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Interview with Dr. John Hanley - Page 9 INT: So you're not aware of how he ended up having that information? JH: No, I'm not, actually. But, he got it. INT: That is wild. JH: Yeah, it really is. Well, it's wild because, when we started out, we were (how would you say?) 'high risk.' And people were sort of looking at us cross-eyed saying "Come on now, is this really possible that for five days you can give me my life back--you can turn my whole life around? I don't think so." So this was met with a lot of scepticism, and I think most everything is. FedEx was met with a lot of scepticism too, so we're in good hands. You know, today, if you really look carefully, you will see experiential learning and, really, the center-points of the Lifespring training in almost every corporate training in America. I think, globally, you'll see pieces of it here and there, and I think the next step is going to be seeing pieces of it in the high schools and colleges around the country. So you know, that has all of us win at the end of the day, anyway, because, after all, we really started out as young, enthusiastic, can't-be-stopped-by-anything kids. I was 27, and we really were on a mission, and the mission was to transform the planet. Everybody goes sort of thing, everybody wins. We were coming out of an era where that was not the case, where there was a lot of suppression of people's thought and value-systems and ability to step outside what called the establishment and think for themselves. But, of course, today, as we see, that's "pc." So it's funny, I really enjoy looking from the abstract at the thirty year process, the evolution, the transformation. And it has gone from sort of 'very risky, we don't know if this kind of thing will actually work,' to mainstream. You know, if you want to know more, turn on Dr. Phil and you can watch Lifespring every day if you like. INT: Well, I have noticed even in the time that I have been involved with this style of education, since '96, significant cultural movement just in that period of time in terms of resistance. It must have been pretty intense at times, this being an unknown at the time. JH: I think that's right, and I have to say--again, this is just my opinion so there's not necessarily truth in it--but, as far as I'm concerned, the group most threatened by what we were doing in fact turned out to be the psychologists. They were not talking to very many people because they were all taking Large Group Awareness Trainings. If you think about it, are you going to pay 150 bucks an hour for three years, or are you going to pay 300 bucks for five days and produce an extraordinary result as compared to the one you've been producing for a year or two. So you know, I think the only place people had to go for self-improvement was the therapeutic community, and once a new possibility opened up for people who wanted self-improvement, I think it hurt, both financially and intellectually, the psychological community. I think they're the ones that really suffered and went out of there way to see if they couldn't make us suffer, too. |
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