Controversy FAQ Interview Question 10

How do you respond to the charge that ACCD is an LGAT (Large Group Awareness Training)?

This question is based on a straw-man argument. The assumption is that if something is an LGAT, then there is something inherently wrong with it. LGAT stands for Large Group Awareness Training. It's a term coined by a secular, experiential-format training in an attempt to try to explain what they were doing. They said "Well, what do we call this? We're working with large groups of people and we are training them, and one of the main areas of focus is for them to become more aware of how they impact others in relationship to be able to support them in having effective relationships, so let's call it a Large Group Awareness Training." And then some people have assigned to that term some insidious or nefarious agenda, such that if you are an LGAT then there is something wrong with you. Using the basic definition of the term, is part of what we do Large Group Awareness Trainings? Absolutely.

What needs to be addressed in this question is the underlying accusation that people have made in regards to LGATs, which is that they are manipulative, coercive, emotionally draining, brainwashing, et cetera.

If people knew the history of the accusations again LGATs they would be appalled. The term was demonized by a woman named Margaret Singer who worked with people thought to be in cults and is often, from a professional point of view, considered off-base and wildly inaccurate in her assertions regarding brainwashing. She was a psychologist, and she started a form of psychology that was rejected by the APA's Board of Social and Ethical Responsibility. In fact, two prominent psychologists, Lifton and Schein, turned Singer's claims on their head and demonstrated that her de-programming movement, in which people were kidnapped and tortured (based on Singer's assumption that people could be brainwashed) did greater harm than whatever had happened to them in the cults they were in. Unfortunately, over time, Singer's deprogramming movement and arguments against the dangers of brainwashing, flawed as they were, became associated with any LGAT, whether it was a cult or not.

Thus, people think of LGATs and think that people are being brain-washed or manipulated. Let us be clear on one point: ACCD is not coercing anybody into anything, we are not lying to them, we are not trying to control them. In our trainings, if someone wants to leave, they can leave. Everything they do is up to them.

Anyone interested in some of this back-story and Margaret Singer should read the last few chapters of Cult Fiction, available at ACCD's online bookstore.

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