OSG
The Work
The School
Fourth Way School
The Theatre of All Possibilities
Description of the Group:
This is a very secretive and elusive group. They claim to be
a Fourth Way school with connections to other esoteric schools
in history (especially during the Renaissance) and claim to be
possessing knowledge for personal development through Fourth Way
ideas. However, the group originally founded by Alex Horn and
Sharon Gans in California in the 70s, now operating in New York
and Boston, has no link to any legitimate Fourth Way school, branching
from Gurdjieff or Ouspensky. The Boston group is lead by Robert
Klein. Sharon Gans leads the New York group and has the ultimate
control over all the groups and activities.
There is a monthly fee (called “tuition”) that is
adjusted for each member (ranging from $250 to $400 per month
depending on member’s personal income - some members pay
three months in advance), members are required to pay for everything
outside of the tuition (i.e. books, meals, items purchased for
events, etc.) and also there is “acting” class offered
once a month (on Sundays for 6 hours) with a $150 monthly fee
(all members are encouraged to take this class).
OSG’s outer group named “younger class” is
a pro-social group. It is often encouraged that members should
socialize and do things that they feel passionate about within
5-week aims that they state. The amount of time available for
leisure and entertainment decreases as students remain in the
group for longer periods of time as the demands on their time
to complete group recommended /directed activities increases with
time leaving less time available for personally directed choices.
It is required to attend all classes and be on time. It is also
strongly suggested that members take vacations that coincide with
“School” vacation schedule. However, this rule is
not heavily enforced. Several times a year members are asked to
spend a significant amount of time (20-40 hours a week for a period
of 4-6 consecutive weeks) organizing and implementing outside
events including “class outside of class” and “Christmas
Party”.
There are many rules that all members must abide by. They are
primarily around protecting OSG’s existence:
Members are not allowed to discuss OSG’s indoctrination
with anyone
Members are not allowed to tell anyone that they are in OSG
(including family, friends and spouses, etc.)
Members are not allowed to socialize with other members neither
in class or outside of class
Members are not allowed to even recognize other members outside
aside from a look (even smiling is not permitted) Regarded as
being “invisible” to each other in life.
Members must fulfill all assigned tasks and given “help”
Members are required to keep an hour of silence after each
class
Members are not allowed to reveal any personal information
about themselves to other members (e.g. phone numbers, address,
place of employment, etc.)
Members are strongly encouraged to share issues/problems with
their sustainer related to class and their lives (Students are
lead to believe that these conversations are confidential. However,
in actuality sustainers share information with teachers)
Members are not allowed to talk to former members
Members are required to maintain the standards set by the school
for class attendance and participation (e.g. attending all classes,
arriving for class ten minutes early, arriving prepared for class
discussions, etc.)
Members are not allowed to complete any assignments using the
internet
Members are not allowed to share with each other anything in
writing without approval from teachers
Members are required to participate in clean up activities
related to refreshments provided during class according to a schedule
set by a designated member of the class
Member are required to pay tuition – three months at
a time in advance and the tuition amount is set by the teacher
for each individual member
Members are required to pay a monthly maintenance fee of $25
Members are not allowed to share their tuition amount with
other members
Members are not allowed to reveal to select students (e.g.
newest members) that members have participated in specific events
(e.g. Christmas party) and have read specific books as part of
the curriculum.
All members must abide all the rules and “teachers”.
Failing to do so is regarded as deficiency in member’s being
and attributed to his or her weakness. Not abiding by the rules
may result in expulsion.
Members depend on teachers to communicate the sources of material
for “esoteric knowledge”. Particularly because members
are discouraged to use the internet, television and other media
which might be used to discover these sources on their own.
OSG uses profound ideas from many teachings along with ideas
that sound profound to keep members in control and they constantly
infuse self-doubt, need for purification and need for higher levels
(meaning teachers and the school) to help them/show them a new
way of thinking about their lives.
OSG uses sophisticated methods to recruit new members. The process
is presented to the recruiters (select current members) by teachers
as a privilege to help the school and an opportunity to work on
themselves while serving a higher purpose (meaning the school).
The process involves "making friends" with strangers
through a series of meetings initially with the recruiter and
then if recruits meet the OSG criteria then further meetings will
involve an “older student” to extract more personal
information from recruits and determine whether the potential
recruit is ready to meet a teacher (in this case, Robert Klein).
If the promising recruit is accepted by the teacher (if he or
she had made it this far to meet with Robert Klein, they will
be asked to join) start as an “experiment” for a month
(about 8 classes) to see whether they would like it and want to
continue. At that point the newly joined member will be told the
tuition amount by Robert Klein and begin paying it( tuition amount
changes from person to person depending on how much they make.
It ranges from $250 - $400 per month and some members pay three
months in advance).
During this process recruiters are not to share any information
about themselves with people that they’re recruiting. Each
recruit will have a voice mailbox that they will give out as their
phone number, use only their first name, has weekly aims to talk
to certain number of people or has certain number of meetings,
is conditioned to be in recruitment-mode all the time and is encouraged
to lie, distort truth about themselves and the school (this is
presented by teachers as being “cleverly insincere”
and since recruiters are doing this for a higher purpose, it is
justified).
The promising recruits are constantly lied to about the nature
of the group:
They are told that the group does not have a name
What they say to their “sustainer” will be kept
between them and will not be reported to the teachers (every member
is assigned a “sustainer” whom has been with the school
many years and he/she can talk to this person (“sustainer”)
about class experiences and anything else in their life. They
are encouraged to do so.).
They are told that like-minded people come together on a regular
basis to discuss and study ideas that are important to them.
Gays, journalists and/or anyone with a close connection to law
enforcement, the military or intelligence services are immediately
dropped from the recruiters list. Trusted teachers offer elaborate
esoteric explanations for these restrictions.
OSG recruitment criteria:
Personal income $60K or higher
Be in a transition
Dissatisfied/disappointed with his/her life
Spiritual in nature
Not in therapy
Not taking drugs/medications on ongoing basis.
Not in a relationship with someone who will demand/ pressure
for full disclosure of activities. If married, must be willing
to keep secrets from spouse.
Willing to follow rules (discussed as willingness to place
yourself under a higher influence and be obedient to that influence
even when it is unpleasant. Parallels are drawn to King Arthur’s
Knights of the round table)
Willing to keep secrets from friends and family (discussed
as valuing privacy and keeping certain higher things sacred)
Freedomofmind.com fully supports religious
freedom and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The fact that a person’s name or group appears on our website
does not necessarily mean they are a destructive mind control cult.
They appear because we have received inquiries and have established
a file on the group.
The Freedom of Mind Resource Center Inc. was established by cult expert Steve Hassan.
