The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 2

A2 THE MORNING CALL, MONDAY, MAY 1982 Illustration by LINDA SHANKWEILER Lifespring is designed to challenge individuals' beliefs and strip away their defense mechanisms. For some, this can result in positive change. For others, this can be shattering. Nobody regulates 'personal growth' programs or makes sure trainers know what they're doing Toilet-cleaning to 'pyramiding' to pop psychology By RICH HEIDORN JR. Of The Mprning Call people with psychological problems and recruit them for enrollment.

Moreover, Lifespring's own publicity touts the program as providing psychological benefits. In the June 1978 edition of Lifespring's in-house magazine, Dr. Everett L. Shostrom, a psychologist, is quoted as saying his study of 962 basic training graduates which measured such qualities as "existentiality," "self acceptance" and "capacity for intimate contact" indicated "Lifespring is making a significant contribution to the mental health of a large segment of dtir population." The article doesn't mention that Lifespring paid for the study or that in a 1979 deposition Hanley had described Shostrom as one of the people who helped design the training. Nor does it mention that in a May 1969 Psychology Today article, Shostrom had criticized the encounter movement on many of the same grounds as Lifespring has come under fire lack of adequate supervision, leaders' lack of training and the group's use of "jargon." Tpday Lifespring's promotional literature continues to quote from Shostrom's study as evidence that the program is "effective." But in a recent telephone interview from Santa Ana.

Shostrom denied aiding in the creation of Life-spring or ever saying the program aided trainees' This, the trainees are led to believe, is the way to personal growth and greater fulfillment, Most of the techniques used by Lifespring and similar groups were developed earlier this century by a number of psychiatrists, physicians and psychologists. As the use of such techniques spread, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, they passed from the hands of professionals to lay people, and from small groups to large lecture formats marketed by professional These lay practitioners have been allowed to operate without any of the controls government uses to keep professionals in line. Although at least 17 states have considered licensing such groups, the American Group Psychological Association (AGPA) says it knows of none that has done so. "These types of organizations carved out a new niche, a new product," says Erik Stem, an assistant Oregon attorney general who dropped an investigation into Lifespring for lack of legislative guidelines. It "sort of fell through the cracks of any sort of regulatory scheme." '--y It is "like'the atom bomb was in 1954," adds Peter Georgiades, a Washington, D.C.

attorney and former mental health counselor who in 1977 unsuccessfully asked the Federal Trade Commission to begin regulating the industry. It was just a matter of time before someone managed to pervert it to their own ends." To some, it is the key to greater fulfillment and self-awareness. To others, it is a nightmarish journey into regions of the psyche better left unexplored. Lifespring, professionals say, is psychological Russian roulette. theory of winning is this," Lifespring president John P.

Hanley explained in a 1979 interview. "I have these pencils You don't like them? O.K 1 have By RICH HEIDORN JR. Of The Morning Call these pens. "Now, you just go along until you find something that seems to be useful or valuable to someone, and then once you get it, you, get on it hard." Hanley, a lean, boyish man with a long, sharp nose and narrow eyes, has gotten on it hard, indeed. In eight years he has parlayed a $5,000 investment into a corporation that has expanded nationwide with annual sales estimates as high as $20 million.

ennsylvania won't let you become an auctioneer, a barber, a funeral director or a landscape architect without a license. -But if you want to run an emotionally charged, five-day encounter session that some experts say has the capacity to drive people insane, there's nothing to stop you results suggest that LIFESPRING is making a significant contribution to the mental health of a large segment of our population" bvETeii I.Miimruoi. IW. sf Along the way he has become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the human potential field. He's reluctant to discuss his wealth now, but in 1978, court records indicate, he made $200,000 from the enterprise, enough to support a Georgian mansion in San Rafael and a ranch near Sacramento.

Not bad for a guy who x-: AuHinwM Aumiir tiomw vXi MM XtntUMmAakt ff mum, nttj KU AtJKUUWt. tM -RXiiC (-VCTHltY kwrn mm 04t fcrtliB John Hanley, Lifespring founder ftMU VW twrt Although reliable statistics are scarce on how many participants of such programs have, suffered adverse effects, some observers have pegged the casualty rate between about 1 and 9 percent. If a drug produced an incidence of adverse side effects even lower than the side effects of such groups, says the AGPA, it would be immediately withdrawn from the marketplace by the federal government. Lifespring says less than 3 percent of its participants are dissatisfied enough to request their money back and says the number of people adversely affected is statistically negligible. Interviews with trainees in Jerry Kayal's IPE class in Philadelphia in August 1979, however, indicate at least five of the 36 felt they suffered some ill effects or were displeased.

And James S. Moore, a former Lifespring president, has estimated that 5 to 10 percent of trainees suffer "serious" damage; meaning they commit suicide or need psychiatric help. Moore said about half of the trainees suffered some ill effect "felt raped or used" by Lifespring. "The problem is (that Lifespring is) using extremely high intensity processes," says University of Pennsylvania psychiatrist Dr. Peter Brill, who has treated more than 20 Lifespring graduates.

"If someone has a psychotic reaction, none of these people knqws how to recognize it (and they don't know how to deal with it if it does come out." or to ensure you know what you're doing. Like marriage and family counselors and others offering quasi-psychological services, "personal growth" programs like Lifespring are exempt from government regulation as long as they don't advertise with the words "psychology" "psychologist" or "psychological." "There are people who hang out a shingle and call themselves a counselor they might be doing anything a psychologist does but that's O.K.," says Jerome Grossi, counsel to the Pennsylvania Board of Psychologist Examiners. "Under existing law, you and I could perform marriage and family counseling," adds David Atkinson, executive assistant to state Sen. Robert Jubelirer, who has introduced legislation that would license some counselors. "Being creative guys, we could make our ads sound better than a guy who has a doctorate and five years' experience.

"The way it is now, as long as I don't do anything illegal, I could tell you to run around your house nude five times a night and tell you that would help. If you're gullible enough to believe it, I'm in the ballpark." Hyperbole, perhaps. But that advice is not far from some of that allegedly dished out by the trainers who run Lifespring. Trainees have allegedly jumped from a bridge to overcome a fear of heights, spent the night in a cemetery to conquer a fear of death and spent a day in a chicken wire cage to overcome a fear of imprisonment. Oclofacc LIFESPRING twfan i I mayo study to measureihc lj short term and kmg ezm cSccu ot the Banc Trwrtnff.

The lestirtg ptogram'ts utilizing the Personal Orientation Inventory I POD whkh I developed 1963 The -POt wvtt especd by the KMvd) fa measure tbt level of sn tndtariwTs (mrepctMnal etuatstae bchtvfar. The POi ncasuro Kh cgeocptt ss tfMCl pf1f-Voh. scH'rvtunce, independence, fluit end to the Deeds of others. Ttese are 0 aspects oi wsusttdng tbal the Bask Ira tang is designed to develop Over lh last 14 yews the KM has been used extensively fan fvblnhed studies oT program Wended to Incteue (he participant i level of scif-ottualzmg etwnfcr. The prafrwM have been studied mdod ptc Kfeoot and college human tetauonk count, psyehoiocv taunts.

commurocattons wqefctr-opfr tntdtunort tnfnmgs. encounter raining, et weSwUdMdualemnobpthe' To date UFESPHXNG ttti (CM 2 tninec both betow nd wo dr -f tnhcog Thee peopb wiB ttcd vjidn she moans A the Bttk Tt4nJrtfi To nry toewkdge ttt the riudy of bs ever undenriv The nmife so br ftom the tetdng proprwn ve wy bnpreww. The POt gnAanc beybod tr 1 tevet vi onSdiwror ei rtwsswed fay the POKtee Ty(4ir it Thb rneiru hll the obtwncd Km I. Ohm 7ihMr( tumfmr--. ofioltnfi riwnw to Uw unrrotu triloba tit titefuUvp Kxvnp it mMMftfOx WfrMAfiMf (v nwm MMMtt4K ioim frN.

oiMUzra; nujutn .4 mental Stakh of a Urje of our poputatloa Aad tfthe ate nMMfar study hold yp. we may cow jJe ihu there hUhi nuhcr pemuntni change and Jurt trtnsBor one I ptewd with Ufr VMiR. to ee (rdtfungs fnoVefeve Of UF5PBtNGS coounli'neni lo pu fef IH tensi to hnpnMtig the traeikngi baei on viesuks Qfheu effieedvenauN urtMch PCM test Cores eveflahle, fyrthermorc befedonthe ftndtna of iwo previous studm feported by Foutds ted Petdvel U977 it can be inwtpotcd that the Anafyi of the mofttb faflow Up xwu(t yet to ccite vJ snrw dnrtuttc chant Tb condude, -on wc be of to Ut eoSectea In the Mudy. the mtjttng eaatabutiORtpthe wotdd tuve tuppened by totvex onty: Theu oventf muXs suggest tf the UFtSPMWO lfntng ptoCutei dteitges whichw et (rowsw "tie greet end uettefiy eetet ten lhtiiownbvnYhciJTpihpdIot Lifespring has only three mental health professionals -r a psychiatrist and two psychologists r- among the nearly 100 paid employees at its seven training centers nationwide. According to Lifespring president John P.

Hanley who acknowledges he got a in the only psychology course he took in his college career nearly all Lifespring trainers have at least a bachelor's degree, although got a in his only college psychology course. But success hasn't come without its pains for this South jCarolina native, who grew up with adopted parents in Wisconsin. In 1969, at age 23, he was convicted along with his father-in-law, Fred M. Welchman, of mail fraud and stood for sentencing. Hanley and Welchman had been selling not pencils but toilet-cleaning routes.

For an annual payment of $7,500, they promised investors a guaranteed weekly salary of $250 and annual income of more than $18,000. The problem, the federal government charged, was that Hanley and Welchman had no intention of paying any guaranteed salaries and that, at least in some cases, the purported "routes" didn't exist. The scheme earned Hanley a five-year suspended sentence and a $1,000 fine. According to a 1969 memo by Iowa Asst. Atty.

Gen. Douglas R. Carlson, the scheme was one of several in which Hanley and Welchman identified in the memo as "known racketeers" had teamed up. Earlier, Illinois authorities had investigated a business called Universal Invention Sales, through which the pair promised to market and patent inventions for fees ranging from $200 to $700. There were no prosecutions over the business, according to an investigator who worked on the case, although authorities did compel the men to make restitution to a 13-year-old boy who had paid them for help in marketing a new design for a mousetrap.

"The Illinois Attorney General's office," Carlson wrote, "determined that they were simply fleecing these people for all the money they could get out of them, with little or no intention of selling their invention for them." Hanley was still under probation on the mail fraud count in 1971 when he landed in trouble again. This time he was named a defendant in a suit by the Wisconsin attorney general over a cosmetics marketing company called Holiday Magic. One of the many operations of California entrepreneur William Penn Patrick, Holiday Magic Page from a 1978 Lifespring publication contains statements from psychologist Everett Shostrom indicating that Lifespring can aid people's mental health. Today Shostrom says he considers Life-spring's techniques questionable. "mental health." In light of the continuing allegations of "casualties," he added, he now considers its techniques "questionable" and would not recommend the program.

Lifespring had become so sensitive to those allegations that according to a confidential July 1979 memo by one-time director of trainings Robert Kausen, it advised its basic and IPE trainers to portray the programs as "educational." Kausen, who left Lifespring in late 1979 and no longer recommends IPE training, told his subordinates: "Reassure any mental health facility that Lifespring is not a growth group but is a structured educational course." His instructions, in effect, were for trainers to deny the claims of Lifespring's promotional literature. Its there is no prerequisite on the area of concentration. No formal educational requirements exist for the volunteer training coordinators (TCs), who assist the trainers during sessions. But Hanley insists that, although the program fs derived from the work of psychologists, it is not offering therapy only an educational opportunity for healthy people to grow and make their lives work better. Not everyone agrees.

In a lawsuit filed last December, a Washington, man alleged he was told Lifespring was "much better than" the psychotherapy he was then taking to overcome depression over his divorcfe. The man claims he suffered feelings of fear and paranoia, suicidal urges and a loss of self-esteem as a result his Lifespring training. His co-plaintiff, Sandy Trevathan, who went through the program separately and worked for the organization for two years, alleges she was instructed to "seek out" Associated Press Peter Georgiades. a Washington, D.C., attorney and former mental health counselor, tried unsuccessfully in 1 977 to get the Federal Trade Commission to begin regulating the 'personal growth' industry. See NOBODY Page A4 See HANLEY PageA4 lfL.