So last night I went to an open men's meeting for A ManKind Project(tm) Website featuring the New Warrior Training Adventure and a focus on Men's Issues.
I quit going to AA 7 years ago because I was having problems with dogmatism, power trips, cliché spouting, doom-threatening, christian god preaching and weird fetishizing on Bill W., on the part of the other men in my group. While the program helped me for a number of years, the flaws began to outweigh the help.
I am not against self-improvment as a whole, nor am I against learning about "being a man." My role models were few, far between and imperfect (i.e. adulterous). I kind of had to figure out what constitutes gender "man" and work from there.
I tried to hash it out in Everyday Avatar with some other fellows, but I got tired of being the only one exploring and 3 months ago I pooped out.
So I went into this thing with my bullshit detectors set for Fine, looking for kooky, cult-like behavior, and I didn't find it.
I came home thinking, "You know. This may be something I could use to deal with general malise and rootless feeling I've had lately. Perhaps I'll go back to the next open meeting."
Today I did some research.
Seems kind of weird. While there is a lot of talk as to whether MKP is or is not a cult or whether there is "brainwashing" going on, it has set off my alarm bells.
It's a very secretive organization with secretive (expensive) weekend training seminars.
Here is a message from the Executive Director:
Apparently they've never heard of gmail or hotmail.
And while my research today has not shown MKP to be a cult per se, it does have the characteristics of Large Group Awareness Trainings...
I admit that I'm disappointed this is New Warrior Training is a meme that is trying to propagate itself as sort of a multilevel marketing campaign, and I'm also disappointed (a little, not a lot) that it slid past my defenses which were set up to try and detect such things, and had I not decided to check it out, may have been ensnared. But from what I understand, that's how these things work.
Edit Since this was posted i received an email from a member and proponent of MKP and I have posted his email Here
I quit going to AA 7 years ago because I was having problems with dogmatism, power trips, cliché spouting, doom-threatening, christian god preaching and weird fetishizing on Bill W., on the part of the other men in my group. While the program helped me for a number of years, the flaws began to outweigh the help.
I am not against self-improvment as a whole, nor am I against learning about "being a man." My role models were few, far between and imperfect (i.e. adulterous). I kind of had to figure out what constitutes gender "man" and work from there.
I tried to hash it out in Everyday Avatar with some other fellows, but I got tired of being the only one exploring and 3 months ago I pooped out.
So I went into this thing with my bullshit detectors set for Fine, looking for kooky, cult-like behavior, and I didn't find it.
I came home thinking, "You know. This may be something I could use to deal with general malise and rootless feeling I've had lately. Perhaps I'll go back to the next open meeting."
Today I did some research.
Seems kind of weird. While there is a lot of talk as to whether MKP is or is not a cult or whether there is "brainwashing" going on, it has set off my alarm bells.
It's a very secretive organization with secretive (expensive) weekend training seminars.
Here is a message from the Executive Director:
MKP Brothers,
Recently I sent out an email about "Workplace Computers and MKP". We believe that over a third of the warrior email is going to workplace computers. THIS PUTS OUR SACRED INFORMATION AT RISK! You must consider a change. All information going to a work computer is the property of the employer. They can look at it at any time.
We have a solution. WarriorMail. You can have your own web-based email box at newwarrior.org for just $60 per year ($5 per month). It will be provided by a New Warrior-owned company, Hen's Teeth Network, the same company that hosts our national site and has run our list serves since 1995.
Once you sign up you will be able to access your WarriorMail from any computer in the world with Internet access because you get to it through your web browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape).
Apparently they've never heard of gmail or hotmail.
And while my research today has not shown MKP to be a cult per se, it does have the characteristics of Large Group Awareness Trainings...
"I know of no research, however, that convincingly demonstrates positive behavioral effects of these trainings. In my opinion, one of the best studies from a methodological standpoint was "Research on Erhard Seminar Training in a Correctional Institution" (Hosford, Ray, E., Moss, C. Scott, Cavior, Helene, & Kerish, Burton. Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 1982, Manuscript #2419, American Psychological Association). Of 313 inmates who volunteered for est training in a Federal Correctional Institution, 150 were randomly selected for the training, while the balance acted as a waiting-list control group and were given scholarships to be used upon release. The groups did not differ on demographics or variables related to criminal history. They were given a full battery of psychological tests and biofeedback instruments, with half of the group pre-tested and half post-tested (to control for the possible contaminating effect of testing). Three-month and 12-month follow-ups were conducted to assess behavioral outcomes (incident reports, furloughs, work performance, etc.). Although the psychological tests reflected some positive change, these self-report changes did not manifest themselves in alterations in physiological measures or in actual behavior.(emphasis mine).
The research and anecdotal evidence seem to indicate that LGATs are very successful at producing positive opinions about the trainings -- an outcome that the financial officers of every service business would value. However, whether or not they have a substantial positive effect on behavior that is not due to placebo factors, is still an unanswered question."
I admit that I'm disappointed this is New Warrior Training is a meme that is trying to propagate itself as sort of a multilevel marketing campaign, and I'm also disappointed (a little, not a lot) that it slid past my defenses which were set up to try and detect such things, and had I not decided to check it out, may have been ensnared. But from what I understand, that's how these things work.
Edit Since this was posted i received an email from a member and proponent of MKP and I have posted his email Here
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