Complaint Review: PSI Seminars

My husband and I both attended the PSI Basic, which was actually worth the money although I have to agree with the other posters on this site: they did use some "cult" techniques (not saying this is a cult, but the techniques used are similar), such as: 1. Sleep Deprivation (making you stay up until past midnight and then you have to attend another class first thing the next morning); 2. "Emotional Stripping" techniques (making you remember or re-live past experiences to a point where many people in the room were literally sobbing); 3. "Re-building" (where they emotionally re-build you after tearing you down). I say the Basic was worth it because I was one of those people who actually took some of the tools that I learned in the course, such as the visualization, meditation, and positive thinking techniques, and applied these to my own life and saw some improvement. I would guess most attendees would simply leave this course and go back to their normal lives, and not get anything out of this.

My biggest gripe about PSI are the strong-arm tactics they use to sign you up for the advanced courses. My husband got very excited about PSI-7, which is the course offered in California. This course costs upwards of $3700/pp to attend, and that does not include the airfare to California. Anyway, my husband walked up to the instructor and mentioned some concerns about signing up, and the instructor simply grabbed the both of us, sat us at a table, and told us to "Just sign up!" and we could talk about details later. Well, we put a $1,000 deposit down and now we simply can't come up with the remaining money needed for both of us to attend, not to mention the fact that we were encouraged to attend together as husband and wife, but what were we going to do with our young child? PSI actually suggested we leave them with a PSI-member family in our home town for the 7 days while we were gone. HUH?? Leave our child with a TOTAL STRANGER? I don't think so!

Now they are calling us 3-4 times a month asking where the rest of their money is. I told them most likely if we could afford it at all only one of us could go, but they keep insisting that if I change my attendance date they can charge me $100 for every instance I change the date...and since I signed up for that particular date they were going to hold me to it!

Also, if you attend any of the Basics you get some complete stranger coming up to you with a big hug and insisting you attend the PSI-7, but nobody will tell you anything about it or WHY. First of all, I don't like smiling strangers coming up and hugging me (call me weird). Secondly, I don't like it when I can't get the scoop on what I'm in for when I shell out a couple thousand dollars for a course. I like details up front!

All I can say is I wish I had just spent the money on the Basic (about $500) and left it at that. The basic tools they teach you are enough to get you in the right direction. If positive thinking and all that stuff isn't your thing, don't even consider this course. I've been into that sort of stuff for years, and unless you practice it on a daily basis I guarantee you won't suddenly turn your life around. (Read or watch the video "The Secret" and save yourself a ton of money).

I hope this review helps somebody out. Good luck!

Just Another Mom
A Small Town, Colorado
U.S.A.