Lifespring was an American for-profit human potential organization founded in 1974 by John Hanley Sr., Robert White, Randy Revell, and Charlene Afremow. The organization encountered significant controversy in the 1970s and '80s, with various academic articles characterizing Lifespring's training methods as "deceptive and indirect techniques of persuasion and control", and allegations that Lifespring was a cult that used coercive methods to prevent members from leaving. These allegations were highlighted in a 1987 article in The Washington Post as well as local television reporting in communities where Lifespring had a significant presence.
Before becoming defunct in the mid-1990s, Lifespring claimed that it had trained more than 400,000 people through its ten centers across the United States.
Key people
Lifespring was founded by John Hanley Sr. along with Robert White, Randy Revell, and Charlene Afremow. By October 1987, Hanley owned 92.7 percent of the company. Prior to Lifespring, Hanley had worked for the multi-level marketing organization Holiday Magic. Holiday Magic was founded by William Penn Patrick, co-owner and board member for Mind Dynamics. Holiday Magic later folded amidst investigations by authorities and accusations of being a pyramid scheme.
The Director for Corporate Affairs of Lifespring, Charles "Raz" Ingrasci, had also worked at est to promote a mission to the USSR and the Hunger Project. Ingrasci later became President of the Hoffman Institute, an organization founded in 1967 that is also part of the human potential movement and offers programs similar to those of Lifespring.
Course overview
The Lifespring training generally involved a three-level program starting with a "basic" training, an "advanced" breakthrough course, and a three-month "leadership program" which taught the students how to implement what they learned from the training into their lives. "There is no hope" is a fundamental tenet in the course. The fundamental purpose of the leadership program was enrollment; the participants in the Leadership Program were essentially an unpaid salesforce with the sole mission of enrollment by any means. The trainers used high pressure and humiliation to force participants to achieve enrollment goals. This included yelling at the group as a whole at meetings, and singling individuals out and humiliating them in front of the whole group. Participants were told the city and the world were at stake and the only solution was enrolling as many people into the trainings as possible. Less than two percent found them to be "of no value".
The basic training was composed of successive sessions on Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday day and night, Sunday day and night, a Tuesday night post-training session ten days after graduation, and a post-training interview. Evening sessions began at 6:30 pm and lasted until 11:30 or 12 or later. Saturday sessions started at 10 am and sometimes lasted until midnight. Sunday sessions started at 9 am and lasted until approximately 6 pm. The trainings were usually held in the convention facilities of large, easily accessible, moderate priced hotels (i.e., mid-town New York). A basic training was usually composed of 150–200 participants, while an advanced training was composed of 75-100 participants. Approximately 50 percent of advanced training graduates participated in the leadership program. Training also included alumni volunteers who served as small group leaders, several official staff, an assistant trainer, and a head trainer.
Lawsuits
In one case, an asthmatic was allegedly told that her asthma exacerbation was psychological and later died from the exacerbation. The lawsuit was settled for $450,000, and Lifespring admitted no wrongdoing. In another case, a man who could not swim was made to jump into a river and drowned. This case was also settled out of court.