From: A.R.S

From: JimDBB (jimdbb@aol.com)

Subject: Wellspring Helping ex-cult members shed guilt and embrace freedom
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
View: Complete Thread (2 articles) | Original FormatDate: 2001-12-29 09:43:16 PST

Helping ex-cult members shed guilt and embrace freedom

Cleveland Plain Dealer, 12/23/01
Michael Sangiacomo
Plain Dealer Reporter

Albany, Ohio
- Unlike most businessmen, Ron Burks does not want to see his customers again.

To him, success means someone who "leaves here, goes on with his life and forgets all about us and the reason he came here."

Burks is a counselor at Wellspring Retreat & Resource Center, the country's only halfway house for ex-cult members.

It's a place where people go to lick their psychological and spiritual wounds, and try to figure out what drove them into a cult in the first place.

Despite Burks' wishes, the clients do remember.

They call, write and make donations.
A few even return as teachers and therapists.

Since the center opened in 1986, more than 600 people have taken the cure, which averages two weeks.

Wellspring officials said fewer than 1 percent of those people rejoined a cult, another way to measure success.
The groups in question would argue that they are not cults but instead new religions that face unjustified criticism.

That's why one of the first things Wellspring counselors teach clients is how to recognize a cult and the mind-controlling techniques used to lure new members and keep them.

The first attribute of a cult is that it isolates its members from family and friends, limiting or even forbidding contact with people in the outsideworld.Thecult members follow a charismatic leader who claims to have a direct pipeline to God or some other universal force. His word is not to be challenged.

Other examples of mind control within cults include a distrust of the outside world.

The cult leaders encourage members to confess their more heinous sins or shortcomings, which can be used for leverage at a later time.

Also, cult members use jargon or manufactured language to confound nonmembers and increase the sense of dependency on other members of the group as part of the mind-control efforts, Burks said.

Another indication that a group is a cult is if the members must surrender large sums of money, labor for free or very little compensation and have their social, educational or sexual activities controlled.

Vital tool

The director of the Leo J. Ryan Education Foundation, a national group which studies cults, said that Wellspring is an important and unique tool for helping cult members return to a normal life.

"A woman called me not too long ago and was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from a Florida cult she left three years ago. She could not get it out of her head," said Priscilla Coates, director of the Ryan organization. "I got her in touch with Wellspring and she went there. She recently called and said that she can cope after spending two weeks at Wellspring."

In order to get help, people must first leave a cult of their own accord. The Wellspring staff is not in the business of liberating people from cults. They wait on the other side once a person has a moment of epiph any, what they call the aha! mo ment.

Wellspring founder Paul Martin and his wife wanted their center to be a place former cult mem bers could relax and work through their cult experiences. The clients also get help from staffers who understand cults, often through firsthand experience.

The Martins left "The Blitz," the nickname for the a Bible-based Christian group called The Great Commission, after joining it while students at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, Mo. in the 1970s. When they left, the couple found they had no place to go for help or consolation.

They worked their way through the trauma and, years later, opened Wellspring in southeastern Ohio, in the rolling hills of Meigs County. The mission of the Martins was to give cult victims the support they never had.

Real people

There were three guests at the Wellspring chalet on a brisk day last month. One young woman was a former member of the trendy Kabbalah Centre group, which combines new age thought with ancient Hebrew mysticism and includes high profile members like Madonna.

Another guest was a young woman who didn't speak much. She was fresh from a group called The Twelve Tribes, which preaches, among other things, that journalists and lawyers are filthy and unjust and not to be trusted.

The third client was a man who recently left an undisclosed cult that employed mind control. He also was suspicious of journalists.
For the next two weeks, and even longer for the former Twelve Tribes sect member, the three learned about mind-control techniques and how their lives and freedoms were co-opted in the name of religion. They spent two hours a day in private therapy and met as a group in workshops and other therapy sessions. Most importantly, they learned that they had something that was in short supply in the cults - freedom.

During one workshop session, during which teachers were demonstrating subtle coercion, one client walked out saying, "I'm sorry, I just can't listen to this." The teacher said such a reaction was common. The student later said the lesson brought up too many bad memories.

"Control is a very important part of people's lives," said Liz Shaw, the "cult survivor advocate" at Wellspring. "We want the people who come here to know that they are in control. They can do whatever they want, leave whenever they want. We encourage them to go into town and see a movie, go shopping, walk through the woods."

Shaw said that some new clients are nervous when they first arrive. Some are so accustomed to having others run their lives that freedom is a little scary.

"They are fragile, fearful, the walking wounded," Shaw said. "We have to reassure them that we're only here to help."

Burks said people who come to them are emotionally, physically and psychologically shattered.

"We treat people recovering from trauma inflicted by someone else's selfishness," Burks said. "Yet they often blame themselves, since no one physically forced them to join a cult. These are the kinds of hurt that time alone will not heal."
He said it's hard for them to accept that they were duped. They had lived a very structured life, comforted by the belief that God himself was the architect.

When they realize it was all a sham, they are devastated.

"We pick up the pieces," he said.

"They've made the big choice to leave. We help them move on."

Feeling triumphant

Shaw told her favorite success story of a woman who left an ultraconservative religious cult that demanded its female members wear head coverings and long dresses at all times.

"By the time she left here, she was wearing makeup and a red miniskirt and feeling good about herself," Shaw said.

Sometimes it all hits close to home. Shaw knows what its like to crawl out of a well of fear and confusion.
The office where she talks to incoming clients was once her bedroom, back when she came to Wellspring looking for help.

She was a straight-A college student, an accomplished folk musician who had a television show on PBS called "The Great American Music Company." She said she "gave her life and career" to a cult group.

Wellspring's services are not free; a basic two-week course costs $5,000.
Wellspring employs a woman to work full time to help prospective clients pay for the course.

As expected, Wellspring is not popular with cults.

"They say that we hide in the mountains and that the people are held in a windowless building," said staffer Shane Mercer, waving his arms at the wall of windows in the large, comfortably furnished lodge.

And if you think that people who join cults are all gullible, weak-willed, dull-witted people looking for a father figure, the staff says you are wrong. Anyone can be conned into joining a cult. The 1997 U.S. Census reported more than 10 million people belong to about 3,000 destructive cults in the United States.

"We've had doctors, lawyers, sharp businessmen, people from all walks of life," said Shaw. "People don't realize how insidious cults can be."
One thing for sure, they don't recruit poor people.

"They recruit people with money," Shaw said. "You can't get anything from a homeless person."

For further information on Wellspring call 1-740-698-6277; or send e-mail to paul@wellspringretreat.org.

Contact Michael Sangiacomo at:
msangiacomo@plaind.com, 216-999-4890
http://www.cleveland.com/living/plaindealer/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_

Very good article...Thank you for posting it.

I was in Chicago, fighting the Elrons and this was in my hometown paper...just my luck! LOL

I can't wait to see the Co$ go after this place.

You can almost hear the lawyers now..

ABOUT WELLSPRING

from: http://www.wellspringretreat.org

What are we?

Wellspring Retreat & Resource Center is a residential treatment facility that provides a program of counseling and instruction to victims of cultic abuse, religious abuse and/or mind control. We are a nonprofit corporation and the nation's only residential treatment center for cult victims. We also provide consultation to families who have loved ones in cults. Wellspring is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Where are we?

Our facility is located approximately 80 miles southeast of Columbus, Ohio, near the rural Appalachian town of Albany. We're 12 miles from Athens, Ohio, the home of Ohio University. You can learn more about the area in which we're located by visiting the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce.

Our background...

1986 - Dr. Paul R. Martin and wife Barbara begin Wellspring after having been involved in an abusive organization for eight years. Paul's brother Stephen assists with opening and leads workshops. The center begins as an informal adjunct to Paul Martin's private general practice in Athens, Ohio.

1988 - Larry Pile joins staff.

1992 - Dr. Martin receives John C. Clark Distinguished Research Award. Lodge is built to house clients. Part of Wellspring staff travels to Sweden to conduct a three- week on-site rehab program.

1993 - Wellspring featured on 48 Hours. Ron Burks joins staff.

1994 - Part of staff travels to Sweden to conduct a second program.

1996 - Wellspring featured on NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.

1998 - Wellspring staff members Paul Martin, Steve Martin, Larry Pile and Ron Burks write "Overcoming the Bondage of Revictimization." The piece was published in Cultic Studies Journal. 400th client treated.

2000 - Wellspring enters the year with extensive media coverage and additional programs and services in place.

What we do...

Wellspring provides residential psychological services to victims of cults and cult-like abuse, researches and archives information on the various groups in the cult world, researches the cult phenomenon in a clinical setting in conjunction with Ohio University, attends and speaks at national conferences, and conducts phone and on-site consultations for families and friends of cult victims.
Tour Navigation Arrow

How can anyone who has been bled dry financially by the cult they are fleeing, ever afford the $5,000 required by Wellspring? Isn't there any free help anywhere? Or a charity willing to help?

Wellspring could set up a farm or workshop of some kind, in which clients could help raise food or make something for sale, which would help finance and also help with healing.

Well, maybe the next thing on the horizon and I am optimistic that it may happen, since one thing usually leads to another, is a foundation for financially bereft cult victims. They have foundations for everything else under the sun, why not this?

They could apply for a grant, but it would really be a paradox, wouldn't it, asking the feds for relief money for victims of an organization it grants an exemption to gobble up millions in tax-exempt dollars.

Nothing's impossible. The feds give grants to study the armpits of frogs, so why not?

I agree that someone leaving the clutches of such a cult, i.e., a money sucking cult of any kind, probably does not have the funds to pay for the service.

If I had any money when I left, I would have sought out such a place and even did some checking. I could not find anything I could afford and was left to figure things out on my own. It was a very rough time in my life with a heavy burden on my husband and child. I lived in fear for a long time and still have residual fear of being discovered here or running into someone from scieno at, say, the grocery store.

Maybe if someone here has a contact over at Wellspring, they could suggest the book I mentioned. Maybe if they read it, they would try to move the program more towards a pay as you recover type service. I don't expect the services to be free but I know I am not alone in that I have no family that could have helped and coughed up the 5K needed to enter the program.

I hope this program succeeds, not just for those recovering from scieno but from all of the cults that fit the definition. People are being harmed but many of us are surviving, sometimes all on our own.

Blondie

Hi,

I would think Wellspring has some kind of payment or help to pay plan in place. You could ask Liz Shaw at
liz@wellspringretreat.org about the financial arrangements. I think Songbird may be the person who wrote the letter to the newspaper. If so she has been there and perhaps could provide some information about the cost, etc.

The Old Cult Awareness Network provided scholarships for needy ex cult members to come to the Conferences so they could learn more about cults and talk with suriviors of cults in a group called FOCUS.

CAN was a nonprofit. So is Wellspring. The people who are involved with them are not rich and have to make a living too.

Members of CAN were always digging into their own pockets to buy cult informaton materials. Some like Priscilla Coates offered places for ex members to stay for awhile.

Somehow people seem to expect the people who are engaged in such work to give, give, give. Many people, when they get on their feet, who have been helped by these organizations, leave without giving anything back. Sort of like those college kids who get college loans and think it is not necessary for THEM to repay the loan.

That's why non profits need donatons. They can't do it all by themselves.
Wellspring must charge a fee or it couldn't survive.

The same goes for the Lisa McPherson case. Everybody is horrified about how this young lady died and wants to see the COS held accountable, but few to none are willing to open their wallets or their hearts to fund this case or encourage Mr. Dandar or Lisa's aunt. Oh no, a private attorney in his first encounter with COS is supposed to shut down the rest of his practice to other clients to handle the tons of paperwork, delays, lawsuits, etc. piled on by the COS and increased by the LMT to do it, endure COS 'FAIR GAME' without any help or encouragement from anyone.

Tigger

Tigger. I agree that Wellspring and other helpers of cult victims should be able to make a living. My concern is that the numbers in need of Wellspring therapy are far greater than those this group can treat and many cannot afford rent and food. Some end up in mental institutions due to the despair. I wonder why all governments haven't tackled this problem and used our taxes to do so. If for no other reason, a couple of restful weeks spent with those who understand cult victimisation would be cheaper than accommodating the victims in expensive hospitals for months or more.
Tigger, I can understand your frustration at the lack of financial response to the important causes you mention, but all leaders and governments also have a duty to use taxpayers' money wisely and they are clearly not doing so. There was no lifeline for Blondie and no help for Lisa and there should have been. It isn't enough for victims to have to rely on a handful of people trying to keep out a tidal wave.

Sparrow,

I agree with you too. Tiggers don't eat sparrows.

What you say is necessary is correct
and I think such a facility is just over the rainbow. Meadow Haven in Massachusetts, about which Tom Padgett posted.

According to the information I have, it is supposed to have its grand opening in Feb. and it will (I think) be a six month education/re-education into the real world which not only includes understanding and recovery from the cult experience, but also skills which are necessary in the real world such as job and survivial (checking accounts, etc.) skills.

Tigger,
No, I didn't attend the residential program at Wellspring, although I've heard from those who have that it is excellent. My husband and I did receive a lot of help from Wellspring staff when we were exiting Scientology -- time on the phone, printed materials, etc. Neither of us felt that we needed the residential program.

The following re-post of my Jan. 4 message to Blondie on another thread of this MB may provide further information about the Victims Assistance Fund at Wellspring. I agree so strongly with others who are posting on this subject that safe havens must be created for those who are exiting Scientology (and other cults) so that they have a chance to rest and decompress. Anyhoo... here is my post to Blondie.

Blondie,
You describe exactly what's needed for people coming out of cults such as Scientology -- especially for staff, who usually have no money and greatly need kindness, healing and restoration. The closest thing I know at the moment is the program at Wellspring -- they do offer help to people who lack the funds, with the understanding that those people will later pay for their stay at Wellspring once they are on their feet financially. But some are unable to follow through with payment or can do so only partially. This is why the Victims Assistance Fund was created -- money donated to it is earmarked specifically to pay the bills of people who need the residential program but cannot pay for it.

What a joy it is for me to know that the contribution which I sent at the end of 2001 will make it possible for Wellspring to say to a former client who is struggling to settle his/her bill: "Your account has been paid in full." Yessiree ... that floats my boat!

I'd like to keep discussion of this subject alive -- not just the support of Wellspring but also the possible creation of havens such as you envision for ex-Scientologists.

Odd that there are all kinds of halfway houses for convicted felons to go to, supported by taxpayer funds, but not for victims of cult felons.