Ray Blanchard, PhD Blanchard Consulting Group The Legacy Center ,Morrisville, North Carolina, New Age, Secularist, Situational Morality, Liar, Cult, promotes Situational Morality, worthless and dangerous teachings, Con Artist, creep Internet, North Carolina

 I was in spectrum life design with ray Blanchard and it does have a cult vibe because they don't let you question anything and it is implied that you should blindly take everything to heart. The course was 50/50. Because it had a lot of mixed signals in it. They claim to have the tools and the experience to completely help you move on with your life, but that's a lie, they don't completely know what they are doing. They probably have good intentions, but they have only a vague notion of what is right. Ray was a hypocrite on some things, and was exemplinary on others. To be specific; there were two kinds of exercises: emotional activities, and a lecture of the ways you limit yourself by caring how others think. Now Ray, when he was doing the emotional activities, was 100% spot on, he turns down the lights and a song comes up, and either you face your fears, or connect with other people, while he is stirring up your feelings by saying EXACTLY what your experiences were. That was very very very well done, he didn't make any mistakes. On one of the emotional activities, you look at the person in front of you, while ray says that "it was all okay, and you did the best you could," and "every person deserves love and isn't perfect and they've made mistakes too." And I broke down crying when he said that. The emotional excersizes work. Now what doesn't work are all the ideas you are supposed to understand, I don't think ray understands them that well either. He does a poor job of trying to explain as he just talks at us and doesn't let you ask questions to understand the concepts. No he just has a list of ideas that they all have thought of before many years before. He just rehearses them without any input from any of the people listening to see if we understood or not. The ideas also were not only unexplained, but also they were contradictory and vague, he had this very cult like vibe to all the concepts as you have to memorize their "seminar" language that is completely absurd. They call bad habits, "rackets" and continually say everything is for a reason. They probably have good intentions, but they are trying to say that every problem has a root, and that your actions stem from a deep seeded reason, but they are using a phrase with a double meaning. They don't clarify exactly what we are doing wrong and they hide behind catchphrases when questioned, and fall back on deflecting the question and projecting it back to you, expecting you to not think for yourself, but repeat the catchphrases back to them, like some parrot. Most likely they do this because they are just ignorant and don't answer the questions directly in simple language, because they probably don't understand themselves. The black/white game is a joke. Not all of it, but half of it, again, they only know half of what they are doing. When they stated that the objective of the game was to win, I saw the only way you could win and I went for it. The purpose of the game is arbitrary, and the meaning of the game is open to interpretation. After we played the game, ray yelled at us for ~20 minutes on how we played the game like savages, and that we chose the wrong way to play it. That part was complete bull, he assumed that everyone should of bet on black instead of red, and he put his own subjective morality into the relativeness of the game, which was based on nothing. Half of that game meant something in that, the people that did not take charge and worked with the group do the same thing in their own lives, and that's why they are living unfufilled lives, that part is right. But Ray is giving way too many mixed signals that it's hard to know what he is playing at. And he bullies you into feeling guilty over something completely not your fault and something completely meaningless and petty. He tells you to stand up for yourself, but punishes you when you do, it's hypocracy! In the end, the seminar is half good if you don't listen to the brainwashing ideas which they expect you to believe, which are very shady. They don't match up with each other and are only hinted at, it's not fair to the people who are listening to him talk. Some of the ideas are pure cultist ideology, even though it is with good intentions, they are still a very cult like group with no room for questioning and understanding. It is very fishy this seminar, they say it's about you and not about the money, then talk about "deals" and "savings." They give too many mixed messages which leaves you confused about their intentions. They push dogmatic cultist catchphrases on you with no reason or meaning behind them. I wouldn't go there again, it does help, but I say there is more harm than good. Only go if you don't internalize anything they are saying except in their emotional activities.

I have taken the training with Dr. Ray Blanchard as well.  Seeing as the original report claimed that this goes against Christianity, I'd like to say that I am a Christian woman and the trainings with Dr. Ray Blanchard have actually deepened my faith in Jesus Christ.  I know this to be true (because we discussed it) of some other Christians who have taken the training.  This truly is not some scary cult.  My own family has been very impressed by the positive changes they have witnessed in me.  Basically, I now live my life in a much more effective manner while practicing the principles of love of myself and my neighbor (a Christ teaching), forgiveness (a Christ teaching), faith in God (Christ), Gratitude (Christ) and Generosity (also Christ).  There were one or two people in the course I took who expressed great anger at Dr. Blanchard and expressed similar sentiments to the ones in this report.  I believe there always will be.  Never did anyone say they experienced psychiatric meltdown.  My experience though (based on conversations with people in the course) were that they left there feeling as I did.  Personally, I do not see how letting go of limiting beliefs and painful baggage, replacing it with joy and the most central components of Christ's teachings (without needing to mention religion) is a rip off or has somehow turned me into a member of a scary cult.  I can assure you that this is neither a rip off nor a cult.  Quite simply, change and openness to fresh perspectives are frightening to some people.  Dr. Blanchard's course simply opens up your awareness to new possibilities.  

I also took a basic training with Dr. Ray Blanchard 23 years ago and am re-taking one now. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken training's led by Dr. Ray Blanchard and most of them have used the teachings to create positive results in their lives. I make this generalized statement only because this was the only complaint I saw and Dr. Blanchard has been teaching for 35 years. I can say that personally I used his teachings to get out of an abusive marriage and bring my children safely to the place of my dreams. My kids thank me regularly for taking on my life and making the changes I could to improve the situation drastically for us all. I am a Christian as well. My father is a preacher with one of the largest congregations in the country. I encourage people to check out the training I am taking now that he leads that is offered through Spectrum Life Design. I think you can google that and find it.