Lifespring, founded in 1974, was a private, for-profit, human potential organization. Lifespring stated they trained more than 400,000 people through its ten centers across the United States. Lifespring encountered significant controversy; various academic articles published in psychology journals in the 1970s and 1980s characterized Lifespring's training methods as "deceptive and indirect techniques of persuasion and control", and featured allegations that Lifespring was a cult that coerced members from leaving.