Why I Left Singer Foundation

[John M. Knapp]

A snip from one of Ford Greene's postings:

I wrote to the Ari-Lindemann/Terry Fisher/Gurubusters/SABSA-entity:
> You idiot. I wasn't fired. I resigned. The resignation was in the works
> for a month before I resigned. I just couldn't do what I wanted to within
> that structure.

Ford interjected:
I wish I could comment on this, however, I am constrained by professional
responsibility to maintain the confidence of my client from doing so.

---

Okay, time out. Halt.

Margaret and I agreed privately not to make a big deal about our split,
but Ford's snide insinuation calls for a quick answer.

Margaret never asked me to resign. We had strong disagreements about
direction and policy, but she never expressed anything but the highest
praise in writing or person for my work.

Let me start by saying I have the highest regard for Dr. Singer. She's
brilliant, she's compassionate, she's touched thousands of lives with
healing, she's made an extraordinary professional career against
incredible obstacles -- and is still going strong in her mid-70s with much
more to accomplish.

We should all be so lucky.

It must be obvious to everyone that I have an incredible regard and depth
of feeling for Margaret. I dedicated nearly a year of my life to making
the foundation that bore her name a success -- putting in 60+ hour weeks
for nearly 9 months, averaging roughly $1K a month in compensation during
that time.

As far as I know, we are both disappointed that a venture we believed
would be tremendously successful hasn't yet realized it's promise -- but I
have every confidence that the Singer Foundation will amaze us all in the
near future.

Here's how the Singer Foundation came about.

In June 1995, I began collecting insider secrets, independent scientific
research, and other source materials on Transcendental Meditation -- from
my own records, other former teachers and members, and other outspoken
critics. I had some dim idea of making these materials public on the Web
because of the ceaseless bickering back and forth on
alt.meditation.transcendental over TM dogma -- and out of a sense of
responsibility for having misled so many into starting TM during my 20+
year career within that movement.

In July, I was introduced to Dr. Singer and I sought her help as a
recovering cult victim. In roughly a half-dozen sessions, we covered a lot
of ground and I felt I had a pretty good understanding of how my TM
experience had changed me for the better and worse and what my personal
path to recovery would require. My debt to her is second only to the one I
owe Mike Doughney in recovering my life.

During these meetings, I told Dr. Singer of my growing TM library and my
vague plans. She shared with me about 4 boxes of TM material that she and
volunteers had gathered over the years and encouraged me to publish this
material on the Web. I discovered that Dr. Singer also had an
extraordinary wealth of archival material on many, many groups and
individuals who are alleged to use mind control or coercive persuasion.

About this time, Dr. Singer introduced me to Lawrence Wollersheim and I
got a sense of the great good that he, Bob Penny, Arnie Lerma, Kim Baker,
and others were achieving with FACTNet simply by making information on
Scientology and other groups available to thousands over the Internet.
Lawrence and I worked together on creating the FACTNet 3 Web site in
August and September -- and I was inspired to make TranceNet finally
happen.

With a lot of advice and encouragement from both Lawrence and Margaret, I
launched TranceNet in late September 95. The response was amazing. I
received hundreds of private emails thanking me for my work. (Please note
that a small fraction of TranceNet material has come from Margaret's
records. Much of it requires time-consuming input, fact-checking, and
permissions-gathering.)

I was thrilled when within the first week I received a brief note from a
public figure (who wishes to remain anonymous) offering financial support
for TranceNet.

Now, I felt I was in a dilemma. I knew that I was very new to the
anti-cult fight and knew little about the theory and tactics that had
proven successful in the past. I suspected that my writing and marketing
skills would continue to be useful, but the money would be better "spent"
supporting a team with much more experience.

I talked this over with the anonymous donor and a number of other people
in the "cult awareness movement." The end result was seed funding for what
would become the Singer Foundation.

Over the coming months I raised funds, wrote a business plan, incorporated
the nonprofit Foundation, recruited board and advisory board members, and
created an announcement web site for the Singer Foundation. Unfortunately,
as is often the case in nonprofit work, there were few people with the
time to volunteer. In the end, the work fell to me and Albert Miller, who
had worked with me as Associate Editor of TranceNet.

Dr. Singer, too, had little time to contribute to the effort as she was
finishing a book and dealing with constant legal harrassment from various
groups. But she hoped to have more time to contribute beginning in May.

From the beginning in October 95, our donor's, Margaret's, and my
understanding was that I would be president and executive director of the
foundation -- largely responsible for administration and marketing, based
on my decades in publishing. We always planned on finding the appropriate
"program director" who would create the heart and soul of the Foundation's
nonprofit work. Margaret and I talked with several highly qualified
individuals who considered the position, but for various personal or
professional reasons had to turn us down -- leaving the door open to
participation after the Foundation got under way.

In the end, we incorporated in late January 96 with the modest goal of
creating Internet archives -- a la ex-cult.org, FACTNet, and trancenet.org
-- with the hope that our program could expand in the future.

To my knowledge, Margaret and I were of one mind as to the structure,
goals, and means of Singer Foundation. She approved all of our literature,
bylaws, advisory board members, web pages, and so forth.

The core of our mission from the first had been to make Margaret's
extensive archives public -- and to gather other similar archives for
posterity.

For a variety of reasons, after the launch of the Singer site in late
March, Margaret and I began to disagree about the purposes of the Singer
Foundation. She expressed grave concern about her legal liability if we
made the archives public. She expressed interest in exploring elder abuse,
psychotherapy abuse, and other coercive persuasion topics tangentially
related to cults.

At one point she asked me not to even use the word "cult" in any Singer
communication because of legal troubles she was having. And she forbade me
as executive director from discussing certain groups with a history of
litigation, such as Scientology and est/Landmark/Forum. (She also forbade
me from approaching some of the best-known cult-fighters for seats on our
boards. Dennis Ehrlich, I, and a few others discussed this during the
Spring.)

Her concerns made good sense to me, but I personally felt I was in a bind.

Now, understand, I had raised modest, but significant funds on the promise
of making these archives available via the Internet. And I had used my
marketing skills to get that message out to as large an audience as
possible. As I told her, I felt that as executive director I could not in
good conscience go back to our backers and the public with a significantly
changed mission.

Also, I personally was mainly interested in the core mission of passively
making primary source materials available to the public -- and allowing
them to make up their own minds. Issues of exit counseling, deprogramming,
seminars, and so forth were less exciting to me. I also believe, rightly
or wrongly, in "high engagement" with groups and individuals that bully
and intimidate, attempting to force former cult members to cower in
silence.

Frankly, I yearned for "the good old days" of simply working on TranceNet
and a cause that truly meant something to me.

Over the course of a few weeks, it became clear that we simply were headed
in different directions. My feeling was that the Foundation bore her name,
it was her ass on the line, and she really should have the deciding
interest in what her Foundation did. Rather than remain at an impasse and
blocking each other's work, I resigned (letters below) in early June and
turned over all records, archive materials, and other corporate materials
within approximately a week.

I am pleased to say that my original donor chose to continue to support
TranceNet and my work -- _and_ that Dr. Singer has plans to revive the
Singer Foundation sometime in the Fall with a new board and charter more
in keeping with her thinking.

Meanwhile, TranceNet continues to publish 1,000 pages a day at
http://www.trancenet.org, with 17 megs of information, two mail listservs,
and hundreds of personal email messages to answer each day.

We expect to incorporate trancenet.org within weeks as a nonprofit
corporation and expand our work further.

I continue to have the highest regard for Margaret personally and
professionally -- and know that the "cult awareness movement" needs her
wisdom, insight, experience, and efforts now more than ever.

Like so many, I wait breathlessly for her "new" Foundation to emerge this
Fall. I know we all expect great things.

J

----
Letters of Resignation:

Dear Margaret, 6/5/96

I靶e spent the last week or so doing some soulsearching. I雋 writing,
rather than talking with you, because I鉅 like to put these tentative
thoughts down carefully. I鉅 like to talk with you tomorrow and get your
thoughts.

I see our work at the Singer Foundation at somewhat of an impasse.

I believe strongly in the mission as we formulated it -- the core of which
is creating a public, Internet archive of court cases and primary
documents. I understand your personal and professional reasons for wanting
to change the focus of the Foundation, but my heart is really in the
archive.

I雋 also torn by my need to express our charter to the best of my talents
and experience with what I see as your justifiable need to retain control
of your reputation and career.

I雋 very proud of the work I靶e put into the Singer Foundation. But I
suspect that continuing on as executive director will prolong our impasse.
I鉅 like to gracefully pass the torch on to someone else of your choosing
-- XXXX, XXXX, whatever team or individual you feel best would reflect
your vision for the Foundation.

I靶e talked with XXXXX and he零 quite willing to back me in a nonprofit of
my own, so that if at all possible I鉅 like to make this transition
swiftly. (All the records, archives, bank statements, and so forth are in
good order to pass to your new team.)

The key to making this happen is, as usual, money. My salary is not at
issue. But we do need to find some few thousands of dollars to pay
Foundation phone bills, maintain insurance, and so forth during this
transition.

Frankly, I have been at such loggerheads with myself about this situation
for the last month, that I have not contacted any of the large gift donors
that you have suggested. I would certainly be quite happy to help do this
-- without commission, naturally -- if this would speed the transition.

I think you know that my respect for you personally, your career, your
efforts on behalf of the abused, are without equal. I雋 pleased to think
that you respect my talents and efforts as well. It seems we simply have
one of those philosophical and operational impasses that happen from time
to time.

I hope that no matter what we can continue to be a resource for each other
in our work and lives.

John

-----

VIA FAX & US MAIL
Margaret Thaler Singer
Chairperson,
Margaret Thaler Singer Foundation, Inc.

Dear Margaret, 6/6/96

Per our conversation on the phone this morning, it is with a measure of
regret that I resign as executive director of the Margaret Thaler Singer
Foundation, Inc.

Per the terms of my contract, I will make myself available to the
Foundation for the next 30 days in the capacity of executive director if
you and the board so choose. On the other hand, naturally I will cease
representing myself as executive director immediately upon your request
and notification. As a courtesy, I will not announce my resignation
publicly until you request me to cease representing myself as executive
director.

I also would be quite happy to help you locate the small funding that will
be required to cover expenses incurred to date. (Naturally, I will make
estimating this figure a priority. If you should choose to close down the
Singer Foundation, there is no need to pay the current insurance premium,
so that outstanding expenses are minimal and may in fact be covered by
cash on hand.)

I estimate that it should take no more than a week to transfer your
records back to the Foundation零 possession, pull together a transition
budget, put corporate papers in order, write an explanation of the various
Singer lists and other technical computer resources, and the other matters
that we discussed. I will need a new address for corporate headquarters
and service of process for the Singer Foundation as soon as possible to
notify the State of California.

If you can think of other ways that I can ease this transition, please do
not hesitate to ask.

Thanks for the opportunity of working with you.

John M. Knapp

cc: Mike Healey, Esq.
Curis Mailloux, Board of Directors
XXXXX XXXXXXX

--
John M. Knapp, Editor, TranceNet, http://www.trancenet.org
"trancenet.org: Beaming 10 megs of unfiltered information daily!"
To discuss "TM" without flaming: email majo...@lightlink.com,
with "subscribe trancenet" in the BODY.

[Judy Stein]

In a post explaining why he left the Singer Foundation
(<jmknapp-2907...@192.0.2.1>), "Honest" John Knapp
claimed he started Trancenet "out of a sense of responsibility

for having misled so many into starting TM during my 20+ year
career within that movement."

However, on numerous occasions "Honest" John has left very
positive posts concerning the value of TM. Here's a sampling:

I'm on record -- many, many times in fact -- as believing that
the vast majority of people who have been initiated in TM have
had nothing but positive experiences.--12/22/95

But it's not my desire to destroy the group -- there is much
value there for many people.--12/27/95

I've frequently said that I believe that the movement and MMY's
followers act from what they consider to be very high motives. I
also frequently speak highly of TM meditators' positive
experiences, abilities, motives, and so forth. I've never doubted
that the majority of committed TM practitioners have
overwhelmingly positive experiences and benefits.--5/2/95

The last quote was reconfirmed by "Honest" John as "still true
today" on 11/6/95, a month or so after he started Trancenet out
of his sense of responsibility for having "misled so many into
starting TM."

It is left as an exercise for the reader to determine why he
feels responsible for "misleading" people into learning TM when
he does not doubt the "vast majority" of people who learn TM have
"nothing but positive experiences."

Concerning his stated reasons for leaving the Singer Foundation,
I've put together a chronology drawing on his recent explanatory
post and a number of past posts (relevant quotes on request). It
is left as an exercise for the reader to determine the reasons
for the rather startling changes of direction and significant
inconsistencies revealed therein.

o September 1995: Having started Trancenet, "Honest" John's main
concern is how to be successful in the "anti-cult fight," with
which he has little experience, and to that end he enlists the
cooperation and financial support of people in the anti-cult
movement to form the Singer Foundation.

o March 1996: "Honest" John reveals on the newsgroups his
realization that the anti-cult movement fits him "like a cheap
suit" because he is "just not anti-cult"; when he finds himself
mumbling "sheepishly" to people who ask what he's doing, "I'm
working with an anti-cult group," he takes it as a "danger
signal." He views the nascent Singer Foundation as an
"extraordinary opportunity" to shed this cheap old anti-cult
suit and adopt a more positive and significantly broader focus.

o May 1996: "Honest" John vigorously denies the Singer
Foundation is "anti-cult."

o June 1996: "Honest" John resigns from the Singer Foundation
because Dr. Singer apparently has decided she does not want the
organization after all to have the kind of anti-cult focus he had
had in mind for it all along--a focus on which they had, according
to him, been in complete agreement from the start.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Judy Stein * The Author's Friend * jst...@cnct.com +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++