Hello

I'm curious whether anybody has heard of the Warriors Academy in South Africa. It is an "accredited Gap Year program" that offers adventure, personal growth and development. Additionally, the academy also offers self-mastery workshops.

The reason I'm asking is because a friend of mine attended the gap-year program, however, she dropped out half-way through, explaining that the "soft-skills" part of the course had affected her mental health really badly. She explained her ordeal and it sounded to me like she had participated in a Large Group Awareness Training.

Among other things, my friend said their phones were taken away, they were given very little sleep (and woken up at odd hours), and made to attend seminars. The seminars included all sorts of activities including being herded into a room and surrounded by facilitators wearing white hoods telling them that they were all dead inside and that if they submitted to everything they could become reborn onto a new family. During some seminars, participants had to beat pillows and scream, and were continually told that they were responsible for everything that had ever happened in their lives, including sexual assaults.

Perhaps the most concerning aspect of the whole ordeal was that it was very sexualised (bear in mind that most of the participants were barely 18). They were made to wear derogatory name-tags and continually subjected to verbal abuse, for example, the girls who were virgins were called "cock-teasers" and the boys who were insufficiently "manly" were ridiculed for "hiding their gayness". The weekly dance classes often culminated in "orgasm dances" and on one occasion, a participant was made to give a lap-dance to the middle-aged facilitator. Participants were taken to adult stores to buy sexual paraphernalia and encouraged to live out their sexual fantasies.

That is just the tip of the iceberg.

I looked at the website and found a few potential red flags:

- The owner and founder is described as a "world-renowned Human Behaviour Specialist" who has "excelled" in fields like hypnotherapy, EFT therapy and metaphysics. He also claims to have "studies" in religion and spirituality as well as a master's degree in "Ontological and Performance Coaching".

This excerpt from his bio might be informative:


"His exploration into human potential has rendered [sic] in his consultation with many experts in the fields of Education, Psychology, Quantum Physics, Hypnotherapy, Nero Linguistic Programming, Nero Semantics and Alternative Healing, all of which have assisted in building a better understanding of the workings of not only the Human mind but also the person as a whole. [Name] has taken his research to the next level and developed proven techniques and processes that have been implemented in various workshops, coaching interventions and programs that he developed and offers. These processes have had incredible results with all those who have participated, they all testify that they reached a higher potential and achieved what they never thought possible."

Despite the abuse described above, the academy has excellent reviews and is often voted "Best Gap Year Provider" by GoAbroad.com.


Anyway, in writing this I hoped that someone might have insight into the Warriors Academy that they could share with me.

Thanks
Matt



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2024 10:31PM by Matt Reed.