I attended the PSI Basic seminar in Chicago, and initially believed it to be a good thing. So good in fact that I signed up for an advanced seminar (Psi-7), which is held at the compound (I mean ranch) in Northern California. However, only a couple of weeks after the basic seminar I became aware that I was totally unprepared to deal with the issues that the emotional raping of the Basic seminar opened in me. But, no fear, as the Psi gurus told me... all that will be dealt with in the next seminar.

I continued to have new difficulties in life all the way up to the advanced seminar. Once you get on the ranch in California it is nearly impossible to get out. Shame, guilt, belittling, browbeating, public humiliation, and the ever popular 'You're on silence' are the tactics they use to keep you from leaving. I finally was allowed to leave the ranch only after walking off a 'training exercise' and refusing to participate any further.

PSI claims to promote a 'win-win' philosophy. However, the only way to 'win' with PSI is not to become involved. When approached by someone about PSI, make them get specific. Don't allow them the luxury of 'not spoiling your experience.' Make them give you the intimate details of their life, they did it with a room full of strangers, they can do it with you. Then as you see how really screwed up most of the people who are into PSI really are, you'll be glad that you're not getting involved.

If anyone is contemplating a PSI seminar you may contact me via this list, I'll get back in touch with you, and tell you anything and everything that I know and have experienced with these self-trained hack psychology wannabes. If you're a PSI grad looking for a 'discussion', then send me a check for $3000 and I'll be glad to 'discuss' with you. But not before the check clears, I wouldn't want to 'give you any expectations.'

I did a number of PSI courses a number of years ago and which were extremely traumatic for me, but fifteen years after my last participation, I'm still wondering about some things:

What is the relationship between the values of such groups and real, healthy values and growth? I took part in the groups because they promised to help me be a more effective person. My sense of myself was, and to some extent is, that I am of value and have much to give, but that my succeeding in getting my unique contribution fully "into the world" has been limited. I thought PSI might help me in this way. I came away from the groups feeling the confrontational methods they used are not accessible to me. They shattered me.

Trying to practice "moving toward my fear", a method stressed by PSI with the pole claim and the ledge, sometimes leaves me paralyzed. I prefer a relaxed, conflict-free life, but life in this world definitely demands leaving one's comfort zone behind sometimes. I've seen myself do so, on occasion, when it's clearly become necessary.

I've also seen myself not rise, in situations in which to do so seems (in retrospect) to have been equally necessary. Rather than risk rejection on several occasions, I've gotten "stuck" for relatively long periods of time, or had other deleterious consequences after returning from the courses.

Conventional forms of therapy have not enabled me to change what seems my basic nature. I think I would have been better served in my life if I had been able to be more proactive. Whatever one might think of the "large awareness group trainings", however, their efforts to shock me into change did not succeed. I simply became extremely conflicted and then, in one case "broke.” Broke both in mind and the pocketbook.

Sometimes I wonder whether the emphasis of these groups on how one "shows up", i.e. exclusively on the social & external aspect of life, put people who are naturally more introverted at a severe disadvantage. On the other hand, it could be said that we are the ones who need the supplemental programs.

I find all my thinking about these groups even now, years later, to be latticed with such subtle nuances that it is difficult to draw conclusions. The groups do stress positive values I am (or say I am) interested in. And yet I don't approve of the confrontational and "totalitarian" (i.e. "total"--everything becomes related to the group) tactics. One quick example: In PSI, I remember, my Leadership Training coach would instruct us that "If someone you're trying to enroll gets angry at your aggressive approach, just apologize and keep going." The apology itself became simply a strategic instrument in the process of enrolling someone, and no longer had anything at all to do with remorse or the sense of having done something wrong or hurt someone. It was shocking and amazing to hear him so prostitute language and ethics, when I heard him do it on the phone--with my mom, yet!

And yet even now I think of the effectiveness and the other promises of the groups...yesterday I went to the link to PSI Seminars home page and I still felt the words glittering with either spiritual truth or some kind of "magic" counterfeit. I didn’t find any.

One final reason why it's difficult to be objective about these matters is the difficulty of looking truth in the face. The ego doesn't want to see the truth! The truth bring we were broken before PSI and when faced with the prospective of being taken by a con game who would admit they were stupid enough to fall for this, We all have egos. It's important to be able to look at ones self objectively and rather ruthlessly, but we are not willing to admit we made a mistake and were suckered into taking something that was harmful to our minds. That's obvious. But it doesn't make it easy!

A good friend of my mine called me and told me how this PSI seminar changed his life. Since he was so amazed by this philosophy of life, and how it is benefiting his life, he wants me to go. He won’t take "no" for an answer even when I said "I don't want to pay $500 for the seminar." He said “I will pay for it." He is taking this PSI thing very seriously, and since I have respect for him I would like to learn more about it.

Now in my mind this is just someone else to telling me how to live a better life. I am doing just fine at living my life my way. So I wanted some feed back from some people that might have heard of this philosophy on life and how it affected them in some way. I see from reading these posts that PSI seems like the same garbage that many self help organizations such as but not limited to Tony Robins, Landmark Forum and Scientology.

I’d be a little better off throwing away my initial $500 on Robert Kiyosaki's poor real estate advice seminars. At least there's some way to get back your money with some blind luck. I supposed if you're interest in this self help/new age/positivist guru BS lessons, I have an educational private torrent site that has some of them. I just feel that there is no need to *** away money into a cause that tells you that money doesn't matter...

I agree it's beneficial to some people who need that switch turned on, no doubt. What's unfortunate is that some people feel they need the attention and structure to practice something they can read at the library or do for free. ***, I can buy friends by plunking down the 3-4 grand from a complete course on random people's worthless hides.

But from the reading here PSI is more or less a piece of paper from a seminar that won't do much except chafe your butt when you wipe it. In both cases you receive some kind of a funny paper in the end of the process, the main difference is that one of them you might use to increase you price/value on a labor market, (which with PSI is not going to happen) while your can use the other one to wipe your ***. It's always nice to get a different perspective, but a $500 perspective where they don't really tell you anything, is pretty ***, but this PSI bullshit seems like a money sink.