Oist,

Thank you for your input. I agree with you that some of the tools can be helpful. However, I don't think a good therapist would teach a client to "release" feelings without identifying them and dealing with any underlying issues.

I share your concerns about some of the philosophy. (And I realize that Sedona Method may differ from the Release Technique.) One thing I read in the Sedona Method book that concerned me was about guilt. I think the author said that guilt never helped anyone change anything. It then went on to give an example of eating ice cream when you are dieting.

First, I think the author failed to distinguish feelings of guilt from feelings of shame. I agree that shame, i.e. the feeling that one is inherently defective in some way, is not helpful. Appropriate guilt when we have hurt another person, on the other hand, is a good thing. Feeling appropriate guilt has definitely changed my behavior when I have realize I insensitively hurt another person. I shudder to think about a child molester who might start to feel a bit guilty telling himself that "guilt is useless" and then just releasing the feelings.

Release technique also presents imperturability or "hootlessness" as the optimum state to be achieved. In my opinion, the world needs more perturable people who give a hoot. All good social change occurs because people are perturbed and take appropriate action for change. Thank heaven Ghandi was perturbed, that Rosa Parks was perturbed, and so on. All that is needed for evil to flourish is for people to become "hootless".

I appreciate your point that

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Oist
. Unfortunately, people would use this as a way of not taking responsibility for their actions, and it also made any kind of communication or resolution impossible - if you didn't like what the other person had done, you just had to release on it - therefore, people could use it as a scapegoat for their behaviour."

Issues aren't resolved between my husband and I any longer. It used to be that if there was a squabble, we'd get back together, hear each other out and resolve the matter. Now he just goes off, (often to talk with the RT people) and then comes out all vacantly happy faced like nothing happend. It doesn't feel like there is any connection. He seems like a different person.

My husband tells me that he has been taught that the mind is your enemy. That once you release your feelings, stop listening to the mind, and get past your resistence, everything will come to you from your "beingness". My husband's "beingness" sounds like a string of Release Technique jargon.

Thanks for posting. If you are so inclined, I would appreciate any suggestions you could give me about how to approach that person walking around in my husband's body.

Questionlady,

I hear your request for support in getting through to your husband and I'm not sure that I can help. I have since benefitted from the teachings of an organisation called 'Non-violent Communication' (nVC). www.cnvc.org and they have a book available from Amazon called "Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life" by Marshall Rosenberg, PhD. However, the communication style takes some time to learn, and I'm hearing that you would like progress in communicating with your husband very soon?

One of the things that I found to be prevalent in Sedona people is that my needs for integrity and honesty about their true feelings were not met with them. From my experience this stems from Hale. There was a great deal of pressure it seems to be as 'free' or as emotionally released as possible. Therefore, I often found that whilst there were a few who were happier, a lot of people would pretend to be happier and 'more free' than they actually were - myself included.

With respect to letting go of feelings - I wasn't intending to mean that a therapist wouldn't look also for the underlying reasons - I was merely trying to point out that what they're teaching is nothing 'new'.

BTW, I came across this site whilst Googling Lynn Grabhorn, and then was curious to see if the Sedona Method was under 'Human Potential Seminars' - and it was!

mind and being? This sounds like the same thing PSI Seminars taught my wife and the other poor souls who attended their seminars. Brainwashing, pure and simple.

Oist,

Thanks for the tip on the book. I'll check it out.

I can understand that people might feel pressured to appear more happy than they really are. Although part of the method says to accept your feelings without judgment, there is the AGFLAP heirarchy which clear ranks certain feelings as superior to others. Also, the goal of imperturbability is pretty lofty. (And not even desireable so far as I am concerned.)

Steve 989,

I read some of your past posts. I am so sorry for what you have been through. Another similarity to Release Techniuqe I noticed in your description of PSI is the emphasis on your "past programming" as the source of your past problems. So I guess now their "new programming" will be the source of their new problems, (and unfortunately, our new problems as well.)

Now Larry Crane's Release Technique website says:

"The Abundance Course teaches the Secret as seen on Oprah"

I guess spirituality is quite a cut-throat business.

It has been 6 weeks since my (now estranged ) husband went to this mind control camp. That must be about how long it takes for people to start questioning whether it is working because today came a newsletter about "getting back on track".

It says "Our ego is extremely clever. It has a knack for stopping us from Releasing and protecting its negative programs." Ego will "tell us 'releasing isn't working' when it is - just so we'll stop dismantling the limiting programs."

If it's working so darn well, why would people start to think it's not working?

When you mind and your feelings and the condition of your life are telling you it's not working - maybe it's because it doesn't work.

So what's in it for Larry? Well, if he can get you to doubt yourself again - just when you were starting to doubt Larry, he's got a whole catalog of more stuff to sell you to knock out that inner truth that is telling you this is a scam.

I predict virtually every Mind Control LGAT is going to use "The Secret as Seen On Oprah" as their salespitch now.
Its a way to build trust.

Thanks a lot Oprah, for dumping another screwed up manipulative pseudo-philosophy on the world.

More ammo for the cultists.

The LGAT cultists are all going to love this part....

[b:8d577327df]"if you think negative about our ________Process, then that very negativity will block the _________Process from working, and give you cancer, make you broke, and wreck your life. But do whatever you want to do. God has given you Free Will and you can destroy yourself if you choose to".[/b:8d577327df]

No doubt there are many folks who will be attracted to a program that offers both emotional and financial rewards, especially if they conclude the benefits come from minimal effort. And what could be easier than opening to and then releasing emotions?

I came to this site by searching on the topic of the Lester Levenson who is the father of releasing as offered by the Sedona Method and Larry Crane. Checking their websites my radar for a con was activated. Anyone trying to sell at a big price something that authentic spiritual teachers offer for free is suspect to me. Interestingly, I encountered comments from Levenson about selecting a spiritual teacher to the effect that an authentic teacher will [b:b0c1ecb0b2]give[/b:b0c1ecb0b2] these gems away. Ironically, I have two very good friends whom I respect who have attended two weeklong training sessions at Sedona. Both speak glowingly of the benefits they've received from their time with the Method. Neither is a neophyte when it comes to conventional therapy or spiritual practice so I take their comments seriously.

What is being offered through the release technique is an element of the perennial philosophy identified variously as Advaita Vedanta and Dzogchen Buddhism. Westerners have been introduced to Advaita Vedanta by such venerable teachers as Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta, neither of whom would be described as hucksters. I mention that to suggest there is something of value within these methods, though I certainly don't endorse the approach of either program.

I'm aware from my own journey that this Truth is neither easy to understand nor easy to integrate into one's life. That folks would criticize the efficacy of the work because it doesn't produce instantaneous results frankly misses the point. Transformation is hard work and likely a life long journey. Lester Levenson began his search in his early forties, an age when many of us begin asking questions about the meaning of our lives. There is an Indian saying that for the first twenty years we are a student of life, the second twenty we are a householder building livelihood and a family, the third twenty years as a gardener of the One and the fourth twenty years as a teacher of the One. That self-help gurus take advantage of this natural inclination by offering packaged programs that offer instant results is unfortunate but understandable. Discernment is called for. But ultimately, the work must be done if one is to realize the truth of one's self. And an inherent part of realizing one's self, is disidentifying from that which has conventionally defined and limited us, including emotions that are the product of early childhood wounding.

Good luck everyone, finding a path that resonates with you and leads to both peace and happiness. What our culture offers is pretty thin gruel, so the path isn't always easy to find...

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question lady
Elena - I can understand your skepticism about regulating some of these guys. It probably would be an uphill battle. But uphill battles have never stopped me. Does anyone know if there have been any attempts anywhere to impose some sort of regulation?

Regarding attempting some kind of regulations, I've had the thought that, not only are LGATs "practicing psychology without a license", they cross a line (ethical, legal even?) in their use of known "brainwashing" techniques. It's one thing to sell books that contain psuedo psychology and it's another to sell a "course" that not only isn't what it appears (false advertising) but that is designed to literally reprogram minds covertly. Something in all that is very, very wrong. For me, it constitutes theft. Theft that is no different from theft of material items. In fact, I think it's worse, it's theft of a [u:69a019bc7a]person[/u:69a019bc7a], from themselves and from their social group/family.

And while there's a continuum of things that are wrong in the realm of business practices and conning, LGATs fall in an area of the continuum where I think there could be a case made against them, in protection of their victims.

I would love to see attempts made at regulation. I definitely think it's worth a try. Is brainwashing a legitimate item to sell, when the consumer doesn't know that's what they're buying? And when they lose years of their life, their families, etc, even their minds, as a result? This goes beyond "buyer beware". LGATs cross a line.

My mom was turned onto the Release Technique by an old friend. She has given me a couple CDs by Lester in which he repeats things like "And could you bring up some more anger? And could you let it go... and could you let it go a little more... and more... and even more..."

She wants me to go to a seminar with her. The seminars are 1000 or so for a weekend.

Now, first I'll say something positive about the ideas... you can learn something about negative emotions, which helps you deal with them.

But that is where my appreciation ends. I had dinner with my mom tonight, and though she seems much less anxious and more peaceful, she is getting a little extra spacey... detached. She is now considering ideas of a spirit that is separate from the body, and she claims the release technique healed her infected toe of pain (after she had the infected nail removed by a surgeon).

She then explained while talking about paying for the seminars something along these lines: "At first I was concerned about spending the money... I have taxes to pay, I'm going on vacation with a friend soon... But then I realized its just money... I have two savings accounts."

I told her to be very careful about applying the philosophy to her bank account, because it is a business, after all. She then said "But they didn't tell me to apply it to money, I just did it on my own."

The philosophy seems to be gripping her emotional response centers, telling her that any negative or concerned emotion is BAD to have.

She also expressed to me that she felt "Now that she is on this positive path, she can never turn back."

She also talks to her old friend every day for an hour... in fact I've come over for dinner, and she spends the whole time shut in the bedroom on the phone, while my step dad and I reminisce about how she used to yell at him if he spent an extra minute on his hobbies in his workshop. She comes out after we're both done eating.

I wonder if there is a checklist I could offer her, a summary of other LGAT techniques for subduing resistance?

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mindconcern
She wants me to go to a seminar with her. The seminars are 1000 or so for a weekend.

Are you serious? The weekend Sedona Method seminar I went to in NY was only a few hundred $. And that was only 3 or 4 years ago. Why $1000? Is the seminar with Lester himself?