Prolonged eye staring is hard wired into us as aggression. And is used to establish domination.

Yes! Good point. In fact, to give it its fullest description, prolonged eye contact triggers physiological arousal. I think of it as a kind of fight/f*ck thing :) Anyone who has tried a bit of eye flirting with the ladies will know finely calibrated that dance of power and interest can be. Between guys, it's equally weird because for a straight guy, both possibilities are alarming.

When a guy tries to stare me out, I am usually tempted to defuse the situation by calling the process (lots of smartass-ery possible). Shame I didn't do that at NWTA :P

[forum.culteducation.com]

Quote


Liberty of Gaze

In our culture it is considered gaze a little too long at someone.

Anyone who can get themselves into a role where they can stare and appraise people singly and in groups for prolonged periods is already in a position of power.

People who run these workshops have liberty of gaze. For that reason alone, they can have an immense impact. And that is one reason among many for people to be entitled to know what a workshop will consist of before consenting to join.

Being binned up all weekend in a room with some self designated 'leader' who violates the stare taboo can mess with peoples heads. Throw in sleep deprivation, and its a recipe for stress. And..you're paying for all this crap!

In British and American cultures it is considered impolite to be seen staring at someone or a group for prolonged periods. This aversion is hard wired. Among mammals, a direct stare often signifies an attempt at dominance.

In some social contexts, prolonged gazing will be taken as a provocation to confrontation and perhaps an invitation to violence.

We get lessons early on as little kids. The Big People tell us (or they should!) "Dont stare!" if we are seen gazing fixedly at someone.

It is common the street in very dodgy parts of town for someone to challenge another,

"You lookin' at me?"


In American and British influenced society, there are only a few occupations where one has ssocial license to stare at others in a direct and prolonged manner.

These are usually positions of immense social trust.

Many of these are positions of trust.

Or positions of power and trust -- what in legal terms are 'fiduciary" or professions.

Between lovers. One accords another person immense, incalculable trust to permit this lengthy exchange of gaze. There is a huge trust placed that this intimacy will never and must never be abused.

Healing Professions

Teachers

Clergy and boderline clergy/spiritual operators (gurus, fortune tellers, human potential speakers)

Police/prison guards/security guards

The military (esp drill instructors. Ohhh whee....do the DIs look you over..!)

Artists gazing at someone while doing a portrait.

Attorneys

Anyone who interviews clients/job applicants

Coaches/Dance/Acting teachers

Most of us by socialization do not have the nerve to gaze fixedly and look upon another person or group..and in a prolonged manner.

Few of us, unless trained and in one of these roles, can stay calm while studying someone in detail, face to face.

Thus, someone, male or female, who can get him or herself into a role where one can gain liberty of gaze can then pick up cold reaching technique--intentionally, or as Karla McLaren reported--unintentionally.

In towns and areas popular with tourists, a possible reason for annoyance the locals feel towards tourists is not only how tourists often drive up the prices of rents and commodities; it is that with rare exceptions, tourists too often violate local norms by staring too intently and too intrusively.

And in other situations tourists who go from privacy based cultures to places such as India, where locals feel at liberty to stare for prolonged periods will feel quite anxious.

Anyone who can get themselves into a role where they can stare and appraise people singly and in groups for prolonged periods is already in a position of power.

We can only pray they do not abuse that sitaution.

And..again for anyone reading this--this material is for all persons to become educated and emancipated and bring joy and kindness to peer relationships.

Anyone who misuses this information is starting to become a monster.

It's kind of a weird feeling for me when I realise that MKP is an LGAT. I've been through these forums in the past when I was reading a book called The Sedona Method. I knew about LGATs and didn't want anything to do with them. I had even firmly rebuffed the approaches of Avatar Training in 2011. So how did I end up signing up for a LGAT in 2013?

In the scheme of things, I think MKP is kind of a "stealth" LGAT, or LGAT-lite. It's not really apparent that you are going into any kind of training, because it's billed as an "initiation" process. I purposely steered clear of as many spoilers as I could beforehand. My mind raced: maybe we would end up rappelling down a cliff-face, or racing down a zipline? Maybe I would be rappelling in the nude?

As you all know, it's nothing active like that at all. It's all inner work - guided imagery, shouting, starving, sweating etc. Did I become a man during that? I remember getting handed a talisman at one point. Was that it?

One good thing that came of this experience was that it sparked in me a desire to learn what I could about it all, to put my finger on what this program was, where its processes had come from, how it sat within the context of similar trainings, and so on. It's a rich vein :)

All this LGAT stuff seems to go back to Kurt Lewin and his colleagues, who were all protegés of Jacob Moreno, the father of psychodrama and group therapy in general. Lewin comes up with T-groups, a kind of democratic, leaderless small group format for fostering attitude change and sensitivity. This morphs into encounter groups, fused out of nascent post-war individualism and the cognitive psych revolution. The human potential movement forms around them and the counterculture, and once they are commercialised and popularised, we have the start of the recognisable LGAT industry.

What has been really interesting and eye-opening to me is how the LGAT movement has honed its methodology. Whether from Est or its predecessors, there seems to be a kind of common vocabulary and almost a common parts set. That brings me to MKP.

A lot of focus is given to the NWTA weekend and how kooky/nude/damaging it is. But few scrutinise the optional "homecoming" event, which old LGAT hands would recognise as the venue where they wheel you out as free advertisements for the next crop of potential recruitees.

Thinking back now to my night, I thought it was kind of odd how we didn't just get invited, plonk ourselves down in the front row and wait our turn to shine. Noooo. There was a whole order to the proceedings (as there is for every MKP event). We got shunted out the back, where an elder prepped us for our moment. It felt a little like the imagined moment when your terrorist captors coach you on your delivery for your ransom video ;)

He asked us all questions about how we were feeling, but something didn't feel right. It felt more like smalltalk, like he didn't really care about the answers. This was not a time for exuberance. It was time for the actors to go inside themselves and find their centre. So out came the smudge stick and we called on our spirit brothers blah blah blah. Then he prepped us for what attitude to call up i.e. our integrated archetypal self. Looking back, I have to say it was a good trick! I should use it next time I have to do any public speaking.

With that, we were on. We emerged from behind a black sheet to rapturous applause. We were being loved! I remember momentarily thinking, "It's a bit too rapturous, a bit culty!" before telling my brain to shut up or I would stab it with a Q-Tip.

One by one, we spoke, from the heart, with pathos, with conviction, with salesmanship. Ugghhh. I was selling MKP! Like a good little Moonie, I was out there selling my hard-won growth, only now I had slapped a MKP sticker on it. I was an actor in a much-loved play, and my audience was about to break out in applause at the end of this soliloquy and toss me flowers.

It's the usual shit, the same LGAT playbook. If there's one thing LGATs are good at, it's producing euphoria and glowing self-reports. Catch them in that moment and you have the kind of advertising that companies could only wish for. Oh, and it's free, and they'll even bring their family and friends for you! Ugghhh x 3.

One thing that must be said is that this hot state is also when the more predatory LGATs pull you aside into an exit interview and pressure you to sign up for the next course. MKP is at least different in this respect. There has been a little pressure to come to the PIT training (Primary Integration), but that's free to initiates anyway. Compared to other LGATs, their business model is pretty low-pressure.

I'm still trying to figure out my thoughts on it all. I'm still sure MKP isn't for me - I mean, as a place for me to go for ongoing men's development and support. I can spot building blocks from the Standard LGAT Construction Set, but at the same time, it also feels like a kind of "church" community too, which all the good and bad that comes with that. It almost feels like how I imagined the Freemasons to be.

I made some notes when I got home on what I recalled of the basic sleep/wake structure of the NWTA weekend. As they take away your watches, these timings will be approximate in some cases (+/- 1.00 hour). The NWTA Process Manual discloses the Friday night sleep time, but not the Saturday night one.

Fri 6.30pm arr
Sat 3.00am sleep
Sat 7.00am wake
Sun 1.00am sleep
Sun 7.00am wake
Sun 1.00pm finish

By my calculation, this equates to:

08.00 training
04.00 sleep
18.00 training
06.00 sleep
06.00 training

So roughly 32 hours of training in a 42-hour period, with 10 hours of sleep. I don't recall feeling sleep-deprived or even boot-camped, but the weekend was quite intense and I was relieved when it ended.

See [www.cultnews.com]

The Rick A. Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups, and Movements has officially changed its name to The Cult Education Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements.

The new domain name entry point and gateway to the Internet archives of the institute will soon be culteducation.com.

The Cult Education Institute archives is a library of information about destructive cults, controversial groups and movements, which was initially launched in 1996 and has continued to be under construction and expansion for the past 17 years.

The public message board attached to the The Cult Education Institute will soon only be accessible through the domain name culteducation.com. More than 100,000 entries from the former members of destructive cults, controversial groups and movements and others concerned has accumulated at the board over the past decade. The message board content continues to grow daily and it serves as a free speech zone for those who wish to share their insights and concerns about the topics listed.