2006
A current tip student finds both value and problems in the training, and wants to sort out what needs to be changed. This student raises many questions and my responses show how very complicated this task is of sorting abuse from truth. A most admirable task for a trainer to take on; this student is hopeful things will change. I post these here for all sides to review and work with. I encourage everyone to continue to ask questions and do research themselves. – Diane
Ex-member: Your questions were ones I asked myself. I thought I could help sort out the good from the abuse too. I’ll just say that Faye has been told many times, and by many people, of problem areas and ways to change the training. I hope continuing dialog helps.
The value you feel is in your belief. Many other trainings are just as effective, but they do not take years and years by binding you to them forever with promises of further power, until level whatever. Upper levels are no healthier for all their years, nor are they accurately psychic, but they have learned a belief system to rely on. It is a complicated task you take on, and if you wish to try to separate the good from the abuse, there are many clues in “Lessons in Awareness”, as well as many other places. Each one of us must go through this process of inner and outer evaluation ourselves so we can first know what is ok and what is not, what needs to change and what does not. If you become aware of the symptoms of group abuse and thought control, then you’ll be able to see when abuse is happening and speak out when something needs to change.
I highly recommend David Hawkins’ books which give many clues to true power. Also excellent is ”The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle. You will begin to see for yourself, in the class material and in meetings, where the truth is mixed with power over, where help is not accurate, appropriate or helpful but defended training rhetoric, and when fear, guilt or anger are used to control. So far, identification and trying to change these things hasn’t worked, but you never know. I personally, after all these years, will no longer give energy to fixing a system that doesn’t want to be fixed.
I cannot give you many answers but I give my own and others experiences and will support your process of discovery and your efforts toward exposure. I will be interested to hear your own observations and thoughts from a level ‘n’ perspective (which is a less brainwashed place) once you read this material. You may not have had some of the experiences of this information yet, but I can only trust you will be more prepared to evaluate your own experiences by having it. Again, this info is not to be taken as truth for yourself without your own research.
I know you feel value in the training, we all did until we came up against the place where the abuse was protected. This is the tragedy of the whole process, that a structure of healing causes such unnecessary pain and suffering. It is said that those who leave do not want to change, which is blatantly not true. There are now 41 members on the ex-member’s site. I wish you could read the posts on this site as people come out of the fear and secrecy instilled in the training. Stories of false accusations of child abuse, splitting people from their spouses, dangerous medical advice, people who had serious illnesses who were dismissed by Faye as unwilling to heal.
Men and women accused of sexual abuse of their children, secret meetings with family members where Faye turned one against the other. Soldier-gathering against good people, reputations and careers ruined. The list goes on. No referrals ever given for outside help, no counseling was given to repair and rebuild relationships. So you see it is not only the structure in itself, it is the people who are trained into false positions of power, unskilled and unprepared to deal with the issues of mental and physical health they are faced with in a purported ‘healing’ structure.
Level xxx: What was the highest level you taught?
Ex-member: I taught Level 2 in the US and in Germany, and the next step was to begin training to teach Lev 3. I was a teacher trainer for Lev 1, supervisor, outreach teacher, minister, and for several years was in the highest level taught.
LEVEL xxx: I am working with the notion that we must rise above the us/them attitude.
Ex-member: The us/them is deeply embedded in the structure of the training. It is very hard to eradicate when it is felt it is the best way to true ‘power’, when those outside the training are not considered ‘in power’ or to have vibration. Assessment of true vibration is so very off in the training.
LEVEL xxx: You mentioned others with actual skill in these areas who have left (leaving untrained students being led by students). I’d like to get in touch with those you respect.
Ex-member: Yes, psychotherapists, professional counselors, newspaper writers; all people who were healthy enough to say no to abuse. Most I have not had contact with recently, but if they can be contacted I will tell them of your request.
LEVEL xxx: And though I feel for those who were traumatized by the battles, I am less interested to focus on the negative aspects of TIP than to discuss what really does work: to heal, to grow, and to enable others to do so also.
Ex-member: You will have to untangle the good from the abuse in order to focus on effective methods; first of which is to ID the behavior, power rhetoric and lecture material that creates believers and followers vs. healthy, independent self realized beings. For example, upper levels can arbitrarily dismiss people who disagree with them by relying on training rhetoric. They cite rote power language and power rules of behavior, which younger levels are expected to adopt as the rules of the road. Disagreement is mostly considered resistance, a non-willingness on the part of the student to face the truth or to heal; the student is in denial or nave.
With no system of accountability and outside seeking of perspectives discouraged, vulnerable people have submitted to this closed system of leadership for years, in spite of the destruction it has caused in their life. One woman didn’t talk to her daughter for a long period because Faye told her she sexually abused her as a baby and she needed to leave her daughter alone. She then told the daughter that her mother was healing something and not to contact her. Years went by before they told their story to each other; the daughter told her mother she was never sexual with the, but then the daughter (still heavily involved in the training) defended Faye by saying she is just wounded. These actions continue to be excused and even justified. Upper levels have not become emotionally healthy from this kind of treatment, but they have adopted a learned protective and enabling stance regarding their own or Faye’s behavior.
LEVEL xxx: Is there architecture of enlightenment?
Ex-member: Yes, very well traveled paths that transform and rise above being driven by fear, guilt, pride, anger etc. and that practice no harm to others. There are many paths to this end, and many people who exemplify it: Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King are good examples of those who have practiced true humanitarian activism in the world.
LEVEL xxx: Is there an abstract, overall “the way” which is in clean, and in common to all working systems?
.. Where you reduce risks of re-traumatizing yourself and others?
.. Where it’s not about cloning a personal belief system?
Ex-member: There is a way, and the way is in every path that leads a person to their humanitarian heart. It is with any teacher or counselor who leads people to self empowerment.
Healing does not have to be traumatic if true acceptance, compassion and self love are the containers for growth and are actually practiced by the teachers involved. The work I have done with Miguel Ruiz’ apprentices and T. Harv Ecker is clean, non-judgmental and thoroughly effective. That is how I first began to know the difference between Faye’s work and more effective healing work. Her work relies on students learning rules of ‘power’, which misses the heart that is necessary to train people into their own hearts. There is so much talk in the training about self-love, but self-love is not true self love in the training, which is why so many upper levels are still in pain and emotional suffering. It is a sad loss to the community of training in power that so many of the ‘hearts’ who tried to bring this awareness to the training have had to leave in order to maintain their integrity and heart path.
LEVEL xxx: I have often questioned if any of this is real.
Ex-member: If you were questioning if it was real, then look at that as a severe warning that you were not being trained to connect with yourself and your own development. Ask yourself what is real for you. Are you becoming more solid or are you feeling increasingly off balance? Is it truly yourself you are connecting to or the relief in finding answers from someone else? Enlightenment brings you to a place where you learn what is real for yourself; it cannot and does not give you a story to learn or reward you for only the behavior that is “in power” in someone else’s arbitrary story.
Faye convinces people she has ‘the way’, but it is her way, from her mind, which is why there is so much trauma. The pathology built into the training is her pathology, projected out upon the world. This needs to be addressed before the training can take people to their own power. This projection keeps her, thus students, battling ‘out there’, and in denial and unhealed in their own lives. This is why healthier people begin to feel that they are not being encouraged into their own knowing, but into the training’s rules.
LEVEL xxx: I feel unbalanced, like my perspective keeps flipping upside down, questioning, “which way is up?” What truly are the laws of power?
Ex-member: This feeling is because you are being nudged out of your reality, and it leaves you unsure, uncertain as to what is real. (In Castaneda’s work, it is called the nagual’s blow). This can be useful. You will be led further out of your reality in this way, but instead of re-creating the reality you choose, (self realization) and rising above negative emotions, you will be led further into Faye’s story, which consists of emotional drama and battles of evil. This story will fill your mind and your time, and do nothing to solidify or deepen you into your own truth, creativity or life, which is self realization, or true power. The training could be effective in getting people out of their negative realities, but it must then trust them and enable them to create their own.
Faye’s laws of power? If you want to know Faye’s laws, you will have to figure them out for yourself. She mystically alludes to a myriad of laws of power and power bands, but the whole story is never revealed, at least at level 12 after 12 years. True laws of power? There are many models of true power, which is self realization. There are no laws necessary for a heartfelt life. An exuberant child has true power. An old man plowing his field has true power. To learn, love and contribute to uplifting humanity is powerful. To give a child self esteem to make their own choices is to give them power.
Mysticism can be useful but not if it just keeps people confused and trying to learn to follow rules. Being told you must go to the next level (forever) for your power keeps you off balance, unsure, and keeps you yearning and learning her story of power. This is the insidious conditioning that ex-members have taken years to recover from; getting their own story back. Those who need Faye’s dramatic but reassuring story are innocent people who have no idea that their personalities have been slowly replaced. I have watched ex-trainers make amazing progress when they leave the training; they re-connect to family and the outside world, make more money and are very thankful they are free. They are sad and sometimes angry that so much of their time and energy was stolen from creating their own lives by the negative focus on pathology, by the battles, the endless volunteer time, and the focus that they forever need to dig at themselves for healing something. This constant focus manifests sickness and more pathology; what you focus on manifests.
LEVEL xxx: Because I could feel something…was I delusional?
Ex-member: The power of our belief is incredible. You feel something because you are told you will and are emotionally conditioned in classes and meetings to come to rely on this, as well as the tools and the story for your power. This emotional manipulation is real and feels powerful; most feel very relieved when a strong authoritarian energy wraps them up and gives them the ‘truth’. People want the security of finally knowing the answers, and it is this security that Faye relies on to keep people hooked on her system. When in upper levels you finally realize that independent thought is not welcome, that you are only accepted and valued for your agreement with the training’s robotic system of beliefs of ‘power’ (upheld by those remaining in ‘leadership’), it is a hard wake up call.
LEVEL xxx: when is stalking/exposing a petty tyrant correct? And when is it better to take a cooperative stance and reserve admonitions to private discourse?
Ex-member: The power animal is meant to give you courage, but (in the training) it is a only a self courage that leaves out the other person! Learning to stalk does nothing to understand how to build bridges or develop communication skills needed to fix incorrect energy at work or in relationships, which our world highly needs.
Stalking incorporates the self righteousness and us/them power rules of the training which manipulates others instead of honestly working with them. Nothing works better than honesty and communication, even if you must walk away knowing the other party is not willing to change or co-create with you. Without communication how can problems be solved? This is the gist of the problem in the training. My way or the highway. A hidden agenda.
LEVEL xxx: There is some discussion on the (Lessons) site on TIP being based on broken physics. Where does it go off the rails?
Ex-member: An incredible book about physics is “Consilience, The Unity of Knowledge.” On the cover it is said “A dazzling journey across the sciences and humanities in search of deep laws to unite them.”
I’ve heard so many stories from those familiar with true physics who cringe with the way Faye uses this concept. If she knew physics in any way other than to justify her own beliefs, she would see that forcing people to learn her system will not produce self realized independent beings. Look at the physics of force for just one example: if you force an object, force needs to be constantly applied or the object will go back to its natural state. If you surround the object with opportunity of transformation (a free will nurturing environment), it will do the work itself and change its properties.
How this concept of force plays out in one area of the training: Faye lamented more than once about how dependent people were. The result of this was that either she or her upper levels thrashed them further to get them to take responsibility! I told her (and Jan) that they will remain childlike as long as they are treated like children with authoritarian control; wrist slapped, humiliated and shamed into taking responsibility. I said that a hierarchy of authoritarian control is very different that a structure of learning that has a correct sequencing of information.
Good parenting follows the same principle: give a child guided responsibility in decisions that affect them and you will teach independence; teach them to follow your rules and you will have a dependent rule follower.
So, long story short, Faye must constantly apply force (manipulation) within her system to keep people within the guardrails of her system. By assuming students must be forced and manipulated for their own good, you steal from them their responsibility to create their own healing. This creates dependency in emotionally vulnerable people. If people are forced, like children, to adopt without question the teacher’s beliefs, they will only be free when they confront this control: if the teacher will not participate in finding solutions, in co-creating what is best for both, healthy people will walk away.
This is why so many of us, who had devoted years to the training, had to leave, with added trauma of the door slamming painfully shut behind us.
LEVEL xxx: Is there enough value in levels 1 to 3 to want to keep them?
Ex-member: Again, truth is woven into power over. There is no way to sort it out other than to go through each lecture and take out the power over.
LEVEL xxx: Does my intuition deceive me?
Ex-member: Convincing you of the value of this work while hooking you into it forever is a very brilliant system for a controller (or a vampire) to create. I think what you are feeling is the part that is truth, which Faye has woven into her system. It covers up severe control however: she says that people can “fall” from any level, meaning if you leave you are falling. This is blatant bunk, for anything you have learned of value will stay with you forever. One must ask then, what could be her purpose in threatening a ‘fall’ if you leave? I can only say that this is just one of the ways force is used: the instillation of fear of falling, losing your soul, of not getting the ‘truth’, of being left out of this exclusive knowledge.
LEVEL xxx: Is it possible to focus oneself just on the truth?
Ex-member: If you mean can you remain intact and grow within the training in spite of the abuse dynamics, I would say it’s very hard in upper levels to remain doing your own thing within this system unless changes occur to foster independent thought. Upper levels are expected to conform to the language and group think; i.e. if you have a cold and someone asks, heh, clearing huh? And you say no, I just have a cold, will you be in denial forever, in resistance? If the only way to teach this work is to use accepted power over tactics, can you submit? If you see no need for battle, will you pretend you do rather than be called naive? If you disagree with a senior minister will you submit rather than risk being prevented from teaching? Will you accept being told you will lose vibration if you do not attend Level 6 because you wish to attend your friends wedding? If you do not buy in and uphold this protected rhetoric, you will not be considered ‘in power’. This is robotic thought control that over-shadows the heart.
LEVEL xxx: In cleaning this up, would Level (n) be the crossover point where people must bring their own work forward for critical review?
Ex-member: I want to distinquish something. There is precision skill learning in many arenas of life. Learning a skill and being asked to give up your individuality in order to conform to an abusive system is something entirely different. In specific skill building, sometimes your own work will not apply. If you are referring to bringing forth suggestions for changing any part of the abuse in Training in Power, this is not allowed because the abuse is built into the structure, which would interfere with the rote story that has been created in upper levels. No messing with the story is allowed, no personal deviation from the material or the ‘construct’ is welcome. Power is defined by Faye and only Faye and is black and white (as she says); you learn her system or you aren’t in power. She says openly that she will not allow any license with her material or training, it is too dangerous. This is a fear based threat, another example of force. Cloning is precise
LEVEL xxx: What parts worked for you?
Ex-member: I learned some things in psychological areas and have found the information in some of the focuses useful. I do not use the 20 shields I was given or the healings or many of the more mystical focuses that applied more to the training than to life.
I found that most of the training material just fragments and clutters the mind and serves no purpose toward life outside the training. The more than 15 healings I learned are useless outside of the training unless I want to take a superior role and take the responsibility for healing out of someone’s hands. I understand the reasoning for ‘training’ people to be healers, but this system just doesn’t work in the way it could because of the power over dynamics.
There are many other ways to develop intuition without having to learn one person’s system. Students are told in Level l they are developing a way to know their own information, yet they are trained into a tightly controlled system of rules and ‘right’ ways to be psychic. This is a glaring contradiction.
If people are being trained into their own knowing, there is another problem with such a closed system of healing: educating oneself for years in this system has left people with no concrete skills to use outside of the training. Training language and rhetoric make no sense to people outside the training; the training serves only the training, only if one stays and teaches is it useful. This serves the founder though: teachers are expected to tithe to the founder for as long as they teach the training, forever. Thus a whole new problem arises, the pyramid structure that benefits only the founder.
LEVEL xxx: I’ve read through the stuff on consciousness calibration. Is it worth looking into that in more depth? Is there value in re-calibrating the courses?
Ex-member: Have someone independently muscle test these questions with you! We calibrated several times, double blind with several people, with the same result. Watch for problems with the testing methods, which can be corrected by determining good base values and double blind testing,
LEVEL xxx: At the time of your leaving, was there anyone but Faye who could train teachers?
Ex-member: (…..) was training level 2 teachers, I and a few others were training level l teachers. Many quit teaching however because it just didn’t feel right anymore. Most of us even changed the lecture material to take out the power over stuff (we could do that in the old days because no one monitored our classes like they do now!) Most people who left have heartbreaking stories, including myself, about how Jan manipulated and undermined their success in the training. Some even began to tape conversations with her to prevent her denial and lies from hurting them later. At the time they had no recourse, because Jan was the only teacher trainer.
There are also many stories of how (……)also ruled with an iron hand, in a different way that is as much mixed with control and defensiveness as the training itself. I have nothing but love for these peers who were my level mates, but I do not like their behavior. What all this boils down to is the group revolving around (the founder)’s inner circle who support power over dynamics because they have not been able to get to ego issues of their own, and because they model their behavior after (the founder) and what they think she means by power.
(the founder) is very skillful in how she prevents disagreement, rewards those who avoid issues, and carefully cultivates enablers. She is a strong one, and sadly for her, this keeps the pathology in place with no system of accountability, no recourse to solve problems. (the founder) has set this up by her example. No matter how many committees think that progress is being made, this lack of accountability by leadership is so protected and positioned in such a misguided, rote use of ‘power’ that it has not come close to being dealt with.
LEVEL xxx: What changes would enable a rescue mission for all?
Ex-member: Good question, I don’t think the training wants to be rescued though. Those of us who tried to make changes, after years of loving involvement, were dismissed and are now enemies of the state! Can this change?
I would rather ask, what needs to happen in order for all parties to heal, members and ex-members? Is reconciliation possible? Well, leadership in the training would have to initiate a process by which open dialog could happen and all parties allowed full examination of all areas of concern.
I hope some day that (the founder) specifically will be able to acknowledge the oneness of us all and see ex-members not as attackers but as heartfelt truth Sayers who cared enough to speak up for healthy co-creation. I hope (the founder) will come to see that open free discourse is the life blood, the creative growth and health of any group. I hope (the founder) will someday be able to receive and co-create life with others which is the true purpose of life on this planet. I hope she can begin to know that co-creation is the path to true intimacy, instead of isolating herself as an egoic savior, which is the ultimate illusion of protection from the abuser. Until (the founder) is able to see this, she will continue to project the battle onto ‘them’, continue to be the only one who has true power, continue to clone herself to uphold obscure laws for the sake of humanity. For Us. But it’s not her job. It’s ours.
LEVEL xxx: So many questions. I’m sure to have lots more.