Virginia "Ginni" Lamp Thomas, dutiful wife of Clarence--ex-cult member [View All]

[blondeatlast]

Mrs. Virginia Lamp Thomas strikes me is becoming very powerful--and seems rather unstable; not a good combination.

To her (shudder) credit, she has been vocal in criticizing it, but I find it alarming that she got involved in the first place:

From Wikipedia:

Lifespring was founded in 1974 by John Hanley Sr., after working at an organization called Mind Dynamics with Werner Erhard, the founder of est, which became the basis for Landmark Education. Lifespring concentrated on how people experience each other, whereas est dealt with changing the way people experience themselves.<5> However, there are many similarities between the two, as well as with Scientology<1><6>.

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Though John Hanley denied that Lifespring was a duplicate of Erhard Seminars Training, Melton and Lewis described the similarities between the two as "striking", in their 1992 work, Perspectives on the New Age<6>. Melton and Lewis point out that both Werner Erhard and John Hanley had previously worked at Mind Dynamics. They then went on to cite specific examples of techniques utilized by both Lifespring and EST, stating that both used "authoritarian trainers who enforce numerous rules", both groups require applause after a member's "share" in front of the group, both deemphasized reason, in favor of "feeling and action"<6>. The authors also pointed out that graduates of both Lifespring and EST were "fiercely loyal", and recruited heavily for their respective groups, reducing marketing expenses to virtually zero<6>.

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One prominent critic of Lifespring is Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Mrs. Thomas asserted in an interview with The Washington Post that she chose to seek counseling after her decision to stop participating in Lifespring. In order to avoid phone calls from fellow Lifespring members, urging her to remain in the course, she chose to hide in another part of the United States. One explanation for the criticisms and actions taken by roughly 8% of all Lifespring graduates comes from clinical psychologist and Lifespring graduate Bronson Levin. Levin said, "people who are not prepared for the intense emotional experience of Lifespring or who have hidden traumas tend to become overwhelmed as childhood memories come thundering back to them during training." Virginia Thomas went on to speak on panels and organized anti-cult workshops for congressional staffers in 1986 and 1988. <2>

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In 1993, Lutheran Reverend Dr Richard L. Dowhower, conducted a survey of clergy attitudes toward other groups that they have labeled as cults. The 53 respondents were from the Washington, DC area and included 43 Lutheran clergy and seminarians, one Roman Catholic and one Jewish clergyman, and an Evangelical minister. The response chart indicates twenty eight (28) responses to "The cults I am most concerned about are:", with the answer "Scientology, est/Forum, and Lifespring". <25>. Dr Dowhower was an advisor of the American Family Foundation, which published the Cult Observer<25>.