

With this emphasis on obedience and full participation, participants inevitably have doubts and reservations. To address this resistance, the coach begins by discussing “What is preventing you from benefiting from the program?” By the end of the first evening, participants’ questions, doubts, and concerns have been labeled “barriers to personal growth.”

—Hacken and Adams, 1983

Experience and feelings are indeed important, but so are rationality and logic. First-hand experience is important, but so is second-hand knowledge. Formal psychological counseling will never require a person to completely abandon rationality, nor will it belittle knowledge learned from books.

The reason why the LGAT course devalues rationality and knowledge and elevates feelings and experiences to the "true source of wisdom" is because LGAT is actually unconvincing in terms of logic and evidence . What the LGAT course really does is to forcefully trigger your emotional experience , and then use conditioning and manipulation to convince you that "because you have experienced huge emotional fluctuations, our philosophy is correct."

This behavior of bypassing rationality and manipulating emotional experience is brainwashing.

Blind trust is a virtue, and the coach has absolute authority

The next concept to be instilled is that blind trust is a virtue and only by completely obeying the coach can one "make progress."

The LGAT course uses a lot of abuse and harm, so how do you prevent students from rebelling?

The answer is to encourage blind trust in the coach . Trainees are told that here, "unconditional trust" is not stupidity/naivety/gullibility, but a positive human trait.

Trainees are asked to stand up and agree to a list of “Lifestream’s rules of the game.” Notably, these rules lack any discernible rationale and emphasize only obedience to the instructor’s instructions . Lengthy discussions of the rules have the effect of consolidating the instructor’s control as a legitimate authority and undermining the trainees’ control.

—Hacken and Adams, 1983

When someone disagrees with the coach, the coach yells at him, saying that he doesn't care about his opinion and that the only opinion that matters is the coach's.

"In this room, you will follow my orders."

— Hunter, 2015

L (student): "Sometimes I feel like what they say is wrong, but I can't really tell what the problem is. For example, they always ask me to be tolerant, so why can't they tolerate my comments on the course?"

——Shi Xiyuan, 2010

Le Bon wrote in The Crowd, “If you want to instill some ideas and beliefs into the minds of a group, there are three most important means: assertion, repetition and infection .”

This is exactly what LGAT course coaches will do over and over again.

At the same time, coaches will also use the " unknown unknowns " approach.

The instructor walked to the whiteboard and began to draw a pie chart. "There are some things you know you know, and this piece is what you know you don't know. For example, I know I don't know much about nuclear physics." There was still most of the pie chart left, and the instructor said, "This is what you don't know you don't know . This is what you will learn in this course."

— Hunter, 2015

"Unknown unknowns" do exist, for example, ordinary people do not know that they do not know about brainwashing. But when the coach talks about this concept, it is not "Since we have to face unknown unknowns, we should explore and discuss together"; instead, it is to arouse the students' sense of helplessness and suppress their doubts . Since you don't even know how ignorant you are, how can you challenge the coach who knows everything in this regard? If you still have to question it, doesn't it mean that you are both ignorant and arrogant?

Even so, there will still be people who raise objections or questions, but these questions will be suppressed by the manipulator with specious arguments, and in the end, the ending will always be "the coach is right" .

In the "Trust" exercise, participants are asked to judge others one by one, "I trust you," "I don't trust you," "I don't know if I trust you," or "I don't want to say whether I trust you."

A student raised a question about this exercise.

James: "I don't know what that has to do with real trust. I mean, trust is not an all-or-nothing thing. I might trust someone enough to lend me my car, and then I might trust them enough to trust my kids..."

Coach: “Have you ever considered the possibility that you don’t know what trust really means?”

James (confused and hesitant): "Possibly."

Coach: "Thank you, you can sit down now." (Students applaud)

—Hacken and Adams, 1983

Hacken concluded that in this case, the student raised a very reasonable question, that is, this exercise has nothing to do with "real trust" in reality. However, the coach ignored the student's question about "what is the meaning of the exercise itself", and changed the question again to "the student does not understand anything", forcibly ending the discussion and suppressing the student .

The coach rewards students for obedience (or at least the appearance of obedience) . Students who raise questions are either laughed at, dismissed, confused by sophistry, or told to "save your questions for after the presentation."

Another common tactic used by coaches is to criticize these questionable students for not making enough progress, being "uncoachable" , "only wanting to prove themselves right and not wanting to make progress", and "staying at the analytical level and always obsessing over analyzing everything".

Critical thinking and proactively asking questions are both good traits, but they are distorted and defined as negative traits in coaching language.

Finally, the students became increasingly tired and shaken, and began to feel that "having too many questions" was their problem, and that they should trust others more and "listen with an open mind."

Through the environment, through agents, through suppressing students, and through strong tone and repeated assertions, the coach established absolute authority.

Then the coach can do whatever he wants.

If the superior's instructions go against your values, how many people can stand up and oppose it? The answer is that there are very few staunch opponents .

In the famous Milgram experiment, psychologists recruited some subjects and told them that they needed to teach a student who was tied to an electric chair. If the student answered a question incorrectly, he would be punished with electric shock. As the number of electric shocks increased, the voltage of the electric shock would continue to rise, from 15 volts (mild electric shock) to a maximum of 450 volts (dangerous, severe electric shock). The student would also go from screaming in pain, banging on the wall, saying that he had a heart disease, and asking to quit the experiment, to silence after 300 volts.

Seeing the students in pain, the subjects also felt pain. They sweated, trembled, cried, and said they wanted to stop the electric shock. But the psychologists told the subjects that although the electric shock was painful, it would not cause permanent damage; in addition, it was to help students answer the questions correctly, so even if the students didn't like it, they had to continue.

In total, the psychologists rejected them four times, with instructions:

①Please continue.

②The experiment requires you to continue.

③It is absolutely necessary that you continue.

④You have no choice but to continue.

If the subject still expresses a desire to stop the electric shock after four such firm instructions, then the shock can be stopped early.

However, the results of the experiment were that all the subjects subjected the students to more than 300 volts of electric shock (enough to be fatal). At the same time, 65% of them obeyed to the end and were shocked all the way to 450 volts .

In the Milgram experiment, the electric shock was actually fake, and the students were actors who were just acting out a scene of being "shocked." But the subjects didn't know that.

In the LGAT course, abuse and harm really happen. But as long as the coach has absolute authority, the students will obey the authority and may even hurt others under the command of the authority.

Sleep deprivation, physical and mental exhaustion

During training, you are not allowed to move around, talk, smoke, eat or take notes. You are not allowed to leave the room unless a formal break is announced (a maximum of two breaks per 16-hour training day).

—Bloor, 1975

Li Yaling and Shi Xiyuan both mentioned that the course is a residential course, and the principle of the course is " put your head on the pillow for no more than 4 hours every night ". The training time lasts from 10 am to 24:00 pm, and sometimes even until 1 or 2 am. Only breakfast and dinner are eaten every day, no lunch is arranged, and the dinner time is only 30 minutes. There is a 10-minute break every three to four hours for students to drink water and go to the toilet.

The new recruits' full attention is focused on a heavy schedule of activities, such as playing games, participating in studies, singing in small groups, doing group work, learning basic terminology, writing personal autobiographies, completing assigned tasks... The new recruits are kept so busy that they have no time to think about what they are doing or what others are doing to them.

—Singh, 2003

A major feature of brainwashing courses is that students cannot eat well, cannot sleep well, and feel extremely tired.

Sleep deprivation, in particular, can seriously affect brain function. A sleep-deprived brain is like a drunk. If students don’t get enough sleep, they will “be too tired to think”—rational and critical thinking consumes a lot of energy and is difficult to function when tired and hungry.

In order to prevent students from getting a good night's sleep, brainwashing courses require students to study for long hours every day, with irregular rest times. Sometimes they simply don't tell students when to rest, making them think they are about to rest, and then suddenly bring up new discussions and new activities. This arrangement is particularly exhausting.

In addition, the environment will be arranged to hinder sleep, such as playing loud music from morning to night, bright lights, and arranging beds that are not comfortable to sleep in for students .

This arrangement puts the trainees in a state of disordered work and rest, malnutrition, and physical fatigue. They cannot think independently or refute, and can only passively accept the coach's indoctrination .

Studies have shown that people who lack sleep are more likely to misremember the topics they have seen, misremember the content of videos they have watched, and are more easily persuaded when doing tasks... In short, lack of sleep will make people more susceptible to pressure to conform and more likely to have false memories.

At the same time, brainwashing courses will provide a huge amount of new information. Faced with an ocean of information that exceeds the processing capacity, the brain will be overwhelmed and enter a "paralyzed" state, unable to think clearly.

These measures not only weaken the brain's defense system, but also the body's immune system, making students more susceptible to illness . Li Yaling mentioned that several students fell ill the day after the breakthrough course ended, and she and another male student from Dujiangyan even received intravenous treatment for lung infection.

Bullying under peer pressure

Old members train and monitor newcomers. Newcomers never go alone, nor can they talk freely with other newcomers. There is no opportunity to verify their suspicions or negative feelings.

Newcomers are told to never express negative emotions publicly and to ask their coaches, assistant coaches, mentors or other supervisors if they have any questions, doubts or bad feelings.

In short, those who have doubts are isolated from each other . The newcomers feel that everyone else approves of what is happening.

—Singh, 2003

Shi Xiyuan observed that students are divided into different groups during the course, and the group leaders are old students who come back to volunteer. Each group is called a "family". Group members play various roles in the family according to their age, such as "father", "mother", "eldest brother", "eldest sister", "third treasure", "fourth treasure" and so on. If a member does not perform well enough, it will bring losses to the "family".

This arrangement adds a moral obligation to "bring glory to the family" to each member, and increases collective consciousness and team identity. China has a tradition of large families, and family members are one's own people. Once they start calling each other relatives, members will gradually feel that the strangers just now have become "one of our own." As more and more exchanges occur, more private secrets are shared, and the game goals are achieved together, the emotional investment increases, and the dependence on and sense of belonging to the "family" will also increase. This is a way to quickly generate and enhance group identity.

Once you identify with the group and feel that other people in the group share the same views, it is easy for you to succumb to peer pressure and do things that go against your original values.

It is difficult to resist group pressure. Solomon Asch conducted a series of famous "Asch conformity experiments" and found that even for a very simple question, "which two straight lines are the same length", as long as 6 out of 7 people deliberately choose the wrong answer, the remaining person will follow suit and choose an obviously wrong answer. In the experiment, 75% of the subjects gave in at least once against their will , and only 25% of the people - these people were either confident enough or lonely enough - could always stick to their correct judgment.

Even people who normally do not do evil will do evil in a group. Deindividuation and depersonalization will occur in a group. Everyone no longer pays attention to their own values, attitudes, and behaviors, but tends to identify with the group and obey the group's rules . Everyone feels that they are invisible and anonymous, that the responsibility for the consequences of their actions is dispersed, and that they do not feel that they are being evaluated and scrutinized... "Everyone does this, it's not my fault." If the group agrees to do evil, the individual will follow suit.

The result is that when they are alone, they are all civilized people, but when they get together, they become a "mob".

Brainwashing courses allow students to engage in actual "group bullying" based on this principle.

Take, for example, cross-dressing exercises.

All the men were asked to put on makeup and wear skirts, imitate a three or four-year-old girl, try to be shy and cute, and sing.

— Hunter, 2015

It is common to practice cross-dressing as the opposite sex, pretending to be a fat woman in a bikini, singing in the streets, trying to lure a group of men to follow her.

—Singh, 2003

Many of LGAT’s “breaking through oneself” exercises and “helping someone improve” exercises are actually very close to bullying in small groups on campus .

These exercises do not help with real-life work; all they do is lower the participants’ self-esteem and make them feel even more inferior to their coaches.

Open the wound and regress to childhood

The third day is usually used for "guided imagination". Students are guided into a state of hypnosis and trance, recalling all the disappointments and sad memories from childhood to now , about your parents, about the promises you didn't keep, and the disappointments others have shown you...

"Close your eyes and go back to your childhood. Do you see yourself at the age of six? It's like a dream. You see yourself in the woods. You are a little kid, all alone. You walk through the woods and come to a clearing in the middle. You see a wall with a wooden door that opens easily. You go in and look around. There are your toys from your childhood. Your favorite stuffed animals, but they are all discarded, alone, and no one cares. You see the clothes you wore as a child, and they are all covered in dust and broken. Do you see the blankets you always took to bed with as a child? Do you see your old bed? You feel lonely, just like you did when you were alone in your bed as a child. Who do you long for? Are they here? Why are you crying alone in your bed? Think about all those lonely times, all the promises that were not kept. Dad didn't come home to play with you, and Mom didn't come to put you to sleep. Those broken promises still tug at your heart. You cry alone, and no one comes."

—Singh, 2003

"Close your eyes...very good...relax. Now you are going to go back to your childhood, look around and find one thing that was painful for you, made you feel small, uncomfortable, or harassed in some way...recreate that thing, bring that thing here."

Many students had a hard time doing this exercise, including one who I later learned had been molested as a child. Anyone with empathy would find it painful to watch people around you break down.

— Hunter, 2015

Is this exercise really beneficial for students?

On the one hand, this may have caused new emotional trauma.

In a sense, closing your eyes and imagining the pain you suffered in your childhood is repeating that pain.

Sometimes psychotherapy can help people face traumatic memories, eventually accept them and become brave and resolute. However, this method requires the informed consent of the patient, and secondly, it places high demands on the therapist, takes a long time, such as one or two years, and does not necessarily guarantee improvement.

In contrast, the LGAT course is an irresponsible act in which a large group of people re-awaken their trauma in a short period of time without any real informed consent and without any "healing" or "support" .

Moreover, memory itself is not a fixed thing stored deep in a safe. Every time you recall something, your brain is actually using various fragments to reconstruct the situation. This reconstruction may be distorted and wrong. This is especially true when students are sleep deprived and their brains are dull. Imaginations may be mixed with what actually happened. Other people's stories and the guidance of the coach may become materials for reconstructing the situation. The end result is that the memory is rewritten. Even if you did not suffer much trauma in your childhood, you may "recall" a lot of trauma.

On the other hand, this practice often results in regression .

Members become psychologically childish and no longer use mature coping mechanisms (because the LGAT course devalues rationality and self-control). Instead, they use more primitive and childish methods to deal with pain and stress, regressing to childhood behaviors, such as lying on the ground and crying .

Singh believes that there are several purposes for guiding students to review childhood trauma in the LGAT course:

First, it implies that the parents have failed the students , that the parents are terrible, and that they have caused all the pain in the students’ lives, and that only learning from the course and the coach can lead you to love and happiness;

Secondly, it is a contagious emotion . A large group of people crying together for their childhood is a high-intensity, touching emotional experience. Many people will feel that they have been profoundly changed.

Third, trauma and regression will further open up the students’ hearts, making them more vulnerable and easier to brainwash . The students feel smaller and more helpless, while the coaches seem more reliable and trustworthy. Ultimately, the students behave more like children, such as having violent mood swings and being eager to obey and please the coaches.

Privacy disclosure, forcing people to confess

The LGAT course will put the privacy disclosure part at a later stage because, like attracting new members, it is something that "if the controlled person is asked to do it from the beginning, the controlled person will definitely refuse."

But after going through the previous stages, the students had been suppressed and were very eager for affirmation . Simply talking about a little bit of themselves to get affirmation suddenly became a very attractive thing.

Unknown to newcomers, most LGAT courses allow and even encourage veterans to re-attend the training. These veterans are the role models and cheerleaders. The veterans follow the rules and speak the same jargon as the coaches, and are praised by the coaches. Newcomers begin to imitate the veterans' words and deeds, and learn to reveal personal privacy like the veterans, and are praised for this.

The coach trains the newcomers to applaud after every "sharing", no matter how silly, off-topic, or incoherent it is. For most people, it is exciting to have hundreds of people applaud you after saying a sentence or two.

—Singh, 2003

The instructor encouraged us to open up, saying that we would learn more from the course. Those who refused were told, "Fine... your own course, whatever..." Several people confessed their insecurities, being taken advantage of, and being pretentious. Some burst into tears while confessing.

— Hunter, 2015

There is also a part in the course that requires one to be “honest” with other “best friends” (i.e. classmates).

The instructor will ask you to answer and talk about some extremely sensitive privacy .

…

The one who impressed me the most was a female student, who was in her early twenties and came from a very wealthy family. Her father was a wealthy businessman and her mother was a great beauty. But she did not inherit her mother's beauty or her father's high intelligence. She was very self-abased because of this, and in this session, she revealed a lot of her and her family's privacy, even including the privacy of having an abortion for a man.

I felt something was wrong at the time. How could I explain this content to these strangers who had only taken classes with me for a few days?

——Li Yaling, 2007

The LGAT course also uses games to force students to reveal their privacy and desires.

Another exercise on Friday was "Double Facetime ." Two people sit on chairs facing each other, with your knees touching each other's knees (this short distance means that you are actually invading each other's personal space, which can cause tension), and this exercise requires one person to repeatedly ask the other person, "What do you want?" Each time they are asked, they have to give a new answer - which is actually impossible.

We were told not to hide anything. The coaches encouraged the questioners to use whatever means they had to squeeze new answers out of the other party : "Shout! Stomp your feet! Swear! Threaten! Do whatever you think is necessary, except not getting up from the chair or using violence."

— Hunter, 2015

Hunter looked around and noticed that many people were crying, and many were being forced to reveal their deepest secrets and desires. This was bullying on a massive scale.

But speaking out about privacy is not the end. The praise that students gain by revealing their privacy is extremely short-lived.

The coach will then use the private information they revealed to attack them , and the coach will reinterpret their life story to prove what a terrible person they were before.

Sharing private information is something that is highly encouraged. The more personal and painful the sharing is, the happier the coach is. Many sessions have turned into one person standing up to confess, sharing their past, and then the coach reinterpreting the story.

— Hunter, 2015

The 2012 French documentary Landmark: Journey to the Land of the New Gurus recorded a clip from a course: In front of dozens of students, the coach publicly insulted a mother who was trying to solve her relationship problems with her daughter for 50 minutes, calling her a jerk who didn't love her daughter at all, saying that she deliberately destroyed her daughter's intimate relationship, made her daughter think that all men were jerk, and thus ruined her daughter's love life and made her unhappy. He said that she destroyed all possibilities in her daughter's life, and she even had the audacity to say that she loved her daughter...

When the mother broke down and cried in front of dozens of strangers and asked what she should do, the coach said, "If you want to do something for her, you can kill yourself. Oh no, that's not enough. You should find something that makes you more miserable. Get cancer and drag it out for 29 years so you can suffer and die."

This is clearly abuse and humiliation, and the mother may have suffered great trauma as a result.

In 2007, Li Yaling also encountered a situation where her LGAT coach used her privacy to suppress her.
At that time, Li Yaling participated in the "encirclement and scolding" session. The students stood in a horseshoe shape, and each person took turns standing at the "pressure point" in the gap of the horseshoe shape to be scolded. If the student who scolded was not harsh enough, the coach would curse and accuse him of "being insincere to your friends! Fuck you! You are still betraying your friends and yourself at this time!"

The other students didn't know Li Yaling, so they could only call her "arrogant," "cold," and "self-righteous." These words didn't bother Li Yaling. But when the coach, who knew her before, personally came to the battle, he used Li Yaling's personal privacy to mention her deceased relatives, her life situation, and said that she was stubborn and pretended to be strong... He kept scolding Li Yaling until she cried.

There are more problems caused by privacy leaks.

Formal psychological counseling requires that the client's privacy be kept completely confidential. However, the LGAT course simply advises people to "open up and be honest," but does not do anything to protect the client's privacy from being disseminated or used .

Step 3: Instill new ideas

Unlimited liability system, "responsible for your life"

"Be responsible for your choices" and "look at life from a new perspective" are some of the concepts that the LGAT course focuses on instilling.

There is nothing wrong with being “responsible”, but the responsibility advocated by LGAT has gone beyond the normal scope.

“Taking responsibility for your own life” is basically the idea that your problems are not caused by illness, fate, or other people, but by you , and unless you accept that, you will never be able to solve anything.

Not surprisingly, every student can cite a counterexample from their own experience. But the instructor says there is no counterexample, and he doesn't care if you were gang-raped or born with a brain defect, which are all damn excuses.

—Bloor, 1975

Students are guided to adopt new perspectives, but the specific approach lacks therapeutic skills and respect for individual differences.

“If you want a breakthrough, you have a chance to have one,” the coach tells a rape victim who is clearly neither ready nor able to “turn around.” Some of these confrontations are highly charged and last for hours. In all of them, the coach has the last word. Participants fumble with the elusive wisdom that whatever your problem is, it’s your fault and yours alone .

— Hunter, 2015

In the case witnessed by Hunter, the student recounted her experience of being raped, and the coach kept using the "responsibility theory" to pressure the student. It was obvious that the discussion would not end unless you accepted the coach's point of view . In the end, the student admitted that she was responsible and that she "allowed herself to be raped." Hunter noticed that many discussions about "responsibility" eventually turned into confessions, with everyone confessing that they were not responsible enough in the past. This feeling of "I am guilty" will make the students more helpless and more easily brainwashed.

In addition, the coach will use the violation of a certain student as an example to warn others and convey this message to everyone.

The coach in Organization T took advantage of the fact that student B (30 years old, a trader at a securities company) was late for a class and used it as an opportunity to indoctrinate him.

Coach: “You’re late.”

Man B: “Sorry, I was on the phone outside…”

Coach (in a stern tone): "You don't need to apologize to me, and you don't need to apologize to everyone for wasting everyone's time. You should question yourself. Is this your consistent attitude towards doing things?! Just now you solemnly promised to abide by the classroom rules we announced, and you broke your promise! "

Man B: "My phone call is very important. Besides, you asked everyone to stand up and swear the promise just now, not me willingly."

Coach (in an angry tone): "That's just your excuse! Since you promised not to be late, you should handle it yourself no matter what the reason is. Think about whether you usually break your promises so easily in real life? You are trying to escape! "

...Finally, the coach guided everyone to draw the conclusion, "Except for life and death, which are the real 'have to', the rest of the 'have to' are essentially 'I am willing to'. They are your active choices after calculating the gains and losses, so don't make excuses and be responsible for your choices."

——Shi Xiyuan, 2010

Be responsible for your own choices, adopt a new perspective, and realize the pros and cons and subjective initiative behind the apparent "compulsion" - this concept itself is correct, and many psychological counseling sessions also talk about this point.

Many people fail to see through the problems of the LGAT course because the course does contain parts that are consistent with mainstream psychology schools.

However, the problem with the LGAT course is not how much it is similar to "decent", but how much it is different from "decent". Just like a bowl of rice mixed with poison, the key is not how much carbon water, protein, vitamins, minerals this bowl of rice has in common with other rice... The key is what kind of poison is mixed in this bowl of rice, and how much poison is there.

The reason why the LGAT course instills the concept of "responsibility" is to play two roles: 1. Prevent students from dropping out midway ; 2. Prevent students from rebelling against the instructor .

When students are dissatisfied with the LGAT course and want to quit, the LGAT course will tell them that you have chosen to take this course to improve yourself. If you quit, you will be irresponsible for your own choice and life, and you will inevitably fail in life and achieve nothing.

When students are dissatisfied with the coach’s specific practices or unreasonable rules of the course, the LGAT course will tell students that you have promised to abide by every rule (including obeying the coach completely). If you resist, you are irresponsible to your own commitment and life, and you will fail in life and achieve nothing.

In short, as long as you want to withdraw from the course or have any objections, you are irresponsible and will definitely fail in life and achieve nothing .

This is the difference between the LGAT course and normal psychological counseling——

Normal psychological counseling will also tell the counselor to "look at things from a different perspective and pay attention to your subconscious choices, which are the parts you can change." But if the counselor wants to change counselors? No problem. Are you dissatisfied with a certain point discussed in the counseling itself? Let's talk about it.

No normal counselor would imply to the client that if he doesn’t come for consultation today, his life will be over.

Of course, there are many things that can be changed in people, but the reality is that there are also many things that cannot be changed and that people are powerless to do anything about. Normal psychological counseling will help the counselor to clarify what can be changed and what cannot be changed but can be dealt with or accepted in a better way.

The extreme and unlimited responsibility system promoted by the LGAT course is actually selling a false panacea, first putting students down by saying “you were wrong in the past” and then elevating them by saying “you can do anything in the future .” Students think they have “grown up”, but are actually heading towards becoming “giant babies.”

One themed exercise, “Take All Responsibility,” required participants to pair up, with one person telling a story about a time they were victimized, several recounted being beaten by their parents as children, and the other retelling that story from the perspective of being “100% responsible”—in other words, how we ourselves “let things turn out that way.”

This exercise transforms the infant-like helplessness that the student has just experienced into an infant-like sense of omnipotence .

The insight gained by the participants in this exercise is about that of an infant. The infant has not yet cognitively overcome the egocentric worldview that everything originates from the self. The sense of joy and liberation that accompanies this exercise seems to stem from the participants’ sense of omnipotent control.

—Hacken and Adams, 1983

New vocabulary, new language

Trainees’ increasing reliance on the official vocabulary of Life Source, “break free from automatic behavior,” “move forward,” “take risks,” “take responsibility,” “create your own reality,” and so on, reflects their recognition of the powerful position of the coach.

—Hacken and Adams, 1983

"You hope to improve your interpersonal relationships through the course? I say you have no hope! Because you are just hoping, not really wanting it... Note that this 'I hope...' has no energy... Your mentality is different, and the results you will get in the end will also be different..." Edward said.

He asked us not to use the phrase "I hope..." when speaking, but to use the stronger phrase "I want..."

“I want to improve my relationships!”

“I want to make a lot of money!”

“I want a healthy body!”

The students stood up one after another and shouted in response to this sentence, while Edward kept expressing his affirmation and encouragement.

The classroom atmosphere quickly became passionate.

——Li Yaling, 2007

The training courses organized by T have their own language system. “Inspiration”, “Experience”, “Thank you” and other words are the most frequently heard. For example, in a “family” sharing session, a self-written skit may reflect the use mode of this language system:

"Guo Jing": "Ah, Rong'er, I feel that you have gained a few pounds! I urge you to pay attention to keeping in shape!"

"Huang Rong": "Ah, Brother Jing, thank you for giving me a true response! But that's just your opinion."

——Shi Xiyuan, 2010

LGAT courses often teach students a whole new set of vocabulary.

Everyone is working hard to learn. Because the coach controls the rewards and punishments. Students who learn quickly and well will be recognized by the authority, and will receive respect, status and privileges. On the other hand, those who learn slowly or are unwilling to learn will be criticized and suppressed, disrespected, anxious, and feel guilty towards their peers.

The role of the controlled environment also reappears at this time. The trainees have no time to communicate with the outside world, and they cannot get feedback from the outside world. No one can point out the problems with these new words at this time.

In fact, from an objective point of view, many of these "new languages" are specious and rigid or even ridiculous to use in real life . For example, the phrase "I hope" will not cause resistance or disgust when used in communication with others; when used on oneself, it can give oneself flexibility and freedom. People often "discover that what they want is not what they really need", and thus change their goals. The so-called "I must" with sufficient energy will hinder this kind of self-discovery.

The introduction of these new words not only improves the students, but also achieves four things for the LGAT course:

1. Learning new words is difficult, which can take up students’ time and energy, leaving them no time to figure out the loopholes;

2. A sense of achievement, making students feel that they have learned something;

3. Transform students’ thinking. Language is a tool for thinking. Changing language can change thinking, allowing students to strengthen themselves and convince themselves.

4. Divide into insiders and outsiders, and only those who understand the "secret code" are insiders, which increases the gap between students and the outside world.

As students become more familiar with the vocabulary in the course, they will have a favorable impression of people who are also proficient in using the same language. However, once students return to the outside world and talk to their original relatives and friends, they will find it difficult to communicate smoothly because the other party is not familiar with the language system, which will give rise to a sense of alienation and disappointment. They may even despise their original relatives and friends and think that they are "backward." After being brainwashed, many members will take the initiative to pull their partners into the class, out of this mentality of "I have improved, you have to keep up."

Operational constraints

Operant conditioning is similar to conditioned reflexes . The principle is very simple: rewards are given when good behavior occurs, thereby positive reinforcement; punishment is given when bad behavior occurs, thereby weakening repression.

Using manipulation conditioning, the manipulator can change the behavior and beliefs of the controlled person in the following ways:

Use [Event A] to elicit [Emotional Experience a], and at the same time [Event B] occurs.

[Emotional experience a] and [event B] actually have no real connection.

However, since [emotional experience a] and [event B] occur at the same time, the controlled person will eventually associate [emotional experience a] with [event B] .

For example, Pavlov controlled the dog by using "feeding" (event A) to induce "drooling" (emotional experience a) while ringing a bell (event B).

Since the drooling occurred at the same time as the bell ringing, eventually the dog would drool whenever he heard the bell ring.

To give another example, the famous suspension bridge effect , through the thrilling suspension bridge (event A) induces "accelerated heartbeat" (emotional experience a), while seeing a person of the opposite sex (event B).

Since "accelerated heartbeat" and "seeing a person of the opposite sex" occur at the same time, many people mistakenly think that they have a good impression of that person of the opposite sex.

The electric shock aversion therapy , which was once used unethically, also uses the same principle. The "bad habit" that is to be corrected is associated with the severe pain of electric shock. Eventually, the person completely loses interest in the "bad habit", and the side effect is that the person himself suffers great psychological trauma.

The book Abnormal Psychology: an Integrative Approach also records a case in which a cancer patient often vomits violently (emotional experience a) during chemotherapy (event A) and sees a nurse at the same time (event B). As a result, the patient will feel nauseous when seeing a nurse even when not undergoing chemotherapy .

The LGAT course uses this technique to link the idea you want to instill (event B) with the good feeling (emotional experience a).

The students feel happy, confident, optimistic, energetic, loved and accepted... but what the students don’t notice is that what triggers these emotional experiences are actually other things in the environment at that time - the coach’s praise, the applause, smiles, hugs, etc. from others.

Laura walked up to the microphone, her voice shaking as she spoke about how she had become distant from people, about the barriers she had put up to keep people at a distance. The instructor asked her if she would like to try the "trust" exercise. The lights dimmed, sentimental music started, and Laura stood on a chair while the instructor stood over her, whispering intimately to her. Finally, Laura fell back into the arms of six people, who rocked her back and forth to the music. Laura was sobbing, and the instructor kept close to her, touching her, and talking to her softly. This exercise was very emotional, and many of the participants shed tears.

—Hacken and Adams, 1983

Hacken's analysis is that this exercise evokes a desire for "fusion" . When we are young, we rely on others and gain a sense of security from dependence, which is a kind of "fusion". Later, when we are drunk, believe in religion, and fall in love, we will get a similar sense of "fusion".

But the essence of this exercise is to satisfy the need for intimacy (emotional experience a) through hugging, rocking, caressing, and whispering , and to associate this intimate comfort with "unconditional trust" (event B).

It seems that it doesn’t matter whether others are trustworthy or not, as long as you trust them unconditionally. In reality, this obviously doesn’t work. Mistrust can bring serious consequences.

The participants formed two concentric circles, with the inner and outer circles facing each other. Each pair could choose one of four interactions: no contact, handshake, hand holding, hug. After a brief interaction, the concentric circles moved, forming new pairs, and then interacted again. Most people chose to hug.

—Hacken and Adams, 1983

This is also an exercise of "no matter who the other person is, trust and be close to them", which advocates indiscriminate and unconditional closeness (Event B). The students thought that their happiness and sense of acceptance at that time came from the concepts taught in the course, but in fact they came from the collective hugs and smiles deliberately organized by the course .

During the last two days of training, there was a lot of physical contact and a lot of expressions of love between the trainees. However, this "love for everyone" was not an attachment established by understanding, but was closer to the trainees' self-inflation and expression of "I love the whole world". The "feeling of loving and being loved" brought about by these short-term physical contacts will soon disappear, and they cannot provide lasting support like truly deep interpersonal attachment.

When students return to the real world, they can no longer experience the feeling of "integration, intimacy, being loved and accepted" in the course. The real reason is simple: no one is lining up to hug you with a smile.

But it is difficult for most people to think of this. They may think that they have not learned well enough (so they go for refresher training ), that the people around them have not learned it and are therefore cold (so they recruit new people ), or even think that there is really a big problem in the outside world and only the LGAT course is a warm haven (so they may quit their jobs, break up, and devote themselves to the course).

"Calling"

On the fourth day, the coaches begin to transform from stern and overbearing taskmasters to charming and caring parents. They expect you to pay for advanced courses. Whether the coaches can be promoted or even keep their jobs depends on how many people buy advanced courses after taking their courses.

Day 5 is a relaxing day. There is lunch and dancing. The instructor will try to persuade you to sign up for more expensive advanced courses. All students are told to participate in a post-training meeting, where someone will continue to sell you follow-up courses. At the end of this day, students will receive a "surprise" when family and friends unexpectedly show up to congratulate the students on their "graduation."

—Singh, 2003

After three days of being called "assholes", the trainees were allowed to rediscover their own beauty and strength.

Being accepted by the group and gaining a new personal and social identity is obviously a kind of "rebirth".

All 23 students were dancing, smiling, unable to contain their excitement, hugging each other, shedding tears of joy, lining up to hug and thank the coach, and each of them signed up for the advanced course in 2 weeks .

— Hunter, 2015

Singer discovered that cults and brainwashing courses all use a technique called "love bombing".

The old members surround the newcomers, flatter them, praise them, and make them feel safe, loved, accepted, and welcomed. In this process, the newcomers' brains will produce a large amount of oxytocin, a hormone that makes people feel good and attached.

This is another use of "operational constraints".

This is often the time to promote the next stage of courses or ask to "inspire" new people.

The coach told the students that you are the "little girl" and your relatives and friends are your "starfish". They are "stranded" in real life and urgently need your "rescue". The only way to "save" them is to "inspire" them to take this course !

Every student must declare how many "3Cs" (the "three certification standards" for successful inspiration: the inspired person is willing to improve, completes the homework, and pays the tuition ) he or she will achieve every week. Otherwise, they will have to "get off the bus."

The coach will equate the member’s rejection with “you have no confidence”, “you don’t care about your friends”, etc. , and tell them “what you resist is exactly what you need to break through, and what you need to practice is how to do what you don’t want to do.”

——Shi Xiyuan, 2010

Invite your relatives and friends to take this high-priced course. If you don’t, you won’t be able to continue studying !

This is a suggestion that "will definitely be rejected if it is first proposed." However, in the later stages of the LGAT course, many students still do this.

First, the students are in a state of joy and collective excitement . According to the concept instilled in the course that "experience is the most important source of wisdom", the students really feel that they have gained something they have never gained before.

Secondly, Shi Xiyuan observed that the course has actually cultivated a state similar to "obsessive-compulsive disorder" in the students.

First comes compulsive cognition (information and thought control), then compulsive action (control of behaviors such as games), and finally leads to compulsive delusion (persuading friends and relatives to buy this expensive course is a "merit", and even "concerns the rise and fall of the country and nation, and whether the world will be better").

The result of "inspiration" is that students become more and more deeply involved in this course.

The more you give to this course, the more you identify with it and the more you become attached to it.

LGAT training,

Bringing benefits or causing harm?

In short, a small number of people could be seriously harmed .

Most people experience a manic-like euphoria and sense of omnipotence that lasts for weeks or months. During a manic episode, they may make rash decisions that have a huge impact on their lives , such as spending a lot of money to buy the next level of courses, promising to recruit new people, volunteer, start a business, invest, or divorce.

In the long run, the course did not achieve its promise of "significantly improving lives."

The founder of the LGAT course is Werner Erhard, who used to be a salesman and was a genius in business and brainwashing. The Erhard Seminars Training (EST) course he established in 1971 is the source of all LGAT courses. Subsequent course changes are just minor adjustments.

At the time, this type of course had already attracted some criticism, including:

① The students do not know in advance that they will be indoctrinated with new beliefs and philosophies (brainwashing);

② The students did not know in advance that they would be subjected to strong psychological attacks during the course;

③A small number of students suffered psychological breakdown;

④It is not very useful for students’ work and career.

A few people may be seriously hurt. Huge pressure may harm both body and mind.

Singer has served as an expert witness in several lawsuits against the LGAT program. She wrote, "The damages range from drowning to suicide to short-term or long-term stays in psychiatric hospitals. I have been involved in nearly 60 lawsuits and have been following the individuals involved in these lawsuits. Some of them have started their lives again, but they are still terrified when they recall the feeling of being completely out of control mentally and emotionally. Some people have mental breakdowns during or after the training and are still hospitalized ten years later... This is very different from counseling. With a counselor, the progress is slow and controlled, and the patient processes the issues he wants to deal with at a controlled pace. Many people told me that if they knew the intensity and psychological depth of the training in advance, they would not have purchased or participated in it. They did not understand how intense it would be, the impact of peer pressure, and how exhausted the training would make them."

In 1977, two papers were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, discussing five cases of psychiatric symptoms after participating in the IHE training course, where patients experienced paranoid, delusion, and uncontrollable emotional fluctuations .

In 1983, psychologist Hacken also witnessed the mental disorders of trainees during a training session.

On the fifth day of the training, an active participant, Patrick jumped onto the podium and stood in the coach's position. At first, Patrick looked like he was doing the right thing with the coach, ignoring the rules and laughing at the coach. But it was soon obvious that Patrick was abnormal - he spoke incoherently, out of touch with reality, and seemed to have hallucinations. The coach approached him to warn him. But Patrick just stared at the coach blankly and continued to mumble the lingo of the training. Other trainees began to encourage Patrick to "release it." But Patrick had actually "released too much". The coach repeatedly attacked his fragile defense, often accusing him of "nonsense".

After discovering that Patrick could not return to normal, the other trainees were asked to leave the room. The trainees were shocked first outside, and then several trainees launched a "circle of love" proclaiming to "pass our energy to Patrick", "we will heal Patrick", "he is touching his feelings", "no matter what he chooses, it is the best for him."

Finally, Patrick was unknown where he was taken, while the other trainees continued to train.

—Hacken and Adams, 1983

Hacken was surprised to find that the trainees not only denied the mental disorder that happened before them, but also turned the negative case into a positive evaluation of the training . No one asked whether the coach was too rough, and no one discussed whether the training had a negative impact on Patrick. The negative emotions aroused by this incident did not point to the coach, but to a person who had been questioning the coach (he was actually a member of the research team). The trainees accused the person of "over-analyzing", "not giving his own love", "annoying", "steady", and "not feeling", and shouted to him angrily, "You are using your mind again, stop analyzing, use your heart!"

Patrick's abnormality obviously caused anxiety for the trainees, but the training has been on the fifth day. The trainees have become accustomed to regarding the coach as authority and the world in a distinctive way of being good and bad. Either "good" or "bad", without gray and vague parts. The coach is "good", so bad things obviously have nothing to do with the coach. In the end, the trainees turn fear and anxiety into anger and vent on the "bad guys".

It’s not that the LGAT course has nothing to do, but that even if something happens, it will be considered “not the fault of the course.”

Even if the students die, the LGAT course can shirk responsibility. According to Chengdu Business Daily, on June 10, 2005, a 43-year-old man, He Youcheng, participated in this type of training course under the "inspiration" of his cousin He Xiaozhong, and paid tuition for one or two stages of 10,000 yuan. On the 13th, He Youcheng was unstable and proposed to drop out of school, and was dissuaded by the inspiring and students. On the 15th, He Youcheng forcibly refunded the tuition for the second stage. In the early morning of the 16th, the train station staff found that He Youcheng was abnormal on the railway tracks and suspected of having mental problems. Soon afterwards, He Youcheng was hit by a train and died. After this, the training company did not pay a penny of financial compensation, the reason was that "he only happened to the class together, which shows that it was his reason."

The LGAT course that advocates “unlimited liability” is not intended to be held responsible for the possible negative consequences of the course.

Landmark Education, for example, also mentioned that some people responded badly to their training, but that was because those “don’t want to face themselves bravely and honestly” and claimed that “this course is designed for those who clearly recognize that they have full responsibility for their health and well-being before and after the course.”

The problem is that when the LGAT course requires students to be "unlimitedly responsible", it deliberately ignores one point - ethically, consent must be accompanied by "information" . Only with the knowledge of consent is true "consent". Any fraud is accompanied by "consent", but this "consent" is invalid, and fraud is still a criminal offence.

LGAT's deliberate concealment makes new students not know what they agree with. The measures taken by LGAT itself are huge consumption of body and mind, and people with relatively fragile body and mind may collapse under this pressure.

Take He Youcheng as an example. His unit had just gone bankrupt and was in an unemployed state, which was a period of psychological fragility. The first three days of the LGAT course was filled with insults and abuse. He Youcheng had no mental problems before, but he had abnormal words and deeds and even died after three days of class... Is this time a coincidence? This type of course teaches students to be "responsible for everything they encounter in life." According to the theory promoted by the course, shouldn't the course admit that "all the problems encountered by students are the responsibility of the course"? Is it reasonable to say that they have no responsibility in the face of the students' death?

Most people will experience hypomania. Of course, most people will not have such extreme consequences after training. They will feel an euphoria, but this euphoria will decline within a few weeks.

In 1978, the director of the Lincoln Institute for Psychological Therapy in New York commented, “Many people who came to our clinic after (LGAT) training experienced bad reactions, repeating the same pattern over and over again in confusion and displeasure – elated, frustrated, feeling omnipotent, feeling helpless. ”

This is actually very similar to the manic-depressive bipolar cycle.

Typical symptoms of mania include high emotions, euphoria, happiness, expansion of self-esteem, talking too much and fast, sleep demands, feeling energetic, overconfidence, over-optimism about one's social and economic situation, decisive and impulsive, enhanced perception and creativity, and greater emotional response.

This is exactly what participants in LGAT courses are feeling in general.

GloriaG, who has participated in this type of course, wrote online, "I feel weird, even though it's a joyful weirdness. I feel superhuman, but I know I'm not. I feel extremely confident and don't know where this confidence comes from. My life is still the same as before I attended the training. My confidence does not stem from the new talent gained from the training, but a physiological feeling from my body."

Another netizen Baruch described, "Although the euphoric pleasure is good, it will disappear within a few days (after training), and at most a few weeks , and I did not get any lasting benefits from it."

Fehlberg said, "I was in high spirits, that's what they said 'experience' or 'enlightened'. For three months I was in a mild manic state - I thought I felt good, but it wasn't. I was very nervous...I did something very strange. I looked very happy, but it was actually very painful because I was under pressure and thought, 'Now I can solve all the problems in the world...I have to call the Prime Minister...Tell him that I have a way to solve all the problems of humanity!'"

Under hypomania, it is easy for people to make optimistic but impulsive decisions, such as continuing to spend a lot of money on LGAT courses, some breaking up with their partners hastily, and some starting a business recklessly, which can put their lives in long-term trouble.

Hacken also believes that although LGAT students do have a high sense of happiness after training, this sense of happiness is not a healthy state, but is closer to pathological. Because the training systematically destroys the students' original self and concepts, telling students not to use rational analysis, not to make students more mature, but to make students regress and become more like children... The final result is that students' coping ability in reality will not improve, but may decline.

In 1990, Cornell University researchers conducted a long-term follow-up study of LGAT trainees. To find the right control group, the researchers asked the trainees involved to nominate someone who had not been trained but had the same gender, age, from the same community, and were very similar to themselves.

These two groups are indeed very similar in all aspects. The researchers only found two differences: ① LGAT students were more "responsible" from the beginning, that is, they more agree with "I can control my life", and ② LGAT students experienced more work and life pressure before training.

Have the LGAT trainees undergone earth-shaking changes after five years of participating in the training?

The answer is no.

Life satisfaction, subjective happiness, self-worth, troubles in life, self-improvement, interpersonal relationships, quality of sleep, recent emotional experiences, daily responses… There is no significant difference between all these measured things, and those who do not go to training.

The only difference is that the LGAT students who are already more "responsible" have become more "responsible". This is understandable, after all, it is because they agree that "I can change myself and control my life" that they will take the "self-improvement course". The LGAT course once again strengthens the concept of "unlimited responsibility, you can control everything".

There is no panacea. The trained trainees live almost the same life as others after five years.

Normal education vs brainwashing training

How to identify it?

After all, the reason why people are brainwashed is not because they are "too fragile" and "not smart enough".

It’s because people will trust relatives and friends who bring them in, and trust coaches who seem confident.

Because after people make a promise (I want to go to class and stick to it), they hope to keep it.

Because people will try to adapt to the environment when they arrive in the new environment.

Because people will look around and imitate other people's words and actions, I believe that most people's behavior is right.

Because people will respect authority and obey superiors.

Because people will want to help their peers and not drag their team down.

Because when people feel loved and accepted, they will want to repay each other.

Because people are afraid of missing out, after hearing that "if you don't take this course, you will miss a very important opportunity to improve your life", you will want to "try it"...

This is true for everyone.

Israeli psychologist Ariel Merari once made a metaphor for "tunnel" when studying how ordinary people become terrorists .

"Tunnel" has two characteristics: ① Block the outside world ; ② narrow field of view .

In the tunnel, the information, feedback and support from the outside world disappeared. People can only follow the flow and move in the same direction. There is a limited vision in front of them. Exit is the only light. Training is the only task. Peers are the only feedback. Coaches are the only role model. You can only move forward, not quit halfway. Exit means betraying your original promise and betraying your companions walking together.

The person who finally walked out of the tunnel no longer looked like when he entered.

There are many such tunnels in the world.

Don't step in. Don't step in. Don't step in.

References

[1] Shi Xiyuan. Ritual and mental control—a study on the influence of a training organization course on its members’ attitudes [D]. Shandong University, 2012.

[2] Tang Wanjie, Guo Cheng. Analysis of the mental control model of pyramid scheme organizations [J]. Journal of Jiangxi Public Security College, 2007(01): 64-67.

[3]Milgram, S., & Gudehus, C. (1978). Obedience to authority.

[4] Fisher, J., Silver, R., Chinsky, J., Goff, B. & Klar, Y. (1990). Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training : a Longitudinal Study of Psychosocial Effects. New York, NY: Springer New York.

[5]Singer, M. (2003). Cults in our midst. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

[6] Okada Zunji, When "Brain Washing" cures us, Far Arid, 2020

[7] Hunter, J. (2015). Brainwashing in a large group awareness training?: the classical conditioning hypothesis of brainwashing (Doctoral dissertation).

[8]Brewer, M. (1975). Were Gonna Tear You Down and Put You Back Together. Psychology Today, 9(3), 35. https://culteducation.com/group/908-est/6150-were-gonna-tear-you-down-and-put-you-back-together.html

[9]Barlow, DH, Durand, VM, & Hofmann, SG (2016). Abnormal psychology: An integrated approach. Cengage learning.

[10] Erhard, W., Jensen, MC, & Granger, KL (2013). Creating leaders: An ontological/phenomenological model. The handbook for teaching leadership, 11-037.

[11]Haaken, J., & Adams, R. (1983). Pathology as “Personal Growth” A ParticipantObservation Study of Lifespring Training. Psychiatry, 46(3), 270-280. https://culteducation.com/group/1026-lifespring/12660-pathology-as-personal-growth-a-participant-observation-study-of-lifespring-training.html

[12]Payne, JD, Schacter, DL, Propper, RE, Huang, LW, Wamsley, EJ, Tucker, MA, ... & Stickgold, R. (2009). The role of sleep in false memory formation. Neurobiology of learning and memory, 92(3), 327-334.

[13]Frenda, SJ, Patihis, L., Loftus, EF, Lewis, HC, & Fenn, KM (2014). Sleep deprivation and false memories. Psychological Science, 25(9), 1674-1681.

[14]Diekelmann, S., Landolt, HP, Lahl, O., Born, J., & Wagner, U. (2008). Sleep loss produces false memories. PloS one, 3(10), e3512.

[15] Kopp, D., Hyde, B. & Zimmerman, M. (2019). Speaking being : Werner Erhard, Martin Heidegger, and a new possibility of being human. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.

[16]Häusser, JA, Leder, J., Ketturat, C., Dresler, M., & Faber, NS (2016). Sleep deprivation and advice taking. Scientific reports, 6(1), 1-8.

[17]S. Diekelmann et al., “Sleep Loss Produces False Memories,” PLoS One 3, no. 10 (2008): e3512.

[18]S. Frenda et al., “Sleep Deprivation and False Memories,” Psychological Science 25, no. 9 (2014): 1674–81; JC Lo et al., “Sleep Deprivation Increases Formation of False Memory,” Journal of Sleep Research 25 (2016): 673–82.

[19]Kirsch, MA, & Glass, LL (1977). Psychiatric disorders associated with Erhard Seminars Training: II. Additional cases and theoretical considerations. The American journal of psychiatry.

[20]Glass, LL, Kirsch, MA, & Parris, FN (1977). Psychiatric disorders associated with Erhard Seminars Training: I. A report of cases. American Journal of Psychiatry, 134(3), 245-247.

[21] (US) by Steven Hassan; Yang Shanlu, translated by Yang Fei. Get out of the cult and get rid of the control of the cult. Hefei: Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House, 2001.04.

[22] Large-group awareness training - Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large-group_awareness_training

[23] Li Yaling, a 32-year-old beauty elite who manages $4 billion, was "screamed" to death in PUA class? Exclusively revealing the inside story of PUA course

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/_j94PIAMDWFHGgZ0AsmWcQ

[24] A man died after taking the so-called elite class by mental abnormality and hit a train_News Center_Sina.com. (2021, September 07). Retrieved from http://news.sina.com.cn/s/2007-06-18/065112041458s.shtml

Planning and production

Source: Guokr

Author丨You Shiyou Science Creator

Editor: Cui Yinghao

The cover image of this article is from the copyright library

Reprinting may lead to copyright disputes

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