Hey everybody,

I just went through the Basic seminar this past weekend. It was, to say the least, a very strange and disturbing experience. I was talked into it by a friend who is very high up in the volunteer structure. She raved about it so much that I figured it wouldn't hurt to check it out. What happened to me there very much parallels the accounts I am reading on this site and a few others.

The first thing that struck me were the strange, arbitrary rules. They insisted that your nametag be visible at all times. They were very specific about when you could enter the room and that you had to be in there and seated as soon as the music ended.

The volunteer staff just creeped me straight out. They were impeccably dressed and all had this preternaturally cheery disposition. I was like, what the hell, have I wandered into a Barbie and Ken convention? The facilitator, Jeff Rogers, is a dynamic and engaging speaker. I will give him that much. He's also a major asshole IMO, but everyone there seemed to hang on his every word.

One thing I would add to the very accurate depictions of PSI I have read here is that I was distressed at how readily all the participants (myself included I'm ashamed to admit) followed the instructions of the staff. When they said jump, we jumped. We were constantly hustling to get our chairs into the positions they told us for whatever goofy, mind-screwing activity they had in store for us. We obligingly closed our eyes when they told us to for those interminably long "relaxation and visualization" exercises. I never was able to trance out because my back and ass hurt so much from those infernal hotel chairs. I honestly don't think you're supposed to anyway. I think it may be just to make you obedient, though it's definitely a bonus for them if they succeed in hypnotizing you.

I was tempted to leave from minute one. But I felt I would let my friend down. Plus, I was kind of fascinated. By day 4 that turned to horror as I witnessed the sales pitch and the way my "microgroup" leader was browbeating one of my fellow group members, a low income single mom, into "creating solutions" to fork over 4000 bucks for the PSI7 deal. She was hesitant because she had a lot of credit card debt but he would hear none of it.

I did get some positive things out of it. I found it valuable when some of the other participants shared on the microphone. It was comforting to know that others struggle with some of the same issues I do. Also, some of the concepts they teach are useful. For anyone considering going I can distill them with the following:

Be kind to yourself.

Be good to others.

Honor your commitments.

Set goals and stick to them.

Get support from others to help you reach your goals.

That's it. No need to spend $500 and get ordered around by a bunch of maniacal, dancing weirdos. No need to sit through high pressure sales tactics. No need to go to some isolated ranch in California to jump off towers.

I got curious about PSI and possible issues with it after the second night so on the Saturday morning I googled the words "PSI seminar scam" and "PSI seminar cult". I came upon this site and others and realized my gut feelings were right.

So thanks everyone, because I shudder to think how differently it could have turned out.

catburglar,

Thank you for your post. I spent a good deal of time wondering if I should have posted several months ago. I am glad you saw this for what it it. I wished I had the courage to admit this was BS when I got involved; but like a lot of others I guess I was looking to be excepted and threw away the things that were important to me. I wished I could go back and change it because believe when I say I wished I never heard of PSI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm glad someone saw the light.

Jeri442 and Ghost Dancer,

I am SO sorry about what both of you went through. Just from my brief encounter with that reprehensible group of scam artists, I can only imagine what a hellish ordeal you've suffered.

Aside from discovering this forum, I have my own experience with a quasi-religious cult-like organization and the memory of it was triggered by my PSI weekend.

Not trying to flame here, and I don't presume to judge anyone else's perception of them, but I spent over a decade in the thrall of one of the famous 12 Step Programs. I was a naive and impressionable 19 year old when I thought I had come upon the answer to all my problems. I was bombarded with seemingly unconditional love and the assurance that if I followed the rules laid down in a book written in the 1930s by an egomaniacal quack and a few of his followers, I would reap everlasting "serenity".

What I really got was the waste of many hours of my life in stupid meetings in smoke-filled rooms, listening to self-important, deluded, pontificating gasbags. I also got (mostly) bad advice by unqualified and uncredentialed "sponsors", whose counsel I followed without question. Then I got shunned and ostracized when I started to question the dogma; told that I was going to end up dead or homeless for refusing to work "the program".

But shit, compared to PSI and the other wacky scam cults I'm reading about here, [i:b616542de6]that[/i:b616542de6] was a cakewalk! At least they didn't bilk me out of thousands of dollars and force me to go out and recruit new members. They never told me to end a relationship or quit my job.

I really hope both of you are able to overcome what was done to you and your families. You did not deserve that.

I posted a list of senators in Arizona. Lets start some action against PSI!!!!!

You know I was wondering about this and feel I have to ask.

When you try and explain to family and friends what you're going though do you sound like you're coming off as "crazy?"

Quote

Honor your commitments.

I was rereading some of these posts and found this one amusing. How about honoring the commitments to your marriage. I mean didn't some of these people give their word to "love, honor, cherish" before they went to PSI?

I think they mean "Honor your comittments to the LGAT".

the "honor your commitments" is one of the oldest LGAT sales scams in the book. Its part of their SALES process. They get you all excited in the tent-hotel, and then get you to commit to spending $4000+ on one of their other scams.
Then you go home and have buyers remorse, and cancel.

Evey salesman in the world fears that, they make the sale, they sell you the vacuum cleaner person to person, and then you think about it when out of their spell, and CANCEL.

So this is them trying to pre-block you from cancelling, as after all, you gave them "your word."

There is even a contract "cooling off period" in some areas, where you have up to 48 hours to cancel the contract, due to these sales techniques.

So they want to block buyers remorse.
They also want to stop people from lying to them, as they know how powerfully lying is, as they are lying to you.
They want you, the Sucker, to be honest with them, so they can lie their asses off and scam you. They are that blatant, they know what they are doing.

If anyone tries this crap on my anymore, they get the one-finger salute.

Its great to see this forum, and others are saving people. Internet message boards are really hurting these LGAT's. They are trying to dream up new strategies to block that too.

Tony Robbins tells his Followers that being "skeptical" means you are afraid and living in fear. He says you are a coward if you are skeptical. Same type of tactic. Trying to disengage that part of your mind that is going to recognize that these guys are trying to empty your bank account. They want pliable followers, who will follow orders, and buy what they tell them to buy. They are just highly organized Scam Artists.

Of course, Tony Robbins, and others like him are dead wrong. Being skeptical is one of the most important life skills one can ever develop. But they hate it, as it makes them unable to scam you, and sell you their rip-off crap.

[users.tpg.com.au]
CARL SAGAN'S BALONEY DETECTION KIT

My wife apparently does not remember the term "commitment." She has no common sense left after attending PSI Seminars.

Well my wife ended up moving into a small apartment with another woman who also left her husband about the time she returned from PSI7. My wife still refuses to see this for what it is. She came over to the house to pick up the kids the other day driving a new car. My daughter came home from their visit and told me the wife financed it.

I called the bank and found out she floated a loan with the car company using my credit. I called a lawyer and he said I might to liable for the payments. I checked with the car company and I found out she had both our names on the loan with her new address. I asked a customer service rep how she got a loan without my signature and she said my name was on the loan document. I told them I never signed the document. The rep told me that if this signature was not mine she would have to make an affivadat of forgery and fraud.

Now this kind of backfired on me as they apparently notified the police and the car company is going to press charges against her for the forgery. My lawyer told me it would be in my best interest to file a notice separation with the courts so I am not liable for her financial problems.

What the hell did these PSI assholes do to my wife?????? She was not like this at all. She had common sense and would think before doing something like this.