I took all of the seminars and I learned a lot about myself. Most of the PSI Seminars work I did was challenging and beneficial. It was not necessarily breakthrough content I hadn't heard of before, but I enjoyed it and found it thought-provoking. Some would call much of the content pseudoscience with no basis in fact. Others find meaning. I experienced a mix. I don't recall hearing a speaker who wasn't excellent as a presenter. Most of it is experiential and challenging. I think your benefits will depend on who you are, what you want from life, what motivates you and how much you are willing to put into it. However, there are strings attached.
PSI Seminars uses its clients to market itself. Everything they do is in their own self interest with the approach being to convince you it is also in your self interest because you'll grow as a person. There will be times when you will be asked to pressure friends and family to get them enrolled in PSI Seminars. This caused me problems with certain friends later, but I probably only lost the friends I didn't need. Note that some of your classmates will likely be self-employed and want new customers for their own businesses (life coaches, nutritionists, salespeople, realtors, massage therapists, etc). But, over time, you will get close to many of the attendees and some may even become lifelong friends. I met wonderful people and overall had a great time learning about myself with people I came to trust. I saw and experienced some absolutely incredible life-changing moments. I overcame some huge fears. One seminar in particular made me see the potential of mankind if we all worked together. There was so much platonic love and good vibes between men and women working together. It was amazing and I didn't want it to end.
But, I still have mixed feelings about PSI mainly because of the last one, the Men's Leadership Seminar (MLS) -- held at their retreat in California over 10 days. I thought I was going to that seminar for coaching to overcome my roadblocks and unlock my full potential as a leader. If that's what you want, this isn't a seminar for you. The whole experience was traumatic for me. What PSI Seminars wanted was to identify who among us were already leaders. That's what the content was really about. I suspect this was to target natural leaders who fully bought into PSI and could be their good soldiers of the future to continue up the PSI organizational ladder. Of all the seminars, PSI put the least thought into this one. The presentations are a mishmash of disjointed content. The first or second day, a coach asked if there were any rapists in the room. A few guys of the 90 or so there raised their hands. The presenter didn't say much about the responses or give a particularly good reason for asking. Maybe it was for the purposes of "full disclosure". I assumed there had to be a few more men who weren't honest enough to raise their hands. I have zero respect for rapists. I think they should be in prison for life yet I was expected to be teammates with them and make pledges to them?? Are you kidding me? I thought about that the whole time I was there. The logical followup question should've been, "Who in this room has a sister, girlfriend, wife, or CHILD who was raped?" Then, at some point in TEN DAYS, the topic of rape should've been addressed and discussed. It's a soulless, violent act in the same category as pedophilia and murder in my opinion. How do you raise a point like that and then not discuss it in detail in a freakin' men's LEADERSHIP seminar?? At this seminar only, some coaches wore handguns which I found really lame. It's hard to object to or challenge someone who's wearing a gun when you're not. They made a lame excuse they brought guns solely for target-shooting during seminar downtime. If that was true, why did they need to wear their guns nearly all of the time? Wearing a handgun puts you in authority, but it doesn't make you a leader.
I believe leadership comes in many different styles. I began to wonder if PSI Seminars really thinks there is only one MLS leadership style, which is to be an alpha dog authoritarian? Those types were quickly part of "the club" and if you can't handle it, that's your problem. That style appeals to many people. Not to me. I was expecting more. I didn't buy into some key parts of MLS and I got rated low. I know the guy personally who rated the highest and he is a loudmouth, attention-seeking a*hole who's not doing great in life in the real world, which to me means the MLS process is flawed at best. The farewell meal was excruciating. After 3 years of PSI training and many thousands of dollars, a few coaches I said goodbye to basically said "F you" to me in so many words. Others were OK. Very disappointing and I wasn't the only person put off either. And since this was the last seminar, I tend to think they revealed themselves as to who they really are once they got all the money they could out of me. read more