iW W®n
Continued Praw tkj 1
Breakthrough Foundation were designed by
Werner Erhard, and are taken directly from h it ext
program, which gathered both convert! and contro
versy during the '70s with its aggressive message
o f personal transformation through confrontation,
which adherents characterized as enlightenment,
and cntica called a mind control procedure de
signed to fleece the gullible of their money.
It's this connection between Werner Erhard,
(he Breakthrough Foundaiion and the Western
Youth Ranch (hat has spurred Fierce opposition to
Edmark's plan. In addition to Bob Atkin, the youth
ranch is questioned by a number of local church
leaders, including Pastor Ray Ixxlgc of the Faith
Baptist Church, as well as groups such as the
Lincoln City Drug Task Force
After months of defending the Breakthrough
Foundation, Edmark recently caved, saying the
Western Youth Ranch it severing ties to the San
Francisco-based foundation "We want to end the
controversy.'' the sayt. Instead, she claims her ad
visory board, which includes a number of Lincoln
County residents such as Alan Peterson the d i
rector of the Lincoln County Juvenile Depart
incnt w ill develop its own program to replace the
Breakthrough Foundation's. “ I'm no* committed
Werner or anybody else. I'm committed to kids,”
says the slight, well groomed woman with intense
deep-set eyes.
But Atkin is skeptical, citing what he says is
a pattern of deception on (he part of Edtnark
"Why should we trust her.” he asks Atkin has a
point. The youth ranch's founder who admits
she's gone through a number o f est seminars and
has sent her two children through the Break
through Foundation's program is still quick to
defend the techniques behind est "The things that
he (Erhard] did. or (he things that he put together
to make up the training. 1 think came from a lot of
different places, just like anybody who puts a
training together,” Edmark says. “ He pulled from
a lot of different materials and made up the tram-
mg."
And she has some places to pull materials
from herself. One member of her advisory board is
a former est trainer named laindon Carter, who
with F^hard developed what became the Break
through Foundation's youth program Another is a
14 year old named Josh Robbins, whose step-fa
ther, Tony Robbins, has made millions pitching his
"personal power" video tapes on hour long paid
cable tv commercials, and holding inspirational
seminars which feature participants walking bare
fiKit across hot coals
"Unless these people completely repudiate the
manipulative techniques that go into these train
mgs, its still the same thing, whether it's Werner
Erhard or Tony Robbins who's taken it into a
different direction." says Kevin Garvey a coun
cilor and consultant who went through est training
as part of his research on the group at Columbia
University. Garvey is also a member of the Cult
Awareness Network, an organization devoted to
monitoring groups such as Scientology, the U n ifi
cation Church also known as Mixrnics and est
The human potential movement caught fire in
the '70s. Groups promising to transform and im
prove your life, such as Scientology and
Lifespring, put on seminars or "trainings" and
sent graduates out Io recruit more bodies who
could pay the high fees these trainings demanded
One of the best known of these groups, which arc
sometimes labeled cults, was est Started by
Werner Erhard in the early '70s, the Erhard Semi
nar Training was a combination of Zen, Dale Car
negie like positive thinking and self improvement
lessons that sounded like psycho babble to the un
initiated. and which were delivered by trained
speakers in grueling seminars which featured
abusive and confrontational leaders, sleep depnva
lion, infrequent bathroom breaks and repetitive
chanting.
Hundreds o f thousands of people took the
courses, spending up to $300 dollars each tune In
the early '80s. Erhard dropped the controversial
est label, changed the name of his organization to
Werner Erhard and Associates, and spun o ff a
labyrinth of associated projects One of these was
the non profit Hunger Project fronted by singer
John Denver (who was once quoted as saying that
Werner is God) and dedicated to ending world
hunger by the year 2000. The Hunger Project has
been criticized as a thinly disguised effort to shore
up Erhard's faltering public image, recruit new
members and funnel money into his pocket It is
notable for its failure to actually feed anybody.
Another was the Forum, a more palatable version
o f the est (raining aimed at corporate managers
And another was the Breakthrough Racing, a
non profit corporation formed in 1979 to support
Erhard's race car habit
According to the May/June 19X0 issue of Die
Graduale Review. an est newsletter. Breakthrough
Racing was formed by Erhard as a non profit cor-
poralion to "research the question. What is the
communication that w ill allow people to realize
the qualities which they need to discover within
themselves to fu lfill the opportunity to make the
world work for everyone?'" This high minded, and
baffling, mission was to be carried out by entering
Erhard in a low-level racing series known as
Formula Super Vee Erhard then held a number of
seminars to tell people of his wonderful "discover
ies.” and presented a film version of his triumphs
After that, however. Breakthrough Racing was left
10
with a tax-exempt status and nothing to do
In 19X0 it reformed itself as the Breakthrough
Foundation, with one of its stated goals to "em
power the opportunities" of al risk youth, and
thereby provide “ a breakthrough in the problem of
juvenile delinquency " To this end the corporation
copyrighted the phrase “ Youth At Risk, and set
out to “ deliver” its program to communities across
the country
At the heart of the Youth Al Risk program is
the "technology" developed by Erhard Known
originally as the Teen Training, it was offered as
part of his Forum operation In an est publication
titled “ 60 Hours That Transform Your L ife.”
Erhard is quoted from a speech describing the
program “ In the teen training we do a break
through process which is done as an activity until
you lose cimtrol The power releases when you
lose control At that point (in the process], the
trainees have an option of losing control or not.
and the HMM) teen agers who have thus far been
through the training all did "
Not everyone is pleased as Erhard with these
results Kevin Garvey says the process is danger
ous “ First they disrupt your confidence in logical
thinking Then (hey put people into a (rance stale
and rework their unconscious Then they bring
people out of the nance state and give them argu
ments that prove what they were told in the trance
state is true.” he esplains “ You don't have an
ethical personality after going through the est
training They take that from you "
The Breakthrough Foundation now distances
itself from Erhard, who left the country after the
television program 60 Minutes reported shocking
allegations that he sesually abused his daughters
In a letter provided by Edmark to critics, the foun
dation's executive director. Elizabeth Shepard,
writes that her organization has no legal or finan
c ta i tics to any 11hard entity, and while she admits
that, “ We have used some of Werner Erhard's
material to develop
Breakthrough Foundation
programs,” she writes that those programs are not
“ 'est', the Forum, or any other new Breakthrough
Foundation jvrograms under a different name.”
Edmark characterizes the Breakthrough program
as a benevolent “ conversation." that tells kids it is
all right to admit mistakes “ Society tells these
kids they are mistakes, we tell them that they just
made a mistake." she says
Yet the consent form required for participants
in the Breakthrough program paints anything but a
benevolent pn lure I his document warns that the
“ Youth at Risk Program and the 5 Day Course can
be physically demanding and potentially danger
ous." Some of these dangers include "severely up
setting emotions, sensations, and mental disorder
during or alter the program." Participants can also
look forward to "infrequent bathroom breaks," and
are told that the amount of sleep in any given day
might be limited to a lew hours For those who arc
"currently experiencing emotional distress." it is
recommended that they "DO NOT participate in
the Youth al Risk program
Edmark. however, simply calls this program a
“ wake up call' for troubled kid* She also says she
has volunteered at Youth at Risk programs in Phoe
nix, Arizonia. and has found the cxjvcricnce "exhila
rating."
It's likely that she has not tound her efforts to
set up the Western Youth Ranch in Lincoln City as
exhilarating “ Whenever they write anything in the
papers, they never write about the jsosiiivc things
They only mention who's against me. not who's for
me." she complains
Edmark exaggerates the point, but she has
taken hits in the coastal papers One of these came
after she was quoted in the September 23 Lincoln
City Newt Guard saying that the Western Youth
Ranch had been tested by the well respected Boys
Town, which for generations has been helping
young men out of its program in Nebraska That
statement prompted a letter to the paper from
Randal R Blauvelt. Boys Town public relations
director.
"While your newspajset did nothing wrong. 1 do
suspect your reporter was given erroneous mlorma
lion by the Western Youth Ranch, or al best, was
given a purposefully misleading statement,"
Blauvelt writes “ She IEdin.uk| has made similar
erroneous statements before to other newspapers,
apparently in an effort to build the Ranch's credi
b ility by using Boys Town highly regarded
name....We have previously asked Western Youth
Ranch to discontinue the practise ol connecting
Boys Town's name with theirs “
Edmark says the problem with Boys Town was
a result of miscommunication, and she says expects
a letter that w ill clarity the situation
In fact. Edmark had received a letter as early as
May 27 from Karen Freeborough. a site coordinator
for Boys Town In that letter. Freeborough writes
that it had come to het attention that the Western
Youth Ranch was circulating a brochure claiming
affiliation with Boys Town “ You were asked to
discontinue the practice and again, we suggest that
you honor our request rather than purporting inac
curate information." she states
Some ot Edmark s other claims have been chai
lenged as well In the September 23 Lincoln City
Newt Guard article. Edmark said that a study found
that participants in the Breakthrough Foundation’ s
programs achieve a 75% drop in truancy, drop in
future crime of 50%, and reduction in drug use of
33% These claims arc disputed
In April of 1992, Betty Phillips, who holds a
dcKtorate in clinical psychology from Harvard ana
niu>c
ralkïMdh'Hf thf s-lmrfcm
jfitrT UiMitny tv fix drum'
- Teuton .-ukfn
-
lyzed four studies done on the Breakthrough Foun
dation Phillips worked for the Austin. Texas
School district where the Breakthrough Founda
lion was pushing hard to set up its Youth at Risk
program Phillips found that the four studies were
seriously flawed and unscientific. The one repon
that did seem better conducted, however, refutes
Edmark s claims
According to Phillips, this report indicates that
participants were more likely to he absent from
school, more likely to receive failing grades and
^ R em oS eD N evT com ou ction • Service Galls
more likely to drop out after going through the
F l a tru al A General Contracune
Breakthrough course This repon also found a
slight increase in crime instead of a 50% dn»p
BB#76569
None of the reports tracked drug use. although
Phillips determined that there wav a rise in preg
I h»<l a n d I X i u g t i t c r K J e c tr ic
nancies among participants It was soon after this
Box 995 - Cannon Beach, OR 97110
document surfaced in Lincoln City that Edmark
436-14Ô4
said she was breaking ties to the Breakthrough WALT LIVELY
foundation Edmark. however, dismisses Phillips' ¡ s e r v e d a rd Roeded
report "She was invited to go to one of the train
ings.” Edmark says of Phillips, "and she didn't.”
Further, Edmark claims a program in Portland,
tailed the Committed Partners fur Youth, held a
program at Binnsmead Middle School, at SF M7th
Ave., using the Breakthrough Foundation s “ tech
nology" with great success
Despite her setbacks. Edmark is still ada
mantly pushing her Western Youth Ranch She's
recently opened a Lincoln City office in addition
to her office in Portland, and says she can count on
supjxrtcrs Along with the Juvenile Department's
Peterson, she cites Mona Glode. the director of
student services for the Lincoln County School
District. Robert Eaton, general manager of The Inn
at Otter Crest. Fada D'Ambosio. general manager
of the Inn at Spanish Head who both like the idea
of hiring trained workers at their hotels as well
as Portlanders Linda l-add Harrington of Hamng
ton Executive Clothiers and Pat Lockhart of Ex-
cculodge Corporation
And Edmark also say she has philosophical
support of “ personal power" guru Tony Robbins,
who she says drojvped by Lincoln City unexpect
edly to the«.k out potential sites "Tony's not
involved.” Edmark says. "But he's told me he
supports the ranch.” According to Bob Atkins,
Fdm.uk has <1 a lined Robbins would be a source of
possible financial support
Atkin himself is feeling beleaguered "I wish
they'd just go away." he says “ This whole thing
has been very disruptive to the community. There
arc jveople I used to work with who I can't even
talk Io anymore.”
Ray Lodge, the Baptist jvastor who has spoken
out against the ranch, says he’ s gotten harassing
calls at home alter his statements appeared in the
local paper “ On the day it came out. I received
four harassing calls They said I was jn ti Semitic,
anti youth and an ego maniac It is beyond a
doubt a polarizing thing There arc people really
pushing for this thing that I have worked with in
the past I would have a problem working with
these people ever again." he says
Atkins remembers his first pitch from I d
mark "It sounded like a this companv I once
applied Io work for I answered a blind ad lor
salesmen, and they put me through a training
course on how to pressure and coo the customer
into buying encyclopedias It stunk, and I
walked ' That company was the Grolier Society,
later found guilty in California ot fraudulent sales
C a e iin l D in in g O \e r lo o h n g T h e h e n fu c c u R iv e r
fresh Seafood Dinners
n . , I S e r > , i* i < h r .
Sunday Brunch
S p irits
M C V IC C m
home Baked Desserts
OD
(303) « 6 3 « 7 22
■i-a«.«T ions : 436-2661
■ '[ M . » . ! ANNON (MAI M
L au rel’s
C annon
Beach
W ine Shop
practice*.
Not surprisingly, one of the people training
Grolier salesmen was Werner Erhard
2*3 N. Itamlwck
(303) 41*1066
Thu tlo ry f i n t appeared in Portland i PDXS
new ¡paper.
VICTOR H. PLUCY. m.A.
Counseling Psychotherapy
lodtvx3uaJs Couples & Families
436-9225
State lxe->*e
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