human awareness institute
Date: August 01, 2006 01:16PM
Well, my release is not quite off my back, but getting better, and I cannot resist a reply to DayDreamer's lasst post, which brings up something I would have mentioned to iamtooch's question to me earlier (if I had had time to reply at that point). inamtooch, I apologize for not responding to your direct remarks to me much earlier.
DayDreamer wrote:
The one that surprised me was a very specific and negative characterization of Chip as leading the workshops - they want him banned from leading workshops. Wow.
Much earlier, on July 7, iamtooch observed/asked:
"Finally, Ciruela, you have been shabbily and shamefully treated by two individuals, not a HAI workshop. HAI was an excuse for them, a pretext, not the author of your misery. The HAI staffers I met would have been utterly appalled and humiliated at what was perpetrated under their colors; have you written a letter to anyone at HAI about this?"
Well, iamtooch, I DID write a HAI staffer about the issue right when it occurred--CHIP AUGUST!!! Chip had been the male leader for both the L1 and L2 I attended and had even counseled me and my boyfriend at the L2. I also choose to write Chip because he does anger management workshops in addition to HAI.
In my email, which I wrote only a day or so after splitting with my boyfriend, I gave my name, but not the names of my boyfriend or his new gal-pal, both HAI interns. I did make it clear, however, what had occurred in regard to the woman having told me--during our checkin at a HAI workshop AND in the capacity of my small group leader--that she had no sexual designs on my boyfriend and basically assured me that it "was not happening" (then or in the future).
I told Chip that I didn't require a reply, but that I wanted him to understand and communicate to others in HAI that I considered this a breech of ethics, in additional to a personally hurtful situation. Chip chose not to reply, so I'll never know for sure what he thought, but I'm guessing he didn't particularly give a damn, especially in light of what DayDreamer is telling us.
HAI is rotten to the core as far as I'm concerned. Too many wolves pretending to be sweet, understanding, enlightened men. Too many of those being officially attached to the organization in some way. The woman who hurt me is an official representative of HAI in my local region. There are two other "producers," and one of them is a man. I've watched this man in action on a number of occasions and have not admired his behavior. Heck, even my own ex-boyfriend (before we broke up) told me that he was concerned about this producer's behavior towards a particular young and vulnerable woman.
Also, the HAI bunch in my area is a real trip to observe in action. One woman I met through HAI is forever "losing her clothes"--she has even posed nude on the cover of the local HAI newsletter. She constantly plays the coquette, teasing all the men into a frenzy. I saw this woman recently at a naturist gathering (but didn't bother speaking to her). Guess what? In the context of a naturist gathering, this gal almost never took her clothes off, opting instead for lacy bras and very, very short shorts. In whatever context, she does whatever is necessary to titillate men, so if the way to stand out in the crowd is to wear sexy clothing at a naturist gathering, rather than being nude like everyone else, that's what she does. I have a lot of anger towards this woman as well, because she teased my ex (even though it was pretty obvious to me that she wasn't really interested in being sexual with him). He couldn't see that, and got his hormones worked up every time she was around.
HAI folks, in my opinion, are not nearly as spiritual, creative, loving, or enlightened as they think they are. They are, however, extremely self indulgent, and seem to conclude that whatever their genitals tell them must be good.
I hope that what we are seeing is the beginning of the end of HAI. It's about time that HAI's self-advertisements of being about love and win/win, etc. were refuted by folks who actually know what it's like on the inside.