by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
Trever, the 12 year-old hero in Catherine Ryan Hyde’s book “Pay It Forward,” upon his teacher’s challenge to “think of an idea for world change — and put it into action,” decides that he’s going to do something nice for three people. When they ask how he can return the favor, he explains to his mother, he’s going to say that they have to “pay it forward,” and help three other people each. That way, nine people are helped. The concept, of course, is that good deeds cascade exponentially, and the world changes. Recently, the book was made into a movie with Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt.
The pay it forward concept is only one of the philosophical pillars of the 20-year-old self-improvement seminar called Lifestream. Others include responsibility, trust, balance, acceptance, social contribution, communication, honesty and commitment.
Lifestream was founded in Chicago in 1973 by Jim Quinn, whose wife Therese is still an active facilitator. It was brought to Jacksonville in 1984 by Art and Martha Thiesen. Nancy Altman serves as the president of the 12-person board, and her husband Dr. Jim Altman, is another facilitator. Not surprisingly, the concept originated on the West Coast in the 1960s when businesses saw this as a way to help employees inter-relate.
It’s corporate roots are evident if you watch their video, where Lifestream seems to be about productivity and success. Corporations like DiscoverTec, St. Vincent’s, State Farm, BellSouth, Baptist Medical Center and the Federal Reserve Bank have all encouraged their employees to attend Lifestream seminars, and some even pay for it.
Testimonials explain how Lifestream helps you work harder, focus better and improve the bottom line.
But when you talk to both the facilitators and the participants, it seems more personal. They talk about “experiential” scenarios designed to implant Lifestream’s core values. They talk about writing a life script, about developing critical boundaries for life decisions and learning when you can and can’t cross them. They talk about walking around with your “heart open,” saying that it’s scary but empowering.
Nancy Altman calls it “reality testing,” activities created to be a metaphor for life experiences that can then be applied as a vehicle for gaining insights into the self. In an age when the trendy new thing is life coaching, she says Lifestream teaches people to be their own life coach.
Asked why he came to Lifestream, Donny Lamey, who runs DiscoverTec in Jacksonville and was a team leader at Marywood last week for the advanced seminar, said that people he knew who had been through the program were successful, confident, charismatic, had good direction in life and were generally better able to answer life’s questions.
“Lifestream gives you the tools you need to work through day-to-day issues,” said Lamey, who is on Lifestream’s board and pays for his employees to attend the program (all of basic and half of advanced). “It manifests in how you see yourself and how you relate to other people.”
According to Nancy Altman, a study of medical students at Ohio State University, another active seat of the program, showed marked improvement in the grades of those who went through Lifestream. And half of the “12 Who Care” in Jacksonville are Lifestream graduates.
Lifestream “success seminars,” are for all ages. The three-day “basic” workshop is held at Jacksonville University; the five-day “advanced” is at the Marywood retreat just south of Mandarin.
Children, teens, and adults have separate classes, as the exercises change depending on age. Parents are encouraged to join the children and teen classes so that they can bring common experiences, knowledge, and problem solving skills back home.
Nancy Altman said at a children’s workshop last week, a nine-year-old daughter of a Duval County school vice principal, said near the end of the seminar, “I know why we are able to grasp these concepts better than adults, we have more of our real selves.”
Debbie Haley, who is on Lifestream’s board of advisors, made the “Pay It Forward” analogy. She said part of the social commitment is encouraging people to do good deeds. Both she and Robert Forsyth said that they were drawn to Lifestream by people they knew who had gained “powerful tools to help them get through life.” Forsyth said that he joined because his girlfriend was magnetic, people wanted to gravitate toward her. “It changes the whole way people perceive you,” he said. “People begin to trust you, strangers will ask you important, philosophical questions.”
Nancy Altman said that while stress may often be the catalyst for people who sign up for Lifestream, it’s really supposed to be about “good people getting better” and “getting the optimum out of life.” Each class is responsible for developing a community service project (that will hopefully involve others) as a way to take the skills and concepts they’ve learned in class and apply them to the community.
In the last few months, Lifestream has sponsored workshops for children at the Webb Center for the mentally challenged, worked at the Aslan House for the critically ill, worked with children with Down’s Syndrome, joined the Mentors Who Save program, and in April they’ll be walking with the American Cancer Society.
Nancy and Jim Altman are no strangers to using progressive techniques to help students learn about life. In 1974 they founded the Mandarin Farm School and Learning Center with Melissa and Conrad Weihnacht. Serving grades 9-12 and with a 10-1 teacher to student ratio, the Farm School believed in mixing ages in a classroom, and in teaching children different and unique ways to relate to each other.
Nancy Altman said this all really started when she was invited to participate in an experimental program in education at the University of Florida, where she and the other founders of the Farm School met. It was out of that curriculum that the principles of the Farm School were founded, and later applied to Lifestream. Nancy Altman said they were ahead of the curve with the ideas that there are levels of emotional intelligence. “There are ways to magnify individual strengths, help kids glean important information, and helping students feel empowered,” she said. The Farm School was purchased in the 1980s and is now the Greenwood School for the disabled.
Nancy Altman has a master’s degree in counseling from JU and a master’s degree in social administration with a specialty in social science from Georgia Southwestern University. Jim Altman has a Ph.D. in education and behavioral disorders and currently works for the Duval County School Board managing the popular Excel program, an alternative real-world problem solving initiative at S.P Livingston Elementary.
Loud music calls the participants back to the Casa de Caridad, one of the houses at Marywood where Lifestream is just gearing up for more experiential scenarios after dinner. Nancy Altman discounted any notion that Lifestream is cultish.
“Why would the Florida Board of Nursing give credits as part of their continuing education program?” she asked. “We’ve got lots of Chamber people involved.”
Lifestream has affiliate offices in Toronto, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Rochester. It’s $400 for basic and $1,200 for advanced courses. Lifestream just went non-profit last May and she said there’s a complete money-back guarantee.