Is it a church or a dangerous group brainwashing its followers?
A cult expert is issuing a warning about a religious group flourishing in Wisconsin.
TODAY'S TMJ4's I-Team decided to investigate what's going on at Endeavor Academy. The I-Team spent months investigating the academy and the international ministry it's spawned.
It's all right in the middle of the Wisconsin Dells, in the heart of Wisconsin's playground.
The Endeavor Academy is a place that promises to heal the sick and raise the dead. It's a place some say is dangerous.
Yaani Drucker is a former member.
"If you come to a place where you sort of get taken in, you don't necessarily see that you are in the grips of something that is not healthy," Drucker said.
At Endeavor Academy "mind-training" is a common phrase.
Cult expert Rick Ross is worried.
"When a group isn't grounded in reality, they look at the world as an illusion. It can be a recipe for disaster," Ross said.
Chuck Anderson started Endeavor Academy in the 1970s and called it God's Country Place. Now, that country place has exploded like the Dells, into a school, a church and an international ministry.
Alden Hughes is a church pastor.
"Love is what we're all about, and there's really nothing to fear," Hughes said.
Church teachings are based on miracles and ideas that people aren't real. Leaders believe the world isn't real, and that only by taking "a course in miracles" can you truly be enlightened.
Drucker was a follower of Anderson and was a member of Endeavor Academy.
"I was sent to the academy for the summer and I spent two months there and was really perplexed because I found that the teachings and the actions that were happening there were probably 180 degrees out," Drucker said.
Drucker left, but hundreds of others continue to go through the academy's mind-training.
Experts say the mind training that happens at the church is really a form of brainwasing typical of most cults, and some experts say that could be dangerous.
"The group has a disturbing kind of teaching where they teach their people that the world we see around us is an illusion," Ross said.
Some former members of Endeavor Academy say they were harassed, screamed at and abused.
The I-Team decided to pay the Endeavor Academy a visit.
Pastor Hughes told us there's nothing wrong at the church.
"Jesus was a revolutionary. He was not interested in getting along with the Sadducees and Pharisees of his time. The course in miracles is a revolutionary document that isn't about getting along with the establishments of this world," Hughes said.
Then Hughes tried to mind train our reporter, John Mercure.
"Maybe you can even feel this while I'm speaking, like if I'm speaking the words of truth to you, you're going to start experiencing this as an experience of light and that's happening right now. I can feel you changing, whether you can accept the consequences or not," Hughes said.
John Mercure: "So right now are you trying to sway me, trying to pull me towards what you believe I need?"
"No. I'm just telling you the truth of the matter, that this is a dream and you're the guy dreaming the dream and you can change your mind anytime," Hughes said.
According to Hughes and his followers, it's all a dream.
"A human being is not a creation of God. This world is a dream and it's not real," Hughes said.
But apparently we're real enough. As we're trying to leave, we're accosted by other members of the group.
"The next time, I would like to tell you that if you want something like that you come to me and ask if that's OK with me because that's the way that we go here," one lady said.
"We're not defending anything. We don't care what Rick Ross says. We really don't care," a man said.
So does Endeavor Academy pose any threat? Drucker thinks it's possible.
"They have been told over and over by their teacher this is not a real place, it doesn't matter what you do here," Drucker said.
The ministry is making a push for new members with a documentary they've just released: "A Course in Miracles Unleashed."
Ultimately, members will have to decide for themselves.
