Exegesis (group)

Last updated

Exegesis was a group of individuals that delivered the Exegesis Programme through an Exegesis Seminar. The alleged end result of the programme was individual enlightenment, a personal transformation. Founded in 1976 as Infinity Training by Robert D'Aubigny, a former actor, Exegesis ran seminars in the United Kingdom in the later 1970s and early 1980s. Although not in itself a religion or belief, the programme was popularly interpreted as such. [1] The Cult Information Centre categorised it as a "therapy cult", focused on personal and individual development, [2] and George Chryssides categorised it as a self religion. [1]

In the 1970s Robert D’Aubigny remodelled Werner Erhard's controversial EST program into the more UK friendly Exegesis programme while keeping the essence of it unaltered. Graduates of the programme could attend workshops where a participant worked on personal development while being supported in confronting worst fears. [2] At one time Exegesis claimed to have about 5,000 people in the programme. [2] [3]

Robert D'Aubigny was influenced by 'eastern mysticism', being very prevalent in the UK in the 1970's. The stated aims of the organisation were the 'transformation of society' as he viewed present society as 'misled'. Exegesis planned a 'university city' at 'Avalon' the fictional home of King Arthur where the headquarters for this 'transformation of society' would be engineered. Exegesis were quite happy to refer to themselves as a cult and one of Mr D'Aubigny's stated aims was to become an MP within '5 years'. His movement was almost entirely discredited as being the work of a ' paranoid megalomaniac'. He has maintained some cult following among pseudo 'new-age' groups and quack psychologists.

Greater interest in the programme led to the group being investigated by the press and becoming the subject of a controversial television play. [4] In 1984 British Members of Parliament raised questions in the House of Commons, to which the Minister of State for Home Affairs David Mellor responded "some organisations and views are deeply repugnant to most sensible people and profoundly wrong-headed and damaging to those drawn into the web of their activities. Nevertheless, unless and until those involved actually break the law, it is difficult for the Government to set their hand against them." The Home Office asked the Metropolitan and Avon and Somerset police to investigate Exegesis following the suicide of Ashley Doubtfire after he attended a 'seminar'. [5] Although the police brought no charges, Exegesis ceased to run seminars around 1984, [4] [2] but re-emerged as a telesales company called Programmes Ltd, which had a turnover of nearly £6.5 million in 1990. [1] [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

Deprogramming is a controversial tactic that seeks to dissuade someone from "strongly held convictions" such as religious beliefs. Deprogramming purports to assist a person who holds a particular belief system—of a kind considered harmful by those initiating the deprogramming—to change those beliefs and sever connections to the group associated with them. Typically, people identifying themselves as deprogrammers are hired by a person's relatives, often parents of adult children. The subject of the deprogramming is usually forced to undergo the procedure, which might last days or weeks, against their will.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Age</span> Range of new religious beliefs and practices

New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consider it a religious movement, its adherents typically see it as spiritual or as unifying Mind-Body-Spirit, and rarely use the term New Age themselves. Scholars often call it the New Age movement, although others contest this term and suggest it is better seen as a milieu or zeitgeist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raëlism</span> UFO religion

Raëlism, also known as Raëlianism, is a UFO religion founded in 1970s France by Claude Vorilhon, now known as Raël. Scholars of religion classify Raëlism as a new religious movement. The group is formalised as the International Raëlian Movement (IRM) or Raëlian Church, a hierarchical organisation under Raël's leadership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jehovah's Witnesses</span> Restorationist Christian denomination

Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the ninteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co-founded Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society in 1881 to organize and print the movement's publications. A leadership dispute after Russell's death resulted in several groups breaking away, with Joseph Franklin Rutherford retaining control of the Watch Tower Society and its properties. Rutherford made significant organizational and doctrinal changes, including adoption of the name Jehovah's witnesses in 1931 to distinguish the group from other Bible Student groups and symbolize a break with the legacy of Russell's traditions. In 2024, Jehovah's Witnesses reported a peak membership of approximately 9 million worldwide.

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a pseudoscientific approach to communication, personal development and psychotherapy, that first appeared in Richard Bandler and John Grinder's 1975 book The Structure of Magic I. NLP asserts that there is a connection between neurological processes, language and acquired behavioral patterns, and that these can be changed to achieve specific goals in life. According to Bandler and Grinder, NLP can treat problems such as phobias, depression, tic disorders, psychosomatic illnesses, near-sightedness, allergy, the common cold, and learning disorders, often in a single session. They also say that NLP can model the skills of exceptional people, allowing anyone to acquire them.

Erhard Seminars Training, Inc. was an organization founded by Werner Erhard in 1971 that offered a two-weekend course known officially as "The est Standard Training". The purpose of the training was to use concepts loosely based on Zen Buddhism for self improvement. The seminar aimed to "transform one's ability to experience living so that the situations one had been trying to change or had been putting up with clear up just in the process of life itself".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Landmark Worldwide</span> Company offering personal development programs

Landmark Worldwide, or simply Landmark, is an American employee-owned for-profit company that offers personal-development programs, with their most-known being the Landmark Forum. It is one of several large-group awareness training programs.

The term large-group awareness training (LGAT) refers to activities—usually offered by groups with links to the human potential movement—which claim to increase self-awareness and to bring about desirable transformations in individuals' personal lives. LGATs are unconventional; they often take place over several days, and may compromise participants' mental wellbeing.

Cult is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "A relatively small group of people having beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister, or as exercising excessive control over members." The term is often applied to new religious movements and other social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term has different, and often divergent or pejorative, definitions both in popular culture and academia, and has been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study.

The anti-cult movement, abbreviated ACM and also known as the countercult movement, consists of various governmental and non-governmental organizations and individuals that seek to raise awareness of religious groups that they consider to be "cults", uncover coercive practices used to attract and retain members, and help those who have become involved with harmful cult practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rajneesh movement</span> Persons inspired by the Indian mystic Osho

The Rajneesh movement is a religious movement inspired by the Indian mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (1931–1990), also known as Osho. They used to be known as Rajneeshees or "Orange People" because of the orange they used from 1970 until 1985. Members of the movement are sometimes called Oshoites in the Indian press.

The Cult Information Centre (CIC) is a British anti-cult organisation. The organisation also serves as a resource for information on controversial religious groups, therapy cults, and political cults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism</span>

FECRIS – (in French)European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism, a French non-profit association and anti-cult organization, serves as an umbrella organization for groups which investigate the activities of groups considered cults in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Family Survival Trust</span>

The Family Survival Trust (FST) is a charity registered in the United Kingdom, established in order to support and offer counselling for members of abusive cults, religions, and similar organizations, and their families members.

Carole Caplin is a British former health consultant, who was the style adviser to Cherie Blair and a fitness adviser to Tony Blair, when he was the British prime minister. She sparked media interest because of her relationship with the convicted conman Peter Foster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scientology in the United Kingdom</span>

Scientology in the United Kingdom is practised mainly within the Church of Scientology and its related groups, which go under names including the Hubbard Academy of Personal Independence and the Dianetics and Scientology Life Improvement Centre. The national headquarters are at Saint Hill Manor near East Grinstead, which was also the home of Scientology creator L. Ron Hubbard for seven years. 1,844 individuals in England and Wales listed themselves as Scientologists in 2021, marking a decline of just under 25% since 2011; half of these respondents listed themselves as living in and around East Grinstead.

A self religion is a religious or self-improvement group which has as one of its primary aims the improvement of the self. The term "self religion" was coined by Paul Heelas and other scholars of religion have adopted/adapted the description. King's College London scholar Peter Bernard Clarke builds on Heelas's concept of self religion to describe the class of "Religions of the True Self".

The Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique is that associated with Transcendental Meditation, developed by the Indian spiritual figure Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It uses a private mantra and is practised for 20 minutes twice per day while sitting comfortably with closed eyes. TM instruction encourages students to be not alarmed by random thoughts which arise and to easily return to the mantra once aware of them.

The People's Organised Workshop on Ersatz Religion (POWER), also called the People's Organised Workgroup on Ersatz Religion, was a British anti-cult organisation founded in 1976 based in Ealing, London. Some believe that POWER is a front organisation by large new religious movements (NRMs) meant to delegitimise other anti-cult organisations like Family, Action, Information, Rescue (FAIR). POWER functionally disappeared in 1977 but caused major controversy within its roughly one-year lifespan. The organisation published a brochure called Deprogramming: The Constructive Destruction of Belief: A Manual of Technique, which advocated for mass deprogramming of cult members, including methods like sleep deprivation, food deprivation, forced nudity, kidnapping, and "aggressive sex".

References

  1. 1 2 3 George D. Chryssides (12 November 2001). Exploring New Religions. A&C Black. pp. 19, 278, 372. ISBN   978-0-8264-5959-6.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kirby, Terry (12 December 2002). "Caplin 'recruited' for therapy cult investigated by police". The Independent. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  3. ↑ Goldacre, Ben (31 July 2003). "Watch out, Caplin's about". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  4. 1 2 Mick Brown, "I know I'm unstable. I accept that". The Daily Telegraph, August 31, 1998.
  5. ↑ "Adjournment debate - Mr. Ashley Doubtfire". House of Commons. UK Parliament. 14 May 1984. HC Deb 14 May 1984 vol 60 cc124-30. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  6. ↑ Jamie Doward; Ben Whitford (21 September 2003). "Cult taught Cherie's guru to confront demons". The Observer.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.