It is so interesting to read what people make up in there minds about this wonderful seminar. I suspose if you are a negative sort of person, looking for a reason to stay in your ***, p.s.i. is definatly not for you. People are pissed because they have to pay for this experience. No one mentions that there is a money back guarentee if you are not happy with the course. You can also reaudit this seminar any time you want to for the rest of your life for free!!!! I personally have presented this healing work to all my freinds and family. I am here to say that doing this work has increased the greatness in my life exponetially. I am forever greatful for the P.S.I experience, most sincerely, Rita Chance
Cults that use "self help" or counselling or self improvement as their base often target business people and corporations. By doing their courses and seminars they claim you and your staff will become more successful. Business people locked away in hotel rooms are subjected to quasi-religious indoctrination as they play strange games, join in group activities, and share their innermost thoughts with the group. Once you have completed one course you are told you need to do the more advanced course, which naturally costs more than the last. These cults will sometimes request that you do volunteer work and that you help recruit your friends, family and work mates. These groups specialize in creating powerful emotional experiences which are then used to validate your involvement in the cult. The religious overtones are couched in terms which don't sound religious. They usually come to the surface as you near the end of a seminar. Many people have been bankrupted by involvement with these cults.
The 1970s was a weird time. Recovered memories, self-improvement, and cults were all the rage. This time period laid the groundwork for companies like PSI Seminars to later emerge and thrive. The late psychologist and cult expert Dr. Margaret Singer dubbed organizations like PSI Seminars "Large Group Awareness Trainings (LGAT)". PSI Seminars could also be called "a for-profit private company, that delivers self-improvement and personal development coursework" (Wikipedia). Not happy in your career? Want more fulfilling relationships with others? Why not take the PSI Seminar Basic Course for $500?
Critics accuse LGAT's of using similiar thought-reform techniques as cult leaders do. Techniques used in LGAT include:
* meditation
* biofeedback
* self-hypnosis
* relaxation techniques
* visualization
* neuro-linguistic programming
* mind-control
* yoga
(Source: Wikipedia)
LGAT are usually long hours and last several days. They are highly emotional and use all the above techniques to manipulate the feelings of the people participating in the training. After one completes the training, he/she often feel like they are on a "high", but according to research, the feeling doesn't last. Research also shows that LGAT rarely instill *real* change into people's lives (Wikipedia).
Fast forward 30 plus years to my living room in Alameda last April. I had just finished pouring out my heart to my roommate about who I *really* wanted to be when I grew up. My roommate mentioned yet again how much PSI Seminars changed her life. "Just take the Basic course for $500. I swear it will change your life", she says. If this were anyone else I would have brushed them aside, but my roommate talked about PSI Seminars with such enthusiasm and with such meaning in her voice, I couldn't just brush her aside. If these courses had affect my smart, kind, successful roommate as much they seemed to, they must be worth it. So I called Carson at PSI Seminars and signed up the next day.
The next four days consisted of a bunch of highs, a bunch of lows, visualizations, emotional reenactments, group therapy and goal setting. Some of it was crap, some of it was helpful ($500 helpful, I don't think so!) and some of it was downright stupid. And did I reach my goals that I set up at the seminar? Well, what do you think? Let's be real here. So you really want to change your life? Wonderful. Here's some advice that will actually change your life.
1. Get a therapist
2. Get a lifecoach
If you actually have goals to meet, things to do, places to go, people to see, lifecoaching is were it's at. I can even give you a rec for a good one in Walnut Creek. Ya wanna know why lifecoaching actually works and PSI Seminars doesn't? Because you see your lifecoach every week (or every other week) and more importantly, you are accountable to him/her! Take my advice, save the $7,000 you'd be spending on PSI Seminars and spend it on a lifecoach who will kick your ***!
I was surfing the web and decided to google “PSI” and found this site.
I was involved with PSI about three years ago. I too just recently woke up from the nightmare I put myself thru because I attended PSI Seminars.
I took the basic, PSI7 and played PLD. I did this because I wanted to save my marriage. My wife enrolled me in the “courses” and I believe it would save my marriage. My wife told me that if I did not attend she would leave me, as she told me that I wasn’t supporting her with her life.
When I went to PSI 7 my wife failed to pay the bills and upon my return the phone was turned off and my car was repossessed. I received the emotional support I needed from my PSI 7 group and felt better when they encouraged me to feel better. I was lucky to get my car back and thought that the “positive” thinking was the reason I got my car, but I realize it was due to hard work
After my returned from PSI 7 my wife again started “nagging” me to enroll and attend PLD; again to save the marriage. I had to set three goals for myself and, of course, enroll more people to the basic. I worked very hard to complete the goals. My first goal to quit smoking was very hard after being a habit for 18 years. My second goal was to write a book and have it published. My third goal was to get our finances in order after taking control of the bills. Not an easy feat as my wife would spend the money faster than I would make it.
The thing I didn't like about Psi or PLD then was the "recruitment" of people to go to Basic. We were to get at least two people signed up and the money paid by the end of the month if we wanted to stay in PLD. When I started I didn’t know anyone who wanted or needed to go to the BASIC. Anyone that I did know had already gone through the Basic and I had to sign at least eight people.
After a time I realized I couldn’t enroll anyone to PSI. At most I would talk to the people I knew and they would think I was crazy for even considering going to something so cult like. Some even asked if I drank too much cool aid. I would return home feeling dejected and the wife would berate me for failing. Failing in something as simple as enrolling people to PSI and failing at our marriage. My wife left me shortly after I quit PLD and we were divorced after a long court battle. She even used the argument that PSI is a cult to get custody of my kids, even though she went to this too. I considered suicide because of the depression, but couldn’t do that to my sons. This whole ordeal cost me more then the $10.000.00 dollars I spend on this. The emotional damage was worst. I considered what I lost and what I gained and the price was not worth it. It cost me my marriage; which would have been destroyed anyway. But to lose my sons and be a once a month father, and to lose the respect of my family and friends, was not worth the cost to my soul.
It has taken me the better part of two years to finally realize that PSI is bullshit. It destroyed my life as well as some of the others in my group. White lights and workshops? What a bunch of bullshit and I fell for it.
One reason people stay in cults, like PSI Seminars, even when the experience is deeply painful, is that it can be far more psychologically painful to admit to being unreasonable and wrong. For me, throwing off mind control was a matter of education and time. It took a lot of research and three years of my life. I learned that what keeps people in difficult and painful situations is an unwillingness to admit that they might have made poor choices. Attending PSI was a poor choice. A very poor choice.
I applied this same logic to my marriage. My husband and I were married in July 1998. A year later he started drinking heavily. A friend talked us into attending PSI seminars telling us that it would give us the tools to solve our problems. We attended the PSI Basic and then PSI 7 about six months later. A month after his return from 7 he left me and filed for divorce; no explanation. I heard he started drinking again and went further down a road, I believe, he would have traveled if we hadn’t gone to PSI.
As the husband of one PSI Graduate I would like to say to PSI seminars, “Thanks for destroying my marriage!!!!!!!!!” My wife was recruited to PSI by one of her girlfriends. My wife came back from the basic class and asked me to take this class, that it would be good for me. I asked her what the class was about and she wouldn’t tell me. Her exact words were "you have to experience it for yourself." When she “graduated” she asked me to attend her “graduation” on the following Wednesday. She said that she wanted me to show her that I support her in her life. I felt somewhat put out by that statement as I was very supportive of her and our life together.
I went to the ‘graduation” and found it to be nothing more than a sales pitch to sign up new recruits. I was approached by no less than four men, PSI grads with name tags no less, and asked if I would be signing up. When I said no, I was told the class would change my life. I said, “Thanks, but no thanks.” When asked why I wouldn’t take the basic I explained (very nicely I might add) that they had not shown me anything I felt I could use in my life. I was happy with my life as it was. I had a good marriage and life was good. Or it was good until PSI entered into it.
Unbeknownst to me, my wife paid these PSI idiots $3000.00 dollars at the end of the basic for PSI7. I didn’t find out about the money until a couple of months later when she told me she was leaving for a week to California. Now this was a complete surprise to me as she never told me about this trip. She also told me that I would be unable to contact her as the ranch had a strict policy on accepting telephone calls unless it was an emergency. She took off and no word from her all week. She returned and she was a different person. She was arrogant, rude and very self-centered. When I asked her what was wrong with her she said the one thing she had learned from PSI7 was not to do what people expected her to do. She was living her life the way she wanted, according to her reality. She told me she did not care what people think of her, she was going to live her life the way she wants. It was "I want to live my life, NOW."
All the telephone calls with her PSI Buddies were filled with statements like "awesome" and "I am so excited." I thought she was going out of her mind.
On the 30th day after her return she left and immediately filed for divorce. No explanation whatsoever. She has been gone a year now and I recently heard she attended their Leadership program for the sum of $4000.00 and that she had charged it to her credit card, which was maxed out already.
To add insult to injury I heard she started dating men on Eharmony.com and after several losing relationships has decided to put out feelers to see if I would be interested in taking her back. So much for 29 levels of compatibility, huh? Not that I see it working, but is this normal? I just started getting my life back to normal after all the bs with her involvement with PSI. Believe me when I say it has been a nightmare.
I took the basic two years ago and after three hours of the BS I decided I wanted to leave. I tried to get my money back during the first "break." I was told I would have to finish the entire course. I wanted no part in wasting my time on this crap. I spent the better part of three months waiting to get my "refund" minus fifty dollars and that was after I made a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
What happens at PSI 7? You arrive and stay at a hotel the day prior to attending 7. They pick you up in a bus and drive to the ranch. You arrive at the ranch by bus; you’re not allowed to bring your own car, because they don’t want you to leave before the “program” is finished. You’re set up to sleep in a “bunk house” with 40 men, or if you’re a female, 40 women. You share living quarters, to include the showers. You sleep on bunk beds. You are told when to eat, when to sleep, when to go to the bathroom. You are instructed to write a journal and share your thoughts and feelings with the rest of the group.
They break you down, somewhat like basic training in the military. They do group exercises like climbing 40 foot phone poles, 14-15 foot walls, standing on the edge of a cliff, all the while your “team” is holding the ropes. This is to entrust you to the “group.” You walked across a set of ropes holding onto another person; this builds the group personality. Once a task in completed you do the group bonding, like love bombing, groups hugs. Team building.
Prior to going to the ranch you’re given a list of clothing you need to bring, this includes clothing you would not feel comfortable wearing in public. For the women it’s usually a bathing suit or bikini. Once you’re at the ranch there is one “exercise” where your PSI “Buddy” picks out your clothes for the “barn dance.” Clothing that makes you feel uncomfortable wearing in public. The barn dance included a DJ playing disco music, the mirror ball hanging from the ceiling. This is a breaking down of your defenses to critical thinking.
There is one “exercise” called “the sharing” where the men and women stare into one another’s eyes by candle light and share their feelings with the other person. The question asked in “the sharing” is would you like to have an intimated relationship with this person?
There is another exercise where you gather cow pies (yes cow pies) to symbolize life’s bullshit (sorry) and they place it on a plywood sheet and hang it up on a wall. This is to represent getting rid of the BS in their lives, you know “the BS that’s holding you back.”
Oh, and they have a “store” on the premises, where you can buy the PSI bible, a leather bound book with the “teachings” of Wilhite, Inspirational CD’s, and of course the PSI T-shirts. If you read the book or listen to the CD’s, you’ll find its nothing more than fancy BS with the bottom line: recruit your family and friends to get their MONEY.
And you get all this for $3000.00. And on the last day you’re told you are still not done, you’re told you have not obtained “all the tools” to live a better life and then it’s the hard sell for the “Leadership” course. “And if you sign up today it will only cost you $3600.00;” a discount, as the course is $4000.00. Nice discount, save $400.00 and continue to destroy your life.
They work to destroy relationships and they cause people to detach from family and friends. They encourage people to become emotionally dependent on them. Looking back, I see how my wife tried to recruited me and get me into this, but after seeing the change in her I decided not to go, and because she saw this as being unsupportive she left and we divorced. That was a year ago. I was betrayed by one of my most trusted friends.
I am trying my best to be compassionate and to forgive her with the understanding that she herself is trapped within the lies of PSI. Even from my friend, an intelligent, creative woman who I know to be capable of very subtle critical thinking, I never heard anything from her that ever questioned what PSI is and does. I showed her the research I have done on this group and she said the research was “bullshit.” PSI is her life and she has told me that she never going to give up the benefits of PSI. These benefits include leaving her relationships with her family and friends because she couldn’t recruit, oh, sorry, “enroll” them.
And if you’re thinking of going I have some questions for you; don’t think about the money. Think; “Is this going to be worth the loss of respect of your family and friends? Is it worth losing your own self respect? Is it worth the loss of your sanity? I would say no. But that is my opinion.
This reminds me. I saw a posting on one of the yahoo groups that hit this nail on the head. The posting said
“Never Underestimate the Power of Stupid People in Large Groups.”
What happens at PSI 7? You arrive and stay at a hotel the day prior to attending 7. They pick you up in a bus and drive to the ranch. You arrive at the ranch by bus; you’re not allowed to bring your own car, because they don’t want you to leave before the “program” is finished. You’re set up to sleep in a “bunk house” with 40 men, or if you’re a female, 40 women. You share living quarters, to include the showers. You sleep on bunk beds. You are told when to eat, when to sleep, when to go to the bathroom. You are instructed to write a journal and share your thoughts and feelings with the rest of the group.
They break you down, somewhat like basic training in the military. They do group exercises like climbing 40 foot phone poles, 14-15 foot walls, standing on the edge of a cliff, all the while your “team” is holding the ropes. This is to entrust you to the “group.” You walked across a set of ropes holding onto another person; this builds the group personality. Once a task in completed you do the group bonding, like love bombing, groups hugs. Team building.
Prior to going to the ranch you’re given a list of clothing you need to bring, this includes clothing you would not feel comfortable wearing in public. For the women it’s usually a bathing suit or bikini. Once you’re at the ranch there is one “exercise” where your PSI “Buddy” picks out your clothes for the “barn dance.” Clothing that makes you feel uncomfortable wearing in public. The barn dance included a DJ playing disco music, the mirror ball hanging from the ceiling. This is a breaking down of your defenses to critical thinking.
There is one “exercise” called “the sharing” where the men and women stare into one another’s eyes by candle light and share their feelings with the other person. The question asked in “the sharing” is would you like to have an intimated relationship with this person?
There is another exercise where you gather cow pies (yes cow pies) to symbolize life’s bullshit (sorry) and they place it on a plywood sheet and hang it up on a wall. This is to represent getting rid of the BS in their lives, you know “the BS that’s holding you back.”
Oh, and they have a “store” on the premises, where you can buy the PSI bible, a leather bound book with the “teachings” of Wilhite, Inspirational CD’s, and of course the PSI T-shirts. If you read the book or listen to the CD’s, you’ll find its nothing more than fancy BS with the bottom line: recruit your family and friends to get their MONEY.
And you get all this for $3000.00. And on the last day you’re told you are still not done, you’re told you have not obtained “all the tools” to live a better life and then it’s the hard sell for the “Leadership” course. “And if you sign up today it will only cost you $3600.00;” a discount, as the course is $4000.00. Nice discount, save $400.00 and continue to destroy your life.
They work to destroy relationships and they cause people to detach from family and friends. They encourage people to become emotionally dependent on them. Looking back, I see how my wife tried to recruited me and get me into this, but after seeing the change in her I decided not to go, and because she saw this as being unsupportive she left and we divorced. That was a year ago. I was betrayed by one of my most trusted friends.
I am trying my best to be compassionate and to forgive her with the understanding that she herself is trapped within the lies of PSI. Even from my friend, an intelligent, creative woman who I know to be capable of very subtle critical thinking, I never heard anything from her that ever questioned what PSI is and does. I showed her the research I have done on this group and she said the research was “bullshit.” PSI is her life and she has told me that she never going to give up the benefits of PSI. These benefits include leaving her relationships with her family and friends because she couldn’t recruit, oh, sorry, “enroll” them.
And if you’re thinking of going I have some questions for you; don’t think about the money. Think; “Is this going to be worth the loss of respect of your family and friends? Is it worth losing your own self respect? Is it worth the loss of your sanity? I would say no. But that is my opinion.
This reminds me. I saw a posting on one of the yahoo groups that hit this nail on the head. The posting said
“Never Underestimate the Power of Stupid People in Large Groups.”
Rita, it was very interesting to read your post about PSI Seminars. This is my response to you. A lot of Thought Reform methods goes on in the first two seminars; the "trainers" play good cop bad cop. The last part is more rigorous Thought Reform + Group Think...if you snap out of it all you going be dealing with some cognitive dissonance to get your mind back. (You might want to look that up). Critical thinking is unacceptable. Grey areas of life are overlooked; everything is simplified to "BLACK" or "RED". (Remember that game?) They sell you the idea that justifications are made by the self righteous, but they make justifications for those who leave saying the person was not willing to own up to their experience, much like you did with your post, or they didn't "Show up" to begin with. When you see a different "possibility" it suggested away as "selling your self short" or "not setting yourself up to win". GRHHHHHHHH!!! Save your time and money (spend it well), see a licensed therapist, get frank and honest feedback from trusted friends, love ones, coworkers, bosses etc...if you feel you need to look at your unconscious behavior!!! (I would strongly suggest you get help Rita. And if you’re going to tout the “greatness” of PSI please learn to spell. I corrected your spelling below. It just leads me to believe that you are uneducated and don’t know any better.
It is so interesting to read what people make up in there (it’s spelled “their”) minds about this wonderful seminar. I suspose (it’s spelled “suppose”) if you are a negative sort of person, looking for a reason to stay in your ***, p.s.i. is definatly (it’s spelled “definitely”) not for you. People are pissed because they have to pay for this experience. No one mentions that there is a money back guarentee (it’s spelled “guarantee”) if you are not happy with the course. You can also reaudit (this word is usually hyphenated “re-audit”) this seminar any time you want to for the rest of your life for free!!!! (how much value do you place on your mind Rita?) I personally have presented this healing work to all my freinds (it’s spelled “friends”) and family (I was surprised you got this one right). I am here to say that doing this work has increased the greatness in my life exponetially (it’s spelled “exponentially”). I am forever greatful (and this one is spelled “grateful”) for the P.S.I experience, most sincerely, Rita Chance
My advise is to STAY AWAY from the P*ss and Sh*t Institute (PSI) !!!
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