LETTERS

Lifespring, Pro and Con



Lifespring has been offering adult education programs in fifteen cities since 1974. Our company is registered as an educational corporation with the Board of Education of the State of California. Our programs have been thoroughly researched by eminent scientists. The lasting benefits of our courses are well documented.

We were disappointed to learn that in writing her article about us for D [“When Weird Things Happen To Gullible People,” August], Marty Primeau betrayed a publicly taken promise of confidentiality that she made with the other people in her course. She also deceived your readership by omitting the fact that she made this promise. She never identified herself to us or to her classmates as a writer working on a story. This conduct places her outside the accepted standards of ethical journalism. Please also know that the facts about Lifespring that Primeau attributes as having come from the “Spiritual Counterfeits Project” are largely inaccurate, and SCP hardly qualifies as a credible, objective source.

Certainly Primeau has a right to her opinions about Lifespring. However, one cannot help noticing the cynical, self-righteous tone of her article and her apparent pride at being unable to learn basic skills of human relations. We wince as she displays the ultimate in bad taste by publicly ridiculing her husband in the article.

Perhaps if Primeau participated sincerely and honestly in Lifespring she could learn to stop spilling her venom for no reason onto her loved ones and betraying people to whom she has made promises. It seems to me that her overall conduct stands as testimony for the need in our society for programs like Lifespring.

Charles J. Ingrasci

Director of Corporate Affairs, Lifespring

San Rafael, California



Marty Primeau was a student in our Basic Training here in Dallas. All students agree to maintain confidentiality of other students’ experiences, and they know that note taking and recording devices are not allowed in the training room.

Each student gives their word to keeping these ground rules. Any student who does not feel in all honesty that they can comply has the support of the trainer to leave the training with a full refund of their tuition, If a student completes the Lifespring course and does not create any value, they are entitled to a $350 refund of their tuition with no questions asked.

Joanne Brady

Center Manager, Lifespring

Dallas



The Lifespring training is uniquely effective for each participant because the individual chooses what she or he wants to get out of the training. My purpose in taking the course was to get a clearer idea of my career goals and to develop tools to create healthier intimate relationships in my life. I got what I wanted! I would pay the $450 ten times over for what I learned about my own potential and about my relationships with other human beings. It’s clear that what Primeau wanted from the training was a sensationalized, one-sided, inaccurate, out-of-context story, and that is indeed what she got.

I was surprised that your magazine didn’t investigate the accuracy of her statements or present the majority point of view, which is that Lifespring has given its graduates a new lease on life, a new dedication to their families, their jobs, and their communities, and the renewed sense that they, as unique individuals, matter and can make a difference in this world.

BJ {Barbara) Anderson

Dallas



My own Lifespring experience was incredibly powerful for me and very positive- not without its sad or painful moments-but enlightening nonetheless. The biggest problem I have with Primeau’s article is her total breach of confidentiality. I do not understand the justification for broken promises, and it has truly been my own experience that I give up peace and harmony within myself when I have failed to honor commitments I have made.

Sallie Stratton

Dallas



I am no Lifespring participant, but the idea of creating an environment in which people are free to experience belonging, some perhaps for the first time, or in which participants are asked to look at the possibility of leading a life in which commitments are meaningful and produce results, seems somehow useful.

Apparently, Primeau’s husband wanted to stop smoking and went to Lifespring, rather than to his wife, for support. Back home, one can only imagine what he faced: a wife that says “Thank God” to his slipping back to two packs a day and all the illness and death that forbodes? Sounds like Primeau should consider reregistration-this time without so many axes to grind. Then she could write the follow-up piece for your magazine: “When Gullible Articles are Written by Weird People.”

Michael W. Anglin

Dallas



Congratulations to Marty Primeau for successfully resisting transformation! Those strange ideas won’t make a difference in her life, thank God. And good old Cigarette-Breath hasn’t used the word “commitment” in weeks! Isn’t it great to be so perfectly normal?

Dick Hoffman

Dallas



I wish to thank D Magazine for your interest in an organization, Lifespring, which in its destructiveness is infiltrating the city of Dallas, as well as sixteen other cities nationwide. Having myself been heavily involved with Lifespring in Dallas, I see the desperate need of our community to be educated on the dynamics of cult membership. Lifespring has been determined to be a destructive cult, and yet enrollment in the Lifespring trainings in Dallas continues to flourish. The truth is that anyone can be sucked in, and unfortunately, too many are.

Motivational/self-improvement cults such as Lifespring attract the goal-oriented, successful individuals of our society. It is frightening to think that already approximately 2,000 Dallasites, in the past two years, have taken these courses. Many are still victims (yes, victims) of Lifespring’s manipulation. The mind-bending, brainwashing techniques used by Lifespring are very subtle, and those involved are totally unaware that they have been brainwashed or that they are involved in a cult. As cited in Primeau’s article, throughout the fifteen-year history of the company, there have been many “casualties” attributed to the Lifespring trainings, ranging from temporary psychological breakdown to death. Using guilt and obligation to manipulate, Lifespring has hundreds of people volunteering time, energy, and money to the corporation, at the expense of their own families, friends, and careers.

The bottom line is that Lifespring is dangerous. Unknowingly, people are putting their freedom to choose for themselves and make rational decisions into the manipulative hands of the organization. It is time for the city of Dallas to educate itself and counteract this destructive cult.

Karen Thorson

Denton



Like Marty Primeau, I, too, have had “the Lifespring experience.” In fact, I also attended the advanced course, the “leadership” program, and I staffed each of these trainings as well. Fortunately, I finally woke up to the fact that I was involved with a cult.

Most of us have the notion that a “cult” refers primarily to those people who sell flowers on the street and ask for donations. Consequently, when a well-dressed, professional, articulate group like Lifespring is introduced to us, we don’t recognize it as such.

Actually, Lifespring utilizes the same mind control techniques common to most cults: group hypnosis through guided visualizations, playing unfamiliar games for no apparent reason, submission to a leader/ trainer through an enforced set of “ground rules,” and intolerance for questioning anything having to do with the validity of the group by labeling such people as “resistant,” “unenlightened,” or “lacking credibility.”

Mary Hodge

Dallas



I have never felt the need to write an editor before, but this issue has deeply concerned me for some time, and your exposure to this “urban cult” revealed it for what it really is. I have witnessed a very close friend become completely transformed. Fourteen hundred dollars later, my good friend is not only a mess but a stranger. 1 only hope that this article helped a few to look objectively at what they have been through and become themselves again. Unfortunately, this mind-altering program has taken most of the objectivity out of these victims’ thinking. I thank you for this timely article and hope that the exposure will lead to more media attention. This was truly an answer to my prayers in black and white.

Janice R. Alegnani

Dallas



Voicing Support for Ragsdale



I think you owe Diane Ragsdale an apology for your “Thumbs Down” in D’s August edition. A third-rate hacker can fool the phone system, traps and all, but it is even more to the point that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Those phone calls could have been made from anywhere on this globe and the phone company can’t prove or disprove their origination unless someone is monitoring the specific switch, or if they can match the voice print. I am more than a little suspicious that none of the recordings are of good enough quality to test for voice printing.

Additionally, with Ragsdale having been the recipient of such calls, it seems practically impossible that she would be unaware of the existence of phone traps, and regardless of their fallibility, that she would take such a chance.

Warren Hudson

Dallas



You should give your Thumbs Down to Carrie Delano and Ross Perot for bungling up a shot at weakening Ragsdale’s support from her constituency. We on the south side of town are not fools, whatever the rest of Dallas may think.

It seems to most of us that once Delano and her comrades saw that the ir smear campaign was not working, tails were tucked between legs and mouths were closed. Let all Dallas know and understand that it takes a Diane Ragsdale to get things done or brought out of hiding for blacks in Dallas, Texas, even in 1988.

Pamela Bluitt

Dallas



My recollection is that neither the District Attorney’s office nor the Dallas Police Department was able to come up with sufficient evidence to even indict Ragsdale; not to mention to convict her of any offense based upon Delano’s claim. Although you (as well as Ragsdale’s critics) have chosen to ignore it, Ragsdale is afforded a presumption of innocence until it has been proven that she has committed any offense. I would suggest that you consider this before convicting her of sophomoric actions or betraying her constituency.

As an institution that takes refuge in the American system of jurisprudence (and rightly so), you really should know better.

Eric V. Moyé

Dallas



D Magazine stands by the item, which was nor a news report but a statement of editorial opinion. We still find.it inconceivable that calls were made from Ragsdale’s home without her knowledge, and we reject the paranoid theory that some shadowy cabal used “high tech” to frame the councilwoman. As for attorney Moyé’s brief, we did not send Ragsdale a subpoena, just a note of dismay and disappointment.



The Problems of “Wednesday’s Child”



Your important article, “The Uncertain Fate of Wednesday’s Children” [August] identifies one part of a large and complex problem in our community. Sexual abuse must be taken seriously if we are to help our children. It is hard to accept, but we all know children who have been subjected to this type of child abuse. By day they play childhood games, by night they learn adult secrets.

Alice A. Zaccarello

Executive Director

Incest Recovery Association



Skip Hollandsworth’s article was a story needing to be told. It pointed out the need for more services to adoptive families and that the provision of such services requires the commitment of funds to support them. Agencies have learned from their constituents that adoption is a lifelong process. All individuals involved have a need for continued services.

David Rupley

President, Board of Directors

Hope Cottage



As one of the parents featured in “The Uncertain Fate of Wednesday’s Children,” I must express my sincere gratitude for the excellent quality of the article. Skip Hollands-worth’s sensitivity, insight, and courage are to be greatly commended. It is good, I believe, that more people are now aware of the unfortunate situation that exists in many of the families who become involved in the lives of “Wednesday’s Children.”

Again D Magazine has taken the initiative in exceptional analysts, compilation, and production of an outstanding article on a very delicate story, Thank you for being alert to the critically important issues of life within our city and having the valor to address these issues candidly.

Bob Chandler, Senior Minister

Highlands Christian Church



The Maiden Under Fire



I enjoyed Dennis Holder’s piece on Laura Miller, the Dallas Times Herald columnist (“Asbestos Maiden,” July]. Unfortunately, I now know firsthand that Miller is not to be trusted, both for confidentiality and accuracy. Unfortunately again, her mentor and defender, Dave Burgin, was the source of bias and inaccuracy that has caused the downfall of the Herald to a level little higher than that occupied by National Enquirer. Anytime an editor vigorously defends a writer who lies in print, both of them have forgotten that journalism supposedly has something to do with the truth.

Sadly, when the Herald fails, the many good, hardworking, honest journalists there will be unemployed, while the gossip columnist and old. unbiased, the-people-have-a-right-to-know-even-if-it-is-a-lie Burgin are off lucratively lying for some other rag. Is there any wonder that so many of us hold much of the press in such low esteem?

As long as institutions like the Morning News and D Magazine exist, we can survive folks like them. So keep up the good work

LV. Davis

Colorado Springs, Colorado



I have been interviewed by Laura Miller, and the interview and subsequent story were like what I imagine it would be like to be fondled by Oral Roberts. Miller may be good-looking on the outside, but underneath, she is cruel and corrupt. She is unable to see that there is something between wrong and right. Check this out: the bad guy in her columns (and there nearly always is one) is essentially always a white man (or “the system”); never a woman and never a minority. Miller would have made a great propagandist: reality as interpreted by the angry and pseudo-righteous. The Times Herald will one day regret having hired her.

James Johns

Dallas