Testimonial on an Experience
with the Kairos Foundation

Posted 01-21-02

I have recently attended the Kairos Foundation - Life Training Weekend. This training claims to provide life changing experiences for attendees.
Firstly the 35 hours were from 6pm-12midnight on a Friday and 9am - 12 midnight on both Saturday and Sunday.

The first 'Induction' session took place on the Friday night. Here we were asked to sign a 'discipline' sheet. This requested a commitment on what drink and food we consumed during the course, the taking of unprescribed medicines was not allowed and certain behaviours and speech during the training was requested. When questioned about the relevance of these requests the course leaders asked those opposed to stand with a microphone to verbalise their concerns. If they were unable to 'persuade' the individual to sign they stated that they would have to leave the training without refund (as a refund was only available after attending the full programme). So the choice was taken away from people and if there were to be a chance of requesting a refund they HAD to sign the disciplines.

At the beginning of each session people were asked to stand and admit to breaches of the disciplines, if even further resistance was given these people were asked personal questions about their feelings and past experiences. On some occasions a person was standing for 45 minutes answering questions before being "asked to re-commit" to the disciplines. At no point did the trainers explain the purpose and objectives intended in the signing and compliance with these 'rules'.

At the end of each session a man stood in front of the group and spoke slowly and clearly giving exact instructions on lunch and dinner break procedures. He gave the exact time of the end of the session and the exact time for being seated. Of course if you breached one of these you were asked to admit to this at the beginning of each session again and so it went on.

On each of the days we were allowed one and a half hours for dinner and one and a quarter hours for lunch. No other breaks were given.

If we wanted to leave the room we had to show our name badges and a person at the door wrote down the time we left and a person was seated by the toilets too. On arrival back we were 'clocked' back in.

At every opportunity the trainers encouraged people to 'pop' out their feelings. If you put your hand up to speak (which of course was a discipline) you were immediately given a microphone. An innocent remark or comment was often followed by a question promoting the person to 'open' up about their past experiences. If on the rare occasion someone raised their other arm to request not to speak further, that person received a comment like "you want to refrain from speaking?" with a tone implying that the person was stupid for not progressing. There were comments on a persons body language made in front of the group of 30 participants and 30 'support' people (who had already attended the weekend and were actively involved in the Kairos Foundation work).

The course proceeded with a lot of lengthy silences and staring eye contact from the trainers. People were asked to come to the front of the group and talk about their past life experiences, what they felt and what they were thinking at the time. This could last for anything up to an hour. That person was exposed to a process of rapid regression into an experience often of a highly personal nature. When they were asked to open their eyes the trainers went through a process of putting the word 'true, false and don't know against everything the person had said. This was the tool for the life experience! They gave out an A5 sheet of the steps to take in the 'clearing' process' at the end of the Saturday. These were simply:

One of the support people came up and demonstrated a rapid regression process entitled the 'cost' process. Here he shut his eyes (as with the clearing process) and proceed to cry and describe serious sexual problems with his partner.

At this point I left the room and came back 10 minutes later. At the bottom of the stairs the support person came after me and I told her I was taking 10 minutes 'out' ALONE. I did not stand to admit a breach of disciplines and support staff continued to approach me relating to 'me feelings'. I was very honest in saying that I had not learned anything new and that the environment and conditions were manipulative and inappropriate for training courses. I told a number of the support people that aspects of control fitted into a model of mind control that perhaps they were not aware of.

The last days environment was one of frequent group applause, chanting to the word 'yes' and a monotone note for 15 minutes. A meditating exercise, singing and holding hands and an intense 'eye' contact exercise which required people to look into one anothers eyes for 45 minutes! The support staff proceeded to go around and softly tell people to "really connect' with one another.

All these exercises came with NO objectives or outcomes and to me were not related to the two simple process models which could have been trained in one day at the most.

The final exercise was to look into a mirror and tell yourself what you have been giving yourself a 'hard' time about and then to go on and tell yourself how you like and appreciate yourself. A support person was standing by your side promoting you to describe your feelings and the details of your experiences.

The last 4 hours of the course was devoted to explaining the further life training courses, The Way of a Warrior in the USA and further sessions locally. A request was put out for people to become support staff in further training sessions. We were asked to complete forms indicating what further training we wanted to attend or support. We were asked for full contact details.

From my knowledge I am sure that the environment created, the training approaches and conditions were directly connected with the BITE model of mind control techniques. In particular the following aspects:

Behaviour Control

Information Control

Thought Control

Thought stopping techniques (to shut down 'reality testing' by stopping 'negative' thoughts and allowing only 'good' thoughts; rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive critism.

a. Chanting
b. Meditating
c. Singing and humming

No critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy seen as legitimate
No alternative belief system viewed as legitimate, good or useful.

Emotional Control

a. Who you are (not living up to your potential)
b. Your past
c. Your thoughts, feelings, actions on historical events

Extremes of emotional highs and lows
Ritual and often public confessions

In conclusion I have no doubt that this course is used as an introduction and induction into the Kairos Foundation. The controlled environment created by the training methods used is manipulative. It is clear that the main objective is to 'recruit' people for further 'life experiences' of which it is clear that behaviours, thoughts, emotions and information is further enforced.

Any 'appropriate' and legitimate training programme will be clear about experiences and methods of learning. Any legitimate training programme will use methods to promote new experiences but this is done with clear objectives, no control and a real freedom to choose.

Submitted by melicia_daryl@hotmail.com