Editing Large-group awareness training (section)

==LGAT techniques==
Specific techniques used in some Large Group Awareness Trainings may include:

* [[meditation]]<ref name="techniques">[http://caic.org.au/psyther/lgat/singer.htm "Intruding into the Workplace"], [[Margaret Singer]], excerpted from
{{Cite book
 | last = Singer
 | first = Margaret
 | author-link = Margaret Singer
 | author2 = Janja Lalich
 | title = Cults in our Midst
 | url = https://archive.org/details/cultsinourmidst00sing
 | access-date = November 19, 2007
 | year = 1995
 | publisher = Jossey-Bass Publishers
 | location = San Francisco
 | isbn = 0-7879-0051-6
 | quote = Aside from complaining that they were being put through programs tantamount to a forced religious conversion, employees also objected to specific techniques being used: meditation, neurolinguistic programming, biofeedback, self-hypnosis, bizarre relaxation techniques, mind control, body touching, yoga, trance inductions, visualization, and in some cases, intense confrontational sessions akin to the "attack" therapy methods that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.
 }}</ref>
* [[biofeedback]]<ref name="techniques" />
* [[jargon]]<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Hughes
 | first1 = Steven James
 | title = Developmental Effects of Participation in a Large Group Awareness Training
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=oVuqn4AwiGEC
 | publisher = University of Minnesota
 | date = 1998
 | page = 53
 | access-date = 18 Apr 2019
 | quote = Many LGAT principles are codified in catch phrases .... Many such phrases form the unique vocabulary that emerges as the training progresses. Use of LGAT 'jargon' (e.g., 'I got it,' 'that works for me,' 'get off automatic,' and 'shift!') may signal acceptance of LGAT norms ....
}}
</ref>
* [[self-hypnosis]]<ref name="techniques" />
* [[relaxation technique]]s<ref name="techniques" />
* [[Creative visualization|visualization]]<ref name="techniques" />
* [[neuro-linguistic programming]]<ref>{{Cite book
  | last = Partridge
  | first = C.
  | title = New Religions: A Guide; New Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities
  | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]
  | year=2004
  | pages = 407
  | url = http://skepdic.com/lgsap.html
  | isbn = 0-19-522042-0 }}</ref>
* [[yoga]]<ref name="techniques" />

LGATs utilize such techniques during long sessions, sometimes called "[[marathon]]" sessions. Paglia describes "EST's Large Group Awareness Training": "Marathon, eight-hour sessions, in which [participants] were confined and harassed, supposedly led to the breakdown of conventional ego, after which they were in effect [[born again]]."<ref>
{{Cite journal
 |last= Paglia |first= Camille
 |title= Cults and Cosmic Consciousness: Religious Vision in the American 1960s
 |journal= Arion |volume=10 |issue =3 |page= 106
 |publisher= [[Boston University]] |date= Winter 2003
 |url= http://www.bu.edu/arion/paglia_cults.pdf
 |access-date= August 5, 2009
 |url-status= dead
 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090724113754/http://www.bu.edu/arion/paglia_cults.pdf
 |archive-date= July 24, 2009
}}
</ref>

Finkelstein's 1982 article provides a detailed description of the structure and techniques of an Erhard Seminars Training event—techniques similar to those used in some [[group therapy]] and encounter groups.<ref name="finkelstein" />  The academic textbook, ''Handbook of Group Psychotherapy'' regards Large Group Awareness Training organisations as "less open to leader differences",{{clarify|date=November 2021|reason=less open than what or who?}} because they follow a "detailed written plan" that does not vary from one training to the next.<ref name="handbook" />

In his book [[Life 102 (book)|''Life 102'']], LGAT participant and former trainer [[Peter McWilliams]] describes the basic technique of marathon trainings as ''pressure/release'' and asserts that [[advertising]] uses pressure/release "all the time", as do "[[good cop/bad cop]]" police-interrogations and [[revival meeting]]s. By spending approximately half the time making a person feel bad and then suddenly reversing the feeling through effusive praise, the programs cause participants to experience a stress-reaction and an "[[endorphin]] high". McWilliams gives examples of various LGAT activities called ''processes'' with names such as "love bomb", "lifeboat", "cocktail party" and "cradling", which take place over many hours and days, physically exhausting the participants to make them more susceptible to the trainer's message, whether in the participants' best interests or not.<ref name="life102">{{Cite book|title=Life 102: What To Do When Your Guru Sues You|last=McWilliams|first=Peter|author-link=Peter McWilliams|year=1994|isbn=0-931580-34-X|publisher=Mary Book / Prelude Press |place=Los Angeles |pages=6–7}}</ref>

Although extremely critical of some LGATs, McWilliams found positive value in others{{which|date=April 2019}}, asserting that they varied not in technique but in the application of technique.<ref name="life102" />