About

Why I am a Brain Coach

prison

Prior to Lyle’s incarceration he was involved in a seven year relationship in which he was physically and emotionally violent.  However, Lyle was never arrested for domestic violent, but he was arrested for manufacturing and distribution of cocaine.   He was sentenced to 4 years in the DOC of Wisconsin.  Upon his release he was rearrested and sentenced to 22 years in federal prison.    

After twenty years of incarceration Lyle was released in December 10, 2007, and released from Federal Supervision in 2011.  

Lyle worked for Men As Peacemakers In 2008 and 2009 in Duluth, MN, and created a Reentry program for Men As Peacemakers for those coming out of State and Federal prison.

In 2010 Lyle was trained as a Domestic Abuse Intervention Program (DAIP) Men’s Group Co-facilitator and began co-facilitating men’s group for them.  

In 2011 Lyle became an international Domestic Abuse Intervention Program Trainer and did a number of training for DAIP.  

Lyle wrote his 1st book in 2009.  It is designed for users to enjoy the Positive Attitude Development Process for identifying one’s personal Core Values.  

2016 Lyle wrote his 2nd book titled: Brain Change, his life story about prison life and his brain.

Lyle has written a Men’s Group facilitator’s guide to build trust in the PAD facilitating process.

Since his release in 2008, Lyle has been on TEDtalks and given thousands of lectures on the importance of  identifying one’s Core Values.   Click here to view ——– the PAD process and why Core Values are important.  

 Lyle is presently working on a computer program where you can identify your Core Values and then have them evaluated by Lyle.  

 

In the 70s I met a wonderful woman who allowed her nine month old boy to carry my last name until I was arrested the second time.  She trusted that I would be in his life forever however, in the 80s, when he was 7 years old, I was plucked from his life and taken to state prison.  For me it was just a couple of years in prison as a cost of doing illegal business.  For him it was a total state of confusion.

While in the Maximum security prison in Waupun, Wisconsin, there was this one evening I promised to never forget.  One evening I decided to listen to all the different sounds coming into my cell.    There were two men playing chess even though they were in different cells.  They numbered their chess boards and screamed out movements from one number to another as allowed by a specific chess piece.   I could hear a prisoner rereading a letter he had received.  As he read to himself each evening you could hear him gently crying and whispering his regrets as he paged through his Dear John letter.

A prisoner peeing in the water of his toilet stimulated others to do the same in their cells.  One prisoner trying to comfort another because of the news he just heard on the range phone.  Someone was yelling, “Let me out of the fucking hole I can’t take any more of this bullshit” only to hear “Shut the fuck up.  If you knew you couldn’t do the time you shouldn’t have done the crime?”  From this interaction came a few minutes of verbal chaos until it finally quieted down before the lights go off for the evening.

As the darkness suddenly filled the building surrounding our cell block you could hear the men getting ready for bed.  The sound of each bed being folded down off the wall until caught by a chain on each end holding the bed somewhat level for you to sleep on.  The atmosphere felt like each man was facing the end of another day he regrets being in prison.   Many of the two hundred men were facing their own situation in the silence of the semi-darkness.

Men start praying and it sounded like they were begging their god to protect their children, their moms and sometimes their dad.  As I laid on my wire bed tears came to my eyes as I too thought about Jed and my mom laying in their beds crying because of my value of sex, drugs, and independence.

Very gently the sound of a harmonica started filling the air.  I couldn’t believe how the sounds of the blues expresses our sadness.  I was caught by the powerful sound of the harmonica as it kept gaining in volume as we all succumb to its wordless message.  I laid down and dried my eyes and promised to never forget this moment.

releaseHowever, as my release day approached I forgot about the millions of tears being shed each night by our families.  I forgot how it was possible to end those tears if we just valued our families and our freedom more than sex, drugs, and independence.

When I was plucked the second time out of Jed’s life and sentenced to twenty-two years in federal prison I turned on the facet of my family’s sadness once again.  As I was being escorted out of the court room the Marshal stopped me for a moment and let me look out at those that were there for my sentencing.  My mom was bent over holding her head in her hands as she cried so hard her body was shaking.  My fiancée was holding my mom as she rested her head on my mom’s trembling back.  My friends were all wiping their eyes and wouldn’t make eye contact with me.  Jed was not there because this time it was profoundly different.  My immediate family would never out live my incarceration and Jed would be an adult living out the damage I had done to him.  The Marshal said, “I just think it is important that you see what I witness every day of my life walking men off to prison and their families left behind devastated forever.  Maybe someday you will want to do something about all this sadness created by so many young men like you in our communities.   I am older than you and will never know if this moment means anything to you, but something tells me you could make a difference.  Let’s go so you can begin your lengthy sabbatical.  I will never see you again because I will to be retired by the time you’re released.

The next thing I remember was the sounds of the chains dragging alongside of me as I am being escorted off to a federal prison facility somewhere in the US. More than twenty years later I have recommitted my life to ending the millions of tears cried each evening our families and friends.  To all my fellow prisoners, we can put an end to the millions of tears each day and close the prison when we no longer return to them as if they are our real homes.  We must begin to understand the reality of our Core Values and supporting Belief.  How they create sadness and millions of tears or can create joy and happiness we all are searching for and want to share with our families and friends.

Lyle meets Vice President Joe Biden in 2016
Lyle meets Vice President Joe Biden in 2016

If you are a success story please submit it to me and we can begin to show that it is possible to end the sadness and millions of tears one family at a time.  Coaching our brains can enrich the lives of everyone on the planet earth.

The PAD Group is a 501 ©(3) corporation created to assist with the transition from incarceration, enrich the lives of others and to coach people to change their brains to achieve desired change