Hi, There

New member...thanks for the add.

In April, I met a guy and we quickly became good friends. From the onsite of the friendship he talked about a group he was in called The Mankind Project. They supposedly are "a global network of nonprofit organizations focused on modern male initiation, self-awareness, and personal growth." My friend would talk some about the organization, but not a lot about details of the meetings and the retreats.

A couple of months ago my friend attended one of retreats and acted as a "servant" to the other counselors. When my friend returned, he told me of the 60 counselors and servants, 16 were gay. (Full disclosure...both my friend and I are gay, but just friends.) I thought the number of gay men was unusually high. I questioned him about it...he just talked about the organization being all inclusive.

Fast forward to last week. I was looking for a job for my friend and I just happened to think about Mankind Project. I didn't see a link on their page to employment opportunities so I used Google. That's when I started seeing several disturbing articles about the organization...stories of how they make you sign waivers that exempt the organization from physical or mental harm to the participants, stories of naked men beating dead chickens, large groups of naked men dancing around candles, naked men sitting in groups passing a phallic-like staff around they call "The Cock." When you're handed "The Cock," you have to tell in detail all your past sexual encounters. There were several stories of a young man, Michael Scinto, who felt the retreat wasn't for him and asked if he could leave. He was basically threated and convinced to stay at the retreat. 15 days after leaving, Scinto committed suicide.

Just wondering if anyone has any info on The Mankind Project? Any experience? Really concerned for my friend.


Thanks,

~Dewayne