Sol37, I just wanted to make a few comments. First of all, I do not think MKP is a cult. It is a LGAT just like Landmark and numerous others.

One of my main issues with MKP is the promotion they are simply an educational group. IMO, they are an unlicensed, unprofessional group of men practicing intense therapy. I have read stories of re-birthing processes. In their own manuals I have read what is regression therapy. These can be dangerous practices in the hands of men who really do not know the background of the men these are being practiced on. A good psychiatrist would never do this until he/she felt they had a good handle on what is going on with a patient.

In my area, most of the men are recruited out of 12 step programs. Suffice to say, these men probably have some deep seated emotional issues which led to their various addictions, particularly the men recruited out of sexual addiction programs. By the way, this is one of the most highly recruited programs they recruit out of.

These are men who can be more harmed that when they went in. And sometimes, the harm can take quite a while to show up.

My son, who is still a late teenager, has been constantly recruited out of his AA program. He became involved with drugs, and is working on recovery. He has many psychological problems and takes numerous drugs from his psychiatrist. In rehab, we discovered he had been sexually abused for a long time when he was a very small child. No way should he be recruited for a NWTA weekend. He was even told by one man that if he went, he would no longer need his psychotropic drugs or a psychiatrist. Quite frankly, I suspect he will be on some of these drugs for the rest of his life. That makes me very sad, and I hope I am wrong. I literally fear for his life if he goes. What will happen to him emotionally if he is made to face some of his past life he simply is not ready to deal with.

These are just some of my issues with MKP.

I have other issues, but I will await your response to this post.

If I were in your place, I would consult your son's therapist about the advisability of sending him to MKP training weekend. If he thinks it is a good idea, I think you should make sure that he establishes contact with someone in MKP who will look out for your son. Just to be safe.

If he thinks it is a bad idea, I'd be inclined to trust him unless you have reason not to -- in which case get a new therapist if your son is willing. Even so, however, it wouldn't hurt to try to discover if he knows anything specific about MKP, or if he is just being cautious because he doesn't know.

One MKP member told me he went into a severe depression after his wife left him, and was seeing a therapist. Someone else persuaded him to attend an MKP weekend and when he returned to his therapist, his therapist told him, "I don't know what happened to you, but you're seven months ahead of where I expected you to be." Hearsay, I know. but I spent some hours over a several month period with this fellow and I trust him on this.

Please be aware that major changes have occurred in the way emotional trauma is treated in the mental health field. The one important example I can give you is that new knowledge about the limbic structures of the brain, the emotional parts, has reversed practices that went on for decades. It is not good to have a person relive trauma in order to be purged of it. The effect is the opposite of that intended.

Until recently, it was believed that once a person's amygdala got warped by trauma, there was no way to undo that harm. (The amygdala is what takes over when you almost step on a snake; you suddenly find yourself 30 feet away, in a state of alarm. It can short-circuit rational choice.)

I recommend Daniel Goleman's book, Emotional Intelligence. Based on what I've read about it, it is based on hard science, and so it offends the more dogmatic types. Good luck. Fight for your son's recovery.

Sol37:

Your claim that a therapist supposedly told an MKP participant, "I don't know what happened to you, but you're seven months ahead of where I expected you to be" -- once again confirms what others have observed here.

MKP is attempting to practice group therapy without a license, the proper credentials, educational training and meaningful accountability.

This is potentially dangerous and could easily cause personal injuries.

Based upon your comments alone I would not recommend MKP to anyone under any circumstances.

Your have painted a chilling picture of MKP and it seems that the group encourages its participants to dole out advice regarding matters they know nothing about and are not qualified to comment on.

The person to give advice regarding the young man in therapy would be his treating therapist, a consulting psychologist, specialist and/or psychiatrist, not an MKP participant.

Just received the MKP Houston publication and checked the ads. Seven of the ads supporting this publication were purchased by therapists.

That says something.

Sol37:

Actually it doesn't say much, other than you are a diehard devotee of MKP and only here to defend and support the group.

Unless you can find an APA endorsement or some official statement by a board or association for therapists, all that means is that few therapists were taken in by an LGAT.

But once again it does indicate that MKP seems to be positioning itself as an alternative and/or supplement to professional counseling and therapy, which is disturbing.

After all, David Koresh convinced a Harvard Law School graduate to become his follower and attorney and a doctor mixed the kool-aid at Jonestown.

85% of the followers of Shree Rajneesh were college graduates and 25% had post-graduate degrees.

See [www.culteducation.com]

The fact is intelligent and well-educated people often get caught up by questionable groups and leaders.

curious. what do you think it says?

"all that means is that few therapists were taken in by an LGAT."

I haven't sold my soul to MKP. But it is very easy to react to your questionable assumptions.

Therapists were "taken in"? I'd like to see you try to argue that one in a court of law, or before a group of scientists whose business it is to ask for hard evidence.

Sol, since my son is 19, his psychiatrist cannot speak to me about anything involving my son. I do not have a clue as to his opinion of MKP, or if my son has even spoken to him about MKP.

Over the past 3 years, I cannot even count the number of therapist and psychiatrists my son has been involved. Quite frankly, I have been alarmed at the total idiots that are therapists and psychiatrists. This current dr. appears to have a little more common sense than the others. However, I only met him briefly one time. I have yet to meet a therapist/psychologist that had enough sense to get out of a rainstorm.

If the ones I have met are typical of their profession, I am not surprised in the least that many would be a part of MKP. If I sound cynical, I am. If you had walked in my shoes, you would understand. Whenever I hear of someone going to a therapist, I simply shudder. I know that statistically, there must be some good ones, I simply think they are in the minority.

I hope you understand that not every MKP group across this country is exactly alike. Maybe your group is one of the more mild ones. But I hope you can see from what you yourself have posted, how this group could quickly become dangerous, and have become dangerous, according to things I personally know and have heard.

You spoke of how one man was made to revisit a trauma. You finally spoke out about that. What if you had not spoken out. Could this man eventually have been emotionally scarred? You are not in every Igroup. You do not really know what goes on unless you are personally there.

That is my point. Each NWTA weekend will be different when run by different people. Each Igroup will be different. It will be the leaders who slant it how they want. This is not an educational group. This is intense therapy being performed by the average man on the street.

So, I am not really impressed with the quantity of therapist in MKP. From my opinion, that just adds to the goofball image I have of that group.

As for therapist advertising in MKP publications. Last year, on the internet, there was a witches convention being promoted. I cannot remember where. MKP was on the list as one of the booth holders. What does that say?

[www.victoryoflight.com]