SUBMITTED: Sunday, October 31, 2004
POSTED: Monday, November 01, 2004
To clear up confusion about what we have actually said concerning our 17 years as members of the gentle wind project, we have added a statement to Wind of Changes, a website for former gwp members, and are also posting the statement here for those of you who may not have read our accounts.
Many people writing here are personally known to us, as we have been friends for years through our mutual attraction to gentle wind. We continue to wish our old friends well, and hold out the possibility that the time may come when we can meet again. We have no quarrel with any of you.
Some people here have expressed disbelief that individuals could sing the praises of gwp at one point in their lives and then change their minds. We believe that it's quite possible to “have it both ways” – but not at the same time. For many years we spread the word of gwp to anyone who would listen, and did our best to argue against any detractors.
Now we are simply writing the truth about our personal experiences. We are grateful to anyone who accepts our right to do this.
Jim and Judy
Jim Bergin and Judy Garvey
Blue Hill, ME, USA
Statement Concerning Our Personal Stories:
Prior to our 17-year interlude with the Gentle Wind Project leaders and followers we had long-term careers as book publishers. During these years we were often in the position of evaluating manuscripts, both in terms of literary style and plot. It was usually not very difficult because a good story with merit had the effect of what James Joyce called an “epiphany,” or in his words, “a revelation of the whatness of a thing.” Such a story produces an “effect” that goes beyond words because it rings true to the reader.
In reading the GWP leaders' story about us, we are confronted with a difficult and contrived plot, with questionable “effect,” which goes something like this: that these two former GWP members, Jim Bergin and Judy Garvey, concocted stories about GWP, referred to in the GWP story as “vicious attacks” (among other unimaginative descriptive terms used). The GW plot accuses us of being motivated by the desire to use our so-called “tabloid” writing to promote lucrative careers as cult deprogrammers and sought-after public speakers. This supposed notoriety would also increase our material worth as a result of taking “business” away from this charitable nonprofit organization.
The non sequitur with the Gentle Wind leaders' plot – which was, until recently, outlined in detail on GWP's “eye of the sky” website – is: How could two people write personal stories with such demeaning details – “A Husband's Perspective” and “Insiders' Stories” – and expect to be financially and professionally rewarded? Our personal stories contain biographical details that one would wish to withhold from family, friends, colleagues, and strangers. It is not the stuff of vainglorious career enhancement.
As we say here in Maine, “That dog won't hunt.” However, when it comes to the current venue for these types of plots, the standards are much lower, so to clarify and give the GWP story a dose of reality, we wish to offer the following statements:
1) Our intent in writing our stories was to provide an alternative view of the Gentle Wind Project based on our personal experiences spanning seventeen years as former followers and, for a number of years, on the GWP Board of Directors. As we say in the Prologue to A Husband's Perspective, “Take what you want and leave the rest.”
2) There is not, and has never been, any commercial activity, self-promotion, financial gain, conspiracy with co-defendants (the other folks sued by Gentle Wind's leaders), commercial speech, “cult-speaking business,” counseling, or cult deprogramming activity engaged in by Jim Bergin or Judy Garvey, alone or with anyone else.
3) There is no material gain of any kind related to our stories about our personal experiences with GWP.
4) Jim Bergin and Judy Garvey each individually wrote and edited their own stories, A Husband's Perspective and Insiders' Stories, about their personal experiences with GWP leaders and followers. No one, including other defendants in the GW lawsuit, contributed writing or editing. No one made suggestions on ideas, content, or format of our personal stories, or was aware of their existence or content.
5) The 2003 AFF panel that Jim Bergin was to give a presentation on, as alleged by GWP as an example of commercial activity, never took place, nor did we attend the AFF conference. Had Jim Bergin taken part on a panel, there would have been no payment, exchange of value, or financial gain of any kind.
6) There is no Maine Cult Information Network, as assumed by GWP's leaders, nor has there ever been one. Jim Bergin and Judy Garvey had discussed forming such a voluntary support group, but abandoned the idea before beginning. Had a Maine cult information network ever been formed, it would have been a support group with no exchange of money, “donations,” or services, as can be found with thousands of other support groups for people looking for a place to talk with peers about shared experiences.
7) Judy Garvey's hypnotherapy practice has always been less than part-time (one-half day per week). Judy Garvey has not, and couldn't possibly have, expanded her hypnotherapy practice as a result of telling her personal story about her seventeen years with GWP.
8) In their lawsuit, the GW leaders used an ad from our son's painting business, which they apparently found in our small town's weekly newspaper, to allege that Jim Bergin is profiting by an increase in carpentry work by the public sharing of his personal story about life with GWP. There is no relationship between Jim Bergin and this ad used by GW leaders, and Jim Bergin has not, and couldn't possibly have, expanded his carpentry business as a result of telling his personal story about his seventeen years with GWP.
9) Our stories are autobiographical and not “fiction” – another term created by GWP leaders to lessen the impact of what we have written.
10) Rather than “defamatory attacks,” “tabloid writing,” and other pejorative and prejudicial labels used by GW's leaders about what we have written in our personal accounts of experiences with the GW group, a more accurate and literate description is "the truth." The standard for a “defamatory attack” can, however, be found in GWP's referring to the author of Insiders' Stories as a “post-menopausal schizophrenic in need of HRT [hormone replacement therapy].”
11) The terms “sexual abuse,” “sexual molestation,” “domestic abuse,” and “child abuse” were not used by us, but were concocted by the GWP leaders on their websites; their newsletters to “instrument keepers” (Gentle Wind Project News; also removed recently from the Internet); on their GWP Discussion Boards (closed to non-members); and in GWP's lawsuit. We attempt, in our personal stories, to analyze the coercive techniques, equating the origination of new “healing instruments” with group sexual activity termed “energy work,” used by the GW leaders as a potential inducement to participation in GWP's “energy work” with the leader of GWP and the female followers, including Judy Garvey.
12) If requested to do so during the course of defending against the GWP lawsuit, Judy Garvey will supply a list of names of individuals known to her who participated in the GWP “energy work” (group sexual activity) discussed in the personal stories on this website.
13) We are defending against the GWP leaders' lawsuit ourselves, from personal income and from a loan secured against our home, at great personal sacrifice. The Bergin-Garvey household does not have the luxury of a collective income based on large salaries and followers' “donations,” nor do we have a legal “defense” fund.
14) The correct titles to our personal stories are A Husband's Perspective, and Insiders' Stories. These stories have never been titled "Bergin Report" and "Garvey Report," both titles imposed by GW's leaders and passed along to their followers.
15) Our intent in writing our stories was to provide an alternative view of the Gentle Wind Project based on our personal experiences spanning seventeen years as former followers and, for a number of years, on the GWP Board of Directors. Please take what you want and leave the rest.