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WIZARD
Harmless? Hale Dwoskin's Sedona Method & Larry Crane's Releasing Technique have had a devastating effect on my family. My wife's business in now $10,000s in debt from financing these 7 day "releasing" retreats over the last year. The relationship between my wife and our teenage childern has been transformed to a delicate fragility at best. Our marriage has been ravaged by guiltless & remorseless infidelity with releasing colleagues / partners. This is releasing!? Seemingly from a family & marriage, not as a source of strength or empowerment for it.
Wizard,
Very sorry to hear of your experience, yet realize you are not alone at all. There are an increasing number of people who are speaking out about the ineffectiveness (and downright destructiveness) of the release technique. I know how destructive it can be because I've lived it and so have you.
Keep in mind I have zero experience with Hale Dwoskin's Sedona Method, so I'm not speaking about that here. I've only experienced the Release Technique method.
Yes, you are right, the release technique IS harmful when done to an extreme, and no, don't let that highly damaging notion of "everything is good and balanced (even though things really suck)" argument cause you to think you are 100% culpable for what has happened to you and your family. It is a TWO-WAY street, despite what Larry wants you to think. He is just as responsible for teaching the technique as you are for learning it. To say you are 100% responsible for the results you get (or don't get) is like being sold a car, but you aren't told the car has no brakes. When you get into an accident, it's your fault, not the dealership's.
Right. And this is the same logic applied to what Larry teaches. He's cleverly managed to evade responsibility when it doesn't serve his bottom line by making YOU, alone, responsible. Brainwashing at it's best.
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WIZARD
I suppose you could argue that this turn in my wife's life, and what seems as an increasingly dismal family environment, brought on by this "releasing" is somehow good & positive and is just what "needed" to happen.
No. NO! No, no, and more NO! Unacceptable! Do NOT fall for this. This is the pinnacle of releasing philosophical garbage. Do not make rationalizations in the face of a stark and tangible reality. You and your family are SUFFERING. That is reality. I did this same thing (rationalize) for YEARS, my friend. It just kept me spinning in the dark, hoping that things would get better. They never did. Sound familiar?
I was essentially blaming myself for not getting the results promised in the marketing message, when it was really the technique itself which was ineffective. "Whatever happens is whatever happens, it's all good, it's all what I created", right?
NO. Get out of that thinking - it will keep you frustrated and STUCK and things will only get worse. But I think you have realized this. I may be preaching to the choir.
This "if you aren't getting the results you want, it's YOUR fault" reasoning that Larry et al promote is a slap in the face of decency, ethics and common sense. It's just a way he makes more money on the neverending treadmill of salesmanship without being held accountable. The fact that he teaches "you are responsible for EVERYTHING that happens to you" is not only morally corrupt, it's reprehensible. It abdicates Larry and his cohorts of ANY responsibility where the technique is concerned. Oh, you haven't become a millionaire as marketed in the salesletters? You haven't cured yourself of cancer? You haven't gotten that dreamhouse, left your job? Even after 8 years of very intense effort, expense and emotional upheaval? You must be doing the technique wrong! You are responsible! Oh, and thanks for those checks for the 7 day seminars, weekend retreats, and junkpile of rehashed releasing courses.
What a horrid approach to humanity that is. 100% pure marketing and a bankrupt sense of responsibility.
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WIZARD
This new age reasoning supposes that what ever happens is what is intended and so neither "good" nor "bad", but just what is, or certainly better that what otherwise might have been .... so what real role did this releasing even play?
Read above, my friend. Don't fall for the "not good not bad" thing. It robbed me of my ability to see things as they were. Sounds like your wife is where I used to be.
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WIZARD
Its really hard from a family and spouse's perspective how this has at all been helpful and positive. I have tired hard to grasp the "releasing" philosophy to apply for personal self help ... it has not proven useful or helpful to me ... I suppose the expanation of that would be I did not spend enough time releasing, or work at it hard enough...? Or is "releasing" truly anything other than simply LGAT generated euphoria??
LOL, classic releasing rubbish. "You didn't spend enough time releasing, that's why it didn't work!" Back to the car analogy. If your car has a leaky oil gasket and you want to get to LA from New York, but can't because the motor keeps overheating, is it because you didn't spend enough time driving? No freaking way, dude! It's because the CAR doesn't WORK! It's broken!!!
By the way, I'm not yelling at you or putting you down in any way. This is just how I write, because the technique has affected me very deeply and I want to save you YEARS of wasted frustration and going through what I did. I'm (com)passionate to your plight and I hope to help wake you up out of the hypnosis of releasing. :-)
Yes, I hear you on the "guiltless" and "remorseless" aspect. The course teaches that you are responsible for your feelings and if you are hurt, it's pretty much your fault. I used to believe this. "I cheated on you. So what? You feel hurt? Those are YOUR feelings!"
Awful. No responsibility. Borders on sociopathy.
If I come up to you and punch you in the face and then blame you for feeling pain, that would be absurd to an extreme. Yet when it comes to emotions, somehow this logic is overlooked.
I'm glad I finally woke up to seeing how harmful this can really be. And I hope you do, too, bro.
Am I responsible for myself emotionally? Sure. Does this mean that others can behave irresponsibly towards my emotions without accountability? Hell no! But most people deep into releasing don't see this. They want to believe everyone is responsible for his or her own feelings no matter what, and if you don't like how you feel, it's nobody's fault but your own. Even if someone punches you in the face emotionally, it's not their fault you feel hurt.
What a crock.
I may sound bitter. I'm not, but I am VERY passionate about exposing the fraud that Larry and his materials are. He is no master as is implied by being a teacher of the technique and by him hanging out with Lester. He's a master MARKETER, and that's all.
The longer I've been out of the LGAT of releasing, the clearer I can see how big of a spell I was under all those years. Sitting on your butt and letting go of your limitations does NOT make you richer, happier, or closer to this peace Lester speaks about. Again, Larry is not a master. He's a master SALESMAN. He's very, VERY good at persuasion, psychology, influence, and he uses it to manipulate people out of their money. This isn't hearsay, it's based on what I've witnessed and how he runs things.
He is not loving or giving as far I saw all of those years. He's just in it for the money. And I used to be a sucker to his ways.
Hopefully I've helped to open your eyes a bit. Take a good, honest look at how this is all going down. Has releasing made you and your wife happier? No. Richer? No. But I believe you've already seen this, which is a good thing.
Keep me apprised. If you want to talk with me privately, I'd be happy to help you out.