Faye Fitzgerald and Training in Power

[educatedindian]

There are reports this is an outright cult that uses coercion to keep its members. Fitzgerald claims to be the reincarnation of White Buffalo Woman and borrows heavily from Castaneda.

Site run by former cult members.

http://zhahara.livejournal.com/
"CULT formally called Training In Power A Spiritual Journey Of Service Founded By Faye Fitzgerald and newly dubbed Training In Power, Academy of Meditation and Healing, A Spiritual Journey of Service, founded by Faye Fitzgerald based in Vancouver, Seattle, with factions in Toronto, Las Vegas, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, Coquitlam, Salmon Arm, Lund, Vernon, Kelowna, Silverton, Vancouver Island, Victoria, Nanaimo, Comox, Phoenix, Chicago, Portland..."

"Training in power borrows heavily from the Carlos Castaneda legacy, with the use of it's magical passes in its Master Warrior program, and the constant reference to the books by Castaneda. The lineage system in the Training is modeled after the Castaneda books and implied a connection to the teacher Don Juan. After close analysis of the group "Training In Power", this lineage, is nothing more than a way to further bind people into a sense of importance and belonging."

Accounts from ex members:

http://www.insiderpages.com/b/3723353059
"Training in Power is a dangerous cult.......... 
By Christiane P.
I warn you !!! I have been 10 years in this cult and here are my experiences / opinions:

Students get caught in a multi-level system, which will lead them out of reality. The founder says, that she is here to save the world. From level III on all the teachings are based on weird paranoid battles against evil. Students are highly abused by the founder. Lots of students are yelled and screamed at and they are called "attacker" as soon as they speak up. No criticism is allowed. The system is governed by lies, betrayel and hidden agendas. Lots of people are seriously traumatized by the founder and the intense brainwashing teachings. The founder is a drug head and shows various symptoms of serious personal mental health problems.

Please go to: http://lessonsinawareness.com/default.aspx and read at least the ex member contributions. You will understand how harmful this founder is and how damaged students are when they finally find the strength to leave this cult. They need years and years to recover. Often the recovery is only possible with professional help.

Please - don't only go away if invited to this cult --- run away --- as fast as you can........Take good care of yourself !!!

-----

Use Caution 
By D M.
To do your due diligence about this group, please go to: http://lessonsinawareness.com/default.aspx

There is much information on this site, it is meant to:

Bring awareness about thought control in everyday life (be it spiritual groups, politics, religion, advertising or parental control)

Examine thought control within the group Training in Power, A Spiritual Journey of Service.

Thought control is ultimately spiritual abuse. Our spirit, or our aliveness, loses its spunk, joy, energy and freedom when we submit to serve someone else's path more than develop our own.

The damage done to the countless students and loved ones she has dismissed from her life who could not submit to her control will continue to be a burden to her until she recognizes her part in it and takes steps to re-examine her "construct" and the way it is parentally taught. Each one of us is new each moment and with eternal hope I offer prayers that she may find what she needs in her learning process and realize that those of us who were close to her will always love her and wish for her health and healing. I hope one day we may be in her life again in a healthy, truly light filled way.

-------------

take your money and run..... 
By joanna w.
I spent 7 years with training in power, and went to level 6.

It is easy to write a positive review as someone in levels 1-4. Levels 1-3 are wonderful, mostly. If you are hooked, if you must, go through with levels 1-3, then run far far away.

There is a reason the drop out rate is %50 or more after the level 6 retreat.

At first it was amazing, positive. I felt high on life. Meditation was new to me....healing was new to me. Of course I was easily hooked. The training is very careful to build you up, to reassure you of your 'power', and how different and special you (they) are. I think I was particularly vulnerable to this. But then again, who doesnt want to feel 'special'.

From level 4 on, things started to get weirder. Only in retrospect can i see the brainwashing that occured. Its hard to put into words, without writing a novel here. But, such a focus on defending oneself, on attack, on evil. Of course, if you expect something to 'get you', something will get you. It is these underlying belief systems in the training that are most scarring

Fayes will tell you in level 6 her story about 'why we are here", and reveals her beliefs about reality and the lower astral plane. We were sent to earth from far away places, something went wrong, now there are souls trapped in the lower astral plane, T.I.P is focused on battling negativity in the lower astral plane and recapitulating souls. yadda yadda. Its like the wizard pulling back the curtain. Unlike levels 1-5, there is no room for your own opinion now, or your own beliefs. The story is laid out. Faye has a story, not unlike every religion having a story. And her story has a very particular slant. It is a belief system of a very wounded person. someone who has had to fight and therefore teaches her students to be wary, an emphasis on protecting themselves, to expect loads of negativity to always be coming after you, to expect life is hard.
I dont doubt the lower astral plane is real. do i feel like it is my calling to spend a good majority of my energy and daily awareness working in the L.A.P? nope.

in fact, my experience. as a level 6 grad i had more anxiety, was less functional, had more psychic crap coming my way then ever before. it was almost unbearable. since i have left, all that has cleared up. instead of daily attacks, i might have a little something once a month that is cleared up easily enough.

My attendance at the level 6 retreat was what sealed the deal for me. I know what beautiful, shiny healthy happy people look like. Sure, there were a few in the crowd. But upon meeting the community at large I began to question my commitment. These people are fearful. They are not connected to their bodies (hell, neither was i after 7 years of the training). Some were so out of it that i felt truly concerned for them. The pain i felt at level 6, realizing the level of brainwashing that was around me, is the most pain i have dealt with. 7 years of my life given. i trusted these people.

my advice? yes, the training is unique. life filled life, as i call it. tempting, for sure. life can feel ordinary sometimes, TIP solves that. i thought i was safe to dabble. i thought that the good outweighed the bad. its only in retrospect that i realize how much damage was done.
everything is affected, and it happens over time so its hard to catch. your core beliefs, your energy, your ability to be present in life and in this world. yes, you feel high. i wont argue that. it comes with a price though.

i personally can attest to
~implied sex abuse from my dad during a level one reading (10 years later, still untrue for me)

~faye herself told me i was sinning against the goddess during a healing after i told her i was (very happily for 4 years now) employed as an escort
~she went on to accuse me of being an unconscious thief and stealing from her wallet (absolutely untrue and downright abusive. to suggest it is unconcious means i cant know for myself if it is true. coming from someone you trust, do you realize how much that messes with you?)
later when i asked other teachers if they saw it, and told them faye saw it, none would say they did, but all would also support faye and tell me to learn from the lesson

~angry, uncalled for outbursts from faye after a simple question was asked as a level 2.
anyway. i could go on. but ive wrote enough...

Since leaving the training (a long, unwinding, two year process now involving a wise, wonderful therapist who also left a cult) I have re-learned to focus on love and beauty, not fear, attacks and battle, and in turn, my life is more beautiful now. I am more connected with joy, I feel more at home in this world, and in my body. I dont have to worry about wearing 17 shields just to feel safe ; )

I have had to re-learn who I am, and what I believe in.
The loss of community was tremendous, but the gain was worthwhile.

have questions? im at mirafascination@hotmail.com"

[educatedindian]

Psych's assessment of the group:

http://lessonsinawareness.com/therapistevaluation.aspx
"A Therapist's Evaluation of Training in Power
 
ELAINE HOPKINS, D.H.P.
HYPNOTHERAPY, PSYCHOTHERAPY

TEL: 250–675-4641
Email: elabria@telus.net

RE: TRAINING IN POWER

Hello:

I have been asked to review the training in power teachings, including a video and CD.

I have found that much of the course material is fear based, very negative and dangerous.

Faye is using hypnosis and auto suggestion in the course material.  She calls her hypnosis scripts, meditations when in fact they are guided meditations. The only reason a person would continue with guided meditations for a long time would be to control the thought
process of the people involved. When you teach a beginning class of meditation you would start with a guided mediation to show the student how to begin, at most you would do this for two or three times, then the student would take himself off on their own.
 
Mediation is a personal exercise. Prayer is when you talk to God. Meditation is when God talks to you, so when you, the teacher are constantly controlling the meditation, it's no longer the student's meditation, the teacher is the one in control.

Throughout the course material it is evident that Faye is in control, she suggests that the world is a scary and dangerous place, you must be on guard or "they will take you out". In the video Faye talks about power transference, she claims it is very dangerous and there has been a high mortality rate this year because of the "way we are teaching level three this year". She refers to always being under attack, she goes on to say, "I can smell death" It must be exhausting to always be on guard , to do battle, to be fearful.

In my opinion Faye Fitzgerald is teaching paranoia, she preys on people who are not fulfilled in his or her life, anyone who has not found the sense of meaning we all desire will naturally have an acute fear of death. Efforts based on fear will produce limited results.
Have you ever watched a game where one team plays to win and the other team plays not to lose? It's hard to have fun, to experience love and joy when you are motivated by fear. Fear creates stress, stress causes a depletion of energy, all our energy focuses on the
stressor (everyone is out to get you), low energy compromises the immune system which is then unable to ward off disease.

This program teaches participants that there are enemies out there ready to get you. It's very stressful to be on guard all the time.  Instead of promoting a love of life, gratitude for all that is good in a person's life and encouraging people to enjoy the moments which
would promote good health and happiness, Faye instead promotes fear and distrust. The implication is that she is the truth and without her you will almost certainly die, but she is going to save you all.

Jesus asked people not to worship him, but to follow his example.

If you have any questions regarding this matter please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Elaine Hopkins"


More ex members accounts:

http://lessonsinawareness.com/LetterFEAR.aspx
"False Evidence Appearing Real
10/29/07

Faye is a master at this. She presents False Evidence in such away that it appears real to the students. For example, in Teachers meetings she often shares some perceived attack on the training in such a way that:

a)the listeners know to whom she is referring or to what group she's assigned blame without her ever saying so.

b) it may be only a small event, a one time happening, but is made to be a specific all out attack on her and the training

c) by the use of fierce, sorceristic language such as "It's called a worming and it's an ancient Sorcerer's technique to make someone go crazy" she invokes fear, paranoia and panic in the students as well as to get them ‘on board’ to fight for and with her

d) she controls what students are supposed to think. For example, she says so many negative things about anyone who associates with Lessons In Awareness, Diane or Open Circle, that even unhappy ex-tippers stay away from the web-site and are judgmental of any of us who've chosen to use these avenues to assist us in healing, re-connecting and exposing wrongdoing

e) She takes things like the an acronym “FINE??? and tells people it means Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic and Egotistical??? as if it is something she created but that saying has actually been said in 12 step meetings for 25 years or more. It’s not unique to tip nor did it start there. I for one am reclaiming the word “FINE???. I think it is just fine to be fine. Fine – Fabulous, Intuitive, Nice and Eclectic.

As Ex-members of tip who have decided to write and post to this website, we are often accused of organized attack on the training. Many times, whatever we've been accused of – no member of this group participated in, in anyway. That means it was either a single disgruntled ex member of training in power who is expressing themselves and their discontent or it is a current member of tip who has not yet left but feels a morale obligation to expose inappropriate behaviour. IT'S NOT ALWAYS US!!!!!

I feel it also needs to be said that for many of us who have left tip, there is a history of workplaces, family members, government agencies, all receiving slanderous, anonymous phone calls after leaving the training. Phone calls in which the person is given very personal information about the ex-member or about what an ex-member said or did. The information shared makes a strong case for the anonymous caller to be a member of tip. At the very least this makes tip – UNSAFE – NOT CONFIDENTIAL.

If you are a current member of tip, I would suggest you keep this in mind. I have much regret in ever sharing within what I believed to be a confidential system and have since been disheartened and disillusioned to think that what I shared may have been used against me. Sharing personal information with an ex-member's employer or family is blatantly disrespectful and shows no regard, caring, or concern for the harm done to the ex-member. Many ex-members of training in Power have been harassed and abused and stalked in this manner and they have no recourse because it was all done anonymously. I, however, have the right and the freedom to say here, that this has happened and it is wrong, destructive, and harmful.

In conclusion, the “attack??? tip is perceived to be under is all an illusion to keep you on your toes and to keep you away from us. How long do you want to live in the paranoia, fear and self-importance of Training in Power? In reality you are doing very little to change the world. Very few people are healing! The miracles only last as long as they are needed to create the high! – the feel good feelings! Masters of Illusion! That's what you really train to be masterful at – deceiving yourselves and being deceived by the construct of illusion created by Faye.

Davina"

[educatedindian]

Ex member's account of Fitzgerald's hatred of the disabled and racism against Natives.

http://lessonsinawareness.com/discrimination.aspx
"Training In Power founded by Faye Fitzgerald discriminates against persons with disabilities and promotes racist attitudes, here are a few shared and collective responses from ex members:

1. Some people were told by Faye that the reason their children could not get clean was because their children were abusers.

2. A minister said to an alcoholic in AA that she did not need the program and that Faye had cured her own alcoholism using training methods.

3. There was much discrimination against mental health diagnosis and an expectation to get over it, and to stop displaying the symptoms which were called “willful??? or “indulgent???, with additional comments that medication was a crutch.

4. There was a paranoid projection of mental health issues in the community when the training formed its mental health team and mental health support group. There was no support in the community for these groups or the harm done because of the lack of professionalism or accountability within the training regarding mental health issues and how they were subsequently handled.

5. If you can not walk apparently it is your fault, this was told to more than one person with a physical disability.

6. It was also mentioned to people in recovery or dying from serious illness that it was their fault it had not healed, given accusations of you are willful, or holding onto the illness, and are not able to be cleared by the healing group.

7. If you actually got better, not necessarily as a result of the focus of community healings, it would make you feel indebted and loyal.

8. Integrative consciousness was a special focus group in the community where discrimination based on disability or race was only somewhat tolerant of any disabled person’s participation, by paternalistically saying one person with a physical disability could participate in the background.

9. One woman was told by several people in the community that her disability was the point of them choosing not to do healings with her and avoiding her as though it were contagious.

10. A person with a disability was told rather ungraciously by a Trainer that he could no longer help her, they reminded him of his mother who he had to take care of, just because they took him up on his offer for rides to training events, he only lived a couple of blocks away.

11. Faye was hoping a person who was wheel chair bound would be her miracle and would walk again, the apparent proof of all her work, and she was also told by Faye rather grandly that she would be the healing of equality on the planet. Since her miracle did not work, Faye had to blame the experiment going wrong on the patient, as though some flaw in their spirit was the real reason they could not walk. The shaming, dropping and dismissing of this person were the end result.

12. Similar treatment was then dealt in this regard to being dismissed and rejected, by others in the community who model the leader in all ways; I have witnessed first hand when the Training wants someone out of their way or wants to deny any responsibility.

13. The deaths around classes or the mental health collapses where any degree of responsibility is blamed on the participant, attack, or those “evil ex trainers in malicious attack???.

14. The discriminatory and racist overtones have been discussed in regards to white middle class women stealing native teaching and passing themselves off as experts in Shamanism and Tibetan Mastery.

15. Another side of the racism in the training was if you were a person of colour you could be sure to be identified as such by Faye repeatedly in any class, and that you would hold a special place in the consciousness for people of your race to get here, wherever “here??? was, I believe she meant ascension.

16. I have had alarming things said to me based on race that I was shocked to hear in a community of light.

17. One instance in telling a minister about my bracelet that started in the story of Raven Stealing the Light, the reaction from her was to repeat “STEALING THE LIGHT??? so loud that the rest of the people in the room would look to us. I noted her superstitious fear based assumption on those words, (everything in the training had to be worded in positive language or it was seen as negative or attack, in this case I actually think she thought it was a statement of evil). I should have not bothered to explain the meaning behind the story. I later confronted this person about this incident; she said she could not remember.

18. I was also told I was not native by one person and that I had native royalty by another, these assumptions were based on little or no information from me to them.

19. In a class Faye asked me if I had been to a residential school, this was in front of the whole class! I guess she would incorporate me in her statistics if I was.

20. Was the training trying to angle a way in to get contracts to work with residential school survivors with its fleeting interest in Kevin Annette?

21. If you were on the ‘student to watch list’ compiled to monitor students who for whatever reason were considered possibly unsafe (was it because they questioned?), though no real criteria is given for those on the list other than a psychic knowing, you would be monitored and policed at retreats in a way that was blatant discrimination based on prejudice."

[educatedindian]

Not just White Buffalo Woman. Apparently, who DOESNT she claim to be reincarnated from?

http://forum.rickross.com/read.php?12,8351,28831
nobody:
The leader's name is FAYE FITZGERALD--certifiable cult leader--not of the East Indian variety-- but does claim to be both Christ and Buddah reincarnated--oh yeah, and the God Mars and Genghis Khan of all people. When I was a member she was encouraging her followers to smoke weed--and would even cajole the ones in Narcotics Anonymous to do it too, stating things like "you must learn to be the master over it".

Seven years later I still struggle with repurcussions of my involvement--specifically an anxiety with driving which wwas brought on by too much focus on meditating myself into altered states. The problem was that I started to have altered consciousness when I drove (entirely unintentional)--which would freak me out--and to this day I still am trying to figure out how to get my mind to not trip out on me when I drive fast (say at normal freeway speeds). It's been so long now that I think my brain is hardwired into this reaction.

soleil533:
Date Added: 04/28/2005 

Dear Nobody,

So glad to have made this connection with you. In the last year there has been a lot done to expose Faye Fitzgerald and Training in Power. A high level trainer in Seattle sent an expose to the boards and students, and at the end of March a yahoo support group was formed for ex-trainers by a student in Canada, with 29 members and growing. I too wrote to Rick Ross, but as you said unless something is published, more information cannot be placed in his listings.

We are finding another way, and that is to begin linking and creating websites and blogs ourselves so that the insidious damage that Faye has caused and is still causing can be exposed. Many of us are committed to telling this story, not only to slow Faye's ability to attract and entrap people, but also to educate the public as to the reality of how smart, innocent people can be slowly led out of the reality of their lives into someone else's fantasy story.

At the time you left there was very little support. Leaving this group is hard, and the recovery even harder. I do hope you're doing ok now, and if you find it helpful I invite you to email me at soleil533@hotmail.com for information about the yahoo support group, which offers the choice to be anonymous.

The need for anonymity is beginning to lift because there are so many of us now. The more stories that are told and witnessed about people's experiences in the training, the more people feel they can be open and confident in naming the abuse. The group is for ex-trainers only, and is an active courteous dialog with all input welcome.

The advice you have been given on this site is wise and helpful. Just know you are not alone in having to recover from the abusiveness of Training in Power. Your dissociative episodes are not unusual in that you were taken pretty far out of reality. Training in Power is indeed a cult, an abusive group, led by a narcissistic charismatic delusional despot. Those she leaves in her wake (still happening) show every symptom written about in cult literature. It takes a fricken long time to get the conditioning out, to re-enter the world of normalcy, of real humanity, and let go of the conditioned need for the drama, the group, and the intensity of the high spiritual purpose you were led to believe you were chosen for!

[avgperson]

This is a group worth investigating. There are quite a lot of stories of abuse on:
http://lessonsinawareness.co/ (See: Ex-member letters.)

The organization's page is at http://traininginpower.com/

[Sparks]

This is a group worth investigating. There are quite a lot of stories of abuse on:
http://lessonsinawareness.co/ (See: Ex-member letters.)

The organization's page is at http://traininginpower.com/

This person and her organization (including your first link) was discussed here in this forum in 2008:

Faye Fitzgerald and Training in Power.

[Sparks]

Renewed interest in this person and her organization. Today a new thread was started:

This is a group worth investigating. There are quite a lot of stories of abuse on:
http://lessonsinawareness.co/ (See: Ex-member letters.)

The organization's page is at http://traininginpower.com/

[Sparks]

All those links now go to the site "Lessons in Awareness — A Portal to Conscious Leadership".

Please go to: http://lessonsinawareness.com/default.aspx and read at least the ex member contributions. You will understand how harmful this founder is and how damaged students are when they finally find the strength to leave this cult. They need years and years to recover. Often the recovery is only possible with professional help.
[…]
To do your due diligence about this group, please go to: http://lessonsinawareness.com/default.aspx

Psych's assessment of the group:
http://lessonsinawareness.com/therapistevaluation.aspx
"A Therapist's Evaluation of Training in Power
[…]
More ex members accounts:
http://lessonsinawareness.com/LetterFEAR.aspx

Ex member's account of Fitzgerald's hatred of the disabled and racism against Natives.
http://lessonsinawareness.com/discrimination.aspx

Some (maybe all?) content from the original site in 2008 has been moved here:

http://lessonsinawareness.co/
http://lessonsinawareness.co/ex-member-letters/

Much (maybe all?) of the same stuff is also here:

https://sites.google.com/site/lessonsinawareness2/
https://sites.google.com/site/lessonsinawareness2/introduction
https://sites.google.com/site/lessonsinawareness2/ex-member-letters

[Sparks]

The organization's page is at http://traininginpower.com/

Faye Fitzgerald maintains her own personal site, too:

http://www.fayefitzgerald.com
http://www.fayefitzgerald.com/bio
http://www.fayefitzgerald.com/faq

In the FAQ she cites Andrew Cohen (another cult leader) and recommends Carlos Castaneda.

[Sparks]

Renewed interest in this person and her organization. Today a new thread was started:

Please note that the post I quoted from the new thread has now been moved into the present thread.

[Sparks]

Ex member's account of Fitzgerald's hatred of the disabled and racism against Natives.
http://lessonsinawareness.com/discrimination.aspx

The quoted part is now at this URL (at the bottom of the page):

http://lessonsinawareness.co/misc/discrimination-in-training-in-power/