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Tag Archives: prayer-room

Life Focus: The Price of a White Polo

21 November 2013, 06:00

Moderator

33

I could share countless stories of spiritual, physical, and mental abuse from my time spent in the Life Focus program. But one  experience that stands out in my mind was when I was confined to the Prayer Room during  Life Focus IV. The “scandal” that began a witch hunt started with a young lady from […]

Examining “Life Focus”

14 November 2013, 06:00

Rachel

14

A couple of years ago I heard that there was a program for young men in the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) called Life Focus. Apparently Life Focus came into existence right around the time I left ATI. When I heard some of my friends discussing it, I was intrigued and started asking around. While there […]

The Ravages of Guilt

8 October 2012, 06:00

Moderator

13

“If you say anything, I will tie up your family, just like I tie you up. Then I will make you sit there and watch as I kill each one of them in front of you. Will I kill you? No! You I will leave alive, so that you can spend every day of your […]

Life Focus: Isolation Instead of Relationship

11 August 2012, 06:00

Moderator

45

As a teenager I was sent to an Advanced Training Institute (ATI) young men’s program called Life Focus. Life Focus was not explicitly advertised as a program for the troubled youth or “rebels” of ATI, but, functionally, that is what it  was. The young men in Life Focus were regarded as and spoken to as […]

Life Inside

7 May 2012, 06:00

Moderator

37

My family joined ATI when I was five in 1984. We were members of the pilot family program (the first 100 families). I don’t know what ATI is now, I only know it as it was for me: A very strict Christian home school program. I hear they have changed some things, but that doesn’t […]

My Year as an LIT

7 March 2012, 06:48

Moderator

46

At the age of 15, I had already been heavily enslaved to a serious eating disorder for five years. According to my psychologist/counselor at the time, the eating disorder was accompanied by Borderline Personality Disorder and clinical depression. He prescribed three different medications that gave me headaches and made me more irritable–they didn’t really solve any […]

The Disease Catalogue

7 December 2011, 05:00

BrianD

35

Have a migraine? You may be struggling with guilt. Did you just develop a sinus infection? There is a good chance fear and anxiety are plaguing you. Does your grandfather have Osteoporosis? You may want to tell him that he is struggling with envy and jealousy. It’s hard to believe, perhaps, but these kinds of […]

My ITC Prison Sentence, Part 3

20 September 2011, 06:15

JessicaF

21

The assignments I was given when I was confined to the prayer room at the Indianapolis Training Center (ITC) were all intended to make me aware of my sin and failure. For example, I was to write a two-page description of my sins, how they affected others, and the specific ways that God was using […]

My ITC Prison Sentence, Part 2

15 September 2011, 06:15

JessicaF

12

The Indianapolis Training Center (ITC) was gearing up for Thanksgiving and none of us in the training programs were allowed to leave. It was only a four-day weekend, after all.  But this policy was causing serious morale issues. Especially since it wasn’t applied universally: the cosmetology instructor was one of those who was allowed to […]

My ITC Prison Sentence, Part 1

13 September 2011, 06:15

JessicaF

10

My Indianapolis Training Center (ITC) prison sentence started in 1996, when I was 18 years old. My parents had gotten to the end of their rope with me. I had been the family project, constantly in need of guidance and discipline, ever since our family joined ATI when I was ten. I desperately wanted to […]