I joined ‘self-help’ course but nothing was as it seemed – it cost me my house, £130k and turned life into a nightmare
JEFF Leigh-Jones thought he was part of a “life coaching” group that would help to better himself and fulfil his dreams of travelling across the world.
But within three years, the skipper, 34, from Portsmouth, had sold his home to raise funds, invested £131,000 and pushed away family members he loved.
Jeff believes the mentoring group Lighthouse International was “a cult” and his partner Dawn Ingram claims he was a “cash cow” after being “brainwashed every day”.
He and dozens more have shared similar ordeals in a new BBC Three documentary A Very British Cult.
Lighthouse offered life coaching and mentoring that members believed would help them to be successful in their personal lives and in business.
Through one-to-one mentorship and calls with leader Paul Waugh, which they would be expected to transcribe, they believed they would be equipped with skills to take on all challenges in life.
Speaking to The Sun, Jeff said: “Leaving was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I was heavily emotionally and financially invested.
“I invested £131,000 and had to accept I would never get that back.
“I was wrecked in the head for so long and it was something I really had to heal from. From coming out, getting my old self back and killing my cult self, it’s an ongoing process.
“I feel like I’ve only just got clarity but since leaving my relationships, freedom, opportunities and life as a whole has been way better.”
Lighthouse International was set up in 2012 by Paul Waugh, a South African who made the unverified claim to have raked in millions as a businessman.
The group had a hierarchy with four levels starting at Level One and going up to Level Four, which only Waugh had achieved.
That top tier is described as “the mystic communal” – someone who “transcended challenges in life” and was able to take a “profound view on the world”.
Knowledge from Lighthouse was claimed to help to forge successful business people and overcome childhood traumas, but it came at a hefty price.
Spiralling costs
Former members claimed they were encouraged to hand over increasing sums starting at £10,000, and encouraged to borrow money to pay for courses.
They include Jeff, who joined in late 2018, starting off with weekly webinars.
Members had one-to-one calls with mentors before investing money in the group and listening to meetings that they would then have to transcribe.
In the initial phone calls with his mentor, they would discuss his personal relationships, problems and childhood struggles, which Jeff now describes as “despicably invasive”.
When his partner Dawn began to raise concerns about the investments and increasing numbers of hours he’d spend on conference calls with Waugh – sometimes up to 10 hours – she became a target for the group.
In recordings heard in the documentary, Waugh states: “One day, you’ll snap. People like you murder, murder woman like her, you know that? It’s very common.”
Similarly, in another recording, Jeff’s mentor told him: “You may love her but she doesn’t love you. No matter what she says.”
Jeff believes the conversations altered his perception of relationships, including those with Dawn and his mother.
He added: “I felt inwardly more distant to the people who were in my life, like I loved them less and gave them less time and devotion. That was a nasty experience.”
Stressful conflict
During his time with Lighthouse, Jeff stopped working and began training to be a mentor – dedicating himself to the programme seven days a week.
Members were expected to listen to audio calls with Waugh that could last for up to 10 hours and transcribe them too.
Jeff believes the workload led to him being “brainwashed” and was “purposefully stressful” to cause conflict between him and his loved ones.
He said: “The amount of work is there to create stress in your family because Lighthouse can focus on them being ‘toxic’ and ‘slowing you down’.
“But your family are the only ones who can see you are being led with a carrot and stick into oblivion and your dreams are going up in smoke.
“So is your personality and freedom but you can’t see it because you think, ‘I’m motivated, I’m growing, becoming a business man and a professional’ but your logic is caput.”
Jeff claims red flags began to emerge after one meeting with Waugh in person, when he believed he spotted “crocodile tears” while the leader recanted stories to them.
On another occasion, while teeing up to play golf with the Lighthouse head he spotted concerning behaviour.
Jeff told the doc: “Paul Waugh gets out of the golf caddy, grunts at one of the seniors and shakes his foot. I look down and his shoelaces have come undone.
“It was the way the senior responded. He dropped his golf club, he moved so fast across the golf green, dropped on one knee and knelt there tying up his shoelaces.
“I looked at him and thought, ‘Is that where I’m going?’”
Jeff’s moment of clarity came after getting some time away from the group. He had just handed over a further £28,000 and was allowed two weeks off to spend time with his family.
At that time, Jeff says he was being encouraged to move into a communal house with other members of the group and upon his return to the UK was consumed with anxiety.
He recalled: “When I came back I knew I’d have to go back on the daily calls with Lighthouse and that I would have to commit to them there for good.
“I knew I’d never get that time off again, it would be seven days a week forever. But I also knew I wasn’t happy there at all.
“My hair was falling out and I was stressed. I was on the computer and phone all day, which I hated, stuck speaking to people that I didn’t respect.
“I knew I had to do it but I didn’t want to so decided not to answer my phone for a couple of days and watched Paul Waugh hit the roof in 15 to 16 text messages.
“It stressed me out so much because I had invested so much and intuitively I knew I wouldn’t see that money again.”
Jeff wrote him “a long letter” explaining that he was leaving Lighthouse for good in late 2021 and since then claims they have harassed him and his partner online.
‘Extreme harassment’
He’s not alone. The BBC has spoken to dozens of former members and stated “many of them were too scared to be filmed… terrified of extreme harassment”.
Among them was Simon Perreira, who was in the group for three years, and eventually ended up living with his Lighthouse mentor.
He invested in excess of £35,000 and claims he felt monitored in the home.
Simon told the doc: “One evening I was in my room quite late, I’d turned my lights out to get to sleep.
“I could hear him walking, standing just outside the door. I did feel this feeling the whole time like he was watching me.”
When Simon left, he described how his “anxiety levels were off the charts” due to knowing Lighthouse members would call him.
Now reflecting on his experience, Simon said: “I’m nearly 40 years old, this is not how I imagined my life being.
“I’m working hard each day to recover and I will. I think the average person might look at a group, at Lighthouse, and think, ‘That would never happen to me’ but it can happen to anyone.”
Former member Jo, who worked as a teacher, claimed Lighthouse wrote to the head teacher at her school after she left the group.
She recalls they told her employer: “They had concerns about me and my ability to do my job and I was a threat to children. They also began to CC in senior executives at the local authority.
“One email had two reports (one 25 pages and another 18 pages) about me, making various spurious claims, one of which was that I should be psychologically evaluated. It was laughable really.”
‘Cults in your neighbourhood’
Survivors and multiple experts contacted by the BBC insisted that Lighthouse was “a cult”, with one stating it was “on the extreme end of the continuum”.
Cult expert Dr Alexandra Stein agrees that Lighthouse is “a very classic example of a cult” and explains that it “fits all the criteria” she uses.
Dr Stein added: “In this country, there is such a strong stereotype that the only people in cults and the only cults are in California, where people wear long orange robes.
“I really want to say to people that there is a cult in your neighbourhood.”
Leader’s £1.1m payouts
The BBC found 17 County Court judgements against current Lighthouse members for unpaid debt totalling £87,000.
A secret investigation ordered by the UK Secretary of State for Business led to a judge ruling for the closure of Lighthouse last week in court.
The investigators found £2.5million had been paid into Lighthouse accounts and Waugh had paid himself £1,155,830 between March 2018 and July 2022.
Outside court, Waugh told documentarian Catrin that he “had been trying to shut it down for a while” and that there were “issues we will deal with reputationally after this”.
Waugh and Lighthouse did not respond to the 120 allegations made by the BBC following their investigation.
When offered a chance to counter the claims by The Sun, Waugh pointed to a response to all media.
It said: “The BBC have been making some serious realisations given the evidence we have already started to share through our Malicious Myths Docu-series and tweets.
“We have now worked around our data protection issues and are now bringing it all out.
“No one can now hide behind data protection while simultaneously attempting to destroy us”
A Very British Cult airs at 9pm tonight on BBC Three. An eight-part podcast is available to stream on BBC Sounds.