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| {{short description|Group of individuals that delivered the Exegesis Programme}} | |||
| '''Exegesis''', an ] programme, operated in the ] in the later 1970s and early 1980s. Exegesis was founded by Robert D'Aubigny, a former actor, in 1976 as ''Infinity Training'', offering "enlightenment and personal transformation" through a course of paid seminars.<ref name="Chryssides"/> | |||
| '''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 ] in the later 1970s and early 1980s. Although not in itself a religion or belief, the programme was popularly interpreted as such.<ref name="Chryssides" /> The ] categorised it as a "therapy cult", focused on personal and individual development,<ref name=independent-20021212>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/caplin-recruited-for-therapy-cult-investigated-by-police-135739.html |title=Caplin 'recruited' for therapy cult investigated by police |last=Kirby |first=Terry |website=The Independent |date=12 December 2002 |accessdate=5 October 2019}}</ref> and ] categorised it as a ].<ref name="Chryssides" /> | |||
| In the 1970s Robert D’Aubigny remodelled ]'s controversial ] into the more UK friendly Exegesis programme while keeping the essence of it unaltered. | |||
| The initial seminar lasted for over 3 days and took place in a large function room of a prominent hotel. Such hotels began to refuse the cult access to its services when publicity surfaced about the nature of the cult. The seminar room was blacked out so any to prohibit any daylight entering and all attendees sat in rows and prohibited from talking amongst themselves. The opening lines of the seminar delivered by an assistant was "Your lives do not work: that is why you are here" and "we have your money so it is too late to do anything about any grievances you may have" . Robert D'Aubigny would then introduce himself as the trainer and begin a threatening monologue incriminating all attendees as people who were unable to manage their own lives satisfactorily and thence were driven to admit as much by attending the seminar. The basic premise being that Exegesis would only tolerate those who would admit to being dysfunctional. Anybody who resisted this label of being dysfunctional would not be allowed into the cult. Throughout the course of the following 3 days all attendees were subject to deprecation and humiliation in order to bring them to a point where any encouragement would be welcomed. At the very end of the seminar all attendees were then informed that they were all "amazing" and that they should take what they had learned into the wider world and seek out new "converts". Among the more egregious comments made by the trainer were observations such that everything that happens in your lifetime you want to happen whether you are aware of it or not. Exegesis held follow up seminar series focusing on particular aspects of life such as sex or finance. The sex seminars would involve attendees stripping naked and becoming subject to abusive observations from other members. Anger seminars would involve pairs of attendees shouting at each other with the most vituperative and malevolent observations that could be thought of. Exegesis believed this to be a therapeutic exercise. D'Aubigny threatened that if any attendee ever divulge the contents of the seminars: " I will break your arm". | |||
| Graduates of the programme could attend workshops where a participant worked on personal development while being supported in confronting worst fears.<ref name=independent-20021212/> At one time Exegesis claimed to have about 5,000 people in the programme.<ref name=independent-20021212/><ref name=guardian-20030731>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2003/jul/31/badscience.research |title=Watch out, Caplin's about |last=Goldacre |first=Ben |newspaper=The Guardian |date=31 July 2003 |access-date=10 April 2020}}</ref> | |||
| 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. | |||
| Both Kim Coe and Robert D'Aubigny continue to offer "training" to this day although mainstream employers are becoming aware of their background. There are legal moves afoot to bring Coe and D'Aubigny to account for their actions over the years spanning the late 1970's to the 1990's. People were encouraged to believe that the seminars were places where encouragement and support would be offered. Instead of which they were subject to humiliation and derision. | |||
| Greater interest in the programme led to the group being investigated by the press and becoming the subject of a controversial television play.<ref name="Unstable">Mick Brown, "". ''The Daily Telegraph'', August 31, 1998.</ref> In 1984 British ] raised questions in the ], to which the ] ] 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 ] asked the ] and ] to investigate Exegesis following the suicide of Ashley Doubtfire after he attended a 'seminar'.<ref name=hoc-19840514>{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1984/may/14/mr-ashley-doubtfire |title=Adjournment debate - Mr. Ashley Doubtfire |id=HC Deb 14 May 1984 vol 60 cc124-30 |publisher=UK Parliament |work=House of Commons |date=14 May 1984 |accessdate=6 October 2019}}</ref> Although the police brought no charges, Exegesis ceased to run seminars around 1984,<ref name="Unstable"/><ref name=independent-20021212/> but re-emerged as a telesales company called ''Programmes Ltd'', which had a turnover of nearly £6.5 million in 1990.<ref name="Chryssides">{{cite book|author=George D. Chryssides|title=Exploring New Religions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vyX1sL8-0gMC|date=12 November 2001|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-8264-5959-6|pages=19, 278, 372}}</ref><ref name=observer-20030921>{{cite news |title=Cult taught Cherie's guru to confront demons |author1=Jamie Doward |author2=Ben Whitford |newspaper=The Observer |date=21 September 2003}}</ref> | |||
| The Exegesis programme resembled ] in consisting of workshops where participants "worked on their personal and individual development" and were encouraged to "visualise their worst fears and problems, then confront them".<ref name="Incantations"/><ref name="Unstable"/> A central tenet of Exegesis asserted one's full ] for causing one's problems, instead of entertaining any idea that other factors might have caused them. In its time, the Exegesis programme stirred controversy, with reports that Exegesis personnel physically abused participants in the workshops, shouted at them and forced them to explain their sexual fantasies without restraint in front of the group{{fact|date=October 2012}}<!--<ref name="Branson">Mick Brown, '''', p. 256.</ref>--> or stared hard at them directly in their faces. | |||
| In 1978, British musician ] underwent Exegesis therapy during a seminar in London, including a ] experience.<ref name="Incantations">Richard Carter, "", Tubular.net (2002).</ref> People{{Who|date=June 2012}} who met Oldfield after he had undertaken the therapy often found that he would stare at them as above, with his face only a few inches from theirs. The part that perhaps left the biggest impression on Oldfield was where he went through a rebirth experience. The course-goers were encouraged to do so. Through this, it emerged that Oldfield's problems all stemmed from him having a distressing birth. He then went through this rebirth experience to counteract it. Oldfield's metamorphosis has been described{{By whom|date=June 2012}} as "astonishing", a transformation from a "painfully diffident ]" into "a garrulous, over-bearing extrovert". Oldfield, who has since undergone psychotherapy and taken up meditation, described his behaviour after the programme, which included frequent interviews, nude photographs, flying lessons and a short-lived marriage to D'Aubigny's sister, as "a reflex action... I wanted to try everything, but also stated: "But it was right for me, that's all I know. I felt like I'd turned the clock back and had a second chance. It became obvious to me that all the panic I’d felt was the memory of my birth, coming out into the world."<ref name="Unstable">Mick Brown, "". ''The Daily Telegraph'', August 31, 1998.</ref> | |||
| Greater interest in the programme, arguably due to Oldfield's proselytising, led to the group being investigated by the press and becoming the subject of a controversial television play.<ref name="Unstable"/> British ] raised questions in the ], resulting in an investigation by ]. Although the police brought no charges, Exegesis ceased to operate around 1984,<ref name="Independent">Terry Kirby, "". ''The Independent'', 12 December 2002.</ref><ref name="Unstable"/> | |||
| <ref name="sJordblog">{{cite web|last=Jordison|first=Sam |title=Everything you always wanted to know about sects|url=http://samdjordison.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html|accessdate=2 August 2010}}</ref> but re-emerged as a telesales company called ''Programmes Ltd''.<ref name="Chryssides">George D. Chryssides, '''' (1999), p. 372.</ref> | |||
| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
| *] | * ] | ||
| ==References== | ==References== | ||
| {{Reflist}} | {{Reflist}} | ||
| {{Werner Erhard}} | |||
| {{DEFAULTSORT:Exegesis (Group)}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Exegesis (Group)}} | ||
| ] | |||
| ] | ] | ||
| ] | ] | ||
Latest revision as of 16:48, 10 December 2024
Group of individuals that delivered the Exegesis ProgrammeExegesis 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. The Cult Information Centre categorised it as a "therapy cult", focused on personal and individual development, and George Chryssides categorised it as a self religion.
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. At one time Exegesis claimed to have about 5,000 people in the programme.
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. 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'. Although the police brought no charges, Exegesis ceased to run seminars around 1984, but re-emerged as a telesales company called Programmes Ltd, which had a turnover of nearly £6.5 million in 1990.
See also
References
- ^ George D. Chryssides (12 November 2001). Exploring New Religions. A&C Black. pp. 19, 278, 372. ISBN 978-0-8264-5959-6.
- ^ Kirby, Terry (12 December 2002). "Caplin 'recruited' for therapy cult investigated by police". The Independent. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
- Goldacre, Ben (31 July 2003). "Watch out, Caplin's about". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
- ^ Mick Brown, "I know I'm unstable. I accept that". The Daily Telegraph, August 31, 1998.
- "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.
- Jamie Doward; Ben Whitford (21 September 2003). "Cult taught Cherie's guru to confront demons". The Observer.