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From: moiram@tektronix.UUCP (Moira Mallison )
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Experiential Processes
Message-ID: <2975@tektronix.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Jul-84 12:54:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: tektronix.2975
Posted: Fri Jul  6 12:54:47 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Jul-84 07:29:12 EDT
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 62


Quoting judy @ ism780:


 > EST and many other "hip" therapies are DANGEROUS!  They can cause serious
 > damage to the psyche and personality.  This is because they are philosophies
 > formed by laymen who have no regard for mental disturbances.  They try to
 > force down defense mechanisms it took the person years to build.  They
 > do this based on the erroneous conception that all defense mechanisms are
 > bad.  NO.  THEY ARE GOOD!  We build them for a reason.  If the defenses a
 > person has built in their childhood are no longer appropriate, the natural
 > course of living or, in some severe cases counseling, will naturally erode
 > them.

I don't think your opinion is supported by statistics.  Hundreds of thousands
of people have been through the experiences offered by est, Lifespring, and 
the smaller offshoots.  If it was really as *DANGEROUS* as you seem to think,
the public outcry would be incredible.  Nobody is saying YOU must get rid of 
YOUR defense mechanisms.  They ARE sort of comfortable things to have around,
like a security blanket.  But I, for one, have felt that my own particular 
DM is getting more and more in my way.  And I would just as soon put myself
in a situation where I am given an opportunity to experience my self in a new
way.  

 > But if you force a person to break into an area they are not emotionally
 > equipped to face, you are doing that person damage. 

Once again, nobody is forced to do anything.  Nobody is forced to look at any-
thing they don't want to.  Each participant chooses an area of his/her life 
that he/she feels is "not working" at the time.  Besides, what you are 
suggesting is logistically absurd.  There are lots of participants in the 
room.  I suggest that it would take a 1:1 kind of situation to really *force*
a person to confront something they don't want to.  (Even under hypnosis, 
the subconscious protects the being from doing things that are harmful
or abhorrent to the individual!)  You are giving the people
leading the workshop/training credit for a whole lot more power than they, in
fact, have.  

 > Groups like this DO use brain washing techniques.  And if you think
 > you can't be brain washed spend some time with some ex-cult members. 

The analogy between these experiential processes and cults  has more
holes than swiss cheese.  
 
 1. Cults want to break any ties the member has with a former life, and 
    for the most part keep their members separated from the rest of 
    society.  EPs want you to go back into society (and sell them to 
    others, admittedly).  
  
 2. Ex-cult members, when they have been de-programmed, see the error
    of their ways, (I'm making a rash assumption based on your state-
    ment) and regret involvement with the cult.  Most EP participants
    do not regret the time or money invested in the EP.  

 3. Most importantly, the brainwashing of the cults serves to divest the
    members of ANY SENSE OF PERSONAL POWER.  The basic philosophy behind
    the EP is for the participant to RE-OWN PERSONAL POWER.  

Wish I could come up with something catchy to end this with...:-)

						Moira Mallison
						tektronix!moiram