ACCD AND LIFESPRING
Although ACCD officially distances itself from Hanley and Lifespring, it seems that ACCD's training is nearly identical to Lifespring's; Dan Tocchini, the founder of ACCD, and other ACCD trainers continue to work with John Hanley through their Negotiation Lab company.
Large Group Awareness Trainings (LGATs)were invented in the '60s by Werner Erhardt and John Hanley. These trainings were based on a mishmash of scientology, psychology, vedic hinduism, and Zen Buddhism. After developing the basics together, they each went their separate and lucrative ways to form EST/Landmark Forum(Erhardt) and Lifespring(Hanley).
Lifespring disbanded in the early 90s under the scrutiny of multiple law-suits and investigations. However, the training lives on through dozens of training companies around the world. One of these is the 'Association of Christian Character Development', aka 'Mashiyach Ministries', aka 'Momentus'. Dan Tocchini, the founder of ACCD was a Lifespring Trainer for several years and adopted this training for use in Christian circles.
LAWSUITS
Lifespring has been sued and lost several times. Miller v. LifeSpring, Shamloo v. Lifespring, Ruehle v. Lifespring.
According to one website: "There have been at least 30 lawsuits against Lifespring, alleging everything from emotional damage to death. According to Gerald F. Ragland Jr., an attorney In Alexandria, Virginia, in 1984 a Philadelphia jury awarded $800,000 to a client of his whom was hospitalized with mental problems after her Lifespring training. In 1992 a jury in Washington, D.C., awarded $300,000 to a young lawyer who was hospitalized for a mental breakdown five days after training. Yet according to Pittsburgh lawyer Peter N. Georgiades, its more common for cases against Lifespring to be settled out of court In 1982 the family of a man who leaped from a four-story holding following a five-day Lifespring training session settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. And in 1993 Georgiades won a $750,000 settlement for a Lifespring trainee who was institutionalized for two years following Leadership training."
OTHER LIFESPRING SPIN-OFFS
These companies below are also spin-offs of Lifespring - either started by former Lifespring trainers or using the Lifespring curriculum:
Resource Realizations; premier educational systems; OMEGA, Phoenix;Avatar- Russia; Lichfield/Facer/Atkin Enterprises; World Wide Association of Specialty Programs; Kairos Foundation; Global Relationships, NH; Life Design Education- MN; Worldworks -LifespringDC spinoff. ArgentinaWorks; ChileWorks; MexWorks; millenium education - Dallas; http://www.millennium3education.com Choice Center; Visionworks Intl; LeaderTrain; Phoenix 2000; Insight Seminars; Impact Trainings - Vistar/Serendipity - Wings Seminars; Humanus Institute; The Legacy Center; MITT - LA; Insight/MSIA