VOLUME 13 |ISSUE 3 |2022 33
EXPOSED: The trendy life coach group accused of
fleecing and threatening its trusting middle-class
devotees, as victims sucked into a sinister ‘personal
growth’ programme issue a chilling warning
“A life coaching group that uses LinkedIn to target
hundreds of middle-class recruits is accused of abusing,
exploiting and fleecing vulnerable victims. Former
members said Lighthouse International Group
‘groomed’ them with promises they would find personal
fulfilment and a dream career through its up to £100-an-
hour mentoring programmes. But they say they ended
up in thrall to its leader Paul Waugh, who lives in a
£2 million country estate, drives a Range Rover with
plates bearing the initials of his group and boasts of
‘numerous’ celebrity friends and of being ‘very connected’
in government. New recruits, who are often vulnerable
because of divorce, depression or previous abuse, are
assigned a mentor who becomes like a ‘brother’ to them
and to whom it is claimed they are encouraged to share
their ‘innermost secrets’ in sessions which are recorded
and stored by the group’s leaders. But these turn into
‘abusive relationships’ with members later ‘pressured’ into
‘investing’ tens of thousands of pounds, often by taking
a loan which plunges them deep into debt, without
any formal written financial agreement or receipt, it is
alleged. Some members asking for their money to be
returned were reminded their innermost secrets had been
recorded in coaching sessions—which made them feel
as if they were being threatened. In one case, a mother
says she remortgaged her family home to help raise over
£200,000 for her two sons to invest in the group, which
they were promised would be repaid. She says she has
not received a penny back. Ex-members said they were
told to isolate themselves from friends and family who
criticised Lighthouse, with the group’s leaders even urging
husbands to sue wives and children to sue their parents.
An environmental consultant who questioned the value of
mentoring with other members said she was left ‘terrified’
and in tears after Mr Waugh bombarded her with abuse
during a two-hour phone call. When she later politely
emailed requesting a refund on her £25,000 investment,
Mr Waugh refused and reminded her that the group had
recordings of her describing the ‘long-term sexual abuse’
she suffered as a child—which she felt was a threat.
Lighthouse strongly denies this was the intention, saying it
referenced the recordings to ‘remind [her] of the level and
extent of work Lighthouse had done with her.’” (The Daily
Mail, 04/19/22)
Mindfulness meditation reduces prosocial reparative
“A series of studies have uncovered a causal relationship
between mindfulness meditation and decreased feelings
of guilt. The findings have been published in the Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology. Several studies have
found that mindfulness meditation draws people’s focus
inward and reduces negative emotions. But some negative
emotions provide useful social feedback. For example,
feelings of guilt help to push individuals to atone for their
transgressions against others. The new study provides
evidence that mindfulness can lead to undesirable
outcomes by dampening feelings of guilt. ‘I was interested
in doing this research because, after I started studying
meditation and meditating myself, I noticed that I was
using it as almost a default way of reacting to stressors,
said study author Andrew C. Hafenbrack, an assistant
professor at the University of Washington. ‘This was great
when I was overly ruminating or overreacting to some
minor problem, and is a powerful sleep aid. Sometimes,
however, this meant that I would meditate or focus on my
breath in situations that there was actually a significant
problem and it would have been better if I had faced it
directly and immediately.’” (PsyPost, 04/16/22)
Rev. David Morrier sentenced to probation for sexual
battery
“Morrier pleaded guilty to a single count of sexual
battery on the woman he was supposed to be counseling.
Prosecutor Jane Hanlin said the victim agreed to the
plea deal because, ‘What she wanted from Day 1 was to
be able to prevent him from hurting anyone else.’ But
after listening to the victim’s tearful impact statement, a
grim-faced Bruzzese told Morrier, 60, ‘That was the most
powerful victim impact statement I have ever heard. You’re
fortunate she agreed to this.’ …
“The woman told the court it was in 2010, her senior
year, that she finally felt safe enough to talk about the
abuse she’d endured earlier in life, but said it very quickly
turned into ‘a three-year nightmare of physical, emotional,
psychological, spiritual, sacramental and sexual abuse.
Instead of being present, listening and providing support
to me, my truth was woven into a dark narrative of Satanic
ritual abuse that I was forced to accept under threat of
his abandonment and through hours of gaslighting by
him and by a “specialist” I was taken off campus to see,’ she
said, her nine-page statement punctuated by sobs. ‘I was
guilted and shamed into agreeing to stay for graduate
school at Franciscan University because, as he said to me
on my graduation day, “If you don’t, it means that you are
throwing away all of the energy and effort that I have put
into caring for you. You need to stay to continue to receive
the treatment you need.” That treatment was not mental
health treatment. Instead of receiving therapy to address
my diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism,
and addiction, I endured upward of four-five deliverance
sessions, lasting two to four hours for the entirety of
summer of 2010 until I was told through “discernment by
EXPOSED: The trendy life coach group accused of
fleecing and threatening its trusting middle-class
devotees, as victims sucked into a sinister ‘personal
growth’ programme issue a chilling warning
“A life coaching group that uses LinkedIn to target
hundreds of middle-class recruits is accused of abusing,
exploiting and fleecing vulnerable victims. Former
members said Lighthouse International Group
‘groomed’ them with promises they would find personal
fulfilment and a dream career through its up to £100-an-
hour mentoring programmes. But they say they ended
up in thrall to its leader Paul Waugh, who lives in a
£2 million country estate, drives a Range Rover with
plates bearing the initials of his group and boasts of
‘numerous’ celebrity friends and of being ‘very connected’
in government. New recruits, who are often vulnerable
because of divorce, depression or previous abuse, are
assigned a mentor who becomes like a ‘brother’ to them
and to whom it is claimed they are encouraged to share
their ‘innermost secrets’ in sessions which are recorded
and stored by the group’s leaders. But these turn into
‘abusive relationships’ with members later ‘pressured’ into
‘investing’ tens of thousands of pounds, often by taking
a loan which plunges them deep into debt, without
any formal written financial agreement or receipt, it is
alleged. Some members asking for their money to be
returned were reminded their innermost secrets had been
recorded in coaching sessions—which made them feel
as if they were being threatened. In one case, a mother
says she remortgaged her family home to help raise over
£200,000 for her two sons to invest in the group, which
they were promised would be repaid. She says she has
not received a penny back. Ex-members said they were
told to isolate themselves from friends and family who
criticised Lighthouse, with the group’s leaders even urging
husbands to sue wives and children to sue their parents.
An environmental consultant who questioned the value of
mentoring with other members said she was left ‘terrified’
and in tears after Mr Waugh bombarded her with abuse
during a two-hour phone call. When she later politely
emailed requesting a refund on her £25,000 investment,
Mr Waugh refused and reminded her that the group had
recordings of her describing the ‘long-term sexual abuse’
she suffered as a child—which she felt was a threat.
Lighthouse strongly denies this was the intention, saying it
referenced the recordings to ‘remind [her] of the level and
extent of work Lighthouse had done with her.’” (The Daily
Mail, 04/19/22)
Mindfulness meditation reduces prosocial reparative
“A series of studies have uncovered a causal relationship
between mindfulness meditation and decreased feelings
of guilt. The findings have been published in the Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology. Several studies have
found that mindfulness meditation draws people’s focus
inward and reduces negative emotions. But some negative
emotions provide useful social feedback. For example,
feelings of guilt help to push individuals to atone for their
transgressions against others. The new study provides
evidence that mindfulness can lead to undesirable
outcomes by dampening feelings of guilt. ‘I was interested
in doing this research because, after I started studying
meditation and meditating myself, I noticed that I was
using it as almost a default way of reacting to stressors,
said study author Andrew C. Hafenbrack, an assistant
professor at the University of Washington. ‘This was great
when I was overly ruminating or overreacting to some
minor problem, and is a powerful sleep aid. Sometimes,
however, this meant that I would meditate or focus on my
breath in situations that there was actually a significant
problem and it would have been better if I had faced it
directly and immediately.’” (PsyPost, 04/16/22)
Rev. David Morrier sentenced to probation for sexual
battery
“Morrier pleaded guilty to a single count of sexual
battery on the woman he was supposed to be counseling.
Prosecutor Jane Hanlin said the victim agreed to the
plea deal because, ‘What she wanted from Day 1 was to
be able to prevent him from hurting anyone else.’ But
after listening to the victim’s tearful impact statement, a
grim-faced Bruzzese told Morrier, 60, ‘That was the most
powerful victim impact statement I have ever heard. You’re
fortunate she agreed to this.’ …
“The woman told the court it was in 2010, her senior
year, that she finally felt safe enough to talk about the
abuse she’d endured earlier in life, but said it very quickly
turned into ‘a three-year nightmare of physical, emotional,
psychological, spiritual, sacramental and sexual abuse.
Instead of being present, listening and providing support
to me, my truth was woven into a dark narrative of Satanic
ritual abuse that I was forced to accept under threat of
his abandonment and through hours of gaslighting by
him and by a “specialist” I was taken off campus to see,’ she
said, her nine-page statement punctuated by sobs. ‘I was
guilted and shamed into agreeing to stay for graduate
school at Franciscan University because, as he said to me
on my graduation day, “If you don’t, it means that you are
throwing away all of the energy and effort that I have put
into caring for you. You need to stay to continue to receive
the treatment you need.” That treatment was not mental
health treatment. Instead of receiving therapy to address
my diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism,
and addiction, I endured upward of four-five deliverance
sessions, lasting two to four hours for the entirety of
summer of 2010 until I was told through “discernment by
