Development of Human Potential

The Lifespring Basic training creates a context in which the ability to experience and express one's self is transformed so that life is vibrant, purposeful, and complete.

For the last helf century, a revolution has been taking place in the field of education. Innovative new ways to aid people in learning about themselves have been developed. This revolution involves both in content--shifting from emphasis on learning about the external world to focus on human experience and potential--and method, shifting from fact-gathering and analysis to highly engaged, participatory learning forms.

Experiential learning, as this form is sometimes called, is available, under a variety of forms and guises, in the training programs of many large corporations and government organizations. In the nation's high schools, colleges, and universities it is less available, though it is frequently included in management training courses and sometimes in psychology courses.

Lifespring is one of the few national training organizations offering to the general public experiential learning courses aimed at facilitating personal growth and effectiveness. Founded in San Francisco in 1974, it established, by the end of the 1970s, centers for its courses in the major cities on the east and west coasts. By the mid-1980s, it had expanded into most of the major metropolitan areas nationwide.

Expanding choice, creating options and alternatives, and providing a supportive atmosphere for the examination of values and systems are some of the benefits that Lifespring, through the series of courses it offers, seeks to make available. The ultimate goal of the program, according to John Hanley, its founder and president, is to enable the participant to become a more productive and effective member of society--one who matters--by freely expressing his/her talents and potential.

Lifespring goes about achieving these goals by using experiential learning techniques derived from a variety of sources: Gestalt awareness training, Encounter, the National Training Lab, psycho-synthesis, Eastern meditation, as well as the work of its own research staff. The experiential learning methods are presented by highly skilled trainers-- many of whom have been with the organization for several years--include two-person communication exercises, mingles, games, guided meditations, sharing, and a variety of small and large group exercises. Trainers also present brief "lecturettes" which suggest key distinctions or principles against which one can test beliefs and habits. These lecturettes do not present "positions" to be believed but rather stands from which one can challenge one's own beliefs.

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