Endeavor Academy (Charles Anderson)
Wisconsin Dells-based community founded by Charles Anderson around an idiosyncratic teaching of 'A Course in Miracles'. Multiple ex-member accounts of total surrender of assets and severance from family.
CLCI radar
BITE breakdown
0 — Wisconsin-based 'Course in Miracles'-derived community; documented financial extraction.
Profile facts
In context
Endeavor Academy attracted students with intensive ACIM-derived teachings under Anderson's authoritarian direction. Members were pressured to surrender financial resources, sever non-member family ties, and accept Anderson's interpretive monopoly. Anderson died in 2008; the community has fragmented but successor organisations continue.
Key control doctrines
- Anderson's idiosyncratic ACIM interpretation
- Surrender of assets as spiritual progress
Recovery resources
- ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association) — General referral and cult-aware therapist directory.
- INFORM (Information Network on Religious Movements) — LSE-founded UK research-based information service covering new religious movements.
- Reclamation Collective — Religious-trauma-aware therapist network; relevant for post-exit identity-rebuilding.
- Religious Trauma Institute — Religious-trauma clinical research and clinician directory (Marlene Winell tradition).
- Freedom of Mind Resource Center — Steven Hassan's organisation; BITE-model resources and family-side exit guidance.
See the full curated list at /resources.
Lifton's 8 criteria of thought reform
Robert Jay Lifton's 1961 framework, complementary to BITE. Criteria this group exhibits according to the cited sources.
- Dispensing of ExistenceThe group claims authority to decide who counts as a real human / saved / worthy.
This profile is in progress — history, deeper BITE evidence and survivor voices are still being added. Contributions welcome via GitHub.
Timeline
- 1990sAnderson begins gathering followers in Wisconsin Dells
- 2008Anderson dies; community fragments
Sources
We cite sources by name and outlet rather than fabricating links. Where a source includes its own URL, the open ↗ link opens it directly; otherwise search ↗ runs a Google Scholar query for the cited title — useful for verifying academic sources. For news outlets, search the outlet's own archive.
Change history
Substantive edits logged per the score-updates policy.
- 2026-05-29Phase 1 Batch J: per-group recovery resources applied via programmatic palette (closest-fit by category + subCategory + score). Palette: NRM high-control.
- 2026-05-20Source-density flags derived from existing free-text sources[]: ex-member sources. Heuristic auto-flag; subsequent editorial pass will populate structuredSources[] with reliability tiers.
- 2026-05-20Score band scheme migrated from 4 bands to 5 (Minimal 0–5 / Low 6–12 / Moderate 13–20 / High 21–30 / Extreme 31–40). No CLCI value changed; the new Minimal band was carved out of the bottom of the previous Low band.
Relevant hubs
Curated entry points on CLCI Hub for situations connected to this group.
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Found something wrong on this profile?
We accept correction requests from anyone — current and former members, researchers, journalists, family members, and the listed organisation. Submissions are reviewed by an editor; we do not auto-publish.