Over the weekend, I was given the amazing opportunity to experience something I never would have experienced had I not been invited to attend this seminar. Before I get into the nitty-gritty of what I am about to tell you, I would like to state that I believe everyone is exactly where they need to be, including this seminar leader, including all of the attendees and including me. I also feel that everyone who is part of the experience really feels they are doing the right thing, including the seminar leader. I feel he is just a product of his environment and his experience and he has turned his life around by following a certain example and he totally believes in what he is doing. With that said, I also believe some convicted criminals also believe they have done exactly the right thing according to their experience and their conditioning. It still doesn’t make their formula right for everyone.
Friday night, a guy who I had met at a Toastmasters conference a couple years ago placed a friend request for me on Facebook. I feel a strange affinity for this guy probably because he looks exactly like this boy who grew up next door to me and every time I see him, I spend half my time trying to figure out “what’s different” about his appearance and the boy next door. He is very sweet, has a wife and 2 little kids, has a really positive attitude and is the kind of guy who you just can’t help but like. He had something posted on his profile about a seminar that he was going to be attending over the weekend and if anyone wanted to go or would like free tickets, just ask him and he would let you know how to obtain them. Having nothing better to do other than clean my house or help my sister address party invitations for my other sisters baby shower, I jumped at the opportunity to do the unexpected.
At around 9:00 Friday night, I told him I would like to attend and by 10:00 I received confirmation that I could attend for free. I got my clothes ready and the next morning headed out for the 2 and a half hour drive to Hartford, CT.
My first impression of the presenter was that there was something a bit off but after listening to him for a while, I decided to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. He used some of the same language I use and emphasized many of the things I teach so I became a bit more comfortable and decided to let myself relax a bit. After the first 2 hours, we went on break and although I was thinking he was delivering a really positive message, I still felt like something was a bit off.
What bothered me was that this was a seminar on how to use hypnosis to influence people and I am aware enough to know that even though much of the message was positive, it seemed that parts of the seminar were designed to play off of people’s fears and throughout the ENTIRE thing, there were hints (some subtle and some not so subtle) that the presenter wanted everyone in the room to go to the back of the room and pay to attend another seminar so that they could learn secrets he was talking about in this seminar. Meanwhile, very few people actually got into the one I was sitting in for free. May people paid up to $3000.00 to attend this seminar while the useful information he was giving could be found in pretty much any law of attraction book or DVD.
What I found very disturbing were two threads that seemed to be running through all the positive information he was presenting. One was that you can’t be financially free without taking risks and the other was that he was pushing this very expensive seminar and encouraging people to take that financial risk on the product he was selling because by attending his seminars, all of your life problems would magically disappear but you “can’t have the goodies if you don’t take the risk.”
During later afternoon, around the 4:00 hour, he decided it was time to induce us all into a hypnotic trance. With lights down and a low voice, he then started further embedding the messages he was telling us throughout the entire presentation. I was relaxed but was aware enough to know what was being said to me at all times. Statements were made that I totally agree with such as, “You are completely responsible for your experience,” “You must listen to your own intuition and nobody else,” “Your mind is in control of your experience” “Surrender” “When you make a decision you are not comfortable with, let it go” and things like that. What I found disturbing was when he suggested that people go to the back of the room and purchase the product he was selling and that there are no financial rewards without financial risk. I found it completely unethical for this person to place the entire room in a trance state and use hypnotic suggestions to try and manipulate us all into buying his next program while using spiritual truths to further his agenda. Sure we should all surrender to being controlled in his hypnotic trance and surrender out money and not look back when we make a financial decision we may later regret, just let it be and don’t look back after this guy has swindled you out of your 2 grand. After all, we are responsible for our mistakes and he is not responsible for any suggestions he may have made that the people in the room decided to act upon after being programmed to do exactly what he wanted.
Something else I found disturbing was that he started using “I Am” statements which again, I totally agree with that. I believe “I Am” whatever I say I am in each and every moment. These he had us write down so I have notes on this part. I will share some of the statements he had us write down. This guy is fully aware that as one writes down statements, it becomes more firmly embedded into the subconscious mind (especially as a hypnotic suggestion right after a 40 minute hypnotic trance.) He called these “I Am” statements, “Psycho Neural Duplicaiton” and called the exercise “PND for Entropeneurs” here’s a partial list and my interpretation in parenthesis of the underlying meaning given the context of the overall message:
• I am totally responsible (the seminar leader is not responsible)
• I have great self-management
• I am a great risk taker (I will mindlessly risk investing in their product)
• I have a manic need to succeed (creates a need that his product might fulfill)
• I am a winner (if you don’t buy his product, maybe you’re a loser)
• I know my own limitations
• I am massively organized
• I am open minded (meaning I must be closed minded if I don’t buy into your hype)
• I am massively creative (even if I go into debt purchasing your products, I can create more money)
• Etc…
Now I don’t have a problem with most of that by itself, in fact I agree with most of it in most other contexts but in the context of the experience, you can see that there is a further agenda in some of those statements. You may also notice, embedded within those statements is the statement, “I have a manic need to succeed.” That is a crafted statement to get people to perceive a need, and of course if we have a need, we perceive we do not have the capability to fulfill that need on our own so we seek an outside source to fulfill it. Of course what better to fulfill that manic need to succeed than the next seminar titled, “Total Prosperity!”
Something else that was used to try and manipulate people into making a purchase and give them their money was a statement that said, “I’ll take it unless I change my mind” (meaning I’ll go to the back of the room and purchase the next seminar which is $2000 and later I can change my mind… but of course there is a counter program running saying that if you make a decision to purchase a product and don’t like it later, you must just let it go. In other words, just let your money go to HIM.) The only problem with that is once they have your money, they have it. I was talking with the woman who was sitting next to me who had paid a couple thousand dollars for this seminar and said she tried getting a refund and they would not give her money back. Of course the seminar leader proclaimed that people could always change their minds and that they could get a refund but that didn’t seem to be reality according to the woman seated next to me.
The highlight of Saturday evening was that the seminar leader kept telling people that his normal hourly rate is $15,000/hour and for anyone who decided to purchase “Total Prosperity” on Saturday evening, would have the opportunity to take him out to dinner with an intimate gathering of people and they would save themselves $13,000.00! If they acted in that moment and purchased Total Prosperity that night, they would actually be saving money! My thought was, how many people who have $15,000 to spend on anything they want, would need to go to that guy for advice on how to make money? Wouldn’t you rather rent a beach house for a month or go on a nice European vacation? Additionally, anyone can say they charge any amount of money for an hourly rate… but how many clients do they have? I mean I can say my hourly rate is $200,000/hour but is that really valid if I have no clients? This enticing people to purchase the product because it would save them $15,000 was a tactic to elicit fear. People can’t possibly make a calm, informed decision if they think they have to “act now” or they will miss out on something. To me was also total manipulation because the entire workshop was basically centered on releasing your fears but then he threw in a bone to force people to act on a perceived lack if they didn’t do it.
I didn’t go back for a second day of manipulation and hypnotic suggestions. I went out that night and when I was driving back to the hotel, my car started sputtering so I wanted to start heading home early because if I was going to break down, I wanted to have plenty of time to deal with it. As it turned out, there was just a bit of water in my tank and some gas treatment cleared it right up. I did hear from the guy I sat next to on Saturday who attended the Sunday portion of the seminar. He said that during the hypnotic portion of the Sunday seminar, the leader actually came right out and said, “You will go to the back of the room and purchase Total Prosperity.” I’ll bet the Better Business Bureau might like to know about this one. I wonder if they would consider this “ethical business practices.” I also looked up the guy who created these seminars (the person teaching them was not the same as the person who created them) and without mentioning names, here were some statements about the founder’s business practices, "[He] was the target of a Nevada attorney general probe for allegedly bilking consumers through a 'Millionaire Mentorship Program' he operated out of his mansion. [He] charged participants $5,000 apiece, with the promise they would double their money through his investment strategies or be entitled to a refund.” Another entry in Wikipedia stated, “[He] served jail time for counterfeiting $50 bills.” That seems to say a great deal about the character who was the master mind behind the creation of these seminars.
I was totally thrilled that I was invited to the seminar. It was an invaluable experience and one I shall not soon forget. I have never understood why some people are resistant when I tell them I work with the Mind and help people release perceived limitations. Of course when there are expensive courses like this one that are designed to extract money from their participants with no real value, I can see why people might at times be a bit reluctant when I tell them that I have subliminal affirmation tracks on my videos or that I help people release conditioned thinking. I can see what I am up against and why it is so important for me to remain in my integrity. I can also see why my work is so very important because mainstream is still going to people like this who use unethical methods to extract money from people and put them in a cycle of dependence, thinking the next product will help them to get where they want to go.
I truly believe everyone in that room was exactly where they needed to be and we each got what we had to get out of that experience. I’m just very grateful I have the clarity of mind to see through all the hype and can make informed centered decisions that are not based on urgency and fear. My heart goes out to those who are buying into the programs and I hope they all get what they hope for. I also feel that the person leading the seminar truly believed in his product because he went from living in a mobile home park with his family to living in a beautiful mansion and having the ability to provide financial security for his family in ways he probably never dreamt possible ten years ago. It was a great experience and one I shall not soon be repeating but I am eternally grateful for the friend who offered me a free ticket to a seminar of a lifetime.
