The poster transcribed below was on display at my local psychotherapy and counselling centre.

Its language, and the fact that one of the presenters worked with the Mankind Project set off some bells.

Does anyone know about this organisation, Deida or Buren and Levin?

Note the warning at the end.


Are you living your deepest purpose as a man?

Join us in a space of creative challenge, feedback, and sacred celebration with a community of dedicated men to reveal and live your deepest shadows and greatest gifts.

The Men’s Intensives are based on the groundbreaking work of David Deida, and other teachers. This work is for any man who wants to grow through the challenges of relationship, purpose, and authenticity in his life.
Designed to bring together men to recharge their masculine batteries and re-establish a true community of men’s culture, which is missing yet absolutely essential for survival in our modern world.

During this Intensive, you will:

Learn to conduct your life-force and presence with bodily and energetic exercises.
Give and receive essential feedback on how to overcome your resistances to being a more trustable man and embracing your depth.
Relax into the mystery as you deepen your core masculine essence with a community of courageous men willing to go all the way.
Uncover what it takes to live more aligned with your deepest life purpose.

Eli Buren has been a dedicated teaching assistant with David Deida for the past three years. He currently leads men’s groups and yoga sessions in the context of David’s workshops and on his own throughout America and Europe. Eli is gifted in guiding men into a deeper bodily expression of spirit, living as fullness and true presence, by his example and inspiration.

Michael Levin has been facilitating and leading men’s groups for over 10 years, initially through the Mankind Project and since then as a catalyst for deepening men’s authenticity and community. Eli and Michael are currently offering programmes worldwide for men’s growth and deepening.

WARNING: This is not for the faint of heart. If you are satisfied with your habits, tendencies, and closures as they are now, this would not be the best use of your time.

See [board.culteducation.com]

At this thread there is quite a bit about Mankind Project posted.

It is a "mass marathon training" program.

Also see [www.culteducation.com]

Yes, I am familiar with David Deida. I have a friend involved in his organization. I've attended a couple of his public talks, attended an introductory workshop by his followers, seen one of his videos and listened to some of his tapes. I tried to read one of his books and found it poorly written. I couldn't even get through it. But in person he is very dynamic and motivating. I really enjoyed watching him take questions from the audience and work with people. It was quite a show!

He does a lot of week-long and week-end workshops: some are for couples, some are just for men and some are just for women. I've never attended any of those, because they're quite expensive, but I know people who have.

Deida is sort of a New Age teacher who talks a lot about spirituality, sex and relationships. His teachings are kind of like the "men are from Mars, women are from Venus" stuff with a Buddhist flair. He talks a lot about "the masculine" and "the feminine", which might lead you to believe he's sexist (which he is, a little bit), but in person he's quick to point out that either of those terms can apply to both men and women.

A lot of people read his books and they think they know what his teachings are about, but in person he gets a big kick out of breaking down their assumptions.

Because he's one of the few new age teachers who actually talks about sex and relationships and understands their importance, his followers tend to be very, um...sex-obsessed is the only term I can think of.

I've seen him tell people the complete opposite of what they believe: for example, a young woman got up in front of the audience and said that she believed it was her calling to "heal people through sex" and have a lot of sex partners. He basically told her that she was being very presumptuous and how could she know what type of healing people need? He then told her to try to be celibate for a while.

By contrast, I've also seen him give very intuitive advice to people who were genuinely upset about their current relationships (or lack of relationships). If someone is really hurting, he can be surprisingly gentle and comforting. He seems to save his sharp tongue for the really cocky people.

If you're wondering where I stand in all this, I think David Deida himself is really onto something, but I don't think he has properly been able to translate his essence into his books. I also don't think his teachings are clear enough to his followers, because I find most (although not all) of his followers to be very creepy.

To give an example, I went to an introductory workshop at a friend's home a few years ago. He showed a video of one of Deida's workshops, which I really enjoyed. However, after that, things got weird. Some people who had been to some of Deida's week-long "intensives" got up to do some impromptu "work" with the audience members. Three women dragged a friend of mine (a very distinguished older gentleman who's one of the kindest, most compassionate, learned people I know) into the middle of the room and proceeded to try to seduce him. When he didn't respond to them in the manner they were expecting (perhaps sex on the floor of the room?) these women got very angry, started screaming, and told him he was not in touch with his sexuality. They verbally raped him, for lack of a better term. It scared the crap out of me! My friend just stood there staring them down calmly with a benign smile on his face, totally unfazed. I, on the other hand, was so upset that I left soon afterward.

I later found out that several of the other attendees were equally disgusted by the "show". If Deida himself were there, he probably would have put a stop to that.

David Deida was a long time follower of cult figure Da Free John. He changed his last name to include "da". His material is regressive and of poor quality. He has been involved with unconventional sex practices involving the use of mind-control and peer pressure/coercive techniques to achieve conformity with his idea of spiritual sexual practice. It sounds like the women mentioned above who aggressively tried to seduce that poor man were copying something they had learned/seen elsewhere.

I've done the Mankind project, I wouldn't say it's a cult, just a huge waste of money really. Seems to pray on men's insecurity without providing them with what they are really looking for. At least that was my experience.

As for David Deida I think the only real way to know about him is to ask someone who has been to his seminars or listen to the secret recordings of his retreats on youtube and make up your own mind [www.youtube.com]

That's weird, I did it and never did any mass marathon training....I guess it depends on the group leaders. I would say its a wasteful money making exercise though.